Apart from the immense joy of seeing your words come to live and sitting pretty in major bookstores, being an author has the below benefits:
1. Authority - Notice how the word "author" is in Authority? That's right, being an author makes you look like an expert in the topic that you are writing about. People will look to you for answers and even quote you for related topics. Develop a name for yourself as an expert in your field. Over time, you will develop a reputation and may be sought out by others for your expertise.
2. Creative exchange - Share your creativity, opinions, talents and interests with people from all over the world. It’s wonderful to receive feedback from like-minded individuals who have connected with your words.
3. Satisfaction - It is incredibly gratifying to birth a book. From being impregnated with ideas to the end result of holding your "baby" in your hands, the journey may have ups and downs but is nothing short of exhilarating!
4. Passive income - The rewards extend to the monetary. You work hard for a while and get paid for the rest of your life. Your book royalty is like an annual bonus from a generous company...year after year.
5. Springboard - You are able to branch out to different avenues - you can organise seminars related to writing or your expert topic, be a consultant or sought-after speaker.
6. High esteem - You join the publishing industry and people hold this circle in high regard. Every year, publishers churn out thousands of books on a myriad of topics from relationships to business management which are lapped up by millions of people.
7. Build your literary reputation - Writing a well established and respected book, gives you the platform to develop a literary reputation for yourself. As your literary reputation develops, your chances of acquiring work as a freelance writer or selling your work will also improve.
8. Boost business - Link your book to your personal or business website where you sell your products or services. This will increase business and is an effective promotion of your services.
- Pearlin Seow
Friday
Writing poetry
Is no easy task
But it
Is not impossible
As long as you
Let your feelings through
Forget about
Rules
Stanzas
Rhymes
Rhythm
Concentrate on
How you feel
Describe
Express
In
Words
Expressions
All you need
Is
A spoonful of
Creativity
A bowl of
Feelings
A pinch of
Luck
And stir
With a pen
A keyboard
Anything
To get the words
Flowing
So, if you want to
Write
Poetry
Remember
There are no rules
Just feelings
Warm
Or Cold
All put on paper
Or typed into computer
Let it all go
Let it spill
And then only
Will your succeed!
But it
Is not impossible
As long as you
Let your feelings through
Forget about
Rules
Stanzas
Rhymes
Rhythm
Concentrate on
How you feel
Describe
Express
In
Words
Expressions
All you need
Is
A spoonful of
Creativity
A bowl of
Feelings
A pinch of
Luck
And stir
With a pen
A keyboard
Anything
To get the words
Flowing
So, if you want to
Write
Poetry
Remember
There are no rules
Just feelings
Warm
Or Cold
All put on paper
Or typed into computer
Let it all go
Let it spill
And then only
Will your succeed!
Monday
Your online freelance writing resources
When you are freelancing, it is often quite difficult to find great sites with freelance writing resources, jobs, gigs or merely to connect others in the same situation as you. It is usually very nice to connect with other writers, bloggers or freelancers who are struggling (or successfully) earning a living through the skilled art of writing.
I've been going around quite a lot of websites and blogs and joined quite a few writing communities (which I barely have time to even participate most of the time) and here are some freelance writing resources which I found in my course of gallivanting around the web.
1. http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com - This site offers writing tips and posts very frequent writing gigs or jobs available for freelancers or even those looking for full time writing jobs. However, some of the jobs posted are sourced from other sites such as Craigslist.
2. http://www.writingcareer.com - This site also offers articles on writing and tips. It also has a job board and again, some of these are sourced from other sites such as GetAFreelancer.com
3. http://www.mywriterscircle.com - This is basically a forum for writers to connect and exchange tips and experiences. The good part is that there is also a job board to check out freelance writing gigs.
4. http://www.freelancewritingtips.com - This is a blog on writing with posts about writing and everything about writing!
5. http://www.journalismjobs.com - This is mostly a job board with full time to telecommuting to freelance writing gigs of all types.
6. http://www.mywritingblog.com - This is another blog by a writer who sometimes posts job opportunities but mostly his posts are on writing and tips.
7. http://www.freelancefactor.com - Another site with more writing tips and the occasional jobs.
8. http://www.dailywritingtips.com - This blog offers quite a lot of complete writing tips for freelance, fiction or non-fiction, so it is really a great place to hone your writing skills.
Hope you learn quite a few tips from these sites. Enjoy and most importantly, continue writing!
I've been going around quite a lot of websites and blogs and joined quite a few writing communities (which I barely have time to even participate most of the time) and here are some freelance writing resources which I found in my course of gallivanting around the web.
1. http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com - This site offers writing tips and posts very frequent writing gigs or jobs available for freelancers or even those looking for full time writing jobs. However, some of the jobs posted are sourced from other sites such as Craigslist.
2. http://www.writingcareer.com - This site also offers articles on writing and tips. It also has a job board and again, some of these are sourced from other sites such as GetAFreelancer.com
3. http://www.mywriterscircle.com - This is basically a forum for writers to connect and exchange tips and experiences. The good part is that there is also a job board to check out freelance writing gigs.
4. http://www.freelancewritingtips.com - This is a blog on writing with posts about writing and everything about writing!
5. http://www.journalismjobs.com - This is mostly a job board with full time to telecommuting to freelance writing gigs of all types.
6. http://www.mywritingblog.com - This is another blog by a writer who sometimes posts job opportunities but mostly his posts are on writing and tips.
7. http://www.freelancefactor.com - Another site with more writing tips and the occasional jobs.
8. http://www.dailywritingtips.com - This blog offers quite a lot of complete writing tips for freelance, fiction or non-fiction, so it is really a great place to hone your writing skills.
Hope you learn quite a few tips from these sites. Enjoy and most importantly, continue writing!
Wednesday
Driving traffic to your blog
Is not really easy if you do not join any forums, blogger groups or blogging platform. You seen, to drive traffic to your blog, you need to put in a lot of work.
Firstly, you need to write really good, interesting content. By this, I mean content that people want to read and not only meant for search engines. Also make sure your content is posted on a regular basis so that your readers won't feel as if you had abandoned your blog or something.
Once you get your content in place, next in line is a lot more work than producing content. It is marketing your blog.
Now, marketing and promotion is the most important factor in driving traffic to your blog. Because, without spreading the word about your blog and what type of content you have in it, then it is not easy for readers to find your blog.
So, how do you market your blog?
There are several ways to do it. Let me list it out in point form:
- you tell your friends, family and anyone who'd listen to you brag about your blog. Make sure you repeat your website address often enough to get them to go into your site.
- you submit your blog to search engines and then submit to all high ranking blog directories
- you join some blogging platform like BlogRush and social networking and start blog hopping and making new blogger friends. Soon, they'd come visiting your blog often too.
- you join forums to offer expert advise and remember to add the link to your blog!
- you can also submit expertise articles to article directories for some link love.
Try these out and tell me how it turns out.
Happy blogging!
Firstly, you need to write really good, interesting content. By this, I mean content that people want to read and not only meant for search engines. Also make sure your content is posted on a regular basis so that your readers won't feel as if you had abandoned your blog or something.
Once you get your content in place, next in line is a lot more work than producing content. It is marketing your blog.
Now, marketing and promotion is the most important factor in driving traffic to your blog. Because, without spreading the word about your blog and what type of content you have in it, then it is not easy for readers to find your blog.
So, how do you market your blog?
There are several ways to do it. Let me list it out in point form:
- you tell your friends, family and anyone who'd listen to you brag about your blog. Make sure you repeat your website address often enough to get them to go into your site.
- you submit your blog to search engines and then submit to all high ranking blog directories
- you join some blogging platform like BlogRush and social networking and start blog hopping and making new blogger friends. Soon, they'd come visiting your blog often too.
- you join forums to offer expert advise and remember to add the link to your blog!
- you can also submit expertise articles to article directories for some link love.
Try these out and tell me how it turns out.
Happy blogging!
Sunday
SEO tips
Any blogger or webmaster worth his salt knows all about SEO and its importance to get his website or blog high up in the search engines. After all, without being highly visible to the public, it is not that easy to get random traffic without the search engines ranking.
So, I am sharing with you some of my SEO tips. I may not be an expert but I've learnt quite a bit about it and just providing tips that I personally use:
1. When you write the blog post or article, do always choose with a keyword you plan to optimize. Say, you want to optimize the word 'SEO tips' like this blog post.
2. You start your post with the keyword within the title.
3. You also insert the keyword into the post, preferably once in the first paragraph, once in the middle and last one in the final paragraph.
4. It is important to remember not to overdo it and use the keyword for every sentence because the search engines may think this is not a real post but one to cheat them.
5. Even the tags for you post must have the keyword
6. Finally, remember to keep the post real, logical and something a real person would appreciate reading and not full of gibberish to 'cheat' the search engines because traffic are real people and if you want them to keep coming back, offer them something they like and chances are they will keep coming back if they really like it!
I hope my SEO tips is useful to you. Since I am far from a pro-blogger and still learning the tricks of the trade, it is just something I learned as I blog along.
So, I am sharing with you some of my SEO tips. I may not be an expert but I've learnt quite a bit about it and just providing tips that I personally use:
1. When you write the blog post or article, do always choose with a keyword you plan to optimize. Say, you want to optimize the word 'SEO tips' like this blog post.
2. You start your post with the keyword within the title.
3. You also insert the keyword into the post, preferably once in the first paragraph, once in the middle and last one in the final paragraph.
4. It is important to remember not to overdo it and use the keyword for every sentence because the search engines may think this is not a real post but one to cheat them.
5. Even the tags for you post must have the keyword
6. Finally, remember to keep the post real, logical and something a real person would appreciate reading and not full of gibberish to 'cheat' the search engines because traffic are real people and if you want them to keep coming back, offer them something they like and chances are they will keep coming back if they really like it!
I hope my SEO tips is useful to you. Since I am far from a pro-blogger and still learning the tricks of the trade, it is just something I learned as I blog along.
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