Syndicating your blog content with the help of Ping.fm

Ping.fm - making blog content easy

I’ve started using a nifty tool for WordPress which works together with Ping.fm.  It makes it easy to announce to all your social media sites that you have published some fresh blog content.

You can read the five step process for supercharging your blog content in this way at Ping.fm – how to autopost to all your social media sites quickly and easily in five easy steps.  I hope you find it useful.  Sometimes it can seem as if you publish your blog content and no one ever sees it.  But with Ping.fm you can make sure more and more people see your new blog content with every day that passes.

Does it take a lot of work to get your blog content in front of a bigger audience to start with?

To be honest, not really.  The hardest part of this to start with is to sign up to all the sites.  But you can do this in a step by step way, so your blog content is syndicated to more sites as you go along.  It doesn’t all have to be done in one hit.

And here is the big question – have I received more hits to this blog since syndicating my blog content with Ping.fm?

Definitely!  It was quite noticeable in a short amount of time too – within a few days.  I’ve been focusing on other ways of strengthening by blog posts as well, but there is no doubt that this has made a big difference.

Take a look at your blog content now – could it benefit from using this site as well?

Do you get overwhelmed when you think about writing for yourself? (photo credit to nkzs at http://www.sxc.hu/profile/nkzs)

I have completed all my other work for the day and taken some time off in between those jobs as well.

And now I feel able to get a few moments in to contribute to my own blog – but only now all my other work is completed.

The thing is, by the time I actually sit down to write a blog post it practically writes itself.  Not literally obviously – although sometimes I wish that were true.  No, what I mean is that I have already thought through the topic and planned everything out in my head.  By the time I have got it all down on paper (or in this case, on my screen) everything is sorted and it takes minimal editing to bring it to the stage of getting published.

And I think this method of writing causes a problem at times.

I mean, look at today – it’s well into the evening and getting towards my bed time and I am only just now writing a blog post.  Is this the best method for doing things, or am I putting my own work behind that of my clients?

I give my client work a very high priority and this is as it should be – after all, they bring in a good income for me.  But this doesn’t mean I shouldn’t set aside any time for my own writing either.  And if truth be told, if I could sit down and get on with writing a blog post (or an article to promote one of my own sites, or any similar task) before starting my client work for the day, it wouldn’t take long to do it.  No more than half an hour or so at most, I should think.

So I may give this method of writing a try.

After all, by the time I get to the end of my working day it is all too easy to think, oh I’m tired, I’ll quit now and get on with writing that blog post tomorrow.  But this doesn’t get me to where I want to be.  It doesn’t result in any advancement towards some of my personal goals.

Watch this space – I may just be back soon to start writing about my progress with putting a tiny bit of myself first….

You can visit the site now at www.allisonwhitehead.co.uk to take a look.  As you can see I only have a couple of articles on there at the moment, but I am planning on adding new content very soon.  The main thing is the contact form, the ‘why hire me?’ section and of course my rates as well.

As you can probably guess the site has been squarely aimed at clients rather than my fellow writers.  Hopefully I will see a new stream of work coming in from that direction over time, particularly as I start to promote the site and take it out to a wider audience.

But for tonight I shall simply breathe a sigh of relief that I have achieved another one of this year’s writing ambitions.  In case you missed the original post, here they are in an abbreviated form:

1. Relaunch my main client focused website, www.allisonwhitehead.co.uk.  Achieved 30th March 2010.
2. Raise my writing fees.  Achieved early January 2010.
3. Attract more new clients.  Partially achieved as I have picked up some new clients already this year, but this one should always be ongoing!
4. Launch a new PLR site.  Nothing has happened to get this one moving as yet, although it was always going to take second place behind my professional website relaunch.  So this should be next on my list of things to do.
5. Publishing more on Hubpages.  I have published a few more hubs since the beginning of the year, practically doubling the amount I had on there before.  I haven’t added any more of late though so I shall redouble my efforts here from now on.

So not a bad start all in all this year, and with nine months still to go there is plenty of time left to achieve even more.

Are you attracting people from all over the world with your blogging?

This was written for the 100 Articles in 100 Days Ezine Articles Writing Challenge.  But while it doesn’t mention writing specifically, it still holds true if you are thinking of creating a blog to try and attract new writing clients.  Enjoy!

Here is a question for you – why do online businesses start blogging in the first place?

There are lots of answers to that one, but the main one is to get more clients.  No matter what that online business is there for, its main goal will be to increase its level of business so that it can bring in more clients and earn more money as a result.

Learning how to blog is one very good way of connecting with all the people who could become your customers in the future.  And the more you understand about the process of business blogging, the more success you are likely to garner as a result.

Focus is a key part of building up a successful blog on any subject.  You need to focus in on your niche and ask yourself how you can attract the attention of the people you want to have as customers.  What are they looking for?  What kind of questions might they have as potential clients?  How can you best answer these questions so that you can provide a good service, even through your blog?

A successful business blog breaks down the barriers between you and your customers.  Selling anything online means there are computer screens and perhaps hundreds or even thousands of miles between you and anyone who is thinking of buying from you.  That means you have to introduce yourself and your company through your blogging efforts.  If you can do this successfully, you will find you can build up a level of trust with everyone who comes across your blog.

As such it shouldn’t be a hard sell and nothing else.  By all means link to products you have for sale on your main website, but see your blog as a way of connecting with people more than anything else.  It is the introduction to your business if you like, whereas your website forms the main body of the piece.

Finally, don’t forget that regular content is essential for your business blog to be a success.  Make sure you keep it up and you will soon see the dividends for doing so.

Article source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Allison_Whitehead

Is your blog still 'under construction' - or are you focused on adding fresh content to it on a regular basis?

BUT you need to be doing it regularly.  I have stumbled across plenty of blogs online that have four or five blog posts in them… and then nothing for months.  You can see the exact date and time when that blog writer got bored and went off to do something else!

The number one thing you need to have when you are blogging is FOCUS.  It doesn’t matter if you want to promote your writing skills, your brand new eBook, your new website or anything else.  Just focus on putting some new content onto your blog every single day if you can.  At least make sure you have five or six new posts on your blog each week for a month or two.

Scheduling can be useful here.  If you get a spare couple of hours make sure you take advantage of it and write half a dozen blog posts – then schedule one for each of the next six days.  If you want people to find and read your blog you need to have a reason for them to visit.  And they will only visit if they have something fresh and interesting to read.

The more focused your blog is the better.  Write blog posts that are focused on a specific subject – even if you tackle that subject from all angles.  As an online writer you can tackle the subject of writing.  But if you do something else and you dabble in writing on the side, learn how to focus in on your topic and make the most of it.

But remember – regular content means regular rewards.  If you only post the occasional content item, you will only ever get the occasional reward in return.

Article source:  http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Allison_Whitehead

I use Twitter most of all - click on the image! Which sites do YOU use for getting yourself out there and getting your name recognised?

You cannot fail to have heard about such websites as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Delicious and all manner of others.  They all fall under the social media umbrella, and millions of people log on to one or more sites every single day.

Okay so all that is fair enough – but how can these help with regard to writers?

Well, if you are planning on attracting clients and getting plenty of work as an online writer, you need to be letting people know you are there.  If you are online but you don’t put any effort into making sure you are visible, you could be waiting a long time to find your first few jobs!

Becoming known as a writer online is all about starting to connect with other writers and with people who could become clients in the future.  Obviously you want to make yourself known to clients but getting in touch with other writers can also be very fruitful.  This is easier to do on social media sites because everyone has a profile.  And if people list themselves as being a writer on the site, that gives you a potential contact for the future.

Now before you start joining up with all the social media websites you can find, I should tell you that you don’t need to go overboard here.  All you need to do is to join two or three sites and make the most of them.  This is far better than joining twenty or thirty of them and not being able to keep up with them all.

You need to be sure you are able to be on these sites fairly regularly, even if it is only for a few minutes a day.  Start building up a presence on each one, and link back to your website or writing blog (you do have one, don’t you?) on each profile you have.  From there you can gradually start making connections and making yourself known.

And you might just be surprised by the results you get in return.

Article source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Allison_Whitehead

In addition, you might want to read another article on my blog regarding Twitter.  It’s called ‘why regular tweeting is good for all writers‘.  Enjoy!

Can writing a blog really help you win writing jobs?

But if you are a writer – or you want to earn money by doing online writing jobs – then you should create a blog to help you get jobs and make that a reality.

What some writers don’t understand is that being a successful writer is all about visibility.  If you think of it purely in terms of what you get out of it now, you won’t get the bigger payoffs that are waiting down the road.

You’re probably thinking, ‘Hey why should I write for nothing on my own writing blog when I can get paid to write for other people?’

That’s a very good point.  But think of it like this instead.  You are building up a body of work here that is accessible by lots of people.  This gives you more than one benefit in the long term:

1. You are polishing your writing skills and showing people what you are capable of.  This is great news because any potential client that happens along can see what you are made of before they contact you.  Your odds of winning jobs from your writing blog should increase over time.

2. You can write and sell products of your own to a mailing list you build up from your blog readers.  This takes time too, but the bigger the list gets the more you can expect to earn from it.

3. You can earn money through affiliate opportunities.  Find products that other writers are likely to find useful and become an affiliate for them.  This brings in yet another stream of income.

4. You can reach a wider and bigger audience the more time goes on.  In a while you may not actually need to go out and hunt for jobs any more – they might all come to you.

So you see, writing a blog of your own has plenty of benefits.  You just need to tap into them yourself.

Article source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Allison_Whitehead

But how GOOD are you at bagging those jobs when they come along?  Do you wait for them to come along or do you go all out to actually get them?

How is your freelance writing job search going?

It’s amazing how many people spend a lot of their time on forums having a moan about how hard it is trying to find and successfully bag a writing job or two.  Of course it is hard.  There is, after all, a LOT of competition out there.  But if they spent more time focusing on finding freelance writing jobs than they did on those forums, they would probably get more of them in the first place!

The thing is, a lot of people think it is easy.  It’s not.  Sheer pigheadedness was what got me my first few writing jobs.  I spent hours every night going from site to site, looking out for all the adverts you see for writers that popped up on every writing site I went on.  Most of them – probably 99% of them – I’d either seen before or they didn’t lead to anything worthwhile.  But I still kept on looking.  I still kept on applying for jobs.  And I still kept on persevering because I didn’t want to NOT succeed.

Does that make sense?  I only ever wanted to write for a living so I made up my mind to keep going until it happened, even if it took years to do (which it did).

So really, if you are looking for writing jobs and you aren’t finding them, sit back and think about what you are doing.  Could you do more?  Could you change what you are doing now so you are more efficient?  Do you think there is any way you could make more headway faster than you are right now?

It could of course be that you are being a little impatient.  I developed a way of thinking that meant I would apply for a job and then forget all about it and focus on the next one.  If I got one – which eventually I did – then that was great news.  If I didn’t, all my energies were focused on the future.

Hopefully this blog will help to inspire you to keep on plugging away until you succeed yourself.  As such I am going to build up different areas of it that will help YOU in different ways.  For example there is a section on working from home and another one on web writing.  These both contain information that will help you to develop a writing career that you can be proud of.

I am aiming to add some longer posts in future as well – ones that will read more like mini-reports, if you like.  And of course there is the Page of Fives too that I introduced you to yesterday.  I’ve got a great idea for the next post in that section that will be coming very soon!

But for now, just focus on how your search for writing jobs is going.  Have you achieved much or not?  Don’t worry whatever the answer might be.  Just focus on getting better, because if you do that you certainly will in time.

Then a year or so later I completely revamped my main lens and started to promote it as a kind of ‘one stop shop’ to getting your writing published online.  You’ll find a link to it on this blog – it’s called Online Freelance Writing Jobs.

Since then it has climbed the Squidoo rankings and it consistently ranks in the top 250 to 300 lenses most of the time.  It seems to be helping a lot of people and that is fantastic because it’s the primary reason I set it up in the first place.

But I have also noticed that as the lens has climbed in the rankings and attracted more traffic, I have been able to attract new clients through it as well.  That is why I would encourage anyone who isn’t already familiar with Squidoo to hot foot it over there straightaway and get at least one lens up and running to promote your writing with.  In time you should aim to have a whole network of them to showcase what you can do, because it can be a great source of work if you keep at it for long enough.

It’s about much more than just sharing though.  Blogging can bring you to a whole new audience and I’ve just put together a brand new lens on Squidoo which reveals a lot more about this very subject.  You don’t need to sell to be able to benefit from having a marketing blog for your writing; it helps to strengthen your writing skills, and it brings you to a wider audience as well.

Take a look at the lens and see whether creating this type of blog might be just what you need to grab some more clients and stir up some more interest.  It’s called How to Build a Marketing Blog that Boosts Your Business and I’m sure you’ll be struck by just how easy this is to get off the ground!