But if it will serve as a good sample of your writing to your target audience, it can be invaluable. And obviously, the more prominent places you can blog, the better. If you can have a regular blog for a high-traffic site, it can become a referral engine for you. Even the occasional guest post on a big site can help you find work.
I recently was approached by a major corporation in Canada about copywriting for them, which baffled me as I don’t apply for or seek gigs outside the U.S.
How did they find me? They saw my blog for a major magazine and just based on that, decided I was the writer they wanted.
Personally, I’ve found blogging helps me keep the creative juices flowing, and allows me an outlet for my own opinions, which don’t usually get expressed in my copywriting or reporting work. I think it’s made me a better writer for my other markets and clients.
A big caveat: if you’re the kind of writer who really needs an editor to better organize your thoughts and iron out all your misspellings and bad grammar, a blog may not be your best showcase, since you’re usually serving as your own editor.
If you want to blog for pay for other people, obviously, having your own blog is pretty much a requirement. They’ll ask you for links to your blogs – it’s almost a part of your resume.
Another great strategy for blogging is to make some cogent comments on other people’s blogs. Great way to get started in blogging while you’re getting organized with your own blog.
Other tips:
• Find industry blog portals in your niche and ask if you can add your blog to their site.
• Try to blog on a regular basis, at least once or twice a week.
• Don’t blog about what your cat ate. Find a niche subject that’s the theme of your blog, and stick to it. Will help build your audience.
• Once you are blogging, use social media to draw more visitors to your blog. I’ve grown my traffic by about 50 percent in just a month or so through using Twitter.
• Once you have your own blog, when you comment on others’ blogs, put your blog address in your signature, or look for sites with CommentLuv, which will automatically add a link to one of your posts back on your blog. This has significantly increased the traffic to my Web site.
• Think about ways to monetize your blog once you have some traffic. Just because you’re using the blog primarily to lure new writing clients doesn’t meant the blog can’t be another, ancillary revenue stream, too.
Her comment: “I’m discouraged. I’m sending one or two queries a week, and I’m not getting any responses.”
Why is she not getting any bites?
Because she’s not throwing enough lines in the water.
Personally, I can easily send 10 pitches or more in a day. When I’m looking for new clients, I’ve often sent a half-dozen or so resumes out for copywriting jobs I see or am referred to each week. I collect story ideas in string files for all the publications I currently write for as well as new ones I’m targeting.
The other day, I sent one of my current editors 11 pitches in a single email.
I think I tacked on a couple more I thought of later a day or two afterward. This all led to a couple of assignments for an upcoming issue.
Then I moved on to another editor at the magazine who edits stories on marketing for the Web site. Pitched her an idea and got an assignment. Then on to the franchising editor – pitched her a couple ideas and got one assignment out of it. So that’s four assignments for the month just at one magazine.
Publications may have a features editor a front-of-the-book editor, a health or food editor, an online editor, a special-section editor, a custom-publications editor. And they each have different needs.
If you only know one editor at a publication, see what else is going on at the organization and ask for introductions to other editors. Soon you may have a half-dozen people you could hit with ideas within just that one publication.
I’m a big advocate of sending query letters that have more than one story idea in them – two or even three if you can squeeze them all onto one page.
Why? This not only conveys several story ideas — which automatically ups your success odds — but also tells the editor that you are an idea machine.
You not some one-off with a single story idea you’re flogging. You’re a useful resource, which is what editors usually need most.
Editors are trapped in their cubicles long hours and often never see the sky in daylight. They need writers who are out talking to people and gathering newsy ideas to send them! Sending a multiple-pitch query shows you are one of those valuable newshounds.
Multiple-pitch queries can also pay off because you don’t always know what type of story that editor might need most right now.
Here’s a typical example from my own experience:
I once sent a two-pitch email query to a trade magazine editor in the restaurant sector I usually write for only once a year for a big special section.
I thought the first idea, which had a restaurant-technology theme, was killer-perfect for them. As a bonus, I threw in the idea of doing a market study of the current restaurant scene in my hometown of Seattle. Lots of new restaurants had been opening.
Well, it turned out they had no budget for freelancing out technology stories, as they had a staff writer for that. But they loved the market study idea! And bang, a $750 assignment for writing 1,000 words. If I’d stuck to sending the one query I thought they would like best, I would have had zip.
In the current down economy with layoffs abounding, having a lot of story ideas is more important than ever. Magazines and newspapers that used to have suites full of editors have often dismantled those brain trusts, and they’re looking to you – the freelance writer – to supply them with ideas. It’s a terrific strength if you can present yourself as someone who has a lot of ideas. Being an idea factory positions you well for getting regular assignments from your editor contacts instead of just sporadic work.
Do you have trouble finding story ideas?
In general, you probably need to read more widely and talk to more people. Try these tips:
1. Plug into local events. Be aware of what’s going on in your town, and go to events when you can. Walk around, open your eyes, talk to people and see what’s there. I went to a harvest fair on my island a few weeks ago and discovered a local resident has created a reproduction 1910 gypsy wagon she uses as a guesthouse – it’s stunning, and I hope to sell the idea to a local shelter magazine. You never know when you’ll see a new product or creative idea that could be turned into a story pitch. When you’re socializing or at the gym, find out what people do – their hobbies and unusual vocations are prime story-idea fodder.
If you’re going to a local event, be sure to ask local media if they need someone to cover it – you may make a few dollars while you’re there looking for more ideas!
2. Track issues and controversies. Is your neighborhood up in arms about shoreline access, a sex offender who’s moved in, or a planned new development? You may be able to cover these for local publications or use them as examples to illustrate a national trend for bigger pubs.
3. Where are they now. If you happen to know where someone is who was once in the limelight but has been out for a while, and they’re doing something new and interesting now, that’s a great story. Folks love to catch up with figures like these, so if you have access to one, pitch away.
4. How-to pieces. The Internet is bristling with these, and if you have some expertise you can get paid decently for them. Be sure to target high-circulation or high-readership markets.
5. What’s missing. When you read the newspaper, do you find stories that raise more questions than they answer? Those missing facts are new story angles you could pick up and follow.
6. New products. If you discover a hot new product or fad that you can demonstrate has found a market, that’s a great story to tell in business magazines, or perhaps an industry trade publication might want that news. If a startup has gotten their product into a big national chain such as Wal-Mart or Nordstrom, that’s a great story.
7. Recycle. Read lower-level publications for ideas that can be repurposed for bigger, better-paying markets, perhaps by adding more sources or a national expert for perspective. Association and charity newsletters, small-town newspapers and university magazines are all great places to find news that could play on a bigger stage. It also works in reverse – scan national publications for national trends you could “localize” for statewide, regional or local publications.
8. Take the one-hour news challenge. If you have trouble finding ideas, you may need to sharpen your curiosity and your skills in getting people to talk to you and tell you their news. Try this exercise: Go to the center of your town, get out and walk around for one hour, with the goal of coming back with at least one story idea. Go in every shop and talk to the owners about what’s going on, talk to customers, people outside eating lunch, and people you’re waiting for the bus for. I had to do this once during a writer’s retreat at my paper, and it was amazing how many stories we came back with after just one hour.
By Carol Tice
Writers should assume that many roadblocks stand in the way of them and the good living they want to earn from their craft.
When you reach a roadblock, start thinking about how you’re going to overcome it.
One thing that separates the top-earning writers from the low earners is their attitude.
Mine can be summed up this way: I’m unstoppable.
Again and again, when I talk to my mentees, I hear something like this:
“I found this magazine (or online website) I’d like to write for, but it didn’t have a masthead. So I didn’t know how to contact the editor. So I gave up.”
And right there is the difference between writers who are going to make good money from their words, and those who aren’t.
I say, “You gave up????”
This is a problem I can usually solve in five minutes.
How?
When you turn up editor names, looking for perhaps a managing editor, articles editor, features editor, or an editor for the specific section you want. Executive editor or editor-in-chief is usually too high up.
When you hit a roadblock, remember the answer you need is out there.
Keep sleuthing out those editors’ names. And be unstoppable.
And the good news is I haven’t found it a total waste of time. I’ve picked up a few tips from playing Bejeweled that I feel are helping me in my writing business. Here they are:
1. Keep striving for a fresh perspective. We all tend to get in a rut, and see things only one way. In Bejeweled, if you don’t keep refreshing your attitude and looking again – maybe at the yellow gems you never pay much attention to – you can’t find new sets of gems to connect. In business, we’ve got to keep talking to new people and exploring new ideas to gain insight into the best way forward.
2. Time is precious. There’s only one minute to get it done on Bejeweled Blitz. Isn’t that a metaphor for our lives? We should always remember we only have so many moments…and we don’t know how many. So we need to prioritize ruthlessly to make sure we’re getting the most important stuff done each day…including taking time to refresh and just enjoy this beautiful world.
3. If it’s not working, bag it. One of the best pieces of Bejeweled advice I got was from an online tip sheet. It said, if you’ve hit 30 seconds and nothing much is happening, quit that puzzle and just start a new game. It’s too late for you to end up with a good score, as half the time is already gone. The same with your business – if you’ve been trying one strategy a while and it’s not working, don’t just keep on slogging in the wrong direction until your doors close. It’s time to try something else.
4. If you’re stuck, blow up the model. Sometimes you get a crummy puzzle in Bejeweled where there aren’t a lot of obvious matches…sort of like our crummy current economy. In these cases, the best thing you can do on Bejeweled is manage to match and explode a flame jewel, which will radically rearrange a hunk of your puzzle and hopefully give you easier matches. This works for business too – if your current premise is proving difficult to execute in our new economic reality, it may be time to shake things up – look at new geographic markets, products, or customer segments.
5. Turn the noise down. Bejeweled makes a range of jangly sound effects and vocal comments as you play, including a throbbing sound that begins as you near the end of the minute. The second-best tip I got was to turn my computer’s sound off. It’s too distracting! I was amazed at how much more reliably I could get decent scores without the audio. Likewise, in business, we’ve got to focus on what’s important and screen out distractions to be successful.
6. Embrace change. In Bejeweled, the scenario is constantly changing, and often not in ways you expected. You succeed in forming one set of gems, only to realize that doing so has spoiled your chance to do a few other key moves you had planned. Isn’t that just like our lives? While we’re executing one business strategy, the window of opportunity for another one fades away. We plan for economic good times, only to wake up in the deepest economic downturn of our lifetimes. And the only thing to do is accept it and look at the new reality with an open mind, so we can spot the new opportunities that are out there.
7. “Go for the multiplier!” This is what my teenage son yells at me every time he sees me playing Bejeweled. If you get four jewels lined up in a row instead of three, you get a multiplier gem that increases your score by a factor of 2-6x if you can get it into a jewel set. Evan’s always ragging me that I don’t focus enough on trying to score those multipliers. And you know what – he’s right!
In business, we need to prioritize ways to do two or three times as much in the same amount of time – reach more customers, accomplish more tasks, within the same timeframe and without extra effort. If there’s a class, software tool or marketing technique that allows us to work more efficiently, make using it a top priority.
By Carol Tice
There’s a lot of advice out there about getting started in freelance writing, but I think most books and ebooks skip over one of the fundamental steps to success: Before quitting your job and jumping into freelance writing, a would-be writer would be wise to take an honest look at their personality and history to assess whether they have the skills to be successful.
I’m not talking about “Do you write well?” Many freelance writers string words together beautifully, but they still can’t manage to make more than a few thousand a year with their writing.
Here are some of the other talents, besides writing, that I believe you need to make a good living as a freelance writer:
• Self-discipline. If you were left alone at your house all day, would you research topics, conduct interviews, write articles and turn them in on deadline, or would you watch TV and empty the refrigerator? If you don’t have the drive to focus on your business during your business hours, you will not make a good income.
• Willing to do marketing. Are you willing to write query letters, research markets, respond to job ads, and do in-person and on-line marketing of your business, each and every week? Successful freelancers constantly market themselves. If that makes you feel uncomfortable, it would probably be hard to make freelance writing pay well.
• Willing to deal with rejection. Successful freelancers constantly look for new clients and try to break in with new editors. Even when you’re fully booked, you still look for better clients so you can swap them in and drop poorer-paying ones. That’s how writers progress to where they’re earning really substantial sums. If sending a query letter and not ever getting an answer makes you need to curl up in a ball on your couch and eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s every time, freelance writing will not make you richer – just fatter. Pros send dozens of queries and resumes a month and know that maybe one of them will pay off, and they’re fine with it. It’s just business.
• Willing to say “no.” Do you have a hard time turning work offers down, no matter how wretched the pay or conditions? If so, you would be in real trouble as a freelance writer, especially in the Web 2.0 era. There are many opportunities to write for almost nothing these days. If you have trouble setting healthy boundaries with people, especially employers, freelance writing won’t end up being lucrative for you.
Woah! That really surprised me.
You see, I’ve never let lack of official qualifications stop me from getting writing assignments.
As a freelance writer who happens to lack a college degree, I routinely apply for jobs that require a B.A. In fact, hardly any job listing I’ve applied for in my career didn’t list some requirement I didn’t have.
I believe that lists of qualifications for writing jobs are highly fungible. The company is basically guessing at what sort of background the person they need would have, what they would have done before and what education level they would have reached.
Probably most of the people who could do it well would have a 4-year degree. But then there’s me. I’m an exception. I let my clips explain to them that I’m the best candidate.
Let me reiterate my longtime philosophy of freelance writing — clients, from magazines to major corporations, don’t really care whether you learned how to write well at an Ivy League university or under a freeway overpass.
Do you have strong clips that fit their niche? Then apply. And in my experience, you will get hired!
I actually would never have ended up with a well-paying writing career if it weren’t for my habit of applying randomly for any job I thought I could do, while disregarding listed requirements. My first full-time writing job I’m quite certain required a B.A. at least. It was business writing, which I’d never done.
But I thought it sounded intriguing and like I could do the work, and my husband’s job was ending and I needed a full-time gig. I’d been reporting on community activists for an alternative paper, and this was for a Park Avenue business trade publication.
They interviewed me, and then I was among 20 people they asked to do a trial assignment. They told me later I was the only one who wrote something they found publishable. From there I got another full-time gig that I’m sure required a B.A.
Requirements for freelance writing, I’ve found, are looser than they are for staff gigs.
I’ve written for a global insurance consultancy and a major national business-information provider. I’ve applied for and gotten many gigs in recent years, all the while ignoring ‘requirements’ and sending my clips.
Here’s the litmus test to tell whether you’re qualified for a freelance writing job:
Do you think you could do it?
Then send your clips over and let them show what you can do.
Myth #1: You can’t get any new accounts right now. Heard frequently: “Everyone’s getting 200 resumes when they post an ad, and I just don’t stand a chance.” It’s just baloney. Personally, I’ve gotten several good corporate clients by answering online ads.
For the most part they’re paying very well, in the $.50-$1 a word neighborhood. People who’re looking to move up from the $15-article ranks should know there are good move-up opportunities for people at the lower-pay levels, too — gigs that pay $50 or $100 an article or blog post.
2. Myth #2: There are no full-time writing jobs. While there may be fewer jobs than there are applicants, there most certainly are full-time job openings in writing. Take a look on MediaBistro or JournalismJobs.com, or at the full-time writer jobs on LinkedIn.
Myth #3: Rates are plummeting, and they’ll never recover. Lots of discussion about this out there. Reality: not only aren’t rates plummeting, in many sectors they are already rising again.
True, some magazines have cut their rates a bit, if ads are down. Some markets have gone kapoof. But many survivors continue to pay $.75-$1 a word. In general, my experience is that rates have stayed much as they were for both the magazine and copywriting work I do. On average, I haven’t had to lower my hourly rates or per-word prices.
It’s just that a whole new economy of low-priced Web content articles and blogs has been created that’s grabbing all the attention. But there’s already a light at the end of that low-pay tunnel. With the changes to how Google ranks websites, many of these low payers are seeing their traffic plummet.
Myth #4: Prospecting is hard, takes too long, and doesn’t pay off. I have to ask: Are you really frightened of standing around an art gallery or bar with a drink and a snack in your hand, meeting new people and finding out about their freelance needs? It’s not torture. I’ll tell you a secret — it’s actually fun! You get out of your computer cave for once and meet people.
You can devote as much or as little time to prospecting and networking as you choose. Make it a half-hour a day on Twitter, send marketing InMails to targeted prospects on LinkedIn, go to a Biznik event every week…it’s up to you. But do it…because it works!
One client I met at a live networking event paid $300 for articles that appear on AOL and Yahoo!, where my tagline is a live link to my Web site. Massive marketing exposure plus half-decent pay, for articles that are fairly easy to find sources for and write.
Another I got through Twitter pays $750 for marketing case studies.
Would you invest a few hours a month in marketing to find clients that would increase your writing income by $20,000 a year or more? In my experience, that’s an easily achievable goal.
To sum up, don’t believe what you hear around chat boards where many posters are dabbling or just getting started. Things just aren’t as bleak out there as they’re made out to be. I’ve earned more each year since 2006, and I’m not the only writer I know who’s continued to see strong earnings straight through the downturn.
And ultimately, I find that’s what it’s about: expectations. What you expect of your career, you make happen. So be a mythbuster and find some good-paying writing assignments! They’re out there.
By Carol Tice
For most freelance writers, earning more means finding a good-paying writing niche.
We all know that thanks to the content sites, articles on general topics like how to remove mold from your bathroom may never pay decently again.
So what does? Specialized types of writing that require specialized knowledge.
So here are five of my favorite good-paying writing niches. These are all niches I’ve worked in myself. Next week, I’ll post about more writing niches that I know pay well.
1. Trade publications. This is the niche where I landed my first full-time writing gig. I still freelance for trade pubs, for around $750 an article. Trade pubs usually can pay decently well even though their readership is usually relatively small, because their ads are expensive as they offer a unique opportunity to reach a particular audience.
There are trade pubs in every imaginable industry niche, and they don’t have to be terrifically technical industries. I’ve written for trade pubs about home improvement, restaurant and retail. In healthcare alone, there are more than 20 trade pubs, including America’s Pharmacist, Biotechnology Healthcare, Modern Physician, Plastic Surgery News, Managed Care, and Southern California Physician.
Have you dabbled in a technical field as a hobby, been a legal secretary, a teacher, an engineer, a medical receptionist, or had an unusual college major? Likely there’s a trade publication that could use your help explaining industry trends to their sophisticated professional audience. In my five years writing full-time for a trade pub, we were never fully staffed.
2. White papers. This is the hottest piece of collateral in marketing right now. It’s sales material that doesn’t feel “sales-y,” and it’s incredibly effective in getting clients — see this study for details. If you’ve written articles, case studies or reports, you can easily learn this niche.
I got approached by a communications firm to write a 6-page white paper in ’08 for a Fortune 50 company, and it paid $2,500 – about $1 a word – for my very first one, which was essentially three brief case studies. More complicated, longer white papers pay much more. Follow the masters, Michael Stelzner and Robert Bly, to learn more about this lucrative area.
3. Corporate web content. While writers moan and wail about ads for cheap Web content, major corporations – particularly ones that do something complicated or technical – are paying handsomely for authoritative, well-researched and expertly written Web content created about their products and services. To get the best rates, think big – Fortune 1000 companies or $1 billion+ private companies, though mid-sizers can pay decently, too.
I connected with one global private company three years ago when they were relaunching their complex Web site and rewriting all the content, and made probably $60,000 in several years, just from one client. I’ve been paid $95 an hour and/or $1 a word for content like this, straight through the downturn.
4. Research reports. Do you enjoy sleuthing around and turning up information? If so, there are a number of good-paying gigs writing research reports. For several years, I did quality-of-management research on CEOs of small public companies for investment firms. I’d find where the CEO used to work, research past news clips on the company, find former coworkers, and interview them about the CEO. Took about a week. I got paid $1,500-$3,500 a project, and I found the work challenging and fun.
5. Blogging and social media. I know what you’re thinking – that all pays $15 a blog, right? Not if you’re blogging for major magazines or corporations. I just finished a rush job of 20 short blogs for a business-services firm that paid nearly $1 a word. They were part of a $10,000 package of Web articles and blogs, mostly at the same rate level.
Because it’s so new, it’s great expertise to have and rates are high. Expert Chris Marlow did some research on people who were combining copywriting with social-media expertise in job bids, and found the typical hourly rate they reported was $350 an hour. Take a minute to absorb that concept!
I believe social media is the hottest new writing opportunity out there. You just need the right kind of clients.
In the last half of ’09, I signed my first few clients where article writing is coupled with social media – blogging for them on other sites and/or tweeting on the company’s behalf. I did a package of $1-a-word articles recently for a major company’s Facebook fan page. If you enjoy social media, the work’s fun. Often, the marketing exposure’s great, too…and I expect this niche to explode in the next few years.
By Carol Tice
Following up on my previous piece on five good writing niches, here are eight more areas that tend to have great pay.
A few of these I’m interested in getting into myself, or I’ve dabbled with them in the past. I’m going to use rate quotes from the Writer’s Market to discuss pay.
1. Technical writing. If you can talk to software engineers and translate what they’ve created into a user manual consumers can understand, you will make a lot of money. Ditto for medical device makers. The biggest problem facing most of the technical writers I’ve met is they can’t kick the habit and write anything else, because this pays so much better. Plenty of this work is still around, despite some offshoring. Writer’s Market says top rates are $125 an hour.
2. Article ghosting. How many times have you pitched a magazine or newspaper editor a company profile, written it, and gotten perhaps $100-200? What if instead, you sussed out when special sections were coming out that might need guest articles written by executives, and approached those busy executives about ghostwriting a really strong article for them. I have a friend who does this, and gets $1,200 an article, including pitching the publication. Brilliant, eh? Great approach to improving your pay.
3. Grant writing. Many of us have a soft spot for good causes. If that’s you, you might explore helping them win grants to support their work. I’ve done a tiny bit of this, and if you can carefully follow instructions and write well, you can do it. Small nonprofits may want you to do it as a volunteer, or for a cut of what they get. Do one sample and then move up. Top rates hit $125 an hour or better.
4. Curriculum design. If you’re an academic type, maybe a former or current teacher, know that there is a vast need out there for people who can write courses in a way that students will find appealing and accessible. E-learning is exploding, and someone has to write each online class. I see listings in the online job ads for this category all the time. $100 an hour is WD’s top rate.
5. Company magazines. Many large companies publish magazines for their employees, customers, or franchisees. They pay like trade pubs from what I’ve seen, $.75-$1 a word. Linda Formichelli recently related to Jennifer Mattern of All Freelance Writing how she broke into better-paying markets freelancing for AKFCF Quarterly, KFC’s magazine for their franchisees. Other company magazine examples: Here’s one Raytheon does for customers and prospects: Defender. And Tractor Supply Co. does one for its mostly-rural customers, Out Here. And of course there’s Costco Connection, which is one of the biggest-circulation magazines in the U.S. of any type. The possibilities are literally endless – look around the next time you’re in a chain store to find more of these opportunities.
6. Airline magazines. Airline mags are one of the best-paying consumer magazine types. Research which airlines pay best, and where they’re based – they love articles about their home or big-hub markets. If you like to write about travel, these are great target markets.
7. Annual reports. If you’ve written about business or nonprofits and feel comfortable around figures, annual reports can be a great niche. Both for-profit and non-profit entities need them. They’re about conveying what a great year the organization had, through stories and numbers. WD says $150 an hour is top rate, or $15,000 a project.
8. Business plans. This is one of the top new niches that I’m targeting for ’10. Every company that seeks funding from a bank or venture-capital firms needs a business plan. While the Internet is full of wannbes who’d like someone to write their plan for $300 or so, there’s another tier of companies that want a quality, intelligent plan done, and they pay much more. These can be $15,000 projects or more.
