Angela Booth's Writing Blog

100 Day Challenge: Fab Freelance Writing Ezine

I've mentioned our new "100 Day Challenge" in the past couple of ezine messages, and have received lots of questions.

Here's the gist.

* The 100 Day Challenge starts in September, and ends on January 1, 2011;

* I'll tell you more about it, and how to join the Challenge, in the ezine. So subscribe if you're not already subscribed;

* The Challenge is completely free;

* Your objectives. By then end of the 100 Day Challenge you'll be making at least $200 a day more from your writing than you're making now, and you'll be well on the way to making at least $70 an hour from your writing.

What do you need to join?

You need the determination to commit to the process, and also the desire to devote an hour a day to it. You'll also need to be willing to have FUN with this. :-)

Who's the Challenge for?

It's for both new and established writers who want to achieve the goals they set for themselves in 2010. If you didn't set any goals, you'll get the opportunity to set goals during the Challenge.

In a nutshell: we'll have fun, and you'll discover how to build a great writing career.

I look forward to writing with you. :-)

Posted via email from Angela Booth's Life Stream

Writing Career: Manage Your Time, Succeed at Your Writing

Want to build an amazing writing career? Perhaps you'd like to write a book, and see it on bookstore shelves. Or perhaps you want to launch your own copywriting business. Whatever your goals for your writing career, you can make them happen, and more quickly than you can believe.

I've been writing for over 30 years, so I know how devastating procrastination and a lack of motivation can be. Before I learned effective time and self-management skills, I gave up on projects which would have been successful, had I known how to motivate myself in those days.

Here are three tips which will help you to manage your time, and succeed at your writing.

1. Commit to your goals: and keep quiet about them. Do you have goals, or dreams? There's a big difference. A goal has a deadline, a plan for achievement, and daily tasks which help you to achieve. A dream, on the other hand, is just something you think you may want to do... someday.

So your first step in managing your time is to choose at least one dream, and turn it into a goal.

And please -- shush! Keep quiet about your goals. There's no need to share them with others. Talking about your goals (and defending them) takes energy you should save for your writing.

2. Write first, every day. You're a writer. However, life will tend to crowd  out your writing, if you allow it.

Commit now to making writing the first thing you do, every single day. Get out of bed, and start writing. (Yes, you're allowed to take care of necessities first, and you can grab a cup of coffee.)

You'll discover that when you write first, even if your writing session is just 20 minutes long, you set the tone for your day. You'll be amazed that you somehow mange to find additional minutes to write.

3. Clear your mind, and relax. Do you multi-task? You may want to stop doing that. Inspiration happens when you're relaxed, not when you're rushed.

I hate the term "muse", but there's no other term I can think of for the still, quiet whispers of inspiration. Clear your mind, and listen to them.

So there you have three tips, which will help you to manage your time, and succeed at your writing. You'll be amazed at the difference they make.

 

 

Are you convinced that you have no time to write? With Angela Booth's amazing "Time To Write: Build Your Writing Career Minute By Minute" you'll discover that you have more time than you imagine. Angela helps writers to succeed. Get weekly writing tips, completely free, when you subscribe to Angela's Fab Freelance Writing Ezine. Coming soon: the 100 Day Challenge. Join us for it: there's still time to achieve the goals you set for 2010.

Freelance Writing for Money: Get Creative and Get Rich

Want to make real money from your writing? Here's the truth: the only thing that's holding you back is you. Yes, YOU are the only thing that's holding you back from being a $300-an-hour writer.

That being the case, you certainly can take the journey from making $30 an hour to making $300 an hour. It's up to you: how much you want it, and how hard you're willing to work for it.

Yes, there is that slight catch: you'll have to work a little harder than you're working now. When a project manager hires a $300-an-hour writer, he's expecting to get $300-an-hour's worth of value.

The big-money writer is good at what he does, and he didn't get that way by accident: he studied, he practiced, and he mastered his creativity.

Let's talk about creativity, because I think that's at the heart of lucrative  professional writing. If you want to earn big, you'll need to master the basics, and then become creative.

1. To Be Creative, Get in the Habit of Asking Questions
Here's an excellent technique to kickstart your creativity. Ask yourself a question, and then brainstorm 20 answers.

Write down your question, and then write down 20 answers. Don't stop until you get to number 20. Your first few answers will be trite, and often you'll feel like giving up: don't. Your best answers are usually four answers beyond the point where you thought: "I can't think of any more."

You can ask yourself questions about anything at all; use this technique on everything, not just on writing projects.

2. To Be Creative, Master Your Fear of Looking Stupid
Are you scared of looking silly, or even stupid? You'll need to make a choice between backing down in the face of your fear, or being true to your creative impulse.

The payoff for facing your fear is that you'll have a lot of fun developing your creative ideas on behalf of your clients.

So there you have it. If you want to become a big money writer, master the basics, and then get creative. You can do it, as long as you believe that you can.

 

Discover the world of Web writing - make a great income writing from home, or from anywhere

Sell Your Writing Online NOW

There's great money in Web writing. Some Web writers are making $20,000 a month by blogging for a stable of sites. Others are writing articles or ebooks.

Join the Web writing gold rush with Angela Booth's comprehensive training: "Sell Your Writing Online Now".

Headlines: Too Big to Cover in an Article

Headlines. 

You read them every day, and whatever you're writing, you write headlines every day.

Headlines are also called "titles," of course.

Headlines are all-important. If you can't get people (editors, buyers of your writing, readers) to read your headlines, and read further, your writing is dead.

I've been trying to think of some form of writing which doesn't require a headline, and can't think of anything, except personal notes, or personal snail mail letters... Even email messages have headlines: the subject lines are headlines. 

So, enough waffling from me on headlines. 

Please download my latest report, "Super Simple Headlines That Sell", and discover how to write GREAT headlines.

Posted via email from Angela Booth's Life Stream

From Idea to Income: Make Money from Your Writing

Want to make money writing? It can be simpler than you imagine, as long as you value your own ideas, and follow through on them. In this article, I'll share with you a simple process I give my writing students.

I've been teaching writing, and how to make money writing, for 20 years. Here's what I've found: new writers (and many established ones) fail to value their own ideas. They need someone to give them validation, by saying: "Yes, this is great idea!"

Too often, they try to get validation from family, friends and other writers, none of whom are qualified to validate ideas when they're simple seeds. If you follow the process below, you'll be able to separate the wheat from the chaff, working with your own baby ideas, until they grow and generate an income.

Here's my simple process.

1. Capture Your Ideas -- Don't Let Potential Income Evaporate

The first step is to have a method of capturing your ideas. You'll find that you get ideas when you're doing something else. I always seem to get ideas when I'm walking my dog, and in the shower, as well as when I first wake up in the morning.

I keep index cards handy -- yes, even in the shower, in the pocket of my bathrobe -- so that I can capture ideas as inspiration happens.

Each evening, I transfer ideas to my computer.

2. Build on Your Ideas -- Feed and Water Your Baby Ideas

Capturing ideas is all very well, but you need a method of building on your ideas.

If you're a working writer, most of your ideas will relate to current projects. Implement those ideas immediately.

Other ideas relate to new projects. Keep "Active Projects" and "Inactive Projects" folders on your computer, so you can track seed ideas, and can build them into money-makers. Under these two main folders, create a new folder for each idea.

I like to review all my projects each weekend. I'll create outlines for projects, with tasks. For Active Projects, I transfer the tasks to my calendar, blocking out time to work with these projects. For Inactive Projects, I'll create a Tasks outline, to track my thinking until I decide to work on a project, and it becomes active.

If I decide a project no longer interests me, I delete it. I often get an idea to combine two projects into one strong, powerful project.

Simply reviewing your projects will give you fresh ideas -- you're now well on the way to generating income from your ideas.

3. Turn One Idea Each Week Into Income

After you've captured and built on your ideas for a few weeks, there's a final step in this process.

Decide that each week, you'll take one of your active projects, and will turn it into income.

You need to make this decision, because if you don't, ideas can languish in your "Active" folders for months, and even for years.

Taking your ideas from seed ideas to writing income is a simple process. Try it: it works.

Discover the world of Web writing - make a great income writing from home, or from anywhere

Sell Your Writing Online NOW

There's great money in Web writing. Some Web writers are making $20,000 a month by blogging for a stable of sites. Others are writing articles or ebooks.

Join the Web writing gold rush with Angela Booth's comprehensive training: "Sell Your Writing Online Now".

Show up As a Writer and You'll Achieve Success

If you're not achieving the success you want as a writer, chances are you're just not showing up.

 

This seems to be a very common challenge; writers run out of steam and enthusiasm not only for a project, but also for their careers.

 

Apropos of showing up, here's what I wrote on a forum this morning.

 

Just show up, do what you do. As Woody Allen said: "Eighty percent of success is showing up."

If you feel resistance to DOING, there's always a reason. Brainstorm and do some free writing until you discover what that reason is. Chances are, the reason is important.

Also, leave time for thinking.

Clear your mind, and just sit and think. "Muse" or "wonder" might be better terms for "thinking"; most people don't do enough of just sitting and thinking. If you muse on whatever your current challenge is, chances are you'll come up with a solution... a surprising one. :-)

Re musing, I've noticed that the "musing habit", to coin a term, leads to inspiration and creativity -- and more showing up.

 

What are you showing up for?

 

I'm thrilled that my latest product has helped more writers kickstart their careers at the outsourcing sites -- by showing up. 

 

Here's one writer's results with this material. Four days after her purchase of Instant Income For Writers: Ace the Outsourcing Sites, Christi said:

 

"I followed the 7 day plan and put in applications on 3 different days. I got one job that is possibly long term, that pays hourly. Then today I logged into my email and had another contract waiting for me. I was just totally thrilled, I have been trying so hard to find work that I could do from home."

 

Christi showed up: you can too.

Posted via email from Angela Booth's Life Stream

Free Report: Super-Simple Article Marketing Plan

Article marketing is a powerful advertising strategy, and it's deceptively simple.

It looks so easy: write a batch of articles, collect cash.

However, although it's easy, it's far from simple, if you don't know how to make it work. 

Read my new report, and make article marketing work for you.

Tip for writers: if you know how to make article marketing work, this is a powerful writing service you can offer to your clients.

Download the free report.

Posted via email from Angela Booth's Life Stream

Finding Writing Jobs: Get All the Jobs You Want

This week, in Fab Freelance Writing Ezine, we're covering several innovative methods to get writing jobs. 

The methods are simple, but they're very powerful. 

Which method will be right for you?

That depends. The simple Google method, which went out to subscribers yesterday, is useful, especially if you're writing in a new area. You'll quickly see what options you have. You'll see who's buying what, and you can get in touch with them.

Tomorrow, I'm covering a slightly more advanced method. It's simple too, and you can use it, no matter what your level of experience happens to be.

Later in the week, I'll be covering another yet another very simple, but very powerful method.

I encourage you to add these three powerful methods of finding writing jobs to your freelance writing toolbox. They ensure that you'll get all the jobs you want.

I'm sending you this series in conjunction with the prelaunch of my new "writing jobs" guide. It's available to Fab Freelance subscribers only at the moment. (The details are in the Ezine.)

There's never been a more exciting time to be a writer. These days you can find all the writing jobs YOU want, which are perfect for you, whether you're a new writer, or are an established pro.

Enjoy. :-)

Posted via email from Angela Booth's Life Stream