Strive for the Best and Shine through Tough Times

Every writer’s site I have gone to recently has been discussing grammar or lack of it and generally poor writing appearing throughout the web. After all, there are more freelance writers on board these days due to the appearance of numerous ads stating one can earn money easily by writing. Well meaning friends and relatives will say, “well you do it; how difficult can it be, so why can’t I?“

Don’t discourage them but instead let them in on the secret that writing is a full time job. Yes, you can work your own hours but there is much responsibility to writing if you want to earn a living.

Freelance writing takes time for factual research, coming up with unique ideas and the dreaded edits. Everything has been said already, so writing becomes a matter of expanding a flow of words that speaks your true inner voice. Every day you will be job hunting and composing effective cover letters and clips in order to secure another new writing job.

The web may be the instigator of poor writing skills and undervaluing writers. I read recently that approximately 150,000 articles are needed per day. The good news is that there will always be plenty of work for all of us. The bad news is that under-bidders who either spin existing article or have poorer writing skills are getting through and clients do not seem to care. Personally I believe this to be a temporary setback for writers who do widen their knowledge and training.

Many of these a articles appear to be based on rich SEO content with clients wanting the same key words plastered 20 times in a 200 word blurb in some cases. Talk about redundancy! So besides complaints of grammatical problems, what many are finding is the writing is beginning to become boring.

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure - Samuel Johnson

Boring sites mean fewer hits and less income for those who own them. Perhaps those who hire will now realize that quality work will always reign.

We all started out as novices but cultivated our craft, while taking pride in our work as it improved. We are open to learn from others and continue to do so, probably to our last typed sentence.

Developing your craft will always be a continual objective; write everyday, brush up on your vocabulary and grammar and add that little extra that comes from deep inside you that sets you apart from the rest.

Attitude

A good freelance writer knows when writing for someone (personal attitude) cannot stand in the way. One needs to be flexible and willing to take on jobs with the clients point of view in mind.
After all you're hiring yourself out to write about their topic of discussion.

One way to avoid ruffling your feathers is to, research a writing job before you accept it. Don't tie yourself to writing about a subject you hate and can't present at 100%. Your quality of work could reflect your "attitude" towards the assignment, if it isn't something you like. Word of mouth spreads quickly, good or bad people will come to know who you are as a freelance writer. Look before you leap.

Still, taking pride in what you write and having a passion for it should be owned by you!

Here's a glimpse at my passion for the pen! (Literal, digital or otherwise.

Pen's Write

Scribbling furiously my nib takes flight.
Snap, tapping motion of fluid release.
Words gather quickly preparing delight.
Rasping pen echoes, fulfilling increase.

If spoken, decreases intended bite,
disquiet then creeps in to intrusive views.
Impairing motion of pens' truest cite,
leaving me waiting your harshest reviews.

White pages become littered with inks plight.
Dueling lines pleading for dominant space.
Once chosen, dipped ink, is set to new heights.
Showing no evidence of struggles trace.

When all agree, ink, pen, paper and I,
what challenges come I'll release through flight.

Enhance your Writing from Cyber Resources

Sometimes it is impossible to hit upon everything there is to know about writing, the trends and overall job tips. No matter how experienced you are, even the pros need to be reminded of how this business changes and the need to listen.

To start off your Monday, which on a personal level is the start of a new beginning; the following five recent articles should not be miss. Refer to them and make this content part of your writing career bible.


5 Ways to Instantly Become a Better Writer by Mason Hipp

The information is so simple, yet very important advice to consider as a writer. Freelance Folder has advice for all types of freelancers and not for writers only, but when they come up something in our niche, it’s terrific.


To Query or Not to Query: That’s a Question for the Pros! by Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer created a series involving seven well established writers; Chris Bibey, Angela Booth, Jenna Glatzer, Kristen King, Deb Ng, Allena Tapia and Anne Wayman using a question and answer format. The series began on June 15th and should be coming to a close soon.


Avoiding the temptation of easy to score but low paying gigs by Jennifer Mattern at Freelance Writing Jobs

Jennifer stopped by Deb Ng´s fabulous site and offers a wealth on infomation that we all are guilty of – low paying gigs. Deb, herself, is an adament foe of the cheapies.

How to Increase Your Freelance Writing Rates by Anne Wayman

After reading about Jennifer’s tips to avoid low paying gigs, a must is Anne’s guidelines on how to increase your rates. I know you are probably afraid to do so but if you want to make a living out of your love of writing then this article is a must read.


Writing: how to get more great ideas every day by Angela Booth

Although Angela is a prime marketer of her numerious eBooks on writing, her blog has been bookmarked as very informative. Sink you teeth into it.

Topics such as these are what make the web a worthwhile resource for a writer. There are hundreds of thousands of others in cyberspace. We all narrow down the ones we prefer. Why not list some of your favorites here as a reference for others?

Freelance Update From The Field

So, I told y'all I would be back with an update on my freelancing adventures. Here is a run down of the sites I have tried so far:

Elance - very good for getting new and repeat business. We get most of our income through this site. As expected, job awards tend to come in clusters so there is some downtime. We use this to work on our own website and put in bids on other freelance sites such as:

iFreelance - no luck here so far. I think this will end up being a waste of money. There are very few assignments that are even worth bidding on (maybe 2-3 projects a week). We haven't been awarded anything so far. This site doesn't charge commissions, so that is good. At this point I just hope to land 1 job to get back my 6 month membership payment.

Guru - just started bidding on this site on June 1st. No awards so far but there are a bunch of good projects and buyers. You get 100 "bids" a month, so I am burning through them. I asked the Guru helpdesk if I could link to my Elance profile to show my feedback and they said yes! That is good since I won't have to start from scratch building a reputation there.

Demand Studios - started turning in work on Monday and just got paid for my first article. These are simple to write but tracking down images takes a little time. The format for entering the articles on the site appears to have a couple of bugs (the bullet lists don't show up correctly), but nothing major. Just follow the Writer's Guide closely and you will be fine writing for this site.

So You Think You Can Write (A writers view of getting started)

Wow, I have been asking myself that question for some time. Talk about jumping into the fire with both feet planted on hot ground. OUCH!!! I think I burned myself.

There are so many different ways to approach Freelance Writing for a living and all of them require taking the time to know your level of writing skills. This involves implementing all those English classes, Writing classes and Spelling classes you took in school. Who the heck is going to hire you, if you don't know how to put sentences together and accurately at that! You might have an award winning Pulitzer Article, (I can dream) but unless you know how to pull it together it's going to sit on the shelf collecting dust. You wont be hired if you can't back up your pen's writing skills. Metaphorical pen here folks or literal whichever you use.

Okay, so I can write but what quality of writing am I putting out there? I mean my skills are pretty much limited to the mere basics of writing, included but not limited to Creative Writing. Does that qualify me as freelance writing worthy? Egad, thank goodness for my understanding editor and writing instructor supremeo (yes, I said supremeo) boss lady!

The desire and passion is there, so there's kindling waiting to be lit. I have accumulated knowledge on a plethora of subjects, so I write about different topics. I have the determination to see projects through, so I'm trustworthy. I guess it comes down to the quality of my work.

What to do? Well if I'm going to declare myself a freelance writer and I'm lacking in writing ability, then I suppose I could take night courses that will eventually hone my skills as a quality writer. Then perhaps I could seek out small projects to bid on, something that doesn't require a thousand plus words in the beginning. Maybe I could hire an editor, who has the patience of Job, to proofread and direct me in my weak areas of writing. I mean I want to always offer my best. The goal is to get the writing job.

Back to my statement, "So You Think You Can Write". Yes, I can write, but I need to work on the quality of work I'm putting out there. The freelance writing world is competitive. I need to be at the top of my game.

So to all you other freelance writers, struggling to get good writing gigs, ask yourself the same question and honestly explore the answer. Do what needs to be done to hone your skills as a freelance writer.

Freelance Writer Contracts, Continued

Here is the aforementioned post on contracts, as per Daisy:

Here's a question that I have been kicking around for a while and I would like
to hear some opinions from the other writers here.

Do you peeps have a
favorite contract template? I haven't found one I like yet. The versions on
Elance are too wordy (4-11 pages) and are skewed toward the buyer's interests.
For projects under $1,000 a contract of more than 1-2 pages is simply not a
feasible option.

I have a lot of experience negotiating contracts in my
Purchasing job so I figure I will put together my own eventually. Maybe we can
put our heads together and brainstorm a simple freelance writer contract that
everyone can customize to their own needs.

Let me know who wants in on
this and we can start kicking around requirements and suggestions for a sample
contract in the comments section.

Daisy

And the contract later posted:

Daisy said...
OK, sorry for being so late. Here is a sample of the work
terms I created for my Guru profile. This is the short version since I ran way
over the character limit with my original version. I guess shorter is better
anyway. Here goes:

We accept payment via ________. Buyers can pay upon
completion for projects under $_____.

Communication - We will
communicate with you regularly and respond to your inquiries via email within 1
business day (CST).

Delivery Schedule - For escrow projects, work begins
when the appropriate milestone has been funded. Please fund promptly to avoid
delays.

Revision - We consider a revision to be alteration of up to 20%
of content. 1 revision is offered free of charge for each of the first two
articles we write for you. Ebooks often include additional revisions in the bid
price.

Rewrite - This is an extensive revision (such as 50% of content).
In the unlikely event that you require us to rewrite the content we submit to
you, this will incur a surcharge. You can avoid the need for rewrites by
providing clear and accurate instructions at the outset of each project.

Attribution/Byline - We offer discounted pricing to buyers who allow us
to publish work under our own names. This builds our web presence and makes it
easy to point future clients to online examples of our writing.

Copyright - If you are purchasing all rights to the work we submit, we
will not create a sample from the end product to post in our portfolio without
your specific permission.

Feedback - Your satisfaction is our highest
priority. The final feedback you leave on ____ has a huge impact on our
potential for growth. We also appreciate your endorsement since it helps us
build our business.

More thoughts and input? let us know how you worded your last project, and why!

Freelance Writer's Update

And here I am! I've been writing furiously, trying to meet deadlines and take care of my lil chilluns - all three of which have birthdays! Vivien Grace turned 10 on the 10th, Duncan Ray is 2 today (the 11th) and Chane Delaney turns 8 next week on the 18th. Yes. You counted on your fingers correctly. August in Texas is very, very hot, and an air conditioned bedroom is quite inviting! :)

Anyhoo. Here, albeit belatedly (this is my blog and I can use all the ten dollar words I want), is the update I promised. This past month the Hack Writers' Guild has featured a lot of wonderful posts!

In alphabetical order by first name, we seem to have quite a following already: The Baseball Goddess (our own outrageous Mandy); Daisy McCarty (my sis); Diane Quinn; Isabelle (Belle Starr); Jim Bessey; Kim Leah, Kristina (who just landed a VERY lucrative project - go Kristina!!); Lynn C; Margaret Merrill; Melissa Bickel (Missy, our creative writer and poet); Molly O'Shea, Shelley (who was just accepted by Demand Studios - Yay Shelley!) and Veronica, who posts to the blog every week faithfully and with excellent posts that make me VERY grateful to have her here with us! (Thanks, Veronica!!)

I see Alex, Carolina, Conny, Dawn and Leigh peeking around the corner - we will lure them in yet.

In recap: we have hammered home some points on the origin of the name of the Hack Writers' Guild, how to be a hack, getting started as a part-time writer, learning SEO, rules for writing 'good', when to break the rules, good freelance sites to find gigs at, how to frame a successful bid, finding a freelance writing project made for YOU, how to wease the link juice (thank you, Mandy and Pauly Shore), creative writing (from our resident poet, Missy), and sptting freelance writing scams.

The one post I want to pull up to the front so we can continue discussion is the contract writing one Daisy started, as this is VERY important. It will be repeated along with the pertinent info from the comments for the next post.

Thanks to every one who is contributing to this blog! We hope it will become a haven and resource for budding freelanceers from all walks.

Slainte!

Grace

Bidding for Freelance Jobs

You've done it. You've signed up at the freelance site, cobbled together a bio and found a job you'd like to bid on.

How do you convince the buyer that you are the best person for the job?

First you need to ascertain what the buyer really needs, so look at their request and run it by a few colleagues to compare notes and get an idea of how long it will take you and what skills you will need to complete the job.

Frame your proposal in a professional manner that still lets the buyer know you will give your personal attention to the project. I start my bids on Elance like this:

Hi!

Grace here.

Next, list why you think you would be a good fit for the job:

I provide strong SEO content that is keyword rich without feeling stuffed. Your project is a good fit for my talents as I notice you have also requested experience in the home improvement industry; I and my husband run a small flooring/remodeling business so I have hands on knowledge of the field and can write articulately on the topic.

Point to work you have done, if possible - many freelance sites forbid providing a brand new sample to cut down on buyers cheating providers and stealing work, so I either show a sample doc which I have rights to (or permission to show), or I write a sample, publish it on an article site such as Helium and point to it via URL:

Here is a sample of my work that showcases my skill and my expertise. I am happy to show more samples if desired. I provide only 100% original content; all my work will pass copyscape or any other plagiarism checking program you may wish to use.

Last, give your references:

Please view my profile to see my solid repeat customer base and 100% positive feedback - personal references also available upon request.

Quote your price and timeframe for completion, along with any other terms:

I charge $15 per article for SEO articles up to 300 words, and can deliver ten within ten days time. I provide one article within 48 hours of escrow being funded, to ascertain the direction is correct, and the rest by the end of the project. Copyright is released as soon as escrow is released in full.

I am bidding $150 for ten articles, full amount to be escrowed and 25% to be released upon acceptance of first article. I am setting a project timeframe of two weeks to allow for communication.

Close politely:

Thank you for taking the time to consider my proposal. Please feel free to contact me with any changes to the scope of the project or questions about my bid. I look forward to working with you!

Grace

You really can't go wrong wth a proposal like this. You come off as professional, accustomed to doing business, and not to be pushed around - yet not arrogant ro assuming.

If you are brand new, be frank.

I am new to the Elance system, but have samples of my work at (list portfolios) and am willing to give a 10% discount to my first five clients at Elance to establish myself as a premier provider.

I hope these tips help. I have a fairly high award rate of between 20% and 40%, and a repeat customer ratio of 45% (60% of my earnings so far have been from repeat customers).

Thanks for reading! (Oh - and I was awarded the job.)

Grace

Hey, there's a guy in the room!!

Someone gave me a key and let me in (Grace). Since then I've been hiding in the corner, trembling with shy reserve, afraid to step forward and introduce myself.

Hi, I'm Jim and I'm a writer. Sort of.

I hear all the ladies snickering, and see some of you reaching for your drinks or heading for the powder room in groups of three for safety.

I admit it: I'm not good enough to be called a Hack Writer. Yet.

I think too much about what I write, or about what I might write. I proofread and revise stuff that's perfectly okay the way it is. I worry that every one of you can write better and faster than I can, unless I try harder or steer away from dangerous topics.

I just read Mandy's introductory post and am now well aware of all the mistakes I've made in my writing "career." Hah.

What career? I've sold three articles for less than $200 all told. Still, that makes me a professional, doesn't it? Please tell me I don't have to give back the Key to the Guild. It's such a pretty key, and the company here is outstanding.

You know what I really love doing? "Taking in a moment." You probably can't earn a living writing about those perfect moments in life, unless you're one hell of a poet maybe. But that's my very favorite kind of writing; and finding a way to express the awe and magic of a still and starlit night and weave that into a useful article about the merits of RV camping (real example!) makes me at least feel like a decent writer.

I should have been a journalist. I've been a founding editor and an EIC for two academic publications; but that was years ago and I let the moment flash by me. God, how I loved deadlines and page design and working with writers!

I came to Helium nearly two years ago to try and recapture some of that magic. I've since written some things -- both fiction and non-fiction -- that make me proud. And I've met SO many wonderful writers! Many of you are right here, listed as contributors.

Will I ever be a full-time freelancer -- a dedicated and money-earning Hack? I sure hope so! I can't keep building and fixing things indefinitely. Sooner or later my knees will give out. I do know who to turn to for advice and guidance and friendship in that pursuit.

You.

I'm honored to be counted among you, and thrilled to know each of you. And, no Grace, you cannot have this key back. It's mine, all mine!

Red heart atcha. ~Jim

Fifty Rules for Writing Good

I'm reading Sleeping Dogs Don't Lay, a book for the grammatically challenged, because I'm on a continuous mission to improve my writing skills. Although most grammar books put me to sleep, this one is fun! Grammar? Fun? Yep!

The book contains a list of Fifty Rules for Writing Good that I plan to duct tape to the wall. And it seems fitting for a post to the Hack Writers' Guild. Each listed rule breaks its own rule.... Enjoy.

1. Each pronoun should agree with their antecedent.

2. Between you and I, pronoun case is important.

3. A writer must be sure to avoid sexist pronouns in his writing.

4. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

5. Don't be a person whom people realize confuses who and whom.

6. Never use no double negatives.

7. Never use a preposition to end a sentence with. That is something up with which your readers will not put.

8. When writing, participles must not be dangled.

9. Be careful to never, under any circumstances, split infinitives.

10. Hopefully, you won't float your adverbs.

11. A writer must not shift your point of view.

12. Lay down and die before using a transitive verb without an object.

13. Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.

14. The passive voice should be avoided.

15. About sentence fragments.

16. Don't verb nouns.

17. In letters themes reports and ad copy use commas to separate items in a series.

18. Don't use commas, that aren't necessary.

19. "Don't overuse 'quotation marks.'"

20. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (if the truth be told) superfluous.

21. Contractions won't, don't, and can't help your writing voice.

22. Don't write run-on sentences they are hard to read.

23. Don't forget to use end punctuation

24. Its important to use apostrophe's in the right places.

25. Don't abbrev.

26. Don't overuse exclamation marks!!!

27. Resist Unnecessary Capitalization.

28. Avoid mispellings.

29. Check to see if you any words out.

30. One-word sentences? Never.

31. Avoid annoying, affected, and awkward alliteration, always.

32. Never, ever use repetitive redundancies.

33. The bottom line is to bag trendy locutions that sound flaky.

34. By observing the distinctions between adjectives and adverbs, you will treat your readers real good.

35. Parallel structure will help you in writing more effective sentences and to express yourself more gracefully.

36. In our own personal opinion at this point in time, we think that authors, when they are writing, should not get into the habit of making use of too many unnecessary words that they don't really need.

37. Foreign words and phrases are the reader's beet noire and are not apropos.

38. Who needs rhetorical questions?

39. Always go in search of the correct idiom.

40. Do not cast statements in the negative form.

41. And don't start sentences with conjunctions.

42. Avoid mixed metaphors. They will kindle a flood of confusion in your readers.

43. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."

44. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

45. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

46. Be more or less specific.

47. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement, which is always best.

48. Never use a big word when you can utilize a diminutive word.

49. Profanity sucks.

50. Last but not least, even if you have to bend over backward, avoid cliches like the plague.

I'm going to break #43 right now to end on another quote from Ralph-

"Any fool can make a rule
And every fool will mind it"

Bring any and all thoughts or questions about grammar to the comments section.

Freelance Writing and SEO

I figured it was a good time to start working on a little SEO education for our new freelance writers! Web content is the easiest market to break into and can put some cash in your pocket while you are building a reputation - but you have to understand SEO.

Short definition: SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. For illustrative purposes, we will pretend that the only search engine out there is Google. Our goal when writing web content is to optimize what we write for search terms that people type in the search box when they 'Google' something.

The search terms are made up of keywords or keyword phrases. A person looking for a pair of brown lace-up hiking boots could type in the keyword 'boots' - or if they are smart, they will refine their search by using a keyword phrase such as brown boots, hiking boots, laceup boots, brown hiking boots, laceup hiking boots,brown laceup hiking boots - do you get the picture?

If the site that specializes in hiking gear hires you to write content for their site, they may wish to 'target' some of these phrases. This is called optimizing the content, and you do it so that the 'spiders' Google sends out to 'crawl' the 'web' will be able to tell what the webpage (and by extension, the website) is all about.

A word about Google. Google is an index of the world wide web. When you Google something, it returns search engine result pages, or SERPs. A website's or webpage's spot on the SERPs is determined by how valuable Google thinks that result is in relation to the search term typed in.

Google assignes ranking based on several factors - one is how many other places on the web have linked back to that result, and the other is by the content of the page or site. They determine content by 'spidering' the page and looking for words that will tell them what topic it is most relevant to.

Websites want their webpages to rank highly in the SERPs - in other words, to show up in the top ten, or five, or three. This means they need keyword rich content, so the spiders will think they are a good match to certain search queries. Some keywords are highly competitive - there are big sites with huge amounts of money to spend on marketing, thousands of links, and a team to provide plenty of content. How do small sites compete?

They go for the more complex keyword phrases. Instead of 'boots', which might be typed into the search engine a thousand times per day, and which they can't hope to be competitive with, the specialize in a niche. They optimize for a 'long tail' term, such as 'brown laceup hiking boots'.

This might only get ten searches a day, but if only you and a few others are optimizing for that phrase, you could end up in the top few spots of the SERPs. If you are near the top, you get more clicks from people searching, and they come to your site. 50% of ten is way more than a tenth of a percent of a thousand - and a tenth of a percent is what you wuold be lucky to get if you are buried on page ten of the SERPs for the keyword 'boots'.

In addition, even if someone did dig down and find your site by searching for 'boots', you have only a slim chance of having the kind of boots they want. However, if you pop up near the top in response to the search term 'brown laceup hiking boots', the people clicking on that result are already more predisposed to buy from you since you have exactly what they are looking for. This is called a niche market, and the visitors are targeted traffic.

Back in your character as a writer - what does all this mean for you? If you are hired to produce keyword rich content for a website, you will probably be given a list of keywords or keyword phrases to include - often one primary and several secondary ones.

Usually if you use the primary in the title, the first sentence and the last paragraph, you are on the right track as far as the spiders are concerned; and you can sprinkle the secondary ones in where they fall naturally. Some buyers will have a specific format to follow, and others will be stuck on the idea that more is better - making it an interesting challenge to produce readable content!

Hopefully, you can learn to stare at the keywords for a few minutes, then block out your articles by using one or two in each paragraph depending on the density required. This can be fairly easy work once you learn how to do it, and while it doesn't pay a whole lot per word, it is an excellent way to stretch your writing skills and break into the freelance market. If you are fast, you can eventually knock out enough words per hour to even make a decent wage at it. The nice thing is that often buyers want several article on the same or similar subjects, meaning that research time is negligible.

Questions about SEO or freelancing for a living? Comment below :)

Grace