Get Paid to Write Online

Freelancing Through The Summer Vacation

Sharon Hurley Hall — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:54:43 +0000

It’s summer! For most people, the summer holidays are a time to rejoice and to plan vacations, but for work at home moms with school age children, there’s often a sense of thinly veiled panic. The question we don’t dare voice is: how the heck will I meet all my deadlines with all my kids at home?

Of course, being able to spend time with our kids is part of the reason we have this job anyway (that, and an inability to leave the computer for more than five seconds), so we should welcome the opportunity. However, there’s no denying that it can present challenges if you have a roster of regular clients with regular deadlines. So what do you do? Here are some of the strategies I have used.

Outsource

Pass some of your work onto a trusted colleague. It has to be someone who will deliver the same standard of work as you, and whose work you won’t have to check to often (spot checks are always sensible). Yes, you will earn a bit less, but it will free up some family time and ease the pressure.

Shift Your Work Patterns

During school time, I generally get my daughter ready for school and then start work at about 8am while my hubby does the school run. In the holidays, I may start later and work intermittently. Today, for example, I did an hour between 7 and 8, then came back to the computer at around 9 to do some more. Hubby’s taken our daughter out, leaving me a couple of hours to do client work and write this post. I’ll probably take a break when they return, and do an hour late this evening to catch up.

Find A Camp

Despite the horrors suggested by summer camp in the Peanuts strip, not all kids hate it. In fact, many kids love the chance to do something different. Around here, camp breaks up around 2.30 so it’s a shorter day, but it means that I can get some of my work done if I’m organised, which brings me to my next point …

Be Efficient

When you have the whole day, you can afford to waste a little time. During the summer vacation, every minute counts, so make sure you use any free time wisely. During the summer I may post less on the blog and be slightly less active on some social media outlets so that I can make sure that my clients’ work gets done.

Take Some Time Off

Of course, you could just go with the flow. You will never get this time with your child back again. I’m aiming for a balance. My daughter knows that there are days when I have deadlines and I won’t be able to play, but on other days when it’s less critical, I can take a couple of hours off and revert to childhood – isn’t that the whole point of being a freelancer?

Ten Reasons To Live The Nomadic Lifestyle

Sharon Hurley Hall — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:20:01 +0000

The results of the survey on lifestyle design by Free Pursuits and Location Independent are in – and I’ve found them fascinating. Here are ten reasons that writers and others were inspired to make the move.

1. Spending time with family and travelling

2. Boredom and the need for diversity

3. Unhappinhess with employment

4. Reading about someone who live the lifestyle

5. Annoyance with commuting

6. Dissatisfaction with the lifestyle in their home country

7. A desire to live like a movie star

8. The Location Independent blog

9. Lack of vacation time

10. A desire to be free

If you’re thinking about cutting those ties, or if you’ve already done it, what’s your motivation?

Get Paid To Write Online will be hosting the next Location Independent blog carnival in July. See the first one here.

How To Put Your Best Foot Forward As A Writer

Sharon Hurley Hall — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:44:51 +0000

The way you present yourself to clients can have as much to do with winning writing commissions as your skill level. Clients will never find out how good you are at writing if your initial presentation is offputting. So how can you put your best foot forward as a writer? Here are some tips.

Organize Your Website

Make it easy for clients to find the information they want on your site. Most clients want to see examples of work, rates, testimonials and contact details. Make sure these feature prominently on your site.

Be Responsive

When clients contact you, respond as soon as you can. Even if you are responding to say that you can’t speak right away, acknowledging the client makes them feel that you are on the case and that they can trust you.

Do Your Research

Even before you speak to or email a client, you can check them out online. Google is your best friend, as you can use it to see what the client’s business is about so that you can tailor your conversation and samples so that they meet the client’s needs.

Be Meticulous

Once you have got a commission, do what you promised. Meet the brief and deliver on time. If you are unsure about anything, ask questions early so you can still meet your deadline. Clients don’t mind answering questions if it improves the final product.

This article originally appeared in Writing Lab News.

14 Great Posts On Writing And Blogging

Sharon Hurley Hall — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:13:53 +0000

It’s a long time since I’ve done a post roundup. Although I’ve streamlined my RSS reader, there are still quite a few posts that hold my attention. Here are 14 of the best I’ve read recently:

15 Applications No Online Business Can Live Without

Why Personal and Business Branding Work Best Together

7 Tips To Get The Best Out Of Gmail For Freelancing Digital Nomads

How Not to Promote Your Blog: Top 10 Broken Blog Promotion Strategies

What Freelancers Must Know About Ergonomics

Freelancing vs. Full Time Telecommute

Why You Should Go Back to the Day Job

35 Online Tools That Make Your Freelance Career Easier

30 Days to Become a Freelancer

How to Say Nothing in 500 Words (A Lesson on Writing)

The Naked Writer

Six tips to avoid being an overworked writer

How To Make Your Business Look Good Online

Location Independence: What’s In It For You (Yes – You, You & Even You!)

Where I Get Paid To Write Update

Sharon Hurley Hall — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:18:32 +0000

Almost three years ago, I published a list of some of the most lucrative writing markets I had found. At the time I listed the following places which had proven useful for me as a writer:

Exquisite Writing – an international copywriting agency
Blogitive – a blog advertising company
Lifetips – a site with mini sites about thousands of topics
Freelance Writing Gigs – a site which provided great job leads

My Client List

Three years on, the picture looks very different. My client list looks like this:

two online monthly trade magazines for which I source news and write feature articles, going back to my roots as a journalist
a travel blog where I post twice weekly for an offsite airport parking firm
a tech blog, where I post roughly ten times a month
a review blog, where I post batches of reviews of of new websites at intervals
a business consultant, for whom I write article marketing articles
a musical entertainment provider, for whom I write environmental articles for his local website and occasional travel articles on the destinations where he operates
a management consultant, for whom I write website materials as well as helping with other projects
two copywriting agencies
an education firm, for whom I do proofreading
a European bimonthly magazine which deals with development issues, for whom I do proofreading

I also do occasional guest blogs on topics such as parenting and finance, among others.

Great Places To Find Jobs

The places where I look for work include:

I also get a lot of work from referrals.

Places which have not provided much include Elance, Guru, Odesk – and let’s not even talk about GetAFreelancer. However, I would still recommend that new writers give Exquisite Writing a try.

Why This Matters

There are three points to make with this list. First, that having a varied client list will help insure you against ruin if one client disappears. (I have a couple of big clients in there and admittedly it would hurt if I lost their business, but I’d still have something to keep me going while I looked for a replacement).

Second, that you probably have a wide range of abilities – the more of them you use the more varied and interesting your writing career will be. At the moment, my current client list represents a good balance.

Third, that persistence is one of the keys to freelancing success. When I started freelancing, I took certain jobs just for the experience – the pay wasn’t worth writing home about – so I could build my skill level. That paid off by bringing me better paid opportunities and referrals from satisfied clients. Wherever you are starting from, you can do this too.

Location Independent Survey Is Live!

Sharon Hurley Hall — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:33:42 +0000

Location Independent and Free Pursuits are trying to find out more about the growing community of digital nomads and location independent professionals. As Corbett Barr says:

Our community is full of people who ask “why wait until you’re rich or retired to live the life you really want to live?”

To do this they are doing a survey hosted on the Free Pursuits blog. I don’t know about you, but I’m curious about the rest of the community, so I’ll be taking part in the survey and waiting with interest to see the results. You can participate here.

Location Independent Group Writing Project Roundup

Sharon Hurley Hall — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:42:45 +0000

The Location Independent Group Writing Project was great fun, generating several posts that sparked good discussion on the topic of location independence. While there are a few common elements about people’s views of the location independent lifestyle, there are also many different ways to enjoy this independence, expressed beautifully – and sometimes poetically – by writing project participants. Here’s a round up of what was published by the closing date. And for those who still want to take part – some of you have emailed me – just add your links to the original post when you’re ready.

Lifestyle of the Digital Tinker, Mitchell Allen

Wild Workshifters, Deb Brown

Location Independent Group Writing Project, Susan Jeffels

Writing on Vacation – Thoughts on my Location Independent Career, Katherine Huether

Patria Ubi Bene – Alina Popescu

The Challenges and Rewards of Living Adventurously - Cody McKibben

How To Run A Location Independent Business – Brooke Ferguson

Developing A Writing Habit – ManekiNeko

The Portable Writer – Sharon Hurley Hall

The Portable Writer

Sharon Hurley Hall — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:40:24 +0000

What's in your location independent writing toolbox?

As a writer I’ve lived through an era when my boss thought computers would never catch on to an era where the tools I need are increasingly available online. I no longer need to carry much with me to have an ultra portable writing business. Here are some of the items in my writing toolbox.

A Mini Computer

So new that it hasn’t even been delivered yet, my mini computer will give me access to everything I need to get online. I will use it mostly for research when traveling, for writing, for checking email and for keeping up with my social networks. The reason I like it is because it’s light (none of the shoulder ache that comes from carrying a regular laptop during a day’s travel) and, like most laptops, I can charge it virtually anywhere. It’s not much good for playing games, but as a work machine it works (or at least I hope it will). This will replace my dated and much heavier Dell Latitude Laptop. Built in Wi-Fi is a given, of course, but if you plan to stay in one place for a while you can also investigate solutions such as mobile broadband or fixed line cable or ADSL connections.

Google Docs

File this under ‘things I plan to use more’. I must admit that one of the few pieces of software I’ve stuck with through my writing career has been Microsoft Word. For me, it’s better than the Open Office version. However, when traveling I have used Google Docs to give me access to quick editing functionality. It works well for word processing, handling spreadsheets and preparing presentations and I can access it from anywhere. Of course, I don’t have time to upload all the documents I might ever need into it, but my next tool takes care of that.

Syncplicity

This is my favorite online backup tool. As a former beta tester, I get a bit of extra storage (I think it’s up to 5GB in all). I make sure that all my essential files are on automatic backup, which means I can access them from anywhere. I then have the choice of editing them through Zoho Docs or downloading and importing into Google Docs. Both seem to work well.

Portable Storage

The size of this can vary. While I have a large portable hard drive (about half the size of a paperback), I don’t usually take this with me. My 16GB USB pen drive is big enough for most of my needs. I keep the things I will need urgent access to – and not much else. There’s just one critical application ….

Portable Browser

I use Google Chrome, but before that it was Firefox. If you make a habit of using portable apps even on your fixed PC, then you can copy them onto a USB stick at any time and have access to favorites, passwords, cookies and so on. It’s a quick way to get up and running when you’re on the move.

Portable Electronics

Under this heading I place my digital recorder, MP3 player, headset and webcam (if you can get it built into your laptop that’s a bonus). With these I have pretty much everything I need, except for …

Phone

I don’t know how I ran my writing business before Skype. That’s currently my VOIP provider of choice, while I wait for Google Voice to approve my account. My contact list is growing and I like the fact that I can talk, text, conference and video message (depending on the robustness of the local internet connection). Together with my mobile phone, this keeps me connected to the rest of the world.

Contact Management

This is one area where I’m still undecided. Outlook is pretty good as a contact manager, but it’s hardly portable. Google Contacts has limited functionality. I no longer use a Palm, so that’s out. At the moment, I am trying Gist, which includes my Google Apps, Gmail, LinkedIn and Facebook contacts, but I’m not sure that’s a final solution. Suggestions are welcome.

Old Tech, Low Tech

Finally, two things that all this technology can’t replace – a notepad and pencil.

What tools do you use that help keep your career location independent?

This is my entry for the Location Independent Group Writing Project.

Develop Your Writing Career With A Mentor

Sharon Hurley Hall — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:29:55 +0000

One of the best ways to develop your freelance writing career is to get help from someone who has been there and done it all before. Choosing a mentor for your writing career can help you avoid some of the pitfalls that trap other writers. It’s a way of giving yourself a head start in creating your own successful writing business. So, how do you select the perfect mentor? Read on to find out.

Where Are You Going?

You don’t have to know it all to choose a mentor, but it helps to have some idea of the areas you want to focus on. You might end up choosing others after you have talked, but it provides a starting point? Why is this important? Because you will need to make sure that your mentor knows enough about your chosen areas to guide you appropriately. If you want to know about web content writing, there’s no point in choosing a mentor whose experience is mainly in print journalism.

Where Have They Been?

One of the first things to do when choosing a mentor is to check them out. Even before you talk to them see what you can find online, check out their publishing credits and see if they show up on writing forums or writing blogs. You can find out a lot about people by reading their blogs and assessing the advice they give and how they handle comments. Once you have checked them out, it’s time to take the next step.

Talk To Them

Find out if your potential mentor is available for mentoring. Explain what you are looking for and see how this person can help. The talking process is about establishing whether you have chemistry. You need to get along with the person who will be helping you to shape your career. Look for someone who seems knowledgeable and patient – you’ll be asking a lot of questions at the start. See if the person has a genuine interest in seeing you flourish.

Practicalities

One of the key qualities of mentors is that they need to be accessible, though there are no hard and fast rules for how this is to happen. Some people prefer the personal touch. If you want face to face conversation, then you need to find a mentor who lives close by so you can schedule regular meetings. However, these days you are not limited to your locality. Thanks to VOIP phones and instant messaging, your mentor could live anywhere in the world, giving you a much wider pool to choose from. In that case, the most important consideration is whether you are technologically compatible – are you both on Skype? Do you use the same IM system?

Working With A Mentor

Once you have found your ideal mentor, it’s time to get to work. A typical session will last an hour, and you may need a few sessions to get the best from the mentoring experience. In your first session, your mentor will want to know about your experience and your priorities and your assessment of the challenges you face. Some mentors give you a questionnaire to help you to identify those; others prefer to have an informal – and more relaxing – chat. It doesn’t matter what the method is; it just matters that you communicate. That’s the session where you will probably set out a plan for future sessions so you can plan what you are going to cover.

Beyond The Beginning

Once you know what you are talking about, then there are different patterns the sessions might follow. In some sessions, you will be doing a lot of talking, answering your mentor’s questions to try to get to the root of an issue. In others, the mentor will be doing most of the talking, laying out an issue so that you can understand it. This is when your work in choosing a mentor will have paid off, as communication should be clear and easy to understand. Expect a recap of key points at the end of a session, as well as action points for you to follow up.

Expectations

A successful relationship with a mentor should give you new ideas for developing your career. It should suggest sources of revenue or work and ways of promoting yourself to achieve your aims. It should extend the ideas you already have and challenge you to find new approaches. Ideally the relationship should be one of mutual respect and support. Eventually, you will not need the mentor as much, but in all likelihood you will have formed a lifelong relationship. A mentor cannot do the job for you, but can help you to do your job better.

The Money

Of course, all this great advice doesn’t come free. While you can learn a lot from reading blogs and chatting informally with other writers, the advantage of using a mentor is that the advice given is specific to where you are in your career right now. Just one tip could be the difference between failure and success, so be prepared to invest in your career. After all, you’re worth it.

Location Independent Group Writing Project

Sharon Hurley Hall — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:53:03 +0000

Are you excited about your freelance writing career? Want to share some of that excitement with us? The freedom to choose is an essential part of the freelancer’s lifestyle – the freedom to choose when you work, where you work and often who you work for. These are also fundamental to the location independent (or digital nomadic ) lifestyle.

As you know, I’ve recently got excited about the location independent lifestyle, because it perfectly fits my life goals. I’m sure I’m not the only one. That’s why I’m inviting you to talk about location independence or being a digital nomad in the Location Independent Group Writing Project. Even if you’re only thinking about this lifestyle, what would it look like if you could achieve your ideal? Don’t worry if you’re mostly home based. As this post on how to Experience The Location Independent Lifestyle From The Comfort of Your Own Home shows, there are lots of ways to get started.

The Rules

As before, the rules are simple: write a post with this theme on your blog, including a link to this post. Leave the link to your writing project post in the comments section below. Check back regularly and visit everyone’s posts to share some comment love. If you want to, you can use the badge in this post to show that you have participated in this group writing project.

At the end of the writing project, I’ll do a roundup so you can have all the posts in one handy place. Spread the word and invite people to join in. The arbitrary closing date is May 27 and you can expect the roundup post by June 1. Then look out for a further announcement on this theme.