How to Overcome Fear and Achieve Your Freelance Writing Goals

How to Overcome Fear and Achieve Your Freelance Writing Goals

by | Feb 1, 2017 | Freelance Writing Tips | 2 comments

Day 10 of my goal to write every day. Today’s topic: overcoming fear and achieving your freelance writing goals.

Action.

That one word changed my life. In June 2016, I was writing for Lifehack, earning peanuts. I then stumbled across the “Earn Your First $1000 as a Freelance Writer” Challenge and it changed everything for me.

Not only did I meet the goal, but I now have a thriving freelance writing business. And it’s thanks to Bamidele Onibalusi and the support of the Facebook group that he launched.

The Facebook Group is currently 2000 members strong. While it’s a closed group – invite only -, contact me if you’re interested and I’ll see what I can do (I’m a moderator).

So, without Bamidele and the group, I’d never have achieved the goal of earning my first $1000 as a freelancer writer, and more importantly, my goal and dream of location independence and self-employment.

While the group offered a huge support base – something often needed when you’re trying to achieve something – out of the entire group not that many people achieved the goal. I don’t know exact numbers, but it wasn’t that many.

What I can tell you is why many didn’t achieve that goal and it’s simply because they took no action. I understand we all have doubts. We all have fears. We question ourselves. We think, “I’m not ready” or “I need to perfect my craft”.

But the bottom line is you’re just stalling.

You’re making excuses and the truth is: you’ll never be ready. Who ever is? “I’m not ready” is a word that makes us feel comfortable. “I’m not ready”, is in the future, unattainable.

So I encourage you to take action. And if you don’t know what action to take, just do something. Ask someone for help. Send an email. Research. Read. Implement. Do. Those little micro-movements add up and over time they displace your fears.

Note: There are articles on the blog that provide you with a blueprint to help you achieve your freelance writing goals. So, what’s your excuse?

If you enjoy writing and are serious about improving your writing skills, becoming a freelance writer, and want to earn more, I can help! Feel free to email me at nick@nickdarlington.com.

P.S. No, I’m not selling you anything. I’m not going to ask you to buy my book or even sign up for my course (I don’t have one) or weekly newsletter, I’m simply offering you help.

But remember while I can offer you assistance and support, you have to put in the work. No action = No results.

Cheers

Nick D

4 Resources to Generate Content Ideas (And Overcome Writer’s Block)

4 Resources to Generate Content Ideas (And Overcome Writer’s Block)

by | Jan 31, 2017 | Freelance Writing Tips | 0 comments

Day 9 of my goal to write every day, document my freelance writing journey, and share the knowledge with others who want to become a freelance writer. Today’s topic: generating content ideas when you have writer’s block.

I chatted with a friend yesterday. He told me he had writer’s block and was having trouble generating content ideas for a client of his.This is a common problem for many writers and blogger. I told him I’ll share some resources – I use and have used – in a blog post. Here it is.

1. Buzzsumo

With Buzzsumo you analyse what content performs best for a specific topic.

Type the keyword into the search engine. For example, “health trends”.

Buzzsumo content ideas

 

It then shows you what content has the most shares across social media channels.

best performing content

With this knowledge simply think how you can approach the articles from a different angle.

2. Hubspot Blog Topic Generator

Hubspot’s Topic Generator works differently.

Type three nouns into the given field and click Give me Topics.

blog topic generator

 

The tool generates a week’s worth of content i.e. five blog post ideas.

5 content ideas

Results aren’t always perfect, so simply click try again until you’re happy.

3. Blog Title Generator

I used Blog Title Generator extensively for one client of mine as she would send me a list of keywords the company wanted to rank for.

On their landing page, choose what you want to write about e.g. architecture, and hit next.

content ideas for writer's block

 

You’re then taking to a screen where you need to fill in blanks.

content ideas

 

Save the titles you like to the online notepad or simply refresh to continue the rollercoaster ride until you’re happy.

save content ideas

 

Once done, email them to yourself by clicking on Email Me My Titles.

email blog post titles

4. 6 Months of Blog Post Ideas with ProBlogger

Coming up with fresh content ideas can be difficult, especially when your blog grows. Luckily, Darren Rowse of ProBlogger has a solution.

He’s gone to the effort of creating 6 months of blog posts ideas. Use the titles as guidelines and tweak according to your individual needs.

Follow this link for your free copy. Below is the page you’ll be taken to.

6 months blog post ideas

 

That’s all for today.

If you enjoy writing and are serious about improving your writing skills, becoming a freelance writer, and want to earn more, I can help! Feel free to email me at nick@nickdarlington.com.

P.S. No, I’m not selling you anything. I’m not going to ask you to buy my book or even sign up for my course (I don’t have one) or weekly newsletter, I’m simply offering you help.

But remember while I can offer you assistance and support, you have to put in the work. No action = No results.

Cheers

Nick D

A Proven Strategy to Earn Your First $1000 as a Freelance Writer (Part 4)

A Proven Strategy to Earn Your First $1000 as a Freelance Writer (Part 4)

by | Jan 30, 2017 | Freelance Writing Tips | 0 comments

Day 8 of my goal to write every day, document my freelance writing journey, and share the knowledge with others who want to become freelance writers. I provide writing tips, tactics, and strategies to help you earn well. I share everything I’ve learned to date, together with hacks and tricks that have helped me.

Day 2 – I mentioned I’d share a strategy to help you earn your first  $1000 as a freelance writer.

Day 5 – I summarised the strategy and provided links to help you get started. Remember this isn’t my strategy. I never created it. I copied it from Bamidele Onibalusi, CEO of Writers in Charge. It helped me earn my first $1000, and because it works, I want to share it with you.

Day 6 – I wrote about the importance of your foundation (positioning, website, and social media presence). I touched on positioning.

Day 7 – I looked at creating your freelance writer’s website (website name, hosting provider and email address).

Today I’ll finish off the section on your freelance writer’s website (by touching on your content platform, theme, and creation of key pages) and highlight the importance of creating social media profiles.

Your Content Platform

You need a platform to manage your content. I’ll make thing’s easy for you.Go with WordPress.org. They’re the industry standard and many websites use them. By going to WordPress.org you can assign your own custom domain and use a host of your choice.

Your Theme

The theme is the skeleton, from which you will design your site. If you have coding knowledge, by all means, code! But if you’re like me and the many of people, you cannot code. That’s why using a ready made layout/theme is the way to go. You have the choice between paid or free themes.

While there are free themes that can do the job, paid themes generally offer you more customisation options. So, if you have the money, I’d recommend going for a paid theme. If you don’t, go with the Maskito Light Theme. It’s simple, minimalistic, and does the job. This is the exact theme Bamidele used for his site.

I chose The Divi Builder, which is a drag and drop website builder that gives you access to several ready-made layouts. By dragging and dropping sections and rows you can make your design unique.

Whatever theme you choose, make sure your final design is simple and clean with a lot of white space. Let your content shine through!  The next step is to start creating key pages.

Creating Key Pages

Every writer’s website will be different. But one thing I guarantee: they’ll have certain key pages on their site. So it’s imperative that your site, at the least, has these. Over time you can add things like testimonials, a blog (like I’ve done), but for now, you want to get up and running quickly.

The pages you’ll need are:

  1. About Page where you include information about yourself, the services you offer and the value you provide clients.
  2. Contact Page where you make it easy for people to contact you.
  3. Hire-Me/Services Page where you provide more details on your services, and links to a contact form.

Initially, I created a one-page website that included an About, Contact, Hire Me and Services section. My site has changed a lot, with the inclusion of a blog and separate pages. I also decided to move away from a one-page website.

A few pointers:

  • Make it about them not you. When I launched, I made it clear what value I offer: “I create engaging content that will drive traffic and positively improve ROI”.
  • Include your email address (make sure it’s not a Gmails Address), together with a submission form.
  • Establish connection by including a photo of yourself.
  • Also as a writer, I don’t need to tell you that your site should be free of grammatical errors. So once completed either step away from it and re-read it at a later stage, or let friends, work colleagues – or if you can afford it – a copywriter give it a read.
  • Avoid perfection. As you customise your site and include relevant information be wary of perfection. Perfection doesn’t exist! While you don’t want to put something on the market, that is, well, terrible, you need to develop a “this is good enough” mindset. Remember: you can change it over time.

Your Social Media Presence

Create social media profiles if you don’t have them. Focus on Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook to start. Not only does this increase your visibility in search engines, but clients also look favourably toward it. Often they’ll ask you to share the content you’ve written for them on your social media channels. That’s extra value you can provide!

If you already have social media profiles, make sure that you update them to reflect that you’re a freelance writer.

To recap, the focus of Day 6,  7 and 8 (today) was to build your foundation for freelance writing success. This included:

  1. Deciding on how to position yourself.
  2. Creating your writer’s website (website name, host, custom email address, content platform – WordPress -, theme, and key pages)
  3. Creating your social media profiles.

Click here for part 5 where I show you how to bolster your credibility with guest posting.

If you enjoy writing and are serious about improving your writing skills, becoming a freelance writer, and want to earn more, I can help! Feel free to email me at nick@nickdarlington.com.

P.S. No, I’m not selling you anything. I’m not going to ask you to buy my book or even sign up for my course (I don’t have one) or weekly newsletter, I’m simply offering you help.

But remember while I can offer you assistance and support, you have to put in the work. No action = No results.

Cheers

Nick D

A Proven Strategy to Earn Your First $1000 as a Freelance Writer (Part 3)

A Proven Strategy to Earn Your First $1000 as a Freelance Writer (Part 3)

by | Jan 29, 2017 | Freelance Writing Tips | 0 comments

Day 7 of my goal to write every day, document my freelance writing journey, and share the knowledge with others who want to become freelance writers. I provide writing tips, tactics, and strategies to help you earn well. I share everything I’ve learned to date, together with hacks and tricks that have helped me.

Day 2 I mentioned I’d share a strategy to help you earn your first  $1000 as a freelance writer.

Day 5: I summarised the strategy and provided links to help you get started. Remember this isn’t my strategy. I never created it. I copied it from Bamidele Onibalusi, CEO of Writers in Charge. It helped me earn my first $1000, and because it works, I want to share it with you.

Day 6 – Positioning.

With your positioning clear you then need to create your freelance writer’s website.

Freelance Writers Website

There are three key pages you’ll need on your site: about, hire me, services, and contact me. But before you can even start designing these pages, and creating content, you’ll need to deal with the technical aspects. Unfortunately, that’s the reality.

I understand everyone isn’t  technically-minded, but there’s this wonderful thing called Google. If you’re not willing to put in the effort, then ask yourself, “How badly do I want this?” And if you’re still struggling, feel free to contact me for help. There’s no catch. I will help you.

The point I’m trying to make is: you don’t need to be a technical guru and you shouldn’t let these obstacles stop you from becoming a freelance writer.

With that out the way, let’s jump into deciding on a website name.

1. Website Name

You want to have a custom domain name as it shows professionalism. You have a choice between your name or a unique name that indicates your writing niche.

Both have their advantages. Choosing a name that indicates your writing niche makes it clear what your site is about and makes it easier to rank in search engines. Bamidele used this technique for the challenge and created yourtechwriter.com. Needless to say, he writes about technology.

Choosing your name, while making it harder from an SEO perspective, allows you to change your site to anything in the future. It makes it easier to change your positioning. For example, if your website’s about health writing (healthwriting.com) and you decide to specialise in technology writing, you will need to buy a new domain. If you’re reading this, it’s clear what I chose.

Once you’ve done this, register your domain. It usually, costs about $10. To make things easier, I’d suggest registering your name with your hosting provider.

2. Hosting Provider

When it comes to hosting provider you’re spoilt for choice. But to simplify your decision here’s two hosting providers I recommend.

  1. Siteground: Bamidele used SiteGround for Your Tech Writer. Pricing starts at $3.95/month.
  2. Blue Host: Many top bloggers and professional writers use BlueHost. They’re the host I’ve used for websites in the past and the host I chose for the challenge. You also get discounts when you use them together with WordPress. Pricing starts at $3.45/month.

If you are cash-strapped I also have a connection that offers the use of his servers for $1 a year. That’s a kind offer. He only asks that you don’t do anything that gets him booted from his hosting provider like starting a porn ring. Fair enough. But, I can’t guarantee he’ll have a spot for you, but if you’re interested, contact me and I’ll ask him.

On to the next step.

3. Create a Professional Email Address

You want people to take you seriously right? Then why on earth would you use a Gmail address? Many clients and publications will ignore you if use free email accounts. As Bamidele says, “I’ve seen this in action so many times”. So, setup your professional email address within your hosting provider. I chose nick@nickdarlington.com.

Hosts often have poor webmail interfaces and many people prefer using the Gmail Interface. I’m one of those people. And I figured out a little trick that allows you to use your custom email address in Gmail. And no, it doesn’t involve paying a monthly fee with Google Apps. In fact, it’s free. Yes, you hear right, free!! Okay, here it is:

You go to Gmail – Settings, click – Accounts and Import, then click, –Add a Mail Account You Own. You’ll need to fill in info, that’ll vary depending on your host. Get this info by logging in to your hosting provider and/or using the live support. If you’re still struggling, don’t be lazy. Use Google.

That’s all for today and more than enough to get you started. 

Click here for the next post in the series. I’ll be jumping into your content platform, theme, the creation of key pages, and your online presence.

If you enjoy writing and are serious about improving your writing skills, becoming a freelance writer, and want to earn more, I can help!

Feel free to email me at nick@nickdarlington.com.

P.S. No, I’m not selling you anything. I’m not going to ask you to buy my book or even sign up for my course (I don’t have one) or weekly newsletter, I’m simply offering you help.

But remember while I can offer you assistance and support, you have to put in the work. No action = No results.

Cheers

Nick D

A Proven Strategy to Earn Your First $1000 as a Freelance Writer (Part 2)

A Proven Strategy to Earn Your First $1000 as a Freelance Writer (Part 2)

by | Jan 28, 2017 | Freelance Writing Tips | 4 comments

Day 6 of my goal to write every day, document my freelance writing journey, and share the knowledge with others who want to become freelance writers. I provide writing tips, tactics, and strategies to help you earn well. I share everything I’ve learned to date, together with hacks and tricks that have helped me.

Day 2 I mentioned I’d share a strategy to help you earn your first  $1000 as a freelance writer.

Day 5: I summarised the strategy and provided links to help you get started. Remember this isn’t my strategy. I never created it. I copied it from Bamidele Onibalusi, CEO of Writers in Charge. It helped me earn my first $1000, and because it works, I want to share it with you.

Today I’ll start the journey to help you earn your first $1000 as a freelance writer, which begins with your foundation for success.

Foundation for Success

Your foundation is crucial. How do you expect potential clients to take you seriously if you have no website, your social media presence is non-existent and you use a Gmail Address?

Business is about perception. The same principles apply to freelance writing. And any client who’s considering your services will research you. You need to have a footprint that says, “Hey I’m here. I’m not a ghost. And I’m bloody serious about what I’m doing!”.

So the first step was to lay my foundation. I decided how to position myself, created a website and updated my social media presence. Today’s post will focus on positioning, and on day 7 and 8, I’ll move on to creating your writer’s website and your social media presence.

Your positioning needs to be clear from the start. You can position yourself by niche (e.g. are you a business, health, or technology writer?) or service (blog posts, guest posts, ghostwriting, whitepapers etc). I positioned myself by service, offering guest posts, blog posts, and ghostwriting services across any niche – this has changed since then. I did this for two reasons:

I positioned myself by service, offering guest posts, blog posts, and ghostwriting services across any niche – this has changed since then. I did this for two reasons:

  1. I’m a Multipotentialite. A Multipotentialite is someone with many interests and passions. By specialising by service I opened myself up to many different writing niches, and in doing this, I remained true to who I am.
  2. I was a beginner freelance writer (I’m not anymore). I didn’t want to limit myself early on. I wanted to explore a diversity of topics – to date I’m still doing this – and keep my options open.

I understand there’s much research that points to the advantages of specialising by niche, such as commanding higher rates and earning more over the long run. But, everyone is different and earning a ton of money isn’t important to everyone. Besides, what’s enough money anyways?

Also, I earned over $1000 dollars in the challenge by specialising by service. And if that isn’t proof that generalising as a beginner writer can work for you, then I don’t know what is! If you can write quality content that’s of value, who cares? But by all means, specialise by niche if that’s what you want to do.

With my positioning clear, I moved on to my writers’ website, something I’ll discuss tomorrow.

If you enjoy writing and are serious about improving your writing skills, becoming a freelance writer, and want to earn more, I can help!

Feel free to email me at nick@nickdarlington.com.

P.S. No, I’m not selling you anything. I’m not going to ask you to buy my book or even sign up for my course (I don’t have one) or weekly newsletter, I’m simply offering you help.

But remember while I can offer you assistance and support, you have to put in the work. No action = No results.

Cheers

Nick D

The Only Writing Resource You Need To Become a Freelance Writer

The Only Writing Resource You Need To Become a Freelance Writer

by | Jan 27, 2017 | Freelance Writing Tips | 2 comments

Day 5 of my goal to write every day, document my freelance writing journey, and share knowledge to help you become a freelance writer. I provide writing tips, tactics, and strategies to help you earn well. I share everything I’ve learned to date.

Today’s post will be short. I’ll be sharing a freelance writing strategy to earn your first $1000 as a freelance writer. It’s a strategy shared by Bamidele Onibalusi, professional blogger, writer, and CEO of Writers in Charge.

This resource is for anyone who wants to become a freelance writer, break free from content mills, and land higher paying gigs. This is the exact strategy I followed, and as mentioned, I’ll share my experience soon.

Here are five articles you should read in sequence.

  1. Outline of the Strategy to Help You Earn you First $1000
  2. Set your Foundation as a Freelance Writer
    • Create your writer’s website and online presence
  3. Establish Credibility by Guest Posting
    • Get featured in online publications
  4. Find High Paying Clients
    • Set your criteria and create a list of websites to pitch (+-100 to start).
    • Find the name of the decision maker i.e. editor.
    • Find email address of decision makers using email finding apps.
  5. Land Writing Jobs by Cold Pitching
    • Pitch the publications using a template that works (Bamidele provides this).
    • Track progress on a spreadsheet.
    • Follow-up with editors because they’re busy people.

That, in a nutshell, is the strategy. Use the strategy combined with concerted action and you’ll become a freelance writer, land high-paying gigs, and earn well.

Click here to follow how I used this strategy to become a freelance writer.

A quick note. If you’re unable to write and speak in English, it’s wise to improve your writing and speaking skills first.

If you enjoy writing and are serious about improving your writing skills, becoming a freelance writer, and want to earn more, I can help!

Feel free to email me at nick@nickdarlington.com.

P.S. No, I’m not selling you anything. I’m not going to ask you to buy my book or even sign up for my course (I don’t have one) or weekly newsletter, I’m simply offering you help.

But remember while I can offer you assistance and support, you have to put in the work. No action = No results.

Cheers

Nick D

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