Be a Freelance Blogger

How to Be Addictive: Brain Science for Bloggers

This isn’t rocket surgery.

Your readers have brains. And the human brain is inscrutable in many ways, but in one thing it’s gloriously predictable: everybody loves a good story.

A story is its own reward. You catch a piece of it, follow the invisible lines of the narrative, make your own predictions about what’ll happen next, feel the tingle of “I knew it!” or the jolt of “never saw that coming”… it’s like your brain’s running loose on a scavenger hunt. And it loves you for it, like a dog loves you for taking it to the park.

Reward, as far as your brain is concerned, involves releasing chemicals that make you feel happy, excited and keen to do it all over again. This is why people get addicted to things that are not typically thought of as addictive: shopping, sex, books, jogging, the Internet.

We call those “psychological addictions”, but they aren’t all in the addict’s mind. They’re all in the brain, part of the nervous system and undeniably physical.

So, your audience has brains and brains can create addictions. Would you like your readers to keep coming back for more of your blog posts? Here’s how to get them hooked on your writing.

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By Sophie Lizard

Make This Your Brave New Year

Whether you make New Year’s resolutions or not, you have intentions every day of your life.

The path through this year, for most people, will be paved with good intentions until mid-January, maybe as far as February. After that it gets more like crazy paving.

No matter what you had planned, the universe happens. And your resolutions, your good intentions, fade into the background.

Why? Because intentions aren’t actions. Because resolve doesn’t carry any weight unless *you* make it so. Because it takes more than willpower to change a habit for the better.

Because it takes a special kind of courage to own yourself.

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By Sophie Lizard

The 9 Laws of Freelance Blogging: A Manifesto

The year is ending. A new beginning, if you believe in that kind of thing. At the very least, a new morning.

Perhaps you’ve made resolutions, or contemplated your past and your future. Perhaps you’ve thought philosophical thoughts about your place in the universe.

This year, there are 9 laws I plan to live and work by. A mini-manifesto, if you like. Here’s what I believe:

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By Laura Leigh Clarke

How To Charge What You’re Worth

You love writing. You’re inspired, you have the skills and you live for those moments when you can settle down with a cup of tea, in the peace and quiet, alone with your thoughts and just write.

And if this was all that was involved and you got paid handsomely for it, freelance writing would make you a fortune.

But you and I both know there is much more to making it as a paid writer than just the craft.

There’s the whole money thing.

Yep, that’s right. At some point, somewhere, you have to sell your services to a client who will reward you with the green stuff. And herein lies the problem.

The vast majority of writers I’ve met (and there have been a lot of them) are paralysed when it comes to:

Charging for their services
Charging what they’re worth, and
Putting themselves out there

If this sounds familiar, you’re going to want to keep reading because there IS something you can do about it.

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By Sophie Lizard

How to Build Your Side Gig Into a Full-Time Freelance Career

Being a part-time freelance writer at the same time as holding down another job can feel exhausting. Like, falling-asleep-on-your-keyboard exhausting.

But when the alternative is to give up writing and focus on your day job, somehow you find the time and energy for freelance blogging work after all. Being a writer matters to you; you’d write even if nobody was paying.

The big question, then, is can you make freelance writing pay your living?

And the answer is yes, you can — if you do it right.

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