A Productive Pen» twitter

5 Tips For Becoming a Freelance Blogger

ebourne — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 05:53:51 +0000

Freelance blogging involves writing blog posts for other bloggers. You will be helping other bloggers keep their blogs supplied with fresh, well-written content while doing work you enjoy for decent pay. Adding freelance blogging to your portfolio can be an effective way to keep a more steady flow of work coming your way while adding more variety to your work life.

Freelance writers enjoy an enviable lifestyle that affords them the ability to work where and when they choose, and for clients that they choose doing work that they enjoy. One of the downsides is that there tends to be a bit of a ‘feast or famine’ cycle of being swamped with work, and then sometimes, work is difficult to find. Adding more skills to your service offerings gives you more opportunities to serve a more diverse client base.

Aside from a love and passion for the craft of writing, you’ll also need a solid foundation in Internet marketing, effective website design and some knowledge of basic SEO practices to become a freelance blogger. Knowledge of how to manage the popular blogging platform, WordPress, is also important. Your clients may want you to write the posts and then publish them to the blog as well.

Because basically anyone who can write a sentence, and who has Internet access can slap up a blog, you’ll have to differentiate yourself from the teeming masses by providing excellent, well-written content that’s beyond what the average person would be able to find upon doing a cursory online search.

Here are five tips for getting started with freelance blogging:

1. Start your own blog.
Your first step is going to be to demonstrate that you can create some results with your content. Create a blog on a topic that you are passionate about and work towards getting it ranked high in the search engines for your keywords. Cultivate an audience and engage with them on your blog. Demonstrate best practices and show potential clients that you know how to build and maintain an effective blog.

2. Create a page for your blogging services
Decide on what price you will charge per word, giving a price for a range of word counts from 350-400, 500-600, and 1,000 word posts. Although blog posts tend to be more effective when they are shorter and to the point.

Post your resume and a way for potential clients to request references.

Provide sample blog posts and consider sharing traffic data for particular posts.

Include testimonials that describe the results your blog posts have helped other blogs achieve.

3. Create relationships with potential clients by guest posting.
You can begin by offering to guest post for bloggers that you’d eventually like to write for. If they like your work they may consider hiring you in the future.

4. Comment regularly on blogs that you’d like to work with.
Leave thoughtful comments that add value rather than trying to show how nifty and smart you are. Join in the conversation and keep coming back to blogs that you like so that you can establish a reputation and credibility.

5. Utilize social media to gain exposure.
Use your Facebook profile, create a fan page for your blog and use the Networked Blogs app to connect your blog with the millions of other blogs on Facebook. Use Twitter to get traffic by tweeting when you publish a post. You
can also tweet about your topic and what’s happening with you.

If your blog is on a more serious business topic you’ll want to create a LinkedIn profile, add lots of relevant connections, and join participate in and start groups on your topic.

Visit the following forums to find blogging gigs:

forum.freelanceswitch.com
forum.freelancevenue.com
jobs.problogger.net
bloggerjobs.biz

You can also find blogging gigs on the regular freelancing sites such as oDesk, Elance and Guru.com.

If you’re an online freelance writer looking to expand your reach, freelance blogging can be a fun way to branch out , attract more clients and increase your bottom line.

Resources:

http://www.bloggingteacher.com/how-to-become-a-freelance-blogger

Share and Enjoy:

Tweet This Post

5 Things Every Article Marketer Needs to Know About Using Scribd.com for Getting Traffic

ebourne — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:31:02 +0000

If you are using article marketing to drive traffic to your blog, and you have not yet tried Scribd.com, you are missing out on a fabulous traffic source. Scribd is also a good resource for selling your eBooks, and establishing your credibility as an expert in your niche.

Called the, “Youtube.com of documents,” by Business Week, Scribd.com is a document sharing social media website where you can upload documents in several formats including .pdf, presentation or word processing documents for anyone to discover and read online or on mobile devices. After you have published a document you can get live statistics on page views and downloads.

Scribd.com is a vibrant community of users that make up the largest social publishing and reading website in the world according to their ‘about’ page. Through connections with Facebook and Twitter, and search engines like Google, a vast variety of free and paid documents are shared around the globe.

Discover a new audience for your articles
What this means for you as an article marketer is that you’ve got a whole new audience with which to share your articles and get exposure for your blog and your products. One of the limitations of the traditional model of article marketing has been the strict limitations that some of the better article directories place on writers.

Get more back links and targeted traffic to your blog
When you use social networking sites such as Scribd to publish your articles and eBooks you can put anchor text links in the body of your article allowing you to get more back links along with some nicely targeted traffic. If you know anything about Search Engine Optimization you know that the more, high quality, relevant back links you have to your site, the more important Google considers you to be.

Here are five quick tips to help you to make the most of scribd.com in your article marketing efforts:

1. Use a different profile for each topic/niche that you publish in. There is a ‘More from this user’ box on your profile page that allows viewers to see all of the previous documents you have published. If you have some articles on list building, some on fly fishing and another on porcelain doll collecting, you may come across as a dabbler and not a knowledgeable expert in any of those disparate topics.

2. Format your articles so that they are visually appealing. There will be a snapshot of the first page of the document. Make sure that you spell check and format the document so that it looks clean, professional and error-free. Use images where appropriate. Use Keywords in the title.

3. Tag documents with relevant keywords. Use the free Google Adwords Keyword Tool and enter your main keywords. Select 20-30 related keywords appropriate to your article’s topic and add them to the ‘tag’ field separated by commas.

4. Write a clear, thorough description using keywords. People will read the description to decide if they are going to click on your document to read it. The description will accompany the title in the search results, so make sure it contains a brief synopsis of what they will find in your article.

5. Integrate with Facebook, and Twitter. There are buttons that you can click that will integrate your profile so that your Facebook profile and Twitter feed are updated whenever you add a new document to scribd.com.

Follow these five tips and you should see a nice flow of traffic to your blog when you publish documents to scribd.com. If you’ve used Scribd.com, please share your impressions.

Share and Enjoy:

Tweet This Post

Blog Traffic: 5 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

ebourne — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:39:10 +0000

Blog traffic equals money if you have monetized your blog. There’s no use in mincing words about it. If you’re blogging to generate revenue, then getting more traffic and exposure for your blog should be your primary task.

Blogging is a great way to promote ‘Brand You’, and your products and services. It’s a great way to engage with your market and create a dynamic conversation between you and your prospective customers.

But when your blog is one out of millions of other blogs on the Internet, you’ve got to find some creative ways to stand out from the crowd so that your sparkling prose can actually be appreciated by the masses.

Here are five tips for getting more eyeballs on your page:

1. Write excellent content
Content is what blogging is all about, so make it worth reading.
Keep it clear and concise.
Write in short paragraphs.
Edit ruthlessly.

2. Make it easy to share your content
If a visitor really likes one of your posts, make it easy for them to share it with one click. Use a plug-in that allows them to post to several social media sites without any hassle.

3. Participate in social media
Create a profile and a Fan Page on Facebook and be active in groups on the topic of your blog. Join Networked Blogs on Facebook and visit, comment on and rate other blogs.

Create a profile on Twitter and link back to your site. Selectively follow people that have an interest in your blog’s topic or related topics. Share useful information and be a resource.

4. Be a guest blogger on other blogs
Find popular blogs on a similar topic to yours and develop a relationship with the author. Offer to do a guest post on their blog. You’ll get exposure from a new audience and if they like your post they’ll visit your blog.

5. Submit your blog to popular blogging directories

Technorati
Blogcatalog
Blogtoplist

The most important tip of all is to have fun with your blog. Don’t be shy about revealing your passion for your topic. Your genuine enthusiasm will radiate out and attract visitors in droves. Your authenticity is a magnet to those who share the same interest, so let it shine and you’ll see a steady flow of visitors to your blog.

You’re invited to subscribe to my email update list where you’ll get lots of free tips and resources in your mailbox.

What are your most effective ways of getting traffic to your blog? Speak your mind.

Share and Enjoy:

Tweet This Post

Do You Tweet? Reflections on My Experiences Using Twitter.com

ebourne — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:56:22 +0000

I have actually had an account at Twitter.com since August of 2006. I was in Ed Dale’s famous, 30 Day Challenge, and he was raving about the potential that Twitter held for engaging with our audience, building a following and sending traffic to our blogs. However, there was one small problem. There were not enough people on Twitter yet who ‘got it,’ so, I had about a dozen followers for about six months.

Flash forward to today when I have almost 2,000 follower. I find Twitter to be a fabulous marketing tool. I get lots of traffic from it, I am able to spread the word about what I’m up to and I’ve developed a community of friends there where we chat and re-tweet each others posts.

I do not use any of those apps that auto-tweets for me, although it would save me a lot of time. I don’t spend more than about 30 minutes all together over the course of a day on Twitter. I often send some tweets in the morning and then I sprinkle them in throughout the afternoon. I check my @replies and see if any of my peeps have anything that needs re-tweeting.

In my estimation, I send about a dozen or so tweets a day, unless I am trying to get a lot of exposure for something like a webinar or teleseminar. Then I might send a few more.

So, yes, I’m a Twitter fan. I try to keep it real, and yes I tweet about what I’m cooking, what I’m eating, what I’m writing, and when I find inspirational quotes. I tweet about what’s happening in my world–for instance right now I’m a bit snowed in as we’ve received about 24″ or so of snow this weekend and I haven’t got a shovel to dig my car out. . .

My Twitter handle is: @evelynwrites. Follow me.

Share and Enjoy:

Tweet This Post

100 Articles in 100 Days? Are You Kidding?

ebourne — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:11:29 +0000

At least that’s what the little voice in my head gasped when I joined Jeff Herring’s Article Writing Marathon earlier this week. I’m a writer, and a blogger, but somehow I’ve only managed to get less than a dozen articles submitted at Ezinearticles.com. I spend a lot of time working on my sites and writing for my clients, but recently I committed myself to becoming one of my best clients and writing more articles to get the word out about my blog and to hone my skills.

While I enjoy writing a lot, I have never been a fast writer. Recently, I did some research on how to be a more productive writer and I wrote a blog post about it. I am putting some of those strategies into place, and one of my goals is to shave down the time it takes me to produce an article. I also want to continue to improve my writing skills, so joining an article writing marathon should do the trick nicely.

When I got started on this project I made a list of topics that I enjoy writing about, that I am knowledgeable about and that I can write on fairly effortlessly without needing to do a ton of research. I divided that list into sub-topics, and an idea I got from the 100 Articles in 100 Days forum is to make a mind map of each topic as I narrow the focus. I also intend to keep my eyes open for article ideas to pop into my head from my daily life. This journey can also lead me to even more topics of interest to write about.

This week I have begun each day by writing my designated article before I dive into the other writing projects that are vying for my attention. That serves to give me a big boost of energy and accomplishment to start the day off in a positive way.

We even have a hashtag on Twitter.com: #HAHD. I’ve been tweeting my progress and I’ve gotten some good encouragement from my twitter peeps.

So, in the end I will have more than just 100 articles under my belt. I will have a ton of new back links to my blog, more visibility in the search engines, more traffic–nothing but good stuff. I’m excited about my progress so far. If you join us at 100 Articles in 100 Days you can look at my profile and see my running list of articles. I will also find a way to keep my progress updated here on my blog so that my readers can observe and hold my feet to the fire if I begin to falter.

If you’re a writer, I encourage you to check out the challenge and see if it might be just the thing to breathe some new life into your writing practice.

Share and Enjoy:

Tweet This Post

A Productive Pen» twitter

5 Tips For Becoming a Freelance Blogger

Other posts on this topic. . .

5 Things Every Article Marketer Needs to Know About Using Scribd.com for Getting Traffic

Other posts on this topic. . .

Blog Traffic: 5 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Other posts on this topic. . .

Do You Tweet? Reflections on My Experiences Using Twitter.com

Other posts on this topic. . .

100 Articles in 100 Days? Are You Kidding?

Other posts on this topic. . .