Creating the Perfect Blog Post
There has been many articles written about how to write articles in terms of features. You probably have encountered advice on using pictures, bullet points and controversy to make your blog more readable and interesting.
Though there is validity in this approach, many fail to take into account the important person in the equation: The reader.
At all times and no matter what kind of writing you are doing, you should always keep the reader in mind. Blog tips such as pictures and bullet points, are just minor aspects in creating quality blog posts. Ultimately, your blog will be judged on its content and your writing style.
Before you start to write an article, think about the following :
Who your article is aimed at?
Through identifying and discovering who your readers are, you will discover the correct tone of voice for your blog, and in turn your style as a writer will develop and you will create better and more relevant writing.
Would a reader find the article you are planning to write interesting?
If not, there is no value to writing the article.
Identify what your readers want. The show business adage of giving the people what they want is true in the world of web writing. If they want more articles on one aspect of your blog but less on others, I would advise you succumb to their wishes. As writers, we feel we have a good idea of what people would like to read from our blogs. If you have been employed to write copy for someone else, then you will know that this is untrue. Take a look at what you are writing, put yourself in your readers shoes and see if the two match. If you have not done this before, I'll be surprised if they do. Write what readers want to read.
Would you like to read what you have just written?
If the answer is no, then alter it until you do. Try to get out of the habit of publishing something just because you have written it. It can harm your reputation as a writer if you publish poor quality work.
Don't be afraid.
If you are writing a potentially explosive piece do not be afraid to follow it through. This is what writing is all about and has been challenging views and perceptions since before Shakespeare. Be bold, be comprehensive, and explain your views well. There is a risk you could be wrong, but it is better to state how you feel rather then not to publish. You may well be right, and not publishing through fear just to learn you were right in the first place is worse than vise versa.
I will add this to post as and when the need takes me. For the time being, always think about the reader, and you will find everything else will fall into place.
Best of luck!
How to Cope With Freelance Copywriting Boredom
There can be no denying that certain assignments are more interesting than others, and though an assignment may pay well and is a straight forward job, boring and repetitive subject matter will at one time or another wear you down. So what can we do to combat freelance copywriting boredom?
Tips on how to combat freelance copywriting boredom.
- Take small breaks between articles, and tiny ones between paragraphs. This is especially important if you are writing the same article in a different style. Be careful not to let the break be an excuse not to stop working.
- Try not to think about other things when working on a boring assignment, as this can lead to an excuse not to work on the project and stop work. Facebook and that piece you were going to research can wait.
- Set small goals and celebrate as you complete them.
- Ensure you complete what you set out to do.
Remember that not completing assignments is self defeating, and ultimately will harm your reputation as a freelance writer.
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Freelance writing tips on winning the job
Making a good pitch when applying for a job is fundamental to freelance writing success. Often a freelance writer can be in competition with dozens, sometimes hundreds of freelance writers, all eager to win the work. Your pitch must stand tall in among this competition and be well supported by good, relevant examples of your previous work.
When I pitch for a job I have a template in my mind of points I need to include. They are:
Who I am and where I'm from. Sounds obvious, but many jobs specify someone from the English speaking world, and this shows that I am.
My experience. I normally state the number of projects I have been involved with. the more work I complete the better this looks.
My approach to the work, including gauging tone, keeping the copy interesting and informative, and to engage the reader.
My CV/Resume. This contains a cross decision of my previous work, along with testimonials. Both of these are significant.
A link to my website. The writers website provides a means of displaying their talents together with an opportunity to showcase what they can do. This recently won me a job and has done so in the past.
Depending on what the ad has asked for, depends on how I construct my pitch, and I mention any previous experience that I feel is relevant to the job.
Your bid is also an important factor in winning the work. Often, there is a budget specified for the job, and to stand a realistic chance of winning the work, it is best to put forward a bid that is within it. I have found that bidding slightly lower than the maximum, tends to give you a fighting chance.
Good luck!
Freelance writing tips for staying on top of workload.
If you have any experience of writing in a professional capacity, you will no doubt be aware that motivation and discipline are two big factors to success.
Without these two elements, writing becomes a very hap hazard affair, and often the urge and need to write dries up. In effect, your mind is shutting down as it transfers its resources to concentrating on other tasks. The writer Norman Mailer, writes about this in some detail in his book the Spooky Art, where he declares that a writer makes a pact with his subconscious to write, if he breaks that pact, he or she finds it harder to write.
In essence it is the same for a copywriter. You have no doubt experienced this phenomenon if you have ever under taken commercial work. Somewhat strangely, if you start writing, you will normally continue, and this is the key to stay on top of your workload. Though I have to be honest and say I am sometimes guilty of not practising what I preach, in my experience the following tips should help you keep the workload manageable.
1 Minimise distractions. Email, Facebook, looking at rubbish on the web, anything that takes your fingers off the keyboard has to be avoided. Anything that gives you an excuse not to write has to be avoided. Anything that can distract you has to be dealt with, and I mean anything.
2 Prioritise your workload by deadline and necessities. If you are short of money, a faster paying client may be a more appealing, but often a professional approach centred around priorities will serve you better in the long run.
3 Make a pact with yourself that you are going to start writing at a certain time, and start at that time. This is similar to what Norman Mailer talks about in his book. Be on time for work.
4 Too much to do. If you have found yourself with too much work, think about outsourcing it. This does tend to bring about its own problems, but outsourcing could be a good long and short term solution.
5 Pay professionals to do professional jobs. If its taking you four hours to do your accounts, that's four hours money you won't be earning. The chances are the professional will know more tricks too. It pays to use a professional.
Hopefully what you have just read will help you stay on top or your workload.
photo credit: Gamma-Ray Productions
Non payment, Sorcha Doyle, and a big pile of rubbish
As mentioned previously, it appears I've had my first non paying client. I feel it is only fair to say at this point, that it was in part my own fault that this has happened, as for some reason to do with being in need of the cash, I failed to protect myself.
To give you the big picture, I responded to a job on Freelancer.co.uk, to write an essay. The job entailed completing a draft for which I would be paid £100, then a further £100 upon completion. All sounds fair enough. Normally, I work for companies which means that one, my contact is not spending or rarely spending their own cash. Two, I have someone higher up the ladder to talk to if there is no resolution over an issue with my contact. So far, I have not had cause to do this.
With an individual however, there is no ladder, no chain, and other than the site you obtained the work from, no other point of contact other than the person you are working for. If that point of contact dries up, you are stuffed!
To surmise, here is a list of the crucial mistakes I made in this instance.
- Failed to obtain full contact details before working on the job. This was especially important as it was an individual that I had not worked with before. This leads us to
- Did not use the Escrow system. To be fair I did kinda need the cash and thought an escrow system would work on a monthly basis. Saying that, getting £200 at the end of the month is better than nothing at all
- Supplied the work in full without half payment. There was a deadline involved that I did not want to miss, and thought the client needed the essay ASAP too.
After emailing the client on numerous occassions, I have not managed to get anywhere. Subsequently, I am going to investigate a website that can find contact details if you submit an email address, and try and pursue the matter through the small claims court. I will keep you posted as to progress.
photo credit: Patrick Hoesly
Badcuts news
Welcome folks. It's been a while since a news update and this is for a good reason- we've been busy. Link-optimise's redesign is complete and live! So far so good and it looks particularly impressive. The site has a good feel about it and the focus of it has changed. It is now geared towards helping people SEO thier own site as much as offering packages to SEO a website. We feel the balance is a good one, and we've had positive feedback so far. All good.
Playgameshavefun.com, is also going from strength to strength. The site is doing well on search engines, and is doing very well in the English speaking world, with the UK, USA, and Canada regularly reading the articles. I love it. We're hopefully launching our first video blog on the site soon.
The freelance writing is rolling forward to. There is still plenty of work and I have landed a few roles lately which were good ones to land. Sadly, I could be facing my first non-payment dilema, and it will be interesting to see how that turns out. I will keep you posted as to the result. As an
optimist, I feel that is the best course of action!
More news soon.
photo credit: Aural Asia
Read all about it, website news from Teahon…
Welcome friends and thanks for tuning in! OK, I know Chris Evans uses it to
open his radio programme, but I've always liked it and I've just written it down. It's tough at the top what can I say.
First, let me apologise for the lack of postings, it's been a busy few weeks with collapsing house moves, stressful yet fruitful redesign of Link-optimise, and the domain for playgameshavefun.com, finally up and running. Coupled with some serious writing work, which may see me turn a corner in my quest to become a full-time freelance writer, and all this results in not much time to update my personal space. A tragedy I'm sure you'll agree. Never fear, tissues are at hand, and as you can see, I've taken time out of my busy schedule to update you, because like L'oreal beauty products, you deserve it.
Link-optimise's redesign is looking inspired. Phil's idea of creating one SEO site that branches in two directions is really taking fruition. The colours, the robot, and dare I say my contribution - the copy, are like its predecessor, really taking shape. The difference being, that the site has a clearer direction, and a much refined and easier to understand packages section. This was the real weak point with Link-optimise's first site.
The resources have also taken shape, with clearer headings and better navigation. Phil's designs go from strength to strength.
Playgameshavefun.com, is just really a URL. I'm planning to upload some articles to it soon. This will will hopefully be up and running with a cool design by December. Like, link-optimise, we have high hopes for this site.
Writing wise, I have two new clients, and an old one has just commissioned me to write 20 articles for a new site. I am beginning to wonder if I should do this full-time. All decisions of that type though will be made after Christmas.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for tuning in.
photo credit: gnuckx cc0
Spreading the word, tips for better blog promotion.
Once you have written a blog post you particularly like, it is essential that you spread the word of your blog by every means necessary. The predominant force in blog promotion is social media, but dropping a link here and there in other web mediums is advisable to. Once criticism people have of blog promotion via social media, is that it takes "too much time." The trick here is to link as many social media sites together as possible. This will save a lot of time, as a few posts can cover many social networking accounts.
For example, you can connect Facebook to Twitter, Digg, Delicious, and many others. Twitter is also linkable to many other sites to. So once you complete a post in Facebook, all the sites that are linked to Facebook automatically spread the word. It is as simple as that.
If you are unsure about which sites you should sign up for, I would recommend the following. It has to be said though, that any social networking site is worth joining, even if you do not visit them much yourself.
Digg
Delicious
Technorati
Mybloglog
These are not just ways to bring direct attention to your blog, but they also count well for back links, which gives you an SEO bonus to.
Word of mouth is ok, but you never really know if your friends read it because they like you. Or even if they just tell you they do. Feel free to test them for amusement.
Spreading the word is essential for blogging. You could be the next Shakespeare, but no one will know because nobody reads your work. So don't write a lonely blog, spread the word, and enjoy your results. You deserve it.
In the future, I will be experimenting further with linking social media, and how far one post will travel. I will keep you informed.
If you have any thoughts about blog promotion, why not share them?
Freelance writing tips for better web content
I read an interesting article about writing for the web last night, and what I found most interesting was that really the article was in the main, about grammar. The web writing tips were quite few and far between. Here then, is a few of the standard tips for writing for the web.
- Keep sentences and paragraphs short for scan reading
- Ensure accurate spelling and grammar
- Write for your audience and use appropriate language and sentence structure
- Keep content relevant, and succinct
This is all well and good, but these are only guidelines. The bottom line is that if you are writing for a client, and they want in depth descriptions of this that and the other, and that is how you should write the piece. Interestingly, I have recently submitted two articles for consideration with a writing company, who have rejected my application. In hindsight, I feel my article choices were good, just not quite as in depth as they would have liked. Sadly, I have articles I could have submitted which were more to their tastes.
I feel if there is an underlying principle of writing for the web it is this: Give the writing a smooth, flowing style, and it will be far easier for people to read it! Fundamentally, is there anything more important?
photo credit: jude_bird_86
Welcome!
Intrinsic, is one of my favourite words, and words are what I am about. The use of words is highly important, and this is recognised throughout many industries including web design. Words are manipulated by punctuation to give different meanings. Consider the following example.
Woman: without her man, is nothing.
Woman: without her, man is nothing.
Same words, different punctuation, different meaning. If your site is not performing as you wanted it to, or perhaps you want copy that strikes the right tone with the right audience, or want web content to promote your brand, or to engage readers, then I can help. Do not struggle with your commas or your apostrophes, get in touch, and tell me want you need.
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If you are a writer too, or are freelancer of some kind, every week I share freelance writing tips on the site. Many of these tips are universal no matter what kind of freelancer you are. I also share my experiences and provide updates as to what I am doing, what projects I am working on, and news in general about my writing endeavors.
Any opinions and feedback is welcome. Enjoy the read.
The Blackmark Trilogy
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