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If you’d asked me on January 1st what my plans for this year were, the word “freelancer” wouldn’t have appeared.

No, I was going to launch a wildly successful weblog, make a fortune from Google AdSense, and sign a six-figure book deal…

…I’m not quite there yet.

But I have managed to arrive somewhere wholly unexpected. I’m earning money from staff-writing on two blogs, both major players in their niches (Diet Blog and Daily Writing Tips) and my own blog has a small but regular readership. I’ve made about $800 so far; not “quit the day job” money, yet, but enough to make me realize that freelance blogging could be a viable way to earn a living.

You might well have a blog, though perhaps it’s a personal one based around a hobby or passion, rather than a professional one. And since you’re reading this on Freelance Switch, I’m guessing you have some interest in freelancing. If you’ve read through the “Getting started” articles, if you spend hours staring at your cubicle walls and dreaming up your next blog post (or typing away on the sly), and if you’re waiting, waiting, waiting for that first job, first client, first check, you might be closer than you think. Here’s how to fall into freelance blogging by accident…

1. Get started with your own blog

If you don’t already have a blog, or if your blog is of the “me and my cat” variety and only read by your mum, start one! I’d strongly recommend Darren Rowse’s blogging for beginners series, even if you think you know what you’re doing. (You have to be willing to rethink preconceptions, though. I read the whole thing before launching The Office Diet, and still believed that going live on 01/01/2008 would be a good idea because surely all those millions of people googling for “diet” and “weight-loss” in January would find my site…)

2. Throw a guest post out there

I wrote a guest post for Diet Blog, because I wanted to advertise my own blog in the byline. I made it the best post I could, following Skellie’s guest posting advice on ProBlogger – and was both impressed and a little scared when it received 22 comments.

Start with any blog you enjoy that publishes guest posts, and, ideally, that has multiple regular writers. Drop the editor a short, succinct email with a couple of lines on who you are and your proposed guest post. You might want to write the post first: if you do get a positive response, this means you can send it promptly, and some blogs I’ve written guest posts for (such as The Change Blog) invite readers to send in their post when they initially make contact. (I’d suggest a detailed pitch is best. Few posts are rejected once your pitch is OKed, while it can be quite disappointing when you’ve poured effort into a complete post only to have it refused. It happens to the best of us. — Ed.)

3. Jump in after your work (without looking back)

Diet Blog’s editor, Jim, wrote to me a couple of weeks later to ask if I’d be interested in becoming a staff writer. I e-mailed straight back “Would definitely be interested. :-)” and the moment I hit Send was the moment I stepped into a brave, and slightly strange, new world: that of the freelance blogger.

My next job came about in a similar manner. I contacted Daniel, who runs Daily Writing Tips, saying that I’d noticed the site didn’t have much in the “Fiction” category – would he be interested in a guest post? Within a week, Daniel asked me if I wanted to join Daily Writing Tips as a paid staff writer…

If your guest post is published and goes down well with readers, don’t be afraid to drop a friendly follow-up email to the blog’s editor. Mention that you enjoyed writing for the blog, and that you’d be interested in a regular staff position.

4. Stay on the right track – don’t crash at the start

As an accidental freelance blogger, I needed to further my knowledge in several areas:

1. My blogging subjects: health and fitness, and the English language.
2. How to blog – constructing great headlines and reader-friendly articles.
3. The business of being a freelancer.

For the first, your prior knowledge, books, and reputable websites all help. For Daily Writing Tips, I use dictionaries and style guides to research articles on the finer points of word usage. (Differences between “awhile” and “a while”, anyone? “Insure” and “ensure”?) For the second and third, look for great blogs about blogging, writing, and freelancing. Yes, you can learn a lot just by getting stuck in, but why not capitalize on other peoples’ years of experience rather than your own?

If you’ve ended up an Accidental Freelance Blogger, these are very useful blogs for people like us, all of which I subscribe to:

• Problogger – great insider advice on all aspects of professional blogging, from writing content to using Google Adsense.
• Daily Blog Tips – similar advice to Problogger, though more suitable for beginners and hobbyists.
• Skelliewag – insightful and thoughtful articles on writing content for blogs. Fewer posts than Problogger and Daily Blog Tips, but every one’s a gem.
• Daily Writing Tips – your grasp of grammar and spelling needs to be solid to get that first staff blogger post, and adding some flair to your writing will help you win further jobs.
• Copyblogger – learn about writing great web copy and the business of writing for a living.

And, of course, you could do far worse than hang around at Freelance Switch …

5. Keep speeding up …

Don’t be afraid to spend money on quality resources, too: earmark a percentage of your freelance income to invest on improving your skills and your business. That might mean buying a book (I snapped up How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer with my first week’s freelancing pay, and I pre-ordered Darren and Chris’s ProBlogger the day it was announced.)

Once you’re beginning to make a name for yourself, you may want to pay for a professional design for your own blog to showcase your work, or spend some of your earnings on a course to further your skills and to make new contacts.

6. Have some idea where you’re heading next (even if you’re not sure where you’ll end up)

If you haven’t yet banked your first dollar from blogging, make that your goal for this month.

If you’re biting your nails every time you think of trying to make contact with the people who are waaaaay above you in the blogosphere – write that e-mail today. Keep it short and friendly (bloggers are busy people), and make it clear what you’re asking. I found the advice at the bottom of “5 Habits Of Highly Ineffective Networkers” very helpful.

If you need to polish up your skills, buy that book you’ve been thinking of, or register for that course. Don’t feel guilty investing money into your business.

Whatever action you need to take in order to fall further into freelance blogging, do it today. If you really need a motivational boost, post in the comments telling us what you’re doing to take that next leap.

Me? I’m sending this post into Freelance Switch…

Ali started freelancing by accident and is now almost as obsessed with it as she is with chocolate. She invariably takes on too many projects at once, and spends the 9-5 hours regretting the need for a day job. She writes at The Office Diet.

Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com

Everyone with a blog, please raise your hand.

Alright, those of you with hands up can leave the classroom and hit the bar early. The rest of you, stay here, because this lesson is important.

Lets start with the quick summary of what a blog is. Short for Weblog, a blog is a website that displays posts by the author in chronological order. Their popularity is immense since most blogging platforms make it insanely simple for anyone to publish their thoughts on the web.

You’re reading one right now.

But why do freelancers need one?

It’s an extension of your portfolio

First and foremost, a blog is yet another place to show off your writing, design, photography or coding skills.

As such, it’s another place for potential clients to find you.

The ideal freelancer’s blog should be another part of his or her portfolio site (you already have one of those, right?)

But a key difference is showing off a little more personality on the blog since I’ve found most online portfolios to be a little on the sterile side (I’m just as guilty on that front.)

Along with a different method of posting from a more traditional portfolio site, most blogging platforms allow readers to leave comments giving you quick feedback on what you’re showing off (once you have readers, more on that later.)

Networking and marketing

One of the biggest advantages to having a blog is being able to build relationships with fellow freelancers who also blog by linking out and leaving comments on each other’s sites.

I’ve met people who’ve expanded their business into other countries thanks to relationships they’ve built up through blogging.

Now start one!

Getting a blog is easy and for the most part, free.

Go to one of the major blogging platforms like Blogger or Wordpress and sign-up for a blog. If you can’t think up a clever domain name, just go with your own name.

Using one of the free providers by default will give you a .blogspot or .wordpress domain but both providers support domain mapping (Blogger does it for free, Wordpress charges $10 per year though for $15 they’ll deal with registering it as well.)

Many people suggest that having a stand-alone domain makes you look more professional, but personally I don’t think it’s that big of a deal — especially since I’ve met company CEOs who have .blogspot.com domains.

Blogging away

So, now you’ve got your own little soap-box on the web that can be updated quickly and easily, what do you do with it now?

Well, an introduction post is usually good. Who are you and what are you doing?

Since we’re looking at this as a marketing tool, after that you should be writing about your field of work. Write with authority and establish yourself as an expert on what you do.

Post sketches and doodles of what you’re working on (or the equivalent in whatever you do) to show off your work.

As an example, I tend to use mine to post material that my current roster of clients aren’t buying but I still feel like writing. These days my bread and butter comes from monthly publications so I’ll also write up topics that will be stale by deadline which kind of brings back the feeling of being a daily newspaper intern (it even includes the glorious feeling of not getting paid!)

I’ve known programmers who’ll post about whatever platform they’re currently coding on along with whatever they love or hate about it along with giving progress reports on various projects. There are lots of possibilities.

Most important of all though, inject your personality into it. This should provide a good opportunity for potential clients to get an idea of the person behind the work.

While blogging isn’t a form of passive marketing, it also doesn’t need to take up that much time. Generally, it’s best to aim for one post per week at a minimum and try your best not to let it go stale.

Promotion

Finally, having a blog is pretty useless if the only one reading it is your mother, so let’s talk about promoting it.

Now, we’re not trying to build the next big web publication here, so there’s no need to go into all-out spam mode. Adding the link to your e-mail signature, your business card and leaving it when you comment on other blogs (most of them have a separate field to do this in the comments) should suffice to build a moderate readership.

Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com

The engine in a NASCAR racecar produces, on average, more than 750 horsepower. That’s more than twice the horsepower of most production engines on the street. You wouldn’t guess it, but NASCAR engines are very similar to street engines. They use the same cylinder bore centerlines as street engines, they have the same number of cylinders, and they start out their lives the same size as street engines.

A NASCAR Lesson

During the building process, however, a NASCAR engine changes radically. It grows to about 358 cubic inches, a full 20% larger than most street engines. A NASCAR engine has a radical cam profile that makes intake valves easier to open and holds them open longer. A NASCAR engine’s subsystems are all designed for high temperatures and blazing speeds.

A NASCAR engine is almost exactly like a street engine in the beginning. What makes the difference?

A heck of a lot of hard work.

The same is true of freelance writing. Most writers have some talent. Only the best, however, have what it takes to race with the best. So, how do they do it? How can you boost your writing horsepower and pull ahead of the pack?

Start Your Engines

The simplest process in the freelance life is also often the most difficult: you have to get started. You do that by writing. You write every day. You write when you don’t feel like it. You write at night, on weekends and even on holidays. Even when you don’t feel inspired, you have to put your fingers on the keyboard and write something.

Turbocharge Your Enthusiasm

Freelance writing isn’t always fun. Sometimes, you’ve got to spend three months writing about the care and feeding of dingoes. From time to time, you’ve got to crunch numbers and read reports and compare figures. No, these aren’t fun tasks. Here’s the thing, though: you get to be a writer. There is no better life. Remember how cool it is, and funnel that enthusiasm into your writing. Your readers can tell when you’ve lost interest, so don’t lose interest or you lose readers.

Get a Pit Crew

One of the biggest dangers to the freelance writer, especially to the Internet writer, is isolation. Isolation leads to burnout. Isolation causes you to miss things. Isolation keeps your writing at a stagnant level while you stop to change your own tires. Your pit crew might be a partner, an editor or a mastermind group, but whatever it is, you can’t run the race without one.

Outlast the Competition

When the end of a race approaches, a driver and his pit crew have to make some decisions: does the driver pit, risking the chance that he’ll fall behind, or does he push his car, hoping to avoid a blowout or blowup? Sometimes, being willing to keep going on nothing but a wing and a prayer is all you need to outlast your competition. This is why most blogs fail within 3 months: to succeed, you’ve got to stay with it.

Cross the Damn Finish Line

NASCAR doesn’t have playoffs. In fact, it is conceivable that someone could win the Nextel cup with zero wins. With NASCAR, it is all about the buildup of points. Sometimes, you’re going to get outbid. Sometimes, you’re going to get your ass handed to you. You’re going to lose clients. When you do, deal with it. Tune your writing, work on your sales pitch, and do what you have to do to succeed the next time around. As long as you don’t wind up in a fiery heap on the track, you’re still in the running.

Do you have what it takes to run the freelance race?

Bob Younce is a freelance writer and writing mentor from Linwood, Michigan. Bob is dedicated to helping Internet writers achieve their dreams.

Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com

It’s been about a year since I began blogging, and during that time I’ve started paying a lot more attention to writing. Not so much that I have gotten any good at it, mind, just enough to realise what an art it is.

Write To Done

Fortunately there are some good places on the web to help improve your writing skills. In particular, Leo of ZenHabits has launched overnight a new site called WriteToDone aimed at sharpening your technique.

He’s had a few great posts already:

• Edit to Done: Revision and the Art of Being Concise
• How to Write First Thing in The Morning
• Short Stories: The Art of the Start
  
• Writer’s Dilemma: Your Art vs. Paying the Bills
• What Makes Great Blogwriting?

And knowing Leo, this is just the beginning of a steady flow of good material. So do yourself a favour, pay him a visit at WriteToDone.

Other Great Reading For Writers

Two other great blogs for writers that I try to keep track of include the prodigious CopyBlogger and ever consistent Daily Writing Tips.

Doubtless there are plenty more, if you have any favourites, leave a comment so I can add them to my daily visits!

Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com

A year ago, I wrote exclusively for print publications. I suspect that many freelance writers (and photographers and designers) are in the same boat — print is where the money is, and it’s what we’re used to doing.

However, today, I write exclusively for online publications. I’ve completely transitioned from print, and I couldn’t be happier.

Why did I make the transition? A number of reasons, actually:

1. Writing for blogs and websites is less work per article. Doing research for a magazine article can take a week or two. Even a freelance newspaper feature takes a day or two of tracking down sources, getting interviews, etc. But writing a blog post? I mainly write from my own experiences — you can say that’s 17 years of freelancing research, but all of that’s already done. And if I do additional research, it’s online or through email — not a difficult proposition.
2. It’s much more flexible. With print publications, you’ve got a set number of words (or inches). If you go over that amount, there’ll most likely be some cutting. In print, if you’re out of room, you’re out of room. There are also much stricter publishing deadlines in print. But on the web, if you go a few paragraphs over or under, no one cares. You generally have to stay within a certain range of course — they’re not going to pay you for one paragraph, and no one wants to read a novel-length article. But if you don’t hit extremes, you’re fine. And while blogs generally like to stick to certain publishing schedules, they don’t fold if they miss a post. So although I don’t recommend that you bust deadlines, if you have a good working relationship with an editor, there’s more wiggle room.
3. It pays more per hour. While you might get paid less per article (though not always), online articles generally don’t take as long, as there is usually less research involved (as mentioned above). So I can usually crank out more articles writing for online publications.
4. I set my own topics. With print publications, I’m often given a topic to write about. Sure, I can make suggestions, but it’s not really my decision. With blogs such as FreelanceSwitch, they generally trust me to make good decisions about the article topics, so I can set my own topics — and that means I’m writing about stuff that interests me. That shows in the writing.
5. The people I work with are exciting. While I worked with some great editors in print publications, there’s no doubt that bloggers in particular seem especially passionate and positive about their work. Collis and Cyan of FreelanceSwitch, for example, are among the two most encouraging, positive, excited and professional people I’ve ever worked with. Many other bloggers are just as passionate. That makes it a joy to do the work.
6. Everything is done online. I used to hate all the phone calls I had to make to work on print articles, not to mention the in-person interviews that had to be set up. Now, I can work through email, and through online applications, and everything is much easier and more fun.

If these reasons are compelling enough to prompt you to want to make the transition to online writing, you’ll probably be asking yourself how to go about it.

It’s not difficult, but if you follow my plan, don’t expect the transition to be instantaneous. I made a deliberately gradual transition, over the period of a few months, and I recommend a similar process.

For one thing, if you’re not so desperate to get online writing gigs write away, you are in a better negotiating position. Nothing is worse for negotiating than desperation and urgency. And if you do well with one or two online gigs, you’ll be able to point to those and show other online publications or blogs that you are well suited for the job.

Here’s the plan I recommend:

1. Target a few blogs and make contact. I picked a handful of blogs on topics I’d love to write about, that seemed to use freelance writers. I then contacted them, with a brief email letting them know who I was and the kind of writing I do, and asking if they’re interested in using me as a freelancer. The responses were very positive from most blogs I contacted.
2. Start writing a few posts a week, and drop some print work. After a few emails working out the details with these blogs, I set up a schedule where I wrote a few posts a week. My initial rate for these posts were at the lower end of my rate spectrum. It was a testing ground for me, feeling out the market, testing to see how I liked writing for these blogs, seeing how the new writing fit in with my schedule. To make room for them, I cut back on writing print articles a little.
3. Use those first posts to get new gigs. With the success of my first few batches of posts, I was able to point to them to get more work. If you make sure to do an outstanding job with each post, you shouldn’t have a hard time finding work. I wrote to a few more blogs (bigger ones this time) to see if they’d be interested.
4. Repeat, increasing your rate and getting better gigs. Every couple of months, I raised my rates, so that now I’m getting the rates I wanted. I also eliminated some of the blogs that didn’t pay well or required too much work. It was a gradual process of improving my writing commitments and rates.
5. Slowly get out of your print commitments. As I increased my online writing, I gradually dropped all of my print writing commitments. It actually felt great to notify my print editors that I wouldn’t be able to write for them anymore!
6. Enjoy. Today, I make more money than before, working much less than before. I am less stressed, and more passionate about my writing. Not a single complaint. I hope it works out for you too!

Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com

A few weeks back, I posted a roundtable article on my blog that shared some marketing advice from 15 top-bloggers. In it, I asked each person:

If you had 2-hours a day to devote to no-cost, off-blog (even off-line) marketing for your blog, what would you do?

The article was extremely well received, vaulting to the front page on Digg, del.icio.us and Sphinn at the same time, generating a ton of feedback, over 750 diggs and crashing my servers big-time (that’s a story for a different article).

I felt great not only about the attention the article was getting, but the fact that something I helped create might help so many others get closer to their goals. The feedback, both through e-mail and in the comments was overwhelmingly positive. And, then it happened…

I got blasted, royally slammed by another blogger. I believe the term he used to describe the collective advice of me and these bloggers was “starfu*king.” And, his community piled on from there, picking away at the bastardization of networking and blogging as a tool for marketing, rather than unadultered community-building and the downfall of society through the transformation of conversation into dollar-driven corporate-speak.

All pretty funny, considering the content being attacked came largely from a guy who wears pajamas most of the day, teaches yoga, does more anonymous favors than you could shake a stick at and uses the word “dude” as a comma. So, I took it in stride and, in the comments, replied:

While the bloggers in the article shared their answers to my specific question, I believe they would also all be very quick to tell you that, while these strategies can have a nice impact on your readership, it is very likely not the greatest idea to undertake them purely for the sake of marketing. They’ve got to be motivated, first and foremost, by genuine interest.

For example, if you are genuinely interested in an article or blog, go ahead and comment, say something thoughtful because the article inspired you to want to join in the conversation. Knowing that it might have a secondary marketing impact in addition to joining in the conversation is more the icing on the cake. Maybe that will inspire you to share more or read more blogs. But you need to start from a place of genuine interest/authenticity. If it’s purely about marketing, people will sense that…and you will get bored of doing it pretty quickly, making a less than stellar long-term approach.

Same thing applies to things like guest posting. Sure, there is a marketing impact, it can be very substantial. But underlying that, your prime reason for wanting to do it should still be a genuine interest in the community and a desire to share something of value with that community.

Networking, too. You can call it networking, hanging out, kicking around ideas, whatever you choose. That’s really just semantics. The long-term marketing impact can be powerful, definitely a strategy to explore…BUT, just like above, the marketing affect should always take a back seat to your sense of genuine connection to a person, their voice, ideas and personality. Lead with your desire to meet someone because you’d love to learn more about them, share ideas, have a drink and then, if it turns out you can help them in some way beyond the conversation, great. But, never lose the thread of authentic interest.

And, this applies to social networking and bookmarking, too. Whether you’re on Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, whatever your chosen network, submit and vote for articles, be-friend people because you genuinely like the articles or connect with what other people have submitted or voted for. And, if one of the net results is increased marketing impact or readership, that’s nice, too.

I thought I was pretty much done with that line of discussion, but over the last few weeks, as I’ve posted a variety of additional articles on out-of-the-box marketing for freelancers and small businesses on my blog and right here on FSw, I noticed a smattering of similar, albeit more toned-down, thoughts. And, I am concerned.

There tends to be mindset among small business owners and freelancers that if you somehow gain some marketing advantage by simply doing what you’d normally do, but with a slightly elevated degree of effort or intention, that is a bad thing. In fact, the feeling of aversion can sometimes be so strong, it stops us from having conversations, interactions or doing things we’d normally do for fear of it being misconstrued as manipulation.

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So, let me lay something on you. There is nothing wrong with benefiting professionally from actions you’ve taken and would have taken out of an authentic interest in (a) contributing to the growth of someone else’s business or community or (b) cultivating a relationship that holds a high enough level of interest that you would have cultivated it regardless of any potential to benefit beyond the innate joy of interacting with that person.

Simply knowing, in the back of your mind, that your investment in another person’s success or genuine desire to get to know someone or help them out might someday come back and benefit you is okay. There is nothing bad, immoral or deceptive about it.

So, if you are at an event and there are ten people there who you genuinely would love to connect with and you have no clear preference for any, but you also happen to know that connecting with 5 of them might have some longer-term, professional benefit, is there something wrong with starting with those five? I don’t think so.

As I said in my original comment above, if you continually take action based only upon marketing intent, feigning interest in a potential client, colleague or referral source, they will see through you pretty quickly and you’ll get tired of doing it. It might pass muster short-term, but long-term, you’re dead in the water.

Authenticity is paramount. And, if you always lead from that place of authentic interest and, even better, an authentic desire to benefit someone else, knowing in the back of your mind that your actions may come back to you in the form of some benefit down the road is okay.

In fact, it sets in motion gratitude/kindness cycle that often benefits not only both people, but what I call drive-by beneficiaries, too.

So, if I love reading a particular blog and have a chance to share an article with that community, I jump on the opportunity, because I get jazzed by the chance to offer something of value. To be part of the conversation. Might I benefit beyond that? Sure.

And, if I comment on someone else’s blog, because I loved a particular post and feel I have something real to share, might we both benefit beyond sharing in the conversation? Yup.

And, if I get a lead for a copywriting job and I pass it on instead of hording it when I’m already jammed with work, now my colleague who’s received the lead feels gratitude toward me. And that sets up a cycle where she would likely be more inclined to either return the favor to me in the future or pay it forward to someone else. Would I potentially benefit beyond just feeling good about helping a friend? Might someone I don’t even know catch a break as the favor gets paid-forward?

Yes… and, you know what? I’m okay with that!

So, what do you think?