Emotional Sobriety: My Journey to ACA » Writing

The Wall Street Journal reports that America’s newest profession is blogging for hire. Mark Penn reports that there are more people making a living from blogging in the United States than there are lawyers or computer programmers or firefighters. He writes that in a nation of over 20,000,000 bloggers, we have 452,000 people using blogging as his/her primary source of income.

Basics from this article about bloggers: “Demographically, bloggers are extremely well educated: three out of every four are college graduates. Most are white males reporting above-average incomes. One out of three young people reports blogging, but bloggers who do it for a living successfully are 2% of bloggers overall. It takes about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75,000 a year. Bloggers can get $75 to $200 for a good post, and some even serve as “spokesbloggers” — paid by advertisers to blog about products. As a job with zero commuting, blogging could be one of the most environmentally friendly jobs around — but it can also be quite profitable. For sites at the top, the returns can be substantial. At some point the value of the Huffington Post will no doubt pass the value of the Washington Post.”

Angela Booth recommends blogging to begin a freelance writing career because you must establish your credentials. The most important credential a blogger or freelance writer can have are numerous mentions in Google under your name. After you have made a name for yourself, you will receive offers of free lance writing jobs.

How do you learn about blog writing? Ask Anne the Pro Writer

Freelance Writing–an Excellent Career Opportunity Includes several benefits for being a freelance writer: it is completely flexible, you choose your income amount, and you get to learn “on the Job”.

Michelle writes about what the well-dressed blog post contains. She recommends posts that have good writing, are heavy on context, with a clever headline, using visuals, including links to good blog posts, with keywords and tags, and having been given some promotion.

More blogging tips are given at: 5 ways to blog every day without freaking out.

Before beginning to blog, Angela Booth recommends that you: (1) set a focus for your blog, (2) build an audience with your enthusiasm, and (3) set goals and blog every day.

Entering the Freelance World

kberman — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:49:06 +0000

Writing...by dabawenya

A blog is the reflection of an author’s interests. In creating a blog about jobs that I want to use as a marketing tool for Twitter, Relax Into Getting a Job, I began studying the freelance field. Many people who never knew they could write and enjoy it have been created via blogging and the avenue of self-publishing. I am one of those people. But after four years + of writing for my own blogs, I want to branch out and write for others.

I have acquired 600 blogs in my Google Reader and have learned to quickly scan the blog for the topics being written about (never end a sentence with a preposition–former English teacher in the house).

Using Alltop–which is where I always start with a topic search–under the category of work, I found 68 separate resources–blogs and sites–for freelance jobs. 68 resources!! One of the sites, writing bids, has 34 separate categories for freelance writing jobs.

Writing bids has these categories to search for jobs with quick link searches for each: article writing, content writing, copywriting, website writing, blog writing, book writing, ghostwriting, health writing, grant writing, tech writing, PR writing, editing, proofwriting, translation, research, re-writing, and resume writing. What a feast for writers!

About freelance writing has 69 freelance writing jobs for May 6, 2009. The jobs have been divided between jobs that pay a decent amount and jobs that are low paying ($10/article or $5 per blog post or less).

Current freelance writing jobs:

http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/05/13/alternative-income-streams/

http://www.ifreelance.com/project/detail.aspx?projectid=38294

http://www.aboutfreelancewriting.com/2009/05/freelance-writing-jobs-wednesday-may-13-2009/

About freelance writing:

http://www.aboutfreelancewriting.com/2009/05/were-so-lucky/

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=77&aid=163406

Writing Tips from Copyblogger

kberman — Sun, 12 Dec 2004 03:03:56 +0000

In this post, Brian Clark includes a YouTube video of Ira Glass. Glass is the host of NPR’s This American Life (which I TIVO and always enjoy). In this video, Glass teaches how to relearn the way we write. In the video, he explains the two building blocks of writing for the media. Because I believe that we live in a “sound bite” society, writing for a 3-5 minute clip is good advice for blog posts.

The two building blocks he talks about are the anecdote and the moment of reflection. I think of the anecdote–which makes dull events interesting–as the “hook” for getting attention. The anecdote shows the sequence of the story and has a momentum of its own. Kind of like deliberately leaving an elevator with on listeners wondering how the anecdote ended. The second block–”the moment of reflection”–completes the tale by telling you why you are listening to this story.

Copyblogger consistently provides great tips/ideas about writing and marketing. Sonia Simone writes “13 Emotion-Based Headlines That Work” and includes the following examples:

When’s the Last Time a Cute Girl Checked You Out?
Emotional benefit: feeling attractive and sexy
Learn How to Stand Up to Your Boss (and Force Him to See What You’re Really Worth)
Emotional benefit: feeling assertive and confident
Your Grandkids Will Be Struggling to Keep Up with You
Emotional benefit: feeling vital and energetic
You’ve Worked Hard All Week–Now Indulge Yourself
Emotional benefit: feeling pampered, justified entitlement
A Limited Number of Spaces Are Still Available for Founders’ Circle Membership
Emotional benefit: sense of belonging, exclusivity
Are You Working Harder than Ever, but Still Worried About Downsizing and Layoffs?
Emotional benefit: feeling in control of one’s own destiny
The 20-Minute Read that Will Make You a Financial Genius
Emotional benefit: feeling wealthy and powerful (also feeling smart)
They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Keyboard–But Then I Began to Blog!
Emotional benefit: feeling proud, sense of accomplishment (also being gigantic dork)
How to Take Command of Any Meeting
Emotional benefit: feeling respected
The SecureWidget Alert System Keeps Tireless Watch Over Your Family
Emotional benefit: feeling safe
Is Your Child Emotionally Intelligent? Take This Test and Find Out
Emotional benefit: feeling like a good parent
Reconnect With Your Friends and Family on this Incredible Three-Day Retreat
Emotional benefit: feeling of loving connection
How to Survive (and Yes, Even Thrive) in a Recession
Emotional benefit: feeling financially secure (note that this is subtly different from feeling wealthy and powerful)