Level Up 19 - Be a Freelance Blogger

Don’t Be a Fool: How to Avoid Getting Played By Your Clients

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…]

By Sophie Lizard 64 Comments

7 Ways to Take Charge of Your Freelance Blogging Career

That helpless feeling… it’s horrible, isn’t it?

You know you were born to be a freelance blogger. It’s the perfect fit for you. But so far, you’re kinda going nowhere with it.

You haven’t won the high-paying jobs you hoped would be yours, and you haven’t been invited to join that inner circle of pro bloggers who all seem to know each other.

You check a handful of online job boards regularly, but there aren’t many ads that sound right for you. And when you do apply for gigs, you often don’t hear back from them at all.

How are you supposed to make money at this when there’s no work available?

Oh, it’s available all right. While you’re waiting for a miracle job to materialise, some other blogger is getting rich on projects that could have been yours. Why? Because you haven’t taken charge of your own career yet.

It really is that simple.

If you want to climb the freelance blogging career ladder, you need to step up and make it happen. Don’t worry, it’s easier than you think! Start with these 7 simple ways to take your business into your own hands and win the rewards you deserve. [Read more…]