Most freelance writers will tell you that writing isn’t the hardest part of their career. Finding clients is much more stressful and can be more time-consuming. Some writers spend 70% of their time finding new clients, which is a killer to their actual earnings per hour.
Archives for February 2017
Be A Better Writer: 4 Simple Steps To Take Today
When you work as a freelance writer, it can be difficult to feel like you’re experiencing meaningful growth. Sure, maybe you snagged a gig at a prestigious magazine or you worked with a genuinely helpful editor, but freelancing can be lonely work. It can easily foster a feeling of stagnation, with your professional improvement at stake.
How are you supposed to get better at your job without the day-to-day mentoring and camaraderie that comes with a more traditional kind of work? The key lies in self-motivation and focused effort, targeting the skills that you struggle with and the areas most highly in demand, rather than just writing draft after draft without specific goals to achieve.
So, how do you escape the potential effect of the lonely freelance life and be a better writer?
Here are four things to do.
[Read more…]
23 Words or Phrases to Eliminate From Your Writing [Infographic]
Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. – Mark Twain
We’ve all got words that we used more than we should, and I bet if we were to make a list, “very” would make it to the top five – not to mention other words that can be ruthlessly cut out from every article we write – words that may add to the length but not to the substance. [Read more…]
How to Design Infographics With Ease
Thanks largely due to the fact that more information is at our fingertips now than at any point in human history, we’ve entered into an age where both of the following statements are true:
- People are consuming more content online than ever before, and
- Fewer and fewer people are actually willing to spend time reading that content.
As freelance writers, we have to work on a myriad of projects – from content writing to blogging to content marketing. When it comes to blogging and content marketing, visuals are more important than ever.
The State of Modern Day Marketing
According to a study reported on by Slate, roughly 38% of people who click on an article or blog post online don’t actually make it past the headline. Of those that remain, a further 5% only ever read the first paragraph – IF they don’t have to scroll, that is. If they do have to scroll, they don’t even make it that far. [Read more…]
Celebrating Work Flexibility [Infographic]
Work flexibility has gone a long way in the past decade, with companies like FlexJobs leading the way. As many of you may know, we’ve been partners with them for a while now, and we believe in their mission to help workers find alternative, more convenient ways of making a living.
This year, they are celebrating their 10th anniversary, and we join them in looking back at the milestones in work flexibility – not only for freelancers in new media, design, and other niches, but also for company-employed individuals. [Read more…]
