Bree Brouwer - Be a Freelance Blogger

About Bree Brouwer

Bree Brouwer (@breebrouwer) is a professional blogger, copywriter, and content marketer. If you're a geek who wants to earn a living online like she does, you can get Bree's free, four-part video interview series with professional biz owners + a bonus tools checklist on her blog, Geek & Prosper.

By Bree Brouwer 1 Comment

How to Pick Conferences That Will Give You the Most Bang for Your Buck

I’m just going to come right out and say it: I love going to conferences.

Out of all the expenses for my freelance business this year, spending money to attend conferences was never something I regretted. I’ve been to three this year alone, across a couple different states.

In fact, conferences have proven to be the best return on investment in my business’s entire history, even above educational courses, time spent cold pitching, or any of those silly certification programs that claim they can get you thousands of dollars in new clients and income. (Seriously, I’ve yet to hear of a single freelancer who’s had certifications pay off for them.)

For example, I invested about $500 into attending VidCon this past summer, and met a video marketer who eventually hired me to do some blogging work. This garnered me $1800, which means I recovered everything I spent attending VidCon, and even made an extra $1300!

I want you to experience the same benefits in your business, and in the rest of this post, I’ll show you how. [Read more…]

By Bree Brouwer 3 Comments

5 Office Hacks To Improve Your Productivity and Boost Your Freelance Blogging Revenue

Be honest with me: how many psychological productivity hacks have really worked for you?

Are you actually motivated to keep working on your freelance blogging career if you allow yourself a cookie at the end of the hour? Does it really make you feel better when you pat yourself on the back for a job well done?

If you’re anything like me, you’ve found that psychological productivity hacks aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Sure, some of them work. Refusing to let others treat me like less than I’m worth, for example, has really progressed my freelancing career.

But I’ve also made some physical changes to the way I do business which have surprisingly made me a better and more productive freelance blogger. And I think they could do the same for you.

So let’s dig into these five office hacks which can result in more noticeable productivity for your freelance blogging career: [Read more…]

By Bree Brouwer 11 Comments

The Freelance Blogger’s Ultimate Guide to Making a Killer Explainer Video for Your Site

It’s frustrating, isn’t it?

You keep hearing how quickly video is growing online, like how 80% of the world’s internet traffic will come from video by 2019, and how mobile video will grow 55% per year through 2020.

And you’ve decided you want to be a part of this party and make an explainer video — a short video that explains what your freelance business does — for the home page of your writer’s site.

But there’s so. Much. Information.

Where are you even supposed to start? Just googling the phrase “how to create an explainer video” pulls up over a million hits, and most of those are aimed at corporations that have thousands of dollars to spend on an explainer video.

You’d have to read through several of these articles to scrape out a few tips that apply to you specifically as a freelance blogger looking to make a simple, effective explainer video for your site.

Or you can just read this blog post and call it good. 😉

That’s right, this post will walk you step-by-step through creating your own explainer video so you don’t have to scour the internet to learn how to do it yourself. I’ve included the only information you’ll need to get your first writer’s site video up and running, all while keeping in mind the fact that you’re a freelancer and not some mega-business with a mega-budget.

Ready to get started? Let’s dive in. [Read more…]

By Bree Brouwer 9 Comments

Blogger of Interest: Peter Sandeen of PeterSandeen.com

Back in February 2015, Sophie interviewed Linda Formichelli of The Renegade Writer… but there hasn’t been another featured blogger since then.

I told Sophie she should bring back the “Blogger of Interest” series. She agreed. Then she put me in charge of the whole shebang.

So the series is back, bloggers.

In this installment of “Blogger of Interest,” we’re featuring Peter Sandeen of PeterSandeen.com (neat!).

Peter started blogging as a way to build his business and reputation as a marketing expert. But Peter’s no ordinary online marketing guru; he’s made a name for himself as the go-to guy on value propositions and marketing messages.

In this interview, I talk to Peter about how he started out as a marketing blogger, what value propositions are and why they’re so important, and how freelance bloggers can discover their own value propositions to attract the right kinds of clients. We also discuss how freelancers can figure out their clients’ value propositions to deliver content genuine to their business goals. [Read more…]

By Bree Brouwer 28 Comments

How to Use Video to Attract More Freelance Blogging Clients

Raise your hand if you’ve ever made a video and put it online before.

Really? That’s it?

I expected more, especially since Be A Freelance Blogger just covered the basics of video creation in a recent post.

Look, I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I get it — the prospect of making videos is daunting. I realize they take time, effort, and a whole lot of courage to start creating.

But what if I told you videos could help you attract more freelance blogging clients?

Are you more interested in trying out video now?

Yeah, I thought so. [Read more…]