Make REAL money blogging for hire.
Do you have a great idea for a blog post?
Would it appeal to an audience of freelance bloggers?
Then now’s your chance to pitch your blog post idea to us and win $100 if we choose it as our favourite to publish here on Be a Freelance Blogger. 🙂
Normally, I’d write a longer introduction before announcing a new Pitchfest contest. But to be honest, I’m heavily pregnant and exhausted, so I’m just gonna lay it out and let you start pitching.
Here’s how this works…
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How many times have you mentioned freelance blogging to someone only to have them throw a shitpile of doubt on your career choice?
How many times have you avoided telling someone about your career and ambitions, simply because you didn’t want to have that depressing conversation again? You know, the one where you try to justify your desire to freelance and write blog posts for a living — but the person you’re trying to justify it *to* doesn’t believe you can possibly make it work.
That many times, huh? Hmmf. Me too. In fact, I still have that conversation with people now, 6 years into my successful and lucrative freelance blogging career.
Just the other day, someone who’s known me a long time asked, “So how much do you really make an hour? I mean, say you write something for a client and they pay you $20, how long does it take you to earn that?”
I laughed so hard I started crying. Then I cried so hard I had to laugh.
Then I explained that I haven’t written anything for as little as $20 since, ooh, fucking NEVER. And that my entire reason for doing what I do here on this blog is to help other freelance bloggers (like *you*) avoid working for low pay too.
[Read more…]Yep, it’s time for another $100 blog pitching contest! I’ll give you all the details of how to enter at the end of this post — but first, please read our guest Chana Roberts’ excellent advice on how to kick ass and win. 😉
So, you’ve found Sophie’s blog. You’ve seen the Pitchfest posts – they’re really cool. They make you drool. Oooh, a $100 prize for contributing a post, on a blog like this?
It’s a once-in-a-season contest. Pitchfests – and guest posts – are only accepted once every three months.
You want to be the winner. You want that $100 prize, and you want to show your post off. But you don’t feel qualified to enter.
Like, seriously. You’re just starting out, and you haven’t even been able to get a guest post published yet, much less find a client willing to pay more than $0.02 per word.
You feel like the biggest loser. All around you, there are successful freelancers, each with a story of, “I was in the worst place when I started, but within 6 months to a year, I was earning a full-time salary from part-time writing.”
You’re the only one left behind, you tell yourself. You suck. Big time.
And you know what? *That* is your biggest problem.
This Pitchfest is no different from any other site’s blogging job ads. Here’s how to win.
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Oh, you might think starting a business has a lot in common with having a baby.
They’re similar in a few ways, I admit.
But I was pregnant throughout the start of my freelance blogging business, so I can tell you from experience: the differences outweigh the similarities by approximately one metric shit-ton.
Sure, starting a business and having a baby both involve feeling excited, hopeful, and nervous all at once.
And sure, I can understand why some people call their businesses and blogs their “babies”. [I think it’s a bit wacky and melodramatic, but I can understand it.]
No matter how you slice it, though, there are vital differences between starting your freelance blogging business and having a baby.
SPOILER: The business is easier.
[Read more…]Now, let’s be sensible about this.
Most of the people who read this post will never get a million dollars for a photo they’ve taken. It’s unlikely, though not impossible.
But a million views, ah, that’s a different matter. It’s totally possible for a good blog post with awesome photos to get a million views. Yep, even one of *your* posts for a client whose blog is moderately popular.
Sometimes a post goes viral purely on the strength of its visuals. How many times has a photo caught your eye on a social network that isn’t dedicated specifically to images? Like on Facebook or Twitter, say, or on LinkedIn.
You may not go there intending to gawp at photos of other people’s cats, lunch, home office setup or accidental sideboob flash, but all those images are there just waiting to jump in your eyeballs as you scroll down. (OK, not so much sideboob on LinkedIn. But TBH it really depends who you network with — even LinkedIn has lively subcultures of burlesques, erotica writers, vajazzlers and other deviants.)
Why are those images there? Because someone shared the post that photo or video was featured in. Why did they share it? Because of the visual elements that make it more fun, more surprising or more insightful. More cool. More meaningful. More worth pointing out to a friend.
Point is, you can either:
(A) Write a brilliant blog post, or
(B) Write a brilliant blog post with an information-rich graphic, a funny stick-figure illustration, and a sequence of photos or screenshots that show YOU doing whatever you’re talking about in your post.
As the editor-in-chief of this reasonably popular blog you’re reading, I can tell you that I’d pay a writer more for Option B.
And now I’m giving you a chance to win $100 by creating *your* version of Option B.
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