PureBlogging

Over the past few years blogs have increased in popularity and there seems to be more and more multi-authored blogs popping up all over the place. These blogs that are run as a profit-making venture for the owners have drastically increased the demand for freelance bloggers. Although the opportunities are increasing, there is still a good deal of competition for these positions. Here are some tips to help you increase the amount of freelance blogging work that you can secure, and to improve your effectiveness.

1. Have a Blog of Your Own

Finding freelance blogging work can be much easier if you have a successful blog of your own. In this case, your success will demonstrate your ability and will make you more valuable to someone who is interested in hiring you.

2. Advertise Your Availability on Your Blog

Your own blog provides a tremendous platform from which you can advertise your services. Your subscribers and readers will be warm prospects and will be more likely to pursue your services. If you have done a good job of satisfying your own readers they will have a high opinion of your services.

Advertising your services on your blog can be done in any number of different ways. You could set up a page on the blog to give the details of your services and to provide contact information. Another option is to include a mention of your availability in the footer of your RSS feed so your subscribers will take notice.

3. Search Job Boards

There are a number of different job boards that will help you to identify opportunities. Some of the more popular blogging job boards include ProBlogger, Performancing, and WordPress.net as well as Freelance boards like Elance and the one at Freelance Switch. While job boards should not be your only method of finding work, they can be productive at times.

4. Post Your Availability

In addition to looking for openings that have been posted, you can post your availability and qualifications at a number of websites. BloggerJobs.biz publishes “weekly bloggers for hire” where brief profiles of several bloggers are shared. Several months ago my profile was included, and I actually got a several contacts and a few paying jobs as a result. Some blogging forums also provide a place for you to mention your availability and credentials.

5. Approach Other Bloggers

Many blog owners that are interested in hiring freelancers are not actively posting their openings or searching boards and forums for freelancers who are looking for work. You may be able to get some results by simply sending an email inquiry to some blog owners regarding the possibility of doing some freelance work. Taking a proactive approach can often give you an advantage over the other potential writers.

If you are interested in contacting blog owners, start with those that you know are paying writers. Of course, most of these will be larger blogs that are able to generate enough income to cover the costs of paying writers. Visit some multi-authored blogs that you read on a regular basis and look for a “write for us” page, or something similar. Some blogs will obviously be open to potential writers, but you won’t find this everywhere. If you can’t find any information about writing for them, send a brief email to introduce yourself and ask if they would be interested in hiring a quality writer with your experience and credentials.

6. Network

Many of the freelance blogging positions that are filled are done so at least partially as a result of casual networking. You may get to know a blog owner and find out down the road at some point that he or she is looking for a freelance writer. When someone is thinking of hiring a freelance blogger, the first people that come to mind will probably be those that are familiar members of the network. Likewise, you may be referred to another blogger by someone in your network that knows you are looking for freelance work. Make an effort to get to know other bloggers in your niche and I think you’ll see it result in new opportunities.

7. Look for Ongoing Work

One of the things I love about freelance blogging is that most of my work is ongoing for a few different blogs. Writing a post each week is a great gig. You know ahead of time what you have to produce and you don’t have to dedicate time to finding the work. Once you’ve got the job and your writing is producing results, you will appreciate the fact that you have some steady income from repeat work.

Not all freelance blogging opportunities will provide ongoing opportunities, but many will. For this reason you need to be confident that you are writing the best articles that you are capable of. Solid results will usually result in more work from the same blog.

8. Ask Your Clients if They Have Other Blogs

Many blog owners run multiple blogs, and very often they are in related fields. What better place to look for work than those who are already comfortable with you and your quality of writing? It’s possible that they will be open to hiring you for their other projects, but you won’t know unless you ask.

9. Make an Effort to Market Your Work

Blog owners who are paying freelancers are motivated by results. A well-written article that brings no response from readers and gets no attention won’t do much for the blog owner. On the other hand, an average article that gets a huge response and draws tons of traffic and links will certainly get noticed. Writers that get results will be the ones that get the work.

Social media is a great way to promote your freelance blogging. I recently wrote an article on this subject at Daily Blog Tips. A little bit of extra effort with social media can have significant results that make your posts more appealing to blog owners. Linking to your freelance work from your own blog is another good option to help give it a boost.

10. Focus on Building Name Recognition

Freelance bloggers have an excellent opportunity to develop strong name recognition by writing quality posts for different blogs throughout a niche. By demonstrating your knowledge on different blogs with considerable readership, you will quickly become a household name. Once you’re able to build some name recognition, your work will be more in demand and you may be able to charge higher rates. Blog owners want to hire writers to readers will know and appreciate, and the best way they can do this is by hiring writers that have developed a strong reputation in the industry.

11. Keep Track of Your Work

Like any other type of freelancer, bloggers will need a portfolio to show to potential clients. If you’re writing for a lot of different blogs or for large blogs it can be difficult to go back and find your articles. It’s a good idea to keep track somewhere of the URLs of your posts. You can use a simple spreadsheet for this purpose, or you could use a bookmarks manager and tag your posts “freelance-work” or something similar.

12. Always Use Your Best Work

If you write a post that isn’t up to your quality standards, get rid of it or keep working on it until the quality improves. You’re only as good as your last post. A poorly written article that doesn’t draw results can be a bad reflection of your work. Just because you will be paid for it doesn’t mean that it should get published. Remember that you will always be judged by the quality of your work, and that can affect your future opportunities. Of course, we’re all going to produce some sub-par articles, but hopefully very few of them ever get published.

A little while ago I wrote about the excuses we give ourselves when we procrastinate, and gave some worthwhile (in my opinion, anyway) advice on how to avoid the thinking patterns that lead to putting off work.

One of the things I left off that list of tips: “I can’t think of any ideas.” Of course, for most of us, this is nonsense. Very often, it’s not that we can’t think of ideas; it’s that we don’t want to invest time in the ideas we have, because they don’t seem very good. Getting past this inner critic is paramount to writing well; I recommend reading the excellent post linked above for advice.

Of course, I spend plenty of time with Writer’s Block. Writer’s Block and I have whiled away many an evening together, huddled up underneath my desk, or on the couch watching infomercials together. I’ve been all over the web looking for ways to beat Writer’s Block, often to no avail, and I usually wind up watching monkey-themed videos on YouTube instead. I have found some good resources (like Holly Lisle’s How to Beat Writer’s Block), but overall I’ve had to develop some of my own strategies. Here are a few of them.

Play Word Association. Copyblogger had a great post this week about how bloggers are a lot like rappers. Sure, it’s a bit of a stretch, but even if you don’t agree, you’ve got to admit it’s — at the very least — a great starter for a brainstorming session. With “X is a lot like Y” as your equation, and Y as the thing you’ve got to write about, list ten totally random and disparate things that could fill in for X. Then start getting creative.

Turn Your Notebook Into An Oblique Strategies Deck. You are using a notebook, right? You know, to get down ideas and such? Well, go through it, and turn every comment, every stupid idea, every context-free observation into a note card. Once you’ve compiled your deck, pull a card from it every time you’re stumped. Follow the rule that you’ve got to provide context for or elaborate on whatever is on the card. Repeat until drained. (Don’t know what Oblique Strategies are? The Wikipedia article’s pretty good.)

Play Six Degrees of Separation. This is like a modified version of Word Association. List something that’s completely and demonstrably different from whatever topic you write about. Then try to make it from Point A to Point B in six steps (or more, or less — whatever floats your goat). The interim steps will encourage creative thinking and generate ideas.

Read Your Old Material. This is best for those times when you’re feeling low about your writing talent. Your old material is removed from the Now — if it’s been a sufficiently long time since you wrote it, it’ll almost seem like someone else did. Chances are, you’ll like what you read, and even if you don’t, you’re likely to see hints in there of old forgotten ideas — things you could have written whole essays about, but chose to keep it down to a pithy comment or a wry comparison. Your own portfolio is a wellspring of good ideas.

Play With Toys. Seriously. I keep a peanut butter jar full of Legos on my desk at all times. When I feel particularly stressed about my lack of ideas, I start sticking blocks together. I have yet to build anything worthy of Brickshelf, and the actual act of playing with something meaningless and soothing doesn’t always directly contribute to new ideas. But it does reduce my stress level considerably, and gets my creative organs pumping at the same time.

Of course, what works for me may not work for you. So with that I ask: What are your methods for overcoming being stumped?

How did you move from your first steps as a blogger to being the blogger you are today? All the bloggers I talk to seem to have gone through the same steps in moving from blogging newbies to experienced bloggers. Here are the steps I think many bloggers take in their evolution.

Step 1: What’s A Blog And Why Should I Get One?

I can illustrate this stage from my own experience. I started blogging in 2005. I’d decided to go freelance, had set up a site and had read that a blog was a good way to drive traffic, so I set one up on my site. I had no idea what I was doing, other than trying to post regularly. At the same time, I did what many other new bloggers do - I joined a site where the blog was all set up and all I had to do was post. I think that’s why many people start with Blogger, because they can get set up in minutes and don’t have to mess about under the hood unless they want to. The same goes for Wordpress.com blogs.

Step 2: Beyond The Basics

For me, the second step was to move away from the defaults on my blogs. In Blogger, that meant changing themes and finding out how to add interesting items such as tag clouds that would make the blog much easier to use. In Wordpress, that meant investigating new themes and plugins, something I still do a lot of today. (What can I say, I love gadgets!) This is often the point at which some people decide to move away from blog services to getting their own domain. The reason to do this is the freedom it gives you to change your blog easily in any way you want, which is important when it comes to the next step.

Step 3:  Creating An Identity

By the time you’ve been blogging for a while, you get more comfortable dropping by other blogs and leaving comments, and soon you begin to get noticed. Shock, horror - other people leave comments on your blog too, and the resulting conversation begins to create your online personality. You’re free to be anyone you want to be. When I blog, I’m me. I don’t always reveal every detail about my life, but what I do reveal is true. There are lots of other bloggers with recognisable online personas and it doesn’t take long to develop an identity and a following.

Step 4: You Mean, I Can Make Money With This?

The bloggers I have spoken to (and I admit there might be a bias because most of us are writers) all started blogs for traffic building or profile raising. It wasn’t till they’d been blogging for a while that they realised that there were other advantages to blogging. The ability to make money from Adsense, affiliate products and ad sales was a revelation, and many of us started monetizing wildly, often with little idea what we were doing. (As an aside, it’s much easier to make money if you are blogging about blogging, technology, entertainment or health. Other than that you have to have a LOT of traffic on a writing site to make anything decent. I do ok with my site, but my friend who has a writing site that gets 100,000 visitors a month is really doing well.)

Step 5: I’ve Got To Post About This

Step five is the step that inspired this whole post, leading me to think how far I’ve come in the last three years. I was sitting in a plane the other day, reading through the in-flight magazine to choose my movie. All of a sudden I noticed that there were no seat back videos or any other kind, so what was the point of advertising movies. I immediately thought what a wonderful piece that would make for a travel blog. Three years on, I often think about events in terms of how to convey them to blog readers.

How have you evolved as a blogger since you started blogging?

If you are serious about being a better blogger, you’re probably already highly familiar with the name Darren Rowse (or at least his Problogger blog). You might also know Chris Garrett who blogs about new media. These guys are leaders in the industry who have gained recognition for their success (including their financial success) in the business. Yesterday they both published announcements on their respective blogs about the fact that they have co-written a book about blogging together that will be released within the next few weeks.

The ProBlogger Book

You really only need to know the title of the book to understand what it’s all about; it’s called ProBlogger Book: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. If you want to know more, Chris’s announcement says that the book was quite difficult for the two of them to work on over the course of the last year due in no small part to the fact that they really wanted to live up to the book’s title. These are guys that have done well in the business of blogging and they want the readers of the book to benefit from their experience.

The bloggers behind the book

If for some strange reason, you don’t know about these bloggers, they are guys who have gotten attention for leading the areas in which they work. Here’s a little bit more information for you to chew on:

Darren Rowse, who is probably best known from his leading blog about blogging ProBlogger, is an Australian blogger who got attention in part because of his Six Figure Blogging telecourse. He was among the first to suggest the bloggers can not only survive off of their blogging income but can actually do quite well for themselves if they put in the time and effort to do so. In addition to the Problogger blog, Darren is the co-founder and VP of the b5 media blog network which includes numerous different blogs. He has contributed to numerous blogs and websites and has gained experience in blogging from the ground up.

Chris Garrett is a name that’s not as well known to many bloggers but is even more well-known than Darren to a few. That’s because his specialty is working in “new media” and he has worked as a consultant for numerous people who are making their living in the new media world. That includes blogging, of course, with which he is familiar for a number of different reasons. The main reason is that he is a founding member of Performancing, a site which is geared towards helping bloggers succeed in blogging.

Why bloggers would want to read this book

The main reason that you’d want to read this book as a blogger is because there is bound to be a lot of good advice for you about how to be financially successful at blogging. Additionally, you can probably avoid a lot of beginning blogger mistakes by reading a summary such as this one from two bloggers who have already been there before you. But there’s a more important reason that bloggers should consider reading this book. If you want to take blogging seriously then you need to know what’s going on in the world of blogging around you. You can’t just stay confined to the niche of your own blog. And right now, what’s going on is that two leading blog consultants have published a book about blogging that is sure to be read by a majority of your blogging competition. In order to be a leading blogger yourself, you have to know what others are referencing and this book is sure to make that list.

If you’ve done any work at all on getting your website’s pages to rank higher in Google you are at least aware of Google Page Rank; you may not understand what it is, but you at least know it exists.  Since Google’s latest ranking algorithm update, there have been claims that Page Rank is dead, or at the very least isn’t as much of a key in how pages are listed in the Google search engine.  I’m here to tell you that despite what you may have heard, Page Rank is alive and well.

What is Google Page Rank?

First a quick explanation about what Page Rank is, and how it is calculated.  Page Rank is a measure of the number and quality of links that point to your web page.  It determines the quality of links by determining if the links are relevant to the topic of your web page, and by looking at the quality of the links that  point to the page that is linking to your page.

What that means is, suppose you have two incoming links, one from Page A and one form Page B.  Page A has 100 links pointing to it, and they are all from other pages that are related to your page.  Page B has 100 links pointing to it, but it exchanges links with anyone that will trade, and most of those links are unrelated to your page.  Google would determine that the link from Page A is a higher quality link, and it would be given more weight in the ranking algorithm.

What This Means To You

I am making an assumption here that Google does not intentionally spread misinformation.  They can be very secretive about what all is considered in who pages are ranked, but they do not outright lie about what they are doing.  That being said, you can determine whether or not Page Rank is still important by looking at what Google says.  They claim “The heart of our software is PageRank™…”

To me, that sounds pretty darn important.

So, for you, that means not just link building, but quality link building.  All things being equal, a link from a PR 5 page is of much greater benefit than a PR 3 link.  That’s if all things are equal, which they seldom are.  To go a step further, a PR 4 link that is relevant to your page is of greater value than a PR:4 link from an unrelated page; and it is probably of greater value than a PR:5 (and maybe PR 6) link.

There has also been talk that getting links from pages with a lower Page Rank will hurt your ranking.  It doesn’t.  Google understands that you have no control over who links to your pages.  If they penalized you for low ranking links, all your competitors would have to do is set up a lot of low quality sites and link to you, which would drag your ranking down.  That’s not the way it works.

Page Rank is believed to be set on a Base 8 formula (remember your high school math?).  If that is true, it would take 8 - PR:1 links to equal 1 – PR:2 link.  To get an equivalent of a PR:4 link you would have to get 8 x 8 x 8 PR:1 links.  That’s 512 links, so if you are going after lower ranked sites, you better get busy.

Does that mean you should ignore lower ranked sites?  Absolutely not.  It just means that all tings being equal it will take a lot more work if you rely on lower Page Rank pages.

Don’t Ignore the Evidence

I can already hear the arguments forming.  But before you get too indignant, look at what the SEO gurus are doing and saying.  While some are decrying the death of Page Rank, they still tell you that it is important to build quality links to your page, which is the very thing that Page Rank measures.  If Page Rank was truly dead, then links, either internal or external, would not make any difference in where your page lists on Google.

Another exercise is to look at a search term that no one optimizes for.  Go to Google and type in “Click Here”.  The #1 listed site is Adobe Reader.  If you dig a little deeper you will see that the words “Click Here” do not appear anywhere on the page.  Adobe Reader has its #1 listing because of all the other pages that link to it using the anchor text “Click Here.”  All of those links pushed Adobe Reader up to a PR:9, and a #1 listing.

You can find the same thing searching for “Home.”  The #1 listing goes to the New York Times (PR:9), which beat Home Dept and Realtor.com (Homes for Sale).  The Times does not optimize for the word “Home”, but they get a #1 listing because of a far greater number of quality links, which gives it a higher Page Ranking.

There are a couple of things to consider.  First, while no one knows exactly what Google looks at when determining where pages list, there are believed to be around 100 on-page and off-page elements that are considered in the Google algorithm.  Second, Google is constantly updating the algorithm to a) give more relevant results in the search engines, and b) to combat black hat SEO techniques.

Every time Google updates the algorithm the ranking of individual pages fluctuates.  Things that may have gotten you a first page listing will now kick you out of the top 100 listings.  Getting highly ranked has never been a “Do it and forget it” venture.  It is an ongoing process.  You have to continue to work at SEO to maintain the higher listings.  You’ll move to the top, then Google will update, and you have to climb your way to the top again.  Frustrating?  Yes, but Google is still the king when it comes to driving large amounts of traffic to your site.

My advice: Don’t lose sleep over what your Google Page Rank number is.  Go out and build quality, relevant links to your site, and your Page Rank will take care of itself.

Would you like to make money with your blog? Following are 8 ways you can make money with your blog. If fact, these methods have been used by pros such as Darren Rowse from Problogger. Currently, Darren averages a yearly six-figure income from his blog. He’s certainly an inspiration, but I’m sure his success didn’t come overnight. I would imagine it took time and a lot of testing before Darren was able to pull in a six-figure income. However, with a bit of time, determination, hard work and testing, you too may one day celebrate your first six-figure income, and here are a few ways to help you get started:

Private Ads

Many bloggers earn an income by selling private ads related to their blog. 125 x 125 banners seem to sell the best and take up the least amount of space on your blog.

If you decide to sell private ads on your blog, the first thing you should do is decide on a price. Next, you’ll need to create an advertising page that includes your price, the type of ads you’re selling, your demographics and ordering information. If you need a little help setting a fair price, check out “How Much Should I Charge for my Advertising Space?” over at Problogger.

Affiliate Programs

Sign up for a few affiliate programs. Then, after you’ve registered, choose a few products and/or services related to your blog. Some popular affiliate programs that pay on commission are Amazon Associates, Linkshare and Clickbank.

If you have the money to invest, purchase some of the products or services you’re promoting to write a review about the product or service on your blog. Be sure you include your affiliate link in the review. I’ve read many success stories from affiliates who chose to make the investment in order to write an honest review and earn their readers’ trust.

Google Adsense

Google Adsense is another program that is a popular income generator for bloggers. However, in order to do really well with this program, your blog should be pulling in quite a bit of traffic, and sometimes it depends on your blog’s niche as to how much you could earn.

Product Sales

Do you have products related to your blog? Then sell them to your blog readers. If you don’t have a product, create an e-book or turn your blog into a blook and offer it to your blog readers for a reasonable price.

Donations

Ask for donations through PayPal. You’d be surprised how many people will pay for the information you dish out.

Teleseminars

Teleseminars are becoming more and more popular among bloggers. Join the ranks by creating your own teleseminar and selling it to your blog readers. Make sure the teleseminar you create relates to your blog and offers great advice that you’ve never mentioned through your blog.

Job Board

If your blog provides freelance writing or blogging advice, you may want to consider adding a job board to your blog. Charge advertisers a small fee to place their advertisement on your job board for X amount of days, and allow job seekers to view and apply for the jobs free. Not only will a job board add to your blogging income, but you’ll also be giving your blog readers a reason to return to your blog.

Add News Content and Videos

Finally, embedding relevant news content and videos on your blog from the Voxant Newsroom is another way to earn money as well as return visitors.