Writers Unbound

How to keep writing even when your brain is mush, your fingers are numb, and your eyes are bleary…me, right now.

Two cups of coffee later… it’s still me.

You Threw Off My Groove

It’s been a dead couple of weeks, inspirationally speaking. Do you know what I mean? I’m used to the day or so like that every now and then, but I can usually get excited about blogging by stopping to plan, getting some titles and outlines and series ideas together. Once I have a page or two of notes, I’m ready to write again.

Usually.

Squawk

I have about 10 pages of notes, both handwritten and on my computer, and I’m still just staring at the screen with that one feeling I hate the most… the parrot feeling. I’m just squawking out ideas and tips and lists and pointers that have already been said, in much better ways, by people much more qualified than I am. That’s how I feel as I force my fingers to keep moving, and it sucks the little bit of inspiration that’s left right out. There’s a little pile of it on the floor beside me now. It’s not very useful there, but once it leaves it’s hard to gather up again.

Sometimes when I feel uninspired to write about writing, I take the time to browse other writing sites, the really big, chock-full of amazing and helpful information sites. They tend to perk me up to topics I hadn’t thought about covering, or perspectives I want to discuss. This time all they did was reinforce the parrot sensation. Squawk.

If they are already saying everything that can be said about this freelance writing subject, why do I keep writing?

Why Do I Keep Writing? No, Really… Why?

I keep writing because I’ve made a commitment, more to myself than to anyone else. I considered and I made a decision: Yes, I will do this/blog about this/write this/commit to this until I am successful. Not until I quit enjoying it or until something distracts me or until I have a better idea or until I run out of ideas. Success is the benchmark.

I have a definition of success as a freelance writer and a plan for reaching it, and a plan for what to do as I get there. I love blogging, but I don’t want to have to blog forever. My goal as a freelance writer is to reach self-sufficiency, by which I mean… well, here’s the long version:

Working toward self-sufficiency as a freelance writers means reaching success in the following ways: creating steady sources of income, including passive income; setting and maintaining practical work standards; creating and marketing your brand; eliminating client codependency; understanding and choosing the right publishing options; being prolific and producing consistent quality of work; refusing to participate in scams, get-rich-quick ideas, and other ways of avoiding hard work; working hard and loving it; maintaining balance; setting and reaching goals; operating as a small business; planning for the future.

At this moment, I don’t feel anywhere close to success in any of those areas, but I know that the more I write the closer I get. Sometimes progress is so subtle that you can’t track it while it is happening. Sometimes we do feel that we are just walking in place, and it takes time before we gain the perspective to see how far we have traveled.

Let Me Sum Up

Let me summarize in a more standard Tuesday Tips format. If you’re stuck, if you’re uninspired, if you’re wondering why, if you’re ready to go back to the day job, if success feels unreachable, if you’re squawking like a parrot, remember this:

1) You made a commitment. You can’t break it. It will hurt who you are.
2) You are moving toward success. You can’t feel it, but it is happening.
3) The more you write, the closer you get toward success.
4) Once you reach success, you can quit writing forever if you want to!
(Sometimes #4 helps more than anything else…)

Keep writing, for now… and that will

make it a good day.

1. Procrastination + Perfectionism = Nothing Gets Done. Imperfect progress realized is better than perfection imagined.
2. No comparing. Comparison is never helpful; it just makes me think I can never achieve what I’m comparing myself or my work or my life to. I don’t see the imperfections of what or whom I am comparing myself with, so it reinforces that perfectionism tendency. Bad, bad, bad.
3. Just do it. Sometimes we really do learn from advertising. Nike is right. (So is Yoda.)
4. “There is a difference between striving for excellence and striving for perfection. The first is attainable, gratifying, and healthy. The second is unattainable, frustrating, and neurotic. It is also a terrible waste of time.” -Edwin Bliss
5. Movement of any kind toward a desired goal is progress, even if it is not the exact movement we have envisioned. We need to set particular goals, detailed goals, and have standards; we also need to have broader points of progress in place, and accept any movement toward them as successes.
6. “Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. BUt it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure - or you can learn form it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember, that’s where you will find success.” -Thomas J. Watson
7. If you keep a journal, try logging both your failures and your successes for a week or so. Compare. Many times we fail in details but we let that seem so huge that we fail to see how we have succeeded in important things. Perspective matters. Failure teaches. Success follows.
8. Accountability, whether real or imagined, is a powerful motivator.
9. Some things simply aren’t worth it. Even an overwhelming sense of obligation (where does it come from?) doesn’t change that fact.
10. Some days are simply more productive than others, right?

    Right. Some days are simply more productive because they are better planned, better managed, and better executed. Productivity doesn’t just happen when the Happy Productivity Fairy appears and waves her DayTimer over your head.

11. You can be sure that there are always circumstances that fight productivity, that some days despite your best planning and diligent efforts, forces conspire to prevent anything productive from happening. You can also be sure that the default of any day, left to run its own meandering course through whatever pops up or whatever you feel like, will not result in productivity.
12. The disorder in your life will increase unless you continually add energy to maintain order and productivity. You’ve got to push that ball to keep it rolling, or else it will run out of energy and sit there and the moss will grow over it and soon you won’t even be able to find it anymore.
13. Keep moving forward.
14. Keep writing.

Make it a good day.

Image Credit: ‘follow me’ by woodleywonderworks.

1. Update your photo and bio.

   If your bio ends with your current status ten or five years or even six months ago, bring it up to the present. While you are updating, get a photo that looks professional: a closer, well-focused head shot with a neutral, non-busy background will look more professional than that half of your face from the 1999 family Christmas picture. You can use a photo you already have and do a little editing. Blur out the background; maybe convert the picture to black and white. You might also check into prices on getting a professional head shot.

2. Add screen shots of the sites for which you write on your own website

   . This saves visitors the trouble of having to click to all your links, and it also saves you the risk of getting them so interested in a different site that they forget to come back to yours. If you’re not sure what a screen shot even is, go read this explanation from Wikipedia. Basically, you are taking a picture of what is on the screen, saving it as an image file, and then putting it on your website as a picture. You could put it into a writing sample of what you’ve done on that particular website, so visitors can read your work and see where it’s published all without leaving your site.

3. Provide a downloadable .pdf of your portfolio, resume, and/or writing samples

   . You have a potential client who is browsing your website while waiting for a flight. It’s just time to board when they start reading your writing samples. They notice that little “Download as PDF” button, click it, and now they have a copy they can read in flight. Providing options makes it easier for your clients to remember you and hire you.
   Most office programs provide a way to convert a document to a .pdf file, or there are several online options you can look into. Make sure the option is easy to see for your website visitors.

4. Document your areas of expertise with specific samples or clips

   . First, of course, you’ll have to list your areas of expertise. As you build up samples and clips in each area, provide links right next to the listed topic on which you are (becoming) an expert. This makes it easy for clients who want writing on a particular subject to go straight to your relevant writing samples, rather than browsing through your entire portfolio.

5. Have a professional header and logo made

   . If you got some graphic designing skill, make it yourself. Think simple and streamlined. Do a little internet searching if, like me, your graphic design skills are at a negative level. I have found several very affordable options and have been very pleased with the results. Having a uniform header and logo for your website makes you look professional, and it also makes it easy for others to link to your site in an aesthetically pleasing way.

6. Make your design/theme simple with muted or neutral colors

   . I give this advice with a big caveat: some very professional themes and designs incorporate brighter colors and more complex color schemes. But if you’re not sure what you are doing, of if your aesthetic sense is somewhat, uh, underdeveloped, err on the side of caution. A classic black and white theme promotes your writing skill, whereas a complicated, multi-color scheme might just prove distracting to potential clients. Obviously personal taste is involved, and the kind of clients you are pursuing matter, so take this advice with a big grain of salt. Sea salt. White sea salt.

7. Provide a table or spreadsheet with your rates

   . Make this downloadable as well, so clients can have it as a reference. It doesn’t have to be a complicated table, just a simple spread of the services you offered lined up with what you charge. If you have pricing options (by project, by hour, by page), then lay those out clearly as well.

8. Use your sidebar for shameless self-promotion, but in a classy way

   . If you have a sidebar, that is… Gather a collection of quotes from your satisfied clients, positive reviews, and a few of the best lines you have written. Convert part of your CV and areas of expertise into little factoids, then load up all those goodies into a rotating quote collection or other display format. It’s like a little snack bar of how talented you are.

9. Record an audio or video introduction of yourself and what you do

   . A caveat with this one as well: only do this if you can do it well. If you are a work at home freelancer and can’t find a quiet time or place to record, skip it. If, however, you have a friend who is handy with YouTube videos or podcasts and you can come up with a brief, smart script and a good place to record, do it. This could be the first thing visitors see when they come to your website, and a little click on the play button will let them “meet” you. It might be the extra effort that makes you stand out from the other freelance writers out there.

10. Offer a contact form, not just a mailto: command

    . This is a pet peeve of mine. I’m not always on the same computer, and when I want to contact someone who offers only a mailto: option, I have to copy the email address from the command line, open up my own mail server, and send the email. Offer a contact form option so that visitors only have to take one step to get in touch with you. If they are using a public computer or don’t have a default mail server set up on their own, clicking a mailto: command is far more annoying than it is useful.

Make it a good day.

Steps to Blog Writing that Works

1. Produce longer content. Numbered lists, short posts with big photos, a little linking and one-sentence reviews with the embedded YouTube videos: short content. I (obviously) produce posts like this. I do lots of numbered lists here. I do quite a few shorter posts over at my other site. But I try to balance the little stuff, the shallow stuff, with some big, deep, heavy, valuable, longer content. Actual articles, with good quotations and relevant research cited, or with a logical outline and argument, development of an idea longer than one paragraph. You know. Stuff like that. Like those essays you had to write in college. Opening paragraph with thesis, main idea, supporting ideas, evidence, refutation of opposing ideas, summary, conclusion… Yikes. Seems like a lot, and sometimes it is. But if you think about it and give yourself time to do a bit of brainstorming and researching, and you’re used to popping out regular (shorter) posts, you can do longer posts as well. Just think of them as a series presented in a single post… might help.
2. Link within context. Don’t make a big deal out of your links and don’t link to irrelevant junk that you haven’t really looked over yourself. Link through the appropriate (couple of) words within the related sentence and move on. If people like what you’re writing about, are interested, and want to read more, they’ll follow. If not, being flashy and obvious isn’t going to convince them. And if visitors try a link or two and find them to be boring or broken, well, you’ll have a lot of work to convince them to try again.
3. Use professional pictures. Or at least professional-looking pictures. There are thousands available with Creative Commons Licenses, many of them taken by actual professional photographers. Some are taken by talented people who just like to take photos and let other people use them. With that great a wealth of photos around, there’s no excuse for using sloppy looking photos or graphics with your posts. And as far as using your own, that’s great if you know how to make them look decent as well. Crop the unnecessary edges, lighten or darken if needed, fix the red-eye. Don’t get too crazy happy with the effects, with one caveat: turning a not-so-great photo into black and white will not make it a better photo, but it will make lots of people think it is a better photo. Just so you know.
4. Give proper credit. For photos, for research, for data, for statistics, for opinions, for graphics, for videos, for music, for articles, for ideas. Sure, not all of that stuff is copyrighted and you could probably get away with using and not crediting more obscure items, but it would still be 1) unprofessional, 2) stupid, and 3) just wrong. So don’t do it. Give credit where credit is due.
5. Take one idea further. Instead of trying to promote fifteen ideas in one post or article, grab one idea - the one that is most exciting to you as you are writing - and just expand it. Write about it. Look at it from every angle. Give examples. Give illustrations. Draw a graph. Do some research. Brainstorm. Get deeper with one idea. By the way, since I just preached about giving proper credit, I want to come clean that this idea of taking one idea further came from a post I read several months ago. I just spent ten minutes searching for it and can’t find it… it was a guest post on a productivity blog, but that’s all I can remember except for the (well-developed, single) idea of the article. So, to the writer of that article, my apologies for lack of specific credit. If I find it, I’ll come add it.
6. Use recurring themes. You don’t have to use memes or join groups, though that’s a good way to get a recurring theme going. Come up with your own, something in keeping with the focus of your blog (you do know what that is, don’t you?). People like what’s familiar and they like knowing what to expect. If you have a great post every Monday about, um, meringue pies, then you will get a following who come to your blog simply because they know and love the Monday Meringue Pie Post.
7. Pick a side. Don’t be wishy-washy. Say what you mean, say it clearly enough that people know what you mean, and then back yourself up. Accept that there are enough people with enough diversity accessing the internet that you are guaranteed to displease someone, somewhere, on something you say. That’s okay. You don’t need to be mean, rude, disparaging, or get personal: you do need to be honest and have integrity. I’m drawn to writers who are honest even when I disagree with what they say. I just like the honesty and the willingness to put a view out there even though they know they’ll end up with lots of negative comments or questions simply because they stated their opinion strongly. I don’t like pandering. Nobody does.
8. Be professional. As mentioned above, don’t be “mean, rude, disparaging, or get personal”; it is unprofessional, impolite, and juvenile. If you’re old enough to drive, you’re old enough to learn how to express yourself without using profanity, personal attacks, and/or inappropriate expressions. Sure, everybody is going to differ a bit on what’s appropriate and what isn’t, and obviously the focus, content, and audience will differ from blog to blog. But you know when you’re crossing a line, and so do your readers. When your writing is emotionally fueled, free from all logic, and backed up by evidence that is personal and subjective, you’re probably deep into unprofessional territory.
9. Use a consistent format. Set your standards for your paragraph headings, image sizes, links, quotations and block quotations, and other little niceties of blog posting. Once you’ve decided on what you like, stick with it. It’s annoying when the format of posts across a single blog keeps changing, annoying enough to make me quit reading.
10. Throw in some extras. Give people good resources that you’ve found. Offer tips. Offer ideas. Offer the research sites for further investigation into the subject you’ve just posted about. Offer the sites you’ve found that present completely opposing views. Go a bit above and beyond in what you write about, how you write, and how you respond to your readers. “Extras” can be as particular and personal as you want them to be. They don’t necessarily have to be products, or freebies, though of course people like those, too. Just take what you’re doing, and then take it a little further. Do that consistently. People will come to quality.

Make it a good day!

Applying for new jobs is very important for freelance writers. It’s our lifeline, our income, the food on the table… No new jobs, no steady jobs = no money. No money = sad (and hungry) freelance writer.

The time taken in applying for new jobs can keep us from the work we already have waiting. Which one is more important? Money now, or money later? Obviously we don’t want to lose the clients we already have, so we need to meet those deadlines with productions of excellent quality. Keep ‘em begging for more. In the meantime, though, we don’t want to miss the opportunities out there. The answer is to do both: get your work done for your current clients and be sure to search the job boards and put in the applications, submit the queries, send in the manuscripts. It’s all about streamlining.

1. Take half an hour and update your resume, then save it in three different places: first, as a document on your computer, saved in a format that anyone can open. A pdf file is usually acceptable, or a rich text format. Save it on your computer in a couple of formats, if you’d like. Second, as a publicly accessible document on your website or blog. If you have only a blog, not a full website, you probably have the option to create separate, static pages. Put a link to it on your contact information, your about sidebar information, your profile… wherever you can on your web space. Finally, save it in some web-based document holder such as Google docs online. This way it’s easily accessible for you from any computer.
2. Next, pin down your top five areas of expertise. You should already know these. If you don’t, now is the time to figure them out. What do you write about most? What do you want to write about most? What do you know the most about? You don’t have to niche yourself into a corner, but you want to be prepared with specific writing samples for the different jobs you might apply for. You can’t be ready for anything, but you can be ready for the subjects you are most likely to notice and find appealing.
3. Polish up one article for each area of expertise. These will serve as your writing samples. They could come from anywhere: a magazine article, a longer blog post, something from your own website, from someone else’s website, from a client project. Anything you wrote can be your sample writing. Choose the best you have, somewhere in the 500 to 700 word range. (It’s usually faster to trim down than to add more.) Edit the articles you choose, take out irrelevant or outdated information, and put your information at the top. Save each as a separate document, clearly labeled so you can find it; title it something like “writingsample.education” for your education writing sample. You get the idea.
4. Finally, put together a 1 to 2 paragraph biography/summary about yourself with a picture and current links to your writing. You won’t need this for every application, but it can be the extra little bit that puts you ahead of all the other applicants. It’s funny, but in this telecommuting world we still have a keen curiosity about what people look like. Come on, admit it. Aren’t you disappointed when there is no photo to be found on the profile page? Yeah. Save this bio with photo in the three places you saved your resume.

Now, when you hit the job boards and find some likely leads, you have your resume ready to send or link to, your writing samples handy, and a professional bio to add a little icing to the freelance cake. And it won’t take nearly as long, so you can get back to the projects already waiting.

Image Credit: JulyYu at Flickr.

Here is a quick look at the best productivity tips I’ve found (for writers, especially) and a few trade journal opportunities.

Probably the best tip for productivity is this:

Quit reading blogs and get to work!

Yeah, I know. I waste time reading blogs, too. And then more time writing blogs. I do learn stuff, though. Sometimes it’s all meaningless stuff, but there are a lot of smart people writing out there, and many of them actively, consciously seek higher levels of productivity. So if we’re going to be reading blogs anyway, we might as well learn…

• LThe top one has to be this: Do all that productive stuff you’ve been reading about. Donald Latumahina at Life Optimizer mentions this in his Top 5 Productivity Tips Most People Know But Do Not Do post . So remember this tip as you read through the rest. When you learn something good, make it part of your daily routine. Otherwise the learning is for nought.
• Another very common productivity recommendation (it’s all over the place on productivity and life hacking sites) is to rise early. Every day. Get out of bed. Early. At the same time every day, early. Very early, not early as in “sometime before 10 am.” I know from my own personal, daily, early vs. late morning experience that an early morning makes for a much more productive day. It’s painful but true.
• The Veggie Principle is all over the place too, in various forms. It means, simply, do the hardest thing first. Eat your vegetables before your ice cream. Write the article that’s more challenging before the one you could produce in your sleep.
• Plan your life and use your plan. Start smaller, maybe, by just planning your day. Then use the schedule. Remember the original tip: it’s not good learning how if you don’t actually do it.
• Set up routines for the stuff you do all the time. After the first tip, this is really the most effective one, I think. We waste lots of time making decisions over and over again, and we’re really doing the same stuff every time. So we can streamline it by making one routine for each of those repetitive processes. Write down the routine, go through it step by step each time, and soon it will become a habit you don’t even have to think about. Less mental clutter.

Now that you’re feeling productive, here are a few opportunities for you in the world of trade journals:

• Nursing Spectrum covers “people, practice, and profession of nursing.” Query. Looking for nonfiction interview/profile articles and personal experience articles.
• Clergy Magazine is seeking “seeking articles that address current issues of interest to Christian clergy; emphasis on practical help for parish pastors.” Query or send complete manuscript.
• The Pastel Journal is “the only national magazine devoted to the medium of pastel.” Query or send complete manuscript. Seeking How-To, Interview/Profile, and New Product articles.

Make it a good day!

Image Credits: Laffy4k at Flickr.

“The purpose of reading books like these [nonfiction] is to gain information. Here, finding out what happens — as quickly and easily as possible — is your main goal. So unless you’re stuck in prison with nothing else to do, NEVER read a non-fiction book from beginning to end. Instead, when you’re reading for information, you should ALWAYS jump ahead, skip around, and use every available strategy to discover, then to understand, and finally to remember what the writer has to say. This is how you’ll get the most out of a book in the smallest amount of time.” - from Paul N. Edwards. (Read the whole article here.)

Edwards echoes Mortimer J. Adler’s advice from “How to Read a Book” - look it over, then get to the important stuff.

Here’s what seems common to every recommendation about reading, however:

• Get an overview of the book before you dive into it. (Read through index, take time on preface, introduction, summaries.)
• Read quickly first, skimming, highlighting headings, and noting important spots.
• Mark in your text (but don’t overdo it).
• Take notes on what you read.
• Ask questions as you read and read to find the answers (be interactive).
• Don’t bog down on the details. Get the main point and keep moving.
• Review after you finish reading so the information sinks in.

The most important thing to remember about reading is that you’re not obligated to finish any book, whether its fiction for pleasure, nonfiction for research, or some other combination. Sometimes the smartest thing to do is to pinpoint the exact information you need and leave the rest alone. Sometimes there’s nothing new. If you’re falling asleep reading a novel (not because it’s late at night) then maybe you should put it down and find a better book. The fact that it is written does not make it important to you. It just makes it written.
Take advantage of your ability to figure out what merits your attention and what doesn’t. Some classics will speak to you; some won’t. Maybe it’s about the timing, the season of your life, or the needed time to focus. If a book isn’t appealing but you know it’s worthwhile, just put it aside for a time. Come back to it later. It will still be written.

Tips to Keep Yourself Writing This Summer

• You must have a basic plan for your week, which translates into a basic plan for each day. Use a calendar/ planner, something online or in your pocket or on your desk. Get something you’re comfortable with that will work with your lifestyle. If you are very mobile, a tablet PC, Blackberry, or small planner you can put in your purse or pocket might be most helpful. I prefer the larger weekly planner with 8×11 pages, so I have plenty of room to write in my appointments, errands, household tasks, and article deadlines, submissions, and project work.
• Have a master list of your ongoing projects. Use the master list to break each project down into the tasks needed to accomplish it, so you know where to start and how to schedule.
• Write in appointments for yourself on your planner. Mark specific times for accomplishing the different parts of each project. Treat these times seriously, as if you were meeting with a client.
• Don’t forget about time needed for research, both off line and online. If you write nonfiction, research is essential, and you will often need primary sources which can mean a trip to the library. If you blog, you need time to find relevant links, graphics, and related articles. If you write fiction, you need time to research your time period, setting, language.
• Schedule in progress reports, for yourself and/or for your clients, for longer projects. Do this by using your master list with its breakdown of the project into smaller tasks. From those tasks, set up milestones with specific deadlines. “By June 30, I will finish research and write a complete outline, introduction, and two pages of text.”
• Take some time off to clear your brain. Focus while you work, then take a break. Every 60 to 90 minutes, get up from your chair, walk outside for five minutes, drink some water, stretch, call a friend, do some jumping jacks, lie on the couch and close your eyes (set a timer if you do that), listen to music, eat an apple. Pick something relaxing and different from what you’ve been doing, i.e., no writing, reading, or computer. Your eyes and your brain need a rest from words.
• Take in lots of information, related and unrelated to any projects you are working on. Set up a Reader for your newsfeeds and blogs, and give yourself 20 to 30 minutes every day to scroll through, read, and comment. Don’t let it get out of hand, and weed out the information sources that don’t provide anything interesting. Read books: poetry, fiction, nonfiction. Even five or ten pages a day helps your brain stretch and grow. Talk to people who aren’t like you and listen to what they say. Ask questions about other people’s professions, hobbies, political views, home life, philosophies.
• Schedule time to just jot down notes, follow up on ideas, develop ideas, brainstorm - don’t pressure yourself to produce “writing” during this time. Planning and researching and outlining makes writing a whole lot easier. This applies to work you are doing for clients as well as work you are doing for yourself. The blank page is your worst enemy. Come to it armed with a stack of notes, pages of research, brainstorming bubbles, quotations, pictures that inspire you. You may not use any of it in your writing, but its presence in your mind and in the room will make you sharper.

Trade Journals

A few resources and possibilities.

• A great article about writing for trade journals here at Writer Gazette. (Note that the links at the bottom of the article are outdated.)
• Another great article with lots of tips here at Writer’s Apprentice. If you’ve never considered writing for trade journals, or you’re wondering what a trade journal is, read at least one of those articles.

A couple of trade magazines worth checking into -

• HomeCare Magazine, for at home medical supplies, home care equipment. Check the About page and Contact page. There is nothing specific about submissions on the HomeCare Magazine website, but I’ve found that often the trade magazines don’t put up Writer’s Guidelines or Submission info on their websites. Their websites are usually directed toward the readers of the magazines, the industry professionals. They are not sites the average consumer (or freelance writer) would stumble over in search of something fun to read or something profitable to write about. So you’ll have to take some initiative, read through some articles, gather ideas and information, and make a query. Could well be worth your time.
• MeetingsNet home page houses several different trade magazines related to the conference, hospitality, and business meeting industry. It will be best to browse and find the correct contact information for the specific magazine you want to query.
• Lots of opportunity possible here at Expert Business Source. Topics include e-business, sales and marketing, insurance, work life, and human resources. The group has a strong online presence with blogs, newsletters, and archives. The About page directs those interested to contact the editorial team.
• Home Accents Today provides an editorial calendar (a .pdf file).

Give your best and make it a good day.

“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.” Denis Watley

1. Put together your resume on the computer in a format that is easy to print or copy and paste into email. Double check your dates, spelling, etc. Put in a nice summary at the top and be sure to include your contact information. Save it on a cd and file that along with a printed copy.
2. Put together samples of your work on the computer in a format that is easy to print or copy and paste into email. If you have published clips, print a few hard copies (and save them on a cd with your resume) and file with your resume.
3. Choose your niche/specialization. I know not every writer feels the need to specialize; isn’t being a great writer enough? And the short answer is, yes, it is. Good writers can research anything and write about anything. But as you begin your freelance writing, the question you will encounter everywhere is this: “What are you qualified to write about?” It’s not enough to simply be a good writer until you are established. So choose an area you love and know something about, and use it to establish yourself. Then you can break that mold into a million pieces.
4. Establish yourself as an expert in your area of specialization. Write articles and posts about your topic. Read books, magazines, newspapers, trade journals, and anything else you can get that pertains to your topic. Talk to people. Get your finger on the pulse of what is happening in this area. Act like a professional in this field, and you will begin to think and talk, and write, and market yourself, like one.
5. Set up a website. If you have no money to invest, a simple blog or free hosting service will provide a simple space for your biography, pictures, and links. Include your resume and samples of your work on your website. Keep the lay out simple and streamlined. Avoid cutesy pictures, patterns, and distractions. It’s fine to have color and to reflect yourself, just remember that you are reflecting your professional self. If you have a little money, purchase a domain name (something like www.yourname.com is usually best) and hosting. This is not expensive. I use Godaddy, which cost me around $15 for 2 years of the domain name and $5 a month for hosting.
6. Set up a dedicated email address. Make it professional as well, as in firstname.lastname@emailclient.com, or initial.lastname@emailclient.com, or lastname.writingservice@emailclient.com You can still use your preferred free email client, gmail or hotmail or yahoo or whatever makes you happy. In whichever email client you use, go to the Settings and use the Signature feature. As always, make it professional. Mine is my name, physical address, phone number, email, website, and blog address.
7. Set your financial goals. How much do you want to make per month, per week, per day? What does that mean you need to make per hour? Keep in mind that if you make enough money, the government will want some of it. On every payment I receive for freelance writing, I take 50% as my actual “salary.” The other 50% doesn’t belong to me: 10% I tithe, and 40% I save for taxes. If I don’t need the full 40% at tax time (which I hope I won’t), I will have a nice stash to invest in marketing or supplies… a nice laptop, maybe.
8. Once you’ve set your financial goals, set your schedule and compare. If you want to make $500 a week but you only have 4 hours a week to put towards your writing, you have trouble. I’m sure it’s possible to make $500 in 4 hours, but in the beginning… not so much. Your financial goals and your schedule should give you a number that is your per hour goal: you must make X dollars per hour in order to reach your financial goals in the amount of time you have scheduled.
9. Set your standards for what you will accept as payment and what type of content you will produce. What is your minimum pay rate? Consider the amount of money you need to make per hour, as you determined in Step #8. Will you do those “$5 for 500 words” jobs? Can you afford to? What about content? Are you willing to write anything? Do you care if your articles go on spam sites? Do you have standards about topics? Decide, and stick to your decision.
10. Finally, what you’ve been wanting: find your jobs. Be careful here, especially if you are interested in writing for online venues as a beginner. The internet has opened an entire new job market for freelance writers, but as with any profitable system, there are scams and frauds a-plenty. Beware job postings that don’t give you a pay rate, that want you to rewrite articles, or that don’t provide job details. Do a search on the company name. Check out what the websites look like. If you are satisfied that the business is legitimate, go for it.

More:
Help for writing a Freelance Writer’s Resume (good if you have been writing freelance for a while).
A Resume Workshop from Purdue’s Online Writing Lab.
If you don’t have any writing samples yet, read this article on Presenting Your Portfolio by Mandy Hougland.
About’s guide to Make Yourself an Expert by Laura Lake.
And the jobs! A great place to start is Freelance Writing Jobs - a new list compiled every weekday.

Good morning, fellow Writers. I’m happy to be at Writers Unbound and eager to keep making it a rewarding resource. I won’t take up much space introducing myself; you can read about me here if you’re interested. I’ll be tweaking the site a bit: stay tuned for a survey so you can let me know the topics most pertinent to you. I’ll also be sounding a call for guest bloggers and sponsoring contests (with prizes, yes!) as we get things rolling again.

For today, tips on our most important asset, drawn from one of the best books I’ve ever read about time management and productivity (and I’ve read a lot): Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs: The Ultimate, No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners Guide to Time, Productivity, and Sanity. With a title like that…

• Understand your per hour rate.
  If you don’t know what your time is worth, you won’t use it well. It’s easy to waste minutes and hours when they don’t matter in terms of dollars and cents. Set a goal for what you want to make each week and then divide by the number of hours you’ll be working. There’s your hourly rate; simple, eh? The not-so-simple but most important part is using those hours, every moment of them, in a way that helps you make that amount of money.
• Avoid meetings, conference calls, trivia, and other time-wasters.
  Easier said than done, but it’s possible. Once you know how much your hour is worth, it becomes much easier to say no to the stuff that distracts you from the real work. During your working hours, with every opportunity, ask yourself if it will make you money or waste your time. If you’re not sure, then it is probably just wasting your time.
• Make yourself difficult to find.
  If you work from home, as many freelance writers do, you can make yourself nearly impossible to find to other writers, to editors, to job possibilities. But what about to your spouse, your kids, your neighbor, your Mom who calls in, your dog who needs to be walked? It’s important to have a workspace at home and make it as off-limits as possible to potential interruptors. You can still love ‘em; just let them know you will be available later.
  If you work in an academic or office environment, you have to make an appearance and keep a certain amount of hours in your office. While there, though, make sure you look busy; don’t just sit back in your chair and stare at the ceiling for ideas. Get your computer going with your office program open and some words on the page; get your files and notes out on your desk; close your door; put your cell phone away; have a big clock handy. When people stop by, you can encourage them to move on by starting to type again, shifting through your files, looking at the clock, or kicking them in the butt.
  Okay, maybe not that last one.

More:
Read this article: 12 Ways to Beat Procrastination. (Don’t wait until tomorrow to read it.)
From Steve Pavlina, read how to Triple Your Personal Productivity.
Finally, but best, click through this Time Management for Anarchists movie/slideshow by Jim Munroe at nomediakings.org.