Writing and Stuff by Anthony Chatfield

Admittedly, I don’t really ever have any idea what to write about. It used to be that I would keep a Google Reader account open while trying to blog that I would take from liberally. I would then regurgitate a lot of content back to here that I read elsewhere just to fill in posts. To that end, I haven’t really posted all that much of late (22 total this year), so I suppose I don’t really need to do that anymore. Anyways, enough self-reflection on why I do or do not post. I’m really just looking for something better to do with my evenings that play guitar hero and rock band for two or three hours. Fun…undoubtedly. Productive…rarely.

Free Time blogging, topics

It’s no secret that there are seemingly unlimited ways to promote yourself on the Internet these days. Yet, it still manages to surprise me when someone does not use them all to their fullest potential. There are just too many options not to actively seek out and take advantage of them.

Starting with the most basic methods of blog promotion, I frequently tell people that they need to start and operate a blog – it doesn’t matter if it is the simplest, least detailed project you have worked on, you need to have a blog. Start one on Blogger if necessary and start posting every day (I know, I’m one to talk, but it’s a good habit to start). Once you have started your blog, you have unlimited options to reach people. You can start memes, contact other bloggers, start conversations with your commenters, and much more.

Another necessary promotional method is to start and maintain social networking profiles with all of the major sites – Facebook, MySpace (unfortunately), Friendster, etc. These sites offer you something no other option does – a built in audience of millions that you can reach with a single click. You can be sly or you can be explicit, but always remember to present yourself as a well polished person. On these sites, you are not selling things, you are selling yourself.

Which of course brings up the matter of salesmanship. I have had this conversation with a dozen other writers and many of them do not enjoy the idea of “selling” themselves to their clients. But, it is a necessary task and when you think about how things break down, it makes good sense. The Internet is full of people who sell themselves before their services. In fact, the Internet is just a bit too impersonal not to do so. If you try to go faceless and tell people that they can trust you when they don’t know who you are, they will often ignore your suggestions. If you tell them who you are, provide ample opinions and open conversation, and draw them into the fold, they will begin to trust you more outright and you will be much more successful in reaching them.

I won’t go into the details of everything you can do to promote yourself just yet. I may continue with a series of future posts about self-promotion, but there isn’t enough room for them all right now. However, keep one thing in mind: you are your best product. Your mind and your ability to write, design, or program are the things that you are selling. If you can sell yourself, you can pick up any project you find and that’s the key to true success as a freelancer.

Freelancing blogging, freelance writing, Freelancing, self promotion, social network marketing

One of the greatest things you can do as a full time freelance writer is to supplement all of your fulltime work for hire projects with work that only gets done in your free time. I’ve mentioned this form of quasi-relaxing a few times in the past, with blog writing and projects like NaNo, but I’ll reiterate it here – you have to make sure you don’t burn out too quickly with all of the random topics flooding your inbox every week – it gets overwhelming.

So, before I even started taking on freelance writing jobs, I started this blog and made sure to take as much time as I could every week to post a few random thoughts, some updates on my work life, and ideas that may or may not amount to anything (usually not).

Fast forward a few months and the blog is still up and running – albeit with some massive gaps in productivity – and I’m trying to make sure I don’t write for work 11 hours a day. It’s some kind of twisted form of balance, but it’s necessary if you want to succeed as a freelance writer.

So, yes – you should start a blog. Start it as soon as possible and don’t feel as though it absolutely needs to be related to your new freelancing career. It can be about anything – in fact it should be about something else, preferably something that allows you to relax a bit and forget about the rounds of work that have been flooding your desk.

Start the blog early – a Blogger account is perfect for getting started – and spend a little bit of time getting acclimated to the atmosphere of blogging. I’ll try to go into more detail later about the various aspects of blogging you can use, such as ways to make money with the blog or how to promote your blog, but when you first start, here are some good tips to build some readership and feel as though you are connecting with people:

Technorati – Sign up for a Technorati account early and start following how well your blog performs in search rankings and how many people favorite it. If you can, sign up for a few other services such as Ice Rocket or a pinging service that will automatically ping your blog across the Internet whenever you post. Blogger actually does this on a basic level now, but you can always supplement your exposure.

Google Tools – Google has a ton of great tools such as Analytics, AdSense, and Webmaster Tools that allow you to keep track of how well your blog is performing. Track your visits, the keywords used to reach your site, and which positions you show up in the search engines at. Even if you decide early that you do not want to do a lot of SEO work to raise your search ranking, these tools can help you get more involved in the writing and promoting process, which pays great dividends later on.

Comments – Comment on other people’s blogs. This is the same as being active in writing your own blog, except now you can get to know your fellow bloggers, write a bit about them, and receive the same treatment in response. It grows your readership and helps you become a better write – plus it’s social.

Generally, try to remember that even as you are writing on your blog, you are helping your freelance writing career. This is a two way street though. If you attach your name to your blog, keep your writing occupationally friendly. That means you should not write anything a potential client will be offended by. If you do attach your name, use your blog as a chance to show off your writing talent. I’ve had dozens of clients choose me over the competition because they found my blog posts interesting after searching for my name.

If you use the blog correctly, you can not only grow your exposure, experience and skills in writing, you can have a bit of fun. Blog early and blog often.

Freelance Lifestyle, Freelancing , blogging, freelance writing