Around the time you start to feel your blog is, or becoming successful, is when you are most at risk of becoming self indulgent. This creates a problem as your content's usefulness and relevance is replaced with rants and opinions that have little universal appeal.

As you can imagine this leads to all sorts of problems from loss of readership and related income, to simply not being taken seriously as an authority in your field.

Signs That You Are Becoming Self-Indulgent.

Comments are largely negative or nondescript. This goes further than controversial opinion, and lean toward disinterest of what you have written. In short your readership have lost interest in your blog.

Loss of Readership. If you find readership numbers are falling, then this could be due to self-indulgence. Other factors could be at work as well, so self-indulgence is just one part of what you will have to explore to identify what is going wrong.

Your Mindset. If you feel what you have to say is more important than content that is relevant to both your subject and your readers, then it is fair to say your ego is out of control and this is damaging you and your reputation.

What to do?

Ask a person you can trust to review articles that you may feel were written in a particularly self indulgent tone.  If possible, get them to read them out loud. Take an honest look at them and ask your trusted guide what was self indulgent about them.  Do not try and defend them, but think about what the person has said.  If you conclude differently that's fine, as long as you have considered your trusted friend's opinion.

If possible, use that person as an editor for future articles.

Make a list of relevant articles to the topic, and focus on these with your audience in mind. Refrain from giving an opinion on the subject at least until your ego has stopped spiraling out of control.

Look at your first articles and try and recapture the tone. This will be before your self indulgence started to influence your work.

Good luck.

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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!

photo credit: Spree2010

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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photo credit: Idhren

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

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

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

photo credit: Bashed

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.

Facebook

Twitter

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?

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.

Dr Teng paid me for my efforts, and asked me to write a poem about Star Wars, as his daughter is selling Star Wars trading cards on Ebay, and wanted a suitable rhyme to go with it.  Can't say I ever envisioned I would ever write about that.

Chris, from Digitpedia recently asked me to write six press releases and not to write about Blackberry Curve smartphones any more.  Both were good decisions on his part!

I have recently paid a company to conduct a link campaign for Teahon.co.uk.  This is in part a test for the company to see it is something we can offer to Link-optimise's clients, I'm also hoping that we can generate ad revenue through extra traffic.  We'll see.

The next step for both this blog and Link-optimise is to add ads.  This will be done via Google Adsenseand is currently in Phil's hands.  Sadly, we have been dogged by more IT problems as every night for about five hours, Phil's Internet crashes.  All very puzzling and annoying.  That being said we are making progress and are currently investigating what sites work with children, and should we have a character to introduce the site.  Personally, I'm against this as I prefer to think of the site more like a very interesting book, but I could be being old fashioned in my outlook.  Phil and I are agreed that the site's character should it have one, have an interesting character that is appealing to children, and not too annoying for parents.  If we can't achieve this then we will scrap the character idea altogether.

Phil and I, have had another website idea of having an online comic.  This site will be just like a comic with updates happening every week or month, and telling a story which is continued with each new installment.  Though we do not feel the ad revenue will come in quite as often as our other ideas, it does allow us a way of flexing our creative muscles.  Of all the projects we have started or are planning to start, this is the one that I would like to work on the most.

Talk soon.

A woman has been in touch via facebook, wanting to find out more information about writing for me.  Going by her messages, she is quite eloquent, and has a good command of English grammar.  This is particularly impressive as English is not her first language.  I have offered her the Precise English work which I spoke about a few nights before.  We shall see what happens.

Tonight I have completed two articles for Dreamtemplate, in pretty fast time.  They are good articles on blogging, listing common errors which bloggers make.  I found it interesting, that with the exception of two of them, I do not make those mistakes.  But enough of my modesty, in the process of researching these articles, I found a good website, called problogger.net.  This site is for freelance writers that wish to make money problogging, and I watched a video of a guy giving people tips on how to become a problogger.

It was good stuff, with some useful tips.  It did not however, list what is in my opinion the most essential element of landing blogging work, and that is to treat it as a numbers game.  The more you apply for, the more you land.  For me this is the golden rule, not just for blogging, but for freelance web content work in general.  I have applied for hundreds of  jobs, all of which I thought I had a good chance of landing, and not heard anything from, then the few you label as outsiders, get in touch and give you the work.  Logic seems to be absent, at least the way I understand logic.

I actually believe that there is something in your writing which appeals to a reader, regardless of the genre of writing, and this is what lands you the work.  It is your style above everything else that will appeal to someone, and though the quality has to be there, obviously, it is not quality alone that is going to get you that job.