I’m having trouble staying focused today. A heated discussion is weighing heavily on my mind and it’s making it hard for me to concentrate on my work. Have you ever had this happen to you, something that has absolutely nothing to do with your writing is keeping you from writing? It’s making me crazy today but I have a few tricks to help call me back to earth. Distract Yourself from Your Distraction Today I decided a change of scenery was in order. First I went for a long walk. I take a walk every morning, but this was more [Read more…]

Chris Garrett has an interesting and useful post up today about productivity. I particularly could relate to the part about eliminating distractions in order to stay on task. This post hit home because I have so many things going on, it’s easy to forget about priorities. Here are a few things I’ve done to remain focused on the matter at hand: Designate a certain time of the day for emails – Would you believe me if I told you I have a couple of thousand emails to go through? Most are marked and placed in certain folders while a few [Read more…]

If you write for print and are considering breaking into web writing, you might be interested to learn there’s a difference between the two. Most people who read web based material scan and only absorb the parts that look the most interesting to them. It doesn’t matter if you’re blogging,  writing for a content site or handling news for one of the heavy hitters, you’ll still need to set up your writing in a way that makes it east on the eyes. Web Writing is Short and Sweet If you stare too long at your computer screen your eyes can [Read more…]

So last night I had a dream my laptop was stolen from a restaurant. In the dream I was kind of panicky because my laptop is my livelihood. If it’s stolen, I lose lots of important stuff. It also got me to thinking, what happens if it is stolen? I know I talked about the importance of backing up before, but last night’s dream was so real, I thought I’d mention it again. Here are a couple of other tips, just in case: Since all my work is web-based, I have about a dozen passwords to remember. I have a [Read more…]

by Steve Amoia One of the benefits of freelance writing is that the need and audience for quality articles is very diverse. With the advent of the Internet, along with the growth of personal and commercial web sites, the need arises for content that focuses on a target audience. Whether that audience is local or global. As with all writing, quality is better than quantity. In this article, I will discuss five prospective methods to obtain ideas for your future works: Specialization, previous work experiences, generalization, awareness, and an article archive.

I found this on YouTube a little while back and wanted to show it to you here. I’m not sure I agree with this all, though it is good advice. Except the part where he and she are verbs. Check your English manual again, dude.

There’s nothing worse than spending a month writing your heart and soul out and ending up with about fifty cents to show for it. I should know, I was suckered twice. Once several years ago when writing for a popular online web portal that paid per 1000 page views, and once during a brief stint with a blog network offering only 40% of the revenue. Never again. I think it’s one thing to work for free. You know exactly what you’re getting – nothing. When you work for clicks, hits or revenue, each month is a surprise. Many writers work [Read more…]

Many freelance jobs are one-off gigs. Usually it’s because the client doesn’t have a need for more writing, but plenty of times it’s because the writer didn’t make a memorable impression. In these cases the client turns to another writer to handle ongoing projects. So how does one turn a gig into a regular client? Communicate – This isn’t to say you should bombard your client with emails, indeed the reason he hired you is so he doesn’t have to do the work himself. Do keep in touch periodically. Let him know every couple of days where you stand with [Read more…]