Level Up 19 - Be a Freelance Blogger

Freelance Blogging Insights from the K-Pop Invasion

Would you listen to a song if it’s not in English?

If the singer doesn’t fit the mold of a global star, would you lend an ear?

When you think of international music icons, the celebrities that come to mind are mostly Western, right? Not anymore. The Koreans are here.

Their songs aren’t in English, and lots of them don’t even speak English, yet they’ve seduced the world. The K-pop music industry is huge, and the K-Pop invasion is undeniably a phenomenon.

What does that have to do with you? Here are some key insights freelance bloggers can learn from the K-Pop invasion… [Read more…]

By Stu Snyder 118 Comments

How to Quit Your Job and NOT Become a Freelance Blogger

Oh, it’s not that being a freelance blogger doesn’t sound awesome to you, just like it did to me.

It’s not that there isn’t awesome example after awesome example of people doing it. In fact, this website is dedicated solely to getting you there.

It’s just that all this crap gets in the way. And by crap, I mean, my own crap. But your crap is very much like my crap. How crappy is that?

Good thing you’ve found this blog and you’re reading this post. You’re about to learn the 7 things that stand in the way of your freelance blogging career and how to get around them.

Bonus: They’re all your own fears, so they’re totally under your control. [Read more…]

By Sophie Lizard 141 Comments

52 Totally Free Resources for Freelance Bloggers

Free stuff is the best. Right?

Of course you’d love to buy lots of exciting books and training courses and whatnot, but you haven’t got a ton of cash to spare.

That’s why you’re here, learning to make money from your blogging services. And while you learn, freebies are awesome!

But… sometimes freebies aren’t awesome. Sometimes free stuff is just junk that sucks your time, clutters up your memory, and ends up in the recycle bin.

This list is not about that kind of free stuff.

This list is solid. I checked out every single thing myself, and if it sucked, it got cut.

So here are the survivors, the worthy, the genuinely useful… 52 totally free resources for freelance blogging success.

If they cost anything, it’s your email address or maybe a tweet – no money involved. You’re welcome. 😉 [Read more…]

By Sophie Lizard 36 Comments

Avoid Getting Played By Your Clients: 5 Lessons to Keep You Safe from Rip-Offs and Fee-Dodgers

You might think getting ripped off by a client is something that only happens to newbie freelance bloggers.

You’d be wrong.

I hear from a lot of experienced bloggers who are still having bad experiences with clients, time after time. Why does this keep happening?

Often, it keeps happening because you keep trusting in people you have absolutely no reason to trust. Sometimes you just don’t spot the warning signs. Sometimes you spot them, but you keep going anyway because you don’t really know what else to do.

I’ve been played by bad clients a couple of times. I know how it feels when you’re halfway through a project and you get that sudden feeling of impending doom. Your gut tells you to run for the hills, but you’re too busy worrying about your money and your reputation to act on that instinct.

And so, you get fooled again.

Learn these lessons now, and you won’t have to suffer the same thing later: [Read more…]

By Dana Sitar 56 Comments

Be Picky, Get Paid to Promote Yourself, and Build Your Dream Career

If you’re like most freelance writers with a dream, you do one kind of writing “by day” — the kind you get paid for — and another “by night” — the kind you love and dream of doing full-time.

If that’s you, you’re doing twice the work you need to, and you may be hurting your chances of advancing toward that dream career.

Be more choosy to make your dream career a reality.

When you’re starting out, many steady blogging jobs ask you to “be able to write with authority on a variety of topics”. You become trained to believe that in order to make money blogging, you have to know how to write about whatever a client wants you to write about. You become very skilled at internet research.

But what about the reason you write in the first place?

What about those topics you love with such passion that you pour hours every week into unpaid posts for your own blog? What of the things you choose to read about in your spare time, that you talk about in days-long Twitter conversations with people halfway round the world?

You don’t have to be a jack-of-all-trades blogger to make money. You can be choosy and stick to the topics you love. Here’s how. [Read more…]