Hi all, I’m back after a week off and although I am laid low with a head cold I am still getting through my workload efficiently enough.  I have also had some great new jobs come in – including one that looks set to last for a good few months – so it’s been all go here.

So by way of a new post that will get me back to blogging again, here are five of the top, most read posts I have written over the last 30 days:

1. Online writing vs magazine writing – which is best?
2. 5 websites I couldn’t live without as a writer
3. Choose from 4 profitable writing careers online
4. Do you ever apply for unusual writing jobs?
5. Article marketing – is 300 words too short?

Enjoy these five popular posts again and look out for the next brand new one soon.

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

Okay well it looks like my RSS feed has sorted itself out.  Fingers crossed!  And I thought it was about time I added another post to my Page of Fives section.

Since we are fast approaching the end of 2009 it’s a good time to start thinking ahead to

Will it be a Happy New Year for your writing career in 2010?

what 2010 will be like.  Not so much in general, but in terms of our writing careers.  It doesn’t matter whether you are a full timer, a part timer, a casual writer or anything else.  What matters is that it can help to have various goals in place to help you achieve even more in the New Year.

And that is exactly what I have been doing over the last few days – thinking about things I would like to achieve in the New Year.  So I thought where better to write them down than on my blog?  And who knows, they might even inspire you to think of a few goals of your own.

So here are the main goals I shall be trying to achieve during 2010.  Do any of them match up with what you have in mind for your writing career?

1. Relaunch my main website, www.allisonwhitehead.co.uk.  You may not have much to look at if you go to that domain name at the moment.  But that is because the new site is underway and in the planning stages.  I have some good ideas for this and it will be very different to this blog, which is primarily aimed at helping other writers.  But while my relaunched site will also be along the lines of a blog, it will be aimed at attracting clients and sharing advice and information on content of various kinds.  Watch this space!
2. Raise my writing fees.  Fees seem to be very much in the news at the moment with regard to freelance writers.  Everyone wants to know how much they should be charging for their freelance work, and while we all have our own ideas it’s good to keep on raising the bar.  And that is what I aim to do next year.
3. Attract more new clients.  I will end 2009 with more clients than I started the year with, and I intend to build on this in 2010.  I am going to focus on providing articles and blog posts, since those are the forms I enjoy the most.  I also have the most experience with these, since I have written thousands of articles and hundreds of blog posts to date.  Onwards and upwards!
4. Launch a new PLR site.  Writers can make a lot of money from PLR articles, and there is certainly a big market out there for it.  And it should also offer those clients that want to pay less for articles another option to consider.  Of course it also offers another income stream, which is always a good thing.
5. This one might surprise you.  I want to get stuck into using Hubpages a bit more.  I know of writers who are earning a lot of money from Adsense every single month (another income stream once again….) and I want to try and join them.  As you may know I recently successfully completed the 100 Articles in 100 Days Challenge on Ezine Articles.  Since I proved to myself that I can find the time to write for myself as well as for other people, surely I could set my own goal to write a specific number of hubs within a specific time?  Not sure on the numbers yet but I will let you know about that very soon.

So there you go – those are my top five writing resolutions for 2010.  I haven’t thought about any time limits or deadlines for them yet, but I am aiming to get started as soon as 2010 arrives.

Until then it is time to make hay on eBay!  Our eBay business has gone into overdrive and we’re busy packing up and sending out orders on a daily basis as well as fitting in writing and various other activities.  Oh yes, and being sociable as well!

What resolutions do you have for your writing career in 2010?  Why not share one or two below?  You might just inspire someone else to do it too…

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

Blogging.  It feels like everyone is at it.  Personally I love it and I’m really enjoying developing this blog into something that I hope will be worthwhile for everyone who comes across it.

But are YOU doing it?

Could YOU be making money from blogging?

While it is true that most people who blog don’t make a bean from it, that doesn’t mean that you can’t make any money from it.  Most people who try are working on creating their own blog and nothing else.  But there are other ways you can earn money from it, particularly if you think laterally.

So this is the subject of my latest entry to “The Page of Fives“, an occasional series of articles grouping together 5 items on one topic.  Click the above link and you will be able to see all the previous entries to this part of my blog.

But if you’re still hanging on for reasons to become a professional blogger, here they are.

1. There is a lot of work available for people who are able to blog on a regular basis.  It’s something of an irony that many blogs aren’t actually written by their owners.  It tends to be the ones that are blogging as a means to bring in money from Google Adsense and other affiliate sources who ask bloggers to write for them.  And that means plenty of opportunities for you to blog regularly.
2. If you have your own blog you can be hired to write blog posts through that.  I’ve mentioned this before and I can’t stress how important it is to have your own blog if you are already a writer (or you are on the road to becoming one).  You need to work at getting your blog found and read, but it’s well worth the effort!
3. You can get regular writing gigs on all manner of topics.  Whatever subjects you love to write about, you are bound to be able to find a blog or two that is asking for regular bloggers.  Tech bloggers, eco bloggers and travel bloggers were just three of the jobs listed recently on one jobs website.
4. Blogging jobs are fairly easy to find online.  One of the best places you can visit is the excellent ProBlogger job board.  I’ve got this saved as a bookmark on my bookmarks toolbar, so it’s always there to remind me to check it.  Try the Indeed.com search engine as well – you can specify the type of blogging job you want.  And if you want article writing jobs, search for those while you are at it!
5. It provides you with a regular income, week in, week out.  And isn’t that what we all want as online writers?

So if you were thinking there aren’t too many opportunities to stretch your love of blogging, think again.  And let me know how you get on.  Good luck and happy blogging!

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

This is a different blog post to add to my “Page of Fives” section.  Having had my new blog up and running for about a month now, I’ve had a chance to see what works and what has been well received by you, my readers.

Coming soon to a blog near you...

I also have a number of other things I want to add to my blog anyway, so I thought I would let you know some tasters of what is to come in the near future.  And of course if you have anything you’d like to see added to my blog, do let me know.  You can leave a comment for this post at the bottom of the page.

So here we go with five things you can look forward to in the near future:

1. More guest posts.  My first guest post from Julie-Ann Amos received a great response.  So I am aiming to have a few more lined up in due course.  If anyone would be interested in writing a guest post for my blog, on the subject of online writing or making a career out of writing, then do get in touch.  You can have a link back to your own blog, and I am more than happy to swap guest blogs as well.
2. Reviews of good writing books I recommend.  I will only review ones I have read personally that have something to offer to the online writer.  Look out for a new blog section coming in due course.
3. More personal experiences.  These have received good feedback as well, and if you can learn and develop as a result of reading my online writing experiences, then so much the better.
4. More links to my articles about online writing and blogging on Ezine Articles.  I am building up a healthy body of work about online writing on Ezines, so you can benefit from reading those articles as well.  Watch out for more links to articles there, such as this one called “SEO – Why Writers Can Make Money From Keywords“.
5. More reviews and suggestions for websites that you can make money from as an online writer.  Sites such as Squidoo, HubPages, Elance and many more are all good news for the online writer.  So watch out for more of these as well.

And of course if you have any other burning questions or subjects you’d like to know more about, I’d be glad to hear from you.

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

Give yourself the thumbs up and be positive about your writing!

I thought it was about time I did another entry in the “Page of Fives” part of my blog.  Now one of my main focuses on this writing blog as we move forward together is to share ways in which you can be positive about your writing.

Even though I am looking back some 19 years to when I first started submitting articles for publication in magazines, I can remember all too well what it felt like when I was rejected.  I think it is actually far easier to get published online now as a beginner than it ever was in the magazine world – even all those years ago.  And it has definitely got a lot harder too.

It took me around nine months to get published for the first time back then, but a lot of writers now can get published online within minutes.  It might be on a revenue sharing site but at least it is a good start.

But I firmly believe that no matter how long you have been writing, no matter what you want to write or who you want to write for, the most important thing is to BE POSITIVE.  So with that in mind I am going to give you 5 advantages of looking for paid writing work online.

1. It’s easier than trying to find paid writing jobs offline.  That’s true.  I’m not saying it’s impossible – nothing is impossible – but if you want to get published faster and build up a writing career where you are in charge, stick with online markets.
2. It can open up all kinds of new possibilities.  You might start off by writing articles for other people, but you might end up writing your own eBooks and publishing them on their own mini-sites.  And there is no end to the money you can make doing that.
3. It is easier to find new connections online.  You could be a total newbie to the online writing market.  I was.  But once you start poking around and learning more about the online landscape, you will keep on unearthing new writing opportunities at every turn.  You can also try and get regular writing gigs if you can, which bring in the money even more frequently.
4. There are plenty of places you can look online to find writing jobs.  Try looking in your local newsagent to find magazines that still take work from freelancers.  Enough said.
5. There are plenty of job titles you could go for.  Do you love writing on various topics for other people?  Be a ghostwriter.  Do you prefer creating website copy from scratch?  Be a copywriter instead.  Do you like writing your own eBooks and then writing lots of articles to promote them?  You can do that too.

So there you go.  5 reasons to keep you motivated and looking ahead to what you can achieve now and in the future with your online writing.  Stay positive and you will be surprised at where it will get you!

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

Another 'five' entry

Writing is a funny occupation – and for funny read strange!  As an online freelance writer I write and sell articles to all kinds of buyers for all kinds of reasons.  I don’t ask why they want certain items of content – it is my job simply to find out what they want and to deliver it.

But I thought this would make a great post for my ongoing series, The Page of Fives.  As you may remember, this is basically a series of articles which focuses on five of something.  And since I have written articles on all kinds of things that I wouldn’t specify as being a specialist subject of mine, I thought it would be good to share some of them with you.

So here we are – 5 articles I never dreamed I would find myself writing about.  Not all of them are mindblowing; the point here really is to point out that although my specialities are eBay, internet marketing, writing and working from home, I can and have ventured out into unknown territory on many occasions!

And you can too – take this as proof that it can happen:

1. Conservatories – one of my first major jobs was for 86 articles in 3 weeks on the subject of conservatories.  Needless to say, if you need a conservatory added to your house and you want to know all about it, I’m your gal!
2. A weekly article focusing on currency markets – I am no big fan of currencies or their associated exchange rates, let alone Forex markets.  But every week I write a 2000 word article on this kind of thing – and what’s more I have actually come to really enjoy it!  Isn’t this writing life a strange one?
3. The ins and outs of airport parking – I’m an expert on this too now.  l I should be, at least where UK airports are concerned, because I have lost count of the number of articles I have written on this subject over the past six months or so.  It’s passed the half century mark for sure.
4. Dreams where you find yourself inexplicably without clothing – ahem.  Yes.  I will admit it.  This article was published in a magazine years ago, but it still sticks in the mind for obvious reasons.
5. Buried toads – this is a bizarre one to finish one.  Apparently toads have been found buried where they have been for years, and then dug up alive.  All very strange – and I couldn’t resist writing (and selling) an article about it.

So there you have it.  In case you are short of ideas, or you think you couldn’t possibly write and sell an article on a particular subject, let me prove you wrong.  After all, I managed to sell all of the above, either to magazines, to websites or to other clients for their own uses.

You can too.

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

It’s a big day for my blog – I’ve added a brand new section called The Page of Fives.  Every now and then I will add a brand new entry to it that will feature the five best of something.

So for example it could be the five best plug ins for Firefox.  It could be my five best article sales.  It could be anything…. but it will be related to writing and it will be a set of five.

The first one is 5 websites I couldn’t live without as a writer.  Enjoy!

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

So here it is – my very first post in this brand new section of my blog, The Page of Fives.  It occurred to me the other day that there are plenty of websites that I use quite regularly during the course of my writing day.

But if I had to choose five and only five, which five would they be?

1. Constant Content – this site has been responsible for enabling me to earn a four figure sum tht has steadily grown in size over the past couple of years.  I sell articles of my own on here quite regularly.
2. Squidoo - once again I have managed to build quite a few lenses on here that have promoted my writing and given me another source of income.  My main lens has been especially successful and has even been inside the Top 100!
3. Google Reader – this is an excellent way to keep up with all the writing blogs and sites that I like.  Simply search for RSS feeds from writing sites, or sign up to the RSS feeds as and when you come across them.  I am gradually subscribing to all the websites and blogs that have regular freelance writing jobs advertised on them as well, so I can look for jobs all in one place.  My shared Google Reader page is here.
4. Twitter – you may already know that I am a big fan of Twitter.  To date, I have amassed a following of just over 900 people.  Many of them are writers or are involved with earning on the internet in some way.  I have learned a lot from being a regular tweeter, and I have met with many great people too.  I have also done a few link exchanges with other writing blogs, and yes, I’ve even got some regular paying writing work from Twitter too.  And no, I couldn’t do without it!
5. SXC – a slightly unusual choice perhaps.  But if I need graphics, images or photos for my writing blog or for a project I am working on, this is the first place I will go to.

So there we are – my five top sites I really couldn’t do without.  There is a nice mixture there I think, and there are more too.  Perhaps I’ll add a ‘part two’ to this set of five before too long?

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time