Tag Archives: freelance writing

The Handbook of Magazine Article Writing

handbook-of-magazine-article-writing.JPG The Writer’s Digest Handbook of Magazine Article Writing covers all the bases; query letters, coming up with ideas editors will love, and developing that all-important skill of targeting your queries to just the right market. If you’re new to the magazine writing game, try out this one…you’ll get some great help to get your first batch of queries out the door in the most effective way possible.

Most appealing about this book? It draws on the experience of a large number of successful freelancers. There are plenty of books written from a single freelancer’s point of view, but the range of experience represented in this book offers more perspective. Take what works and leave the rest! With 248 pages of freelance writing wisdom, you’ll find plenty of advice to apply to your early work.

Buy for $11.55

Why You Really Need to Start a Blog

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According to a Freelance Switch survey, only 15% of surveyed freelancers write a blog. To the 85% of you who are not writing blogs, I say a hearty thank you. Thank you for making my quest for more paying gigs that much easier by taking yourselves out of the race. Self-promotion is one of the most important parts of this crazy business of ours, and by not promoting yourself, your expertise, and years of experience in the game you seriously cut down the competition for yours truly. You guys are awesome.

When I read that 15% factoid as reported in Mike Gunderloy’s post at Web Worker Daily, I admit I was fairly surprised. I would assume a much higher figure. Any freelancer who wants to get paid should be taking a serious look at how they market their number one asset–themselves. If you aren’t pushing your skills, you sell yourself short. Doing a blog is not going to drive employers to your virtual doorstep in droves, they won’t be beating down your door just because you have your shingle out. But any time you apply for a new gig, you should use every tool at your disposal, every advantage over that other 85%.

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Five Ways To Use MySpace to Advance Your Writing

Bloggers use social networking sites like MySpace for self-promotion all the time. But how can a struggling freelance writer take advantage of the same type of strategies bloggers use? It’s easy. Here’s the breakdown in five easy steps:

1.  Cultivate lots of “friends”. The law of averages says the more MySpace friends you have, the higher the response rate will be when you post a link to your material or send a bulletin saying “Hey, look at this!” The extra eyeballs on your work means the greater likelihood that your article will get comments and feedback. The more activity on a given article, the better you look in the eyes of an editor who has to decide whether to use you again.

 2. Add “targeted” friends. Got somebody else in the biz you want to make friends with? Maybe an editor or a publication you want to get published has a MySpace site. Add them as friends and start up a casual “relationship” with them by sending the occasional message or posting a nice comment. This is standard MySpace behavior, but when it comes time to strike up a conversation with someone at that publication you won’t be such an unknown quantity at a medium-sized or smaller operation. The key here is to be a semi-regular MySpacer, posting and commenting without mentioning your own work–until you need to.

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When Should I Go Full Time?

Many ask, few are happy with the answer. It’s time to go fulltime freelance when you have one or more of three basic questions answered in the affirmative:

1. Is my current gig interfering with my growing career?
2. Is at least half my income coming from freelancing?
3. Do I have work to rely on as a fulltime freelance writer?

If you can’t answer all three questions “yes”, you might not be ready for the leap. There is one major reason for this, money issues aside. Networking, having contacts in the industry, and knowing where you can pick up work are the essentials you need to survive as a fulltime writer.

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