I’m so pleased to welcome Anne Wayman as a guest poster on Get Paid to Write Online, since I’ve been following her writing blog for years. Today she shares her views on must-haves for a successful freelance writing business.

Don't panic about your freelance writing business - show some moxie instead.

Ask a dozen people, or do a search on the ‘net, about what you need to start a freelance writing business and you’re likely to end up with a list as long as someone’s proverbial arm.

Online you’ll be told about something called the entrepreneur’s personality. This type of article almost always offers test purporting to tell you if you have such a mind or not. Everyone who can fill out their email form correctly passes and qualifies for a course on starting a business that costs – well, there’s that arm again, along with a leg.

You’ll also find lists ranging from 10 to 50 things you must have in place before you dare to step out on your own. Ten might make sense, 50 is a stopper as far as I’m concerned.

Friends and family will have another set of suggestions about what you need that is often comes in the form of “What! Are you crazy?” or some variant.

While some of this information can be helpful, particularly if you take it in small bites, it can also be so overwhelming it will make you think starting your business is impossible – it’s not. There’s a huge difference between what you really need to start a freelance writing career and what’s nice to have.

Three Must-Haves for a Freelance Writing Career

Here are the three things you absolutely must have to start a freelance writing business:

Some writing talent. You don’t have to be Pulitzer Prize material or in line for a columnist job at, oh say, The Atlantic. You do need the ability to recognize and write complete sentences, do some basic research and recognize that ideas are everywhere. Chances are if you love to read and you grew up in an English speaking country you write well enough.

A computer and an internet connection and somewhere to use it. You can set it up on a desk in your bedroom or, dare I mention, the kitchen table featured in so many get-rich-quick schemes, or on your lap in your living room. I have at one friend who runs the majority of her writing business from various coffee shops around town with her laptop.

A bit of Moxie.  Moxie is an old fashioned word meaning, among other things, including. “1. The ability to face difficulty with spirit and courage. 2. … initiative… ”

The Most Important Quality for Writers

Of the three I, suspect moxie is the both the most important and perhaps the most difficult to come by. It’s not the skills that are difficult, although there is certainly some of that required. It’s that “ability to face difficulty with spirit and courage” that can be hard to come by, as well as the “initiative.”

Make no mistake about it, starting a writing business or any other for that matter, requires “imitative” and I can guarantee that you will meet difficulties that a bit of bravery will help you solve.

I know from my email that many who say they want to be freelance writers lack the moxie to do what it takes; I’m not sure why.

Some, of course, are just looking for an easier, softer way.

But many suffer from one or both of two fears – rejection and/or not getting it right.

When you have moxie you may have those feelings, but you don’t let them stop you.

That means that although you’re totally panicked at the idea of submitting a query, you do it anyway. Maybe you set a goal of getting it out in the next five days. Even when the fear becomes so strong you can barely type it out, you do it anyway, and you get it in the mail, E or snail.

Or maybe you want to start corporate writing. You determine to contact one local company a day by email for two weeks. As you compose the email you find you’re making typos because of the fear that someone will laugh at you or that that no one will respond. You send the emails anyway and you do it again the next week, making the emails better each week.

And when you get a response from a query or an email you sent regarding corporate writing you open it right away. And you read it until you’re sure you understand what it says.

If it’s a rejection, and in the beginning it usually is, you take a deep breath, and pin it to the wall in celebration because you’ve begun to actually take the steps that will lead you to a successful freelance writing career.

If, as occasionally happens, it’s an acceptance, you celebrate and then get on with the writing so you can do it all over again.

What do you find you need for your freelance writing business?

Anne Wayman is a ghostwriter and writing coach. You can find her at AboutFreelanceWriting and other websites including PowerfullyRecovered! and WhenGrandmotherSpeaks. Her professional site is AnneWayman.com.

Photo credit: Simon_K

By Lori Widmer

It’s tough when you’re first building your writing career to make the right choices. The easy choices aren’t necessarily the best choices, but when you’re fresh at it, how do you know?

When I first started freelancing, I chased the money – meaning I never turned down a client no matter how bad the fit was. The result: lousy working conditions, terrible pay, and referrals from cheap clients that led to even more cheap clients. I was stuck in a rut.

No more. Thanks to lessons learned the hard way, and lessons taught by other freelancers, I can now spot a lousy deal in milliseconds. I’ve now adopted three rules by which I judge all clients and offers.

Rule #1: Don’t pay for access to clients. That includes bidding sites, sites that require a fee in exchange for “access” to projects, and clients asking for “processing fees” or any other remuneration in exchange for a job. The idea behind freelancing is to be paid for your work, not the other way around. Worse, these sites often offer “premium” projects the likes of which can be found on Craig’s List – $4 an article? Really?

Rule #2: Don’t bid. Refer to rule #1. Let me qualify this because we do have to provide bids to clients frequently – don’t bid against writers in any open forum. That cheapens both the writer and the fee. Also, don’t bid on any project without contacting the client directly or knowing anything about the project. Instead, set your own rates. Do negotiate with clients so that you come to mutually agreeable terms, but don’t attempt to barter on a job board. You’re a professional. Professionals don’t beg.

Rule #3: Don’t weed through ads. I can’t remember the last time I scored a client gig through an advertised job. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I even looked at the ads. There may be true jewels among the rubble of job listings sites, but each one you find is also being found by thousands of your peers. Instead, choose your own clients and contact them directly offering your services. This does two things – it allows you to reach clients who truly value your skills, and it allows you to control your own earnings. Job listings usually state a rate, and it’s usually not up to what you should be earning.

By following these three rules, you can shed the low-paying gigs and lift yourself and your career out of an ever-deepening rut. It requires a little more work from you, but once you’re earning to your potential, you’ll be glad you put the effort into it.

What rules have you established for yourself and your business?

Lori Widmer is a veteran writer and editor who holds fast to her own rules. Her specialties include business and trade writing, and she teaches marketing and business development skills to freelance writers. Her e-book, The Worthy Writer’s Guide to Building a Better Business, is now available.  She blogs daily at Words on the Page.

Photo credit: Bruno Boutot

Spike Wyatt’s book on freelancing grabbed me from the title. ‘Going the Half Hog?’ I asked myself. Did this mean a half hearted approach to freelancing, as opposed to going all out aka the full hog? No, it didn’t. Instead this is a book for those who want to make a part time income or work part time as freelancers.

The book is subtitled Freelancing without Marketing – another draw for me. Sure I can get my writer marketing done in a short time, but not marketing at all? I was intrigued.

Going the Half Hog Contents

I found Spike’s book an easy, no-nonsense read. The contents list includes:

• How to freelance as a writer
• What you need to get started as a half-hogger
• The basics of online content creation
• The “natural marketing” alternative that takes almost no time or effort
• Where to find freelance writing jobs that suit you
• How to sort through the crap jobs and find the gems
• The major ways to earn – all with their pros and cons
• Avoiding the cheats and scams
• The editing and proofreading route to success

The Best Bits of Going the Half Hog

I knew I was going to love the book when I read the disclaimer, which stated: ‘the author has been known to talk crap’. From then on, I was clear that this was going to be a down-to-earth read with no pseudo-guru-speak – yay! And I was right.  Spike promises ‘real information with actual, explicit ideas and guidelines’ and that’s what he delivers. Among my favorite bits were:

• on what clients really want – most just want a reliable, professional writer who will produce high-quality work on time, every time
• on getting paid – Repeat after me: you deserve to be paid the same as full-time freelancers of similar talent for similar work.
• on running a writing business – There is no ‘right’ way to run a business, beyond a few simple concepts such as honesty, integrity, producing quality work and meeting deadlines
• on how to freelance successfully – Provide solutions. Create accurate specifications. Offer simple, clear contracts. Keep deadlines. Do quality work.

I also liked the 5 principles of being a good freelancer – simple rules which anyone can sign up to – and the questions you need to know the answers to when you get started. These are especially useful for new writers. New writers will also get value from the section where Spike provides a simple structure for writing articles for an online audience.

My one point of disagreement with Spike was on the importance of spelling, grammar and punctuation. He says: ‘I’m not saying that spelling, grammar and punctuation are unimportant: they just don’t have to be perfect for the majority of online media.’  I say: people notice these things, even if subliminally, and it’s important to get them right. That’s the only niggle – and I’m still prepared to recommend the book.

I know the experienced writers out there are wondering what’s in it for them. I can tell you where I learned something – in the section on scams and cheats. I’ve seen my share of writing scams, but Spike added a couple twists on them which haven’t yet come my way (probably because I stay off the bidding sites.) It’s always good to know about these things in advance.

The Verdict

Overall, I think Going the Half Hog lives up to its description:

With this unique, straightforward book you’ll learn everything you need to get started as a freelance writer, including content creation, ways to earn online, where to find freelance work that suits your skills and schedule, how to sort through the rubbish jobs and find the gems, how to avoid the cheats and scammers, a “natural marketing” alternative that requires almost no time or effort and lots more to build a solid foundation that you can scale up whenever you want.

With all that value, at $7.50 it’s not hard to see this as a good investment in your writing career.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of Going the Half Hog and I like it so much that if you click on the links below and buy it, I might earn a few cents.

Check out Going The Half Hog: Freelance Writing Without Marketing (or the Kindle edition) on Amazon.com

Check out Going the Half Hog: Freelance Writing Without Marketing (or the Kindle Edition) on Amazon.co.uk

Happy New Year! I haven’t made any new year’s resolutions this year. They just don’t work for me. Instead of focusing change on a single date and period in the year, I’ve found that true change finds its own level. It happens when you are ready to take the steps to make it work – and that can be at any time of year.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t have plans and goals. I most certainly do. Last year’s goals included broadening my client list, which I achieved, and it remains on my list for this year. As planned I increased the number of clients in my local area, though I still haven’t done any local marketing to speak of. I didn’t make as much progress with ebooks as I intended, so I want to rectify that this year, and also reissue my most popular ebook, Getting Started in Blogging, for the Nook platform.

This year’s list looks pretty much like last year’s, though I am considering a couple of new moves like:

• unsubscribing from all email newsletters and mailing lists and seeing if I miss any of them (with the exception of one I pay for which I know is valuable)
• closing all the accounts for online tools which I no longer use
• shifting business interaction from my Facebook page to Google+ (I don’t know if my 300+ fans would be upset or whether they would move with me)
• sticking rigidly to a four day work week (I have tried this before, with limited success)

This last one will be the key to making all my other goals work and avoiding burnout, so it’s the one I’m going to focus on first. To make it work, I’ll need to structure my client load carefully and be more efficient on those four days. Wish me luck – and I’ll let you know how it goes!

Ready for another blogging linkfest? Here’s a long list of posts I’ve bookmarked and shared in the last couple of months, along with a short excerpt from each:

Writing Business

• 5 Rarely Remembered Rules for Building Your Freelance Brand - Good brands command respect and establish a reputation. They establish your presence in the marketplace.
• Top 3 Symptoms Your Business Blog Reeks - Any size company can have a case of blogitis If you are phoning in your business blog, hang up on that practice.
• Features of the Freelance Economy - Government policy makers are devising all sorts of programs that will put people back to work.
• Building New Income Streams When Client Work is Slow - We’ve already looked at why freelance job boards aren’t the best places to find gigs and how you can make it easier for clients to find you through your writer platform. But what can you do in between client projects?
• How to Build a Writer Platform and Make Jobs Come to You - Our last post looked at reasons freelance writers should stop spending too much time trolling job boards looking for new gigs.
• 7 Signs That It’s Time to Simplify Your Freelancing Business - If your freelancing life has become too much for you, it may be time to simplify your life and your freelancing business as well. Do you think this is you?
• Back to basics: A 10-step freelance story workflow guide - Writers use various methods to stay on top of queries, stories in progress, rewrites, collections and the like.

Writing Skills

• 7 Cs of Effective Web Writing–a Checklist for Freelance Writers - A relatively small percentage of these freelancers really understand their job and responsibilities. If truth be told, it may seem that anybody can write.
• Should You Do Ghostwriting? - Exactly what is ghostwriting? And, what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of doing this type of writing? Is it ethical? Are such jobs available?
• If English Isn’t Your First Language – An Open Letter To Writers - I only speak and read one language, and that’s American English. It’s my native language. I grew up with it. While I have a smattering of Spanish and a few words of French, I’m a typical American, with only one language.
• One Tool that Really Sharpens Your Writer’s – or Blogger’s – Voice - A writer’s voice – a blogger’s voice. All aspiring writers search for it. All authors define it, explain it, and scare the hell out of those who have yet to discover it. Over and over again. And we never get tired of talking about it.
• The 5 Steps To Actually Starting A Freelance Writing Career - If you want to be a freelance writer you’ve simply got to write. There’s just no getting around it. And you’ve got to write regularly.
• Finding a Mentor–A Freelancer’s Simple Success Secret - A mentor is a more experienced freelancer or other professional who you can turn to for guidance and who can answer your questions about freelancing.
• 5 ways to protect your work online - Anyone who shares their work online knows there’s a risk they’re taking… Despite those risks, there is something to be said for having an instant audience online.
• When Words Are Not Enough - Since I use words for a living I love the fact that they can be so powerful. But, my profession is also why it’s all too easy for me to get too caught up in the power of words–too easy for me to forget that words are sometimes not enough.

Marketing and Promotion

• 5 Ways to Build a Better Website - Your business website positions you as an authoritative and skilled freelancer in your field. It captures leads into an automated email service or customer relations management software.
• Freelance Marketing – Market Research and Planning - If you’re considering a change to grow your business, you should start there and narrow down your specialty area.
• Building Your Web Presence for Authors: Don’t Let Google Do Your Talking - I pulled out my iPhone and googled the business name and the city. What showed up as the site description? “Joomla! – the dynamic portal engine and content management system.” Wow. Whoever made their website didn’t bother to change that default description.

Getting Paid to Write/Getting Writing Gigs

• 8 Must Haves Before You Apply For A Freelance Writing Job - There are eight things you need to get in order before you can be sure you’re looking good and likely to land the freelance writing job you want.
• 8 Steps For Landing That Freelance Writing Job - For the better writing jobs there are tons of applicants which means your goal is really to get an email response.
• Numbers Are Our Friend–Writers and the Wild World of Metrics - The idea of numbers should not scare you. Numbers can be a writer’s best friend.
• How Long Does It Take PayPal to Transfer to Your Bank Account? - Setting up PayPal for your work at home jobs is smart. It’s an almost universal way to get paid online because most people already use it.
• Full-Time Income in Part-Time Hours? Sure Thing! - I was definitely intrigued by Gretchen Roberts’ new ebook, Full-time Income in Part-time Hours. Gretchen, a food and wine writer, has been freelancing since May, 2003.
• Search & Networking Tips For Finding Freelance Writing Jobs - As more and more people in the world become Internet savvy, the world of online freelancing gets more and more competitive. This can make it harder to find good paying gigs

Client Relations

• Insulate Yourself From Bad Freelance Clients - Here are three simple ways you can better insulate yourself from bad writing clients.
• 8 Tips About How To Respond When A Potential Writing Client Calls - You are sitting at your desk writing away and the phone rings and it’s someone who needs a writer. They’ve found out about your writing through your website or have one of your business cards or something. These calls are potentially pure gold.
• 10 Ways to Win Back a Former Client - Assuming you’ve done your work well, your former clients already know and trust you. They no longer need to be convinced that you’re a good freelancer. Unfortunately, clients don’t always come back to us with more projects.

Blogging

• 5 Popular WordPress Plugins You Need to Ditch Now! - We all want to speed up our blogs and one of the easiest ways to do that is by removing WordPress Plugins that impact load speed, and provide little value for our readers.
• Is Impartiality in Media or Blogging Even Possible? - Every time I read a post bemoaning the idea that copywriters and bloggers deserve to be compensated for their time because journalism should be impartial, I wonder whether people truly believe that the major media does not primarily benefit the wealthy who control it.
• How Do QR Codes Work and What Do You Need? - Before we put the cart before the horse, we should know what we need to make these square soundbites work.

Inspiration

• Why Success Should Not be Measured in Money - Some complain about those whose English is not perfect and many bloggers delete their comments and do not publish their posts.
• Ready to Give Up? 50 Things You SHOULD Give Up… Starting Today.  – 2. Give up comparing yourself to others. – The only person you are competing against is yourself. 3. Give up dwelling on the past or worrying too much about the future. – Right now is the only moment guaranteed to you.
• Why Can’t a Freelancer Be a Millionaire? - There’s a big difference between earning six figures and hitting that seventh figure, but is it enough of a difference to keep freelancers out?
• 3 Things Freelance Writing Has Allowed Me To Do - Being a freelance writer can be a considerably varied career. If you’re a banker, you work in finance. If you’re an IT executive, you work in IT. If you’re a doctor, you work in medicine. If you’re a freelance writer, however, you get to sample numerous different careers
• So You Think You Can ePublish?- Self-publishing is EXPLODING and there are more opportunities than ever before.

Featured

To end the round-up, I’d like to draw your attention to two more posts, one which I’ve written (Why I’m Betting on Kindle for Self Publishing) and one where I was featured (She loves to write: An interview with Sharon Hurley Hall.)

Happy reading! (Image:  jjpacres)

Update: This giveaway is now closed.

Are you using Elance? If you are, then you might be interested in this giveaway, courtesy of Hayden Jackson, author of 72 Insider Tips for Elance Writers. Back in August, Hayden wrote a great guest post called Your Elance Profile: The First Step to Finding Success, and there’s no doubt she knows her stuff when it comes to Elance.  Here’s the description of her book.

72 Insider Tips for Elance Writers is the first book to offer a comprehensive guide to earning money and building a freelance writing career on Elance.com. Written by a top Elance writer, this ebook shows you how to stand out, get hired, and grow your business on the world’s leading freelance platform. Learn how to avoid common ‘newbie’ mistakes, create a more powerful profile, craft winning bids, and start earning the fees you deserve!

Hayden is offering a free copy of this ebook (worth $25) to one lucky Get Paid to Write Online reader. All you have to do is answer these two questions in the comments.

• Do you use (or plan to use) Elance to find freelance writing work?
• If so, what goals have you set yourself?

I’ll choose a random winner on Saturday 29th October.

by Dahlia Valentine

When I went to bed on September 18, 2011, I pinky swear I wasn’t thinking about starting a press release writing business the next day. I mean I had every intention of doing it… eventually.

You know, as soon as I had the website up and running… as soon as I’d written some killer website copy… as soon as I wrote a special report to convert the tire kickers… as soon as – well you get the point.

But when I woke up on September 19, I just had one of those ‘today’s the day’ feelings. I launched my press release writing service that afternoon and got my first three clients the same day.

The back story behind my impromptu launch

Part of the reason why I felt so apprehensive about launching the service without a website was my obvious lack of experience. You see, I don’t have a public relations degree resting on my mantle. In fact, I’d just written my first press release (ever!) less than 30 days before I decided to launch the service.

My informal education consisted of reading through 10-15 hour’s worth of press releases on PRNewswire and PRWeb. For my at-home-internship, I wrote 7 press releases for my blog and ebook.

My first release took three insanely meticulous hours to write. All the while I wondered if some pedigreed editor at Google News would see my obvious lack of PR-ability.

Apparently not. Google News isn’t curated by humans and the algorithm found my work good enough to rank in the #1 spot for my keywords. I was hooked!

You don’t need a website when you have friends in the right places

By the 7th release I was generating ebook sales through pure press release power. That’s when I started thinking about launching a website to promote my services. Problem was, while I enjoyed writing the press releases I was in no mood to waffle around with another website.

My saving grace came in the form of an Internet marketing forum I’d joined in August. Earn 1K a Day is a $40 a month private forum where Internet marketers talk shop and sometimes sell their products and services.

The site boasts many long-time members. And the fact that they’re constantly shelling out cash to be there means they’re serious about making money and they’re obviously making good connections.

So I suppose it shouldn’t have surprised me when I launched my service on Earn 1K a Day and started getting clients within two hours. But it did surprise me. And it taught me a valuable lesson about selling my writing services.

Forums can be a writer’s best ally

It’s not that you need a big portfolio or a degree or even a website to get started. When I posted my ad on the forum I had a link to one of my press releases and a screenshot showing that release ranked in Google. I’m sure those two things helped my case.

But I’m inclined to believe it was my brief spurts of participation on the forum that helped me when I came courting with something to sell. Being a member there gave me credibility by association.

You don’t necessarily have to join Earn 1K a Day to see these types of results. My point is, get involved with a forum sooner rather than later. This way when you’re ready to hang out the “Hire Me” shingle, you’ve already established yourself.

In my next post, I’ll give you a list of forums where you can get started.

———————-

Dahlia Valentine is a blogger, an ebook author and a (happily) working press release writer. You can find out what she’s doing to make money in her writing business by visiting her blog at That IM Thing.  (Photo: kokouu)

Well, I finally did it! Making a video has been on my list of things to do for a very long time, but I’ve always procrastinated – something I never do with the written word. Somehow sticking my face up there always seemed a bit scary. During the year, I’ve been inspired by people like Kim Castleberry, Ileane Smith and Ivin Vijoen, who regularly do video posts – and I had decided that I had to make my first video before the end of the year. Finally, yesterday, I did it, prompted by a deadline from a member of the mastermind group I recently joined.

I spent a lot of time trying to do it with my phone, because I knew I’d be able to upload it easily. But then I gave up and used my webcam. To edit, I used Windows Movie Maker (after a recommendation from someone I trust). It’s not a full featured video edit suite, but it works for a novice like me. And what’s good about it is that you can upload straight to YouTube, Facebook or Flickr.

So here’s the first video.

The only thing I like about it is that I speak clearly, but the rest is a lesson in how not to do it, which I’m sharing with you in case you’re thinking of doing your first one. I’ve added some captions to illustrate the mistakes I made, but here they are in a nutshell:

1. I didn’t look at the camera. That’s because, in true writer style, I had written out a script and I kept having to refer to it. So I’m looking down and across.

2. I didn’t smile, so I didn’t really look like myself. I usually smile a lot and in this video I look like something terrible is about to happen to me – I was nervous!

Another friend pointed out that I could have branded the background (though how many people have a business poster in their home office?) Still, point taken, and I have a couple of ideas for how to address that issue in the future. Since I can’t let things lie, I did another video for my mastermind group. Here it is:

This time I didn’t use a script (I knew what I wanted to say after a couple of readthroughs), kept it very simple and smiled a bit. There’s still room for improvement (like figuring out how to fade out the video instead of cutting it off abruptly), but I’m pleased to have got that milestone behind me.

I would welcome your comments, tips, links to good tutorials on video – anything that will help me improve, because I’d like to do more videos on this blog and elsewhere, in the future. If you want to be alerted of any new videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel.

By Jeanna Rutledge

While I’ve been a writer pretty much a good chunk of my life, and have written professionally for some years (including a year stint as a freelance writer for a single newsweekly), this is my first time ever running my own freelance writing business.

And let me tell you: it’s not easy! It’s challenging and extremely rewarding, but not easy. Being your own boss is definitely not a walk in the park.

Thing is, there’s so much advice out there. It can all be pretty overwhelming getting started. There’s always something you can be doing: tweaking your blog, seeking clients, staying up-to-date. Oh yeah — and writing (!), either for yourself or your clients.

It’s no wonder then why after only a short time in the game, many fizzle out.

With all that being said — I’m not trying to fizzle out. I love what I do and would like to continue. So, in an effort to make that happen, I’ve thought of what has been helpful so far in my journey to keep it moving and keep those “I’m so overwhelmed!” feelings at bay.

May these tips help you as you navigate your life as a newbie freelancer.

1. Find and Follow One of Those 30 (or so) Days to Freelance Writing Guides

There are several great ones out there. I like them because they give you a specific task to focus on each day.

This way, instead of asking, “What should I be doing?”, or getting sidetracked by the next if-you’re-not-doing-this-right-now-you-are-absolutely-doomed-to-fail posts, you can exert your energy working on something that other experienced freelancers have found to be necessary in creating the foundation of your new business.

Here are a few no-cost freelance guides that I’ve found useful:

• 31 Days to Start a Freelancing Business (or Make Yours a Better One) by Alexis Rodrigo of The Savvy Freelancer
• 31 Days to a Brand New Blog Challenge by Rosetta Thurman of From Blogger to Entrepreneur
• 30 Days to Become a Freelancer by Skellie of Skelliewag.org

All were inspired by Darren Rowse and his 31 Days to Build a Better Blog program.

I still refer to these guides from time-to-time to help me stay on track. They each have something unique to offer.

2. Pick One Thing and Do That

With all that needs to be done, you may find yourself jumping from one task to another. Not helpful. You’ll look up at the clock and see all kinds of time has passed while you’ve accomplished nothing. This then creates anxiety for you, which then leads to procrastination, which then leads to you not doing what you need to for your business, which ultimately leads your business to a bunch of nowhere if you don’t get back on track.

Decide what needs to be done for the time being and work on it until it’s complete.

Seeing that you’re making progress can encourage you to keep going.

3. Stop Comparing Yourself to Others 

OK. So all of those top writers doing their thing on the Internet, showing up all the time in your Twitter feed, being referenced in every blog you read, sought after for all kinds of interviews, pulling in all kinds of bucks — they have likely been doing this freelancing thing for a while, or have been able to apply what they’ve learned pretty quickly and it’s working for them.

That right now may not be you, and that’s all right.

Remember: You are unique. Yes, that’s way cliché’ but it’s the truth. You are! What’s someone else’s journey is not yours — and vice versa. Honor that.

You do not know what others have gone through or are going through to be where they are right now. Don’t underestimate the work that goes on behind the scenes. What you are seeing out front is the pretty picture, not the struggle.

Instead of spending your time looking at what everyone else is doing, admiring their success and feeling bad about how you’re not in the shining lights and rolling in the dough — work on you. Write those blog posts you’re taking forever to write, start building that Facebook page, make that prospect list so you can get started with those query letters and cold calls.

4. Just Do It!

You can read all the blog posts, articles and books in the world, but until you actually put yourself out there and apply what you’ve read, your business will remain a dream and in theory. In order for something to happen, an action must take place.  The best learning comes by doing and by making mistakes, and using those mistakes to do better next time.

So yes, gather the information you need in preparation for launching and managing your freelance business. But know that while it’s great to learn from the mistakes of others, sometimes we just have to learn our own way, from our own stumbles. As it’s said, experience is the best teacher — so fear the fear and do it anyway.

Jeanna D. Rutledge is new to the land of freelance and enjoys writing about it and other writing awesomeness on her blog. You should definitely visit to read tidbits here and there about her freelance journey, and connect with her on Twitter to see an example of “learning by doing” in action.

Image: Jason Prini

Whether you have an affiliate marketing site of your own, or you are a freelancer who has been commissioned to write copy for somebody else’s, one thing it will almost certainly need to have is reviews of the products you are aiming to promote. These serve two purposes – one, as content that can help search engines find your site, thus boosting traffic, and two, as sales copy to encourage your reader to take further interest in, or buy, the product. Here we take a look at some of the ways you can write great product reviews that will meet both of these objectives.

SEO

SEO (search engine optimization, to the uninitiated) is all about getting the best possible search engine ranking when somebody runs a Google (or other) search on keywords which are relevant to your website. You need to make sure your product reviews are optimised with keywords in the title and body which are the best and most likely match to what a prospective customer for your product might search for. What these are will vary depending on what you are promoting. If you are selling something with a particular brand and name, which people are likely to search for explicitly, then that would make sense as a keyword, perhaps in connection with keywords to do with the price of that item (“cheap”, “discount” etc.). If the name of the product is less well known you need to think about what it does, and questions it might be the answer to.

Information

If you are in an affiliate program, chances are you picked it because you believe in the product you are marketing, and even if you don’t you are going to write from a positive perspective because you want people to buy. Of course, people reading reviews are actually looking to find out how a product works and if it delivers on its promises, rather than to read a lot of sales copy about how wonderful it is, so try and give a good mixture of actual information about the product as well as the positive review element. If you are marketing computers, don’t just say that the model is the fastest and most reliable on the market, actually discuss the specs and compare it favourably to some competitors (ones it is superior to, obviously, don’t out and out lie).

Call to Action

As with any sales related copywriting, the piece should end with a call to action. This is harder to do with a review than with normal sales copy, but not impossible. You could mention that you got the product you were reviewing at a very good price because of a promotion that was going on, and urge your reader to participate in the same promotion right away. The reader needs to be told to buy, rather than just imparted with a positive overall feeling about the product.

Product reviews are really great content for any affiliate marketing site, and by following this advice you should be able to create ones that really add value.

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