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July 04 A very important blog announcement! Hi there! You'll be glad you tripped over this blog post, because I have an announcement I'd like to make with regard to my writing blog. Don't panic though - I'm not going to stop blogging altogether. In fact the news is actually very good news! I've been thinking about setting up my own 'proper' blog - with my own domain name and hosting - for a while now. And thanks to the efforts of my other half I have finally got to the stage where it is going to happen. So first of all, it could be that you notice older blog posts disappearing from time to time. This is because we are migrating them all over to the new blog. I may post one or two more messages on this blog for a while, but my new blog will soon be the main place to go to find out more about my writing life. And because I have my own blog over which we have total control, I'm planning on developing it to a much greater extent. The blog is called My Online Freelance Writing Career, and you can go there right now to see how things look. I love the new look, and I think it will really build into something good for the future! In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for blog posts or anything in particular you'd like to see about any aspect of online writing, do let me know. I look forward to hearing from you! June 17 Hi all - it's back to writing my blog once more Why does it feel as if all my latest blog posts start with an apology? I suddenly realised that I haven't blogged for ages, and since I have only managed one blog since March, I think it's now time to tell you why. Unfortunately my mother in law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer back in February this year, and after an unbelievably short illness she sadly passed away on 4th June. As you can imagine, my partner and I were there as much as we could be, and as we realised the last stages of the illness were upon us in late May, we were there practically every day with the rest of the family. Work has taken a back seat for the last couple of weeks, and although I am getting back to something resembling normality now, we are still adjusting to life without her. So that's why I've not been around. I'm planning on writing a Squidoo lens with proceeds going to cancer research at some point; I did one on ovarian cancer in memory of my mum, so it seems right that I should do the same here too. And I will do another for my dad, who passed from bowel cancer several years ago. It's just too soon to tackle it yet. So rest assured I will be back - I haven't gone away and I have found my writing something of a comfort as we try and get through each day. See you soon. May 19 Has it really been this long? I think it has. This is a necessarily short blog post, just to reassure you all that I am still here! Life has rather taken over of late, which is why I haven't posted to my blog recently. We've been on holiday for starters, but I am also going through a course of dental treatment and trying to fit in all those other jobs that always need doing. Add that to the workload which has been constantly coming in and you'll see why my blog has fallen by the wayside! I am determined to change things though, so hopefully I will have some more blog posts to come very soon. At the moment I am working my way through a huge pile of websites that need to be written for one of my nicest clients. It's nice that I am booked up with major projects for the next few months though - always very reassuring! I'm trying to fit in some exercise time too, as I have a hankering to go swimming to keep the brain healthy as well as the body. Sounds daft? Trust me, swimming is wonderful for just letting your mind drift instead of thinking about work all the time. I have to finish my dental treatment first though, so for now it's back to writing and back on the exercise bike... See you soon! February 26 Welcome to all my new readers and writers!I have noticed in the past few days that I have picked up some new followers to my blog. So with that in mind I just wanted to say hi, thanks for coming along and I hope you enjoy what you're reading! Part of this new influx of people is due to my putting more effort into my Twitter account. I've spoken about that already in previous blog posts, so I won't go into any more detail here. But I have been thinking about expanding my blog to focus on more areas that might be of interest to freelance writers and online writers of all kinds. The majority of full time freelance writers work from home, and so I will be touching on this subject in more depth as well. These are some of the subjects I will be focusing on: * finding work * getting paid * creating a career for yourself * working efficiently from home * being positive and not letting rejection harm you There will be more subjects as well I am sure, but I think these cover many of the questions I get from people who are just starting out, or in the first stages of a writing career. But if you have any more ideas for topics or categories that you would like to see me cover in future blog posts on writing, be sure to let me know in one of the following ways: * reply to this post with a comment * tweet me on Twitter! * send me a message I look forward to hearing from you! February 25 Writing tweets!Hi there - and yes I
am still tweeting like it's going out of fashion! My attempts to
connect with more writers, Squidooers and other internet marketing
people on Twitter are working. And I have DOUBLED the number of
followers I had since last week. Don't forget, if you are a writer I'd love to connect with you on Twitter. My ID is allison_w, so I will see you there. Back to work now... February 22 An update on TwitterJust thought I would update you on my previous post concerning Twittering. As you may know, Twitter is a website that lets you post short blog type updates about what you are up to, in 140 characters or less. I've made a concerted effort over the past few days to find more people on Twitter who are writers, or who are involved in online marketing in some way, as these mirror my own interests. And as a result I have had many more people following me too. I'm using it a little more often as well, thanks to a great Firefox add on that allows you to tweet directly into your address bar before posting it to the website. My own Twitter ID is allison_w, so join my own network if you would like to keep up with what I'm doing in my writing life! I tend to follow other people in return too, so I can extend your network as well. And with that, I can feel another tweet coming on... February 18 Are you Tweeting?I've filed this under 'general', but it is as much about writing and promoting as anything else. Do you have a Twitter account yet? If you don't and you are looking to expand your writing efforts, you might want to get one. I've been on Twitter for a number of months now. I started in the name of research for a small book I was writing, and I just kind of stayed! It's the brevity and ease of using it that I like, and I've discovered that it's so easy to keep updated and attract followers without too much effort at all. If you want to follow my updates, you'll see a link on the right hand side of this page. So why exactly is it useful? Well firstly I can get the word out about my blog and my website, and that seems to work well. It's all about linking separate pages and sites together, and Twitter fits in very well in that respect. But it can make you more accessible to potential clients too. And considering it takes mere minutes a day to update people on what you're doing, some worthwhile tweets are definitely worth the effort. So why not make today the day you start? It only takes a few minutes to get set up, and if you contact me directly through Twitter I'll start following you too! February 08 A weekend offHi all. I'm having a nice weekend off this week. That is an extremely rare occurrence for me; we normally take Sundays off but I can't remember the last time we took a Saturday off as well. It's been good though to catch up with family and friends and leave the writing behind for a while. One of my main resolutions this year was to have a little more 'me' time and not spend every waking hour writing (at least that's what it felt like). And even though I have occasionally turned down the odd job here and there, my earnings are on par with last year. I'm also enjoying that down time and it's recharging my batteries so that I can write more in less time again. I would thoroughly recommend it if you feel like you aren't getting any time off from your writing at all. I'm still being very pro-active though which is good. I haven't done any more Hubpages yet, although I think I can feel one coming on just as I am writing this! It's been good to get back on there again, so I'm intending on keeping it up. The prospect of earning something from Google Adsense as a result of getting visitors to my web pages is something that I can look forward to for the future as well. So, it IS my weekend off and there's a nice cup of tea and an episode of "Lost" waiting for me downstairs... Write soon! January 09 Back for 2009!First off, Happy New Year, and I hope you all had a great Christmas. We had a very relaxing one - two whole weeks, for the first time ever! - which has left us ready to get our teeth into the New Year. And now things are back to something resembling normality, I am planning to get back to updating my blog much more regularly. We are still pinching ourselves as far as eBay is concerned - that was one busy Christmas, especially seeing as this credit crunch is supposed to be affecting everyone. But now there is a fresh new year to think about, and I have some writing goals I would like to make happen. The main one is to develop my client base a little more. Isn't that every writer's resolution for a new year? Maybe it is, but it is there for a good reason. I've been freelancing for a whole year now (it's actually one year today), so I know how the whole thing works and I've had a year to really settle myself in. I've found that it is VERY easy to work all the hours that are available to you, and I was certainly guilty of depriving myself of some social time last year. So this year my partner and I have decided to give ourselves every Sunday off, plus Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings at the least. This week we have had almost every evening off, so it depends on workload and more usually how quick I am to get my work done! But I am finding that because I am having more time off, my writing speed is WAY faster. So I am completing pretty much the same workload per day in less time! How cool is that? My brain definitely needs some downtime and it obviously pays to actually give it some. So I will let you know how that little experiment goes, as I was getting rather stressed with all the constant work I was doing. Doing the same in less time seems to be doing well! But back to developing my client base. Keeping in touch with old clients is definitely a good thing from time to time, since you might just squeeze an extra job or two out of it. But developing new clients and websites that you can work for is also well worth it. I remember deciding to spend an evening browsing the freelance job sites and classified ads for writers a couple of years back, and I got my best ever paying job from that little exercise. And I still work for them now, so it definitely paid dividends. Anyhow, I think that is enough waffling for now! It is 7.50pm here, and I've got to get my work organised for tomorrow, so I don't waste time in the morning. Aren't I being efficient! Speak again soon - and let me know how your own writing goals are shaping up for 2009! December 07 Too busy to blog!Hi there! Yes I am still around - but eBay has taken precedence over everything at the moment. I am still writing but it is being fitted in around running to and from the post office! lol The nice thing is that it's giving me a chance to blow the cobwebs out. We are having Christmas and New Year off this year for the first time ever, so by the time January 2nd rolls around and it's back to work, we will both be ready to start a New Year. That would be my advice to anyone who is feeling a little frazzled with all the jobs that are still to be done in the run up to Christmas. Give yourself some time off from your writing to make sure you enjoy the season. Some people are taking every job going just to be sure that they don't miss out on any cash in a time when things are difficult, but you can't carry on working too hard if it starts affecting the quality of your work. So make sure you get your priorities right, and you can enjoy the festivities as well as bringing in some extra cash. November 06 Stil busy? You betWell here it's been several days once more since my last blog post, and I'm squeezing this one in before my next task for the day. There is no doubt this is the busiest time of the year here. Not only am I doing lots of writing, but eBay has gone bonkers. That means it's all hands on deck and in between writing articles, web pages and short eBooks I am also helping out with packing up orders and doing runs to the post office! I am also making a concerted effort to get some more exercise, so you will usually find me reading a book while pedalling 3 miles on the exercise bike every afternoon. It certainly beats that mid afternoon writing slump I usually get. Things are going well though, so I've treated myself to a brand new mini laptop. It's just perfect for writing on the move, or when I need to be away from my desk for some reason. We can't see much of a let up until Christmas, so this manic period has a few weeks to go yet. Sundays are our best shot at getting half a day off! So with that in mind, it's back to the grindstone... October 01 Back to writing again |
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