Friday, January 29, 2010

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.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

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.

Monday, January 25, 2010

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!

Friday, January 22, 2010

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.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

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.

Monday, January 18, 2010

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.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

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.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

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.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Recent Article: How to Aid Haiti Earthquake Victims and Donate to Relief

Haiti Earthquake: How to Aid Haiti Earthquake Victims and Donate to Relief Funds

After the horrible Haiti Earthquake tragedy many want to know how to help out those Haitian earthquake victims. Find out what you can do to help out those hurting from the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.