Five Top Blogs to Help You with Your Writing Career

Here are my top five blogs that helped me when I was starting out on my writing career.

1. Anne Wayman About Freelance Writing

This is a superb blog which publishes jobs every day and offers some great articles on starting freelance writing to boot!

2. Copyblogger

The information on this website is truly staggering. To learn how to write great copy, then follow this blog and get involved in the great discussions following the posts.

3. Lis Sowerbutts Passive Income Online

Lis lives in Australia and tells it like it is! She has some great tips for making passive income and for using Hubpages as a way to make money.

4. Felicia Williams No Job for Mom

A feel-good blog about making passive income by writing online. Felicia leads by example and always has some interesting posts about the writing life.

5. Carol Tice Make a Living Writing

Carol is up and coming and very informative about how to approach editors and find writing jobs. She offers interesting discussions and has done a couple of webinars with Anne Wayman.

One more that I couldn't resist:

6. Ken Crawford - The Freelancer Today

Again fairly recent on my radar, but Ken's website offers all the information you need to know about setting up a website and making money from it. He also offers perspectives on writing for upfront income.

These are bloggers who are bookmarked and I go back regularly to read their new content.

Who are your favourite bloggers? Have you found any other really informative posts? Let me know.

Photo Credit: Photo on Flickr by 2careless

Ten Top Tips to Get Started in Online Writing

This article is just an overview. All of these ideas require much more reading before you carry them out. The tips are for a UK writer.

Here are my tips for getting started in online writing.

1. Read blogs. Most of them out there are American, but there is some great information out there. Here are some of the most helpful:

http://www.makealivingwriting.com/

http://www.aboutfreelancewriting.com/

http://allfreelancewriting.com/

http://www.nojobformom.com/

http://diaryofamadfreelancer.com/

http://loriwidmer.blogspot.com/

http://menwithpens.ca/

http://www.thefreelancertoday.com/

but there are many, many more!

2. Learn how to do it. I learned by joining Suite 101 which helps teach you about SEO and writing style. You write on topics that suit you, but you have to apply and please an editor. You get some revenue share from ads on the site. Please let me refer you if you would like to do this.

www.suite101.com

3. Check out www.guru.com and www.elance.com to see writing jobs and bid for them. Be warned - sometimes these sites are a bit low paying!

4. Sign up to newsletters containing good information.

5. Spread the word around your friends.

6. Decide how you're going to handle tax. The moment you're self-employed, you start owing National Insurance.

7. Join Linked-In at the very least. Twitter is good too.

8. Google 'copywriting jobs' and similar descriptions.

9. Set up your own website

10. To promote your website, leave appropriate comments on other similar blogs.

My First Guest Post

I have guest posted on the #customerlove website and it went live on 21 November. This is my first experience of guest posting and I enjoyed it. The site is a Wordpress site like my professional blog and so it was really easy to upload my work in drafts for LaVonne to check before it went out. Unfortunately I was on a two post day, so my post didn't really get the full 24 hours' exposure, but I was pleased that I managed to do it.

I had such writers' block when preparing the post! I don't normally struggle with writing, but somehow the right tone just would not come on this! I must have started the post three times before finding the right voice! What broke it for me? This brilliant post by James Chartrand of Men with Pens explaining how he writes a post. It was great to read how one of the great post writers of the Internet was able to write so succinctly. I took his advice and worked out my three points and from there it got easier.

So, if you're interested, here's the post for #customerlove: Customer Focus is King.

Enjoy and I hope it's the first of many.

My Job Is...

I love getting the email newsletter from IttyBiz. If you haven't subscribed yet, then I highly recommend it.

The most recent post was a challenge and it has got a huge response. In her post, What Do YOU Do - The Reductive Meme Redux, Naomi suggested that small business owners need to make it clear on their websites what they actually do.

Here are my responses below:

What’s your game? What do you do?

I am a copywriter, editor and proof reader. I have written short stories, two unpublished novels, blog posts for four websites, articles for local magazines, web content articles and product descriptions.

Why do you do it? Do you love it, or do you just have one of those creepy knacks?

I love to write! I enjoy researching a new product, I love to plan out what I’m going to write and I enjoy the actual process of writing. I have no problem writing to a certain length and I even enjoy proof-reading afterwards and paring down the language so that it makes sense and does the job that you want it to.

Oh - and my deep dark secret is that I have a creepy knack with spelling and grammar - I can tell if a word looks right or not!

Who are your customers? What kind of people would need or want what you offer?

My customers are people who appreciate well-written articles, which are interesting to the reader. I prefer to write content that draws readers in; articles that they want to read. My work adds value to a website, not just filler. My customers also appreciate my professional approach, the fact that I keep contact with them during a project and that I turn my work in on time or even before the deadline.

What’s your marketing USP? Why should I buy from you instead of the other losers?

I take pride in my work. I enjoy each new challenge when it is presented to me. Buy from me because you appreciate the power of good writing and what it can do for your business.

What’s next for you? What’s the big plan?

I would love to move into ghostwriting because listening to people’s stories intrigues me. I don’t need a byline to get satisfaction from my work. I want this business to expand and grow and I want to be in a position to help other people fulfil their dreams too.