Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Why a Recession is a Great Time to Start a Freelance Writing Career

My post today is over at BloggingTips.com. It's entitled, The Mind of an Entrepreneur versus The Mind of a 9-5’er. This "unofficial" recession we're in and a conversation I had with a girlfriend who works in corporate America got me to thinking a lot about why some are scared (9-5ers), and why others aren't (freelancers).

I don't think there's ever been a better time than RIGHT NOW to start a freelance writing career. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Why Freelance Writing Jobs are Plentiful Right Now, there's so much work out there right now it's frightening. My calender is filled to the gills! So, check out the post and let me know your thoughts.

What I Learned from Talking to an Internet Marketing Firm Executive

Freelance Writing Tip of the Day: I was talking to an executive at an internet marketing firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan yesterday. I queried them a few days ago and lo and behold, someone actually called. (Usually, I get responses via email). Anyway, we wound up having a nice chat about the dearth of freelance SEO writers.

She said they do a lot of stuff in house, but had been looking for a freelance SEO writer they can outsource stuff to on a regular basis. She said they've had trouble finding skilled writers in this area, and was happy to receive my email.

Two things to take away from this:

(i) Market regularly. Even though I have so much work that my days are 18 hours right now, I still market. Where I used to send out 50 or 100 queries a week, I'm now down to 10-20. Work will come in months later, which means your pipeline will always be full. This is why many freelancers live a feast and famine existence. They stop marketing when they get busy.

When you do this, you have to ramp up again (eg, start marketing) and wait for the work to flow in (hence, a dry spell). As I've said before, since I started SEO writing, I've only about two days where I didn't have any work. That's because I'm constantly marketing, which I talk about in this ebook. (Sorry about all the ebook promotion, but it's just so darn relevant!)

(ii) Learn the basics of SEO. It's still a new, burgeoning field and you have a real chance to establish yourself before it gets too crowded.

Can you really make $2,000/week as an SEO writer?

Of course, my ebook can tell you everything you need to get started as an SEO writer. It's not as hard as you think, and the work comes fast and furious. This week I'll be billing close to $2,000 in JUST SEO writing work -- and that doesn't include work that's already done that I'm waiting on payment for, or projects that are on tap.

Okay, enough about that. Below are the freelance writing job leads from Constant-Content.com I promised yesterday. Happy humpty dumpty day everybody.

Yuwanda Black, Publisher
http://inkwelleditorial.com/
http://inkwelleditorial.blogspot.com/
http://seo-article-writer.com/
http://seo-articles-for-sale.com/
How to Start a Successful Freelance Writing Career Newsletter
P.S: Want to learn how to make at least $250/day writing simple 500-word SEO articles? Read how here.
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Previous Issue. Spotlight on How to Make Money Online: An interview with internet marketer Pat B. Doyle. Pat shares tips on how to make passive income online via affiliate marketing; some common mistakes online entrepreneurs make; and some free and low-cost methods to make money online. There's more also. Subscribe to read this, and all previous, issues.

Current Issue. Spotlight on Multiple Streams of Income for Freelance Writers: An interview with multi-talented freelancer Shel Horowitz. Shel shares tips on how to market your freelance writing services on a shoe-string budget (he's written five books on grassroots marketing); how he created multiple streams of income (writing, speaking, consulting) and more. Subscribe to read this, and all previous, issues.
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Freelance Writing Jobs from the Public Request Section of Constant-Content.com (read more about this here).

Title: The Difference Between a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) and a Home Equity Loan
Description: Explanation of differences between heloc and home equity loan.
Price: $20-30
Article amount: 1
Content length: 400-700
Subjects: Draw term in heloc, difference in closing costs and interest rates, purpose of heloc (flexibility in taking money), advantages of home equity loan (less expensive)...
Notes: no additional notes

Title: History of Vienna, Austria
Description: We are looking for article about the history of Vienna. ( Wien )
Price: $40-50
Article amount: 10
Content length: 600-1000
Subjects: 19th century & Napoleon Anschluss 1938 Austrian Empire Babenberg Battle of Vienna 1683 Battle of Vienna 1945 First Austrian Republic 1918-1938 Habsburg Middle Ages Recent History Roman Empire (Vindobona ) Siege of Vienna 1529 Vindobona ( Celtic ) World War I World War II
Notes: We need articles about Vienna\'s history. A combination of subjects is allowed, also you may talk about events or persons in Vienna\'s history, architecture etc. No \"The History of Vienna\" articles ( very general ) please. More detail & in depth would be appreciated.

Title: The definitive guide to SEO for a photography site
Description: Obviously, a professional photographer has a website - but how can you make sure you do well in search engines? Your images need to do the talking, but that won\'t do a search engine any good... So what can you do to rank well for a predominantly photography-led site?
Price: $40-50
Article amount: 1
Content length: 1000
Subjects: Please talk about linking strategy, tagging, writing around the photographs, perhaps keeping a blog.
Notes: This article needs to be very well referenced (if you make a claim about SEO, please include a link to an article which confirms that claim), and showing examples (please link to at least 5 professional phtoography sites that do elements of their SEO very well, and 1-3 that have made serious mistakes) .

Title: 10 Online Degree Artilces
Description: Ten articles on the topic of online degrees (also called online education or distance education) for my website OnlineDegreeReviews.org. I want to provide content to my users that is unique, valuable and also SEO friendly. I\'ve provided a list of 10 keywords. I want 10 articles written, one on each keyword. I don\'t care too much about the content of the article, just that it\'s interesting and contains the keyword exactly as it appears in the subject list. The keyword must appear in the article title, and a few times (approximately 2-3) in the article body text. For example, for the keyword \"buy online degree\" it could be an article about the dangers of purchasing an online education without doing any course work for it(what\'s known as a \"diploma mill\"). The body copy would contain this phrase 2-3 times. The title could be \"Why Buy Online Degree?\" or \"Risks When You Buy Online Degree.\" Note that these titles are not correct English but it *IS* what I want. I can\'t think of a grammatically correct title, but maybe you can! Do not make any of the words plural, however you can separate the words with punctuation marks. I understand and accept that some of the keywords in the list may make for poor grammar and oddly written sentences in a few places.
Price: $40-50
Article amount: 10
Content length: 300 - 500 words
Subjects: The following is a list of 10 topics (keywords) that I need articles written. The order of the words is important and should appear exactly in the article title, and a few (2-3) times in the content for SEO purposes. buy online degree online college degree accounting degree duke online university business degree music online online law degree harvard boston university online degree free online degree course online medical transcription degree earn lpn degree online earn college degree online
Notes: - articles must be unique or full rights - by line can be included if you like - you can use/quote any material from my website - this is my first time posting a project so if I\'ve missed something or it\'s not clear what I want please let me know.

Title: Need of an article in english and spanish
Description: We need a very experienced person to write an article in English and Spanish. it will contain information coming from the site clubshop.com. The article must be very catchy in order to attract the people to be a member and a VIP member. The winner must be expert in English and in Spanish.
Price: $10-20
Article amount: 2
Content length: 600
Subjects: Why to be a member and a VIP Member Benefits and privileges Not another pyramid. Saving money
Notes: write the content in the way that if you read it could make you a VIP member without second thoughts
Title: Choosing a Diamond Engagment Ring
Description:
I need a how to article on purchasing a diamond engagement ring. The article should contain: the 4C\'s, Styles, Cuts, Settings, differences between the various metals.
Price: $20-30
Article amount: 1
Content length: 600
Subjects: Diamond engagement rings, weddings
Notes: None

Title: How to Throw the Ultimate Bachelorette Party that the guys will ENVY!
Description: I need an article with a catchy title similar to, \"How to Throw the Ultimate Bachelorette Party that the guys will ENVY!\". Responses from female authors ONLY sorry guys. The article should be a sort of how to guide that will appeal to females and make all the guys in their lives jealous with envy. I would like the guide to also make reference to the importance of including a DJ as this will be on a disc jockey website.
Price: $40-50
Article amount: 1
Content length: 600
Subjects: Bachelorette Parties, DJ, clubs, girls night out, girls ONLY
Notes: I leave this one up to you girls!

Title: Overcoming Obstacles
Description: We need articles on how to overcome personal obstacles. The articles can be a personal story or well written \"how to\" piece. The piece must be encouraging and inspirational. We are looking for something that will help individuals through rough spots in their lives.
Price: $50-100
Article amount: 3
Content length: 300-1200 words
Subjects: Overcoming Obstacles, Inner Peace, Words of Wisdom, Words of Encouragement
Notes: If your article is not something you would share with your best friend, then do not submit. We are looking to help people, so submit your best work. We will only consider articles that offer full rights purchase.

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