Search Results for: pitchfest

Let the $100 Pitchfest Begin!

If you read my emails you’ll have seen the advance notice I sent out about this a few days ago.

[If you don’t get my emails, tell me your email address and I’ll start sending them to you — then you can enjoy all the fun, insight and profanity that comes from my brain direct to your inbox.]

Last month’s pitching contest was fantastic, with pitching tips and personalised feedback from Be a Freelance Blogger’s guest post editor Lauren Tharp. Instead of talking about it in the BAFB forums or inside email conversations like we usually do, we had the whole conversation there in the public comments of that blog post and everybody could check out the winning pitches.

That one contest brought us Alicia Rades’ $100-worthy guest post, cunningly titled 5 Ways to Rock Your Guest Post After They Accept Your Pitch, as well as excellent guest posts from runners-up who might never have pitched if there were no prizes up for grabs.

The level of learning and discussion going on in the comments made me feel we’d really touched a point that people want to talk about: what makes the difference between a “works for us” pitch and a “not for us” pitch?

I think we should talk about that in more detail and with as many specific, personalised examples and tips as possible. So we’re doing it all over again this month, and we’ll keep doing it every two months for the foreseeable future.

Being writers, we couldn’t resist giving this $100 guest blog pitching contest a special name.

Welcome to Pitchfest. 🙂

Read on for the rules, the $100 guest post payment, and the all-important comments section!

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By Pinar Tarhan

How to Prepare for Freelance Blogging Emergencies

Freelance blogging is an amazing career.

You don’t have to write about something you don’t care about to make money. There are so many niches that you’re bound to find one (or several) that is both lucrative and fun.

You can find clients that make payment arrangements work for you, and you set your own hours. It’s possible to spend time with family and friends while still working on passion projects.

However, it’s also ripe with problems and complications that can drive you mad: disappearing websites, changing regulations, unpaid invoices, ghost clients, writer’s block… you name it. And life’s regular lemons like health problems, family emergencies, and beyond can also interfere.

I’ve been a freelance blogger for about a decade now. And even though it’s a dream career, it hasn’t been a smooth ride.

2019 proved especially challenging with a loss in the family, recurring health issues, computer breakdowns, and a decent-sized collection of rejections. There were times I questioned why I was doing this, whether I should follow a less bumpy career path.

But when I think about the pros of this life, they win easily. Every period in my time of freelancing also featured great moments. In this “awful” 2019, I got to go on a fantastic writers’ retreat where I met fellow writers and hung out in New York, have a beach vacation when I wanted because I don’t have a boss, release my second book, and work with wonderful editors at some of my favorite publications.

So yes, there are a lot of ups and downs. And while it’s not possible to be prepared for everything, improving your defenses can help your bank balance, sanity, and overall health.

Here are some suggestions on what you can do to offset (or even eliminate) the bad times:

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By Dana Sitar

How to Show a Blog Editor You Understand Their Audience [Plus Your Chance to Win $150!]

The theme for this Pitchfest is: Audience. More on that — and the chance to earn $150 — to come, but first, here’s a quick tip to help you get to know a site’s audience quickly and how it’ll improve your pitches.

Every editor offering pitching advice will tell you, “Let me know you understand my audience and why your pitch is a good fit for them.”

The best way to gain that understanding is to become part of the audience. Read the blog, and engage with other readers. You’ll become familiar with the topics and voice of the site, and understand what readers look for in content.

But…

That takes time. And, frankly, if you write on the subject, you’re probably already reading 800 other blogs about it. Do you really want to add another to your reading list?

Most pitchers approach this conundrum wrong. They want to pitch a lot of blogs, so they Google their topic and send a generic pitch every site on the first page of results — whether it’s relevant or not. When I ran a blog called DIY Writing, you wouldn’t believe how many pitches I got that started with something like, “Since you write about DIY and crafting…” Nope. No, I do not.

You can do better than that… without committing to reading a novel’s worth of blog posts every day before you pitch.

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By Sophie Lizard

5 Ways to Adjust to Blogging on a New (Or New-Look) Platform

(We’ll get to the $100 prize in a few minutes — it’s all explained in this post, if you read through to the end.)

So your client wants you to use their blogging software to submit your posts.

And now you’re sweating with the fear that you won’t know how to use it and you’re gonna look incompetent.

Or maybe, like a lot of people in the blogosphere, you woke one morning not long ago, logged into your own WordPress website, and saw that — what in holy heck? — after the latest update, WordPress 5.0 has given you a very different looking new editing system… *eek*

Or perhaps you’ve never tried publishing on Medium or LinkedIn before, and you’re not sure how it all works.

Or you’ve been talking with a prospective client who sounds awesome, but they use Squarespace and you’ve only ever used WordPress?

Whatever the scenario, it’s all good. Relax and read these 5 simple ways to get your bearings inside a new blogging platform.

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By Lauren Spear

Lauren’s Last Post (And What Comes Next for BAFB)

A lot can happen in just over five years…

For those of you who don’t know me: My name is Lauren Tharp. I’m the owner of the multiple award-winning LittleZotz Writing. And, since the summer of 2013, I was the Managing Editor of Be a Freelance Blogger.

Yup. “Was.” I’m leaving.

Don’t cry. This is actually good news. I’m now a full-time editor for Syed Balkhi’s Awesome Motive.

With my new full-time employee status (no more freelancing!), I simply don’t have time for BAFB like I used to. But BAFB will always, always hold a special place in my heart.

Sophie Lizard is absolutely amazing, and Be a Freelance Blogger is a website I’m immensely proud to have been a part of.

I’ve met so many great writers – some of whom have become great friends! It’s been a blast.

I’ll let Sophie take over in a minute, but… in no particular order, here are my Top 10 favorite BAFB articles:

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