Seriously, guest posting might sound like a lot of work to you, and it is if you’re doing it right.  But is it worth the bother?  Some don’t think so.  I strongly disagree and I think that if you really want to get in front of a targeted audience guest posting can be your best tool.

Why?

Well, think about it – how do your find new readers?  You need to get in front of your audience right?  Right.  And how do you do that?  There are lots of ways – forum posting, yahoo answers, article marketing, and so on.  But guest posting – this is one way that you can be sure of being in front of a targeted audience because blog readers tend to be quiet loyal.  When they find a blog they like, they come back to it again and again.  And they already want the information.

So, when you guest post for someone else’s blog they are essentially letting you borrow their readers!  What more could you ask for.

When you guest post for someone’s blog, you usually get a resource box somewhere in the blog post where you’ll be allowed to add links.  Spend some time creating a great bio that is funny and engaging at the same time.  Leave links to the places that you want to be found most and don’t forget to tell them whatever the most important thing about you is.

Also, when you guest post for someone’s blog they might let you leave links within the body of the post.  These links should be to specific blog posts within your blog.  This will help you get targeted traffic even more!

Check out some of the guest posts I’ve done this past year:

• 10 Ways to Build a Killer Web Presence Without Social Networking (Job Mob)
• 10 Reasons Your Writing Blog Isn’t Helping You Get Jobs (The Blue Inkwell)
• Writers - Are You Filling in Your Profiles? (Get Paid to Write Online)
• Why WordPress is the Leading Content Management System(Ben Wan Web Solutions)
• How to Keep Your Business Writing Simple (Simply Stated Business)
• 5 Techniques You Can Use to Take Your Internet Marketing Business to the Next Level in 2012 (Famous Bloggers)

Guest Posting | Is It Really Worth the Bother? is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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If you are looking to get into the world of freelance writing, I highly suggest you take a look at Ghostwriting Cash by Tiffany Dow. This is the most helpful, thorough course on the topic that I have seen on the Internet. Tiffany was once a ghostwriter herself, writing articles and reports for some of the biggest names online. Because she has been there, she tells it like it is and provides her customers with the best methods for setting up a profitable writing business.

What You’ll Learn

The Ghostwriting Cash course features an ebook that will help you set up a successful freelancing business. You will learn how to set up a website in order to gain orders from new clients. You also learn how to go out and network with those that may be interested in your services. When appropriate, Tiffany also includes videos so that you can see exactly what you need to do. Having a look over the teacher’s shoulder is always nice!

Benefits

To me, there are many benefits to following Ghostwriting Cash when making the decision to offer writing services on the web. It helps you shorten the learning curve needed to set up a website and market your services. There is no guess work as to where you should seek clients and orders. Tiffany gives you several methods for finding those that need content created. All you have to do is present them with your offer.

Tiffany also stresses the importance of eventually becoming your own client. I think this is something that most other freelance writing courses lack. They just teach you how to offer services, and don’t really cover anything beyond that. However, Tiffany has always viewed services as the “foot in the door.”

When You Have Steady Work

Once you have steady work coming in, you can begin to raise your rates. This allows you to earn more money, but with fewer clients or orders. This, in turn, gives you time to become your own client. Working for yourself should be your ultimate goal, as you will then be free from other people’s deadlines and can create passive income streams that pay you again and again.

When writing a product review, it is best to present the pros and cons of the product. However, as far as Ghostwriting Cash is concerned, there are no negatives! This is, of course, my opinion, but I think it’s a thorough course for beginners as well as experienced writers looking for more clients. I honestly cannot find anything wrong with it! I have followed Tiffany for about 3 years now, and she is as ethical as they come. She doesn’t attempt to sell you on the idea of making $10K overnight or buying that shiny Ferrari. She is the real deal, and also provides excellent customer support.

Ghostwriting Cash – The Perfect Solution for Those Beginning or Struggling with Freelance Writing is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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This is part two of a three part series.  In part one we talked about marketing yourself as a freelance writer and targeting your marketing efforts.

Here are some more mistakes you might be making:

Mistake #3: You’re not getting personal enough.

Copying a pasting the same generic message and sending it to hundreds of companies may be less time consuming than writing personalized messages, but it might come back to bite youlater.

Think about it. When you get an email (or phone call) from someone you don’t know, you probably delete (or ignore) it if it doesn’t immediate grab your attention. Sending a “to whom it may concern” message is not going to win you any brownie points, and it will probably get your message deleted before anyone even has time to read it.

The solution? Do a little digging to find out who is responsible for hiring writers within each company, and then send messages targeted to each person. Read each company website, and become familiar with what they do and how they go about doing it. Position yourself as the perfect writer for their particular needs or industry.

If you can’t find the person in charge of hiring freelancers, send a brief note to customer service or human resources and ask who you should speak with. Often times, they’ll either send you an email address or forward your message to the right people. If you’re cold calling, ask them who would be charge in hiring freelance talent.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Mistake #4: You are pricing your services too low.

You might be tempted to charge rock bottom prices just to make sure you get the gig. Don’t. At least, not unless you want to be earning rock bottom prices months from now.

While it is possible that a low-baller will walk away if you quote professional rates right off the bat, ask yourself: is that really the type of client you want? Plus, once you are locked in at a low rate, it’s very hard to increase your prices later on.

Another pitfall of charging too little is that the good clients, the ones who know the value of quality content, might not take you as seriously. You could be the best writer in the world, but if you’re charging $5 for an article, clients will assume will you don’t have the experience or talent they’re looking for. Know your worth, and don’t be afraid to ask for what you deserve. Don’t price yourself as a bottom basement writer, unless you want to work with bottom basement clients.

If you are a new writer, you’ll stick to the lower end of the pay scale, but don’t price yourself off the scale altogether.

Mistake #5: You don’t have clients sign a contract.

Get everything in writing. For one thing, it ensures that you’ll get paid (or at least provides ammo if you have to dispute an unpaid invoice). Secondly, clients will assume that you’re a real professional if you have a contract. Business owners have contracts. Hobbyists who are trying to make a little extra pocket change, don’t.

Once you have a potential client interested, you want to keep him interested. That means conducting yourself in a professional manner before you ever even get to work.

A contract doesn’t have to be anything fancy. A simple statement of the project and payment arrangements is fine. Make sure it is stated that the client won’t own your writing until payment is received in full. If you want rights to resell the work, make sure you include those terms in writing as well.

Watch for Part 3 tomorrow!

Are These 8 Marketing Mistakes Hurting Your Freelance Writing Career? – Part 2 is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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You have all the makings of a successful freelance writer: talent, professionalism, and a can-do attitude. Stellar writing samples? Check! Killer website? Check! LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook business pages? Check, check, and check! So, why aren’t clients beating down your door?

Easy. You haven’t gone out to find them yet.

As with any business, if you want to succeed as a freelance writer, you’re going to have to do a little (a lot) marketing to build your client base. Unfortunately, marketing alone isn’t enough. You have to know where to market, who you’re marketing to, and how to negotiate the process once you have a fish on the hook. Sound daunting? It doesn’t have to be, but there are plenty of things that could be hurting your marketing efforts without you even realizing it. Here are 8 of the most common mistakes.

Mistake #1: You’re not marketing yourself enough.

You made 50 phone calls and placed 10 ads on Craigslist. Great! What else? If you don’t have an answer to that question, you probably aren’t marketing yourself nearly enough. It takes time to find clients, and one single burst of effort isn’t going to cut it. You’ve barely even scratched the surface. Keep sending emails or making calls. After you’ve done that, gather a new list of prospects and do it all over again.

Set a weekly goal, and stick to it. If you plan on sending 5 emails a day, do it.

How many contacts do you need to make before you start seeing results? That depends, and it’s different for every writer. Some will get lucky and start landing gigs after the first week. For others, it can be a much longer process.

A simple answer would be: keep doing it until you have enough work to stay busy. Then, continue doing it (albeit, at a slower pace) to make sure you stay busy. Rest assured, if you keep doing it enough, you will see results.

Image via CrunchBase

Mistake #2: Your marketing efforts are not targeted.

While it’s true that almost any company could benefit from professional writing help, some make better prospects than others. The main things you should consider when choosing who to target are the industries you have the most experience writing for, and the size of the companies you want to contact.

The way to get started is to stick with what you know. Were you in the insurance biz for 10 years? Great, write insurance articles or offer to write brochure copy for insurers in your area. Did you go to school for veterinary assisting? Contact vet clinics, pet stores, and dog food makers.

The size of each company is also important. Very small businesses often do not have the financial resources available to hire writing talent, while very large businesses usually have writers on staff. You want to start in the middle. These companies usually don’t have the money to keep writers on payroll, but they do often have a large enough budget to pay freelancers on an as needed basis.

It’s also a good idea to deal with companies that are older than the Internet. These businesses were around before SEO and $3 articles. They know the value of good content, and they are willing to pay for it. That’s not to say that all newer companies will try and low ball you, but aiming for more established businesses will lower the chances of being offered $100 to write an entire ebook.

Don’t miss part 2 and part 3 – coming soon!  Subscribe to the feeds so you don’t miss anything.

Are These 8 Marketing Mistakes Hurting Your Freelance Writing Career? – Part 1 is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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If you accept clients without requesting that they sign an independent contract agreement or a freelance writer contract, you may want to seriously reconsider the next time you take on a new project. Many freelance writers will not even touch the subject of contracts because they do not want to insult the client and lose a potentially great gig. However, this shouldn’t be the case at all. In fact, any upstanding and legitimate client should show no hostility or hesitation when asked to sign an agreement for the writer.

Why You Should Request a Contract

1. It protects you from being scammed: While some writers still get stiffed from illegitimate clients even after an agreement is signed, a client is typically less likely to disappear without paying you if you have a contract in place. The threat of legal action if the agreement is breached is enough to force some hesitant clients to cough up the dough.

2. It leaves a paper trail: Similarly, if your client does try to disappear without paying you, your contract will help you if decide to take the matter up in court. Clients tend to stiff writers because they do not believe that the writers have time or money to go after them. Fortunately, a written and signed agreement should give you enough ammunition to pursue your case and get what you deserve.

3. It shows good faith for everyone: A signature is like a handshake in that it finalizes the project. It means that the client has every intention of awarding you the job and paying you promptly. It also means that the writer has every intention of completing the task to the best of his ability, for the amount agreed upon in the contract.

4. It lists all terms and conditions: A signed contract actually helps you as a writer. Everything is laid out in front of you, all of the terms, conditions and expectations regarding the work that you have been asked to complete. There should be no question or dispute later down the road when a client claims you did not follow his instructions if you stuck to what was stated in the initial contract.

5. It ensures you are paid fairly: Some clients tend to assign a writer a small number of pieces, only to request additional articles and revisions later. While it is fine to complete more work, you should be compensated for each piece and extra revisions that are not included in your contract. Your workload will increase, so your pay should be subsequently higher as well. Some writers include one or two rounds of revisions at no charge, but when a client starts asking for 10 or more revisions, the time spent rewriting each article can make the writer’s hourly rate hardly worth their time.

Image via Wikipedia

What You Should Include in Your Contract

Writing agreements do not have to be pages long, nor do they need to be formal. A simple listing of your duties, your client’s duties and the price should be sufficient. By asking your client to type “I agree to the terms listed above,” you are requesting that he provide his electronic signature to seal the deal. You may also consider including the cost of extra services such as additional revisions or future pieces. Keep in mind that, even though the signature is electronic and does not need to be notarized, courts still view them to be legal and binding.

The Bottom Line

You should absolutely use a writing contract or agreement any time you accept work from a client, whether it is for one article or 100 articles. You would not take a job outside of your home without your employer requesting you sign paperwork, so why should your home business be any different? These agreements protect everyone involved, not just the writer, so a client should have no problem signing one. If he agrees without hesitation, you can move forward with your working relationship feeling more at ease. If he seems hesitant or flighty, it’s best for you to move on and find a more accommodating client.

Mallory Hall has been writing for several years. A mother of two, she enjoys crafting articles around topics such as the freelancing life, parenting health, nutrition, personal finance and the law. You can find her for hire at Guru.com or on Textbroker.com under the author name “M. Hall.”

The Writing Contract: To Have or Not to Have? is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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I know there are a lot of writers out there that are new and really just don’t know where to start.  There are many writers who are not new but aren’t sure how to move away from the content mills to more private clients.  There are many writers who just need a few tips to take them to the next level.

And for those writers, I’ve put together a little ebook (well, not totally little) with some of my best blog posts.  But it isn’t just my already written blog post – each post has additional information and a TO DO list to help you put the advice into action.  And yes, there is some totally new information in there, too.

And what will it cost?

No money – just a tweet or a Facebook like! Just click the button below:

Freelance Writing Tips for New Writers is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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Twitter is a very useful resource for aspiring writers as it helps them to work on their narrative voice, to reach a new audience, and to develop creative ways of expressing themselves due to the 140 character limit on each tweet. However, many writers misunderstand the purpose of Twitter, and make a variety of common errors that have a detrimental effect on their reputation, which could negatively impact their chances of future employment as freelance writers, blogger, or copywriters.

Image via CrunchBase

There are three major mistakes that are all too prevalent on Twitter and that every writer should try and avoid – obscurity, irrelevance, and grandiose thinking. The article below discusses these problems, and how they may be avoided.

Obscurity

Writing is a creative art and social media sites are a novel way in which to express your creativity, but too many writers forget that Twitter is an opinion platform and they express bizarre, fragmented ideas. While a haiku might fit into the word limit as a creative tweet, random extracts from your work will not create the interest that you think. Rather, people will most likely be confused, and you will not generate a following.

Unless you are a more established writer who uses Twitter to provide sneak peeks of your next work, try to write something creative, but isolated. Developing an overall tone and character is recommended, but remember that not all of your followers will be following you on a daily basis, and new followers will not have the entire back story of what you are saying. Try to impress with every tweet, and not an overall thread.

Irrelevance

This follows from the problem discussed above. Twitter is a social media site, and it is important for writers to keep this in mind when posting tweets. The fact that Twitter works in real time should be used to your advantage – make reference to world events, or major news stories. This will allow you to show that you have a flexible narrative structure, and that you keep an ear to the ground. Outdated, boring tweets will not have the effect that you are hoping for, so keep things interesting, creative and relevant.

Grandiose Thinking

Overconfidence is as unattractive on Twitter as it is in real life. Too many new writers get arrogant, and tweet as if the world is hanging on their words. Twitter is a global platform, but until you have amassed an absolutely huge following, it is best to keep your tweets humble. This is also far more attractive to potential employers. Work diligently, and the amount of followers interested in your work will grow.

The Top 3 Mistakes Writers Make On Twitter is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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There are a few different ways that you can expand your freelance writing business. Most people usually think that taking on more clients is the best way to expand, but offering different services and expanding beyond just writing is a great way to make more money and not have to take on a lot more writing work.

Here’s the thing, even if you are just a writer and think you don’t have any other services you can offer to clients, you are most likely wrong. If you know how to set up a website or install WordPress on a site you have skills that most small business owners don’t. If you know how to tweet or you have a Facebook account those are other skills that you can utilize as well.

Here is a step-by-step process of expanding your freelance writing business by offering to build websites for small businesses.

Finding Potential Clients

If you have a problem with cold calling or emailing people, then you will have to get over that in order for this work for you. In the beginning you may find that you are sending out several emails or making several phone calls but once you have built up a portfolio of your sites you will find that it is easier to land clients. Also, you will find that word of mouth referrals will grow your business as well.

The first thing you should do is to narrow down a specific niche you want to pursue. There are several of them to choose from and you may want to go with one that you are familiar with. Some of the niches you may want to pursue include landscaping companies, dentists, electricians, handymen, artists or homemade crafts, real estate agents, and travel agents.

There are two main places to find small businesses that need a website. One is Craigslist and the other is the good old Yellow Pages book.  When you have your niche simply look through the ads in the “Services” section of Craigslist for your city. Check out the ads to see which ones don’t have websites in the ad and have emails addresses listed instead. For the Yellow Book you can go through the ads and call the different companies and ask them if they have a website or you can check online to see if they have a website before calling the company.

Be sure to keep a record of the companies you have called or emailed along with contact names so that you have the information handy and you don’t end up contacting the company twice.

Selling Your Services

Since you are writer it shouldn’t be that hard selling your services to them. Come up with several reasons why the company or owner needs a website. Make sure to mention things like how many people search online as well as how much business they may be missing out on by not having a website.

If you are sending an email you can use a form letter but be sure you personalize it as much as you can. Use the owner’s name if you can find it as well as the name of their business and how you found them. You should have a phone number they can reach you at as well as your email as some people feel may feel more comfortable talking on the phone to know you are a real person.

If you are going to go with cold calling then it is a good idea to have a script written out that you can refer to help you through the phone call.

It is up to you how much you want to charge for your services. Try to determine how long it will take you to set up the site as well as write the content for the site and then divide that by how much money you want to make an hour. You can also charge by the hour if you want but a lot of the time a flat rate fee works better in landing clients.

When you do set up the site, a simple WordPress site should be enough unless they want something outrageous and then you should definitely charge them a lot more and then outsource the job to a website designer you can trust. For a basic site you should include the home page, about page, contact page, and you can add anywhere from 5-10 articles about the business or articles related to what the business does.

Image by Adam Holloway via Flickr

Added Bonuses

There are some potential extra added bonuses that you get when you follow this method. One of them is actually a great way to make some extra passive income along with your writing.

If the client doesn’t have a website they are going to need to purchase a domain name as well as website hosting. There are two ways that you can approach this. The hand-offs way is to sign up for a website hosting affiliate program (I recommend Hostgator.com) and then have your client buy their hosting through your affiliate link. You then get the commission every time one of your clients pays for their hosting. You can also buy a reseller hosting package and have the client pay you to host their website on your hosting plan. This does gets a little more involved and costs you more money upfront for the reseller hosting package.

Another bonus is the fact that you can easily get more work from these small businesses if you offer other services. For example you may offer to write them 5 articles to be posted on article directories to get their site some backlinks. Or you may offer to set up a Twitter or Facebook account for the business as well. You can even offer to maintain their social media accounts for a monthly retainer fee. You can also do this with a blog on their site as well. Offer to write 2 blog posts a week for the csite for a monthly fee.

If you follow this process for expanding your freelance writing business you may just find yourself making more money than you thought you could and actually working less. Get enough clients and you may even be able to make more passive income from affiliate commissions than you did for writing for clients.

Unique Way to Expand Your Freelance Writing Business is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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It’s another Sunday and there have been some great blog posts out there worth reading.  Do you do your blog reading on a particular day or do you read throughout the week?  One of the reasons I like to try to do my blog reading on Sunday (sometimes on the weekend in general) is because then I don’t worry too much about what I’m missing throughout the week.  When I see something I want to read I just bookmark it (or star it in my Google RSS Reader) and go back to it on Sunday.

Here are some great posts from this week:

Freelance Writing

• 5 Tips for Handling Client Complaints Gracefully – It’s always hard to deal with complaints but it can be done gracefully.
• Writing for Residual Income Tomorrow: What are You Writing Today? – If you’re not writing for residual income yet start planning today!
• Do You Find it a Struggle to Secure Writing Jobs In Your Specialty Areas? – It isn’t always easy to find jobs in the niche we want to write in and Dan has some thoughts.
• Six Common Writing Excuses (and How to Overcome Them) – Keep making these excuses?  I know #2 is a big one for me!

Social Media

• Getting Back To Basics with Social Media – whether you’ve been doing social media marketing or are brand new to it, this post will get you on the right track.
• How to Charge for Social Media Services – if you’re a freelance writer and you want to add value to your services, offering social media services can be a great way to do that.  You can upsell when the opportunity is there, too!
• 10 Productive Tasks You Should Be Doing on Google+ Right Now – If you’re still not sure what the heck you’re supposed to be doing on Google+ this should help.
• 25 Google Tips and Tricks – And if the one before didn’t help this one should!

Other Stuff

• 7 Morning Hacks to Start Your Day – I don’t know about you but getting started is usually the hardest part of the day and these tips should help.  I will start implementing these tomorrow!

Sunday Reading #16 is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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People always tell you how to succeed at things but I think that if you really want to be a freelance writers you should know about the things that will ensure complete and utter failure.  That way you can make sure that you are not doing them!

So what should  you avoid?

1. Never use a routine and if you do waver from it often.
2. Fit your writing time in around the kids, the house, the dog, your friends, family dropping by for coffee, shopping dates, groceries, and everything else.  If you feel like doing something besides your writing, just do it.  You can always write later!
3. Take up invitations for coffee whenever they are put out there.  After all, you need to take breaks, right?
4. Keep the phone close by and answer every call.  If someone comes to your door run for it – it could be that big check you’ve been waiting for!
5. Guilt yourself when you get some writing done.  After all, others need you and aren’t you neglecting them?
6. Don’t bother reading articles, magazines, or blogs about writing.  It will just confuse you.  You can put a sentence together – you must know enough by now!
7. Don’t listen to the people who tell you that there are easier and better ways to profit from your writing.  Stick to what you know.
8. Don’t take steps to improve your writing.  Courses are just a waste of time.
9. Don’t subscribe to newsletters or the RSS feeds of writing sites on line.  What do they know?
10. Stay away from writers forums.  Those people know nothing.  They have nothing valuable to share.  And you wouldn’t want to become friends with anyone that writes!
11. 

    Image via Wikipedia

    Don’t bother with your own site to show off things like the services you have to offer or the articles you have written.  No one will see it anyway.  Just keep applying to those jobs.

12. Avoid using your name online.  You wouldn’t want people to get to know you or to start associate your name with professional writing.
13. Keep your writing on the downlow.  Don’t show anyone – especially an editor or publisher that might have valuable feedback to give you!  Or other writers that might have some tips.
14. Don’t submit your work to web sites that offer high pay.
15. Don’t enter contests.  They are a waste of time and if you don’t get first place you’ll just be embarrassed.
16. Forget about doing any writing for yourself.  Ebooks, writing for your own site, writing reports that you could sell – that’s for other people.
17. Keep that list of great ideas but never develop them.
18. And certainly don’t ever show them to anyone.
19. And don’t even consider sending them to a publisher or a site that might publish your idea.
20. If you do decide to send an article or piece of writing to a publisher or online site, don’t follow the guidelines for submissions.  They are just suggestions anyway.
21. If by chance you do get published, don’t follow up with new ideas.  You just got lucky.
22. And if you have submitted something but haven’t heard back from the editor yet, email them and phone them at least several times a day and don’t stop until they give you a hardcore yes or no.
23. If you manage to send something to a site or magazine for consideration and it is not accepted just throw it out – it must be a pile of crap.
24. Rejection letters should be taken personally so take offense and bad mouth the publication all over the net.
25. Never rework anything from a different angle to be submitted somewhere else – it was perfect the first time and there is no way that it could be used in any other manner.

And of course, if you’re still bordering on success, you can just quit while your ahead!

The Top 25 Ways To Ensure That Your Freelance Writing Career is a Flop is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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