Angela Booth's Writing Blog

Weekend writer: use your time wisely

Over the past week, I've received several messages from "weekend writers".

These writers are booked solid with commitments: a day job, a family, study... they struggle to find writing time, and when they can't find it, they're miserable.

I wrote about organizing your time if you're a weekend writer, and said:

If you're a weekend writer, it's essential that you develop organizational skills. However, even with just three or four hours a week to devote to your writing, you'll be amazed at how much you can achieve. It's possible to: write a book in a year; develop a copywriting clientele; and also to write many articles and short stories.

I know several weekend writers who are turning writing into careers, just part-time, so I asked them whether they have writing tips to share with other weekend writers.

They suggested:

* Use your lunch hour at work to communicate with your writing clients;

* Write article queries while you're exercising, using a digital recorder and Dragon Naturally Speaking;

* Read and respond to email before you leave for work in the morning;

* Take drafts with you in folders, so you can work on them while waiting for the kids to complete their activities. I hope these suggestions work for you.

Voice recognition software: saves your hands and your time

I commend Dragon Naturally Speaking to you. (You can often find older versions on eBay.) I use it myself; it saves an enormous amount of time, and it saves my poor RSI-afflicted hands too.

Expect it to take several weeks before you get used to speaking your thoughts, but once you get used to it, you'll love it.

Happy writing, dear weekend writer. :-)

Recession-proof your freelance writing career

"Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process" gives you all the tools you need for a thriving writing career, no matter what the economic climate.

Three weeks after completing the class one student wrote:

"Thanks Angela, for all your help and advice in class. I'm quitting my job next week. I printed out my letter of resignation tonight after landing a contract writing job that will pay me more for three months part-time work than I earned in from my day job in the whole of 2007! You were right – the great gigs are out there, and now I've got the skills to land them. Your class opened my eyes. Bless you…"

"Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process" shows you how to thrive as a freelance writer. Would you like to write five times more than you're writing now, and sell to higher-paying markets? Take the class.

Writing Without Limits: Your Writing Success is Up to You

Are you setting limits on your success as a writer? Most writers do; they're setting their sights too low.

They may achieve small success, but never achieve their potential, because they aim too low. Want to free yourself from self-imposed limitations?

That's the theme of next week's issue of Fab Freelance Writing Ezine.

Here's an excerpt from the Editorial: "Create a Six-Figure (and Beyond) Writing Income"

Can YOU make six figures from your writing?

Yes you can. IF you WANT to. The operative words are "you want". Your own desire will speed to you this kind of income, and only your desire.

I wish I had a dollar for every writer who's asked me "Can I write whatever/ do whatever…" My answer is always the same: YES you can, if you want to. You must want it enough to do whatever it takes to get there.

Will it be easy? Yes, it will, if you're prepared to write. Many writers aren't prepared for quite as much writing as it takes to make a huge income from their writing, and that's fine. There's no shame in that. You may be busy with family and other commitments which mean you can't spend more than a couple of hours a day writing. You're a part-time writer, so you can only expect a part-time income.

Here's what it takes to make a six figure income from your writing:

* Goals, with deadlines, based on a plan

* Commitment to writing every day

* Building your writing "brand"

I could write a book on each of those three items. However, as long as you're aware of goals, commitment, and your brand, you're way ahead of 99.9 per cent of writers who aren't.

Here's what else is important: you have to be willing to make mistakes, knowing that mistakes are how you learn.

This issue will be out on Tuesday. Subscribe now.

Write your way to a million-dollar income

Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report -- 2009

The Web has made it possible for ANY writer, no matter how new or inexperienced, to turn writing into a fabulous career. If you're stuck in a soul-destroying, or just boring job, writing is your way out.

Fab Freelance Ezine helps you to understand the fast-changing world of the freelance writer, and sets you well on the way to making the income that you want to make, and that many writers are already making.

Subscribe today, and receive "Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report -- 2009" just for subscribing.

Your Writing: Bold, Brave and Profitable

In next week's issue of Fab Freelance Writing Ezine I encourage you to be BOLD, BRAVE… and above all, PROFITABLE. Here's an excerpt from the Editorial:

As a freelance writer, you have the keys to the profit kingdom.

The online world gives you the facilities to be an instant publisher. You can get an idea, get it online, and make it profitable, often within 24 hours… IF you're brave and bold.

Why brave and bold? Simply because you often have no idea whether or not something will be profitable, and there's no way to find out, except to DO it.

By nature, I'm a perfectionist. It's taken me a long time to get over this, and it's cost me a lot of money, because I used to over-think everything, and second-guess myself constantly.

Let me tell you when I first realized that over-thinking was death to writing for profit.

The issue will be out on Tuesday next: enjoy. :-)

Write your way to a million-dollar income

Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report -- 2009

The Web has made it possible for ANY writer, no matter how new or inexperienced, to turn writing into a fabulous career. If you're stuck in a soul-destroying, or just boring job, writing is your way out.

Fab Freelance Ezine helps you to understand the fast-changing world of the freelance writer, and sets you well on the way to making the income that you want to make, and that many writers are already making.

Subscribe today, and receive "Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report -- 2009" just for subscribing.

Freelance Writing: Get Jobs, Get Paid

As a freelance writer, you're in business for yourself. A major part of offering your writing services is getting paid for those services. This doesn't just happen -- you need a process in place to invoice your clients and to ensure that you're paid promptly.

In short, you need to be your own Accounts Receivable department.

Here's to get paid promptly.

1. Your Contract Should Say It All

Your contract doesn't need to be extensive. It can be shorter than a page; in fact it SHOULD be shorter than a page. Pages of legalese won't get you paid, people just won't read them. Include just the salient points.

Salient points include: the copyright in your work remains with you until you're paid in full, your retainer is paid before you start work, and payment is due on invoice. You can also add the number of revisions you are prepared to do: two revisions, provided you communicate properly with the client as you work on the project, are ample.

2. Why You Need a Retainer

A retainer is essential. It separates the tyre-kickers and time-wasters from genuine clients. You have no idea whether somebody is genuine or not until they actually pay you a retainer.

Big tip: check out clients on Google before you work with them.

3. Your Part of the Deal: Keep Deadlines

Make it your personal policy that you always keep deadlines. No exceptions. This immediately puts you ahead of 95 per cent of writers who look on a deadline as the day they should start work rather than the day they should complete it.

4. Slow Payer? Stay in Touch Until You're Paid

Some of your clients will pay you slowly. There are many reasons for this, and none need to concern you. You should have an invoicing program which offers a tickler function and shows you when payments from clients are due: invoice promptly, and send statements to follow up on invoices.

If you don't have an invoicing program, create a file called Accounts Receivable, and keep it up-to-date. All of your contracts should include the words "payment is  due on invoice".

If you're not paid within 48 hours of an invoice, send a reminder. Send weekly reminders after that. Be completely dispassionate about this, there's no need to get yourself worked up over it: be polite and professional at all times.  If you invoice promptly and follow up properly, you'll never have deadbeat clients.

Want more information to help you to make money as a freelance writer? Read the Fab Freelance Writing Blog.

Make money writing from home: ditch your day job forever

If you can write, you can make money writing from home. The Web has made it possible for ANY writer, no matter how new or inexperienced, to turn writing into a fabulous career. If you're stuck in a soul-destroying, or just boring job, writing is your way out.

Fab Freelance Ezine helps you - subscribe and receive the free report: "Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report". It's 21 pages packed with information to help you to develop a six-figure writing career.

Marketing your writing: just do it

I was just thinking about my previous post on marketing, and why it's so hard to convince writers that they should just do it.

Here's the benefit: marketing is a marketable skill.

Once you learn how to market your writing and writing products, you can market anything. Marketing is a valuable skill: it pays better than writing.

There's nothing difficult about marketing.

It's just a matter of planning your campaigns, carrying out each campaign and then tracking what the results are.

Over time your results will improve. Along the way you're learning a valuable new skill. So please don't hesitate to market your writing, or think that it's something that other writers don't have to do -- that somehow, magically, someone else will do it for you. They won't.

Every writer needs to market, so build marketing into your writing day.

Sell your writing: create a marketing campaign

Are you serious about selling your writing? With my writing students, I emphasize the importance of marketing. It's not an optional extra.

Even if you have a Web site and blog, you still need to market them. Marketing is ongoing. It never stops.

To help you to kick off your marketing efforts, here's an easy way to create a marketing campaign.

Let's say you've just started to offer PLR articles from your site. (That's Private Label Rights, if you're new to the terminology.)

Great. You've got your first package of PLR up and ready to go, and now you want eager buyers in their hundreds.

So you map out a campaign, which will take one month. Your campaign will include:

* Two press releases

* 15 articles posted on article directories, as well as to your own site

* three Squidoo lenses, linking back to your sales page

* 30 comments on business blogs linking to your sales page

* five guest posts on blogs, linking back to your sales page

Now you've created the campaign, it's time to create tasks for each and every item in your campaign. Insert each task into your diary program, or paper diary.

Off you go -- put your plain into action.

Track, track, track!

Please track the results of your campaign. I use Clicky to track my sites, but you can use your own site's referrer logs. It doesn't matter how you track, as long as you track.

Remember that the full results of your little campaign won't show up for three months.

I like to take a brief look at a campaign one month after it's complete. This shows me what's working. I might toss out another ten articles if the articles are sending traffic and sales. Or, I might do another couple of guest posts, or whatever.

Three months after your campaign is complete, review the results.

Create marketing campaigns, and make sales

Selling your writing online is EASY. Really. :-) All you need to do is map out a plan of action, and stick to it. Consistency and persistence are everything. No one knows who you are, or what you do, until you tell them. MARKETING is how you tell them.

The difference between a writer who's making a great income and a writer who's struggling is marketing. Talent has nothing to do with it.

If you can get your head around marketing, you'll have a great writing career.

A final word on marketing campaigns

There is no "right" way to market. You do what works FOR YOU. To find out what works, you have to try lots of stuff. And you just wanted to "be a writer", didn't you. :-) Please realize that no matter what you write, marketing is an essential part of it.

Marketing your writing gets easier (and much more fun) when you create campaigns, and put them into action.

Subscribe to Angela Booth's fabulous free weekly ezine for freelance writers: get a free report just for subscribing. Even if you're a new writer, you can freelance your way to a fantastic writing career.

Join the thousands of freelance writers who are making great money freelance writing, using Fab Freelance Writing Ezine as their guide.

Writing for Money: Avoid Writing Scams

Have you been the victim of a writing scam?

Don't feel bad. You often need to be burned once or twice before you become wary, so look on it as the price of experience.

Sometimes I hesitate about writing more about writing scams, because it gives new writers the wrong idea. Please realize that most of your potential clients are honest: they have projects they want completed and they want them completed with the least amount of hassle.

They'll pay you well and will treat you well. A small number of clients however are not legitimate. They're cheats and scam artists and they infest the writing world as they do the rest of life.

Here are five tips to help you to protect yourself:

1. Google is your friend

Google everyone. It's simple to do, takes just moments, and if the person or company doesn't exist on Google be extremely wary.

2. You need writing credits and feedback

(Writing credits are published writing for which you've been paid.)

Credits and feedback ensure your potential buyers that YOU'RE not scammer: they assure your buyers of your credibility.

Therefore, make getting those credits a priority, and understand that buyers will be wary before you get them. Don't worry if you're receiving little or no pay for your first few writing jobs: until you have credits, you're an unknown quantity, and your buyers are taking a risk.

Here's why credits and feedback are important: scammers target NEW writers, they don't bother with experienced pros, because they know they'd get short shrift.

3. Ask questions

Scammers hate questions.

Asking questions is a good habit to get into -- whenever you find a writing job you may be interested in, ask questions even if the brief seems very clear to you. The response -- both in its tone and in its content, as well as the speed of the response -- will tell you what this company will be like to work with.

4. You live and die by your writing contract

People give you money and you give them writing. A simple transaction, yes? Nine times out of 10 it will be. The tenth time you'll bless your contract.

Always use a contract, and attach your rewritten version of the brief (project description) to the contract. I always advise my writing students to rewrite the brief. You rewrite the brief so that you understand it completely, and so that your client knows that you understand it. You're both on the same page, so to speak.

5. Get a retainer or deposit Always get a retainer.

This is a deposit on the work you're going to do. Normally the retainer will be 50%.

Should new writers asked for a retainer? Yes you should. Getting a deposit allows you to sort the sheep from the goats. Talk is always cheap, but when someone puts their money where their mouth is you know that you've got a genuine buyer and not a scammer.

Subscribe to Angela Booth's fabulous free weekly ezine for freelance writers: get a free report just for subscribing. Even if you're a new writer, you can freelance your way to a fantastic writing career.

Join the thousands of freelance writers who are making great money freelance writing, using Fab Freelance Writing Ezine as their guide.

Writing for Money: Free Ways to Advertise Your Services

Want to make money selling your writing services online? You'll need to advertise to attract clients. However when you're just starting out, paid  advertising can be expensive. Let's look at some free ways to advertise and make money writing.

1. Add Content to Your Website/ Blog Every Day

Here's a secret: the search engines will send you all the traffic and all the clients you need. When somebody runs a search for writing services, your website or blog should be returned in the search query results.

You ensure that you get all the search engine traffic you want when you add content to your website and blog every day, simply because the search engines love fresh content.

2. Use the Free Online Classifieds Sites

There are hundreds of free online classified sites online. The secret to success with them is to create lots of ads. Be careful however. The major sites are tired of spam. This means that each of your ads will have to be different, and will have to be legitimate.

3. Post on Forums -- but Not Writing Forums

Interacting on webmaster and marketing forums online will get you writing jobs, because these people hire writers. Posting on forums is a free way to advertise your services, when you put a link to your website in your signature file.

Just add "Writer for Hire" and add a link to your website.

Here's a tip: don't bother posting on writing forums, because other writers, while lovely people and great fun, can't hire you.

4. Make Thoughtful, Considered Comments on Blogs

When you comment on a blog, you're offered the opportunity to add a link to your website. Don't abuse this opportunity. If you make offhand comments whose only purpose is to act as a link to your blog, your comments will be deleted.

Your aim when commenting on blogs is to join the conversation, and also to get known as a writer. Therefore, make your comments useful. Never comment just for the sake of a cheap link.

5. Submit Articles to Article Directories

Articles are great free advertising for your site. The benefit of articles as a form of advertising is that articles stay online for many years. 

I'm still receiving traffic from articles I wrote way back in 2000, for example. Considering that I probably spent around half an hour writing each  article, those articles have been sending me traffic for eight years. That's an amazing return on investment.

Discover the easiest way to advertise.

Write to Sell: Develop Your Writing Career

Want to become a high-selling writer? The secret is to take a long-term view. Your writing career can stretch over decades, so what counts is the processes you put in place to continually write more and sell more.

Here are four essential tips.

1. Commercial Writing Is Writing for a Paying Audience

As a commercial writer -- someone who makes money from writing -- you can never afford to forget your audience. Before you start any piece of writing, think about your ideal reader. Form a picture of this reader in your mind. What does he or she want to know? What will keep them reading?

2. Start Small: Build Your Confidence and Credits

Many years ago a magazine paid me for writing a short snippet. This tiny paragraph was my first published piece of writing. I was around 14 years old and it gave me a taste for writing for money which I've never lost.

Start small. Many newspapers and magazines publish very short snippets of less than 200 words. Although these snippets won't make you rich, they'll give you something which is worth a lot more than money: writing credits and confidence.

3. Power Marketing: You've Got to Have the Numbers

Few writers start out as great marketers. However if you want a lucrative  writing career you need to develop marketing skill. Even more than skill however, you need to realize an essential truth and it's this: numbers count in marketing. One advertisement has little effect. However one advertisement repeated 365 days a year has a huge effect.

So whatever marketing you decide to do, realize that ONE of any form of marketing is not enough. You need to do lots of marketing, and ideally you need to market every day.

4. Deadlines Mean Dollars: Every Deadline Is Vital

Take deadlines seriously. Your aim should be never to miss a deadline, unless you're dead. Editors and other buyers of writing will forgive you a great deal if you keep your deadlines. If you get a reputation for being a reliable writer you'll get more work than you can handle.

Enjoy your writing. Your writing career can be highly lucrative if you keep these important tips in mind.

Recession-proof your freelance writing career

"Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process" gives you all the tools you need for a thriving writing career, no matter what the economic climate.

Three weeks after completing the class one student wrote:

"Thanks Angela, for all your help and advice in class. I'm quitting my job next week. I printed out my letter of resignation tonight after landing a contract writing job that will pay me more for three months part-time work than I earned in from my day job in the whole of 2007! You were right – the great gigs are out there, and now I've got the skills to land them. Your class opened my eyes. Bless you…"

"Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process" shows you how to thrive as a freelance writer. Would you like to write five times more than you're writing now, and sell to higher-paying markets? Take the class.

The Best Freelance Writing Gigs

In next week's Fab Freelance Writing Ezine, we discuss the best freelance writing gigs.

Here's an excerpt from the Editorial:

This week we look at the best freelance writing gigs. But which gigs are "best"? Since we make a living as freelance writers, the best gigs are those which give us the best return for our investment of time and energy.

As you build your career, your definition of the best gigs will change. As a new writer, your "best" gig is any gig you can get. :-)

As your career develops, you'll look for gigs which:

* Meet your hourly rate;
* Pay a retainer up front;
* Give you a clear brief (project description);
* Pay your invoice quickly; and
* Are interesting, or which present unique challenges.

This issue is out on Tuesday, and of course it's free. Don't miss it -- subscribe now.

Writing for the Web: What you Need

"Can I write for the Web?"

This is one of the most common enquiries I receive. It's also impossible to answer without knowing a great deal about the person asking the question.

However, as with any form of writing, the short answer is that if you want to, you can. Desire is vital.

Aside from desire, you need:

* The ability to use reasonably correct grammar and punctuation. This isn't optional, it's expected: you're a writer, and words are your tools. You'll be writing for online publications and businesses, so incorrect usage reflects on them;

* The ability to write clearly and transparently. The Web is not a literary medium. Keep it plain; keep it simple;

* The ability to post a page onto the Web, using a Web interface. You'll get extra credit if you can use FTP, and can post a blog post to the common blogging applications like Blogger and WordPress;

* The ability to research, online and offline.

Write your way to a million-dollar income

Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report -- 2009

The Web has made it possible for ANY writer, no matter how new or inexperienced, to turn writing into a fabulous career. If you're stuck in a soul-destroying, or just boring job, writing is your way out.

Fab Freelance Ezine helps you to understand the fast-changing world of the freelance writer, and sets you well on the way to making the income that you want to make, and that many writers are already making.

Subscribe today, and receive "Write And Sell Your Writing: The Power-Write Report -- 2009" just for subscribing.

Blogging for Writers: Boost Your Writing Career

Want a successful writing career? Whether you're a new writer, or are an established pro, your blog can help. In 2009, blogging is essential for writers: it gets you known.

1. Your Blog Will Teach You What to Write for Success

Here's the big benefit of blogging for writers: your blog will show you what people respond to in your writing. Before the advent of instant publishing on blogs, discovering this could take years of heartbreak and frustration. The lack of feedback and response to their writing leads many writers to giving up writing completely, never realizing that they could have had a wonderful career.

Look on your blog's readers as your ultimate, totally free, focus group. Treat them well: they're the bedrock of your writing career.

2. Your Blog Gives You Writing Practice

There's one major difference between successful writers, and others: they write. Your blog encourages you to write, so that you won't disappoint your readers.

This motivates you, and builds your writing practice. There's a direct correlation between how much you write, and your success. If you're not having the success you feel you could be, the answer is simple -- you're not writing enough.

3. Your Blog Helps You to Sell Your Writing

Your blog can turn you into a Cinderella writer. There you are, blogging away, and along comes your fairy godmother and swats you with her wand. "Arise, Cinders -- here's a publishing contract!"

Could it happen to you? Maybe, since it's happened to other writers.

The fact is that your blog will help you to sell your writing however, because the fact that you have a blog, and blog consistently, tells buyers of your writing that you are indeed a competent writer.

4. Blogging Pitfalls

While your blogs will build your writing career, there are pitfalls.

Here they are:

* Whining and complaining: don't do it, ever, if you hope to be taking seriously as a professional writer. Yes, some professionals who should know better do it, but you can be sure that it will have an effect on their next writing contract -- if indeed they're offered one;

* Focusing too much on yourself and your life on a professional blog. Separate personal blogs, from a professional blogs.

Start your blog today: you'll be glad you did. A blog is an essential tool for your writing career.

Make Money Writing and Build a Great Career

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