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July 25 The Page of Fives Hi all - I have another announcement to make here, in the shape of a new section on my new blog. It's called the Page of Fives, and it will deal with lots of aspects of my writing that will be good to share with you. For example, the first one is 5 websites that I couldn't do without as a writer. It was hard work narrowing these down, but I think I've come up with the five that I would really miss if they disappeared! You can look forward to more 'fives' in the future too. And if you subscribe to the RSS feed on my new blog you won't miss any of them at all. So... isn't it time to see which 5 sites mean the most to me? Perhaps you could suggest your own? 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! March 30 A good day for taking on more work!First of all I'd like to welcome all my new readers. No matter whether you read my blog regularly or you use the RSS feed to keep up to date, it's good to have you aboard! Last week was relatively quiet on the writing front; enough to keep me ticking over quite happily, but also enough to warrant a couple of extra days off in the garden! And it was great weather too - I can now write some articles about growing your own tomatoes from seed, among other things... But after taking Sunday off I have arrived back at my computer this morning to find an influx of emails with new jobs for me to do. That was great news as I was itching to get back into the swing of things again. I have several new batches of articles and an eBook to take on as well. So I am prepared for a long day - and evening - typing away, and I am really enjoying it. The purpose of this blog post is to share the benefits of having a few extra days off when it's quiet. It is good to try and grab some more work and apply for new jobs of course, but you should also take some time for yourself to recharge your writing batteries. Gardening is how I do it, when the weather permits. It has done me the world of good, and I now have a nicer garden to look out on as well! So it could be a busy week, one way or the other. But I'm ready to take it on with both hands and a fresh mind and brain too. I'm planning on blogging more this week as well, to share how I am getting on with this new batch of work. But it's days like this when I feel really grateful to be able to stay home and write to my own timetable - it's what I love, and it is why I recommend that anyone wanting to write for a living just gives it a go. Don't let it pass you by! I'll catch up with you again soon. March 25 From article writer to blog writer...Hi all - it's been a busy week or so here, which is why I haven't posted to my blog lately. But there has been a lot going on behind the scenes... Firstly it feels as if I have been focusing more on blogs than articles recently. Is everyone concentrating on developing their blogs instead of getting articles written for them? It certainly seems like it - and it has been a nice change, I must say. But even as I speak there are some more articles coming in to be written, so that should even things out a bit! Do you have any preference as to the nature of what you write? Do you think of yourself as an article writer, or do you focus more on blogging for other people? It helps to develop both skills, since it doubles your chance of getting work. I have also found that I am doing more reviews recently as well, which again provides a nice change. So if you are looking around for your next writing job, why not cast your net further afield and try your hand at other types of writing? Not only could you earn more, you will also get a much more fascinating mix of things to write each day. March 14 The benefits of working for more than one clientThey do say that variety is the spice of life, and that is certainly what you get when you work for more than one client or company. I have certainly found this to be the case, and it gets rid of any waiting time you would otherwise have while you are drumming your fingers and hoping that your sole client will have more work for you soon. I have a good mix of clients now, and there are plenty of benefits to doing so. The most valuable benefit is that you aren't putting all your eggs in one basket. If anything happened and you lost that client, it would be the equivalent of losing a regular job. You'd have to rush around trying to find another source of income pretty quickly. But if you have half a dozen or more, while it would still be a loss of earnings, it wouldn't be catastrophic. That's why it always pays to market yourself and get as many clients as possible. It also gives you more valuable experience in working for different people and companies, of course. I work for a wide range of people, including two very significant companies, as well as individuals who are carving out their own niche in cyberspace. And I LOVE working for them all. They all have their own attractions and benefits, and I learn something new about online writing with every new job I take. So ask yourself this right now - how many people do YOU work for? Try and aim for that magic half a dozen if you can, and then work on increasing it. The more sources of income you have, the better protected you will be in your online writing career. And in the current economic climate, that can only be a good thing. March 11 How much writing do you do for yourself?This is a topic I have been grappling with a lot of late! It's always great to be working for such a broad cross section of clients, but all writers tend to have other projects that they want to work on for their own benefit as well. For example, there is a website called Constant Content that you can write articles for and simply put them up for sale. I love writing for this site, but quite often I find I don't have the time to do so. And yet once I have a good body of work on there I know I will be able to sell steadily through the weeks and months to come. The trick is finding the time to write those articles in the first place. Now I have a plan of action for every single day that I write. At the end of each day I will take a look at what I need to do on the following day, and write a list accordingly. But until recently I never put anything for myself on that list. Obviously the most important work is the work that is due for other clients; if I find myself pushed for time for any reason then the client work always takes precedence. But I have learned that if you don't put any time aside for your own work - and if you don't remind yourself about it on a daily reminder list - then it can get pushed to the bottom of the pile and forgotten as a result. So ask yourself what there is that you would like to do for yourself, as well as for others. And remember that sometimes working for yourself can bring in new clients anyway! March 07 The need to be versatile and plan ahead with your writingThe idea for this blog post came to me after three weeks of visiting a relative in hospital. Our usual work from home timetable (get up, start work, stop for lunch and then work through til early evening) went out the window, as we took up afternoon visiting hours. All through those three weeks my partner and I kept saying to ourselves, 'Thank God we work from home!' Even though we ended up having the afternoon off and working all evening until going to bed, it meant we could still get the work done and also visit pretty much every day. That was something we never could have done in a 'normal' job. Luckily I plan my writing as far in advance as I can, breaking longer jobs down into bite sized sections so I get something done on them every day. Obviously with our amended timetable of late, I had to take another look at my timetable to make sure I could fit in everything that had a time sensitive deadline on it. When real life intrudes in this way, it's a case of getting your priorities in order and dealing with the most important jobs first. I also tend to build in a couple of days leeway with each job I do, unless it is very small. So for example, if a job is due on the 10th, I will try and complete it by the 8th if I can. That way, if anything happens to throw me off course, I know I don't have to worry as I have some breathing space built in. It's easy to think you have plenty of time to do whatever needs doing each day. But sometimes the unexpected can really cause problems - so always make sure you look after your writing needs (and those of your clients) by planning ahead as much as you can. March 06 The silence of being rejected for work onlineIf you have ever tried applying for online writing jobs you see advertised all over the internet, you will know what the silence of rejection is like. Magazines are different. You will usually (not always but usually) hear back from them with a polite 'no thanks' if you are not successful with your latest article idea or manuscript. But when you apply for online writing work you never hear back unless you are successful. Boy did I find this difficult when I first started out! You have to develop a new tactic when you start doing this. Basically you have to send the best application you can, and then you forget all about it and get on with finding and applying for the next writing job. I actually won a small but regular writing job recently that I had applied to (and forgotten about) over a month before. It took me a few minutes to place where the work had come from! But it just goes to show that quite often you'll get writing jobs coming in when you least expect them to. You definitely shouldn't be discouraged if you haven't heard back from that latest application within a few days of sending it. Even if it is past the closing date for applications, don't get disheartened. Writing work online is hard fought for and hard won. You may get lucky and get the first few jobs under your belt virtually straightaway. On the other hand it could take weeks or even months. But don't give up. Work at improving your pitch. Get out there and start a writing blog, publish some articles on websites like Hubpages - get your name known. It will all benefit you in the end. And don't worry about the silence you'll get after submitting an application for a writing project. Sooner or later that silence will end - and then you will be in the flow of writing once again. March 02 Beating the isolation of being an online freelance writerOr any kind of writer, come to that. My thanks go to Susan, who commented on my last blog post and asked about the isolation we all experience as freelance writers. She has inspired me to write this particular blog post, as it wasn't a subject I had honestly thought too much about until she raised the question. So how do I beat the isolation? Well, I am into my second year as a full time freelance writer now, so I have had some time to get used to the working life. Any novelty has worn off (I think!) and I can now see the life of a freelancer as it really is. My situation is perhaps a little different from some other writers, since I also have an eBay business with my partner. That means we both work from home, so I am never really alone, or not for very long anyway. And I have to admit I don't really feel isolated by my work. Writing is essentially a solitary craft anyway, and I work better when things around me are nice and quiet and peaceful. That's just me though - I know Stephen King writes his novels with rock music pounding away in the background! But I do have contact with other people during the day, albeit via the internet. There are usually emails flying back and forth between my clients and myself, and I am usually on Twitter most days, seeing what other writers are up to at their various desks across the world. It may not be the same as meeting other writers face to face, but it is still a form of contact and it is very welcome. I feel the same about blogging too. I can imagine my band of readers out there in cyberspace, hopefully getting some encouragement and enjoyment from my words. Once again there is a connection and it is a pleasant one. I think it does depend on the type of writing you do though. I focus almost entirely on online writing, and all the other writers I am familiar with online tend to be in touch through email or Twitter or some other form of social networking. There are always writing groups locally in every country and every locale, but when I last went it was very much magazine and book writing that was being focused on. Different writers will feel isolated to different degrees of course. But there IS a huge network of writers online, via blogs, forums and social networking sites, and they are not difficult to find. All you need to do is plug yourself into it - and you might be surprised at how much the sense of isolation can be alleviated by doing just that. That's why I am firmly hooked on Twitter! February 28 New blog topic for writers - is working from home all it's cracked up to be?Hi there to all my readers. After my last blog post I thought I should get started with a new blog category today, and it's going to be working from home. This is something that virtually all writers do, whether they are part time or full time. It's also something that many writers dream about being able to do once they are earning enough to be able to. I finally managed to achieve it after years of trying (and some six months of trying to get work purely from online writing opportunities), so I wanted to sit and consider whether it is as good as I thought it would be. And the answer - for me at least - has to be yes. It can be very busy, and you have to be able to organise yourself very well, but even the worst day is so much better than the good days ever were in my old job! I am generally very good about planning my days. For example, I am rarely up any later than 8am, although if I have had a late one the night before or I have stayed up to finish a job (that's rare, since I have a timetable) then I might catch a lie in. I did go through a phase last year of getting up at 7am to start work, but that was mostly during the lighter and warmer summer months. Who knows, I might do it again this year! I had also been used to getting up at 5.45am to go to my regular job, so I think it took my body clock a while to adjust. I have discovered that I work better when I set the alarm to get up at a reasonable hour though. It takes me ages to get going otherwise. I always plan ahead too, and make sure I know what I am doing each day. The last thing to do each day is to work out a schedule for the following one, but quite often I have already done it anyway. If I have several big projects on all at once, I might even plan out most of the week ahead, making sure to block out time for myself as well as for work. That is probably the biggest drawback I have found from working from home. It is very easy to work too much and never get any time to yourself. I started working from home in January 2008, and I must admit that last year I did fall intot that trap of working too much and not getting much time off. I think part of it was due to the excitement of finally having been able to achieve my lifelong dream - to work as a full time writer. I've settled down now though, and I always make sure I take three evenings off a week and the whole of Sunday. This can change - such as it has at the moment where my partner's mum is in hospital and we are taking afternoons off on most days to go and visit - but that is one of the benefits of having your own timetable. You CAN make changes when you need to in order to live your life. So if you are reading this and you are wondering whether working as a full time freelance writer would suit you, I hope this has started to give you something of an insight into what it is like. There will be more blog posts to come on various aspects of this, so keep reading and subscribe to my RSS feeds to stay up to date! 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 14 The benefit of recommendationsOne of the best things about writing is that you can never quite be sure how or why new clients will find you. I learned that last night, if I didn't already know it. I write articles for a guy who contacted me through Squidoo several months back. He's a really lovely client, very helpful and friendly, and we get on very well. Last night I was contacted by someone through my website, who as it turned out had been recommended to contact me by this original Squidoo guy! It looks as if this new clients is going to be a regular, with blog posts and an article or two to do every week. It just goes to show how connections you make through your writing can reach out and continue to pay off months - if not years - into the future. Here's another story for you. Years ago - and I'm talking probably fifteen years here - I wrote articles for a lovely lady living in the UK who had her own magazine. Eventually I think we lost touch, but I often wondered how she was doing. I had a few years away from writing for one reason or another, and then I came back into it with a view to writing for online markets. Anyway one day I received an email from someone promoting a book. And this book turned out to have been written by the same woman I wrote for all those years ago. I hopped on her website and sent a message along the lines of 'do you remember me?' Needless to say she did, and after we had caught up on things she asked if I still wrote articles... Now I write four well paid articles for her once a month, so it just goes to show that those writing connections you make have a habit of leading you in all kinds of curious and wonderful places! This is one good reason for making sure you keep on going, no matter how dejected you might feel at times. That connection you make with someone today could lead to a well paid writing job at some point in the future... February 12 Writing anything different lately?Well they say variety is the spice of life, don't they? You might remember I said I'd had a long break from writing eBooks for a while, because I just felt worn out with them? Well I am itching to get started on this new one! I sent off the table of contents to be approved yesterday, but I'm so ready for this that I might just make a start on the introduction before I get confirmation back. I never usually do that, but I don't think it will be wasted somehow. I've also had some more work come in which is made of product reports. Once again, something different to get my teeth into. So how are you doing with your regular work? If you are finding things a little hard going, why not try doing something a little different to fire you back up again? This is especially worthwhile if things are a little quiet, as they were last week. They're picking up again now, but it was an excellent chance to jump on some new opportunities and make the most of a few websites that I haven't previously had the time to do anything with. If you're into your writing, stay tuned as I may share a few of my sources with you. Be sure to visit the link on the right though, which takes you to my best Squidoo page on the subject! Happy writing - I'll be back soon. February 11 Back to longer projects?Hi all. Well after a long weekend off, I have just snagged a new project - a 100+ page eBook. That's good news as I did take a step back from writing them for a while. I do love writing articles and I'd done so many eBooks on the trot that I was feeling a little worn out! But after having a break from them for a few short months and focusing largely on articles, blogs and web pages, it's back to writing longer material from this week. It's a nice subject too, so I think it will be rather enjoyable. Do you have a favourite topic or type of work that you prefer over all others? Or do you always try and get a good mix of work to keep you entertained? 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! |
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