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Fops, Dandies, and Luvvies – How to Become a Writer
Posted by: | CommentsOn Shadesbreath’s excellent Hub,HubPages Sucks, an interesting conversation developed, a lament of times gone by; the days when everybody knew what a writer was and exactly what a writer did. Writers locked themselves in rooms whilst fearful servants passed food under the door, fearing to incur the wrath of an artist dancing with Muses, in an unbridled outburst of creative genius and passion. Everybody was perfectly happy with this except, of course, the writers themselves, who tended to starve and develop an unhealthy, corpselike pallor. Sadly, adulation does not fill a plate or fix the leaking roof, so writers used the emancipated frame and hacking cough as emblems of honour and identity.
It was a good whinge about the old days, buried long ago in prehistory, where everyone knew their place in the grand scheme and writers could adopt an expression of smug superiority. Like Waldorf and Statler, we sat on the balcony of Hubpages, two old men moaning and complaining just because we could. Beneath the puerile banter, about wasps, funerals, and dinosaurs, lay a serious tone, of two men floating adrift and questioning their very identity and purpose. What is a writer? Are we in danger of extinction?
A Writer – The Tamer of Words
Before we embark upon this tortuous journey through the inane ramblings of an old luvvie trying to explain how to become a writer, I will point out that this is one ouzo-pickled hippy’s opinion. If you think differently, then the balcony is over there; feel free to jeer the unfolding shambles on the stage and shower your abuse on the unrehearsed chaos.
A writer understands words; more exactly, a writer knows the power of words and has mastered the ancient techniques needed to use and manipulate them. Mass communication and the internet have seen an increase and proliferation of words, and an unimaginable amount of information is available to those who care to use this interweb and risk paralysis from the bite of the Google Spider.
Anybody can sit down and type ‘words’; anyone can use a word processor and lay down thoughts, easily and without ceremony. Writing words is easier than ever before, giving the opportunity to create, to communicate, and to bore. The amount of words has increased, but there is no more grist to talk about than in the halcyon days of the Bard; thus, many of these words are, quite simply, empty noise.
To me, a writer is someone who does not just see words as tools for communicating the maelstrom of thoughts swirling in their head. To a writer, words are alive, wild beasts to be captured and tamed before an adoring audience. Language is a thing to be moulded like a lump of raw clay, shaped into art and self-expression. Words can be joined together, flowing streams with subtle meanings and depths meandering through your emotions and nurturing your soul. In the hands of a master, words can entice, emote, and amuse.
The Greek Tragedy
Behind a writer lie the clichéd tears of the clown, and most of us are vain Pierrots with frail egos, like the old actor on stage wearing another personality, or an illusionist with only smoke and mirrors to create the illusion. A writer understands emotion and holds up a mirror, making you question your own psyche and unlock the dreams within.
Every time a writer lays words on the virgin page, they also bare a little more of their own soul, revealing their secret and inner self. Words are wild and dangerous beasts that can be used to tear egos apart and bare the intangible soul, but they can also turn on the lion-tamer and leave him bleeding and torn, a shambolic wreck consumed by the tendrils of dark thought.
How to Become a Writer – The Method Actor
I have seen people shape words, and their excellent grasp of technicalities and style allows clear and concise communication. However, some lack the passion and the ability to create the scene and draw the audience in. A fine actor knows how to draw people in with a whisper and then drive them away with a bellow of raw emotion, counting the audience as an integral part of the story. A writer can use voice, rhythm, and flow to make you feel both joy and pain, to take you from elation to despair in a single sentence.
On the other extreme, I have seen people pour their passions onto the page, a torrent of sheer, unbridled emotion. These are invariably wonderful to read, but a writer needs finesse and technique to restrain the flow, an ability to bring down the curtain between scenes. A humble comma, the unsung hero of the English language, can lift work from the good into the truly sublime.
The Mind of the Writer – The Cabinet Makers and the Sculptors
In the old days, we had two groups of writers; the creative writers and the non-creative writers. Locked in their towers, they used to argue ceaselessly about which of the two was the most talented, a display of pompous, academic arrogance fought amidst the spires of Oxford and the colonial mansions of Hemingway’s Havana. Now these two are united, an unholy alliance cowering behind a shield wall of similes, circled and beset by brooding uncertainty and destructive self-doubt. Besieging our broken heroes are the Keywords with Long Tails and the Search Engine Ogres, seeking to bring down their ivory towers.
The academic and non-fiction writers are cabinet-makers, the craftsmen and women who shape words and create function yet still imbue their work with individuality and style. The creative writers are sculptors, able to craft raw lumber into objects of beauty. Mostly, sculptors and craftspeople are fawning fops and preening dandies, flouncing and posing before the murmuring audience. For a writer, it is not about the money but the single red rose thrown at the feet of the actor, the applause as the crowd shouts for more. A good writer tries to leave an audience bewitched by beguiling prose and lexical panache, entertained and changed by rhythm and style.
How to Become a Writer – From the Shield-Wall to the Bear Pit
So where is this going? Has the hippy finished talking out of his backside? Not quite, if I can impose upon your patience and continue this flow of solipsistic excess verbiage. This is the crux of the matter and the point in the play where tragedy turns to joy, the scene where we employ a Spielbergesque happy ending. For, amidst the proliferation of words on the internet is a glimmer of hope for the beleaguered shield-wall. Maybe, relief for our fops and dandies is nigh, and hidden amonst the empty noise lies a sign of things to come. People are starting to seek out writers; they crave to be entertained, to smell the greasepaint and laugh at the preening pantomime dames.
Instead of Hollywood and plastic fame, audiences crave a return to the old days, when actors trod the boards and faced the audience, like some tired Roman gladiator before a baying crowd. Instead of fleeing from the internet and closing ranks, writers are learning to unleash the power, dancing with the Ogres instead of seeing them as fearsome, snarling beasts trained to rend delicate prose.
Rather than view marketers as implacable foes, we understand that they are allies and friends, a new target for our egotistical arguments and attention-seeking flounces.the crux of the matter and the point in the play where tragedy turns to joy, the scene where we employ a Spielbergesque happy ending. For, amidst the proliferation of words on the internet is a glimmer of hope for the beleaguered shield-wall. Maybe, relief for our fops and dandies is nigh, and hidden amonst the empty noise lies a sign of things to come. People are starting to seek out writers; they crave to be entertained, to smell the greasepaint and laugh at the preening pantomime dames.
How to Become a Writer – The Cast and Crew Milk the Encore
Actors need the crew, working tirelessly behind the scenes, to create the scene and set the tone, their special effects elevating any play into the realms of true fantasy with the audience hushed and beguiled by passionate speech. Likewise, the crew need the actors to bring the dreams to fruition, adding a human emotion to the play and garnishing it with the ancient magic and glamour.
Writers are spiritual vampires, needing the sustenance of adulation and, with the help of technology, can find new audiences to feed their souls. We must embrace this technology and emerge from behind the shield-wall, blinking in the sunlight of modernity and donning the greasepaint of progress. Suddenly, we can again show our undead faces as people seek the secret of how to become a writer.
Pierrot Photo courtesy of MatthiasKabelunder a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 licence
Photo courtesy of vbariteau under aCreative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License
How To Find A Freelance Writer: What To Expect
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For many businesses, setting out to find a freelance writer can be a tough task, especially as the internet is saturated with writers for hire. A search on Google or one of the many freelance hire sites throws long lists after list of writers, all claiming that they are the best fit for the job. How do you go about hiring the best professional freelance writer?
Hire a Writer: A Few Tips
Here are a few useful tips for making sure that you find a skilled writer with the ability to produce great content.
Price: Business is all about finding the best possible product at the lowest possible price, but that does not necessarily mean going for the cheapest option. If you find somebody writing articles for $5 a time, ask yourself why they are offering their services so cheap. Perhaps their language skills are not up to scratch or they intend to plagiarise the work of others.
An experienced, skilled freelance writer, with a good reputation and a proven track record, knows their worth and will price their work accordingly. They are professionals and it is rare to find one working for slave wages.
Samples: A pro writer will be delighted to provide you with a few samples of their work, letting you see if their skill, talent and style suit your particular needs, from web content to academic writing.
Website: Like any online business owner, a professional freelance writer should have a well-designed, informative website, allowing you to see exactly what they have to offer. Writers without websites are not necessarily bad writers, but a good website shows a higher level of professionalism and dedication.
References: A talented writer will be able to provide you with references from previous clients, allowing you to check the quality of their work. Many include testimonials on their website, which is fine, but you should check that any links genuinely lead to clients and are not fabrications. Most pro writers have a list of previous clients who will be delighted to write a reference.
Hire a Professional Writer: Things to Avoid
When you hire a professional writer, there are a few things that you should try to avoid, lest you risk losing a fine writer for avoidable reasons. Some of these bad habits stem from the freelance writing boards, where legions of inexperienced or untalented writers fight for every single position, promoting a culture of expendability.
Writing Samples: Try to avoid asking a writer to draft a sample from scratch, unless it is very short. If you ask a pro writer to write you an example on spec, they will simply smile and move on to the next client. Writers are not in the habit of giving their work away for nothing; there are too many unscrupulous sharks out there who will ask a number of writers for samples and gleefully receive a bundle of work for free.
Writers are not Employees: Try to remember that writer is not your employee but a professional in their own right. Too many people hire a writer and then assume that they are an employee, placing unreasonable demands upon their time, or speaking down to them.
The most common example is clients continually changing the job specifications and extracting more and more work for the agreed price. Another common issue is the tone you take with your writer; all writers have had a nightmare client who treats them with condescension and veiled insults. Your writer is a trained, experienced professional and should be treated as such.
Payment: If you have a batch of work, a writer isn’t going to hand it over and wait for payment; all writers have been stung by clients taking work and disappearing once payment is due. Some writers ask for all of the money upfront, others are happy to take a deposit of 50% and share the risk. For larger assignments, it is common for instalments to be paid once certain milestones are reached.
Communication: Creating a Partnership
The key to working with a freelance writer is communication, because by working together, you can really start to produce some excellent content that will really appeal to your audience. Writers are good at filling in the gaps and producing content based around any information you provide, but they still need some idea of what you actually want.
Some website owners, especially for article marketing and blogs, are happy to give the writer a list of general topics and let them loose. This is a good strategy, but it is unfair to then send the article back demanding umpteen changes because it didn’t fit with exactly what you wanted. Others like to give a structure to the writer and ask them to join it all together, which allows them to concentrate on generating voice and emotion.
Whichever method you use, using a freelance writer for hire is all about creating a working partnership, because a talented writer who knows your specifications is a great asset to your business.
Ultimately, you are paying for the unique voice and style of the writer, because only a few have the skill to imbue copywriting with life and emotion. Whether you want a light, flowing style or an informative tone, a good writer can use language to lure in the audience and convey your message.
Hopefully, this has helped you in your quest to find a writer. Feel free to contact me for a free discussion.
Keyboard Picture: Felipe Micaroni Lalli under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license
Freelance Essay Writing: Hire an Academic Editor
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Many students and academics have excellent research and academic skills but can’t seem to write a research paper. They buzz with ideas, but this enthusiasm simply doesn’t come across in their writing, which is flat and bland, with poor grammar and no flow. For these students, it makes perfect sense to hire an academic editor for freelance essay writing, helping them to construct the perfect paper.
Whether you are an ESL student trying to construct an essay in good English, or an academic wanting to submit a paper to an academic journal with extremely stringent requirements, an expert research paper editor can make all of the difference.
The Difficulties of Academic Writing
Ultimately, studying for your chosen degree or following a research program should be about your subject knowledge, not whether you are able to write perfectly. Hiring a professional academic editor can take the intimidation out of academia and help you concentrate on what you know best.
Producing good writing is an essential component of passing your degree or becoming renowned as an expert in your field. To help you with this, a good freelance editor for hire will read through your work, suggesting improvements to the writing style and helping you draft the perfect paper, one that is readable as well as accurate.
Academic Editing
Specialist academic editors can help with a variety of different papers, including theses, dissertations, essays, research papers, or journal submissions. A good freelance writer knows all of the various formatting styles and will be happy to adapt if your tutor or faculty uses different guidelines.
If you want a heavier edit, your editor will suggest structural changes that can adjust the flow of the essay and improve the clarity, reinforcing your points. Unlike the notorious essay writing services, you will be using an editor who is a professional writer, not a recent graduate trying to scrape a few extra dollars. Together, you can create the perfect academic paper, one that displays your skills and knowledge to their fullest extent.
Research Paper Edits and Dissertation Editing
Dissertation editing helps to ensure that your work is well organized and communicated with clarity and an economy of style. As well as picking up on any spelling mistakes and errors with grammar and syntax, a skilled academic editor will point out any weak areas and help you organize your thoughts.
Thesis Editing
As any academic will tell you, the sheer length and hefty word count makes writing and editing a thesis a tough preposition, and a surprising number of students drop out because they can’t face the enormity of the task. Using a professional thesis editor takes away the intimidation when faced with a lengthy work, helping you to ensure that your thesis is organized, grammatically correct and logically ordered, fulfilling all of the formatting styles and stylistic requirements.
A freelance academic editor will also make sure that your thesis is readable and engaging, with flow, style, and an authoritative voice.
Hire an Academic Writer for Editing
If you are not particularly confident in your writing skills, it is a good idea to hire an academic editor for your freelance essay writing. They will take your ideas and use skill, experience, and judgment to make sure that your research paper is as perfect as can be.
Hire Blog Writer: Attract Readers With Blog Content
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A Blog is the Bridge to Success
Many businesses appreciate the value of using a blog to market services and reach out to a wider audience, but many organizations simply don’t have the time to create regular blog content. If you want the best of both worlds, why not hire a blog writer to create your posts? If you are serious about finding professional bloggers, there are a few ways to go about it:
Syndicate Blog Content
Many online companies let you buy syndicated content to fill out your blog, quickly and easily. You can buy posts on a one off basis or sign up for subscription services that provide regular updates to your blog, refreshing it and keeping your readers entertained. The problem with this approach is that the same syndicated content can also be used by your competitors. The search engines punish duplicates and you will find it difficult to attract hits to your site. The other issue with using syndicated content is the lack of professionalism; if blog readers see the same content scattered around the internet, they know that you can’t be bothered to provide them with unique content. They will feel that you are wasting their time and insulting their intelligence.
Scour the Freelance Writing Sites
A search on the freelance writing sites, such as ODesk, Elance, and Freelancer, will throw up blog writers at a very low cost, helping you to populate your blog with posts without spending a fortune. The problem with this is that you can easily fall into the trap of getting exactly what you paid for: a non-native English speaker, poor grammar, plagiarised posts, and an obvious lack of expertise in the topic are just some of the potential problems with chasing the lowest common denominator.
Hire a Freelance Writer for Blogging
The best option, if you are serious about providing an informative, enticing blog is to hire a freelance writer. You can use them as ghost bloggers, writing in your voice and style, or under their own name if they enjoy a good reputation. A freelance writer will add high quality content to your site and help you to develop a good name. This will attract hits and also encourage people to share your blog posts on the social sites or press the Google +1 button, an extremely important part of achieving search engine success.
Hire Blog Writers for Success
A skilled writer knows how to adapt their voice to suit any audience and communicate your ideas and concepts, all the time adding rich, unique content your site. Hire a blog writer for maximum impact, and attract a large following.
Image: Darren Wyn Rees at Aberdare Blog
Freelance Copywriting: The Importance of Voice
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Many online businesses fail to see why they should pay for freelance copywriting, believing that it is an unnecessary cost. They try to write their own copy or scour the freelance writing sites in an attempt to find cheap labor. They don’t realize that this can actually harm business, potentially jeopardizing all the hard work they put into designing and promoting the site.
The problem is that too many organizations are prepared to spend a small fortune on web designers, SEO consultants, and photographers, yet don’t think too much about the content. Instead of treating content as the heart of the website, it somehow becomes relegated to a secondary function, a mere afterthought.
A well-laid out, easy-to-navigate website with good images will create an image of professionalism, like a well-maintained, tidy store. It can certainly catch the eye and entice people to explore further, but it will not encourage them to buy. The way to close the deal is with words, a tried and tested technique that has worked for a few millennia.
Incompetent Employees and the Empty Store
So, why do businesses forget this ancient technique as soon as they move online? Perhaps they become enamored with the whole multi-media/flash animations/Facebook thing: while these are great marketing methods, they cannot stand alone.
Think of it as populating a store with beautiful staff, complete with flashing white teeth, perfect tans, and designer shirts: this won’t work if they are completely devoid of personality. If a potential customer asks a question only to find that the employees aren’t particularly blessed with brains, they will go elsewhere. It is the same online: you need to use words to sell, ideally well-chosen words from somebody who is knowledgeable, engaging, and interesting.
Connecting With Words: The Gift of the Freelance Writer
This is one of the keys to good freelance copywriting, as an experienced professional writer knows how to connect with people. There are a few techniques for keeping readers interested, but the common thread uniting them all is the ‘writer’s voice.’ This is a fundamental principle that is very simple to understand yet very hard to practice.
Ideally, a writer’s language should resemble how they would sound if they were speaking to the person. Try reading this passage out aloud (as long as you are not in public), and it is pretty much how I sound in real life: a slightly pompous Englishman. In fact, many writers, when they read, actually hear a little voice in their head reciting the words aloud. That is why TYPING IN ALL CAPS is a bad thing, because it actually gives some of us a headache!
A good writer can not only write how they speak, but can adapt their voice; if they were writing to an audience of grizzled building contractors, they would use a completely different voice than if they were copywriting for a site frequented by gaming geeks. That is what a good copywriter can do – they can make your site a welcoming place, greeting customers with a little human warmth, explaining exactly what your business can do for them.
The Joy of Freelance Copywriting
Of course, that is only one part of the equation, because a good copywriter can also create content that attracts search engine bots as well as human readers. Your marketing department will love you if you hire a pro copywriter, because this will make their life much easier.
Anyway, that is the end of these musings – I hope that you didn’t get too lost in the rambling. As you are at the end of the page, I must have done something right, so here is the link to the main site where you are free to contact me for a no obligation discussion. Thanks for visiting and I hope to see you soon.
Image: “Raven Releasing the Sun”, by Todd Baker
Sales Writer for Hire: How To Write Sales Copy
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For Sale
Most people have little idea of how to judge sales copy, and that really isn’t a bad thing. If people consciously thought about what they were reading, the best efforts of your sales writer for hire would be in vain. It is a professional writer’s job to use emotion and voice to entice the reader to invest in your services, using their expertise in how to write sales copy.
If you are looking for a freelance sales writer for hire, what sort of copy do you want them to produce? What makes sales copy powerful?
Sales Copy: Quality Writing vs Powerful Writing
The problem with sales writing is that it does not always correlate with quality writing. Somebody can write wonderful, flowing prose yet produce ineffective sales copy, simply because they don’t understand the little tricks and nuances required to sell products. While there are many other good reasons for producing quality content, the most important judge of sales copy is how many products you sell.
The key to good sales copy is understanding how people behave online. The vast majority of readers skim through an article, trying to pick out relevant information quickly. If they don’t find what they are looking for within a few seconds, they will simply move on to one of your competitors. That is where a professional copywriter earns their money, because they can write a sales pitch that balances quality, impact, and SEO requirements.
A Few Sales Letter Format Suggestions
Here are a few suggestions of how to judge good sales copy and determine if your sales writer knows their business.
Strong Start: The first paragraph is the most important part of your sales pitch, because it has to grab the attention and tell the reader that it is worth reading on. The first paragraph should be punchy yet information packed, identifying a problem and suggesting a solution.
Clarity: Sales copy should be clear and focused with an economy of style, telling the reader everything they want to know. The writing needs to carry passion, because you are appealing to the emotions of the reader, but it should avoid long sentences and useless adjectives.
Cliché Free: The vast majority of people are sick of hyperbole, and a pitch filled with exclamation marks and sales words such as ‘great,’ ‘super,’ amazing will fail. As a rule of thumb, if you find the word on used car forecourts, don’t use it in your sales copywriting. Subtlety is your friend.
Overcome Objections: As in real-world sales, one of the keys of selling is answering all of the potential questions and overcoming objections. If you manage to do this, your sales conversions will soon rocket.
Build Trust: Internet users are increasingly savvy and know how to avoid most of the sharks. Build trust with words and don’t insult the reader’s intelligence. Again, gentle prodding is much better than trying to metaphorically punch the reader in the face.
Sprint to the Line: To match your strong opening paragraph, you need a very strong closing paragraph, known as ‘The Call To Arms.’ This is where you persuade the reader to click through to the sales page.
Impersonality and Availability: Treading the Line
Ultimately, selling online is a different preposition to selling offline. Online, you lack the personal interaction and the ability to counter objections as they arise. You need to think ahead, because you only have one chance to impress the reader. The advantage is that you don’t need as much physical effort; once the sales copy is written, it will work 24/7 with little further action on your part.
For this reason, it is vital to get it right first time, ensuring that your copy sells and keeps on selling. A good freelance writer for hire knows how to use words to create instant impact, selling you and your products to potential clients. Hire a professional sales writer who knows how to write sales copy, and watch your profits grow.
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Professional Writers For Hire: Adapting To The Panda Algorithm
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The recent Google Panda algorithm changes threw the internet world into turmoil, as webmasters, marketers and content writers frantically tried to make sense of the new rankings. For many professional writers for hire, copywriting work dried up, because website owners were reluctant to spend money until they understood more about the update.
Now that things are settling down, most webmasters are refreshing their websites as they look to modify content and consolidate. Content writers are once again finding work, so it is useful to look at how copywriting has changed in the post-Panda world.
Freelance Copywriters and Google Panda
Creating backlinks and traditional marketing are still important, but that is for the marketers and internet experts to discuss. From the viewpoint of a writer, I have noticed that a few things have changed, observations based upon my own experimentation and feedback/specifications from clients.
Death of the Content Farms:
Content farms such as Hubpages, Wisegeek and Ezine have taken a huge hit. It appears that Google is increasingly looking for sites built around specific niches rather than sprawling, spam-filled submission sites. Content farms still have a place, as a useful place for article marketing strategies, but they are not worth spending much time on for generating income.
Of course, if you already have a well-developed site built around a specific topic, you should benefit from clearer SERPs without the usual suspects occupying the top spots. However, Google has admitted that there are problems with scraped and duplicated sites outranking the original, an issue that they have promised to address.
For this reason, there is no harm in checking your work, making sure that it hasn’t been stolen, and slapping DMCA orders on any offenders. Your legal department or your copywriter should be able to help you with this.
Good Quality Writing:
This isn’t really a change, as good quality writing is always crucial to running a website and converting potential leads into sales. Google is trying to punish duplicate content, so the days of building an affiliate site and populating it with generic product descriptions from the manufacturer are over; you need to write unique descriptions. This also applies to quotes in general: Rupert Murdoch is able to get away with syndicated content spread across different sites, but you will be sent to the sandbox. It is better to paraphrase than use large block quotes.
Whilst I doubt that Google can directly assess the quality of writing without human intervention, it does use some indirect methods. In addition, with a greater emphasis on social sites and marketing, you want compelling copy that people will share and like, rather than keyword stuffed searchbot magnets.
Longer Articles:
For a while, most writers and marketers have started regarding 400 words as a minimum, rather than the traditional 250 word blog posts and sales pitches. There is no harm in adopting the new standard, possibly working back and seeing if you can lengthen any existing articles.
Bad Content:
As the content farms are finding out, bad content drags down your good content, because pages no longer standalone. If you have a lot of bad content on your site, it will need to be removed or reworked. However, try not to make things worse; if areas of your site have good backlinks pointing towards them, deleting them could be harmful, so it is better to rewrite and improve. If you source content from a lot of contributors or guest bloggers, you may want to make sure that they genuinely produce high quality, unique content.
Keywords:
Keywords and on-page SEO are still important, so you should make sure that you provide your content writer with a few good long-tailed terms. The search results also show that keyword-rich domain names have increased in importance, so that is another factor to throw into the mix if you run a portfolio of sites.
Hiring a Writer to Keep Up With the Changing Internet Landscape
So, these are a few of the observations from the viewpoint of a writer rather than an internet marketer or SEO consultant. It isn’t only the marketing folks that have had to adapt: we professional writers for hire have to keep up with the latest developments.
If you agree or disagree, please feel free to comment, as new information and viewpoints are always welcome in the aftermath of Panda.
Need A Professional Writer For Hire? Contact Martyn Shuttleworth for a Free Consultation.
Google Panda Picture: Search Ranking Optimisation under a Creative Commons Licence.
What is a Freelance Writer?
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Normally, I try to avoid writing the ‘Do you have what it takes to be a freelance writer’ posts, as they tend to ramble without saying anything specific. This is an exception, because the recent changes in the way that search engines rank articles have affected online income, especially for folks making money on content farms.
The Google Panda algorithm devastated internet marketing, and this has had an indirect effect on freelance writers. The problem is that the freelance writing market is tied to this: not only is there less copywriting work available, as webmasters try to work out what direction to take, but turbulent times invariably see a rise in the number of people claiming to be freelancers.
As people see their income plummet, many flock to the freelance writing job boards, desperate for extra cash. This tends to drive down prices and pushes the market into a state of flux, with every single job posting attracting countless applicants.
Are You Really A Freelance Writer?
I see many people on content farms proudly proclaiming that, because they write articles for content sites, they are freelance writers. This is a misrepresentation, because posting a few articles to Hubpages and Squidoo, or churning out content to Demand Media does not make you a freelance writer, by definition.
A freelance writer is a mercenary; a hired gun who completes work to order, and this requires a different skillset and mentality than article writing. There are some fine, talented writers who write on article sites, but freelance writing demands a different style and approach. You need to be able to write about practically any topic, to a deadline, and with passion, voice and flow.
Why is this important? Firstly, I am a miserable old sod and this misuse of the term is one of my particular pet hates. I spent a lot of time and expended a lot of effort in earning the right to call myself a freelance writer. Labeling yourself a freelance writer when you are not devalues the achievements of every freelancer on the planet.
In addition, I have seen the work of some of the people on the content sites advertising themselves as freelance writer, and it is atrocious. This is one of the reasons why many businesses think that freelance writers are only worth a couple of dollars per article.
The other reason is that it creates a false illusion. As anybody who has made the leap from writing on content farms to freelancing will tell you, it is a huge, huge leap in quality, unless you are happy earning a couple of dollars per hour. Writing for clients is a different level and requires you to be at the top of your game: if your Hubpages article is a little scrappy, nobody really cares. If the work for your client is riddled with mistakes, you won’t be paid. How’s that for pressure?
Pressure Is A Great Teacher
Most people need to learn very quickly. To be a professional freelance writer, you need to have excellent grammar, spelling, punctuation, and language: that much is obvious. However, you also have to learn to master the hidden arts of writing, such as how to use emotion and voice. A hired writer needs to know how to write for different audiences, for you could be creating articles for teenagers one week and business reports for middle-aged executives the next.
If you want to be a pro writer, you must be able to master different styles and personalities. For example, it is easy to write a rant, as anger is the easiest emotion, but can you adopt sadness, impulsiveness, or joy? Can you write the long, flowing sentences required for travel writing, showing the joys of far off places and helping the reader imagine that they are feasting on new cultures and experiences? Can you chop your sentences for effect, creating buy it now urgency?
Become A Pro Writer
It seems like I have spent an entire article putting you off becoming a freelancer, but it is not all doom and gloom. Learning to freelance is a very, very steep learning curve, and most people do not make it. However, for those who stay the course, the advantage is that you become very good, very quickly: your writing will improve, as the threat of not being paid is an excellent incentive for self-improvement.
This is one of the reasons why I never bothered with the endless stream of ‘How to Be a Freelancer’ books, as you will learn far more quickly by making your own mistakes, with the added bonus that your style and soul will be your own, rather than crushed to fit some generic, tired template.
Ultimately, your personality is what will make you a freelance writer, so cherish it and never lose it.
Barter Online Services – Writing for Marketing
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Know How To Barter Online
In this part of Greece, a relaxed, rural area in the rugged heart of the Peloponnese, money isn’t everything. Following the old Greek traditions laying down elaborate rules for the giving and receiving of gifts (there really is no need to beware of Greeks bearing gifts, despite what Homer said), bartering is part of the unique, Spartan way of life.
I am not so much talking about going to the market and trying to buy fish with chickens, but the bartering of services. For example, I designed and ordered some business cards for my friend, Aris. A few weeks later, I took my family to his taverna and enjoyed a lovely, traditional Greek meal, and he tore up the bill.
This is a great system, which keeps the taxman out of the loop and helps to strengthen economic ties and friendships within the local community. I am a great believer that maintaining a thriving local economy is the best way to fight back against the current corporatism masquerading as a free market.
Online Barter System – Fish and Chickens
Anyway, I digress. The point of this post is that I believe that bartering online will grow as we look to sidestep the growing dominance of the big players, with multimillion dollar budgets. If you want proof that this can work, feel free to take a tour around my website. I often receive comments and emails about my web-designing skills, from people who like the layout of the site. Sadly, I cannot take any credit whatsoever, and the praise must go to a professional web designer.
This was a great business barter arrangement: she designed my site and In return, I wrote her some content, a barter website agreement that we are continuing, as I seek to build another website about my beautiful local area. I could have made a website myself, but learning how to do it would take a lot of time and effort, and it isn’t something that I particularly enjoy. It is a far better use of time to concentrate on what I am good at, and let a talented professional concentrate on producing what they are good at.
Stone Age Barter System by bannedhumor
Hunting for Pandas – Maximizing Meagre Resources
Taking this a little further, in the wake of the recent Google algorithm changes that have everybody panicking, content sites such as Hubpages and Squidoo have the same issue. On the content sites, you have a lot of marketers who can write a little, and a lot of writers who can market a little. Only a supremely talented few have the skill, time, or inclination to do both, and I am certainly not one of those.
The dust is settling after the recent changes and it looks like backlinks are still the unshakeable foundation of internet marketing. Now, I could spend a few days dutifully building backlinks, but I have no idea of the best way to go about this and it would be a waste of my resources, as I could use that time to work for clients and earn money. It makes sense to trade services with an experienced internet marketer, letting them build the backlinks as I concentrate upon writing them some content.
As an example, I am looking at guest blogging as a good way to build an online presence. Normally, I am reluctant to give anybody content for free, but this is a slightly different case, a barter system of skills and expertise. Ultimately, I resent backlinking and really don’t want to spend valuable time on it – I would rather stick with what I know, which is writing. Writing a post for a good marketer and letting them take care of the backlinks is much more productive for both of us.
Online Bartering – Starving the Banks
Barter Services Online - Avoid The Online Shylocks
Everybody is trying to make money from you making money. PayPal and bank charges are extortionate, so starting to barter services online is a way to starve these modern-day Sheriffs of Nottingham of their ill-gotten gains. In an age when many of us moan that the taxman takes an unfair cut, there is another advantage: you have earned no money, so there is no paper trail and no bank statements for them to take Shylock’s pound of flesh.
I believe that in some areas they do try to count barter exchange as earning (the Land of the Free, no less), but I am sure that a little creative accounting can take care of that. Instead of spamming my website with comments about Obama stealing your money, you can be proactive in your resistance towards taxation without representation.
At the end of the day, most marketers want high quality content, because that is the way that the net is moving (as long as Google doesn’t completely sell out to corporate interests). Conversely, freelance writers often need a little help with marketing, so why not trade by barter and help each other out?
How to Write Sales Letters – Passion, Voice, Simplicity
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Knowing How To Write Sales Letters Is A Useful Skill
For a writer, knowing how to write sales letters is a very useful skill, one that can open up a good source of income. As a result, I am often asked, by budding freelance writers,
“Which book should I buy to learn how to write sales letters?”
“Which sales letter template is the best?”
My answer is none of them.
A quick browse through Amazon brings up countless search results, books claiming that they have the secret that will help you to create compelling sales letters and make thousands of dollars everyday. However, I have found that very few of these writing guides have any substance or contain real pointers. Instead, most encourage laziness and concentrate upon helping the talentless become even more talentless.
Killing Your Writer’s Voice
The problem with sales writing books, or the equivalent online resources, is that they usually adopt one of two approaches.
- Cut and Paste ‘Em: These books give you a ‘tried and trusted’ template, based upon a sales letter structure that they claim is guaranteed to work, every time. This is despite the fact that unoriginal sales copy does not work.
- Paint by Numbers: These authors explain the process in intricate detail, telling you where you put every last full stop, persuading you to use ‘power words’ drawn from 1980s middle-management meetings. “Lets think outside the box, use blue sky thinking, and incorporate paradigm shifts…” Useless unless you intend to buy a suit with shoulder pads and travel back to the Age of Yuppiedom.
These two approaches carry the same inherent weakness; namely that they make it very difficult for you to develop your writer’s voice. This unique voice is the gift that makes any type of writing stand out, and it is certainly no different for sales letters.
The best sales letters, as with any other style of writing, are most effective when they are infused with emotion. The key to writing an effective sales letter is not about which words you use; it is about you, as a writer, and your personality and individuality.
Companies don’t want to pay a few hundred dollars for a copycat template or bland sales letter – they pay for your unique style and, if you can allow your personality to shine through in your writing, you will be successful.
A Sales Letter Skeleton
Now, despite my claims that you should avoid using templates, there is a basic layout to sales letters that can help you to succeed. It operates upon the principle of ‘Identify a problem, provide a solution,’ but gives you plenty of room to add a personal touch.
Title
First Paragraph – Identify or manufacture a problem.
Body – Explain how Product X can help
Final Para – Tell them how they can buy Product X
That is it – use this basic template to build your own sales letters, incorporating a style based upon your own unique voice and flow.
I have seen sales letters where the writer managed to fit everything into a hundred words and achieve great conversions. On the other hand, I have seen some writers flaunt convention and draft 1000 word monsters; their style is so engaging that clients still read the entire letter, bucking the trend towards instant gratification often found online. Clients make up their mind to buy long before they reach the bottom of the page.
Whatever approach works for you, try it – through trial and error, you will develop a style that works.
Now, I have given you a few pointers – now go out and do it!
Oh – you want an example – well, this post is a sales letter of sorts, but my Sales Letter Page is built around the basic skeleton.
My Russian friend offers a great translit product on his website, so I have created a sample sales letter for him:
Sales Letter Sample
Mikhail Alexandrov - Inventor of Translit
Across the English-speaking world, most of us take typing for granted. We boot up the computer, open the word processor, and start to lay down our thoughts. For Russian speakers, the process is much more difficult; they can buy a Cyrillic keyboard in their home country, but this option is not always available to expatriates.
To get around the restrictions, enterprising Russians have learned to use transliteration, the process of typing Russian words with Latin letters. For this, a good transliteration program, which shows you the right keys to press, is essential.
Online services, such as translit.ru, are a good way to get around the difficulties, but they suffer from one infuriating problem. These services are only available online, tying you to your internet connection and forcing you to copy/paste the work into your word-processor. A program that runs from your computer would be much easier, but a quick search online reveals that there are few commercially-available software options.
At transliterator.org, an expatriate Russian software engineer, keen to speak to his family and friends in his own language, developed a program to help computer users needing a phonetic Cyrillic translit program. This application gives you the freedom to work and write, without having to connect to the internet or vainly search for a Wi-Fi hotspot.
The transliteration program is simple to use: you simply download the program, run the installer, and start typing. With this Cyrillic translit software, the intuitive interface makes communicating in your own language straightforward and instinctive.
With full customer support and guidance, this product will not let you down. Escape frustration and make life easier – download the Translit Russian Keyboard.
