Be a Freelance Blogger

How to Show a Blog Editor You Understand Their Audience [Plus Your Chance to Win $150!]

The theme for this Pitchfest is: Audience. More on that — and the chance to earn $150 — to come, but first, here’s a quick tip to help you get to know a site’s audience quickly and how it’ll improve your pitches.

Every editor offering pitching advice will tell you, “Let me know you understand my audience and why your pitch is a good fit for them.”

The best way to gain that understanding is to become part of the audience. Read the blog, and engage with other readers. You’ll become familiar with the topics and voice of the site, and understand what readers look for in content.

But…

That takes time. And, frankly, if you write on the subject, you’re probably already reading 800 other blogs about it. Do you really want to add another to your reading list?

Most pitchers approach this conundrum wrong. They want to pitch a lot of blogs, so they Google their topic and send a generic pitch every site on the first page of results — whether it’s relevant or not. When I ran a blog called DIY Writing, you wouldn’t believe how many pitches I got that started with something like, “Since you write about DIY and crafting…” Nope. No, I do not.

You can do better than that… without committing to reading a novel’s worth of blog posts every day before you pitch.

[Read more…]

By Linda Formichelli 18 Comments

Freelance Blogging IS a Numbers Game: The Throwdown

You’re going DOWN, Sophie Lizard!*

In 2014, Sophie collaborated with Gary Korisko on a post and video called “Why Freelance Blogging is NOT a Numbers Game” that contains this tidbit:

Dashing off sloppy pitches to every blog in the universe is not the most profitable use of your time.”

Since my pet saying is “Freelance writing is a numbers game,” I’m taking this very, very personally. What, Gary and Sophie, you lookin’ at me?

Wanna see me get mad? Just watch this video: [Read more…]

By Sophie Lizard 30 Comments

9 Warning Signs That Mean You Should NOT Be a Freelance Blogger

Not sure how to break this to you. It’s bad news.

Maybe you really *shouldn’t* try to be a freelance blogger. I mean, normally I’m quick to point out that almost anyone who is teachable can learn to do freelance blogging.

And yep, anyone teachable can learn to earn anything from a decent chunk of “mad money” to a full-time income that pays for everything you want to do.

But this career choice isn’t right for everyone.

So how can you find out if it’s wrong for you, before you spend valuable time trying and failing?

I’ll tell you.

If you see any of these warning signs in yourself or your usual lifestyle, then freelance blogging may not be a good idea for you.

[Read More…]

By Chloe Brooks 14 Comments

Earn More in Less Time: 6 Tasks Every Freelance Blogger Should Automate

There’s more to being a freelance blogger than just writing helpful content.

As a freelancer you’re running your very own business of one, which means that everything from marketing and branding to sales and accounting is on your shoulders.

(And if you haven’t made the leap yet from side hustle to full-time freelancer, you’re probably juggling all of the above and a full-time job.)

But if you’re not careful, all of the administrative and marketing tasks that go into running a business can encroach on your client writing time, and when they do, you’re left scrambling to get back on schedule.

You need a way to get more done in a day without compromising on priorities or the quality of your work.

That’s where automation comes in. The key to getting more done as a freelance blogger is realizing that you shouldn’t do everything yourself. Automating repeatable tasks gives you more time to focus on creating content and finding new blogging clients.

If you’ve never used automation before or aren’t sure where to start, here are 6 tasks that every freelance blogger should automate.

[Read more…]

By Sophie Lizard 95 Comments

5 Ways to Adjust to Blogging on a New (Or New-Look) Platform… And 1 Way to Win $100

(We’ll get to the $100 prize in a few minutes — it’s all explained in this post, if you read through to the end.)

So your client wants you to use their blogging software to submit your posts.

And now you’re sweating with the fear that you won’t know how to use it and you’re gonna look incompetent.

Or maybe, like a lot of people in the blogosphere, you woke one morning not long ago, logged into your own WordPress website, and saw that — what in holy heck? — after the latest update, WordPress 5.0 has given you a very different looking new editing system… *eek*

Or perhaps you’ve never tried publishing on Medium or LinkedIn before, and you’re not sure how it all works.

Or you’ve been talking with a prospective client who sounds awesome, but they use Squarespace and you’ve only ever used WordPress?

Whatever the scenario, it’s all good. Relax and read these 5 simple ways to get your bearings inside a new blogging platform.

[Read More…]

By Katherine Swarts 12 Comments

How to Cope When You Hit the “Feast” in the Freelance Blogger Feast and Famine Cycle

“I should be grateful, but…”

Has this ever happened to you?

For months your blogging income was stuck at near-poverty level, and you would have done anything for more work. Then, almost without warning, more work started flooding in — and suddenly, you’d do anything to get back the time it’s taking to keep up.

Three months after this first happened to me, the “feast” of work continues and so does the periodic “indigestion.”

Sure, it’s nice to be rid of the financial worries from the time when my regular income was a third of what it is now; but I hadn’t anticipated the recurring fears of inadequacy, the surges of irritability, the lows of emotional depression following the highs of frantic work.

It can be stressful being in a profession where your income rises and falls with busyness — “busyness” defined as keeping up with a LOT of small individual projects at once.

I’m learning to cope. This is, after all, the earning level I hope to stay at or above for the rest of my working days.

My top nuggets of wisdom for other freelance bloggers who’ve been served their first “feast”:

[Read more…]

By Hayley Chalkley 44 Comments

6 Get-It-Done Tips for a Fairytale Freelance Blogging Career

Want to live happily ever after as a successful freelance blogger?

Then you’ve got to get stuff done, get it done well and get it done on time.

Sounds simple, but it’s not always that easy.

Looming deadlines and a rising workload are sure signs business is booming and the dream is coming true. But when the pressure starts to build and the panic’s setting in, you can find yourself lost in the writing woods.

Never fear. Whether you’re struggling to get started on a project, spinning your wheels in the messy middle or challenged by completion, together we can tame the wolves of time and reach grandma’s cottage safely (a.k.a. meet the deadlines, deliver the goods and exceed the expectations of our clients).

[Read more…]

By Jodi Ralston 5 Comments

Getting Shit Done in the Midst of a Doubt Apocalypse

“They’re coming to get you, Barbara.” So runs the famous line from my favorite zombie movie. But the threat you need to watch out for is far more dangerous and prolific than pixelized undead, and it offers no thrills, but a ton of regret and destruction.

Though we all know it when we see it, before I name it, let’s take a moment to focus on its victims. You have dreams, ambitions, a passion for the written word—in particular blogging. You want to make a career of helping other businesses express their dreams through your words. In this way, you’re free to use your talent and make a difference, while also making good money.

I share that dream. And to the readers of this article, like me, you are just starting the exciting journey of freelance blogging.

But there is a monster in our midst, a threat, an enemy that, if left unopposed, will never stop coming until those dreams are dead. Its appetite is voracious. Its attacks are relentless. Running offers no escape. Its only goal is decimation.

That monster is none other than doubt.

Like a zombie virus, doubt starts with a single bite, infects anyone, and can spread until nothing healthy is left. For the new freelance blogger, it makes you shamble through your career before you’ve reached your potential. Before the doubts outnumber your creative output, understand how this threat works and how to stop it truly dead in its tracks. [Read more…]

By Pinar Tarhan 13 Comments

F*** Conventional Wisdom: How to Get Shit Done as A Freelance Blogger by Breaking the Rules

Conventional people don’t generally become freelance bloggers. It makes sense since most of us regularly deal with anxiety, rejection, distraction, and other problems. It takes a different kind of beast to make deadlines, satisfy clients, overcome introversion, and destroy the feast or famine cycle.

As freelance bloggers, we constantly have to be on the top of our game. We need to know what’s going on in our chosen niches, find experts to quote in our articles, research potential clients and publications we want to work with, brainstorm for new ideas, keep up with our deadlines, and always be marketing. Since we also need to find time for important people and things in our life, we naturally desire to be at our most productive at all times.

While the Internet and self-development shelves overflow with productivity advice, they aren’t all designed for freelance bloggers. They don’t necessarily keep our health issues in mind, or the kids we have to look after as we strive to maintain a sane and stable working environment at home. Then there are differences in our personalities of course.

So below are my seemingly irrational tips that can work wonders for freelance bloggers with flaky tendencies, coming from a flaky freelance blogger who has been doing this for over eight years: [Read more…]

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