What You Can Do for Next Year as an Effective Writer

Have the write mindset for next year to promote your writing career. This is the time of year when you begin to imagine the possibilities at hand for next year. Start fresh and realize what you can do with your freelance writing abilities. Do more to increase what you can do as an effective writer next year.

This is a quick overview of how to get into a creative mindset to promote a writing career for the next coming 12 months.

Review what you did last year

Go back through your passive writing income articles, blog posts, what you created for customers and clients, guest blogging and other written content. Do not forget the folder where you have all of those great ideas or articles that you never finished or got to. All of these things combined help to define what you did last year.

After accumulating the info, organize and detail what you will do for this year. What changes do you want to make with your writing? What do you want to finish? What would you like to see increased or decreased. Make a written plan of action or a commitment that outlines details of this plan.

Increase production

Making certain you increase your production in the next twelve months is a wonderful way to begin the New Year. Review what you did this year to get a base line of your performance.

Writers are astounded by what they find. Even those that believe they did not get a lot done will find more than they believed was possible. Yet, there is always room for improvement for production.

Finding new ways to create more is a goal to accomplish in the coming year. Possibly getting more clients or customers for your work is a plan. How about simply adding two more posts for your blog each week.  Whatever works best for you. Start out small if you need to. Work on one area at a time. However you put it together is the right way to go.

Increased production does not mean decreasing quality. Quality standards are always important and more so with Google’s new algorithm for articles and other online content. Make it work in your favor and never sacrifice your high quality standards.

Make necessary changes

Changes are necessary to move forward with any plan. Knowing what you have done and making a plan for what you want to do is a great way to move your career forward.

Would you like to do more guest blogging or make more time for social networking your material? Whatever you realize needs more or less attention is important in moving into the New Year with positive plan of action that will benefit you.

Move to a new platform

Some writers realize they need to move to new platforms for increasing their resume and portfolio. Make next year the time to produce that eBook you have been putting off or writing more marketing articles for Amazon. Shifting to a new place in the writing stratosphere is an excellent move for a number of writers. There is usually a benefit to this plan.

In conclusion

Push yourself this next year. You can make it all work in your favor. Investing in yourself and your work is what makes a great writer. It is possible to make this next year one of the best yet if you want it to be.

Kerrie McLoughlin Bio and Interview

There are a lot of great writers found around the web. Kerrie McLoughlin is one of them. She has a wonderful website where her light shines and i wanted to share her with you.

 

 

 

Kerrie McLoughlin Bio/Interview Q&A

Kerrie McLoughlin is a homeschooling mama of 5 amazing kids who has written for over 110 regional parenting magazines since 2009. A Kansas City native, she is also the author/compiler of the ebook "Get Published in Parenting and Family Magazines: Make Money to Write About Your Kids" and is almost done with the e-cookbook "The Tater Baby Casserole Cookbook" with Jordan McGarrigle.

In January of 2012 she started writing for Contently.com doing health and travel blogging, and has started taking on assignments from parenting magazines. She also offers article critiques for $10 each and offers writing coaching and butt-kicking services for a fee, as well.

You can find her author site, complete with reprint list, here and her humorous life blog is at TheKerrieShow.com.

You can reach Kerrie at mommykerrie@yahoo.com.

Below is a Q&A you can use on your own site to help promote "Make Money to Write About Your Kids". It was originally published on 1099mom.com.

How long have you had your business?

Since late in 2009, when I was pregnant with my 5th child.

What led you to pursue it?

I've always loved writing, and once I hit a certain point in being a mother I realized I had much to say and much advice to give! Also, it's the perfect thing for an attachment parenting mama to do ... nursing while typing is no problem! Plus, I now homeschool, so I can be with my kids and write.

Are you full time or part time?

Part-time probably until all my kids are out of the house!

How do you market your business?

The typical social media outlets: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, various blogs.

What is your favorite part of the business?

Too many favorites! It's portable and I can do it on my own time and do as much or as little as I want or am able to do (articles, ebooks, sales letters,Contently.com freelance work and more). I love being able to homeschool the kids while being with my traveling-for-work husband sometimes.

What one question do you get most from people about your business?

How much money can you make? So I put that weekly on my blog, Make Money to Write about Your Kids. I'm very honest. Some weeks I do well and make up to $40/hour and some weeks I get no work done and make no money.

What one myth or misconception do you want to dispel about the work you do?

That you can't make good money as a writer. If you have many balls in the air you can do it!

What advice do you have for others who want to get into a similar opportunity?

Keep at it and don't get discouraged and don't worry about rejection ... keep moving forward. If you have many queries and writing opportunities and ebooks in the works and are writing every day, you will get better and you will sell work.And please don't languish in the content mills! You are worth more money than that!

What is the first step?

If you want to write for regional parenting magazines for clips and money then work your way up to nationals like Parents, Working Mother and the like, get my ebook! I started offering the ebook for a higher price in conjunction with 3 article critiques to get people moving. I'm also working on a little email course you can purchase where I kick your butt with writing prompts and assignments and deadlines!

If you want to write for other markets, definitely grab a current Writer's Market. Just get your stuff out there. There are so many different ways to freelance! For instance, my regional parenting work led to writing a marketing manual for an editor who had another business. It also led to Contently.com, where I write great-paying blog posts for companies.

Write the Best Short Story or Flash Fiction

When writing short stories a writer needs to know that the smaller the word count the better the quality of your material must be. These short stories or flash fiction are one of the most difficult niches for freelance writers, both novice and veteran. Having a little knowledge for writing these small fragments of fiction is powerful and extremely beneficial for freelance writers.

With a short story every word counts toward the quality. A writer cannot write fluff to fill the space or insignificant details that are usually in longer pieces of written work. Each and every word is vital to create the beginning, middle and end of your work. Readers need to feel complete at the conclusion. Relaying your thoughts and feelings in an extremely small amount of space is more than challenging.

What not to write

Short stories about personal life experiences are not really short story favorites. A number of writers believe small pieces of life lessons from their personal treasure chest are worth writing about. This is not true. Lots of times when creating this material a story doesn’t evolve at all. Editors avoid publishing these. Do not waste your time.

This sort of work displays episodes or a snippet from your life, but lacks a real story. Flash fiction is searching for a complete story that moves a reader to say they want more of the same from a writer. Stories with a beginning, middle and end supplying these qualities are worth going after. Avoid writing about personal episodes and expecting a short story to emerge.

If you avoid stories about your life, what should you write about?

What to write

Every flash fiction must have a setting. Create the setting immediately in as short of space as possible. After setting the scene, get the character central to the material next. There should be conflict or action in a short story. Get this in following the central subject introduction. Produce the action taken or conflict and conclude it with triumph, victory, a surprise, defeat, tragedy or anything that touches the heart of your reader. The conclusion of the entire project should make a reader feel more than satisfied for the best flash fiction writer.

The best short stories are those with an ending a reader does not expect. The twist that leaves them surprised is wonderful.  This is not necessarily essential, but these do perform better than most.

Setting the scene and character or subject should take a couple of sentences a piece. The bulk of the story is telling the details to fill in the conflict or other action. The conclusion should also be rounded up in a few sentences. Most writers will implement one sentence with the ability to deliver that final conclusion. This is especially true with the twisted plot full of surprise. One sentence to say a lot is difficult, but not impossible. This is what makes a great story writer for the flash fiction. Getting all of this into a very small amount of words constructs the perfect short story.

In conclusion

A good short story will fill a reader with a sense of moving their mind from their current place to another. They are able to be inspired or stimulated one way or another by your words. This means they will feel a sense of happiness, fear, hate or other emotion by the time they conclude your written piece of work. When they do you can realize a complete sense of being a great writer of flash fiction.

Writing Short Story Fiction Endings

Short story writing is a difficult task for a lot of freelance writers. This is a genre that a lot of writers are unable to find a comfort level. Traditional fiction writing is not the same as creating this format. The ending for this material is an important factor in getting thumbs up or thumbs down from a lot of editors looking to publish material. Writing a satisfactory conclusion to a short story is extremely important. These are several tips to use for writing better short story endings.

Any writer is able to produce a piece of flash fiction or short story with a beginning, middle and end. However, simply putting this info together doesn’t mean it can make the cut. Lots of editors remark the completion of the flash fiction pieces need to end well for perfection.

The package will need a conclusion that promotes readers to want more. You do not necessarily need a happy finalization, but avoid a feeling of emptiness or disappointment from a reader. Surprise endings are ideal for flash fiction. Though, there are ways to create a conclusion that hits a mark without a surprise.

A great way to wind-up to a flash fiction piece is to prepare a story for a twist. Focus on a topic and tease the reader with a different finale than they were expecting. A surprise with a payoff works well for these types of written work. In order to work this out, organize a story with two points of opposition where a reader can believe that one thing is happening and the end reveals something other than they expected to occur.

Several examples of twisting a story;

A character that you expected was an enemy was actually a friend

A character is a ghost, but doesn’t know he is (remember the movie version of this one?)

A superhero is actually a normal person without any unique powers

These types of flash fiction twists will catch a reader where you want them. The finale is exceptionally important to reveal the twist they didn’t see coming. An ending that is memorable is certain to put you in their realm of writers to follow.

Writing an ending for a short story is difficult for some. However, this is valuable information to assist any writer interested in flash fiction and how to write better.

pic is courtesy of kozzi.com

Freelance Writing Flash Fiction

Flash fiction is the latest phenomenon related to freelance writing. This particular type of creation is the ability to fashion short or mini creations of a fiction story with a very small amount of words. Imagine attempting to write a fiction story that is less than 200 characters. The length of a tweet is difficult to place a work of fiction into. This is the flash fiction experience.

Most freelancers are accustomed to sites asking for thousands of words for stories.  In spite of this, a number of sites are asking for it and writers that are capable discover a number of them willing to pay for it. Resources are found with a search engine hunt for short short writer story websites.

With the world of technology changing it should be no surprise that these mini works of creation are coming into the limelight. Flash fiction writing is really taking off because of several changes going on in the online world. Smartphones are the largest influence for this type of online content.

Smartphones have an influence

Smartphones are being used to access web material and subject matter for nearly seven out of every ten internet users. This is a platform that has a small screen and is generally used on the go. They have time constraints along with smaller viewing areas. This promotes the need for flash fiction stories.

Sites that need the content

Flash fiction is being identified by sites such as Amazon, Lulu and Smash Words. This group has actually created room for readers which have extremely limited time for reading. This audience wants and needs short stories of fiction. They are focusing on content of 200 words during their daily commute or small amount of time spent on written material.

Five Top Stories

This electronic publisher specializes in producing flash fiction story writing. They are always searching for new writing talent. This particular site holds monthly competitions for writers around the globe to showcase their work and earn money.

The inspiration behind the site is from the UK. Writer Ruth Heald created Five Short Stories almost 3 years ago and the response from writers and readers alike has been astounding.

One of the best things about Five Top Stories is new writers are being uncovered and spotlighted continually. Talented writers are featured on mobile apps and kindle books working with Five Top Stories. The work is downloaded from sites like Amazon as an eBook. Even ITunes stores have them available for readers with an interest.

Short stories don’t necessarily have to be extremely short with a 200 word limit. In fact, the site will accept fiction writing up to 3000 words.

http://www.fivestopstory.com/contactus.html

Points of consideration

A number of short story fiction sites will have writing competitions. If you enter these remember these points of consideration

a)      Always follow the directions. If the writing site is asking for less than 1000 words for the competition do not send in 1003, send in 999 words of material.

b)      Sites that request an email of a manuscript should have the written material submitted as an attachment. Only include the material in t eh body of an email if the instructions require this format.

c)       Some will ask for a hardcopy of work. This is unusual, but several of these do exist. Submit a hardcopy as requested. This is not an email copy. Follow the instructions for the competition to assure your entry is valid.

Sites to connect with

These are several sites around the web that have competitions for short story writing if you this type of creation appeals to you.

http://www.thenewwriter.com/entryform.htm

The new writer’s prizes page is a site which promotes short fiction stories from writers

http://www.bridportprize.org.uk/

This particular site prides itself in promoting new writers through literary excellence with a competitive writing structure

Consider flash fiction in your next professional writing career step. Although this is new to the world of writing it seems like a platform that will continue to emerge and grow.

 

 

a brief instructional video on how to write flash fiction

 

 

What Next Year Holds for Freelance Writing For You

Getting prepared for next year is extremely important for a number of writers. What will next year bring? What can I look forward to? What can I do differently to promote my work or make more money online? There are a number of things you can do as a freelance writer to make next year better than this year.

The first step in that direction is setting up a plan of action. Whether the plan of action is a general strategy or a detailed writing plan doesn’t make a great deal of difference. What you want to do as a writer is something set in place to work for you to assist with meeting the goals you establish as a freelance writer to make your career better.

These are some of the things to consider when crafting a strategy to build your writing career better than ever. These are ideas to use for positioning a plan of action for the year ahead. All of these include making more money as your profession is increased and your career advances in a positive manner.

a)      Write and publish a book

Writing and getting a book published in the coming year is a wonderful writing goal. There are not a lot of us that do not have a dream of someday publishing a book. Getting a book published used to be a daunting task. There was once a time when writers without a literary agent found it nearly impossible. This is no longer the case. Publishing a book is the easy part. The difficult portion of the plan is writing one.

Set goals such as dedicating a set number of minutes a day or hours each week to constructing a plot and characters for your book to take shape. Make certain this is completed by a precise date. Then aim for a day to complete a rough outline for the project. A blueprint to complete a book by the end of the year or this summer is one way to get it done for sure this year.

A number of writers put related articles together to form a fantastic book for publication. Whatever road you take to construction is a good one if you accomplish it.

b)      Become an expert in your niche

Experts are what readers are looking for. Branding and a strong online presence can be built with becoming an expert in a specific niche. Not only do readers admire and follow your work with dedication, but fashioning the content is easier the more knowledge and knowhow you hold.

Establishing yourself as an expert in a niche includes setting goals such as ranking higher in search engines in a given area of content, writing a certain number of articles per week or month in the niche and similar goals within the plan of action. Form a starting point and set specific dates for reaching mini goals on the road to becoming an expert in a field.

c)       Getting more articles published

Getting more articles published on a specific platform is a simple strategy which takes dedication. The platform can be your website, your blog, a writing website or other focused area you would like to see expanded with more of your content. Imagine what you can accomplish with more passive writing income? Google’s change to their algorithm has created a fluctuation in a number of writer’s passive income that must be corrected with more articles conforming to these changes.

If you are a writer who would like to increase your customer or client listing, getting more articles published is definitely a given in the months ahead. You can create an area of focus to include more articles on a specific subject or idea as a short goal inside of this larger one as a place to start.

d)      Building a better professional portfolio

Committing to a goal this year of seeing a better professional portfolio as a writer is a terrific idea. Portfolios for writers are important to display to potential clients and boosting writing resumes. Expanding a writing portfolio with more is always wonderful for any freelance writing career.

This can be realized in a number of ways. For an example, if you want to add grant writing to your freelance writing portfolio set a goal of accomplishing this by the end of the summer. Do some research into grant writing and locate clients to achieve it. If you want to specialize in health and fitness, get more of these articles, blog posts and other written material out there for bulking up the portfolio.

e)      Increasing customers and clients

This is an ambition of any writer looking forward to making more money with their efforts. There are a more than a few ways to getting this goal completed.

Writers can enlist the help of sites that connect writers with writing gigs. Generally these are places where employers post writing jobs. Joining these will gain more customers and clients. However, there is usually a fee paid to the site for making the connection.

More customers can be realized with promoting your talents for hire creating a personal website. Advertising writing for hire eliminates the fee paid to writing sites, but the undertaking will put you at risk for clients skipping out on payments and other safety measures these sites afford.

Networking is another resource to use for increasing customers and clients. Use personal connections like other writers and people in the biz to help grow a list of customers that need your services. Let them know you are looking for work and share your resume or portfolio showcasing what you can do.

In conclusion

After reviewing what you have set in motion over the last 12 months, consider how much more you can accomplish in the months to come. Imagine the next step is always bringing you closer to the top of your profession.

What next year holds for your freelance writing career is up to you. Get excited and get busy doing what you do best, writing.

 

 

Content Scraping is a Real Issue

Scraped content is an issue that anyone publishing on the web today will possibly encounter. There are a number of bloggers that use black hat techniques to steal another writer’s material. A piece of software will scour the web and bring back content to the culprit that they don’t own in order to publish to a site or blog for any writer that works extremely hard to make certain they are producing authentic, quality and relevant content this is disheartening to say the least. There is something you can do about the situation.

This is a post for my blog MakingBlogsWork that I did surrounding this issue and the bad guys that perform it. However, as freelance writers it is also extremely relevant. Please take a moment to find out about content scraping and how it affects the work you perform each and every day in your online career.

Find out more information about scraping content around the web and how it touches your online freelance writing income.

 

http://makingblogswork.blogspot.com/2012/12/content-scraping-and-what-you-can-do.html

 

Use Article Directories to Get Great Back Links

This is a Guest Blog Post From Julie Marks

 

Most writers that are working toward increasing the traffic to their content will overlook the importance of back links. Having the best back links in place helps in your effort to make them work positively for your online income. Consider article directories as a source for getting back links to writing content around the web. Article directories are an effective vehicle a number of writers use for getting the job done.

One of the largest disadvantages of creating great backlinks is the amount of time invested in forming them. In order to receive the best back links you have to work for them. A large part of article marketing strategies is producing the best possible back links for content. Back links are important for getting great page rank which increases the monetization of your writing work in a number of ways. Although there is work involved, directories are one of the easiest and best ways of building links to writing content.

 

 

Deciding which one to join

Some article directories have more search engine juice than others. Research which article directories serve your strategy best and join them to get started as quickly as possible. With literally thousands of these types of writing platforms available around the web, joining several is a great idea.

Writers that are searching for increased ranking should invest their time and effort in Yahoo or DMOZ directories. Both of these have terrific ranking with search engines and will serve to heighten page ranking for any writing work connected to them.

How to link from directories

Most article directories contain a special section devoted to back links a writer would like to add to the article they submit. Others permit writers to add links for other writing works directly in the article content itself. Signature boxes are useful for linking to other content. As part of your signature or author bio section add links to your site, blog or other writing content. Whatever option is offered is okay for building back links with article directories.

Things to stay away from

Keep away from submitting duplicate articles to different directories. Any form of duplicate content on the web will decrease page ranking and defeat the purpose of your overall strategy. Unique content is identified by search engines as a good thing and work in a positive manner for gaining good page rank.

Steer clear of using poor quality content to submit to directories. Lots of writers choose to fashion an article on a topic related to their blog or website to build back links with directories. Crafting the same excellent articles for directories that you use for your site or blog is best. Remember, these are not only tied to your credibility as a writer, but they are also ranked in search engines as part of the directory contents.

In conclusion

Securing the best ranking for your articles begins with back linking. In order to achieve this goal requires a great amount of work. Article directories are a wonderful way that writers have discovered to get back links produced that do not require as much work as other methods.

Increased page rank means more readers. More readers relate to increased page views, more clients, and customers and in the end more money as a writer.

 

 

Hubpages Changes with Penguin and Panda Hurt Writers Financially

Penguin and Panda have touched a number of freelance writers income. A difference in passive income for writers received from online platforms or writing sites like Hubpages most especially can be felt. Although writers have not changed how they are submitting content for publication with how they use search engine optimization or keywords utilization, they are still being punished in a variety of forms financially with search engine algorithm changes. Hubpages has made a lot of changes with Penguin and Panda alterations that are hurting their writers financially.

The initial modifications that Google made are nothing compared to Penguin and Panda when it comes to affecting a writers wallet contents. Writing sites like Hubpages were dinged when Google released their first algorithm modification and immediately began to clean house. Writers were fired and lots of content that was deemed subpar removed from their site. Cleaning house may have been necessary for some time in a lot of cases and was warranted. 

One of the best things about writing for Hubpages was their earning potential. Hubpages did have one of the highest quality thresholds for accepting content and had a track record of getting great content out to the search engines. With referrals from other writers and submitting terrific content a great writer had the opportunity to earn an excellent online income from creating wonderful work. This seems to have changed with Penguin and Panda and how the site has accepted the changes Google put into place.

First changes to Hubpages

Hubpages made their first changes with removing inadequate content from the web along with removing writers that were not up to quality standards. This had a positive affect all around with the type of writing or work found with the online writing site.

Less substandard work left more room for great relevant content to be seen by readers. More page views meant making more money online from writing sites like Hubpages. Although Google conversions were made, all around quality written work was not disturbed.

Changes after Panda to Hubpages

Panda rolled out and Hubpages tightened the reigns once again. They reviewed content and for the content that did not make the cut, once again they cleaned house. This particular elimination of content and writers was not as substantial as the initial ejections. Though, they still wanted to maintain their page ranking as a writing site with Google and other search engines.

Changes after Penguin to Hubpages

Changes made to Hubpages after Penguin have deleted so much content that many writers have stopped submitting articles to the site and have seen a substantial drop in their passive income. Penguin changes made loads of articles unavailable to search engines by Hubpages and their review process for articles has become confusing to say the least.

Articles previously viewable to search engines became inaccessible or removed entirely as part of the Hubpages changes. Additionally, an article that was accessible to search engines that writer’s edited for minor changes was also removed. Numerous changes were not made to the overall content when edited, but they were removed nonetheless.

For an example, an article receiving great views per day or week that may have had a picture added was deemed unsuitable when republished. Reponses for the denial have been confusing. The responses from Hubpages writer received indicated there are too many keywords, there are too many Amazon items tied to the article or back links are not acceptable. This is more than puzzling since the same seo and keywords as well as back link methods have been used continually by the writer. Not only for the article they cannot publish, but for similar articles that are being published.

New Quality Assessment Process from Hubpages

Recently Hubpages has revealed a new quality assessment process they have personally developed for their published articles. This means they are reviewing articles one by one with Hubpages editors. Along with editors reviewing an article, fellow writers are also weighing in their two cents worth on each Hub or article with their Hopper device. Articles are rated up or down and a personal comment of useful, beautiful, awesome, funny or interesting can also be added. An automated metrics, similar to a Google algorithm is used for each Hub. Not only is this review conducted for new articles, but older articles are also going to be run through the matrix and can be removed from being shown to search engines.

One of the most difficult tasks with making any modifications to an article is the feedback provided is not detailed enough. The response from the computer generated feedback is general in nature and they are selected from one of several on file. Editors that review Hubs do not give detailed responses either. A Hub can be denied publication with something as general as “too many links”. This could mean that an added link URL for a pic or image is one too many, a back link in your article isn’t adequate. You used a name of a website with .com in your written material and should not have or your Amazon or EBay capsules are included as links and too many of these are connected to a Hub.

Imagine having hundreds of articles that are earning a great passive income monthly for a freelance writer that are suddenly removed from search engines. The results can be devastating financially. Attempting to rewrite, correct or alter these to fit the new standards is a daunting task to say the least. Depending on the amount of articles it can seem nearly impossible.

Writers that want to continue a passive writing financial relationship with Hubpages may find it difficult with Panda and Penguin now in the mix. Google’s algorithms were confusing in their administration and the same thing is being seen with Hubpages and the changes they have implemented to make their website adhere to these new standards.

In conclusion

Although a writer can agree Hubpages should publish quality content, this must be done with a clear and concise manner. It should happen in a way that is easy to understand, clear-cut and to the point as well as impartial and fair. Is this happening? If you are a member of Hubpages and have experienced confusing, unjust or biased reviews of your work, please share your experience with us. Unbiased, rational and objective reviews should be made for all writing submitted to sites such as Hubpages. Unfortunately, Hubpages attempting to comply with Penguin and Panda could cost them a lot of extraordinary writers and content that will be published elsewhere.

Hubpages is making a lot of changes, but they are not alone. Similar writing sites are also moving in the same direction. If you have an interest in working with me at Hubpages, please use this referral

click here to join

if you have an interest in joining Hubpages feel free to do so under my referral.