Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Best Affiliate Marketing Wordpress Plugins Freelance Writers Can Use


A number of freelance writers earn a great deal of their writing income through affiliate marketing. For those freelance writers blogging for a living with the Wordpress platform, I have a wonderful article that can aid you in making even more income through your blogging efforts. 

Although I do not blog with Wordpress the reviews from users has been wonderful for the Wordpress plugins for affiliate marketers that this post provides. This Making Blogs Work post outlines several of the great plugins that Wordpress users have available to them to make affiliate marketing easier for bloggers.



Sunday, 25 March 2012

Outright.com


As a small business person you don’t have an entire staff at your beck and call to help minimize the amount of paperwork it takes to keep your business running both smooth and with efficiency. There is a way to have all of the help required to run a successful entrepreneurship without paying for an entire staff using Outright.com bookkeeping software.

As a small business entrepreneur success happens in a linked world. Having all of a business’s data available in different accounts means more work and more people to keep it running effortlessly without error. Therefore, the sensible thing to do is to join all necessary business materials focused in one place, Outright.com.

The Outright.com online business bookkeeping software can arrange, organize and unify nearly everything that keeps a business going day to day. Things such as shipping costs, outgoing overheads, profit and loss spreadsheets, business travel expenses, paperwork for filing taxes and so much more can be reached easily with Outright.com.

One of the best features of the site is the creators have established two resources for Outright.com for business owners. There is an absolutely free to use account for any business owner. This basic version is free with no payment, no credit card and no expiration date and a paid version that runs $9.95 per month.

Invest in the future of any small business success by investing in Outright.com.  Business information at easily at your fingertips and useful can be rewarding and satisfying by eliminating some of the extras that take the stress and extra work out of running a business. Streamline the paperwork for your business accounts to invest the additional time you will find to focus on running your small business better.



Factoidz has changed the Name to Knoji


Online writing jobs are difficult to come by as a freelance writer. Most freelance writers working on the web earn the majority of their income with passive income. Finding a great writing site with passive income to pay the bills is difficult to come by. Factoidz is an article content site which delivers ample opportunities to put your content to work earning in a multitude of ways in addition to passive income. Tons of writers enjoy writing for Factoidz.com which has now become Knoji.com.

When you type in the URL of Factoidz.com and are redirected to Knoji.com it can be frightening without a heads up. Scores of writers belong to more than one publishing platform for online writing income. If you haven’t published in a while at Factoidz it may have been a surprise to find Knoji.com where Factoidz.com should have been. Though, a lot of writers may find this a welcome surprise.

Factoidz.com has been a popular site for a number of writers because of one of the most attractive advantages in freelance writing, earnings. Money makes the world go around. A great place to earn excellent income while the freelance writing world goes around was Factoidz which is now Knoji.

Online income holds enormous appeal for any writing site and Factoidz has not been an exception, it’s been the rule for a lot of writers. Not only does Factoidz have the attraction of passive income it also has the appeal of active income. You can earn bonuses for writing nearly anything with Factoidz.com.

You can earn money writing reviews, comparison reports, and factual articles on nearly any subject matter, referring other writers to the site and even a bonus for writing activity. This is a bonus for simply writing which is paid outside of any earnings that you make with the articles themselves. Now that Factoidz.com is Knoji.com a lot of writers are concerned that major changes have been made to the site’s greatest appeal, income from online writing.

Knoji.com is not necessarily a new site, but an enhancement to   Factoidz and a name change. The majority of the site has not changed. Modifications that were made to Factoidz don’t include changes to what a freelance writer can earn with Knoji.com.

Writers can still find their previously published articles, their articles continue to earn, their contextual links are still available and their writer level of identification/ranking unchanged.  Enhancements or alterations that Knoji.com created from Factoidz.com were all positive changes produced from feedback received to make the site better.

Knoji.com has made some adjustments to the original Factoidz.com. These modifications include changes that effect different aspects of the Factoidz.com original site besides the name. Though, earnings are one area of change that writers who enjoy the spoils of income at Factoidz don’t need to worry about being negatively affected.

Some of the modifications found are with the visual aspect of the site. A new layout to the same information that is much better looking can be seen. The fonts differ along with the color scheme, but are more straight lined and easier to read and find information.

Other enhancements were made to categories. These were only small changes that include drop down categories which make placing your context in the correct place easier and faster. No guessing involved which makes for more accurate placement of articles and reimbursement. Different articles have various earnings. Inaccurate categories can be costly. Improving identification of categories is a welcome change.

Questions and answers for Factoidz have received negative reviews from some writers. The creators of Factoidz have taken this information to format Knoji.com to make Q and A interactive between editors, writers and the community as a whole.

Although you will find a new site under the name Knoji.com instead of Factoidz, it is still for the most part the Factoidz that writers have come to know and recognize. The enhancements made with the name adjustment were done to create a better platform to publish and earn with your great content. 

if you havent joined Knoji.com yet, come and join with me. click here


 

Saturday, 24 March 2012

What is Pinterest

As a freelance writer social media is a platform that is used to promote your content all around the web. Pinterest is one of the newcomers to the act. Pinterest is being used for content marketing purposes as well as other platforms for written content. Although the majority of writers use Pinterest for visual images there are a number of different possibilities that can be seen with social media and what you can make of it.

This is a great article that outlines the details of Pinterest and what it may be able to do for you around the web both professionally and personally.


Welcome_to_Pinterest


Another interesting post related to earning money with Pinterest relates to the site Pinbooster.
Find out more here

Pinbooster Site Review

Friday, 16 March 2012

The Best Article Queries for Magazines


Definition of a query letter: A brief one page summation of your article content delivered to an editor that appeals to their publication audience and intrigues them enough to want more. In this case the “more” is the entire article which outlines your point of view or slant on a given subject matter. Bear in mind that query letters are generally not verbatim for an article's content, but will emphasize key points of the featured article enough to compel an editor to want more. Specifically to want more of your article and freelance writing for their magazine publication.

Writing to the editor of a magazine or similar publications are more than sending a hello or how are you I have an article to sell letter. Query letters are accepted as the mode of communication between a freelance writer an a magazine editor. In order to get your article published in a magazine you need the tools necessary to produce a terrific query letter.

Find out what skills set will get you there.



Wednesday, 14 March 2012

Freelance Writing an Effective Magazine Article


A number of article writers have been given the opportunity to write for magazines. This is a popular platform and scores of writers have set the bar for successful freelance writing careers when they have been published in magazines or published in newspapers. Every writer fortunate enough to have their work published in magazines started out writing their first magazine article.

You can use article writing software specifically designed for magazine article writing. However, the majority of freelance writers will design or craft their own content without writing software assistance. Knowing the right path to follow makes the task of writing a magazine article less formidable and can help you reach a level of comfort to produce a great article.

Magazine writing does have some distinct differences from writing for other platforms or areas of writing. This is a brief overview or plan of action for writing an effective magazine article. Included are the distinct segments of a magazine article and how they come together to form a great piece of content.

The lead or hook
The lead is as a rule the most significant source of any magazine article. This is the hook that commands the reader to have an interest in your article or draws the attention of an editor to buy your content. The hook lays the groundwork for the content to come.

There are a number of different types of leads for magazine articles.
·         Freelance magazine writers will generally use an anecdote or short story to gain interest.
·         Another terrific hook is biographical sketches. Tell a little about yourself or the person you are writing about.
·         Quotes are great. Usually short and to the point they can say a lot with a little. Everyone likes to hear words of wisdom from someone famous. Famous quotes are a nice resource
·         Statistics or numbers, especially those that are surprising and share something the reader wasn’t aware of work extremely well.
·         Emotional experiences work well for the right type of magazine article.
·         Mysteries with an explanation to come in your magazine article content are notable

A combination of one or more hooks or leads is the best groundwork for a magazine article. Leads that take a reader into an effective magazine article can also be references to newsy events that are recent and have drawn the public’s attention. For an example, if the caucuses are currently underway for the presidential election, start a magazine story with statistics related to the caucuses to combine two hooks into one.

Main topic
The main topic of the article is generally introduced after the hook. The hook can be a general category while the topic is more specific or defined. The magazine article topic is a narrow point of the general hook. For an example, you may have statistics about breast cancer as your lead. However, the topic is the importance of breast self- examinations and the number of lives saved each year.

Slant
The slant is a viewpoint that the freelance writer is crafting from their content. One article can appeal to a number of different markets simply by changing the slant or point of view of the same article. There are a number of different slants or points of view to any subject matter.

A magazine articles slant does not always need to necessarily be positive. However, remember to focus on the audience that the magazine publication is designed for to appeal to the reader and editor when formulating a slant or point of view.

Research
Your research provides the substance of your article content. Research is comprised of interviews, internet research, books and other resources where you gain information to create content.

Having research already in your pocket for a particular subject matter is great. Expertise in a general area will help make composing content easier and faster.

When writing an article with a lot of statistics, quotes or other content from another publication important to forming your content make certain that you attribute this content to the individual or publication.

Content
Bring your research together to make wonderful content for your magazine article. Bear in mind that the content of your magazine article should be pertinent to your topic, informative and related to your hook.

Conclusions or endings
Conclusions or endings should tie back to your slant and point of view. It should support your slant and connect with your hook. Summarize the information or important points made. The content should be emphasized by a great conclusion. The lead is the most critical point of a magazine article and a lot of freelance writers will use the same hook for the lead and a conclusion.

Make certain when you write for a magazine you keep your audience in mind. Similar to writing content for a blog directed to a focused audience a magazine article should be focused for the audience of that publication. This is especially important when you are trying to get the attention of an editor. Know who you are writing for. A great example would be a publication that has a lot of celebrity news would want magazine articles that are related to an audience with an interest or focus on celebrity news.

This is the formula for an effective magazine article. 

SideSkills


Sideskills is a job marketing website that connects employees and employers. This service marketplace can be used to locate part time, full time or freelancer work opportunities. Marketing yourself, your services or your personal products are made easy with Sideskills as a vehicle or tool to find employees and find employment. 

Employers looking for that next great employee can certainly connect through this internet employment advantage. One of the best things about Sideskills is no fees are collected for making payments through this internet entrepreneur.

As one of the fastest growing social employment, career networking and eCommerce platforms found in the cloud, Sideskills is there for job seekers as well as employers. Sideskills offers a platform for a quick and easy way to get hired and market skills to employers that are seeking them.

There are a number of things that separate Sideskills from similar sites;
·         Free to post jobs or search for employment
·         Public or private posts are available
·         24/7 customer support is delivered
·         Online payments are managed without fees
·         A simple interface permits management of multiple posts
·         One of the fastest and easiest ways to pinpoint qualified applicants for your next job

Sideskills has more than 20,000 people that work within this eCommerce cloud and love it. Sideskills is great for those searching for income and employers that need employees. Come and check it out. Post a job or post a resume for free. Don’t miss out on great opportunities that are simply waiting to be had. 


Sunday, 11 March 2012

Perfect Affiliate Marketing Products for You to Sell Online


I own several different blogs and there are times when my content overlaps from one blogging audience to another. There are a number of freelance bloggers that write content for affiliate marketing products and services. If you are writing for authority content sites such as Hubpages or Squidoo where you market your products using content you will find a great deal of informative subject matter with a blog post that I fashioned specifically for by blogging audience. This is an post entitled the PerfectAffiliate Product for You.

That being said this useful information for the perfect affiliate product for you to sell online works for freelance writers as well as bloggers that are marketing affiliate products. Please follow this link to read more about some of the affiliate programs around the web



Friday, 9 March 2012

Bad Freelance Writing Habits to Break


Everyone has one bad habit. Some of us have more than one. Bad habits can be identified and worked on. In many cases you can eliminate bad habits with a little work. How about with your writing? Do you have bad habits that need to stop? Bad habits are something that can get in the way of your great writing. Break those habits as soon as possible and start to create more great content.

Writers that have bad writing habits usually know what they are. These habits are actions or things you do, mostly unconsciously, that impede your writing. It gets in the way of writing better and it also reduces the enjoyment that a reader gets from your writing. Eventually your income is negatively affected.

Writers that want to have a better freelance writing career will put an emphasis on bad writing habits they have and try and correct them. Part of evolving and becoming a better writer is to concentrate on these and kick them out of the door. These are some bad writing habits to avoid that can hamper your freelance writing career. Some can even cost you online freelance writing jobs.

Procrastination-this is the worse. If you are a procrastinator you have to continually work on this bad writing habit. Not finishing a project or assignment for a client can cost you an online writing job. Imagine not meeting a deadline or delivering content as promised or outlined in a contract. Your credibility will be shot and income negatively affected by procrastinating.

Bad grammar habits-bad grammar habits are something that should be worked on immediately as a freelance writer. Education and information is essential. Editing is a must and more writing is desirable to overcome this puppy. Work on writing with bettergrammar for a more enjoyable experience for readers.

Not reading-writers must be readers. You need to read to expand your horizons and work on constructing new ideas, inspirations, and feelings and combine them all into more great content. Make the time to read. Read fiction, non-fiction, news and anything else you can get your hands on. Whether hard copy or on the web, reading is vital for a writer.

Using the same words or phrases over and over again-there are times when unconsciously we use the same words or phrases over and over again in our writing. Many of us don’t notice the issue until we edit or read our work. There are literally hundreds of thousands of different ways to say the same thing. If you find you use the same word or phrase way too much in your writing, break the habit. This bad writing habit is easily corrected. Editing is a good thing and should be used to find new words to say the same thing.

These are bad writing habits that can and should be broken. Make your writing better to enhance your freelance writing career and make your freelance writing career more successful.


Tuesday, 6 March 2012

Think Passenger


Think Passenger is a company that specializes in social brand intelligence. Social brand intelligence offers services such as launch management, membership recruitment, member engagement, reporting and analytics as well as partnerships along with several other extraordinary services to promote your business success.

Clients with Think Passenger are guided through planning and development stages of the community initiative. One of the biggest advantages offered by Think Passenger over similar companies is the opportunity for clients to determine an optimum member mixture which includes identifying the strategy of where to locate source members and create an ongoing recruitment plan of action to satisfy the goals of the community.

The technology used by Think Passenger combines several of the most innovative approaches in the industry. This includes desktop, mobile, social media, brand intelligence analytics and they make integration easy. Using the voice of the customer makes using these innovative approaches easy yet extremely effective.

Many of Think Passenger’s current client relationships are confidential a few of the clients they work with include Viacom, GE, Mountain Dew and BBMG. If you feel as if you should count yourself among these clients join Think Passenger today to promote your business. 

Sunday, 4 March 2012

Creating Ideas for Freelance Writing Work When You Get Stuck


There are times when a writer gets “stuck”. This is a place that no writer enjoys finding themselves in. You are in a place where the ideas that flow freely simply won’t come today. Producing content is how you make a living and getting stuck simply is not an option. Therefore, finding your way out of this dark place as a freelance writer is certainly important. How do you get inspiration when none will come? There are a number of ways to create content when content simply won’t come. Creating ideas for freelance writing work can be difficult at times.

Read something related to your niche
If you have general ideas or keywords that you are working with you can get started creating ideas for freelance writing work by reading related content. This content can be found online or hard copy books. There are some excellent articles, blogs and other related subject matter that can be found for any keywords or phrases.

Set up a specified amount of time to write
There are times when boredom will set in and make the mind go blank eliminating the ability to create ideas for freelance writing work. Therefore, set a time to take frequent breaks if you happen to be having one of those days.

Breaking every ten or fifteen minutes to stretch, walk around or get a healthy snack can be beneficial not only for the mind of the freelance writer job performance, but also for the body.

Pictures for inspiration
Ideas are inspired by reading and by pictures. If you are browsing through pics in your niche or related keyword phrases find an idea for freelance writing work. Pictures can say a thousand words so why not write them out.

Review a book
Reviews are searched by millions around the web on a continual basis. Writing a book or product review is a wonderful way to create useful content that can receive a great deal of page views and traffic. Consider a recent book or one that you read a while ago.

Surf the web
Surfing the web can certainly take a toll on your time. A lot of writers find this exercise extremely distracting. It is. However, there are times when surfing the web and reading stimulating intellectual content can help create ideas for freelance writing work when you are stuck.

After you have surfed the web and absorbed useful information related to something you may have a mild interest in, rest for a while. After taking a break write a piece of terrific content.

Making your living writing is not an easy path. Many have tried and failed because it is difficult. One of the most difficult junctions besides drumming up business and finding clients is creating quality relevant content. Ideas and innovations will make subject matter and material stand out from the rest along with wonderful keywords and search engine optimization. That being said creation of extraordinary content lies with coming up with great writing ideas. These are a number of ways to create quality content when you get stuck.

Saturday, 3 March 2012

Mistakes to Avoid as an Online Freelance Writer


Every freelance writer makes mistakes. It cannot be helped. As we learn new things part of the learning process is making mistakes. Though, if as a freelance writer you learn from these mistakes than no harm is done. You will take this new found knowledge and apply it to make your freelance writing business better. There are some mistakes to avoid as an online freelance writer than can save you heartache and pain in the long run.

Online freelance writing jobs don’t come easy. The competition is fierce and most of your time as a writer is spent on the hunt for the next paycheck. As we gain online writing jobs there are a number of mistakes that we are apt to make.

Many online freelance writers will learn more from their mistakes than from their successes. Learning from our mistakes is how we gain knowledge. If we apply what we have learned from our mistakes to our business overall we make our writing business better for ourselves and clients.

These are several mistakes to focus on that you can avoid and make your freelance writing business a success.

Do not underprice your work
Underpricing when it comes to your work is detrimental. A number of writers have done this in the past and some of us still do.  Lots of writers find it uncomfortable to discuss money. Generally the longer you write or run a freelancer business the easier this topic of discussion will become. Although this is not an easy subject to discuss as a freelance writer running a business it is a must do task.

Everyone has the right to get a fair price for work produced. This is very critical if you are providing a job filled with excellent work by way of expert or exceptional experience.

There are a number of ways to measure whether you are underpricing your freelance writing work. If you bid on a number of different jobs and never lose a bid, you are underpricing your freelance writing work.

One way to underprice your work is charging by the hour. Many times charging by the hour penalizes a writer that works fast to get the work completed. A great example of charging by the hour and how it will underprice your writing work is with jobs that require a great deal of experience or expertise to perform, but don’t require a great deal of time to execute. Think about the dentist that puts in a filling for a tooth with a cavity. It may mean 15 minutes of work, but the expertise is what you are paying for when you get the bill for hundreds of dollars.

Failure to sell yourself
Freelance writers have the job of selling their services and themselves to clients. This is a large part of getting work as a freelancer, marketing you. lots of times a client will know what they want, but are unable to voice the exact details to you.

Selling yourself is not giving clients snake oil or getting something for nothing. You are selling yourself to clients and giving them terrific client work as a product for pay. When you sell yourself and services to clients make it about them. What the client wants and needs is extremely important to marketing yourself and letting them know they have found what they are searching for in you. Don’t fail to sell yourself.

Don’t always say yes
Learn how to say no. Always saying yes is not a good thing. There are ways to say no that are polite, will retain you clients and still get the job done in a lot of cases.

Newbies to the freelance writing community don’t want to say no. It is important to build a client list as well as earn income, but there are times when saying no is beneficial to your business. Imagine that you are offered a job for freelance technical writing. This is not your area of expertise and in fact this is a job that is out of your league. Saying yes and accepting the writing assignment can cost you a client, your credibility and hurt your business by taking your attention away from jobs that are more suited to you. Sometimes saying no is a good thing. Don’t always say yes.

Over committing your resources is not good
Over committing is not good for business. There are clients that you will have that will certainly try and corner the market on your time and energy. Having one client that takes all of your time means the relationship established is one of a boss and an employee versus a client and a freelancer.

When you are working for a client you must still market and sell yourself to bring in other clients and future work. This task can be nearly impossible when you have one client monopolizing your time. This is another situation when saying yes is not always a good thing. When this client dictates your work and hours when the job is done you don’t have the next job in line which takes a bite out of your income.

Get testimonials
Clients that you have worked with that are satisfied and demand your work time and time again are generally your biggest source of income. Many of these satisfied clients will use you for referrals to other clients and other business resources. When you have these types of clients make certain that you receive a testimonial for their satisfaction with your work.  Ask them to post testimonials to your website or blog. Websites such as LinkedIn have an area where you can post testimonials and referrals from clients along with your business information. Clients that typically enjoy working with you are eager to tell it and will provide you with testimonials without issue. This is easy marketing forfreelance writers and their business. Remember to sell yourself.

These are mistakes to avoid and as online freelance writer that can help make your business better and your income grow. The next paycheck is always around the corner waiting for you to snatch up. 

pic is courtesy of emilysuess.com


Tools to Make Your Online Freelance Writing Jobs Easier


Resources and tools are important for any business and online freelance writing is not an exception. Resources include help that you find to make your life easier, including your business life. As I surf the web there are several online freelance writing tools that I have come across. These tools work to make keeping notes, sending information and organizing work easier as a freelance writer. Tools to make your online freelance writing jobs easier are something that every writer looks for.

These are a number of tools that freelancers can find useful for handling freelance writing jobs;

Toodledo -this is online website resource that can help with organization. This web based to do list is wonderful for keeping everything on task with your freelance writing work.

Web note- if you happen to be a freelancer that uses a public computer more often than not you can find Web Note nice. This online freelancer tool quickly and efficiently takes notes using any web browser. Notes are saved and users can visit the site at a later time to retrieve your notes and organize them.

Readbag - Bookmarking is essential for a lot of freelance writers. You are always reading to gain and increase your knowledge. Bookmarking is how you can come back to sources that are useful in your endeavors. Bookmarking these pages is a second nature for many freelance writers. ReadBag is a service that allows you to save links that can be read at a later time in your browser, by phone or email. ReadBag is also available in offline mode for users.

FaxZero- for freelance writers that find a lot of faxing on their list of to do things FaxZero may be helpful. This online tool lets users send and receive faxes to Canada and the US using email.

WordFast - freelance writers that need translation services will benefit from Word Fast. Translate any language that happens to be supported by Word.

RSS2PDF - freelance writers bookmark web pages and many have RSS feeds they follow. This is a web source that turns RSS feeds into PDF format to read when you are offline.

Slim Timer - if you are working for a client and need to keep track of the time spent on a particular project Slim Timer comes into play for freelance writing authors.

Monkey On - if you happen to subcontract work out this is an online freelance writing website that helps to focus your efforts where they are needed to assign work to other people. Working with a todo list for what you want others to do, Monkey On helps get the work done.

These are tools that can help make online freelance writing jobs easier. Anything that makes increasing your income simpler is a must have. With these tools in hand handling your writing jobs from home just became a whole lot easier.