What are the key motivators for freelance writers?

Working Solo, Inc. conducted a survey of 763 freelance writers and other home office workers. The survey delved into the drivers behind this entrepreneurial lifestyle. Here’s what their research discovered.

Four “Fs” ranked highest as the main reason to launch a home office business:

• Freedom (30%)
• Flexibility (25%)
• Fun (12%)
• Financial rewards (12%)

Among the biggest misconceptions voiced by family, friends, and colleagues:

• that home office workers have a lot of free time
• that s/he doesn’t have a “real job”
• that s/he has enough extra money and doesn’t need to work

The one activity home office workers would most like to delegate:

• Bookkeeping (26%)
• Marketing/Sales (26%)
• Tax forms (15%)

If forced to choose one piece of technology that the could not live without, they selected:

• a computer/laptop with Internet access
• a telephone/cell phone
• a fax machine

Are you tired of using long URLs that will not work in there is one simple error? Simply cut and paste does work in certain situations.

How about writing an article that has a maximum space or word limit!

I know that have run into these problems on several occasions. I use twitter and noticed that long URLs are shortened using TinyURL. So I decided to investigate if there are other services on the Ethernet that provide the service.

I found the following, some you many know about and others maybe not.

URL Shortening Services

TinyURL - not only can you use their website for free, you can also add  a link on your browser’s tool bar.

elfURL - not only shortens URLs, they provide statistics as well.

 SNURL - not only can you use their website for free, you can also add  a link on your browser’s tool bar.

BudURL - shortens URLs; they provide statistics such as click charts, which city, which state, etc.

Metamark – not only can you use their website for free, you can also add  a link on your browser’s tool bar.

Mashable  - a Social Media Service provides links to over 90 other link shortening services.

 

Like any other free service on the Internet, sticking with the most popular ones is probably best, because everything is the survival of the fittest and best service.

While searching for a way to improve the appearance of my webpages without spending any money or least very little, I found Cool Text Graphics Generator.

Cool Text is a free graphics generator for web pages and anywhere else you need an impressive logo without a lot of design work.  

Simply choose what kind of image you would like.  Then fill out a form and you’ll have your own custom image created on the fly.

Cool Text is the worlds most popular graphics generator.  Online since 1998, their servers have rendered over 300 million free images.

Fed Up: The word “up” pops up everywhere. Join up with others who are fed up with messed up directional prepositions. Up is unnecessary in the sentence “She was promoted up to executive secretary”. Up indicates a direction and is used correctly in the sentence “Turn up the volume so people in the back can hear.” 

Poor Choice of Adverbs: Actually, totally, absolutely, completely, continually, constantly, continuously, literally, really, unfortunately, ironically, incredibly, hopefully, and finally- these and other adverbs promise emphasis, but provide no meaning in a sentence. Delete these adverbs and insert concrete and objective words. “The church was really full,” is meatier as “Every church pew was full and latecomers had to stand in the aisles.”

Boring: “Make” is a generic verb that tries to stand in for a stronger, more specific verb. “Make a donation to the fund,” becomes “Please, donate to the fund.”  Other generic verbs include “do” and “go.”

To be or Not to Be: Avoiding forms of the verb “to be” (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been). Writing without “to be” verbs encourages writers to pay attention to what they mean and explain otherwise unsupported labels, judgements and opinions and resulting in more powerful writing.

Delete It:  “It’s raining outside.” What exactly is “it”? Determine the true subject of the sentence or phrase and replace “it” with that specific noun. Compare these. Original sentence – It was mid-morning when Allied Forces became entangled with a large truck convoy moving south through the city. Rewrite – Around mid-morning the Allied Forces became entangled with a …etc.

Draw a Picture, Don’t Tell Me What to See: If you say, “she was stunning and powerful,” you’re telling me. But if you say, “I was stunned by her elegant carriage as she strode past the jury – shoulders erect, elbows back, her eyes wide and watchful,” you’re showing me. Handsome, attractive, momentous, embarrassing, fabulous, powerful, hilarious, stupid, fascinating are all words that tell me in an arbitrary way what to think. These words do not describe in specifics what is unique to the person or event described.

Adapted from Holt Uncensored

10 Tips for Improving Your Writing Skills provide additional ideas and suggestions.

 

 

Just like everyone else, I have days that writing takes on a whole new challenge – overcoming writer’s block. Trying to come up with a topic or where to begin with a new topic, becomes a insurmountable on some days.

To overcome this dilemma I  take one of the following paths:

• Walking away and trying later or tomorrow
• Writing something down, with the hope that editing will turn it into  something of interest
• Searching for inspiration to stimulate the synapses in my brain 

My favorite is to look for inspiration on the Internet or read something to stimulate my writing. While overcoming my latest bout of writer’s block, I found the following which led to words flowing from my head and to my fingers so I was able to complete a particularly challenging article.

View from the 7 Highest Peaks in the World

You may find the pictures as inspirational.

Any other ideas for overcoming writer’s block?

Many people already know about and use Twitter; however, for those who are not familiar with Twitter – it is a popular social micro-blogging network. You are limited to 140 characters, although it is recommended to limit your posts to 120 characters to allow for ReTweets (RT) to another user.

 Check out the Twictionary  which is an editable Wiki. Anyone can add to or edit the Twitter Dictionary with a PBWiki account or by using an Open ID.

 ”A repository for all sorts of manglings of the English language as used on Twitter.”

 

 

I found this writing contest that sounds interesting and considering the limited number of participants, there are quite a few prizes.

 

SPRING ‘09 24-HOUR SHORT STORY CONTEST

 

The WritersWeekly.com Spring 2009 24-Hour Short Story Contest is now accepting entrants. Each contest is limited to 500 entrants. Contests usually fill up (it’s tons of fun!), so don’t delay if you want to participate.

 

1st Place: $300

2nd Place: $250

3rd Place: $200

 

Entry fee is $5. You can see the complete list of 85 prizes and sign up here:

 

http://www.writersweekly.com/misc/contest.html

 

One method for collecting information for article research is to use a poll. Polls can be used for large variety of topics, for example below poll provided below. The data can be used to support research for an article or be the primary source for an article.

Depending on the type of poll, it is important for poll to be available to the widest possible audience. To eliminate the possibility of multiple voting by one person, a tracking simple IP tracking system is used to place a cookie on the voter so they are not allowed to vote 2 or more times in the same poll.

Select your answer to Poll below to check out how online polling works.

 

A professional cover letter helps; however, it hurts if the information in the cover letter provides unnecessary information or conveys a poor impression of you. A less than professional cover letter often eliminates the possibility of publishing something that is well written, timely, and in a popular category.

5 Things to Leave Out of a Cover Letter

1. Irrelevant Personal Information – providing information about your family situation, kids or no kids, health, age, gender, race, or other personal information that is nothing to do with the reason for contacting the publisher or editor.

2. List of Prior Rejections- telling the a publisher or editor the number of time your manuscript has been submitted to others is unnecessary and typically biases the outcome of your submission; another rejection.

3. Pointing Flaws in the Article or Manuscript – your perception of flaws may not be the same as the publisher or editor. If there are flagrant flaws, the publisher or editor will find them. Helping to receive a rejection letter is not in your best interest or a confidence builder.

4. Hyping Your Article- your perception of brilliance may not be the same as a publisher or editor. Over hyping sends a message of arrogance and not willing to work with the publisher or editor and leads to a pretty quick rejection letter.

5. Pointing Out Why the Article or Manuscript does not Match Publishing Guidelines- this one is pretty simple, because if it does not match publishing guidelines – do not send it. Not meeting publishing guidelines leads to an instant rejection before your article or manuscript is even reviewed by the publisher or editor.

These are some of the common things writers include in their cover letters and there are other less common things as well. The important thing to remember is be professional, not opinionated, and provide on the information necessary to get the publisher or editor to read your article or manuscript.

Resource

Writer’s Guidelines Database provides the guidelines for 844 magazines, ezines, books, etc.

When writing for free, there must be good reasons. However, often people write for free because they feel that it is a necessary evil for breaking into the writing business. Although there is some justification for “paying your dues,” you do not want to fall into this trap for any length of time. Bills need to be paid and food is needed to survive; writing for free will not accomplish these necessities of life.

Poor Reasons for Writing for Free 

To See your Name in Print

• Assuming that the only way to see your name in print is to give your work away is not a good reason. If you can write, then why not get paid for your work? There is nothing like seeing your name in print and receiving a paycheck for your work!

Finding Out if You are Good Enough

• Markets that do not pay for written work is not a good test of your abilities. These markets typically accept what ever is forwarded to them and publish it just to have something on their website until something better comes along. The companies in this market, generally do not retain quality editors on their staff with the ability to adequate critique your work. 

Polishing Your Skills

• When you approach writing for free tasks in this manner you need to consider your writing reputation. Your reputation proceeds you; your portfolio makes or breaks you! Polishing your skills is better served in critique groups.

Allegiance to Others

• Writing something for someone you owe a debt, is not a good reason. Once or twice is okay; however, someone who seeks free writing from you using this approach is not doing you any favors. Do not let a since of loyalty hold you back from your goals, because this loyalty is sometimes overused. Paying gigs come first!

Quality

• Most people, consciously or subconsciously, do not put there best effort into free work and often this shows in the final product. Remember – Your reputation proceeds you; your portfolio makes or breaks you!

Resources

• 10 Tips for Improving Your Writing Skills
• Freelance Writer Online Portfolio
• Freelance Writing Tips
• 10 Freelance Writer Job Websites