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 on gauging tone
One aspect of writing which is crucially important, is understanding and setting the right tone for the readership. This comes into play in all aspects of writing,and not just writing for the web.
This should be a consideration when you first apply for the job. In nearly every advertisement for a role, there are hidden clues as to what is expected from a writer. By using these clues effectively, you will increase your chances of landing the role. If you get this right, you are speaking directly to your readership, so subsequently your blogs will be more effective.
As with all tips these are guidelines only, so don't be afraid to forget about them now and then, and go with the flow.
- Most blogs require proper English, so ensure you reply in proper English
- Always have an up to date CV, and ensure it has a broad range of writing samples you have done in the past included, together with testimonials
- If you feel a sample that is not included in your CV, will be more suited to a role that you are applying for, obviously include/swap it.
- Always ensure there is something of you in your writing, regardless of the tone you are setting.
- To find the tone, ask yourself who will be reading these articles, and adjust accordingly.
- Always make your writing engaging, and interesting. You'd be surprised at how much difference this makes.
- Never waffle. It is tempting with minimum word counts etc, but if you just keep writing, you'd be surprised at the quality you can achieve.
- Don't try too hard, just keep in your mind who the likely readership are, and then just let yourself write.
Hopefully, these tips will help you.
photo credit: ktylerconk
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
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?
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.
Teahon Freelance writer
This curious title is not me taking an ego trip but purely for SEO purposes. The hope is that Google will link anchor text in my website, "Teahon", "Freelance writer", and simply put two and two together, and make me climb the page ranks for searches under "Freelance writer". There is another reason for this post, and that is to knock down the technoratti tracking code at the top of the page. How embarrassing! Had to be done though, its all part of spreading the freelance writing word.
Copywriting seems to be in demand at the moment, and with a little luck I have landed a job from freelancer.co.uk. This will hopefully lead on to other work with the same orgnaisation. In the first instance, I shall be writing about team building.
Chris Satchwell of Digitpedia fame, liked most of my suggestions for "How To" guides, so that gives me good scope for at least another six articles or so. With the run up to Christmas, I am hoping he will need more of them.
Cowinkidink are still getting articles from me at a rate of two a week. They feel they are closer to launching and the screenshot I have seen is very clean, web 2.0, kind of look. Hopefully, the site will launch this year and earn yours truly a bit of cash.
That was the week that was for Teahon Freelance writer.
The amazing adventures of Teahon.co.uk/wordpress
Over the last few days I have discovered the beauty of plugins and sidebars. After a little experimentation I have managed to link this blog with Google Analytics, and webmaster tools. Make it more SEO friendly, and worked out a few work around to use pages more effectively. I have also managed to put ads on the site, apologies if they are a little in your face at the moment, I am working on it.
Also, the widget bar has been used more effectively, with social networking profiles on display along with link-optimise blog posts on the site to. All very clever. Apart from a little mishap that happened after I upgraded the theme to the to a more advanced version of WordPress that I use, all has gone remarkably well. It is quite amazing how easy it is to add and take away plugins that either do not work, or are actually of very little use.
The site too, has increased up the search engine ranks, it now sits at page 22 on Google pages for the UK. This is either down to the Link-campaign, the activity on the site, or the Platinum SEO plugin, or indeed all three. Either way, it is very good news for me and the site.
Writing wise, everything is ticking over, and it feels good to invest in this blog once again, now the SEO one is up and running.
The X-Factor! How it isn’t the be all and the end all!
photo credit: paddyeason
I've just been catching up with events in the talent TV show The X-Factor! Though there are some clearly talented singers, there are some really untalented singers in the competition too. What this out of key bunch all seem to share, is they can shed a tear or two on demand. They cry if they get through, they cry if they do not, they cry when they brush their teeth. In fact, they seem to burst into a state of emotional out pouring at any given opportunity:
Question for out of key contestant: So dodgy voice contestant, that's a trendy top your wearing.
Reply: wah, wah, wah do you really think so, this top is the biggest top of my life. It means the world, wah wah wah.
This seemed to be the pattern. With a few exceptions, nearly all the contestants used the phrase "The biggest day of my life". Many went on to say if I had to go back to the day job, etc, and though I used to share that sentiment, I feel it is a little out of place now, as this all or bust scenario, is somewhat false.
I to, want to quit the day job and follow a career, sadly there is not a TV show about freelance writers looking to make it in the writing world. In fact the writing world really is a question of starting at the lowest eb possible and grafting your way to a slightly higher eb, and so on and so fourth. It involves study, and follows a program of perseverance and continual improvement. There is no easy paths or big hits. Very different to the X-Factor.
What struck me when I was watching these guys go through the rejection ritual, was how be all and end all they seemed to think it was. No matter what the age group, they all seemed to have a now or never feeling. I felt this showed a clear waste of potential in many respects. Presumably, some kind of star quality was shown for the judges to pick them, and should this time round not be a success, a new avenue whether it be in the music business or not is out there, it's just a question of finding it.
Sadly, I can imagine some of the younger ones writing themselves off and going into accountancy.
I feel I should also point out a few facts about the judges. Two of them in particular. Mrs Cole, I thought was disgraceful leaving that young guy hanging while she deliberated about a decision that should have been in the bag. And Simon Cowell who seems to be the most contrived human being on the planet. His emotions, his looks, his little speeches, they all seem to be for the camera, and have no substance. They remind me of B-movie script writing. I know the genre of music lacks substance to, but he could at least take a few acting lessons, he can no doubt afford it.
I started freelance writing after I read an article about someone who was making a living at it. I gave it a go, and I am making a success at it, albeit, a little up and down at times. The point is it is never too late to try anything, and the X-Factor contestants that didn't make it over the weekend, should bear this in mind as they go back to the day job.
Results of the link campaign
As you know I have recently invested £8 into a link campaign for Teahon.co.uk. The campaign has begun and ended, and my site is appearing or due to appear on a 100 directory sites. Though this has made very little difference in terms of where I appear in search engine results, I am getting fairly regular traffic to the site from one of the directories in particular. I am now considering a further £8 to do another 100, I mean why not?
The sites are ticking over, and the quality of the content continues to improve. I have made up my mind not to write stale content, or content for the sake of it. This may mean a reduction in the number of posts, but 3 good posts, has to be better than 5 average ones?
Also, if I understand the results correctly, I have 5 RSS subscribers. One of which is me, but even so it is all good news. I know this is not setting the world on fire, but nonetheless an obscure little blog from Norwich, England, is doing fairly well. Cheers.
Sometimes you need a night off!
When you write for many hours in your free time, there comes days like today, when you need to take a break from all of it. Just shutdown the PC and do something that does not involve using a mouse. I guess it is just human nature and indeed human biology, to take time to recharge.
Tonight is one of those nights for me, but I am going to try and get an article or two out, mainly because I'm slightly behind where I wanted to be, and also buying a house has taken up a lot of my time.
Talk soon
The Blackmark Trilogy
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