Angela Booth's Writing Blog

Blog Secrets: Writing Success with Blogs

In next week's issue of Fab Freelance Writing Ezine, we discuss four blog secrets, and show you how to create successful blogs.

From the Editorial:

Let's at four blog secrets which you can use today.

Here's what's most important: a blog must be valuable to your audience. If it is, it will be successful.
 
Blogging has become mainstream. Millions of blogs are created every year, but unfortunately, most are left to die on the vine. Don't let your blog(s) die, please – every writer who's taken up blogging and has had goals and a method, loves blogging.

Any blogs you create can contribute to your writing success, not just this year, but years from now. In fact, the longer your blogs stay online, the more valuable they become.

Blogging is simple and easy, but this can be a weakness, as well as a strength. Since blogs are so easy to create few writers pay attention to what they're doing – they have no plan for a blog, and it shows, because every blog you create must be targeted and relevant to be successful.

Read the rest in Tuesday's issue of the ezine.

Discover the secrets of highly-paid writers: free each week

Want to make great money writing? Discover the secrets of high-selling, highly paid writers, for free. Each week, Angela Booth's Fab Freelance Writing Ezine is delivered in easy-to-print PDF format.

Join the thousands of other writers who are using the information to change their lives. You'll learn how to write, and how to sell. Angela's been writing for 30 years, and shares her knowledge with you.

Writing Skills: Four Ways to Quickly Improve Your Skills

Want to quickly improve your writing skills? You can do it. Just follow these four simple tips.

1. Read More

The simplest way to improve your writing skills is to read more. Although it doesn't matter much what you read, choose to read books, rather than reading online.

The more you read, the more comfortable you will become with the written word. Read for pleasure, as well as for instruction.

2. Learn an Easy Way to Outline

If you hate to outline, it's because you've never learned an effective method. Think of an outline as a simple list of material you want to cover. Your outline may be a list of words, of sentences, or of questions.

Consider using outlines in two ways. Firstly, create an initial outline (remember, it's just a list) of what you want to cover in the piece of writing. Secondly, create an outline once you've finished the piece.

Outlining work you've completed will help you to see lapses in logic, as well as to spot the things you've left out.

3. Separate Writing and Editing

If you can talk, you can write. If you find writing difficult, it's because you're trying to edit yourself as you write. This is impossible to do, because writing and editing use different parts of your brain.

You can't edit what you haven't written. If you sit staring at the computer screen, it's because you're trying to do two things at the same time.

When you're writing, just write, as if you were speaking to someone. Don't worry about whether it "makes sense", or is "good writing" -- that's what editing is for.

Follow your outline, and get words onto the computer screen.

A day later, you can revise. This is where editing comes in.

Professional writers are professionals because they do one thing at a time. You can do this too. You'll be amazed at how your writing improves once you learn to separate writing and editing.

4. Read Your Writing Aloud

Once you've completed a piece of writing, read it aloud, preferably into a voice recorder.

You'll spot awkward phrasing, jumps in logic, and much more -- even typographical errors. Try it.

Improving your writing skills is basically just a matter of practice. Use these four tips, and you'll be practicing the right things.

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Blog: take your writing life online

Can a blog help your writing career? Let me count the ways:

* A blog ensures that you write, and this is no small thing. Most writers procrastinate;

* A blog gets you known, and the more people who know you, the more your career builds (yes, it really is who you know, and who knows you);

* A blog gives you opportunities -- the best writing jobs are not advertised;

* A blog gives you credibility. Anyone can call himself a writer. A blog is your showcase;

* A blog is an investment. In 2008, a small blog sold for fifteen million dollars. A blog you create may never sell for anywhere near this sum, however (especially if you create a blog with the aim of selling it one day), a blog is a fantastic investment of your time and energy;

* When you blog, you come to see that there are many different kinds of blogs. Some are created purely as money-makers, and bring in daily income: $50 one day, $400 the next, $200 on another day... all for an investment of a few hours of your time.

Want to know how to blog, and make money?

Visit my new site, Lazy Rich Blogger. Charter memberships are now open. In 2010 and beyond, blogging is a skill which can change your writing life.

Your Writer's Website Is a Money Magnet (or It Should Be)

Over the past week, I've received several questions about writers' websites, and how to use sites (note the plural) to build your writing business and career, and most importantly of all, to make money.

Big tip: if your writer's website isn't making money for you, correct that oversight today. It doesn't take much effort, I promise. :-)

Some tips:

1. Set goals for a site BEFORE you create it

Start by deciding on the audience for your site. Writers tend to want to create sites about writing, but if you want clients to hire you on the strength of your site, you should make your writing services, AND the needs of your buyers, the site's focus.

Write down at least one major goal for your site. If you have more than three goals, consider creating two or more sites, over time.

(PLEASE write it down. Stick a note onto your monitor. If it isn't written down, you WILL forget what your focus is supposed to be.)

Here's a great big important tip: just get the site online. Sites are never "finished." You can and should revise your site as you get to know your site's audience.

Think about your ideal buyer and what he looks for in a writer. Your site gives you a great opportunity to showcase your skills.

2. Aim for simplicity: get it online in an hour or less

In my Sell Your Writing Online NOW (SYWON) training, I encourage writers to use simple site-creation tools like Yola for their first site so that they can get their first site online quickly.

Some writers want their site to be "perfect." Consider that maybe your site may never be perfect (mine certainly aren't), because you just don't know enough to create the perfect site. The good news is, neither does anyone else. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be online so you can give people an URL.

3. Don't use other writers' sites as a model

Other writers are not you. YOU are you. Your site is yours. Remember your clients -- they're your audience, other writers are not.

What do you want your buyers to know? Tell them.

Again, keep it simple. Create a basic site with a few pages: Home page, Services page, About page, Contact page, and leave it at that for now.

As people ask questions, add a FAQ page.

Then a few months from now, build out the site by adding more pages about specific writing services you provide. Add a case study.

(Or not, your choice. You may want to create some strictly informational pages.)

Another major tip: get testimonials, and display them on your site. Nothing succeeds like success. :-)

4. Ask for the sale!!

(Please note the TWO exclamation marks above. Considering that I rarely use exclamation marks, and consider them crass, this will show you how important I think tip #4 is...)

I'm always amazed when writers create a good site, then spoil it all by not asking for the sale, and worse, making it all but impossible for potential clients to get in touch.

You must ask for the sale, and make it as easy as possible for prospects to contact you. Include several contact methods, and yes, add your cell phone number if you're hungry for clients.

When asking for the sale, use lines like:

* "Contact me today, to discover three reasons you should [whatever_________]"

* "If [whatever_________] you're bleeding money. Contact me right now to ________"

If you're an intermediate to advanced writer, add a briefing form on your site. This cuts down on the tire kickers, and people who think you can write their web site for ten dollars.

(If you're a new writer, tire kickers are the least of your worries. Talk to EVERYONE, you need the experience.)

5. Make it easy for clients to buy from you

You should have a PayPal account, that goes without saying.

Familiarize yourself with adding PayPal "Buy Now" buttons. (All it takes is copy and paste.)

Advanced writers should have lots of Buy Now buttons on a site; if you're a beginning writer, use PayPal's option to add a Buy Now button to an email message, or send a buyer your PayPal address. (Your PayPal address needs to be a prominent feature on your invoice.)

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Profitable web writing: are you earning a great income?

In this week's issue of Fab Freelance Writing Ezine, our theme is profitable web writing.

Unfortunately for many web writers, it's just not profitable. They hear about professional writers earning a great income online, but because they have no background in writing, they're not sure whether they believe it. If you're making five cents a word, it's hard to believe that someone's making $1 a word.

But what's profitable?

Find tomorrow out in the ezine.

From the Editorial:

Many writers scrabble around with low-paying web writing jobs, and while this is OK in your first year as a writer, it's NOT OK after you've been writing for a while.

The web offers you an UNLIMITED income

There's literally an unlimited income waiting for you, if you take web writing seriously, and study for it as you would for any other profession. Here's the good news: study, and you can make more income than doctors and lawyers.

How unlimited is your potential income? Well, if you can create a blog someone wants to buy, for example, you can score a 15 million dollar payday.

What's possible for you may be greater than you ever imagined, if you have writing skills, and realize their value. (Most writers, unfortunately, don't.)

Read more in the ezine.

Discover the secrets of highly-paid writers: free each week

Want to make great money writing? Discover the secrets of high-selling, highly paid writers, for free. Each week, Angela Booth's Fab Freelance Writing Ezine is delivered in easy-to-print PDF format.

Join the thousands of other writers who are using the information to change their lives. You'll learn how to write, and how to sell. Angela's been writing for 30 years, and shares her knowledge with you.

No time to blog? You can't afford not to

No time to blog?

I hear that from writers all the time. :-)

My response is always: "Blogging wins you more time and income, not less."

Here's why:

1. You never need to hunt for writing jobs. Your blog lets you target precisely those buyers you want. For example, if you're looking for more web content writing gigs, create a blog targeting Internet marketers and webmasters. Then go to the forums where those people hang out, and drop your blog's URL into your forum signature.

2. Your blog makes you credible as a writer to those who don't know your name. It acts not only as a writing sample, but also as evidence that you're a competent, professional writer.

3. Your blog becomes more valuable over time. The longer your blog is online, the more traffic you get. This means that you get more clients, and with more clients, you can raise your rates when you need to.

Many writers are nervous about raising their writing rates, but you'll soon discover that when you charge appropriately, you attract more and better clients. If your rates are too low, the people who regularly hire writers wonder what's wrong with you -- it sends a powerful signal that you're not professional.

Every writer who's ever taken up blogging discovers how powerful it is.

If you're not yet blogging, start today.

Are you scared because you're BROKE? You need cash, fast... Discover how you can sell your services online for cold hard cash, in just 7 days, even if you're a total newbie

You can get money into your PayPal account anytime you want. Just seven short days from now, you'll be able to treat the Internet as your very own just-in-time cash machine.

Making consistent money online is a lot easier than you think. I promise you that if you follow the instructions in my "Your Just-In-Time Cash Machine: Sell Your Services Online In Seven Days" guide, you'll be making money within seven days. From then on, you can use this just-in-time money-making system whenever you wish. You'll feel much more confident, when you know you can make it rain money at any time.

Getting it done: write fast and sell more

Want to be a successful writer?

Whether you aspire to writing books, or blogging, or writing web content, or business writing... here's what counts: GETTING IT DONE.

Once it's done, you can fix it if you need to, and you usually will. But if you sit and think, or play on Facebook when you should be tapping the keyboard, you'll wonder why writing is so hard.

Big tip: writing is easy. If you can talk, you can write.

It's writing well that's more challenging, but the only way you'll improve your writing skills is by writing. Writing demands a close interaction between your right brain (creativity) and your left brain (logic). Those pathways in your brain are created and deepened when you DO IT, daily.

If you're a writer, writing should be as natural to you as breathing. This won't happen overnight. However, once it does happen, you'll be able to write without drama -- it will just be something you do. Sooner or later, with all that practice, you'll do it rather well. :-)

Daily writing is your key to writing fast, and selling more.

Here's another big tip: your clients LIKE fast. They love it. If you meet your deadlines consistently, they'll prefer working with you to working with a writer who's better than you are, when and if they can get that writer to produce. Divas in any profession are a royal pain in the rear, and once a client gets a taste of a particular writer's diva-dilettante attitude, that's the last time that writer will work for that client. And for everyone he knows, for that matter.

Here are three simple tips which will help you to get it done, whatever it is:

1. Give yourself a deadline, and commit to it

If you're writing for others, you have  a deadline. Create your own deadline anywhere from three days to a week before the "real" deadline. Meet it.

If you're writing for yourself, just DO IT. Give yourself a deadline which you think is impossible for you. Then meet the deadline.

Yes, this means that you often won't have time to play computer games, watch TV, or chat with friends. No one ever said the writer's life was easy. (A caveat: once you develop the right attitude and skills, it IS easy. :-))

2. Assume that you know how to do it

Please, never think you can't write "X". "X" may be a book, a screenplay, a greeting card, a blog... whatever. Tell yourself that you can, because you can, with a little education, and with practice.

Wanting to write X is always a pretty good clue that you CAN write it, once you're determined. After all, whatever X is, it's created by stringing ideas, concepts, and ultimately words together in a certain form. There's no mystery. Once you know how something is done, all it takes is writing.

3. Realize that your clients, readers, and all those other people who scare you are people too

Editors and other buyers of your writing are people, just like you. Most are kind, and well-intentioned, and possess varying degrees of competence.

Respect them, and they'll respect you. However, they're busy. They may not respond to you in a timely manner, or even at all. Never take any interaction between you and a buyer or a reader personally. Always be respectful and courteous.

Courtesy demands that you learn how to write a business letter/ email. If you're not sure how, visit your local library and take out a book on business communications. It couldn't hurt, and it may just be the best thing you ever did for your writing career.

BIG TIP: when you're writing email, think about the person to whom you're writing. Put yourself in his shoes. Would you enjoy reading your message? If you wouldn't, rewrite it.

Email is tricky. Avoid humor, and all forms of sarcasm. The person reading your message has 200 other messages he needs to skim. If your message is well formatted (no fancy fonts, please, or images), courteous, and straightforward (get to the point -- skip your life story), he'll respond, if he has time.

Getting it done is just doing it -- no excuses. Eventually, you'll be amazed at how natural writing feels, and you'll be eager to get to the keyboard every day. Then you'll be successful at whatever form of writing you've chosen.

Happy writing. :-)

Are you scared because you're BROKE? You need cash, fast... Discover how you can sell your services online for cold hard cash, in just 7 days, even if you're a total newbie

You can get money into your PayPal account anytime you want. Just seven short days from now, you'll be able to treat the Internet as your very own just-in-time cash machine.

Making consistent money online is a lot easier than you think. I promise you that if you follow the instructions in my "Your Just-In-Time Cash Machine: Sell Your Services Online In Seven Days" guide, you'll be making money within seven days. From then on, you can use this just-in-time money-making system whenever you wish. You'll feel much more confident, when you know you can make it rain money at any time.

Ready for 2010?

Here we are in 2010. Are you ready for a BIG year?

I hope you are. If you subscribe to the ezine, this week's issue, with the theme "Big Money for Writers in 2010", has just gone out. It should give you lots of ideas for making 2010 your best writing year ever.

In the ezine's Editorial, I made some predictions for 2010. I can't believe how much the writing landscape has changed in just a year since 2008, so if there's one guarantee for 2010, it's this: in 2011, we'll be shocked at the changes this year has brought.

Over the holiday break, I posted daily writing prompts and tips to Twitter; it was great fun for me. I'm a Gemini, so writing in 140-character snippets is a delight -- no time to get bored. :-) Since I like it, I'll keep posting the snippets each day in 2010; I hope you find them useful.

BIG TIP: Be a confident writer in 2010 -- follow your hunches and take a risk or two

I receive emails and IMs from writers every day, and I could answer 80 per cent of them with this sentence: "DO it -- what have you got to lose?"

If you're in the habit of over-thinking every tiny thing related to your writing life, make a New Year's resolution to stop doing that. If you get an idea, try it out. Write more, not less. The big benefit of following your intuition is that it enables you to grow as a writer.

You're unique. No one else has your ideas and insights, which are based on your genes, environment, and the gifts with which you were born. You owe it to yourself to become the writer you were meant to be. You won't become that writer by looking for reasons something won't work. You'll become that writer by writing -- even when you have no idea what the next word and sentence is going to be.

So in 2010, make a resolution to be true to yourself, and your writing, and just write.

Discover the secrets of highly-paid writers: free each week

Want to make great money writing? Discover the secrets of high-selling, highly paid writers, for free. Each week, Angela Booth's Fab Freelance Writing Ezine is delivered in easy-to-print PDF format.

Join the thousands of other writers who are using the information to change their lives. You'll learn how to write, and how to sell. Angela's been writing for 30 years, and shares her knowledge with you.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, dear writer.

In my part of the world (Sydney, Australia) we're nine hours into 2010. As Honey, my Jack Russell terrier, and I went for our walk this morning, the streets were empty, with few cars, except for the ones taking people home after a big night out. :-)

I hope you're enjoying your celebrations.

I'm currently writing our first issue of Fab Freelance Writing Ezine for the year, in which our theme is "Big Money for Writers in 2010". It will be out on Tuesday.

Again, happy 2010. Make this your best writing year ever. :-)