Be a Freelance Blogger

How Dogged Persistence Landed My First Regular Blogging Gig

Three months and 17 e-mails.

That’s how much effort it took to get my first blogging client. I know it sounds a smidge ridiculous, but it was a worthy and important lesson in patience and persistence.

You know what the waiting’s like. Some days you can’t get it off your mind. Others, you forget about it and move on. It’s just like the wait after you send out a traditional job application: hearing little or nothing is the torturous part.

Here’s how it went down, and the lessons I learned along the way.

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By Sophie Lizard

7 Winning Ways to End Your Pitch, Query or LOI

Do you know what editors and potential clients do when they reach the end of your email?

You should.

How? Because they should be doing whatever you just told them to do!

The process of winning new clients through direct marketing is simple:

Identify your ideal clients
Get the right contact information
Send them a message to introduce yourself as a freelance blogger
If you’ve got an interesting idea for their blog, give them a brief description or outline at the same time
They send you a message back if they’re interested (and the nicest people get back to you even if they’re not interested)

Do you see the yawning abyss there between Step 4 and Step 5?

That’s where you forgot to make shit happen.

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By Anthony Dejolde

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…

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By MaryBeth Matzek

How to Break Out of the Feast and Famine Cycle

Being a freelance blogger sometimes feels a bit like riding a rollercoaster.

First, you’re too busy to breathe, then you’re sitting there with not much to do. You kick it into gear to find more work and the cycle starts all over again.

It’s the old feast-or-famine syndrome and can quickly wear you out, not to mention add a lot of stress to your probably already stress-filled life.

One way to avoid the rollercoaster is to get organized and plan ahead. I know, you’re busy–who has time to plan? But, a careful, well-thought-out plan can make the ride a bit more manageable. Here’s how to do it, fast.

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By Sophie Lizard

How Facebook Helps You Find Freelance Blogging Jobs

You’re on Facebook. I’m on Facebook. Everybody is.

So it stands to reason that your potential clients are probably on Facebook too.

Which means Facebook must be a great place to find new freelance blogging clients, right?

Except… well, how many people do you know who’ve found a high-paying freelance blogging client via Facebook?

I don’t know many. And when I Googled “how to find blogging jobs on Facebook”, all I got was a big list of generic jobseeking tips.

The few people I have seen successfully working Facebook for clients, though, they’ve got it all figured out. I’ve found a couple of good gigs through FB myself, too. So I’ve gathered together some of the tactics that worked for me, along with tips from other bloggers who’ve hunted down freelance gigs through Facebook.

Ready? Here we go…

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