Top Posts 2 - Be a Freelance Blogger

How to Become a Better Freelance Blogger in Only 5 Days (Without Doing Any Marketing)

You don’t enjoy marketing?

You mean cold calling and sending 10 query emails a week doesn’t make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? How odd… because that’s exactly what every other freelance blogger tells me, too.

This may be reckless, but here we go:

I give you permission to slack off and skip the marketing for a while. 5 days, to be precise.

Because there are 5 things you need to do. When you’ve done them, you can go back to your marketing and it will work better because of the benefits these 5 actions bring.

Do you wish I’d just shut up and tell you what they are? OK… [Read more…]

By Sophie Lizard 208 Comments

Why You Should Step the F*ck Up to Be a Freelance Blogger

Do you love a challenge?

What if we call it a dare instead? You in?

Oh, you want to know what it is first. OK. In a nutshell:

I dare you to succeed as a freelance blogger.

Now let me ask you again: are you in?

If you are, I’ve got the one piece of information that will make a HUGE difference to your success as a freelance blogger. And I’m going to share it with you right here and now, so keep reading.

[If you have absolutely no interest in being a freelance blogger, feel free to leave.]

Excellent. Now that they’re gone, it’s just you and me, so let’s be honest with each other. Can we do that?

Get your business head on, and brace yourself: I’m going to be blunt. Because if I don’t tell you this, I’m not sure that anybody else will have the guts to say it to your face… [Read more…]

By Oleg Starko 11 Comments

Going from $75 to $250 per Post… with the Same Freelance Blogging Client (A Step-by-Step Case Study)

Your freelance blogging dream was a trap.

And you never saw it coming.

“Get as many clients as you can,” they said. “You’ll always have steady work!”

And you did! Now your calendar is full, and you churn out blog posts like nobody’s business.

So… how is that bad?

I’m glad you asked!

For your freelance blogging business to thrive, getting steady work at a steady rate isn’t enough. I mean, if “steady” were all you wanted, you might as well have stayed at your day job!

You need room for growth. For raising your rates to reflect the growing value of your work. For landing new high-paying clients. You can’t afford to be stuck on a hamster wheel of writing blog posts, day in and day out.

For most freelance bloggers, solving this problem boils down to three options: [Read more…]

By Lauren Spear 115 Comments

How to Keep Freelance Blogging When You’re Mentally Ill

“I’ve really got to get on with writing this post. And pitch an idea to that interesting blog I found, too.

But… I don’t know… maybe I’m not good enough for them. Maybe I should go back to bed and leave the writing until I feel more inspired. Meh.

Wait, did I put a fork in the spoon compartment this morning? I better go check… OK, no fork. Back to work!

Muhahaha, this post is brilliant! I’m a genius. No, I’m an idiot. This is the worst thing I ever wrote. Delete, delete, delete. There isn’t enough delete to undo my stupidity. I suck. My clients will hate me and I’ll lose this gig.

If I can’t pull this off then I’ll never make it as a freelance blogger, and then I won’t be able to pay the rent and I’ll wind up homeless and oh god I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe and I think I might die right here face down on my keyboard and my cat will eat my corpse and nobody will notice because everybody hates me anyway and… wait, did I check the spoon compartment carefully enough?”

Does this sound familiar to you?

Sure, these could be the thoughts of almost any freelance blogger under pressure. But if your thoughts run like this a lot of the time, then it’s also possible you’re a freelance blogger with a mental health problem.

Freelance blogging isn’t easy. Having a mental illness isn’t easy. And trying to be a freelance blogger with a mental illness really isn’t easy. Take it from someone who knows.

Actually, take it from three someones who know:

Sophie Lizard, owner of Be A Freelance Blogger; Kelly Gurnett of Cordelia Calls it Quits; and Lauren Tharp (that’s me!) of LittleZotz Writing.

That’s right, all three of us are mentally ill. And all three of us are successful freelance bloggers. [Read more…]

By Mandy Gardner 19 Comments

9 Places to Find Blogging Job Ads That Don’t Suck

The happy rush you feel upon deciding to be a freelance blogger can quickly be consumed by the difficulty of finding decent work.

$5 per post is not what you had in mind. You’re keen to find gigs that pay fair, but where do you start looking?

One of the biggest elements that sets freelance blogging apart from “normal” jobs is that you’ve got to actually go out there and find your own projects. You can’t just decide to be a writer one day and then sit back and watch assignments roll in — but oh, do we ever wish it were really like that!

Fortunately, there are a few great places online that post genuine ads for blogging gigs that pay more than just “exposure”. These are my go-to websites to find blogging job ads that don’t suck: [Read more…]