Freelancers! Give Your Neck a Rest
Is your neck giving you hell? Here’s how to ease the pain.
Well before the invention of cell phones, medical experts agreed that poor posture is the leading cause of back and neck pain. But the explosion of 24-7 cell phone use has seriously compounded this problem - and even given rise to a new medical condition: ‘Text Neck”.
“Text neck” is the nickname for all the back, neck and spinal issues affecting those who spend too much time on their cell phones and mobile devices. It is due to the constant hunching over people do to peer into their mobile screens, which malforms the spine. Physicians are reporting children as young as eight years old are affected.
Collectively, Americans check their smartphones over 8 billion times per day. And young adults age 18 to 24 send or receive an average of 109.5 text messages on a typical day.
“Just look at any crowd of young people, chances are most are exhibiting very poor posture from tilting their head down to read their device. This forces their neck & back muscles to work at awkward angles - just to keep the body upright, and pain and strain is often the result,” says Robert Gearhart, an operating room nurse and co-inventor of Body Aline, an exercise machine designed to strengthen the back and realign the spine.
“Cell phones aren’t going anywhere, so it looks like text neck will become a health problem of epidemic proportion in the years ahead,” Gearhart said. “If the trend continues, it looks like in 20 years the number of people who will have spine issues due to this will be astronomical.”
He says the best way to check your mobile device is to stand up straight and look at your device at eye level instead of reading it next to your torso, which usually results in your chin going down towards your chest. Or lie on your stomach when spending long periods of time on your phone. This provides a safe and natural passive isometric exrcise to restore the natural curve to the neck.
Of course, it is not just mobile devices that can give a person back problems – there are many causes and some, such as arthritis, have no easy answers. However, Gearhart says frequently the cause of back pain can be something that can be adjusted with proper lifestyle choices, such as:
Take breaks from desk jobs. When working at a computer, take a short break every 15 or 20 minutes, then move around and change your body and head positions.
Adjust your workspace. Set your computer monitor at eye level. Raise your smartphone to eye level rather than lowering your head. Get a tablet holder to elevate your device close to eye level. If possible, get a standing desk or an ergonomic chair. Don’t slouch at your desk.
Use voice-to-text as often as possible. This cuts down on the amount of time you are looking down at your phone.
Hold Your Phone At Eye Level. Do not look down and allow your chin to move towards your chest when you are on your mobile device. This causes the back of the neck to support the head instead of the shoulders.
“Taking some preventative measures,” Gearhart says, “is much easier than trying to treat a spine that is already out of alignment.”
About Robert Gearhart
Robert Gearhart, the co-inventor of Body Aline, is an operating room nurse. He noticed an increasing number of patients with back problems, and teamed with Jason Bowman, a certified personal trainer and former engineer, to create Body Aline. It is an exercise machine designed to strengthen the back and realign the spine.
Travel Writers: How to Keep Your Data Safe While You Travel
Writers, keep your data safe while on assignment. Here’s how.
June is Internet Safety Month. While you're traveling, it's important to keep your data safe. Keeper created this cool infographic that highlights some recommendations for travel writers or anyone else that will be traveling this summer.
Are Flexible Schedules the New Freelance for Writers? 30 Companies Hiring for Flexible Schedule Jobs in 2018
Are flexible schedules the new freelance for writers? FlexJobs offers their insight and the top 30 companies that hire with flexible schedules. This list may be a treasure trove for writers that want a full-time job with the flexibility of freelancing.
Are flexible schedules the new freelance for writers? FlexJobs offers their insight and the top 30 companies that hire with flexible schedules. This list may be a treasure trove for writers that want a full-time job with the flexibility of freelancing.
Having a flexible schedule is one of the most desired types of flexible work arrangements, second only to remote work, and well ahead of part-time and freelance jobs. Fortunately, jobs that offer flexible schedules are available across industries and career levels. To highlight the diversity of companies that hire for flexible schedule jobs, FlexJobs has compiled the top 30 companies hiring for flexible schedule jobs in 2018. This list is based on an analysis of over 50,000 companies and looks specifically at their flexible schedule job posting histories in FlexJobs’ database between January 1 and May 31.
These 30 companies represent a wide variety of industries, such as education, finance, human resources, and healthcare. Auditor, bookkeeper, email marketing manager, fundraising associate, occupational therapist, and senior HR specialist are just a few of the diverse flexible schedule job titles currently available at these companies.
“While facing a tight labor market, employers need to think strategically about how they can attract and retain top talent, and recognize how much people across all demographics value work flexibility,” said Sara Sutton Fell, founder and CEO of FlexJobs. “With improved work-life balance, decreased stress, and better overall health, workers absolutely prioritize flexible work arrangements, and smart companies, like the ones featured on this list, are making more and more of these types of positions available,” Sutton Fell concluded.
A “flexible schedule job” refers to jobs that allow workers to vary their hours and mostly be in control of the hours they work.
30 Companies Hiring for Flexible Schedule Jobs in 2018:
King and Prince Resort: The Ideal Writer's Retreat
During the month of May I had the pleasure of traveling to the lovely St. Simons Island on the coast of Georgia. While I was there, it struck me that this place is an ideal spot for a writer's retreat.
During the month of May I had the pleasure of traveling to the lovely St. Simons Island on the coast of Georgia. While I was there, it struck me that this place is an ideal spot for a writer's retreat. Driving in, I noticed the blunt lack of commercialism. You won't find super stores or billboards lining the streets. What you do find is pretty island cottages in bright colors and homey shops that specialize in everything from mead and other honey products, like Savannah Bee Company, to fine glass art, like at Pain in the Glass.
Nestled in with these shops are fun restaurants that feature local cuisine that will blow your mind. I loved the delicious down-home food at Gnat's Landing and the gourmet delights at Georgia Sea Grill.
Overall, the downtown area is a great place to walk around all day long. (Though I wish I had some trekking poles.) If you can make it past all of this awesomeness to get to the beach, you'll find the crown jewel of St. Simons Island, The King and Prince Resort. It's the only resort on the island with beachfront views and a great place for writers to escape to.
What I love most about King and Prince is there aren't distractions to get caught up in. Just sea and quiet in a historical building that is a member of the Historic Hotels of America and is named to the National Register of Historic Places. No neon signs. No crazy beach parties. No buildings higher than four-stories. Just the feeling of solitude, even when the resort is full of people.
When you're caught up in writing, you don't need to rely on fast food delivery. There is room service, but I prefer the completely lovely ECHO restaurant found on the first floor. You can choose to sit beachside at one of the picnic tables while you eat and write in your notebook, shaded by a large umbrella.
One morning I did just that, and it was blissful. The sand is white and the tides are incredible. Because of its location on the coast, the island's tides are massive and a fascination to watch while you brainstorm or daydream.
The inside of the resort is just as great for daydreaming. There are gorgeous stained glass windows on the second floor with a cute little sitting room where I found myself each morning. If you can't find inspiration to write while showered with morning light beaming through colored glass, we can't be friends.
There are other little sitting nooks hidden all over the property where you can write and relax. Here are just a few that I found.
Overall, the King and Prince provides just the type of setting that creatives need to think and write. I was fully inspired every day I was there.
Here's How To Identify Your Soul Purpose To Live A Regret-Free Life
Here's some interesting news that was sent to me in an email this morning. I thought it may help you when planning goals for your writing career or just life in general. A new study from Cornell University published in the journal Emotion uncovered the biggest regrets that people had in life, reports Forbes.com.
“And they aren’t about missing a deadline or not buying a big house,” says Jennifer Longmore, B.A.S.W., M.Ed, a Life Coach & Founder of Soul Journeys, an international coaching company that helps everyone from Fortune 500 CEOs to Professional Athletes rediscover their life’s purpose.
The study found that the biggest regrets people had in life were about failing to fulfill their hopes, goals and aspirations and NOT about failing to fulfill their duties, obligations and responsibilities, writes The Cornell Chronicle.
“We want to feel like we matter and that our lives have meaning, but in order to do that you have to first identify your life’s purpose and then go after it,” explains Jennifer Longmore, who has conducted over 30,000 soul purpose sessions, including ones with Fortune 500 executives at Microsoft, Amazon and Disney, as well as with professional athletes from the Chicago Bulls, the L.A. Lakers and the Seattle Sounders.
Longmore says:
Here's How To Identify Your Soul Purpose To Live A Regret-Free Life
Flip through magazines. Rip out pages that speak to you, even if you don’t know why. It can help you identify your passions.
Identify leaders you admire. Read their biographies. You can get clues to how they live their life. Success always leaves clues.
Look for people in your life who you feel are living on purpose. Go ask them some questions. Just talking about this with others will help you start to uncover your own passions.
Be purposeful. When we are purposeful about morning habits it ripples into other areas of our life. Set up a morning routine for your first hour of waking and start doing this every day.
Clear out your unhealthy habits. Put a priority on health. We all know what our bad habits are, work on cutting them out. Health clears the mental clutter and makes you think clearly, making it easier to discover your life path.
Read books on soul purpose, goal achievement, and mindfulness. Try The Fluff-Free Freelance Writing Master Course Workbook: The only course that gives you concrete, actionable information to building a successful freelance business without any fluff.
Start small. Once you have an idea of something you want to achieve, try it on for size – see if you really do like it before you dive headfirst.
Meet people. Network with people who are doing what you want to do. Not only will you learn from them, you may get an opportunity to jump into the work.
Make time. Make your purpose a priority. On hour a week, google how to achieve your goal and schedule these steps into your calendar for specific dates and times.
Signs You've Found The Perfect Business For You
Whether you’re somebody who just wants to get out of the rat race by starting a successful venture, or somebody who considers themselves a budding entrepreneur and just wants something to start them off, you need to know what signs to look out for to know that you’ve found the perfect business. Here are some pointers that should help you to figure it out.
Finding the perfect business for you can take a lot of research, brainstorming and going backwards and forwards. Whether you’re somebody who just wants to get out of the rat race by starting a successful venture, or somebody who considers themselves a budding entrepreneur and just wants something to start them off, you need to know what signs to look out for to know that you’ve found the perfect business. Here are some pointers that should help you to figure it out.
You Feel Excited a Lot of the Time
If you’ve come up with an idea and you feel excited about it a lot of the time, you can feel fairly confident that you’ve found a business you should pursue. Feeling excited at the start of any business venture is normal, so you need to make sure that this feeling of excitement isn’t just going to wear off after a short while. See if you can be sensible through the excitement and listen to your intuition. Does this business idea feel right to you?
You Have What it Takes to Succeed in the Industry
In any industry, you’re going to need a few things to make sure you can succeed. A little knowledge of the industry will go a long way, of course, but remember that you don’t need to know absolutely everything to get started. If you wait until that moment, you’ll be waiting a very long time! You also need to be passionate about the industry and the idea, as well as have some kind of skill. If you can combine all of these things, then you should feel good about starting a business.
You Can Make Contacts
Oftentimes, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. If you know you can make contacts in the industry that you’re thinking of pursuing, then it could be a good idea to go with it. Making contacts, even with suppliers is a great way to save money and get your business off to a fantastic start. Whether you’re looking for a supplier of vertical water storage tanks or you just need some office furniture, making contacts in the industry will help you to get to where you want to be.
You’re Always Coming Up With Ideas
Being a business owner is all about coming up with new ideas to keep your business moving forward, and to ensure that it won’t die. If you can’t seem to stop coming up with ideas, this is a great sign that you’ve found your ideal niche!
You’re Willing to Accept the Not so Great Stuff
In every industry, there are some not so great things that you’ll have to put up with. It doesn’t matter if you're working at your dream job, you’re going to come up against some challenges and some things that you just don’t enjoy as much. Think of the things you’ll likely have to deal with in this industry and whether you’re willing to accept them. If you are, you know you’ve found the perfect business for you!
FlexJobs Identifies Entry-Level Remote Jobs for New College Graduates
Remote jobs are available across career levels; Haynes & Company, Appen, and American Red Cross among companies recruiting entry-level remote positions.
Remote jobs are available across career levels; Haynes & Company, Appen, and American Red Cross among companies recruiting entry-level remote positions.
Boulder, CO, May 8, 2018, Guest post—According to a recent FlexJobs survey, 98% of more than 500 students interested in work flexibility said that having flexible work is something they would want for the long-term. The top reasons for wanting flexible work are work-life balance, family, time savings, and cost savings. A quarter of students would be willing to accept a pay cut in exchange for flexible work options, and 75% report that work-life balance is more important to them than salary (71%) when evaluating a job prospect. To showcase the diversity of remote entry-level opportunities available to new graduates, FlexJobs has identified 12 entry-level remote jobs currently hiring.
“There’s a persistent myth that entry-level jobs usually can’t be flexible or that new professionals have to put in a lot of time in a traditional office before they can work remotely,” said Sara Sutton Fell, Founder and CEO of FlexJobs. “As we approach a new graduation season, we want to debunk that myth by highlighting the variety of entry-level remote jobs that are in fact available to 2018 college graduates,” Sutton Fell concluded.
The following 12 remote jobs span different industries and are appropriate for new college graduates seeking entry-level positions. In addition to remote work, each job may offer other types of flexibility, such as flexible scheduling, freelancing, or part-time hours.
Each of these jobs requires a college degree and a minimal amount of experience, which can include internships, part-time experience, or a bit of full-time experience, depending on the role.
Digital Marketing Account Associate: Provide support of account managers and coordinators within campaigns for online advertising and work with 4 - 6 accounts to study and master best practices for SEM.
English Teacher: Facilitate teaching activities for English students in this part-time, all telecommuting position. 6 month initial contract with a flexible schedule. BA degree or higher is desired, along with TEFL/CELTA certification or equivalent.
In-Field Quantitative Market Researcher: Entry-level in-field quantitative market researcher desired for a flexible, remote role. Must be available to work evenings/weekends. Must have college degree, strong communication/organization skills, and the ability to work independently. Contract.
Linguist: Write and edit grammar, phonology and other materials. Test and evaluate, and document. Requires good English language skills and native fluency in Sylheti language, as well as a bachelor’s degree. Telecommute, as-needed, contract position.
Premium Auditor Trainee: Work from home and travel to businesses to review payroll and sales information for expired insurance policies. Full-time, some telecommuting role with travel. Must have computer and keyboarding skills, along with a valid driver's license.
Primary Care Representative: Ensure customers are provided with nutrition samples and materials and educated on how to use them. A bachelor’s degree and 1-3 years of sales experience are required. One-year contract position is telecommute-based with travel required.
Recruitment Specialist: Source candidates through various means, research new opportunities for networking and recruiting, conduct reference checks, and schedule interviews. Requires 1-3 years of experience and preferably a degree. Part-time with telecommute option.
Service Support Specialist: Full-time job, some remote work. Travel. Needs an associate's degree and some biomedical industry experience. Provide support in defined territory, instruct customer in the operation, use and maintenance of the system and serve as a company liaison.
ServiceNow Developer: Be responsible for designing, developing and testing enterprise solutions using a platform on BEAs ServiceNow. Will work with Business Analysts to improve the user experience and apply practices in Agile development. Work from home 50%.
Software Quality Engineer: Temporary, full-time job. Needs a bachelor's degree and one year industry experience and experience with performance testing tools. Take part in overall testing requirements, understand requirements and will perform peer reviews of QA artifacts.
Trauma Registrar: Part-time job, remote option. Varying days. Needs an associate's degree in nursing and licensed by WY Board of Nursing. Pays $25.79 an hour. Take part in monthly education, participate in trauma activities, compile statistics and prepare reports.
Vaccination Program Specialist: Remote, full-time job. Needs a bachelor's degree and one year' safety management work experience. Responsible for auditing, management, coordination and planning, identify, analyze and trend exposures and will prepare monthly compliance reports.
New graduates should also avoid common job-hunting mistakes, such as being too vague in a resume or cover letter, not using social media in the search, not committing enough time to the search, stopping a search after getting a promising lead, and being inflexible about in your search.
How Freelancers Can Learn from Green Hair
You need to be like green hair, my freelance writing friends. Story time!
You need to be like green hair, my freelance writing friends. Story time!
When my daughter was in elementary school she decided she wanted green hair. Since we’ve always encouraged our daughters to be themselves, her dad spent all evening lovingly coloring her hair.
The next day, I got a phone call from my daughter’s teacher. The green hair caught the eye of a bully and he was harassing my little girl. I was sad for my daughter, but what the teacher said next floored me. “She really needs to change her hair back to blond so she doesn’t distract the other students.” So, basically, my daughter needed to conform to make the bullies comfortable and quiet. A white-hot rage welled up inside of me. Our world is seriously fucked up, I thought to myself.
Your freelance writing dream is a lot like green hair. It’s different. People are uncomfortable with different and, more than likely, family and friends will give you hell over your decision. Why can’t you just have a nice, stable normal job like everyone else? Get your head out of the clouds and come back down to Earth, they’ll say.
Ignore them!!!
Your job in this life isn’t to make people comfortable with your personal choices. The choices you make for yourself are meant to do one thing: make you happy. If you love putting words on blank screens or filling pages of notebook paper with ideas, go for it! You do you. Luxuriate in the feeling of being weird and free.
Is Your Business's Branding Up To Scratch?
Is your branding good enough. Probably not. Here’s how to find out.
Branding definition
When it comes to setting up your own business, it falls to you to figure out where your priorities lie. Of course, every business owner is going to have a different set of priorities to those around them, and it's often easy to fall into the trap of focusing your energy in the wrong places.
After all, your instinct may be to focus on the areas of your business that interest you or that you're skilled in, but that just leads to things being neglected. One of the most tragically neglected parts of many smaller businesses is their branding. Without high-quality branding, no-one is going to take your business seriously. With that in mind, here are some ways to get your branding up to scratch.
Understand design trends
branding tips
One of the most common mistakes that a lot of businesses make with their branding is that they try to latch on to current design trends as though that's going to immediately make their branding better.
However, the truth is, the key is to try and understand them so that you can figure out what it is that makes them popular in the first place. That way you'll be able to use those same ideas in your own branding, rather than just creating branding that is derivative of your competition.
Use different media
branding image
In the modern era, there are now more different types of media than ever before. Your branding needs to be able to function properly no matter what medium you're using at any given time. Whether it's social media posts, customized labels, or a giant billboard next to the highway, being able to create branding that works across a variety of different media is pretty much essential.
Of course, this means that you have to consider how people will interact with your branding. Think about whether your branding is just as effective when looked at for a moment compared to when it's looked at for a longer period of time. Or perhaps how good it looks when blown up to giant proportions.
Outsource it
where to use branding
Even if you know what it is that you want from your branding, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be able to turn that into a reality. If that's the case, the best thing that you can do is to outsource your branding to an expert designer or design team. Sure, handing over parts of your business can be pretty scary, but it can also be one of the very best ways to not only create the best possible branding, but also to free up your mind to focus on other areas of your business.
It's understandable that a lot of small businesses tend not to focus enough on their branding. After all, not everyone can be a graphic designer and most smaller businesses don't have the kind of budget for a design team. However, this side of your business is simply too important to allow it to fall by the wayside. If you do, you're letting down your entire business.
Clear Communication Is The Key To Success In Freelancing
Poor communication can not only undermine your credibility as a freelancer, it can scare clients away resulting in a sustained pattern of lost earnings. In order to ensure that your communicate clearly and efficiently for freelancing success, it’s vital that you learn to...
Lots of people give up the day job for a freelancing career and never look back and it’s not hard to see why. The freedom to set your own hours, work at your own pace and choose through design or plain old trial and error which practices and processes work for you is understandably appealing. Most freelancers also appreciate being able to work autonomously, without having to get their every creative decision or artistic flourish signed off by a committee of managers and board members. But while freelancing allows us to take our career and our destiny into our own hands, we must be mindful of bad habits and poor practices that can harm our career prospects.
In lieu of the systems of training and professional development our salaried friends enjoy, freelancers must be true autodidacts, constantly learning new ways to make their practices more effective and efficient.
Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the world of communication. All freelancers, even those who work remotely, must be in a perpetual state of communication with clients, sources, contacts and others on whom they rely on a daily basis. Poor communication can not only undermine your credibility as a freelancer, it can scare clients away resulting in a sustained pattern of lost earnings. In order to ensure that your communicate clearly and efficiently for freelancing success, it’s vital that you learn to...
Choose a communications platform that works for you
Lots of freelancers feel that they come across best in person or over the phone, but these are rarely the most efficient means of communication. Cold calls from clients are a pet hate amongst veteran freelancers and while communicating over the phone can be advantageous to freelancers, it’s important to make sure that phone calls, skype calls and face to face meetings are scheduled as much as possible to allow for optimal time management.
Email is all well and good but it’s rarely the most efficient form of communication due to its lack of immediacy. As you’ll see from this post, many businesses are embracing the immediacy of text messaging to facilitate efficient business communications. There’s no right or wrong here, it’s simply a matter of what works for you.
Proof read your communications with the client in mind
When composing outbound communications to clients or when applying for freelance positions it’s important to read them with the client in mind. Is your use of language needlessly elaborate? Is your communication written with brevity and efficiency of communication? Bear in mind that the person reading it is likely to be very busy and won’t have time to pore over lengthy emails. While s smattering of technical jargon is good for showing that you know your onions, using too much of it can make you seem smug, while going OTT on the acronyms may alienate some clients.
Build value in your invoices
Finally, an oft overlooked form of communication with your clients is your invoicing. Your invoice isn’t just how you get paid, it’s an important part of your communications. Does the client know that they’re getting their money’s worth? Have you included any discounts or anything you’ve thrown in for free on your invoice? If your client recognizes the value in what they’re paying for, they’ll be much more likely to invite you back.
Just starting out and need some good advice? Check out my book:
The Fluff-Free Freelance Writing Master Course Workbook
Steal This Trick to Get More Twitter Followers
Social media marketers use this trick and you can too.
Social media marketers use this trick and you can too.
Having a legion of Twitter followers is a status symbol, but it's also a way people morph themselves from mere individuals to influencers and tastemakers. Many of the people with massive followings you see on Twitter didn't get them organically. They either purchased followers, which I don't recommend, or they used the "follow for followers" method. You can do the later to boost your following without any money.
get twitter followers
A little disclosure: I'm a social media manager for some of my clients. Not only have I been behind the scenes of brand accounts, but I've also attended many social media marketing seminars that teach the follow for followers technique. People who abuse the technique can get their accounts shut down, but as long as you follow the steps properly, you won't have a problem.
The Steps to Getting More Twitter Followers
The follow for followers process is pretty simple. First, find someone on Twitter that posts a lot of things that you like to post and has a lot of followers. You probably already follow someone on Twitter that you love and would love to emulate. This will be your target.
Next, go to their profile and click where it says their follower number below their header photo. This will take you to a list of their followers. These followers like what your target post, so chances are, they will like what you post, too.
Conveniently, beside the name of each follower is a follow button. Stretch out your clicker finger, because it is going to get a workout. Follow 100 of these target followers and stop. Wait around 5 minutes and follow another 100. I know one marketer that follows 1,000 people per day, per account, but 200 to 400 is safer and it still gets results.
Do this every day for 10 days.
Now Do a Purge
starbrew not following back tool
When the 10 days are up, you'll have a lot of new followers, but you will be following way more people than are following you back. After 10 days if a person isn't following you back, it's unlikely that they are going to. Many of your unfollowers will be inactive accounts or bots. So you need to do a purge.
Unfortunately, you can't manually unfollow people in any organized way on Twitter, so sign up for Crowdfire and StatusBrew. Each tool allows you to unfollow 100 people per day using a free account.
If you use both tools, you will be able to unfollow 200 people per day to purge your non-followers. To do this, go to the "not following back" tools and change the settings so that it is displaying your oldest non-followers first. Now start unfollowing.
followers on Twitter
To make the process easier, you can automate it using a tool called Jooicer. For a few bucks a month you can set up this tool to automatically follow people who are interested in topics you post. It will also automatically unfollow people who don't follow you back. I've tried it on one of my accounts and I'm not hating the results.
Keep Your Account Safe
There are some things to remember when using this method. When an account is following and unfollowing large amounts of people in a short period of time, it may think that the account has been hacked or that it is controlled by a bot. In most cases, Twitter will just make you change your password, but accounts can get shut down. So, to avoid this, take a break in-between batches of 100 follows and 100 unfollows.
Don't Be Shifty
There's a practice among some that I call "Twitter baiting." It uses the follow for followers technique, but instead of just unfollowing people who didn't follow them back, these people unfollow everyone, usually as soon as the person follows them back. These sneaky tweeters know that most people will keep following a person even when they are unfollowed only because most people don't keep track of who follows them and who doesn't.
If you're trying to build a community of Twitter followers, this practice is a big no-no. You want to be able to see what your followers post so you can get an idea of what they want to see you post. If you're not following them, you won't get this valuable information.
Plus, people get wise to this practice over time and word may spread that you're a spammer. That's not a great way to build a following.
i have more twitter followers than
The Results
Granted, the follow for followers technique is a boring process, but it offers big returns. If you do this process every day for ten days, you'll be impressed at how well your numbers grow. The results usually follow a 2:1 ratio. For every 200 people you follow, you will gain around 100 followers. By the end of 10 days you'll have 1,000 new followers. If you keep this up, you can amass around 6,000 followers in two months.
Something I've noticed is you get unexpected Twitter followers that you didn't follow. My theory is, when people are following you back Twitter adds you to the "Who to Follow" list on the pages of the followers of your new followers. I call these bonus followers.
The best part is, your new Twitter followers won't just be random people. They will be people who like what you like and will actually interact with you and share your posts. Sharing posts will attract new followers and soon your Twitter account will be growing on its own.
Why Writing for $3 Per Article Isn't Going to Help Your Freelance Career
This is why you shouldn’t settle for low paying freelance writing jobs.
This is a throwback from 2011, but I thought my No-Fluffers would enjoy reading it.
In one of my posts I wrote about a content site that pays $3 per article. I got this comment soon after:
Alina, I write for writers domain and I think it's a decent way to learn the ropes of freelance writing and get a little extra cash too. I've also done Textbroker in the past. Neither are the $50/hr jobs that you're looking for, but you're probably a much higher-caliber writer; I'm just getting started. While I definitely would like to get paid more, I also don't want to spend my time weeding through work and not getting paid. Looking for work is still work in my opinion and I only have so much time before my kid wakes up! I find with WD I can make $20-30/hr if I'm focused. Yes, it's only $3.30 per article, but I can do 6-8 an hour. That being said, I am quite a fast typer and not everyone can do that. - Gary Here is my reply to Gary:
Hi Gary,
I assume that you came to my blog because you were looking for information on becoming a freelance writer. So, I'm going to give you some advice from my 13 years of experience in the writing world and post it here for others to benefit from, as well.
The problem is that sites like these don't really teach you the ropes of how to be a freelance writer. They teach you how to churn out text that attracts search engine clicks. It's not an entryway to higher paying clients down the road. Clips form these sites will more than likely be ignored.
High-paying clients aren't looking for these types of articles. They don't want words off the top of your head as fast as you can type them. They want quotes. They want research. They want people that are experts on niches.
This isn't just my opinion. It is how the world of online content is evolving. Google's Panda updates are putting sites like Writers Domain out of business. In fact, the king of content, Demand Studios, (they have produced content that is much like your WD's for years) has slowed down production to almost nothing because search engines aren't picking it up any more. This means that eventually, you won't have those $3 jobs anymore. Then what? You'll be left with useless clips and no where to go.
I encourage you to work on clips that feature an expertise in some niche for sites or publications that have a better reputation. These jobs aren't that hard to find.
I've been where you are. I understand your thought process because I've thought the same thing in the past. Unfortunately for those looking for a quick buck, that's not how the freelancing writing world works anymore and those days are coming to an end.
Want tips on finding gigs that pay well? Read my book
The Fluff-Free Freelance Writing Master Course Workbook
How to Apply for Freelance Writing Jobs Quickly
Okay, you've seen the places I look for freelance writing jobs and you've seen how I weed out the best paying jobs. Now I'm going to show you how I apply for the freelance jobs quickly. The secret is that I use templates I customize for each gig.
Okay, you've seen the places I look for freelance writing jobs and you've seen how I weed out the best paying jobs. Now I'm going to show you how I apply for the freelance jobs quickly. The secret is that I use templates I customize for each gig.
For example, one of my niches used to be fitness and healthy eating. So, I wrote a cover letter that goes over all of my expertise in this area. When I applied for jobs in this niche, I just tweaked the cover letter a bit and copy and paste it into an email. I'd change out writing clips, too, according to what type of articles or blogs the client is looking for. One out of five tries, my templates usually brought in a client. I bet you want to see one of my templates. Here's one of my old ones that got me a lot of gigs:
It's as simple as that. I also had a resume that is customized to the fitness and healthy eating niche to go with the template. This part is very important because you don't want to send a general resume with a targeted cover letter. They just won't mesh and your client will be confused. Or bored. Or both.
Do you use templates or other quick way to apply for freelance writing jobs? Let me know!
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How to Quickly Weed Through Freelance Writing Job Ads
Today, I'm going to show you how I weed through freelance writing ads quickly everyday to find the real gems.
When I need a new freelance gig I usually find one in a few day's time. Is it because I have really low standards? No. I get great new gigs quickly because I've gotten job hunting down to a science. A while back, I posted my list of job hunting sites.
Today, I'm going to show you how I weed through them quickly everyday to find the real gems.
First, I scan job lists for keywords that target my niches.
I only click on ads with titles that aren't generic like, "Looking for Writer" or "Freelance Writer Needed."
Then, I click on the job link and look to see if it is an on-site job or telecommute.
If it's on-site I toss it. I quickly look for the per word, per article or per job rate.
If it's too low I toss it. If I haven't tossed it yet, I actually read the ad. If it asks for too much work for the fee I toss it.
If by some chance the ad makes it to step four I will actually apply for it.
How Do You Get Respect From Family and Friends? Write, My Friend, Write
Family members don’t always respect writers. Here’s how to convince them you’re serious.
I was cruising the forms and a post stuck out. One young writer was asking how do you make your family respect your choice to write. Well, my answer was pretty simple. I've found that success is the best way to make family and friends respect me.
When I started being able to take press trips to luxury hotels for my travel writing and such, my family acted like I was a superstar. When I started making $50 an hour they treated my writing time very reverently.
So, you're probably saying, "Okay, this doesn't help me at all," but wait.How did I get to that point? I worked even when my family didn't believe in me. I worked when they bothered me. I worked when I found it hard to concentrate. I worked with a baby balanced on my lap, happily punching the keys as I wrote.
I think it was Stephen King that said the best way to become a success is to sit your butt in the chair and write no matter what. That is so true. No matter what your family thinks, no matter what your roommate does, write anyway, even if you think it's drivel, even if your brain feels like it's going to bleed. Keep it up.
Eventually, you'll make it.
Here’s everything you need to make it as a successful freelance writer.
The Top Five Ways to Work at Home With Small Children
If you have children, like I do, keeping your kids happy while you are writing, and still getting work done, can be a hassle. Here are some tips to make life a little easier.
If you have children, like I do, keeping your kids happy while you are writing, and still getting work done, can be a hassle. Here are some tips to make life a little easier.
Make a Mini-Office
Make a special area for your kids beside your work area. Fill it with toys, coloring books, crayons, and other things that your child likes and encourage him to play while you work.
Give Them "Work"
Let your child "work" too. Give your child a small pad of paper and a pencil, then let her go wild. Even if your child can't really write yet, she will still get satisfaction out of being like mommy or daddy.
Schedule in Fun
Take regular play breaks. Give your tot, and your own mind, a break and play your child's favorite game for a few minutes every couple of hours.
Work Around Your Child's Schedule
Decide to work when your child is napping, at grandma's or playing outside with your spouse. This way you can get 100% quiet time for those especially important tasks.
Work at Home, Away from Home
Take your child to places where they can safely play and you can have WiFi access, like McDonald's. Your child can get plenty of exercise and socialization and you can get a frothy drink to sip while you work. This was one of my biggest writing secrets when my kids were little.
Here’s everything you need to make your writing business successful.
5 Services Every Successful Freelancer Should Bring on Board
More often than not, we believe that we’re going to need to work by ourselves and a lot of the time you will. But, at the same time, if you want to grow and be successful, you can bring in external services to help you.
In the wonderful world of freelance work, you’re often alone. You’re your own boss, you don’t work for a company, and that can be incredibly freeing. But at the same time, life as a freelancer can also be a little lonely.
More often than not, we believe that we’re going to need to work by ourselves and a lot of the time you will. But, at the same time, if you want to grow and be successful, you can bring in external services to help you.
Graphic Design
First up, there’s graphic design. Perhaps you want to be able to offer a full-service to your clients, but you’re not so great on the graphic front? Well, then you can bring in a freelance graphic designer to help you do that.
You can utilize their skills when your clients need graphics, and they may then want to utilize yours if their clients need content. You'll find your relationship with a graphic designer can be a great way to push your freelancing business forward. At the same time, you can utilize their help for graphics on your website and within your marketing and portfolio too.
IT Support
As a freelancer, it’s safe to say that you spend a lot of your time working on your computer. So if you were to have an issue with it, software or hardware, it’s going to be a huge problem. Not only can it slow you down and kill your productivity, but it may even cost you clients or lose work - and that’s something you’ll always want to avoid.
Bringing in IT support, with someone such as Houk Consulting, is a great way to play it safe. They take on the support for you, so you can just get on with your work.
Financial Support
How are you with numbers? If you’re not great with the financial side of things, then bringing in an accountant is going to save you time. If you hire the right accountant, you’ll save money in the long-run too.
Virtual Assistance
Maybe you’re spending a lot of time replying to emails and organizing information? When this is the case, you’re probably reducing your rate by far too much! And you may also be killing your productivity levels. So bring in a virtual assistant. By hiring a VA, they can do all this for you on a set hourly rate, so you can focus on your work.
Marketing Support
Finally, there’s marketing support. And there are a range of marketers you could hire. Obviously, you can do your own content, but you may find that it pays to bring someone in to find clients to save you time too!
Stuck In A Rut? 3 Awesome Ways To Grow Your Freelance Business
You may have days where you are twiddling your thumbs, with only the odd short-term project and plenty of tumbleweed moments on your hands. How can you strive for more equilibrium in your freelance working life? Take a look at these ways you can mitigate against the lulls and grow your freelance business.
The life of a freelancer is a roller coaster ride. One month you may be swamped with writing projects, SEO jobs and copy to produce. You might be working flat out, ten hours a day and then chasing the mountain of invoices that follow. While these may be manic months, these are productive months that can see you through those other periods that descend into a lull.
You may have days where you are twiddling your thumbs, with only the odd short-term project and plenty of tumbleweed moments on your hands. How can you strive for more equilibrium in your freelance working life? Take a look at these ways you can mitigate against the lulls and grow your freelance business.
Show Your Credibility
Many clients need to read the positive testimonials from your previous clients and see examples of your work before they part with their hard-earned cash and entrust you with a writing project, so be sure they are easy to find.
Some writers even go one step further, and create some fake check stubs that can demonstrate how much you may earn in a given month. Now, I don't advocate lying, but you may want to create a graph of recent earning that you can show clients.
By providing this evidence, you can fill your potential customer with confidence. They want to utilize a busy writer in high demand, not someone scrambling for every job they can get.
Expand Your Repertoire
You may be experiencing a lull because you simply don’t have all the skills that clients are looking for in your armory. If you are a travel blogger, it’s vital that you hone this niche skill, for example.
However, if a client is requesting high-quality content for SEO driven copy, you don’t want to be turning clients away because this is outside your sphere of comfort. Get on a course and develop your knowledge. Become adept at keywords and public relations press releases as well as having your trusty travel blogging skills to fall back on.
Think about offering bundles to elongate projects. If you charge $80 per 500-word article, think about providing a package of ten for the price of eight. The client feels like they have a good deal, and you have a solid influx of cash and some steady work.
Use Social Media
If you haven’t got a Twitter, Facebook or Instagram account, you need to sign up to these platforms as soon as you’ve finished reading this. The power of social media cannot be underestimated in the twenty-first century.
This free online marketing can act as your advertising platform, your marketing campaign and your review site. Potential clients will head straight to Facebook to see if you have a page, seek out examples of your work and read what your clients have to say about you. If you’ve worked with big names, shout about it on your social media feeds. You need to be visible, relevant and able to persuade any potential client with a writing job to come to you rather than your competition.
Going freelance isn’t an easy process, and while you’re learning the ropes, you’ll find that you need to utilize every opportunity you have to obtain writing jobs. Persevere, remain visible and upskill yourself to grow your freelance business.
The Experienced Freelancer Secrets Every Newbie Needs To Know
Let’s take a look at some of the things you need to know if you want to get on the right path to success as a freelancer.
When you’re new to freelancing, you often look at more experienced or established freelancers and wonder exactly how they got there. Although you should never look to compare yourself, you have to be able to look to those freelancers for inspiration.
Wouldn’t it be great to know their secrets? Well, you can because they’re not actually secrets, they’re just tried and tested approaches to the world of freelancing. Let’s take a look at some of the things you need to know if you want to get on the right path to success as a freelancer.
Fake It ’Til You Make It
This is something that can apply to any business, and many other areas of life too, and it’s to fake it until you make it. You’re not going to know everything when you first start out because you’re brand new. But at the same time, you’ll only ever learn because you’ve had to do something, or because you’ve worked on it.
So fake it for now and trust that you can learn the skills and pick up the knowledge you need when you’re required to. And guess what? As you go along, you will soon become the expert that you’ve positioned yourself as. This is my biggest secret to success. Now I have a successful writing career and 20 years of experience.
Determine Your Worth
Now let’s talk rates, because you know you want to be earning say $100 an hour, and not $10 - right? Read as much as you can about setting your rates like https://www.freelancewriting.com/freelancing/how-to-set-your-freelance-writing-rates/.
You have to really realize that you get to set your rates and you get to determine what your time is worth.
First, figure out how much you want to earn per month.
Figure out how much you want to work, in hours, per day.
Multiply the number of hours by 30 to find how many hours you will work a week.
Divide the amount you would like to make by total number of hours . This is your per hour rate.
Time how long it takes to write an article in hours.
Multiply that by your hourly rate. This will be your per article rate.
This is how I determine my rates.
Show, Don’t Say
This is a biggie! It’s just far too easy to say that you’re great at this or a pro at that. But if you can show that you are, with your work or portfolio, clients will be more impressed. So start a blog or build a portfolio that sells your work for you.
Take a look at these free videos. I think they'll help you build a great portfolio.
Time is Money
Remember, time is money. The more time you spend on things that don’t make you money, the less time you have to make money. So outsource the things that others can do, such as IT with http://www.qoverage.com/services-solutions/it-consulting/, admin and social media. Then, you can get on with the actual money making stuff.
Systems Are Everything
Finally, you’re going to want to get yourself a system. Because as a freelancer, and an accomplished one, you need to be organized. Motivation can be tough, so you need to make it easy for yourself. With a system of doing things, even when you’re lacking in inspiration or feeling unproductive, you’ll be able to stay on track.
Want more tips? My book teaches you how I make $100 to $200 an hour freelance writing with real, actionable tips.
Don't Worry About Stolen Words
Plagiarism. It's a word that sends shivers down most writers' spines. What if someone steals your words, though?
Plagiarism. It's a word that sends shivers down most writers' spines. Most of us diligently ensure that we haven't stolen anyone's work and hope that others do the same for us. Some writers even go so far as to hunt down people who have stolen their words or implement code that prevents copy and pasting on their blog. I used to do this and all I can tell you is it is a BIG FAT WASTE OF TIME.
Plagiarism
You're never going to be able to stop people from plagiarising. They'll just keep doing it, even after they are caught. They'll give you some lame excuse about how they didn't know it was illegal to copy and paste your articles or blog posts without your permission. Then, they'll go right back to it. The only real way to stop the thiefs is to sue. And that takes money. Lots of it.
Plus, all of this takes away time from what you should really be doing: writing.
So, am I saying just ignore the sentence snatchers? Yes.
See, beyond bad karma, those that have nothing original on their sites will get penalized by search engines so badly that they won't even show up in results. They won't get any traffic, won't make any money from your work. Eventually, the thieves will slink away into the darkness to find some other way to make a coin.
In the end, you're the winner.