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When 100 Rockets Fell On This Freelance Writer, He Learned 5 Surprising Lessons About Fear

Imagine the scene.

You’re sitting quietly in front of your computer. The page is blank and beneath the table your legs shake with increasing tension. In a space of thirty minutes you’ve written and deleted just one measly sentence.

And then everything changes.

You find yourself running with the shriek of sirens sounding in your ears.

The rockets are coming.

Before you reach the shelter, the first rocket explodes nearby, causing the ground to shudder.

Boom! Boom! … BOOM!

Are you afraid?

Living under deadly uncertainty

A few years ago, I experienced exactly this scenario.

I lived in a city in southern Israel which, when I was there, was attacked more than 100 times with deadly rocket barrages.

I never knew from one day to the next whether a rocket would come slamming through our roof. When a warning siren went, we had less than a minute to get to a protective shelter.

People died. Children cried. There was nowhere really to hide.

Those days taught me a lot about developing a freelance writing and blogging career in the face of fear and anxiety.

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By Joy Collado

How Fiction Writing Experience Helps You Craft Killer Blog Posts

You might think writing fictional stories is just a hobby, a way for you to get creative.

And freelance blogging is a serious, entirely non-fictional business.

But the truth is, making up stories helps you craft better blog posts. They may be different in form, but fiction and blogging are the same in other ways.

Fiction entertains, educates and inspires. So does blogging.

The principles you use in writing fiction also apply to blogging. So do many of the writing techniques.

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By Gwen Boyle

How Anonymous Blogging Hinders Your Freelance Writing Career (And What You Can Do About It)

Anonymous blogging is thrilling.

If you’re a nervous, new blogger who’s terrified by the idea of putting your words out into the world for strangers to dissect, it’s much easier to find your courage under an assumed name.

Even if you’re comfortable with having a spotlight on your writing, it can be immensely freeing to write for an audience that can’t associate your words with you.

You can vent your innermost thoughts; discuss topics you’d never speak aloud; rant about your colleagues with impunity.

People might dislike what you write — or they might adore it. But with the protection of anonymity, it’s easier to deal with the emotional impact of throwing your work under the gaze of others.

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By Thursday Bram

Blog Comments and Social Media: What Your Editors Expect After Publication

A freelance blogger is hired to write blog posts, right?

The job title makes it sound that simple, but it’s rare that your client really just expects you to line up some words and stop there.

Formatting text and finding photos is almost always part of the workload. It’s pretty common for a blogger’s work to include some SEO and other tasks to make sure that the finished blog post is a polished product, ready for readers.

But some blog editors expect work after a post has been published. That post-publication work can include responding to comments and promoting your work on social media (including on your own posts).

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By Kara Andersen

How to Start a Blogging Business When You’re Broke: The Magic of Profit from Zero

You know that feeling that you’ve completely lost control of the situation? That terrifying, groping-around-corners-in-the-dark sensation that accompanies the death of a really good plan you had?

That’s how my blogging business was born.

Around the time I was financially desperate enough to scrounge for stray dimes rather than use my debit card to pay for a coffee, I decided it was time to start a business.

There were a few things that led up to this decision. I wanted to be a freelance writer working out of cafes in Buenos Aires, but I was a broke intern in Chicago. To bridge that gap I accepted a full-time job with a salary and benefits, only to be laid off almost as soon as I’d started.

For me, that was that moment in life when you realize it’s time to take matters into your own hands. And you head back to the drawing board to examine the overwhelming options — none of which will actually fix your paralysis, because they’re all just steps in another plan that you have to create from scratch.

They say it takes money to make money, but I’d already lived for several months not knowing how I was going to pay the next month’s rent. I had to make something out of nothing, fast. Here’s how you work that instant blogging business magic:

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