Money for Nothing

I was planning to write an incredibly long, detailed post about the not-so-wonderful world of writing for websites that operate on revenue sharing models.

Part of that post was going to discuss a throwaway article I wrote several years ago for a revshare site on a lark, just to test the waters.  Due to a lucky combination of good timing, optimization for a virtually unexploited long tail keyword in a big money niche and what one can only describe as stupid luck, I’ve made approximately $600 from that article over the course of five years.  It took me approximately five minutes to find the primary keyword (there’s that luck) and about ten minutes to write the simple article.

I’m not underpaid, but I generally don’t make $2,400 per hour for lousy little pen-named articles designed for content mills.  I still chuckle every month when I see the mill make a deposit into my checking account.

Anyway, I wanted to mention that article because stories like those are one reason why so many people hop into the revshare world.  Unfortunately, they’re flukes.  Anomalies.  Luck breaks.  You can’t count on them.  They don’t happen too often.  I was going to put that particular article’s numbers up against the other four I wrote in the same week for that site long, long ago to illustrate the point.

I was plodding through the post about revenue sharing while listening to George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh and just as I started detailing the story of the miracle article, I found myself half-singing along with Ring Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy”.

It don’t come easy,
You know it don’t come easy.

It don’t come easy,
You know it don’t come easy.

Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues,
And you know it don’t come easy.
You don’t have to shout or leap about,
You can even play them easy.

Well, in my case it did come easy.  I goofed around as an experiment and made a big ol’ chunk of cash from writing that I’d objectively value at approximately nothing.

Some days, Starr’s lyrics do ring true for a self-employed writer.

However, there are times when it does come easy.  The cosmic tumblers click into place and weird little miracles appear.

Accentuating the Positive

Instead of writing a post about the way things don’t come easy in the world of revenue sharing, I decided to write a post about the times things do come easy.  I figured it might be nice to celebrate the crazy flukes and accidental victories instead of focusing on the ugly grind of making a living with a keyboard.

Here are my favorite easy moments…  In no particular order:

The $600 Revshare Non-Masterpiece: This is the article mentioned above.  A nearly effortless bit of experimentation continues to pay dividends years after its creation.  There really is no logical explanation for why this article continues to earn and earn every month.  Somehow, it continues to fly below the radars of those who work in the niche and Google, pumping out steady earnings for the content mill and me.

The Three-Page Report that Made Over $5,000. I was driving down the highway and a simple idea crossed my mind.  Bum marketing (a simplified form of article-based affiliate marketing) was a hot topic in the Internet marketing world.  I realized there was a very easy way to boost the value of the articles and to insure at least some up-front cash value for them.  That relatively small cash payment could serve as something of an insurance policy for those who were writing free articles for directories in hopes of generating affiliate sales.

I came home, sat down and outlined the exceedingly simple process.  I added introductory and concluding paragraphs, converted it into a PDF and posted it for sale as an information product on a popular IM forum with a little off-the-top-of-my-head sales copy.  I set up a PayPal button and a quick automated download process for anyone willing to buy the guide.  From top to bottom, it took about two hours.

The next morning, I woke up to over $2,000 in sales.  Within three days, I made $5,000 off that simple idea.  The almost equally awesome part was the fact that the folks who bought the report actually liked it.  It didn’t take long for the concept to escape the confines of my hastily produced ebook and sales ground to a halt shortly thereafter.  I wasn’t complaining.

The Luckiest Celebrity Blog Ever: I noticed that my wife was watching a TV show featuring a woman I had seen on another show the day before.  Out of curiosity, I did some quick Googling and realized that her career was absolutely on fire and that she was poised for a major breakthrough.

At the time, I was experimenting with new keyword mining techniques and generating income via blogs monetized with contextual advertising.  A few minutes later, I had claimed a Blogspot blog with a domain name featuring a common misspelling of the celebrity’s name and was setting it up with a number of quick posts that were little more than silly notices of other articles about the celebrity, combined with a brief excerpt of the source material and a link to the original source.  It was a very crude homemade news aggregator, in a sense.

The site started making about $1 per day in Adsense earnings, so I kept adding occasional little posts.  The celebrity’s star power increased to the Nth degree and earnings went up, up and up.  Soon, it was making a solid $10 per day.  Then $20.  Then $30.  I outsourced one hundred additional news aggregation-style posts with some of the earnings, loaded them up and set them to drip feed at a rate of two per week.  The investment paid for itself within two months.

That site made a small fortune before people with real resources, strong content and a commitment to doing things the right way realized that a crummy little Blogspot blog was ranking in the top three for a series of high volume searches.  The competition didn’t find it hard to knock me off, but that blog put a stack of fat Adsense checks in my pocket before they did.  For what it’s worth, the site still generates about a buck every other day and I haven’t so much as looked at it in over two years.

Common Traits

All three of those weird winners share a few common traits:

They happened because I was willing to experiment. If I had been wholeheartedly committed to following THE plan and only THE plan, they wouldn’t have happened.  This serves to remind me that keeping an open mind and trying new things can be a lot of fun and a source of profits.

They all defied duplication. Efforts to replicate the results with similar projects invariably fall short of those anomalous originals.  I did have some luck with other Adsense-monetized blogs (enough that I still get a check every month from Google) and I’ve sold a few other information products here and there that have been well worth my time, but I’ve never come close on another revshare article.  This reminds me that luck matters more than we’d probably like to think.

All three of these happy accidents share one other trait.  They happened three or more years ago.

And You Know it Don’t Come Easy

I think that last fact may contain the most important lesson my three examples offer.  In the last few years, we’ve witnessed an absolute explosion in the number of people trying to make money online as writers, Internet marketers and everything else imaginable.  I think it’s an overstatement to say we’re near a saturation point, considering the web’s continued rapid growth, but the online world is certainly more crowded and competitive today than it was a few years ago.

I really do believe it was easier to mix some rudimentary knowledge with a little skill and a chunk of action to generate healthy chunks of cash back in the “good old days” (which aren’t particularly old at all, truth be told).  As I think about other cool little bursts of luck I’ve had, most of them happened during or before 2008.  I know I haven’t stopped experimenting with new ideas and I’d like to believe that my skills have improved.  I know my knowledge base is more expansive.

So, either I’ve hit a long luckless streak or it’s getting tougher to hit the big time with little effort due to increased competition.

I wanted to go from a somewhat negative post about the doomed nature of 99.99% of revshare writing efforts to a positive reflection on the times when the money rains upon request.  Instead, I think this post could still end on a somber note.

These days…  Well…  It don’t come easy.

Your Glory Days…  And a Prize!

Ah, who wants  to end on a down note?  Maybe it can come easy.  Even if it doesn’t, it did at some point and that’s worth a little party, right?

I open it up to you, the FWJ readership.  Let’s hear your stories of glory days, your memories of times when things that shouldn’t have been successful turned into moments of accidental greatness.

Maybe it was the unedited, typo-riddled query that still landed you a plum contract.  It could’ve been the time you sent off a piece of work you personally hated that the recipient loved so much you developed a profitable on-going relationship.  Perhaps you had a magic revshare moment, too.

I don’t know what’s happened to you, but I have to believe you’ve had times when it all came easy.

Tell your story.

Oh, and just to encourage participation, I’ll tack on a prize.  The best story wins a free copy of The Concert for Bangladesh on DVD.  You get Harrison, Clapton, Preston, Dylan and even Ringo in their full bearded 1971 glory!

Let’s hear your tales of mysterious moneymakers, accidental brilliance and those unexplained moments of magic when very little effort resulted in a massive payoff of some sort.

I spent a few minutes with him discussing how freelance writers can build their own personal brands in order to build their businesses.  Dan’s insightful answers to my questions are included below.  Be sure to read the Building Your Freelance Writing Brand series here on Freelance Writing Jobs for more information about how you can start developing your own brand to boost your writing business.

Susan Gunelius: How can freelance writers benefit from personal branding?  What can they learn in your book that can help them get started?

Dan Schawbel: Over 30% of the US population is freelancers, and in my opinion, everyone should have a freelancer’s mentality. You should always be looking for work and new opportunities, even if you have a full-time job.

Being a freelancer makes it easy and critical to build a personal brand. Freelancers can benefit from personal branding because they need to differentiate themselves, be found online through searches, and build portfolios to display their work. A freelance web designer will be judged based off of the website they create for themselves, and writers will be judged based on online clips from published sources. Me 2.0 helps freelancers discover, create, communicate, and maintain their brand over the course of their lives. It’s imperative to take advantage of your brand now, so that you can attract the right opportunities.

Susan Gunelius: What is your response to someone who says they don’t need a website or an online presence for their freelance writing business?

Dan Schawbel: I would probably look at them like they were crazy, to be honest. It’s hard to imagine a freelancer that doesn’t have a web presence. For freelancers, I recommend that you have your own website (yourfullname.com), as well as your full name as a vanity URL on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It’s also important to have your full name as an email address (first.last@gmail.com is what I recommend). If you don’t have an online presence, you won’t be found which is a major competitive disadvantage. I haven’t made one sales pitch in three years. I get new clients and opportunities based on being found, and it works.

Susan Gunelius: You’ve achieved a lot of success at a young age and even have an internationally best selling book to your credit.  Could you share some of the story of how you got to this point and specifically share the story of how you got your first book published?

Dan Schawbel: I wrote the entire story on my blog in length, but will summarize it for you! I had eight internships, seven leadership positions, and a consulting company during college. I got each internship by showcasing my “personal branding toolkit,” which was composed of my business card, a website, resume, cover letter, references document, and a CD portfolio of my work. This impressed employers and I considered it to be “marketing myself” back then before I knew the term “personal branding.” Despite all of this hard work, I was afraid to network, so it took me eight months, meeting fifteen people, and getting rejected twice, to get a job at EMC corporation.

I started the Personal Branding Blog on March 14th 2007, and then created a video series, wrote articles for magazines, started the Personal Brand Awards, and launching Personal Branding Magazine on August 1st with an interview between Donald Trump and Guy Kawasaki. Fast Company wrote about my six month journey, and my life changed at rapid speed. I was asked to speak at Google and was recruited internally by a VP to lead the social media efforts in communications at EMC. I had the idea to write Me 2.0, once I flipped the recruitment process over, and was given a job based on my personal brand outside of work. I went through seventy agents, and three publishers, before I received my publishing deal with Kaplan in January of 2008. I started my company in January of this year.

Susan Gunelius: For a freelance writer who does not yet have a website, blog or other branded online destinations, what are the first steps they should take to begin developing their personal brand?

Dan Schawbel: The easiest part is crafting your online presence, and the hardest part is to figure out what you’re passionate about, what your current writing skills are and what you need to improve, as well as your short and long-term goals. Ask yourself “where do I want to go with my career, and in twenty years, what do I want to do”? Then, craft your personal brand and your long-term positioning. It’s not about the job you’re doing now, but where it all leads you in the end. That’s what counts! What’s your mission, your values, and what lasting impact do you want to have on the world?

Susan Gunelius: Many freelance writers are confused about how to brand themselves online — their personal name, a business name, a pseudonym?  What do you recommend from a brand-building/business-building standpoint?

Dan Schawbel: If you’re a freelancer, than you are your business, so you have to brand yourself, and not some random corporate name. You don’t have a team, which means if people hire you, they get YOU. I recommend that you use your name everywhere, and connect it to your expertise.

Susan Gunelius: What are your thoughts on writing for websites for free as a marketing effort to build your brand?  I’m a strong proponent of it but many freelance writers can’t make the shift in thinking from requiring payment for their writing to using it as a marketing/advertising/publicity tool.  Where do you stand on that debate?

Dan Schawbel: That is an extremely good question Susan. As an expert in my field, I look at freelancing as a loss leader and something that is used to just promote my book and other assets. I never set out to make a living off of writing for magazines or sources. For writers who depend on money to survive, you should charge based on your experience, talents, and supply/demand for what you cover. If you need to write a few articles for free to get a brand on your resume, it could be a good idea for you. The only problem is that you’re writing won’t be looked highly upon and it might hurt your chances of getting paid by that brand later.

Susan Gunelius: What’s next for Dan Schawbel?

Dan Schawbel: I’m working on a new book concept right now that I can’t reveal of course. I’m launching the 14th issue of Personal Branding Magazine on November 1st, which I’m very excited about. I’m also speaking at Harvard Business School this month, and receiving an award by the Massachusetts Governor. You won’t see me expand my platform by creating more websites and blogs anytime soon. My goal for the short-term is to build upon what I already have, and create a monetization funnel that can support me and my employees. I see live events as being a huge part of that, especially since that’s where TechCrunch and Mashable make all their money.

Susan Gunelius: Where can Freelance Writing Jobs readers go to learn more about you and your book?

Dan Schawbel: Personalbrandingbook.com and on Amazon.

About Dan Schawbel

In spite of the criticism, the Harry Potter franchise can be considered one of the most successful in history.  In fact, it has made author J.K. Rowling the only billionaire author thus far.  Whether or not you are a Harry Potter fan, you cannot deny the impact that the series has had in popular culture.

Ever wondered just how many people have bought/read/watched the books/movies?  Here’s a pretty nifty summary of the figures involving Harry Potter – books and movies.

Bearing Harry Potter fans in mind, we’ve thrown in interactive elements that will give you more information on the actors and characters.  Enjoy playing around with the characters below!

If you’re reading this in a feed reader, please visit the entry to see the Flash file.

By the way, this isn’t a diatribe on how to decide whether to self-publish or not.  We’ll save that argument for another time.

• Writing a Book is Hard Work.  A LOT of hard work.  Getting a deal seems like the easy part.  In fact, to get a book deal,  you just need a lot of patience, persistence, and a lot of good luck.   But to write one…you need as much determination as you can muster.  You’ll also have to block out a certain amount of time everyday and write write write.  It’s a long slog, and if you can get through it, you definitely will have earned your name on paperback.
• The Pay is Peanuts.  Really. This is more of a long-term earner than a way to get a cash infusion into your wallet; as you know, few writers get advances anymore, and the way the royalties process works, you have to give everyone their cut, so at the end of the day, there just isn’t much left.  It’s always nice to see that check show up unexpectedly, but its never as much as you’d like it to be.
• Get Some Perspective.  Even if you’re a grammatical maven, this is one of those cases where paying someone to proofread/review before giving it to your publisher (or just shipping it out for print) is well worth the cash.  Yes, I know I’m the one with the terrible typing, but really.  You just can’t do something this big by yourself.
• Saying You’re a “Published Author” improves your portfolio.  I never thought about it, but I had a client mention it to me the other day that they were really impressed, so I asked them if it weighed in on their decision to hire me.  They said yes, because it demonstrates commitment.  That’s not to say you need a book to prove you’re a committed writer, but it helps.
• I hope you know marketing. Regardless of the publishing route, you’ll be expected to do more than you’re fair share of the marketing, and I have to say this is something I haven’t done very well.  Social media gives authors a great platform to get the word out, but it’s still terrifying to send a book out to a blogger and wait on pins and needles to see if they like it or not.

Further Recommended Reading:

• 75 Write for Us Pages:  quite a few publishers in here looking for book proposals.  This is the route I took.
• Interview with Marye Audet:  Marye had her blog published as a cookbook and I think you’ll find her frank perspective also insightful.
• Actually, anything in the success stories section is probably worth a re-read if you’re seriously wanting to get into the book market.

If you’ve published a book, anything you want to add to the list?

Photo by Ed Yourdon

When I began this blog (and eventual network) it wasn’t to make a profit. It wasn’t even to provide a free service. It was to share some writing opportunities with other work at home moms. As the Freelance Writing Jobs community grew, I began to think about ways to earn money while still being able to provide a free service. Many people urged me to turn this into a paying subscription based service but I didn’t for two reasons:

1. I knew our community could go elsewhere and find the same information on their own for free.
2. I knew most of the community would leave.
3. I always promised to be a free resource and that’s not going to change.

The problem is, when you’re providing free stuff everyday, you’re not earning any money. It’s hard to justify the time spent on doing this sort of thing when you’re bringing any income into the household. The community rewards are terrific and inspiring, but it’s hard to devote time to non-paying projects, especially when your time is needed elsewhere.

So I began to implement a few monetization strategies.  There were several years of trial and error, but eventually I hit on a formula that works.

Create a resource everyone can benefit from

For me, the most important criteria for building this community is to create a service everyone can benefit from. That’s why we post such a wide variety of gigs, and also, blog posts and resources of interest to writers of all levels. My intital thought was that if I catered to only beginners or only veteran writers, or only writers who wish to earn a certain amount of money it would create a sense of exclusivity and I wasn’t sure that was the aspect I was looking for. My strategy appealed to writers from all walks of life and we still have this same welcoming message today. That isn’t to say there’s something wrong with exclusivity. Certainly there are plenty of terrific communities catering only to veteran writers, but that wasn’t what I was going for here and I’m glad. I enjoy interacting with a diverse network of writers and members benefit from wisdom from a wide variety of sources.

Know your community

You won’t be able to earn a thing unless you know your community.  This is why most bloggers give up after a few months. They don’t have much traffic and  don’t know enough about the community to promote their services or do what it takes to create a revenue stream.  It doesn’t matter what type of free service one provides, without knowing the audience, there will be no way to gauge their wants and needs, and, eventually profit. Take every comment and email into consideration. Pay close attention to your stats to see what content or service gets the best response, and conduct polls every now and then to see how you’re doing. This will tell you several things:

• The type of content your community likes best
• The income level of your community
• Whether they’re clickers or buyers
• What types of products they’re most likely to buy

For example, I know the FWJ community best responds to educational products and services. However, it has to be something really good for them to spend the money. I also know that if the FWJ is in the market for gadgets or technology products they’re not likely to buy them here. While we have sold books and seminar tickets here, that’s not where the bulk of the income of income comes from.

Play with different revenue streams

Adsense gets a bad rap but it’s my main source of income at this blog network. It took a while for me to love it, though as it’s rather ugly. I tried it out on different zones and finally found the sweet spot. I also contacted private sponsors and tried a few affiliates. Since this isn’t a community of buyers, I realized I had to focus on private sales over affiliates. To be honest, learning to monetize this blog network took a lot of frustrating trial and error because it’s not a community of spenders. That’s not a bad thing, it just means it takes more effort and focus to find income.

I learned that this community doesn’t want to spend money on frivolity. They’ll pay money if they’re going to learn, but they’re not going to pay for products with heavy shipping costs, or stuff they wouldn’t have considered before.  I tried affiliates for business-y stuff, but no one was interested in computer products or business cards. It wasn’t until I post affiliates for webinars, books, and my own ebook that folks began to take notice.

If I didn’t take the time to learn about the FWJ community I wouldn’t have known the types of products and services they best respond to. I can’t stress enough how important this is.

Sell your own stuff

Last year, I wrote a brief ebook about the skills we acquire as bloggers. It sells a few copies each month, which is kind of nice. Since then, the community has been asking me when my next ebook is coming out, or to ask about my coaching services. Building a community around a free service means that when we have something to sell, they’ll trust us enough to consider buying. So maybe I’m not profiting so much from the content or the daily list of gigs, but through the content I have ebook sales or I earn money coaching folks about blogging, social media and getting started as a writer.

Find out what your community wants. Give some of it away and sell the rest.

Promote

It’s not enough to have a free service, nor is it enough to have an ebook or some ads on your site. If no one knows you exist, no one is going to drop by and buy your stuff. You have to promote. Not only do you have to promote, but you have to do so in a way that isn’t spammy. This is where your social media tools come in to play. Use your blog, Twitter account, Facebook fan pages and more to gain friends and followers and create a buzz around your brand.

Don’t rest on your laurels

Once you begin to bring in a steady income, your job isn’t over. You have to continue to bring in an income. Advertisers stop advertising after a while and sales for your products will eventually dwindle to a trickle. Continue looking for new revenue and passive income streams. Continue gauging the interests of your community in order to bring them the content – and the products- they’re looking for.

What do you think?

Do you think you can profit from a free service? If so, expect to put in hours or work each day. It’s not enough to set it and forget it. Take the time to gauge your community’s needs and buying habits. Research the revenue streams that will work the best with your community. Finally, remember that it all takes time. It can take years to build something for nothing and it rarely happens over night.

What service can you provide?

Shared with permission:

Dear Deborah,

I have a confession to make. I Googled you to learn more about you and your “early years.” I can’t find much about you save for online articles and your blog.  I’m interested in learning more about the beginning of your writing career, how you juggled a full time job while you were starting out and when you knew it was time to quit your day job.

Thank you for your blog. You and your colleagues provide a valuable resource.

Sincerely,

Loretta M.

I asked Loretta if I could respond to her email publicly because so many of you ask me about how I knew I wanted to be a freelance writer, my publishing career and when it was time to leave my full time job. It’s not a very interesting story, probably it’s typical and normal.

An early start

Like most of you, I always enjoyed writing. When I was in school, I didn’t join my fellow students in their moaning and groaning over term papers and essays. I looked forward to these assignments and did well. My favorite classes were those having to do with writing such as Journalism or English composition. I fed my addiction by keeping notebooks and diaries, even as far back as high school.

A career in publishing

I didn’t go to college upon graduation like most students my age. Instead, I took some night courses when I was a little older. My real writing experience began in 1985 at the age of 20, when I was hired as the receptionist for a boutique publishing company. They published over 100 titles including knitting magazines, tattoo magazines and even some adult oriented magazines. As I  moved up the ranks, some editors took me under their wings to encourage me to write more.

After 8 years I left my job in publishing to work for the graphic design and editorial firm that designed and handled the editorial and writing for many of the magazines published by my original employer. Though the gig was to be administrative, my duties were that of an Editorial Assistant and I loved my job. For a while.

My first byline

My first print byline appeared  in the early 90′s for a now-defunct music and tattoo magazine.  My boss sent me to attend a concert at Bryant Park put on by a top New York City hard rock station. The band wasn’t very well known but I felt special as I hung out backstage to ask questions about their tattoos. I got the gig because the original writer became ill at the very last minute. There was no one to fill in but me.

I loved seeing my name in print and wanted more.

Another of my duties was to give a final proofread to magazines before they went to press. Though I enjoyed this as well, it was also the reason I left the job. Many of the magazines were adult in nature and I didn’t enjoy proofreading them or looking at the accompanying images.  I left after several years to work for the accounting department of an upscale retail chain.

But I was bored. I didn’t want to add, I wanted to write.

The beginning of a freelance writing career

Throughout the 90′s, I attended night courses, mostly related to small business, at Baruch College in NYC. While there I also learned basic HTML and created a website so I could write whatever I wanted. I didn’t know it then, but it was my first blog. My dad was my biggest fan and one of my two daily visitors.

I began fantasizing more about writing for a living and researched the ways to begin. In 1999 I landed a humor column with Suite 101. In those days they paid a monthly fee which wasn’t much but I felt very important. The column was very popular and I enjoyed responding to the lively community in the comments. Through the Suite 101 gig, I landed a few other humor writing gigs here and there.

At that point in my career I had just gotten married and my husband and I were saving for a house. It didn’t occur to me to consider leaving my job to freelance, but I began looking for freelance writing jobs simply because I enjoyed writing.

Movin’ on up

In 2001, my husband and learned we were pregnant and bought a house in another state. Here was my chance to start over as a freelance writer. I was going to leave my job anyway to move and raise my child, now was as good a time as any.

I will say first and foremost, I probably wouldn’t have left my full time job if my husband didn’t already have a very good job. If we didn’t have two salaries, it would have been a lot more difficult for me to support myself in the beginning.

Goals are good

We set a goal. I would take a year to get my career off the ground and if it worked out well I could continue to write until our son was enrolled in school full time. Though I didn’t want it to be a temporary thing, I really didn’t expect to still be doing this now.

During the first two years I worked as hard as I could with a baby by my side. I didn’t keep all my eggs in the same basket. I worked for content sites, web clients such as iParenting Media and Legal Zoom, newsletters like the Dollar Stretcher, a couple of private clients and even landed a newspaper column using, believe or not, content site clips.

I believe the diversity was the key to my success.

I guess the rest is easy enough to figure out. I don’t find my story particularly interesting or inspiring. The truth is, I enjoyed writing and when I had to leave my job to relocate and have a baby, I saw my opportunity. It turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.

Now tell us your story. What is your background and how did you get to where you are today?

Deb’s note: To be clear, I am not taking sides. Both “James” and “Harry” are my friends and I hope this will be the case for a long time to come.

As the quiet partner behind Men with Pens, I found Harrison McLeod intriguing. While James Chartand was clearly the outspoken leader, the mystery behind Harry made me want to know him better. The Pen Men handled a couple of redesigns for FWJ and are responsible from  changing us from a single blog to a network.

Each time I contracted James and Harry they went on and beyond the call of duty. James was in constant contact and I had several late night G-chats with Harry who never complained, even though I’m sure I can be a pain in the butt sometimes. They were especially helpful during the Great Server Crash of ’08, and when they dropped everything to help and never treated me like an idiot even though I’m technically challenged. I can’t remember when I had a better customer service experience.

By now you know both James Chartrand and Harrison McLeod are women. Each chose to make themselves public in their own way, reflective of their very different personalities. We heard from James a few days ago, and now it’s time to learn more about Deb Dorchak who most of you know as Harry McLeod.

You’re probably not surprised when I tell you Deb is the same quiet, gracious and talented person. The only thing that’s changed is the name and gender we originally knew her by.

I give you, Deb Dorchak:

By now you’ve read the post on CopyBlogger, is there anything you wish to address?

Yes. There have been a few insinuations along the way that James’ hand was forced into coming out. Some have even gone so far as to label it blackmail. What is even more disturbing is that this rumor is allowed to perpetuate and at no time has the record been set straight. In no way were revenge, publicity, slandering Men with Pens or any of its members, destroying MwP, or causing intentional harm to James and her family the motivation for this situation.

I left. I left because of personality conflicts with James. I quietly resigned, told four people who were closest to me, who I respected deeply and who I felt I had to apologize to if I had hurt them in any way. Whether or not they wanted to continue a relationship with me, as friends or co-workers, was totally up to them.

I was starting clean. I owned what happened and left it up to the Powers That Be to figure out how it would all turn out.

I honestly thought I’d be starting with nothing. No portfolio, no contacts, nothing. The net isn’t as big of a place as people would like to believe. All of us run in circles that overlap. For better or worse, news travels fast.

People are also not stupid. It doesn’t take much to connect a few dots. I’ve been told there’s a lot of negative fallout from this. If there is, I don’t see it. Or maybe I haven’t seen it yet. Who knows?

What I do know is that I used Harry in name only. I’ve always been a private person and even if one of my close friends I’ve known for years asked me for a picture of myself, I’d be hard pressed to give one simply because I’m never one to be in front of a camera. Just ask any of my High School buddies on FaceBook. I think they can count the number of pictures they have of me on one hand.

The thing is, personal life is personal life, business is business. I’d like to think that all of my interactions as Harry, whether they were on the blog, in IM or in other correspondences were handled professionally and that I didn’t lead anyone on to believe I was more than their designer, tech adviser or a friend to spend some time chatting with.

If you’ve been keeping up with the news around the blogosphere, you probably have noticed bloggers questioning the Men with Pens name and design. Why make it so darn masculine and why suck everyone in with a persona rather than androgynous names or initials?

It started as a tongue in cheek joke. What amazes me is that no one can seem to laugh at themselves without getting offended. We were brainstorming blog names. I thought of that old skit on “In Living Color” called “Men on Film”. My mind made the leap to “Men with Pens”. The inside joke? The characters Harry and James were gay. They were both characters we had on an RPG creative writing board we used to run. We liked them, used the names and called it a day.

Looking back, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Hell, even my mother thought it was hilarious – and she dealt with the glass ceiling of the corporate world for twenty-something years. Now I’m seeing from the many points of view I read that it’s really doing everyone a disservice. Men, women, the human race in general.

Face it, this is human nature. There will always be one group or another that thinks itself superior. No matter how evolved you think you are, unless you’re Mother Theresa or Gandhi, or even Jesus Christ Himself, there’s still a small part in everyone that will in some way or another, be biased for some reason.

I didn’t start out to suck anyone in with a persona. And I don’t think I did, either. I hope not. Harry may have struck some as slightly feminine. That’s fine. I happen to be a woman who enjoys a lot of the things that men do. I ride a motorcycle, practice archery and iaido, I’d rather spend my time shopping for chrome than shopping for clothes, don’t give a damn about the latest fashions, never wanted kids and the moment a group of women I’m with start talking about babies, I’m gone. Are those stereotypical remarks? Sure they are.

I’ll tell you something though, stereotypes start with a tiny grain of truth. Maybe we over compensated for the masculine aspect. I don’t know. Men? Speak up, I’d like to know.

Was the increase in income really that substantial for a male dominated business over a female dominated business?

The increased income didn’t improve full force until we did the first redesign from JCME to Men with Pens. The writing was a struggle. It was long hours for very little pay and competing on auction sites for projects against third world countries bidding far lower than the rest of the world. Didn’t matter if you were male or female.

The moment our new blog design came out we started getting requests for graphics. Writing began to take a back seat. As I’ve said before, the work spoke for itself. From the time that site launched to the present, people came to us without any solicitation.

Now that I’m out, I find that the same is true. My work speaks for itself. The clients and contacts I have couldn’t care less if I’m a man, a woman or a Wookie. They like the service and products I provide and that’s the bottom line. I get paid what I’m worth, and if they don’t want to pay it, that’s fine. I’m not going to twist their arm or cry foul and pull the gender, race or any other card on them.

Did you enjoy being a woman trapped in a male online personality?

Didn’t even consider it much. I think if I were a man, I’d have the same personality. I’m very much like my Dad in that I’m quiet, like to work in the background and don’t go in much for following the crowd. I’m extremely patient and try to treat others the same way I’d like to be treated.

If I was trying to emulate anything at all, it was simply being a kind human being.

Was it as if “Harry” was taking over your life and you were no longer Deb?

Harry never took over my life. The only thing that hurt the most and wore on me over time was I made some very genuine friendships. There were many times when these friends would come to town (after all, all roads lead to Vegas, don’t they?) I’d have to decline a drink or a visit and the opportunity to get to know them better, or even just to say thank you.

The urge to say screw it all and tell them was strong. But I promised I wouldn’t, despite my many attempts to ask James to give this up and say enough was enough and call the show to a halt. She wasn’t interested.

Did you ever find yourself having to check yourself to make sure you were the right person?

No, never. I kept my personal life and my online life separate.

What made you decide to give it all up?

The internal personality conflicts, the power plays, the constant miscommunications and endless days of stress where there shouldn’t have been any. I was told I changed, and I really started to believe that. Using Harry’s name didn’t screw with my head half so much as the issues going on behind the scenes.

Last August I hit rock bottom. I had deep depression, felt totally alienated and really thought there would never be any way I’d be able to pick myself up and start over. I did that once before. Lost everything in a divorce shortly before I moved out here. It felt like I’d been through a disaster where my home and everything in it just got burnt to the ground.

I felt that way again. I had to dig deep and see where this was coming from. Had I changed? Had I lost my integrity? Was I being manipulated? Was I manipulating others? The mirror asks a lot of hard questions.

Now, before anyone starts to think I’m fishing for sympathy, I’ll be the first to tell you, that’s not the case. I didn’t broadcast this to the world, and I still don’t like talking about it. But that’s what happened. Again, it had nothing to do with gender, these were my problems, my situations that I either created myself or allowed to happen.

I owned it, picked myself up and made a decision. I could go on living like this or I could get off my ass and out of the pity party and do something about it.

Tell us about your new business…

Ahhh…the new biz. From the ashes of destruction grow glorious new things. Sirius Graphix started when one of my now team members, Rose Redelfs said she’d always wanted to write an ebook. I said go ahead, do it, I’ll design it. We’ll sell it. I wanted to do more ebooks anyway.

That led to talking to Wendi Kelly, who said she’d market that. From there I said I had a theme I developed, we should get that out…

One thing led to another and before I knew it we were three (four counting Elizabeth Fayle who was with us at the time as well) individual service providers pooling our skills together to drum up some business.

From there, Sirius Graphix was born. In the space of a week, we already had clients knocking at our door. We had no home site, nothing to show them from past projects, we didn’t even have our services and price list together.

But we had clients.

Within a month, the website was up. Yes, with a blog. That was a tough decision for me because I really don’t enjoy blogging. But people like what I write, so there you go.

When I realized I needed a good code person to help with the theme development and other technical aspects of web design (I think if I had to choose between coding and blogging, I’d take blogging) we took on Allison “Sushi” Day.

Although I knew I could have done this all on my own, I didn’t want to. I wanted to design. Not spend hours with code, or hours writing. Just design. My team allows me to do that. And I give them the freedom to do what each of them does best. You want to know the real secret to business? Teamwork. No micromanaging, no looking over anyone’s shoulder. Just let your people do what they’re best at doing.

We bounce ideas off of one another, and never shoot down any idea. Like Wendi is fond of saying, “There’s no such thing as a bad idea.” (much in the same way I like to tell clients there’s no such thing as a stupid question).

Are your new clients receptive to your ideas and prices even though you’re a woman?

Alright. I’m putting my foot down on this one. Enough already with the gender thing. It stays alive because we keep perpetuating it. And before anyone starts quoting my own words back at me, yeah, I know I started it with that Big Idea three years ago.

That’s what growing is all about. I bet a lot of you had some foolish ideas in the past you thought were great, only to look back and say to yourself “What was I thinking?”

Clients are receptive to our rates because we’re honest about the time it takes to put a project together. As much as I would like to give stuff away (and Wendi has to frequently hold me back and remind me when I’m in an overly magnanimous mood) the reality is everyone’s time is worth something.

I’m no different. I still have bills to pay, expenses to take care of and an internet connection to keep connected. Hey, I may not have kids, but I do have a roomie and two cats who still like to eat – not to mention myself. Food is nice. Very nice. So is enjoying life in general.

What’s next for Deb?

The sky’s the limit. I’ve got several concept projects in the works, everything from theme development to publications. The Team and I can’t stop the ideas from coming and it’s going to keep us busy for a long time to come.

I’ve always been impressed with the bond the “Pen Men” had with their community. I’m sure you miss them a little (and vice versa): Is there anything you’d like to say to them here?

I missed the people who were there at the beginning. By the time I left MwP in November of this year, there wasn’t one name in the comment section that I recognized. It was like I woke up one morning, looked at the comments and wondered where everybody went.

Once it all came out, I reconnected with many of the old crew. I explained the situation, and apologized for any misunderstandings. Whether they still wanted to be friends or communicate was totally up to them.

What I found was an amazing amount of support, I was missed, and they were glad to have me “back”. It was something very personal, between me and them, and something I’ll never take for granted or forget.

For more information about Deb Dorchak and her new design business, please visit the Sirius Graphix website.

If you have respectful questions for Deb, feel free to post them as she agreed to come by from time to time and respond.

Jenna Glatzer‘s book, Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer: How to Win Top Writing Assignments was the first book I read while contemplating my decision to seek higher paying freelance writing opportunities. In fact, I credit Jenna’s book as giving me the inspiration and motivation to take a deep breath and begin querying markets beyond entry level web writing opportunities.

I was thrilled to interact with Jenna several years ago when she was the owner of the Absolute Write Forum. Through that forum, and an active member - Meryl K. Evans – I even landed a gig with Jenna, finding the job leads for the Absolute Write Newsletter. Jenna has always been generous with the advice and encouraging to writers of all levels. I’m so happy to present you with the FWJ Interview: Jenna Glatzer.

Jenna, tell us a little about you and how you got your start as a freelance writer.

I started on my path as a writer because I had a terrible panic disorder that left me housebound, and I needed to find a way to make a living from home. I thought screenwriting would be my path to fame and fortune, but soon found out… well, it wasn’t. A lot of close calls, but nothing produced. So I went online and did a little research about what else I could do as a writer, and thought I’d try writing for magazines. I got a lucky hit on my first query– a short profile of friends of mine from college who had started their own company– and thought, “This is going to be easy!” It actually took a couple of years before I was earning any sort of regular income from it, and another couple of years before I was making a full-time living from it, even though I was working full-time hours the whole time.

Writers have so many options nowadays, it’s more than newspapers, magazines or copy writing. What is your favorite niche and why?
I like writing for magazines, but these days, I focus on ghostwriting books. I enjoy helping other people tell their stories.

Even though writers have many choices, thanks to the web, they also have to be careful they’re not taken advantage of. What are some of the areas in which new writers should proceed with caution?

There really are a lot of potholes in the road. I wrote a whole book about it, actually– The Street Smart Writer: Self Defense Against Sharks and Scams in the Writing World. The most egregious problems are probably vanity book publishers pretending to be anything BUT vanity book publishers (don’t be wooed… if anyone asks you for money, or expects you to buy copies of your own book, that’s a vanity press– and they almost certainly will NOT help you get your book into bookstores or get it distributed to the general public). Writing contests (like at Poetry.com) where every work is accepted with praise and writers are invited to buy anthologies featuring their work, or plaques, or whatever… these are not legitimate contests and will do nothing for your career.

Watch out, also, for ANY type of payment arrangement other than “We will pay you $x on acceptance.” Avoid jobs that offer payment that’s based on their future profitability, or based on a number of click-throughs or portion of ad revenue, or anything resembling “Once we get some money, then we’ll start paying, and you’ll be so happy you got in on the ground floor.” It just doesn’t work. I can think of exactly one market in the past 12 years that actually lived up to their promise. Hone your skills until you’re capable of getting work from established markets, rather than taking risks on every bonehead with a modem who calls himself a publisher.

Pay attention to what kind of rights you’re selling, too. Understand that if you sell “all rights” or “work-for-hire rights,” then you’ve given the company the right to do anything they want with your work forever, and you can never resell it. Try to negotiate for “one-time rights” or “First North American serial rights,” or even creative variations that enable both of you to get what you need, like, “Exclusive online rights for 30 days, nonexclusive thereafter.”

At FWJ we respect writers’ choices, even those we might not agree with and we’re a little distressed by recent negativity – especially by writers who insult those who take on entry level gigs. What are your thoughts regarding web content sites – and the choices writers make, as well as the bickering that is going on among freelance writers regarding the available opportunities and pay rates?

I totally agree with you and have never understood it. I’ve always thought “live and let live” is a good motto.

Writers who are willing to work for peanuts are NOT, in general, driving down the going rates for established writers. Real Simple magazine is paying $2/word. Joe Shmoe who wants search engine optimization articles for $1 apiece is never going to be in the market to hire a professional anyway.

The main point I try to convey to people who are taking on these low-paying gigs, though, is to try not to get stuck in that rut forever. The thing is, you can spend so much time doing these types of gigs that you don’t have the time to research your markets and find better work. And it’s not going to improve your writing skills much, because you’re not working with a real editor and you’re not being challenged to craft great prose– just to churn out lots of words quickly. (Well, at least you might get practice working with deadlines.)

I took on many low-paying gigs when I began writing, though never the SEO types, which weren’t around when I started. I wrote for a disabilities website, a local bridal magazine, a couple of college magazines… I’m glad I did it, and some of those assignments did lead to better things down the line. I worked on them as if I were getting paid big bucks, and I was able to use the articles as clips to get work that actually DID pay big bucks.

What do you feel is the first thing someone who is contemplating a freelance writing career should do?

Totally self-serving, but I hope he or she would read Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer. Another excellent book on the subject is The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success . I think it’s important to learn from other people’s mistakes and successes, which both of those books provide.

What is a common mistake made by brand new freelance writers?

Diving into the 2010 Writer’s Market Deluxe (Writer’s Market Online) and sending out query letters in a frenzy without actually learning what each market needs and how to tailor a query to that market.

What is your number one tip for anyone looking to become a freelance writer?
Get a wealthy spouse. (DOH! should have asked Jenna about this one ten years ago. – Deb)

Also: be meticulous, be persistent, and be on time. If you keep at it, eventually someone will notice.

What do you feel is the key to freelance writing success?
Knowing how to study a market is probably the most important skill. That means paying attention to things like tone, word count, topics covered, the publication’s “voice” and target market, and noticing which types of articles are covered by freelancers and which are usually taken by staff writers and editors. After that, it’s a matter of not giving up, and of behaving in a professional manner– not missing deadlines, in particular. I was amazed when an editor at a national magazine told me that her biggest problem with new writers is that they so rarely met their deadlines. How could you blow a big chance like that?

What are you up to these days, Jenna. Feel free to tell us about your current projects.

My latest book came out last month: Unthinkable
by Scott Rigsby (I’m the co-author). Scott is the first double-amputee to finish the Hawaiian Ironman triathlon, and his story is amazing. I’ve been so thrilled to see the Amazon reviews, which are more positive than any of my other books… actually, at the moment, every review is five stars (now I’m jinxing myself. The 19th review will be the killer). See it at scottrigsby.com.

I just finished a book with Susan Markowitz, whose son’s murder was the basis of the movie Alpha Dog. The working title is Stolen Son, and it’s coming out in the spring from Berkley.

And I’m having a blast with my 2-year-old daughter, who recently informed me that she’d like to be a ghostwriter, too.

Thanks, Jenna. We hope you’ll come back and talk with us again!

Marye Audet

by Marye Audet

When Deb asked me to write about how to write a cookbook I was hesitant. There is a reason I don’t usually write for friends. What if I mess up in a big way?
But Deb is one of the people I would do anything (almost) for so I decided to try to collect my scattered thoughts into a cohesive mass and write. So, if you are thinking of writing a cookbook, or even writing a food blog, hopefully you can walk away with something.

The cookbook gig landed squarely and literally in my lap. Julie Fletcher emailed me with a link and said “This has you written all over it!” So, after some nervous deliberation with the rest of my personalities the resume was emailed and I waited nervously. A few days later I received an email asking for a Table of Contents and an index of 300 cookie recipes.

I scrambled through all my recipes, and my mom’s recipes, and my grandmother’s recipes until I had 300 titles I was fairly comfortable with. A week later I was emailed with the news that someone else had gotten the contract. Two weeks after that I got an email saying the other person had flaked, was I still interested?

I say all of this to let you know that cookbook writing is an emotional roller coaster and it doesn’t get better once the book is published… but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Knowing how to write a cookbook and knowing how to write a food blog are really two totally different things. First of all, I was on a strict deadline. I had to have the first two chapters and 125 recipes written and formatted in three weeks.
Hellooo? Excuse me, publisher? I have a life, remember? And freelance deadlines?

A week after I started on the book I received the contract in the mail from the cookbook publishers. Signed, sealed, delivered…I’m yours…

Those first three weeks were frustrating. I would knock out my freelance and blogging work and then start feverishly on recipes. I tested the ones that I wasn’t sure of. The biggest problem for me was formatting. The publisher that I worked with wanted the pages to be formatted for the copywriters. Any dreams I had of just typing it up and sending it off were dashed to the ground pretty quick.

Some nights I would fall asleep typing and wake up to something like “Melt the soldiers in sealing wax and cool before adding the mixture to the tea tree oil.”
I type odd things when I am asleep.

Emotionally I was not prepared for the radical waves of uncertainty bordering on hysteria:

• What if it is a total flop?

• What if I copied someone else’s recipe without realizing it?

• What if the publishing company goes bankrupt before they pay me?

Twelve hour days were nothing. I was working 20 hours and sometimes more all seven days. I was focused totally on cookies. We ate hot dogs, pizza, sandwiches, and tuna casserole.My family thought that they had become a participant family on Wife Swap and they had gotten the “Generic Boxed Mac and Cheese Mom.”

I made my first deadline a week early and had finished the book by the second deadline, a full month early. I sent it off, anticipating a return email that said “We hate it. You suck.”

But there was no return email. Not a bad one anyway. The book was submitted September 27, 2008 and it hit bookstores September 17, 2009. If you think that year was just a matter of waiting you are wrong.

There were edits to make; the copywriters had questions about the recipes and measurements. Then when they were done the book got sent back so I could go over it for typos and send it back with corrections…All in 24 hours! After that,  the book went to other editors, with more questions. Did you ever put a four year old to bed? For awhile it was like that; my email would get quiet and then I would get hit with several questions, some of them a little off the wall. Then it would get quiet and I would sigh with relief…and then there would be more questions. Finally all was quiet and I heard that the book was at the printer.

When I got my box of copies to send out for review I could not believe it. Seeing my name on a real book seemed so…surreal. You would think that with the book out and in stores I would be proud, happy, and confident. Not so. I was worse.

You see, now the book had to be reviewed. I had to send it to people so they could try the recipes and review it. What if the recipe didn’t work for them? What if it tasted awful? What if they hated it? I hadn’t had much creative input on the cover or the book, since it was part of a series put out by Adams Media. I was concerned that there were no images in the book, what would people think?

My fears seem to be groundless. Everyone has accepted the book, liked the recipes, and the reviews have been good. So far. Knock on wood.

If I was going to impart anything to you about how to write a cookbook, or any kind of book, I would want you to understand the need to prepare yourself emotionally for the biggest roller coaster ever. There are no tiny mistakes with books. There are big, glaring problems that stress you out one day and are gone like a Texas snow the next.
Other than that? Here are some tips I think might help:

• Be easy to work with. You are going to be working with several editors and being cheerful, kind, and helpful can give you an edge that a prima dona won’t have. You are not Julia Child. Work with them. Your reputation will follow you for a long time and you may need these people to speak well of you.

• Test your recipes or use recipes you have made many times before.

• Be specific and make the recipe steps as easy as possible.

• Be aware that the publisher may cut things you don’t want them to cut. They left in my acknowledgment but cut my dedication because of a scripture reference.

• Count up the number of pages (or recipes) you have to have done by your first deadline and divide it into days. If you don’t get much else done get your daily allotment of writing done.

• Try not to do what I did and work round the clock. The more rested you are the easier the process will be.

You will probably not feel like an author. You will just feel like you got one more project done.

If you have a food blog that is a good start. You are building up readers. Many of you probably have amazing food blogs, so what I am about to say will be redundant but for those of you who are just starting out, here are some things I look for in a food blog:

• Images! Work with your camera until you can take macros. Spend time at the antique shop picking up props. Work with lighting. Learn to take really good pictures and use more than one in your posts.

• Let your reader know you. Be real, share who you are, let them get a feel for what you are about.

• Don’t copy other people’s work. Give attribution if you use someone else’s recipe as a springboard for your own.

• Interesting recipes. I know how to make meatloaf, what can you offer me that is different than the normal meat loaf?

• Use social media like face book and twitter. Chat…a lot. Be approachable and available. Readers tweet me questions about recipes all through out the day sometimes.

• Email people when they comment the first time. Thank them for reading.

• Always answer comments!

If I can write a cookbook and have it published, trust me, anyone cane. Focus on the goal and head for it. You can do it, you know you can.

by Sharon Hurley Hall

One of the worries people have about taking their freelance career on the road or moving it abroad is how they will actually get work. There can be a feeling that if you are cut off from the major urban hubs then you might find it difficult to gain access to high paying clients. That’s not true at all. With a bit of organisation, you can have a successful freelance writing career, no matter where in the world you choose to live.

1. Get A Good Website

if you’re not at the end of a local or national phone line – and even if you are – most people are going to want to check you out online, so make sure there’s something for them to see. When I started freelancing, I didn’t have a lot of recent clips to put on my site, but I made the most of what I had, creating a simple site that said who I was, how I could be reached, what I had done, and what clients had thought. I added a few examples of my work and I was done. These days, for writers at least, all of this can be achieved with a decent blog. It’s a great place to post sample articles and show that you can write, and there are so many good templates out there that you can have a fantastic looking website in no time at all.

2. Market Yourself

Once you have a web presence, it’s time to let people know you are there. Effective marketing will help your location independent writing business really take off. You can do this for free, by using techniques such as article marketing, or you can pay to drive traffic to your site through Adwords, StumbleUpon and others. The aim of this is to make your site more visible in search engines for the keywords people will use to find you. Another good strategy to raise your profile is to write about topics you want to be known for on other people’s blogs. Guest blogging gives you a link to your site and can also get you noticed by paying clients. I’ve gained at least two long term blogging gigs that way.

3. Participate In Social Media

Social media interaction is another way of getting the word out there. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others keep you connected to your peers and potential clients, no matter where you happen to be. I find it best to pick a couple of places where you feel comfortable and stick to them. If there are forums related to your interest area, join them and be an active member. The key here is to be active. When people can’t visit you in an office, online is the only way they will get to know you, which brings me to my next point …

4. Watch Your Language

Almost everything you contribute to forums and social media and social networking sites is indexed. And unless you’re using an alias, your name is attached to it. So keep that in mind whenever you post a status update or reply to a forum post. Never say anything you wouldn’t be happy to acknowledge as yours. I once nearly lost a job because someone had reprinted one of my articles on a questionable site. When I pointed out that I was not in control of the site and had no affiliation with it, I saved the gig, but it was a good lesson.

Those steps get you noticed, but what do you do once you actually have the work to make sure that you can make a viable living and keep your clients happy?

5. Find Alternatives

In a big country, you take a working internet connection and affordable phone calls for granted. In a small one, you may have to find a workaround. I use Skype wherever possible for international phone calls, though I am thinking of getting a MagicJack as I talk to so many people in the US. It’s also worth having a backup if your internet connection goes down, as it might. That means knowing where to find free Wifi, having a dialup connection or both. Online backup is a must as you never know when you will be traveling and can’t afford to be without essential files. I use Syncplicity and Mozy.

6. Be Professional

No matter where you are, sending in a bid or application where you answer the clients’ questions (including the ones they didn’t even know they had) will help you get the job. As you secure more and more work, it will get easier, as you will have a bigger portfolio, more testimonials and a larger web presence to prove to clients that you can do the work.

7. Don’t Cheap Out

One of the disadvantages of being in a small place is that some people think you should do the job cheaper. My view is, if you have the skills and do the job, you should get paid the going rate. Unless you’re a beginner looking to gain experience, find out what the going rate is (I can suggest a few resources) and pitch yourself around that level.

8. Deliver

All of the above steps are designed to get you to the point where you get writing gigs. Once you’ve got them you have to provide what’s expected on time. End of.

9. Get Paid

Working out how to get paid when you can’t get a direct deposit can be difficult. If you have moved abroad, it’s worth maintaining a bank account in your home country for easy money transfers. Apart from that, there’s always Paypal and Western Union to cover most other eventualities.

So, Does It Work?

It does. From an island in the Caribbean, I write for clients in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. I generally get the rate I ask for and get paid on time.

Sharon Hurley Hall is a location independent freelance writer and blogger. See more of her work at Get Paid To Write Online.

"ProBlogger" Darren Rowse

Many of you know Darren Rowse as the famous “ProBlogger“. I can tell you Darren is much more than the man behind the blog. He is kind, funny, generous with his information, and someone who I am proud to call “friend.” I met Darren last fall and he’s just as warm and genuine as you’d expect.

Darren has agreed to be FWJ latest Success Story. Here he shares how he got started as a professional blogger, how an idea for an ebook between Darren and another friend, Authority Blogger Chris Garrett led to the mega-successful ProBlogger book and so much more.

I give you Success Stories: Darren Rowse

Darren, you began blogging six years ago with your Digital Photography School blog. What made you decide to start a blog?

Actually I started my very first blog (it was called LivingRoom) just under 7 years ago. The reason I started it was that I stumbled on another blog one day and was almost instantly hooked by it. The guy behind the blog was living on the other side of the world but talking about stuff that was of interest to me. He was a fairly ordinary guy yet he had this ‘voice’ that enabled him to talk on a daily basis to thousands of people around the world.

Not only that, he was connected in a network like nothing I’d ever seen before – a network of other bloggers scattered around the world who were all talking about the same kind of stuff, building upon one another’s ideas and all benefiting as a result. I decided that I wanted to become a part of that and started a blog of my own that very day.

What was the “Aha!” moment when you realized there was something to this blogging thing?

I guess the first Aha moment was before I started blogging (as described above) – but after that there have been many. In the early days they were daily moments – when I got my first comment (the first one that wasn’t from a family member), when I got linked to from another blog for the first time etc

I guess the first time I saw the possibility that it could be more than a hobby was when I started my first photography blog (one that is inactive today). I started the blog thinking that it’d be a place to share some of the photos that I was taking with my brand new digital camera. I put some images up and also a review of my camera. The images barely were looked at but the review did really well in terms of traffic from search engines. Around the same time I started to experiment with the AdSense ad network. I only earned a few dollars the first week but it was enough to make me take notice.

I guess I had an ‘Aha’ moment at that point and began to wonder what would happen if I continued to write reviews of cameras and stuck to it over the long term. I saw some potential and began the very slow journey to ‘going Pro’ as a blogger’.

Many new bloggers, and blog network owners, think the traffic and revenue should begin flowing as soon as a blog is launched. What is the reality?

It is possible to make some money from day one of your blog – but the reality is that most blogs take considerable time to begin to generate enough traffic to make much money. Every time I survey readers of ProBlogger on how much they make from their blogging the majority say they earn a few dollars a month. Yes a few make a full time living – but they’re in the minority.

I get quite angry when I see people in the ‘make money blogging’ niche talk about how easy it is to make money blogging and how ‘passive’ the income from blogging is – the problem is that I not only see the hype I come across the burnt bloggers who tell me about how they quit their jobs to ‘go Pro’ without having realistic expectations. I could talk about this all night (and get fired up about it) – but the take home lesson is to not expect masses of traffic or money from your blogging too quickly. It takes a heap of work and a long time to build a profitable blog.

ProBlogger is the first stop for many bloggers each day. Why start a blog teaching others how to blog. How did you know you were destined to be a leader in this field?

I started ProBlogger simply because I was looking for a blog to teach me how to make money blogging. I’d been making a part time living from blogging for a while and was moving towards going full time (it took a couple of years) and I wanted advice, tips and to connect with others who were doing similar things. There were no other blogs solely dedicated to that – so I started one.

I had no real intentions of being a leader in the field or even being known for writing on the topic – I was writing more for myself than anything.

Many of FWJ’s readers are interested in the book publishing process. You and Authority Blogger Chris Garret wrote the bestselling ProBlogger book together. Can you tell us how that came about and take us through the process?

After I’d been blogging at ProBlogger for a while I had a couple of approaches from publishers wanting me to write a book. I was always interested in doing it but didn’t see it as something I wanted to do alone – partly because I didn’t have the time and partly because I wanted to work with someone else who might have a different perspective and set of experiences to bring to it.

Chris and I had been interacting for a while online (we had never met in person – and still haven’t) and out of that relationship we decided to write an ebook together. Chris was going to take a lot of the content I’d already written on ProBlogger and rework it into a more up to date and logically ordered pdf. There was never really any intention to write a hard cover book – but as we approached having it all together Wiley (the publisher) approached me to write a book. I shot them a copy of the ebook and they said that they thought it’d be a good start on a real book.

From there we decided that it’d be interesting to pursue it. We divided up the writing of the book and worked to get it finished. The process was quite long but in the end I think we came up with something that is pretty good for new bloggers wanting to get started and intermediate bloggers looking for a little inspiration.

What is the biggest mistake many new bloggers make?

One of the big mistakes is simply giving up too early. I look back on many of the bloggers I used to interact with 5 or so years ago and there are so few still doing it. We all had similar sized blogs and our blogs were growing at similar rates – but many of them got frustrated by the slow growth and gave up.

Longevity doesn’t guarantee success – but it does help a lot.

What is your advice for anyone wishing to make a career of blogging?

1. Don’t give up your day job…. yet. I know I’m coming across as a bit negative here but it’s worth entering into things with realistic expectations. I worked a number of part time jobs in my early days of blogging and only gradually gave them up as my blogging income increased. If you can do that kind of thing I’d recommend it.

2. Choose a topic you’d write about for free. Choose something you have an interest in and a passion for. If you do this you’ll be much better positioned to keep at it for the long haul (it’s hard to write a new post every day for years on a topic you don’t really like).

3. Lastly (and there’s plenty more tips I could give but I’ll limit it to three) – be useful. Successful blogs almost always meet a need, solve a problem or fulfill a desire that readers have. Do this and you’ll have people keep coming back for more and bringing their friends with them.

How do you define success?

For me it mainly comes down to whether I’m enjoying what I’m doing and feeling that it’s ‘giving life’. Earning money is a factor (I’ve got to pay the bills) but ultimately I want to be doing something with my time that gives me energy and that helps those around me. If I’m getting positive feedback from those I write for and keep feeling fresh and inspired about it I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.

What is next for Darren Rowse?

I’ve just launched a few new projects so I guess my next phase is more about getting them up to speed.

One is the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog work book – it’s a book with 31 daily tasks to help bloggers take their blogs to the next level.

Another is a new Twitter account – @probloggerdeals – a Twitter account that provides deals, discounts and competitions for bloggers

The last new one is DarrenRowse.com - a personal blog. In some ways I’ve come full circle and have been feeling a need to create a blog where I can talk about a variety of topics of interest to me.

There’s another new project that I hope to launch in the coming month or two but for now – those ones are more than enough to keep me busy!

Patrick O'Keefe

I met my friend Patrick O’Keefe at the South by Southwest Interactive conference this fall where we were both speaking and I interviewed him for BlogTalkRadio. We met online sometime before that, however. Through Twitter we discussed community and social media and Patrick asked if I would like to read and review his terrific book, “Managing Online Forums.” I did and I’m and learned so much.

I invited Patrick to be the second interview subject for our Success Stories series because he took his passion and used it leverage a business and write a book. I feel the community here can benefit from Patrick’s experience pitching, writing and promoting a book. I hope you enjoy his story as much as I do.

Tell us about Patrick O’Keefe

I’ve been professionally developing websites since 1998 and run the iFroggy Network, which is my network of websites covering various interests. I’ve been managing online communities for more than 9 years now and my passion for doing so led me to write “Managing Online Forums.”  It’s a practical guide to managing online forums, communities and social spaces. I also speak at conferences and events about online community, social media and related subjects.

What is iFroggy Network

iFroggy Network is really the banner brand for my sites – all of the sites I run fall under the brand and cross promote each other where appropriate. It includes sites like phpBBHacks.com, KarateForums.com, PhotoshopForums.com, Bad Boy Blog , YanksBlog.com and more.

Why online forums? What is so great about them?

What’s so great about Twitter? Or social networking? Or the internet itself? I like all of these things. It’s not so much a competition between the new and cool and forums, but that they all fit together. Forums are, at the most basic level, a text based communication platform that is threaded. This is a great means of communicating and one that many prefer.

In fact, Forrester Research released a survey last year where they asked 10,000 U.S. consumers about their participation in various forms of social interaction online. They found that more people read forums or discussion groups than blogs and that more people contribute to a forum or discussion group than comment on a blog.

Why did you decide to parlay your love for forums into a book?

In addition to my network related duties and managing online communities, I also write a lot. I felt that I could help people with my knowledge and sharing it in a book form just appealed to me greatly because, even though most of my reading is done online, I love the book format and I wanted to see if I was up to the challenge.

Take us through the process, was it difficult to query publishers? Were you turned down at first?

I don’t know if I would say it was difficult to query publishers (most have the info on their website), but yes, I was turned down – many, many times.

I pitched myself at first and I pitched maybe 12 or so publishers. Some interest here and there – but, in the end, it didn’t work out. After that, I asked my friend Jeremy Wright if he’d introduce me to his agent (Jeremy had just launched “Blog Marketing,” his book from McGraw-Hill) and he did and I signed with the agent, Neil Salkind. And then Neil probably pitched to 80 publishers or so… 79 nos and 1 yes. But, that doesn’t mean anything, honestly. You just need one person to believe.

Did you use an agent?

Yes, and I definitely recommend that people have an agent. Having a good agent is well, well worth it. You don’t have to have one and you can do great, it’s not really a matter of that. It’s not a requirement. But, having a good agent can make things go faster, can increase your chance of success and can help you to generate more money.

Neil helped me improve the manuscript and to do things that would help attract the publisher, he pitched the work and knew the people to pitch to and how to best present it and, when it came time to negotiate, he raised my advance and added a bunch of nice provisions to the contract, as well. So, it’s definitely worthwhile.

Tell us about the book writing process from beginning to end? What is it like starting a book project from scratch?

For me, it took five years, but I took my time and went slow. I wanted to write the book first as I wanted to make sure I could actually write something long enough to be a book. This ended up working out even better because, when you are an entrepreneur and run a business (or even if you have a demanding job), you can’t just throw it aside for 3-6 months and say “hey, I’m just going to write a book!” and be at the behest of the publisher’s schedule.

How I started, when I decided I wanted to try, was to make a list of notes – things I wanted to talk about. I would literally be managing my forums and I would do something, maybe I would deal with a challenge or some slimeball and then I would think “I should write about that!” And I’d make a note. Eventually, that list of notes grew quite long. I organized it into chapters and wrote them out.

I then went through various revisions. I’d write new notes and incorporate them. I’d read through the whole work and adjust, remove, add and edit where I saw fit and, after many iterations, I finally saw fit to pitch it. I discussed that earlier, but once I did sign on with the publisher, it was about a year until the book was available. We went through a few different stages with editing – development, copy editing and final editing. Even though I turned in a “finished” work, there was still a lot to do and a lot to improve that helped to create the finished project.

So, if you are looking at it from concept to publis hing – it was five years.

Did you ever get discouraged?

Discouraged, not really. Disappointed, yes, sure. It’s hard to receive tons of nos and not get a little disappointed. But, I always felt it would be published and because of the amount of work and honesty I put into it, I hoped that it would be well received and that it would help people.

What types of promotion do you have to do in support of your book?

This is the case for most authors these days and I was no exception: I am most of the marketing. I booked nearly all interviews I’ve done. I set up nearly all review copies that AMACOM has sent out. I e-mailed hundreds of people, one by one, from the host of the smallest podcast, to a reviewer for a major publication, just introducing myself and asking them if I could please send them a copy of the book. I do everything I can.

What has the response been like for “Managing Online Forums?”

I have been really blessed. The book has been very well received. I have received amazing praise from people from all walks of life, all backgrounds and levels of experience. From people just starting their first community to social media veterans and people who have been managing forums for a very long time. It’s been humbling and I am truly grateful.

Did you have an interest in writing before your book?

Yes, writing is something I’ve been doing for many years, through my network and elsewhere. I write for a few blogs and have written articles and guest posts for other publications, like SitePoint and ProBlogger, many times.

Any more books in the works?

I would like to do it again. I have some ideas that I’m playing with, but nothing that is concrete or that I’m ready to pitch, let alone talk about. You have to keep in mind that I told maybe 3-4 people about the idea of my first book, outside of publishers, before I had a contract in my hand. I didn’t even tell my family. I’m a little superstitious, I guess you could say. I hate to talk about something – and not do it. But, we’ll see.

What is next for you?

Managing my network is what I see for now. I’m working on getting into direct ad sales as a means of increasing my income. I also hope to get more into speaking and start to do some paid speaking, if I am given the opportunity.

What is Patrick O’Keefe’s definition of success?

There are a lot of answers and it depends on what we’re talking about. I think that creating value is a good one because if you create value for people, you are successful and it’ll come back to you.

Susan Gunelius

Welcome to a new a series that will be featured regularly here at Freelance Writing Jobs. Success Stories will profile the people who turned freelance writing and blogging into a successful career. It’s my hope that you’ll learn or become inspired by the personal accounts posted here.

Today we’re happy to bring you an interview with my friend Susan Gunelius. She’s an author, freelance writer and About.com’s Guide to Weblogs. I’ll let her tell you all about it.

How about a brief bio?
I spent over a decade directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. When I gave birth to triplets in 2004, returning to the corporate world wasn’t going to work. About a year later, my husband and I decided to leave the rat race of Northern New Jersey and the New York City area for better weather and headed to Central Florida. A year or so later, I had an idea to write a book about copywriting for small business owners who couldn’t afford to hire a professional copywriter. It’s about two years later now, and I now run a thriving business writing books, copy, articles, blogs, websites, and more through my company, KeySplash Creative, Inc.
How long have you been writing professionally?

I’ve been writing professionally in one way or another since 1993.

Was it hard to get your foot in the door?
My journey is unique in that I started writing as an employee for large companies. It wasn’t until I left the corporate world that I started freelancing and writing for my own company. When it came time to start my own business, I focused on developing my online platform to sell my first book proposal. My freelance business and company were born as a byproduct of trying to sell my first book proposal.

How long was it before you were able to leave corporate America for a life of freelance writing?
Freelancing came after I left Corporate America as an indirect result of trying to sell my first book proposal. I wasn’t planning to start a new career. It just happened!
Tell us about some of the places you’ve been published
My books have been published through Palgrave Macmillan (a division of Macmillan Publishing), John Wiley & Co., and Entrepreneur Press (distributed by McGraw Hill). My freelance articles have been published on Entrepreneur.com (I’m a featured columnist there), WomenEntrepreneur.com, BusinessWeek.com, MSNBC.com, FoxBusiness.com, TheStreet.com, SmartMoney.com, Yahoo! Small Business, Yahoo! Finance, WashingtonPost.com, TodayShow.com, AT&T Onward Small Biz, HispanicBusiness.com, and more.
How did you land these great gigs? Querying? Cold Calling? Referrals?
Two of my books I sold based on proposals I wrote. The other two were offered to me by the publishers who found me through my online presence. All of my other gigs have come organically as a result of my online presence. Once in awhile I might stumble onto an opportunity online that I follow up on, but it’s rare that I have the time to look for new work. I’ve found that by growing my online presence, more and more people find me.
What is your best tip for a beginning freelance writer?
Know your niche and develop an online presence establishing you as an expert in that niche. Start a blog, find paid and pro bono writing work that will help to build your online presence as an expert in your niche. Don’t try to wear too many hats. Focus on your strengths. And take the time to do your research. Understand the world you’re trying to get into before you dive in.
You’re the author of several books. Many in the FWJ community are particularly interested in learning about the process of having books published. How did you land your book contracts?
My first book deal came as the result of a blog post I wrote. The publisher contacted me and asked me to write a book about the success of the Harry Potter brand based on a blog post I had written about Harry Potter. A couple of weeks later, I sold my first book proposal to a different publisher. I landed that contract because I took the time to do my research first. I spent a lot of time on the forums at AbsoluteWrite.com. I took the time to write a good proposal, develop a unique approach to my subject, and establish my online platform before I queried any agents. Then using my copy of Writer’s Market, I researched agents and made a list of agents to query. I sent out my proposal to 10 agents and within a week or so, I got 2 responses from agents who wanted to represent me. My agent sent my proposal to one publisher to test the waters. That publisher bought it, and the rest is history.
Is it hard to pitch a book to a publisher?
It depends. You need to have a strong platform for nonfiction (that’s what I write), so I try to continually build my online platform. You also need to have a unique twist on your subject because just about every topic has already been written about. It also helps to have a great agent who can get your proposals in front of the right people.
What is involved in the process?
For your first book, you have to write your proposal and either send it to agents or directly to publishers who accept direct author submissions. Once a publisher extends an offer, you are given an amount of time to write the book by the publisher. The process from proposal to publishing for nonfiction can take anywhere from 6 months to a year or more. Once you have an agent, the process will vary depending on how your agent likes to handle it. My agent allows me to send ideas to him, and then he either takes a 1-page write up to publishers to get an idea if there is interest or he has me write an entire proposal if he thinks the idea is a good one. He also tells me if he thinks an idea won’t fly, so he saves me a lot of time!

How long does the process take?
From proposal to publishing it can take anywhere from 6 months to a year or more.

What is your best piece of advice for anyone wishing to publish a book?
Do your research first. Understand how the process works before you dive in.

What do you feel makes a successful writer?
I write about subjects I’m passionate about, and I work hard to continually grow my online presence. It also helps that I love to write.

What is next for Susan Gunelius?
I have a new book coming out in the Fall of 2009, “Building Brand Value the Playboy Way”, and I’m in the process of writing some new proposals. I also have some speaking engagements coming up. For example, I’ll be speaking about my book, “Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon” at the annual Harry Potter fan event, Azkatraz, in July, and I’ll be speaking about branding at the Entrepreneur of 2009 event sponsored by Entrepreneur Magazine and UPS. When my triplets go to school full time in the fall, I hope to have time to grow my business even more. Right now, I’m tied to not having enough hours in the day to do all the writing I’d like to do.