Blog Better - Be a Freelance Blogger

Want to blog like a pro?

From eyeball-grabbing headlines to irresistible endings, here's how to write blog posts your clients will be happy to pay for.

10 Great Apps and Tools for the Freelance Blogger

There’s nothing better than a great app or computer program that makes work quicker, easier and more fun. From a simple alarm clock to the most specialized email management software, the right app can not only keep you organized but help you enjoy your time at work.

As a freelance blogger, you’re already familiar with the most essential programs and tools of your trade: Microsoft Word, Google Docs, OneDrive, WordPress, and Grammarly. If you’re like most people, however, it’s easy to get stuck in a technological rut and stop trying out new things after a while.

You’ve got a lot on your plate as a blogger, in terms of coming up with creative ideas, meeting deadlines, and organizing your accounts, and chances are you aren’t making use of some of the best tools out there. If you’re a fan of technological assistance, the following apps and tools could help you stay on top of it all.

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By Carol Tice 5 Comments

SEO for Bloggers: 5 Keys to Catchy Headlines

Are you sad that no one seems to read your blog posts?

It could be because of the lack of catchy headlines – more specifically, headlines that are both creatively written and contain a useful keyword phrase to help the search engines find you readers.

In short, you need to rank well in search engines for the phrases your audience uses to find your type of content.

You’d think that at this point, everyone understands Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and the need to have a strong keyword phrase in the headline of their blog post. But that’s not my experience.

I’ve reviewed hundreds of blog-post headlines in the decade I’ve run my Freelance Writers Den community. And time after time, I see headlines with no keyword phrase at all. Generic headlines that have zero chance of helping you gain readers from online search. Such as:

Watch Out for the Red Flags
Head High or Body High (for a legal cannabis blog)
How a Marathon Can Heal your Soul

What’s wrong with these headlines?

In that first one, we can’t even tell who the post is for, or what we’ll learn if we click and read it.

In all three cases, there is no strong keyword phrase that would help search engines deliver you some readers. At this point in the busy blogosphere, if you don’t take the time to weave a keyphrase into your headline, your post is basically doomed.

So how do you figure out what keyword phrase to use for your blog headline? And more importantly, how do you artfully weave it into your headline so it doesn’t seem spammy?

Let’s walk through five key steps to creating a winning, SEO-focused, catchy headline for your next blog post:

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By Jersey Griggs 12 Comments

6 Writer’s Block Busting Tips (Banish Your Block for Good!)

We’ve all been there — the dreaded writer’s block.

One minute you’ve got ideas flowing out of your fingertips and the next minute… nothing, nada, zilch. Your words have dried up and you’re staring at a blank page.

It’s a freelance blogger’s worst nightmare.

So… what do you do next?

If your first inclination is to ignore the problem, you’re not alone. But procrastination — whether it’s with a Netflix show or a social media account — will not fix the issue at hand.

Being a freelance blogger means working for clients on a deadline. When you’re unable to write, your career and income are at stake.

The good news is there are plenty of solutions to help you beat writer’s block, especially if you’re willing to put in the work.

Some of these solutions are writing tools, some are science-based, and others are just plain common sense. But they’re all dedicated to making self-care a priority in your personal and professional life. So if you’re feeling stuck or just can’t write, try these tips to banish writer’s block for good!

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By Nicolas Ayala 6 Comments

Dramatize This: 10 Screenwriting Concepts That Make You a Better Blogger

The film industry has a massive amount of jargon terms, some seemingly created with the sole purpose of confusing outsiders and innocent newbies.

C47s come to mind, the bleeding edge technology behind the creation of a film. (This high-tech device is also known to us mortals as a clothespin.)

But you’re a blogger. How does filmmaking even affect you?

It’s simple. Blogs are stories. Bloggers are storytellers.

Word by word, we transmit a message to our readers through a journey of highs and lows in our writing. Does that sound familiar? It should.

This is where screenwriting concepts can come in handy for your blog writing.

From the first Fade In to the final Fade Out, screenwriters have an extensive lingo for a wide array of concepts that they carefully use in their stories to make them emotionally compelling and narratively effective.

As freelance bloggers, we can learn a lot from their ability to create powerful visual stories out of plain words and engage with audiences through captivating narrative devices. The conflict, however, is that the convenience of these tools often gets clouded by a dense layer of confusing jargon.

So let’s dig into 10 useful screenwriting concepts and terms today, and I’ll show you how to adapt them to your freelance blogging work.

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By Sophie Lizard 95 Comments

5 Ways to Adjust to Blogging on a New (Or New-Look) Platform

(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.

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