Be a Freelance Blogger

Married to the Job? 5 Tips to Build a Healthy Relationship with Your Blogging Career

Note from Sophie: Guess what? I’m getting married in less than a week! To celebrate, I’ve got something special for you — for more info, read to the end of this post by Alicia Rades.

People make it sound like being married to your career is a bad thing, but I beg to differ.

In our 3 years of marriage and 6 years as a couple, my husband and I have learned a thing or two about maintaining a healthy relationship. I’ve been at my freelance writing career nearly as long, and I’ve found that if you want to enjoy your career, you have to treat it much like you treat your spouse.

If you do that, your relationship with your job can be a positive one.

So maybe you aren’t ready to slip a ring on that finger just yet and say “I do” to the one you love, but if you’ve already committed to a life-long career of freelance blogging, here are a couple of ways to keep that relationship going strong.

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By Sarah Beauchemin

5 Steps to Blog About Your Client’s Good Deeds [Without Coming Across as Insufferably Smug]

We modern humans have very little tolerance for crappy business ethics.

Companies that choose to exploit human labor, ruin the environment, do business with shady suppliers, or adopt creative financial practices pretty much get a death sentence.

And we have one specific entity to thank for that: the internet.

For better or worse, we have a torrent of information available to us 24/7. As with any type of news, business wrong-doing spreads like wildfire; our social media feeds are bursting with the latest corporate scandal within minutes.

Business is changing for the better because we now demand and expect better. And this wouldn’t have happened without the spread of information and transparency made possible by the internet.

OK, great. But what does all this mean for you, a freelance blogger?

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By Bree Brouwer

Blogger of Interest: Peter Sandeen of PeterSandeen.com

Back in February 2015, Sophie interviewed Linda Formichelli of The Renegade Writer… but there hasn’t been another featured blogger since then.

I told Sophie she should bring back the “Blogger of Interest” series. She agreed. Then she put me in charge of the whole shebang.

So the series is back, bloggers.

In this installment of “Blogger of Interest,” we’re featuring Peter Sandeen of PeterSandeen.com (neat!).

Peter started blogging as a way to build his business and reputation as a marketing expert. But Peter’s no ordinary online marketing guru; he’s made a name for himself as the go-to guy on value propositions and marketing messages.

In this interview, I talk to Peter about how he started out as a marketing blogger, what value propositions are and why they’re so important, and how freelance bloggers can discover their own value propositions to attract the right kinds of clients. We also discuss how freelancers can figure out their clients’ value propositions to deliver content genuine to their business goals.

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By Nicole Dieker

How to Make Money as a Blogger: 7 Ways to “Cash In” on Your Skills

How many blogs do you read every day?

You’re reading a blog right now, so that’s one. Did you check Buzzfeed this morning? That’s two, and the link you followed on Facebook is three, and the New York Times Well section is four, and you can probably get up to 10 without having to think too hard.

All of these blogs need writers, and if you’re interested in becoming a freelance blogger, there are plenty of ways to get your foot in the door and start making money.

Start with these seven ideas, courtesy of The Write Life’s 71 Ways to Make Money as a Freelance Writer (which, full disclosure, I helped write — so I know it’s good). Then pitch your first blog post this afternoon!

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By Sarah Rickerd

Content Mills vs Content Agencies: How to Get Steady Freelance Writing Work Without Sacrificing Your Self-Respect

On paper, working for a content agency seems like a no-brainer for freelance writers. You get a steady stream of work delivered straight to your inbox, with none of the hassle of prospecting for new clients — right?

In practice, we all know it’s a bit more complicated than that.

There are plenty of content agencies out there that are little more than lipstick-on-a-content-mill-pig. Agencies that are just as ready to take advantage of you as the $5-an-article exploiters we’re all too familiar with.

Are content agencies all bad? Of course not. I run a content agency, so it’d be pretty disingenuous of me to suggest that we’re all scam artists ripping off talented writers!

The key lies in being able to distinguish between the two. What makes one agency a good option for advancing your career, and another no better than the content mills?

Let’s take a closer look at content agency writing work.

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