A quick update
Whew! I just caught my breath after writing over 60 articles in the last two and half weeks, and 50 of them were 800 words!
I have about a dozen different topics in my blog’s drafts folder and, as per usual, no time to put them into a coherent order. So instead I’d like to share a few quick tidbits with you today from my travels around the ‘net and recent experience.
I registered for this site two years ago and have had some articles sitting there for just about that long. I just sold one (for $10 usage rights). But I did see that in the “for sale” section they have some premium articles that are being sold for $100 and upwards. I haven’t done too much investigation in this….but it looks promising.
I just ordered this talk/type program and I’m really excited about it. Considering I’ve given myself carpal tunnel over the course of the last six years (thanks “The Sims!”), my productivity has slowed way down. This became especially apparent when my body, instead of my mind, were preventing me from typing efficiently over the past two weeks. I can’t wait to offer a full review next week. I know there will be a learning curve, and probably some editing involved. But since I love editing more than first drafts, I’m looking forward to it.
Those of you who have heard me wax poetic about Earn1K and have wondered if you should join or not, now is the time! Dennis is going to be increasing the price by the end of this month. So if you want to create a sustainable Online business for just $1 a day, and get some great free products to boot, head on over here. He’s just teamed up with two other knowledgeable marketers who offer free coaching in Internet marketing. For the current price, it can’t be beat.
4. British/American English
I have a new Australian client so I’m getting a crash course in spelling differences. Besides telling OpenOffice to use UK instead of US spelling, I’ve tracked down some great sites that help your brain think like a Londoner (or Brisbaner).
http://www.musicalenglishlessons.org/spelling-diffs.htm
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/jones/differences.htm
Bartering Your Professional Skills
by Sandi Valentine
When I started working at home as a writer a year ago, I had virtually no other web based skills. I knew less than nothing about SEO, Wordpress, niche websites, or Internet Marketing. It was like walking into a different world and not knowing how to speak the language. However, a close friend had told me that webmasters were in need of content, and would pay good money for it. I just had to learn how to put this fact to work to my advantage.
I began by putting up a post on the Warrior Forum, stating that I was a new content writer and wanted to offer my services. I set my rates low, and explained to customers that I needed to get some testimonials under my site and build a website. After that, rates would be going up. Literally, within five minutes, my inbox was full of messages from webmasters and marketers, offering to help me set up my own business. Up until that day, I was doubtful about being able to work from home. Afterwards, however, I never looked back.
Since then, I’ve bartered my writing skills for graphics, software, Wordpress plugins, and four websites. I’ve also been able to get technical support, coding, and marketing advice. Generally, all it takes to put your writing skills to work is taking the time to ask – there’s almost always someone with the skill you need who is willing to exchange their time for yours. Simply put up a polite post on any marketing forum, explaining what skills you have and what you’re in need of, and you’ll soon have more help than you know what to do with!
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Sandi is the owner of Valentine Content Creation. She blogs about balancing working at home and family at From Diapers to Deadlines.
How Was Your 2007?
This time of year, between Christmas and the New Year, I always feel like crawling into a comfy chair with paper and pen and planning my goals for the next year. I go back over my accomplishments of the last year and figure out how I can improve my game plan. It looks like I’m not the only one.
Melissa Donovan of Writing Forward had a great post this week on reviewing your freelance writing business, and making changes for the coming year.
Personally, there are a lot of things I want to change about my writing business in the next year. I know I need to get more organized with bookkeeping, and branch out into other areas of writing. Take some time off on the weekends is another big goal for me. Hopefully with some changes I’m making to my business, I’ll be able to shift my priorities a bit.
What are your writing goals for the new year?
Stay On Focus - a mini review
Have you ever walked into a room in your house only to forget what you were looking for? I do the same thing with my web browser. I open up Firefox to look up something for a writing project and get sucked into the vortex that is my e-mail, favorite forums and Etsy.com. Half an hour later, I realize that I was supposed to be finding out how many people get multiple traffic tickets each year, or some other random fact.
If you’re like me, you need Stay on Focus. This program will pop up in the corner of your screen and remind you to get back to work. You can enter your own custom saying (my favorite - Hey! You! Work! Now!), and set it for 5, 10, 15….all the way to 60 minutes.
This concludes my mini-review….and starts my weekend of time off. I apologize for being MIA this week, and promise to update more often (and visit other blogs more often) after the holiday season.
Peace to you and yours!
Free Accounting Software - I Heart Quicken
Good news for freelancers! Thanks to the guys at Web Content Writer Tips I just downloaded a free copy of Intuit’s QuickBooks - Simple Start 2008.
Go pick up your copy now so you can get organized for next year!
And speaking of organization, Deb Ng of Freelance Writing Gigs had a great post last week on things freelancers should do before the end of the year. It definitely inspired me to get my books in order and plan for 2008 a whole lot better than I did for 2007.
What does Twitter mean to you?
Inspired by Dr. Mani’s question yesterday, here are my thoughts on Twitter.
I’ve been on Twitter for at least two months. It’s a fun little distraction, I’ll admit. Second only to e-mail, it’s the page I load the most when I’m procrastinating. But Twitter has functioned as:
*A Break Room: Working at home is lonely. My husband works at home too, but it’s still lonely. Especially when his eyes glaze over when I talk about SEO, pinging and memes. It’s nice to pop in and catch up on people who are in the same line of work with me. I commiserate with Pamela Troeppl about finishing ebooks, for example. It’s easier than visiting a handful of different forums or going to different blogs (and more justifiable too - see above). And between Web Word and my Google News feeder, I’ve got plenty of random and interesting sites to visit.
*An Instant Messaging System. There are some folks that I know from around the ‘net that are just easier to reach via Twitter. If I don’t want to try to find an e-mail address or blog location that I’ve bookmarked, I can just direct message them on twitter. For example, I’ve “known” Deborah Ng for a while, but didn’t know her e-mail address. When I needed to reach her yesterday, Twitter worked perfectly.
*A Networking Tool. I knew of Dr. Mani, but never got the chance to speak with him until I joined Twitter. Suddenly, all of these Internet Marketing bigwigs were approachable. And I’ve networked with people that run in the same circles, that I never met before. We all work together, using Twitter, to increase traffic to our sites and encourage one another. Which brings me to my next point….
*A form of Advertising. I ran a special offer on the Warrior Forum several weeks ago for ghostwriting. Mr Lewis Smile purchased the pack, and let me know that he would have never known about it had it not been for Twitter. I’ve seen people use Twitter to advertise their blogs, ask for a page to be Stumbled Upon and get the word out about a new product. (This works best when you mix in some fun stuff with your advertising - no one likes someone who just promotes things all of the time).
*A way to get close, but not too close. I mention my daughters on Twitter, and talk about my day to day activities. But 140 characters lets me do so without revealing too much about my private life.
*A personal organizer. I’ve linked up my Remember the Milk to do list with Twitter so it reminds me every morning about what I need to get done that day.
Twitter works best when you can balance interesting tidbits, personal anecdotes and self-promotion. Besides the people that I’ve mentioned, I also enjoy following HopeWilbanks, imsweetie and dhudiburg.
PLR Resource List
Continuing with last week’s “theme” of sorts, I’ve put together some resources that you’ll need to get your PLR selling off to a great start.
A lot of people have asked me whether or not they need a website. It’s not absolutely necessary, but once you develop a few packages, it’s a good idea to put them all in one place. I’d recommend getting a domain name instead of relying on a free site. I use Namecheap to register my domains.
For hosting, I use Hostgator and their Baby plan, which is $9.99 a month for unlimited domains. Can’t beat that with a stick!
If you need some great web design for an affordable price, I recommend Amber at Lovely, Lucrative Websites. She has tips on how to create your own website with ease, but also is a web designer herself and is available for hire.
To find hot niches, I use Niche A Day (www.nicheaday.com). It’s a free service that send you just what it promises…a new niche each day. Some are great, some are not. I’ve also recently discovered a few new niche finding tools.
Try visiting 43 Things, my Goals or Clickbank for niche ideas. Then hit a keyword search tool to figure out if the topic is popular. Since you’re writing to sell the content, you don’t really need to worry about how much competition a keyword is experiencing, like you would if you were marketing the site yourself.
Then for selling your PLR, go to The Warrior Forum. There are several other marketing forums you can try, but this is the best.
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