It didn’t – freelance writing online is just as good as ever

Can freelance writing online be boring sometimes too?

However with that said, I know there have been days (few and far between maybe, but they are still there) when freelance writing online has not been the #1 thing I have wanted to do.

The first time I got bored with freelance writing online, I panicked.  Had I actually chosen the wrong career after years and years of yearning for it?

Of course the answer was no.  But I did learn something valuable after the initial panic from that first experience ebbed away.

I learned that freelance writing online can have its dull days, just as any job can.  You can certainly do things to limit that boredom, i.e. you can make sure you only take jobs that you will really enjoy.  If you hate gardening and you take a job to write 20 articles on the subject, you are going to be bored silly by the end of it.

You have total control over your freelance writing online career

Remember that.  For me, the feeling of being out of control is most likely to occur in the first few months after starting a freelance writing online career full time.  As time goes by – I’ve been doing this full time for two and a half years or so now – that feeling dissipates.

In short, if you are starting to feel bored with freelance writing online, take some time out to analyse the reasons why.  The chances are you are just going through a minor slump.  Once you’ve ironed it out you can get back to freelance writing online and enjoying it as much as you do normally.

Taking a different direction with freelance writing online

If the feeling persists, you could try taking a different tack altogether.  Stop writing articles and go for blog posts instead.  Change your client base if you must.  Take a few minor steps and make a few minor changes, and see where it gets you.

You will probably find you don’t need to do this though.  I find a half day spent doing something else entirely – or even taking a couple of extra days off if I can – solves the problem when I feel bored or below par.  This usually means freelance writing online becomes more vibrant and entertaining again.

Getting prepared to use Google Alerts

Some alerts are more useful than others - such as Google Alerts for example! (photo credit garwee at http://www.sxc.hu/profile/garwee)

I set up a dedicated email address this week to handle plenty of different Google Alerts I have set up.  In case you don’t know, you can request Google Alerts for a specific search term you are looking for.  This is a facility that is currently in beta mode, but if you love it half as much as I do you’ll be using it constantly within minutes of trying it for the first time.

More about using Google Alerts

I first started using it as a one off several months ago, when I started looking for anything related to online writing.  I have since discovered it is fantastic for setting ideas off in your head when you need some inspiration on regular writing topics.

An example of Google Alerts created for a specific purpose

Let’s say for example that I wrote a regular monthly article on widgets.  All I have to do is to go to Google Alerts, set up a regular alert for the word ‘widgets’ and wait for an email to arrive.  I don’t always get any inspiration from it, but quite often a news item will pop up that immediately sparks off an idea.

For my money this is a great new asset from Google that I personally will be making a lot of use of.  Will you find it just as good, or do you have other ideas when it comes to seeking news and inspiration?  I can’t see a time when I won’t be using Google Alerts for inspiration, along with various other methods as well.

It has made me question whether trying to slot my writing blog somewhere into my day is really the best way to do things.  Do you have trouble fitting in your own tasks when it comes to the rest of your writing?

Of course, client work must take priority.  But there is nothing wrong with trying to find a way to fit certain other tasks into your working day.  And that is why I have decided to start the week with a blog post, instead of adding it to the bottom of my list.  You see, when it sits at the bottom of the list it is easy to leave it out and push it onto tomorrow’s list instead.  That is not going to happen today, as this is the second thing I have done, after a spot of editing to get me into the swing of things for the day.

I am still adding the final touches to my professional writing website, to be aimed at clients, so it is very near completion and will be launched soon.  Ideally it would have been launched by now, but the last thing I want is to launch something that isn’t fully ready.  So keep an eye out for it; I will have some promotion work to do once it does finally get rolling.

You can look forward to more blog posts coming soon as well – and if there is anything you would like to see me blogging about, do let me know.  Meanwhile it’s back to my first selection of articles to be written today…

But if you Google the term ‘writing forums’ you certainly get a lot of results coming back at you.  77.9 MILLION results to be more precise.  I’m sure some of them are very good – particularly for beginning writers who need some support and advice – but I have never had good experiences myself.

I remember one particular forum (I cannot remember the name of it as it was a while back that I joined it) that I only actually contributed to a couple of times.  I did the usual thing of going on and reading through some existing posts and threads before adding my own thoughts to the conversation.  I wasn’t controversial or negative in any way (let alone promotional) and I got a stinging reply back from another writer (at least I assume the person was a writer) accusing me of spamming the forum.

I never did quite work out how or why they did that, since (a) I only had a perfectly legitimate link to my blog in the forum and (b) I was actually contributing to a section in which you could promote your own work if you wanted to.  But regardless of that the reply was nasty.  I did email the moderators to discuss the matter but since I never got a reply I never bothered going back to the forum again.

I’ve found this once or twice with other writing forums as well.  I haven’t joined any others but occasionally when I consider it and look through a few threads before deciding, I always seem to come across negative posters and abusive links from ‘writers’ who seem to believe they know everything.  They have an innate desire to abuse everyone instead of contributing positively to the forum they are a member of.

So have I just gone to the wrong forums or is this a general thing?  What are your experiences of writing forums?  I refuse to believe all of them are like this – I think I have just been unlucky.  What’s your opinion?

I’ve scheduled in six days off next week as my niece is coming to stay for a few days.  Should be good fun – and the break will do me good as well.

But it is necessary to prepare for it a while in advance so I can be mindful of deadlines and when certain projects are due.  I have also needed to make sure I don’t take on too much work in the run up to this break so as to avoid that scenario we are all familiar with – it has to do with a chicken and no head.

Seriously though it has worked out rather well this time (so far at least).  I’m booked up until Saturday so I can have Valentine’s day off .  And then it’s back to work for one more day on Monday to tie up the loose ends before heading off for my mini-break.

Luckily I have also booked in a long course from the end of February onwards which should take about six weeks, possibly longer, to complete.  So with any luck I will be back with a vengeance right from the start.

How do you cope with arranging any time off like this?  Do you find you have quiet periods leading up to it and when you come back, or do you get the balance just right?

I have had a website for a while but I never really had the time to focus on it and devote some proper care to it.  However we have now got our new hosting package and the various website URLs we have are all now ported over, so I can start adding content to my site.  So this will be a relaunch really, but where my writing blog is focused on writing and writers, my website will be focused on bringing in clients.

Repurposing content

When I entered the “100 Articles in 100 Days Challenge” on Ezine Articles, I wrote some articles for that which were aimed more at clients than at writers.  So I am busily rewriting them to add to my website.  I also have a ‘why hire me?’ page in the works, which I think every writer should probably add to their website.  After all, you need to convince people you are the best one for their job, don’t you?

There is still some work to do before the website can go live once more, but I’m confident the wait will be worth it.  And since this is one of my 2010 writing goals I’m pleased that it is well on the way to completion and launch.

I’m also working on identifying the best keywords for my first set of new Hubpages, so watch this space for more developments!  How are your own 2010 ambitions shaping up?

But the question here is whether you should be writing just 300 words, or whether you should aim for much higher than that.  Everyone has their own opinion on this but I think 300 words or just over is perfectly adequate for article marketing.  It does depend on how you approach the task however.

Some people try to squeeze too much into one single article.  If you are doing this and you want to cover lots of points in an article, you’ll need a longer length.  Beware though that some people won’t want long articles for their websites.  They may only want very short ones to fill up spaces on their web pages.  And let’s face it, most people only have a short attention span and don’t have the time or the inclination to read something that is around 1000 words long.

The key to successfully writing short articles of 300 words or so is to focus on one specific idea in each article.  If you know of half a dozen ways to use articles to drive traffic to your own website, why not write a separate article on each one?  That gives you six articles for starters, and you can probably get ideas for more as you are going along too.

So no, I don’t believe 300 words is too short.  Some people may disagree with me, but I know a lot of people will agree.  The golden rule to remember is not to stop until you have said what needs to be said for each particular article.  Once you have, and you have clearly got your point across, you can stop.  Just like this.

It’s certainly been quite busy for me so far, with several new clients and new jobs coming in every day this week.  Hence why there have been no new blog posts before now!

This is necessarily a short post as I have more client work to complete before I can finish today.  It has been a challenging week as we are pretty much snowed in here in the UK – it’s the worst winter in something like 30 years apparently.  Thankfully I can stay in the warm and write!  But essential trips out to get supplies have taken longer than they would usually.

I’ve also had a head cold to contend with, but I worked my usual writing hours around my sleepless nights and got everything done in plenty of time!

So it’s back to work and I will have some new blog posts for you next week.  Have a great weekend and happy writing.

That makes this Christmas difficult in many ways, but it also makes those of us who are left determined to have a good time because that is what she would have wanted.  We’ve donated £20 in her memory to the local hospice this Christmas, illuminating a light in memory on their Christmas tree.

Season's greetings - a time for remembering those we love and those we've lost during the year. In memory of Ann xxx

This isn’t a writing orientated post as you can tell, but this time of year always makes me look back on what has passed and forward to what is yet to come.  We can’t do anything about what the year has brought us – it is all done now, bar a few more days.  But the New Year – that is something different.

We may not be able to control every aspect of 2010, but we can resolve to meet it head on whatever may come our way.  This applies to our writing careers and every other aspect of our lives.  Think ahead and ask yourself what you could do to make 2010 memorable with regard to your writing.  Is it time to make a name for yourself?

I’ve got some changes planned for 2010 and I’ll be sharing them with you here.  In the meantime, as this may be the last post for 2009, may I wish you a wonderful Christmas and a peaceful and happy 2010.

Look out for a few short articles from my Ezines collection published over the next week or two while I’m off.  No pictures, just content!  Enjoy!

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Hi there everyone; well it’s been a busy week here with lots of work for regular clients, some new work from new clients and a viral infection to top it all off with!

I’ve also been exploring some other blogs recently and one of them did a recap on some of the most popular posts they had published recently.  I thank them for the idea and if I can remember who did it I would mention them by name!

Anyhow, here are five popular posts you may have missed in recent weeks on My Online Freelance Writing Career:

1. Here’s what 5 days of hunting for online writing jobs can get you (good for motivating you to start that writing job hunt)
2. 5 reasons you should think about becoming a professional blogger (good for starting down a new avenue of writing perhaps?)
3. Why HubPages can be very good for your bank balance (good for the fact that it was the very first guest post on my blog, from Julie-Ann Amos)
4. Making good use of your bookmarks toolbar (good if you don’t actually use it!)
5. Why regular tweeting is good for all writers (good if you are considering getting started on Twitter)

So there you go – five top posts with five reasons for reading them.  A bit of a stroll down memory lane but worth it I think.  Keep on writing!

And don’t forget you can subscribe to my RSS feed to make sure you don’t miss a single blog post in future.  There is plenty more coming soon.