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Why Ghostwriters ‘MUST’ start blogging and article marketing

Monday, February 16th, 2009

Ghostwriter 2, originally uploaded by mrlemonjelly.

’20 SEO oriented articles on Google Ad sense wanted: The rights for the articles will rest with me’

This is an example of a writing job posted on freelancer hire websites. What it means is that the writer who wins the bid or is awarded the job will write the articles, but the articles will be officially credited to another person. In other words, the person is looking for a ghostwriter. Such jobs are a common sight on websites like Elance.com and Getafreelancer.com and there’s nothing wrong with them. They are all part of the job and as freelancers; we have got to accept them. Besides, if you are a good writer, you can command your price. It’s a different thing altogether that most clients on such websites are looking for ‘cheap’ but ‘effective’ writers and are only willing to pay about $3 for a page of original copy that requires extensive research and quality writing skills. It’s almost turning into an economic axiom (Being an Indian writer doesn’t help either).

My Story

I have always wanted a life that would be governed by me. I have always wanted to speak out my mind. So? I decided to become a freelance writer. And when I got the opportunity to write my first assignment as a ghostwriter, I grabbed it with both hands and worked incessantly for the first two years doing whatever work came my way for whatever they offered me (I have written 500 word articles for $2 :) ), just to create some repute and get those 24 months onto my resume. A bulk of my work has been, as a ghostwriter and I never really felt the need to get my name next to the article. Most freelance writers start this way and keep doing it until realization dawns. Of course, there are the more fortunate ones who get a confirmation letter and a paycheck from the first publication house that they send their first article/short story to.

Coming back to my story, It might sound funny but I never really knew how important it was to be credited for your work (as long as the money kept coming) until one fine day; the company that I was working for had no more assignments to offer me. Apparently, they had landed a plum programming assignment with one of their UK based clients and hence, had put the writing assignments on hold for sometime. Good for them, bad for me. I took it as a much needed break and decided to enjoy this unplanned vacation. But very soon, this ‘sometime’ turned into more time and eventually into a lot of time. I stayed without a single writing assignment for two months at a stretch. My days were spent in surfing, surfing and more surfing (thankfully). Soon, hopefulness turned into frustration and then it metamorphasized into utter desperation. But I painfully realized that this was the flipside of not having a fixed employment. No paycheck on the 1st of every month.

Surfing helps

It is true that I was frustrated at not having an assignment for almost 60 days. But it is equally true that it was this idle time that taught me the basics of freelance writing and introduced me to the wonderful world of blogging. I started browsing through some quality blogs and websites that were written by freelance writers like me. The only difference was that their work belonged to them. It was here that I realized that something was not right. Despite having worked for almost 2 years as a freelancer, I had nothing to show. No articles on websites or publications, nothing in print…nothing at all. It was almost as if I was nonexistent for the whole world barring the few people that I had worked with.

From that moment on, I decided that I was going to work independently. Even if I did work as a ghostwriter, it would be work that came directly to me. I would not work for an outsourcing company again. No matter how dire the straits were. Making the decision was easy, implementing it was more demanding than I had imagined. It was almost as if I was starting from scratch. I entered the big bad world of ‘competitive bidding’ and started my website and at times I was as lost as an urban frog at a train station. I stuttered, faltered but hung on. I was duped a couple of times (client disappears after work is delivered). After those two months without work, I have spent almost 3 to 4 months, without a dollar in earnings. But today, almost a year later, I have my list of clients; I have a portfolio to show, my articles are published on several websites around the world. You see, those two months without work have given me a lot of work.

And based on my experience, here are 5 rules for budding freelance writers.

1. Find time for your own work: This article was not meant to discourage you from finding or taking up work as a ghostwriter. Even when you hang out your shingle, the bulk of the work that you receive will be as a ghostwriter. But you should always find some time for your own work. Dedicate an hour or two everyday for your work, website, blog or articles.
2. Start a blog/website: Starting a website is one of the best ways to make your presence felt in the online world. It’s like your own personal corner of the World Wide Web. A place where you can speak about yourself, your work, showcase your portfolio and where prospective clients can contact you. It’s fairly inexpensive. You can even start a blogger account for free.
3. Start Article Marketing: Merely having a website is not sufficient enough. You need to get traffic into the site and being a freelance writer; article marketing is the best and easiest way for you to do it. Try and write at least one article every two days and submit it to article directories (ezinearticles, goarticles). If your article is good, then it will help you drive some traffic into your website and your article might get published on other websites.
4. Reach out to other writers: Reach out to other writers. It helps you stay in the loop. There are several ways to do this. Post a comment on their articles/blogs, write a guest post, link to them once in a while and social networking also helps. It will help you build some credibility and other writers will also return the favor. The result? More traffic. Think of it as part of your blog karma.
5. Learn to Sell yourself: Budding writers have this tendency to accept all kinds of work without thinking twice about the quality or the kind of money that they will receive for it. But this tendency can quickly turn into a habit and a harmful one at that. Always gauge a project on a qualitative and quantitative basis and then give a custom quote. You can attach a sample article to prove your mettle. But never settle for atrocious prices like $0.5 per article of 500 words or so, even if you are writing your first independent article. If you write well, expect to get paid well.

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10 Ways to Collect Ideas for your next Post

Saturday, January 31st, 2009

The satisfaction and contentment that one gets after writing, proofreading, polishing and then posting an article is unbeatable. The next couple of days are spent basking in the glory as comments and ping backs start to come in. (Oh, I love it when that happens). And just when you feel that you can relax for a few hours, have a cold beer and catch up on the latest installment in the ‘Saw’ franchise (I think part VI is due now), social engagements, moral responsibilities and other professional assignments pour in. No sense being grumpy. Its more work, work and work! And by the time you realize that it’s been a busy week, it’s posting time once again.

Now, what was that idea that I was planning to develop into an article?

Oh, darn!

I can’t remember it.

No sweat. Happens to me all the time. I guess it has happened to almost every freelance writer on god’s green earth. The problem with ideas is that they tend to hit you at the worst possible time for them to hit. And then they disappear deep into the folds and wrinkles of our grey matter and refuse to come out no matter how hard you try. In fact, the harder you try, the more difficult it becomes to remember. It’s almost like trying hard not to remember a thing and an image of that thing keeps popping up again and again.

So, the best, tried and tested way is to write it down the moment it hits you. It might be while you are having dinner, while you are playing ball, or while you are busy woolgathering. I have left several chores midway, hunted for a pen (you never find them when you need them the most) and scribbled a word or two in my writing pad as a smokescreen of words appear right out of nowhere in my mind. Yes, I have a scribbling pad right next to my desktop and it has got everything from one liners and scripts to stories, articles, phone numbers, appoinments, grocery list, recipes, movie schedules and small notes. It is almost like an idea bank. But hey, it works. Even a couple of words briefly describing what you want to write about are enough to give you a gist of the idea.

And what if you can’t find ideas at all? Don’t worry. Not everyone has a mind that meanders in the realms of obscurity like a mendicant. Sometimes, even the best of writers are unable to come up with a decent idea. You can call it the writer’s block. And on such occasions, it is so easy to get carried away by the first idea that comes to your mind and post a stinker instead. (A stinker is a post that gets greeted by tumbleweeds) There are enough resources in the world to get your creative juices flowing. Think about it. Here’s my list of 10 best ways to gather ideas for your next post.

  1. Surf your niche: There are thousands of websites on the internet and you can easily find at least one new website or blog everyday that caters to your niche. Every new writer lives with a sense of fake supremacy but there are a gazillion better writers out there. Surf, read and explore. But never copy.
  2. Mind Mapping: Ever heard this term? It’s almost similar to brainstorming. Mind mapping is an extremely powerful tool for that has endless number of uses. A mind map is a visual method of brainstorming and hence is far more productive when it comes to breaking a creative block. A pen and a paper are all that you need to get going. Animals, Britney, Cars, Dance, Emotions, Future, Guitar, Horoscope, Internet, Jesus, Kung fu, London, Money, Night, O(b/s)ama, People, Questions, Recipes, SEO, Traffic, UFO, Vacations, Wall street, X-mas, Yahoo, Zoo. It took me around 120 seconds to come up with this alphabetical list of topics to write on. Each one of these words can be further elaborated into several subtopics. You see, there shouldn’t be a dearth of ideas.
  3. Rest your mind: Rest is extremely important for creativity and productivity. At times, when faced with a writer’s block, a writer tends to spend too much time trying to break out of it. But it only adds to the woes. A ’5 to 6 hour’ marathon session in front of the monitor is not going to help you. Take some rest. Listen to your Ipod for some time. Take a walk. Anything that refreshes your mind will work.
  4. A slice of your life: Most experts will recommend that you write only within your niche. Yes, it is the safest way of generating a loyal readership. But at times, it won’t hurt to waver from the niche and write about a day in your life. A good incident, a bad one or simply an uninteresting day of your life. It helps you to break away from the monotony. Don’t worry. Your readers won’t ditch you for it.
  5. Blast from the past: Go back to your archives and check some of the most read articles. Now try and find out a way to rework them from a different angle. If the topic is interesting, then your readers will love it no matter what.
  6. Subscribe to Newsletters: This is one of the best ways to stay in sync with topics that interest you. All it takes is a couple of clicks to subscribe.
  7. Create a to-do list: What are the ten things that you want to do before the year ends? Let the world know about it as long as it isn’t something very personal. What is your wish list? Create it and display it.
  8. Watch People: It might seem strange but ordinary people have been the inspiration for some of the most notable works of fiction that exist today. People can always give you an idea or two to write an article. And you can observe everyone from friends to relatives to a guy walking on the road.
  9. The News: There’s always something on the news that’s newsworthy. It may be local news that could be turned into an article for a global audience. Or it might be the reverse. What’s your take on the latest piece of breaking news?
  10. Twitter: There’s always someone doing something writeable on Twitter. It’s almost like sitting in a crowded café with your scribbling pad and watching interesting conversations unfold. The more you read the more literature you get to write.

And if these 10 ideas aren’t enough, then here are 50 more. Yes, this is the most comprehensive list of ‘techniques’ to collect ideas for your next post. This is Susan Johnston’s ‘50 Ways for Writers to Find Article Ideas‘.

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The importance of good content: Converting visitors to customers

Friday, December 19th, 2008

A standardized or generalized answer to this question (How to convert a visitor to a customer) would have been a holy grail for the business world. But alas, each and every customer walking on the face of this planet has different expectations, requirements and a completely different mindset. You cannot generalize customer management. What you can do however is ensure that you provide the bare minimum that each and every customer will look for and then let the customer decide from there on. And in the online world, almost every customer first looks for a quality informative website.

Here are three stages in sequential order that best describe the mindset of an average visitor reaching a website from a search engine or some other source on the internet.

  1. Hopeful
  2. Impatient
  3. Frustrated/Satisfied (Result depends on the website)

Firstly, he is hopeful of finding the information/product that led him to the website. But after spending a fruitless few minutes on the home page, he starts getting impatient for he has no time to browse through the entire website. A million other equally good, if not better, websites await his coveted attention. Quick copy and link scanning follows. Lastly (usually within a couple of minutes), he is frustrated when he can’t find the information/product that he came looking for in the first place. His mind, fingers and the little mouse in command scan through the page and move the cursor closer and closer to the ‘close window icon’ (The lil ‘X’ at the top right corner of the browser).

There, another sales proposition bites the dust. Chances are high that the same person will never visit the same website again. Oh yeah, all that you heard about internet visitors having a bad memory is crap. Internet visitors have a memory like an elephant. I still remember most websites that have pop under advertising (I hate them) and avoid them like a plague.

Stage 2 and the power of words

Hopefulness is a common trait in each and every internet user. They are all hopeful of finding a better deal, a nicer website, a cuter girl. It is stage two mentioned above that can actually convert an ordinary visitor to a customer. Picture this: You reach a website looking for ‘packaging and moving services in Kansas’. However, all that you find is an enormously large webpage that has about 8 largish paragraphs of text. There are no headings, no bulleted lists, and no highlighted text. Would you be comfortable to read through the entire webpage hoping to find some information or links out of it? Not for all the tea in china.

What a visitor needs

Every visitor coming to a webpage should be greeted by high quality personalized content. Content that is easy to scan through, is separated into small chunks, has powerful headings, is linked to other useful pages on the website, has relevant highlighted keyword phrases, is informative, original and written for human beings (but optimized for search engine bots) only. The visitor should either find what he is looking for, in the first couple of minutes on the page or should be attracted to stay on the website for a sufficiently long period to read through the sales copy and then make a purchase. Either ways, it’s the content that is going to make him do it.

Isn’t that what every customer on the face of this planet looks for and deserves?

Isn’t that the mantra for success followed by successful corporate for years?

Then why not employ it in your online business as well?

Like Nathaniel Hawthorne once said, ‘Easy reading is damn hard writing’. (Source: http://thinkexist.com/quotes/nathaniel_hawthorne/)

The power of content in the online world is evident from the success of blogging as a business tool. Today, there are bloggers who earn six figure incomes each month solely from their blogs. Why is the Wikipedia so popular? Why does Google scan through each website before deciding whether to list it or not? The secret lies in the content. The relevancy of the content to your website is not only important for the visitors, it is equally important for your site to be accepted for listing in search engines. Now that’s an entirely different topic. Browse through my articles on content and SEO to know more about it.

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Freelancer Diaries: When work is scarce, write more

Monday, December 8th, 2008

The last few months have virtually changed the economic scenario all around the world. It started when Lehman Brothers collapsed and went bankrupt. But the seeds they say were sown much earlier. What seemed like a mortgage scenario in the US then started a whirlpool of sorts that sucked in major conglomerates from all over the world. Millions of people have lost jobs. Pink slips are being handed over by the dozen. Pay cuts are the norm of the day. Stock markets are tumbling like a pack of cards. The situation looks grim. But me, I am glad that atleast I aint the only one facing financial problems. I am a freelance writer and I have often scoffed at others in the past when they talked about ‘working at office’ woes and when they narrate their peak time travel woes. Not me, I would think and silently smile deep in my heart. I have worked from home for the last couple of years and have nearly mastered the art.

But the last couple of months have nearly left the market dry.  I find myself staring at a nearly empty inbox everyday barring a few stubborn as ever spam messages that promise me a bigger penis. Work is scarce. Yes, for all those who thought that finance, banks and IT were the only sectors affected, here’s some inside information. Work is affected across all sectors and the freelancer is not spared either. The volume of work has gone down considerably and I have spent a lot of time in the last couple of months expecting the situation to miraculously improve overnight. But it doesn’t seem to happen as swiftly as I thought it would. So I have worked on a back up plan to keep me occupied when work is scarce.

Surf and read

An idle mind is a freelance writer’s worst nightmare. You ever heard of the writers block? There is something else also called the writers rust. It’s a predecessor for the writers block and can settle in real fast. So keep surfing the internet and catching up on the blogosphere. There’s plenty happening all around the world and it is best that you stay updated. Keep a tab on the best blogs that you come across. You never know how and when they can come in handy.

For those who still haven’t done it, start a blog

If you have managed to escape the insanity till now, then this is the best time to become a ‘meshugener’ (For those who are scratching their heads wondering what that is, it is a Yiddish term for crazy). Start a blog. It might not seem like too much of an important thing at this point but start it nevertheless. I am sure there are hundreds and thousands of thoughts deep within your heart that are waiting to come out as words. Do yourself a favor and get it out. Blogging is a great pastime, is an excellent way to build contacts and with time, you can make some great money out of it. If you are new to blogging, then there is a huge world of experts waiting to help and guide you. Simply log on to Google and look for blogging tips.

Build some credibility via article marketing

This is a good time for freelance ghostwriters to build some credibility of their own. Start writing articles and submitting them to major article directories. It is a great way to build some credibility, get some in coming links to your website or blog and ‘find more work’. Yes, if you are a good writer, then article marketing can do wonders for you. But it will only help if you start.

Promote yourself

If only you and a few selected clients of yours were the elite few people in this world who were aware about your profession, then chances are that work will be scarce when those clients cannot or do not have anything to offer you. Get out and promote your services. There are thousands of tools that you can use. Social networking sites, forums, fellow Bloggers etc. Remember, the World Wide Web is a huge marketplace and you are doing nothing but limiting yourself by not promoting your own work and only working as a ghostwriter. Think of yourself as a publisher. Spare some time everyday for your own content that you can publish online. And GET IT DONE!

Yes, the times are tough! But you can’t wither away or go back to mamma and say that it aint fair! Bear it and work your way out of it.

Good Luck!

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Why it is extremely difficult to become a millionaire with your blog

Monday, December 8th, 2008

You have probably seen those rags-to-riches blog stories on the internet. A young guy in his late twenties has this huge multi million dollar blogging empire that almost runs on auto-pilot while he chills away in the Caribbean on his private yacht with his Ferrari in tow. Sounds too good to be true? This was precisely what I thought when I first came across such a blog. Apart from the usual ‘I can teach you how to do this for only $xx’ bit, there were also scanned images of Google ad sense cheques that he had received in the last couple of years. Sometimes, the amounts were as high as $5000 a month. Almost immediately, the question propped up in my mind. Can you earn that much in a month only using Google ad sense? I struggle with my ad sense revenues and they are mostly in the 0.2 cents per day range. Are those images doctored and those figures highly inflated? Not really, for there are people who earn more than $4000 a month only by blogging from home. Can an average person like you or me do it? That’s a different question altogether.

 

The content

 

If you have decided to be a blogger or already tried and failed at it, then it is probably because you didn’t plan it in advance. What kind of blog do you plan to start? There are several styles of blogging. There is the weekly blog that updates once in a week with interesting content to keep the readers going for one week and there is the daily blog which is updated on a daily basis. Consider it like the diary that you maintained as a kid. There is never a dearth of subjects and topics to write about in your blog. A good writer can weave an interesting story around just about any ordinary event of the day. Whereas a bad writer can have an encounter with a seemingly extinct saber tooth tiger in the dense forests of Peru and yet weave a dull lack luster story out of it. You can also start an issue oriented blog. These blogs focus on certain issues or a set of related topics. Whatever you blog about, it is important to maintain a certain level of interactivity in your language and to keep your readers updated. A lot of people aren’t able to do it. They feel that there is nothing interesting happening in their life on a daily basis. But then, it doesn’t have to be interesting. You have to make it interesting and as a writer, you should possess those skills. Readers are the only thing that can make your blog popular and fresh interesting content is the only way to get readers in. Remember, a stale blog is like a four hour silent movie. It won’t find many takers. 

Marketing your blog 

You cannot expect people to drop in and find your blog just like that. You have to ensure that your blog reaches out to people and in order to do this, you have to market it. Now there are a thousand different ways to market your blog and there is loads of information online on how to do it. However, most people are unable to do it, because it isn’t as easy as it is made out to be. I have tried to market my blog before and failed miserably at it. The people who have met success with their blogs have either mastered the art of marketing or have hired experts to do it. And online marketing services do not come cheap. You must be willing to put in at least 8 to 10 hours of your day every day marketing your blog if you intent to hit four figure income levels each month with it. 

Trial and Error 

There are several ways of monetizing blogs using advertising. But it doesn’t come that easily. Apart from readership which is the key, there is a lot of trial and error involved. The placement of the advertisements, the type of advertisements, the frequency of advertisements on a page, the way they are presented, hidden advertisements, the quality of advertisements, they all matter when it comes to getting returns. But it takes months and even years to perfect this and have a steady stream of income from your blog. 

The conclusion 

Do not get carried away by those rags to riches stories and get disappointed when you cannot duplicate that kind of success. Success with blogging will happen eventually if you possess good writing skills, are willing to invest the time and work to promote it. It might take slightly longer than you imagined. It also depends on how you define success. But you certainly can make about $2 to 3k a month, in about a year from the day you start blogging. Follow the rules. Update regularly and watch the money flow in.

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