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5 Strategies To Success In Freelance Writing

MODERN DAY FREELANCE WRITING 5 Strategies To Success In Freelance Writing Looking for a new career? Check out freelance writing. Among other things, it offers a great amount of personal freedom and the ability to chart your own success. It also requires discipline and consistent focus, now that you’ll be working for yourself. To get the most out of this career, here are some useful tips:

1. Control Your Environment. It’s really important to keep your space organized, partly because you’ll be dealing with a lot of paper in the form of press releases, product information, manuals, etc. Some of this will stay resident on your computer, other things you’ll want to print.

It’s really important to categorize the information and put it in folders where it’s readily accessible. Likewise on your computer. In addition, you’ll want to safeguard your data by backing it up. There are several ways that you can do that, by using external hard drives and by taking advantage of online storage. Whichever solution(s) you use, it’s wise to do backups once a week.

2. Marketing. The foundation of your business is with marketing. One of the things to consider is the 80/20 rule. In the beginning, roughly 80% of your time will go into marketing and 20% writing. This is because your business is new and like any business, it requires time and effort to build it. It will be necessary to do research, find potential clients, write up queries, send them out, follow up, etc. Eventually, you’ll find yourself writing more and marketing less. This is the natural order of things, though marketing will still be an ongoing effort, just easier and less time intensive because you’ll now have a client base.

3. Never Write on Spec. This is one of the worst mistakes a writer can make. This is where the article is written in advance, then you try to pitch the article to an editor. The problem is if the editor(s) don’t like your articles, you’ve wasted your time.

I recommend that you write a quick paragraph that summarizes what you have in mind. Here’s an example: “Compressing Images for the Web. In this article, the reader will learn how to compress images for the web. This will cover the most popular formats, including: JPEG, PNG and GIF. The article will deal with the different types of compression for photographs, art and type.”

4. Don’t Use Microsoft Word for Web Writing. MS Word inserts all sorts of undesirable characters in the copy which make it a nightmare for the editor on the other end. It’s even worse when you save documents as HTML. A better option is to use a dedicated HTML program, such as Notetab or Dreamweaver.

5. Momentum. A big problem for freelance writers (and many other freelancers) is that they quit too soon, before they even get a chance to develop momentum. Make no mistake, freelance writing is a business and like any other business, it takes time to develop a client base. This won’t happen overnight. It’s important to think of your work as a discipline and to do it consistently. This is one of the crucial things that will lead you to enduring success.

To Your Success In Freelance Writing !

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2012: 07/09
CATEGORY: Freelance
TAGS: 5 Strategies To Success In Freelance Writing
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Web Writing – Working As A Freelance Writer Online

Freelance Writing

Freelance writing is one of the easiest ways to make an income online. This is especially true in the current economic climate. Companies are cutting their employees, and are hiring contract workers to do the work.

When I look back over the decades I’ve spent as a freelance writer, it’s clear whenever the economy was slow, my clients increased. That’s true in the current downturn too.

To keep busy as a freelance writer, consider becoming a copywriter, that is, someone who writes ads, press releases and white papers — marketing collateral used to promote a business.

When the economy dips, companies cut back by cutting out their marketing departments. However, those materials still need to be written, so the companies hire freelance copywriters and pay them very well.

Web content writing is also an excellent opportunity today, as companies try to do more with fewer dollars. A writer who can take charge of a website’s content is of great value to a company. Businesses know that good content will generate traffic months and years after it was written, so it is one of the best advertising investments they can make.

Writers can also get jobs as Web advertising managers. Web advertising works well for companies. It’s a thrifty option, because as with content, the return on investment is much better than it is for other forms of advertising, and it’s easier to track.

So, if you offer Web advertising management services, you’ll get an avalanche of writing work. You can get certified by the large advertising networks, so that companies know that you can do the work.

Finally, consider getting writing jobs related to social media. Perhaps you’ve heard of Social Media Marketing. If you’re interested in “Web 2.0″ applications like Twitter and Facebook, and already use these applications, think about how you might offer networking on these sites as part of the freelance writing services you provide.

You could also consider offering online publicity services. Writers who do this kind of work offer companies complete online publicity packages. These can include writing press releases, blogging, forum marketing and other online activities.