Associated Content bought by Yahoo

Yahoo bought the media site Associated Content.  I am still writing for Associated Content and I am excited and yet concerned about the buyout at the same time.  I know that nothing on the Internet is stable and most if not everything on the web is subject to change.  That doesn't mean that I have to like it.  I don't do well with change.  I get set in my patterns and ways.

Rumors and misinformation have been passed and hopefully straightened out.  Things will change at Associated Content, the name may even cease to exist at some point in the future.  The content writers will just have to wait and see what changes Yahoo has in store for us.  We shall see.

Here is my latest article written at Associated Content : 

8 Unique Graduation Gifts for Your Grad

Unique Graduation Gifts don't have to be difficult to find. You will find 8 Grad Gifts ideas listed that are Unique and will leave a lasting impression on your favorite Grad.


Thankfully no changes have been made to the publishing platform yet.  Hopefully I will still be around AC at the end of the year and have it all figured out, changes and all.

Getting Started in Freelance Writing on the Internet

If you are new to freelance writing and don't have any thing published already in print or online, don't worry. You will just need to get started writing. I was afraid of what people would think of my writing, but I wasn't going to let fear stop me. You shouldn't either!

"Courage is not the lack of fear but the ability to face it." by Lt. John B. Putnam Jr.

"The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure." by Sven Goran Eriksson

The main thing is to start writing, it is easiest to write about that which you have some knowledge. Start with what you know. Then begin writing 400 word articles. Then find one of the online freelance sites I have mentioned in my previous post and get those articles published.

Because you will never know if you don't even try.

Marie M. Daniels Earns New Writing Badge

What is the Hot 500 Badge at Associated Content? Why and how did Marie M. Daniels get this award? 

from Associated Content "Hot 500 are the Associated Content Contributors with the largest audience, and most engaged readers, viewers and listeners. These badges are updated once per month, and grace the profiles of the top 500 active Contributors based on the previous month's page views."

I won the Hot 500 Badge at Associated Content!

How to Deal with Negative Comments

As a freelance writer some times you will have to deal with negative comments. Negative comments may come from your readers an editor or friends and family. You need to learn how to deal with these negative comments or your freelance writing will suffer or fail.

Reader Comments:
Comments on your freelance articles can seem to be harsher than they were meant. Writing online makes it hard to convey emotions and your commenter may have left you a little joke.

Editor Comments:
Negative comments and rejections made by an editor may have been intended to be constructive criticism. Sometimes constructive criticism is difficult to take and so is rejection for that matter. Most editors know what they are talking about, so try not to take it too personally.

Peer Comments:
In some writing circles other unscrupulous freelance writers will attempt to gang up on new writers so they will become discouraged and leave. These old timers don’t want any new freelancers to steal a piece of their pie.

You can ignore their comments or address them and post a reply in your comments. If you have negative comments that can be removed from your work by all means remove them. If you choose to combat those negative comments be positive and be the bigger person. If you fight fire with fire you will just add fuel to their fire and they could stalk you and may eventually ruin your online presence.

If one writing site is terribly bad and you cannot escape the negative comments you will need to go elsewhere. Just don’t let those trolls and naysayers stop you from writing.

How to Deal:
Negative comments can come from anywhere including a parent, your best friend or spouse and they can end a writing career before it has even begun. You can’t stop people from voicing their opinions but you get to decide whether or not to listen to them. So try to let those negative comments slide right off and keep writing.

Find 101 Niches for Freelance Writing on Squidoo

Another new freelance lens over at Squidoo.  This new Squidoo lens can help you find your new Niche for freelance writing if you haven't chosen one yet.  Niche writing is very profitable in the freelance world; take a look at the article to find a Niche that you like and can freelance write about.

101 Niches for Freelance Writing
So you want to find a freelance writing niche. There are so many niches to write about and you will find 101 Freelance Writing Niches to consider below. Discovering the right niche area for you can be difficult. Because there are so many niche category's...

Got Writers Burnout? Try Freelance Writing Prompts

Freelance Writing Prompts:

Sometimes Freelance Writers get burnout or writers block.  There are many ways to combat not knowing what to write about or not being able to continue writing.  One of the ways to fight writers block is to use a writing prompt.

Word of the Day - Writing Prompt
You can subscribe to the Dictionary.com sites word of the day or another sites word of the day.  Today's word is Vitiate.  See if you can write 100 words using the word of the day three times.

Picture Writing Prompt
You have heard the saying, a picture is worth a thousand words.  Well, you do not need to write a thousand words but try writing 300 words based on the photo above.  You can write a freelance article on snow, trees, and the perfect vacation or whatever you happen to see in the picture.

Writing Prompt - Write About Anything
If you are having a writing block just starting to write can get your creative juices flowing.  So write about anything you want for 10 minutes.  If you can think of something to write about then write about French Fries.  Then if after 10 minutes you still are in the writing mood write a freelance article or at least get one started.

The above writing prompts will get you started on your way to writing again.  Writers block or writers burn out does not have to stall your freelance writing career, you can move past this.

Freelance Writing - Get Your Name Known

If you are new to freelance writing and you need to get your author name known I will give you some tips to get your name out there.

Even if you have been freelancing for a while you may want to know how to get your name on the web so that potential clients can find you easier and contact you for writing assignments.


I got my name in lights with notcelebrity.co.uk

Get Social:

• Sign up for a Twitter Account.
• Sign up on Facebook.
  
• Social Bookmark your best articles which include your byline.

 Put Your Writing on Content Sites: Great for showing samples of your work.

• EzineArticles - these articles could end up going viral.
• Associated Content
  
• EHow - the to do experts.
• Helium
  
• Bukisa
  

Blog about your favorite topics.

You can quickly get your author's name all over the web in a matter of a few days.  You only need to write one or two articles or posts at each place and include your name to get your name in lights.  Then you can do the all important Googling of your Name and you should pop up all over!

Should Freelance Writer's take Ghost Writing Jobs?

 Are Ghost Writing Jobs Worth It?

Ghost writing jobs for freelance writers can be worth their time or not.  You will need to step back from the ghost writing job opportunity for a moment and evaluate it and ask yourself a few questions.

Do you care if every piece of writing that you take the time to write has your name as the author?  If it is important to you to see your name in the byline every time you write a freelance article then you should not take ghost writing jobs.

Can you make more money by ghost writing or by taking on the project yourself?  If the ghost writing job is to write blog posts about foreclosed homes and you have extensive knowledge in this area, can you make more money if you self publish a blog on foreclosed houses?  If you know how to market a blog and think you can get more money for yourself then you should not take the ghost writing job opportunity.  On the other hand if you don't know how to publish a blog and get ads to generate the revenue you would want to ghost write in this situation.  

Can you make more money by selling the writing to someone else other than the ghost writing client?   Sometimes the clients who put jobs up for ghostwriters seriously undervalue the cost of the work they want done.  If you see a ghost writing job assignment but know you can sell the work to another publisher for more money then don't take the ghost writing assignment.  If you know you cannot make more money on your own then by all means take the ghost writing job.

Do you need ghost writing jobs to make money and pay the bills?  Freelance income is not a steady income like going to work and getting a paycheck every week.  So sometimes freelancers must do what it takes to get the bills paid and will take any job opportunity that comes their way.  If you need money sooner rather than later then you will want to take some ghost writing gigs.

As you can see there are both Pro's and Con's to the world of freelance ghost writing.  You will just need to step back and identify your needs at the time to decide if ghost writing is a good fit for you.

The Importance of Goal Setting for Freelance Writers

What is the Importance of Goal Setting for Freelance Writers?

As a freelance writer you must set goals for your writing. Freelance writers have the luxury of being in charge of their own careers. While freelancing gives you freedom you must also have schedules, goals and responsibility.

Goal setting is important for freelance writing so that you can work on different client projects at the same time and be able to turn them all in on schedule and make your clients. If you set goals and get your articles turned in on time then those clients will be more likely to come back to you in the future because they know you are reliable.

Setting Goals for freelance writing should be done for daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals.

Here are some example goals that a freelance writer might make:

•  Daily - get those daily tasks done. (research, articles written, query's written, network with other online freelance writers)

•  Weekly - how many articles will you write in a week? How many page views do you want to have? Were weekly monetary goals met?

•  Monthly - find new clients, work on your book or ebook and take a writing course to improve your writing.

•  Yearly - finish that book, make yearly salary goals, and work on taxes.  Set new goals.

When people set goals they are more likely to reach their goals and accomplish more than the freelance writer who just does things here and there when they feel like writing.  By setting goals you will realize where you want to be in a week, a month, a year.

Be sure to set realistic goals so that you don't get frustrated and give up.  It is good to reevaluate your goals periodically to make sure that they are attainable and realistic.  Just don't make your freelance writing goals to easy otherwise you will not push yourself further to attain your ultimate goals.

Set your freelance writing goals and reach for the stars!

Find 101 Freelance Writing Jobs on Squidoo

I have written more over at Squidoo.  My new lens can help you find new freelance writing jobs if you are looking for more writing opportunity's then you might just find something at the link below.

101 Freelance Writing Jobs
Looking for Freelance Writing Jobs? Below you will find a great list of 101 Freelance Writing Opportunities. Freelance writing can be great for SAHM's and others who wish to make additional income writing from home. If you are just starting out freelance writing...

How to Write a How to Article

How to Article Writing

As a freelance writer you should know that how to articles can be very lucrative to write. Just putting How to ... in your title will not get you the page views that you are looking for though.

In order to make more money from your how to articles it must actually tell someone how to do the task step by step. One of the best places online to put your freelance how to articles is on Ehow.com If you freelance write at ehow then you already are familiar with thier simple set up.

Freelance Writing How to Articles at Ehow:
Ehow has everything set up for you in terms of writing a great how to article. They have slots for many pictures to add to your article for those visual people. I am one of those visual people who will gain much more from a picture than from a paragraph of instructions.

Ehow also has the step by step ease of a how to article. Writing freelance how to articles for ehow you should have an introductory paragraph or two and then go into the steps of how to complete the project, craft, DIY or other type of how to article. While I like pictures it is not necessary to have a picture for every step in your how to a few sprinkled around will do.

People know ehow and they trust them to find out how to do exactly what they were looking for. They can find your how to articles and then if they follow your directions they should come up with a completed project. You also have space for tips at the end of the how to article to tell them exactly how to get the best results.

Here is one of my Ehow articles:  How to Make Money Online Freelance Writing

How to Niche Articles
There are already how to articles on just about anything that is major or popular. So the best thing for you as a freelance writer to do is to narrow down that topic. Don't write: How to Lose Weight, but instead write: How to Lose Weight After 40. Just by adding a few words and narrowing down your category you have a more valuable article than just the general ones out there that are a dime a dozen. Which means your niche how to article has more of a chance of being seen by more people, and getting picked up by other websites.

Freelance Writing and Blogging for Income

If you are a freelance writer who currently writes online for some of the content writing sites such as Associated Content, Bukisa and Helium you might want to consider starting your own niche blog.

Blogging in your specialized freelance writing area can give you a much needed change from the strictness of intensive research and working with frustrating editors. When you start your own freelance writing blog based on your favorite writing area you get to show your knowledge and creativity. Many times when writers finish a freelance article it must be totally devoid of all personality and only list the facts. With a blog you can spend some time letting your personality shine through.

By freelance writing blog posts on your own blog you control what you write, when it is written and the advertisers on your blog. Which leads to making money with your blog. Many freelance writers will write daily for others and will not spend any time writing for their own blog because they don't believe that it could be profitable. You know that there are bloggers out their pulling in as much money as CEO's of huge corporations. Why? Because those bloggers know how to advertise and promote their blogs. Freelance writers can do the same with their blogs.

Ways to Earn Money From Your Blog:

• Google Adsense ads: By placing ads from Google or other advertisers you can make some money with your blog and freelance writing posts.

• Review Products: There are several places that will pay you to post a review on your blog. You need to make sure that these reviews are related to your niche though.

• Affiliate Marketing: You can promote Affiliate products and use affiliate links to recommend products to your readers.

• Informational Products: Recommending ebooks related to your blog's niche can help your blog to become prosperous and bring your blogging income up.
  

If you are a freelance writer you can see that if done right producing your own niche blog can bring you more money. Some freelance writers who once wrote hundreds of articles now only publish blog posts for their own very profitable blogs.

Is it time to try Online Freelance Niche Writing?

Niche Freelance Writing

If you look at my articles on Associated Content - Marie M. Daniels Contributor Profile
You can see that I am a general freelance writer, I have many different interests and I write about them all. But here on my blog I have only been writing about freelancing or freelance writing tips for the most part.

Which one is more profitable in freelance writing? It can go either way if you are good at marketing yourself then general writing can do well. If you on the other hand don't want to market yourself and prefer to let your freelance article writing stand on their own then Niche writing may be for you.By Niche freelance writing you can have a group of articles that you have written and potential clients will find you on their own and want to contact you for paid writing assignments because you are representing yourself as an authority on the subject they are interested in.
Niche freelance writing means that you only cover one subject, topic or area. Let us use freelance writing as a niche example. You need to brainstorm all possible slants and different ways to present freelance writing and then write articles on them. Some people think that niche writing will limit what you can write about. In some ways niche writing can limit you, but if you are smart about it you can be profitable.

All you need to do is to niche write about different topics in different places. Consider writing about the news or celebrities at Examiner. Then you can take your parenting articles and publish those over at Triond. If you want to write about sports try being a Featured Sports Contributor over on Associated Content. If you niche write this way you are more likely to get people to read several of your articles and they may even bookmark you or subscribe to your articles.

To take freelance niche writing even further you can always use a pseudonym or pen name to write in your different niche areas. The important thing about niche writing is to build your brand which is your name and your niche. Those two things need to be found together all over the place so you can get plenty of higher paid writing jobs.

Marie M. Daniels Earns Writing Badge

My Top 1000 Contributor Badge for AC

What is the Top 1000 Badge at Associated Content? Why and how did Marie M. Daniels get this award?

I won the ToP 1,000 Badge at Associated Content!

Color me Happy!

Freelance Writing Frequently Asked Questions FAQ

Freelance Writing Frequently Asked Questions FAQ

Many people who want to start freelance writing or find jobs freelance writing have questions for those who are more experienced freelance writers or those freelancers who are actually making money freelance writing.

Here are the FAQ for Freelance Writing:
(in no particular order)

1. How do I get more page views to my articles?
This is where SEO search engine optimization, good keywords, and LSI Latent Semantic Indexing come into your writing. If you use the right words and the words that are related to your keywords then the search engines will pick up your articles and you will get more views.
You can also email the link to all of your family and friends even coworkers, and use social bookmarking such as Digg, StumbleUpon and post the link to twitter and facebook.

2. What do I write about?
You start out by writing freelance articles about what you know, from there you begin to research your topics.

3. What kind of rights do my articles have?
It depends on where you post them or who you sell them to. For instance at some places such as Helium and Bukisa.com you can post your freelance articles and then put them up at the other site. Those two writing sites don't make you give up your copyright. You can sell your articles and then make a deal with the freelance site about what kind of rights you want to give to them.
Rights include:
Exclusive (You give up all rights)
Non Exclusive (You can republish)
Display Only
Creative Commons (Work can be posted anywhere by anyone else with attribution of the authors name)
No Syndication Allowed (Copying or Altering of the content is not allowed)

4. Can I make a living with Freelance Writing?
Yes you can make a full time income with freelance writing. Most online freelance writers don't put all their eggs in one basket. If they are making a full time income freelance writing then they most often are writing for multiple freelance places. Sometimes these full time freelance writers often have private gigs and clients they work with.

Those are just a few of the questions that come up in freelance writing forums over and over again. Remember to just keep writing, you will get more money, and your writing will evolve over time, as long as you keep your eyes open and pay attention to what is working for other freelance writers.

Where to Find Freelance Writing Jobs Online for the Newbie

Where to Find Freelance Writing Jobs Online for the Newbie

There are many freelance writing places online that will pay you to post your freelance articles. Many of these freelance writing jobs will have a 400 word minimum requirement, but some do not.

Most of these freelance writing sites are ad revenue sharing sites. Which means the freelance writing sites put your article up for free and then put advertisements on the same page. And those freelance writing jobs will share a little of the money they get from the advertisers.

Easy Freelance Writing Content places to get started freelance writing online:

Ehow
Squidoo
Helium
Associated Content
Triond
Epinions
Today.com
Constant Content

Go and browse around these online freelance writing sites, and sign up at the freelance writing jobs you like.

Are You Cut out to be a Freelance Writer?

Are You Cut out to be a Freelance Writer?

Freelance writers must be disciplined and have good time management skills. When you freelance write you need to go out and get your own freelance writing jobs. Competition for some freelance writing jobs can be fierce. So if you want to be a freelance writer you need to be organized and show potential for those writing jobs. You will want to have a writing sample complete with SEO and correct grammar and spelling to show that you can do the work if they should ask for a sample.

Are you disciplined enough to be a freelance writer?
When you are a freelance writer you have to make your own schedule and if you don't schedule yourself time to write and instead watch a movie you will loose out. While you were watching that movie you could have written at least two articles and you can sell those articles for money. Or you could publish those two articles at a content site such as www.Bukisa.com and start earning residuals for your freelance articles.

Being a freelance writer or a work at home business owner requires a certain type of person. Do you think you are that type of person? Can you balance the aspects of a freelance career? If you think you are ready then make a schedule and start writing and start getting paid.

Getting Started Freelance Writing Tips

If you want to get started in the online freelance writing business there are a few things you must consider first.

1. What will you write about? Or... Who will your audience be?
Will you be writing about what you love and know? If you are a gardening whiz with a green thumb you should write about gardening. If you can build your own computers you should write about the computer field. You get the idea, right?

2. Are you going to write for fun, profit or as a full time job? Your answers to that question will dictate where and how often you should be writing or publishing your work. If you are just dabbling or beginning I would suggest www.Bukisa.com or Associated Content. If you are more experienced at writing and want to make more income you should try Demand Studios, Constant Content and Elance.

3. Start writing anything, even if it stinks. You have to write something before you can publish it and if you don't publish then you won't get paid.

So You Want to be a Freelance Writer

So you are thinking about being a Freelance Writer.

The first thing you need to do if you want to become a freelance writer is to begin writing. Writing everyday will get you into practice and help your writing become better and you will find your writing style.

As a new freelance writer you want to know what you should begin writing about. If you know anything about gardening, home improvement, or parenting that is the place to begin. Freelance writers need to write about what they know. If you write about what you are knowledgable about then you will have writing authority. More people will want to read your articles because you have a commanding writing voice.

I suggest you begin writing at a few of the content writing sites such as www.Bukisa.com to start out your freelance writing career. Bukisa's writing site pays much more than others for page views, and you only have to write 250 word articles (much less than most) and it is a great way to get your freelance name out there.

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