Do you know how many words you typically write per hour? Do you know how long you can sustain that rate? This is a critical number to know when estimating how long a project will take. We need this for meeting deadlines and for quoting projects. Without having a firm grasp of our typical writing […]
Being a freelance writer can take many forms, some lucrative and others that leave you struggling as a pauper. Payment for most freelance work is by the finished piece, though some might be per word. But when it comes to looking at how much you can earn as a freelancer, always think in terms of […]
We need a realistic view of our history to plan a reasonable vision for our future My wife sometimes says I view things as though my glass is only half-full, that I’m pessimistic. I counter that I’m simply being a realist, but the truth is I’m not sure who’s right. Perhaps a bit of reality […]
7 tips to succeed as a freelance writer and not go crazy in the process As I earn more of my income as a freelance writer, I’ve learned some important lessons in the process: Say “Yes”: At a former job, I’d quip to my sales staff: “The answer is always, ‘Yes, we can do that. […]
Maintain an idea repository to jumpstart your creativity every time you sit down to write Each week I create several posts for my blogs. I also compose posts for others (content marketing). In addition, I need to produce columns for my various publications. At a minimum, I write five new pieces a week, sometimes upwards […]
Our writing style will help us find work, sell our writing, and grow an audience. When people hire me they often say “I like your writing style” or share some similar sentiment. (I do content marketing, ghostwriting, commercial freelance work, and whatnot.) I’m glad they appreciate how I write. It helps us start our working […]
There is no single path to becoming a better writer. Instead, we have a myriad of options before us. Here are some of the opportunities I encountered on my writing journey: Write Columns Early on I contributed articles to a small newsletter (back when newsletters were still mailed). Having a deadline to hit each month […]
Are you fortunate to love what you do? In last week’s post, I said writing is fun. While acknowledging that some writers don’t like to write, I am the opposite: I love to write. A number of things contribute to my joy of writing: I see improvement in my writing Whenever I read my past […]
Ever since I finished my dissertation three years ago, my plan was to turn it into a book. Actually a dissertation is already a book. Mine weighs in at 40,000 words. What I mean is that I want to turn dissertation into a marketable book. Dissertations are not marketable. They are academic and boring. I […]
Ever since I first heard of content marketing, I understood it conceptually. Content marketing is providing interesting and useful information to our audience without trying to sell them anything. But I didn’t comprehend what it meant in practice. I was unable to connect theory with reality. I think my confusion resulted because I was reading […]