SLAP ON A BRANDThis is also from the course curriculum I'm creating so I'm only going to hit the highlights. In setting up a web presence for freelance writing, make sure you coordinate everything under one Brand.
Be An Expert
Put a lot of thought into what you think you can intelligently write about. Broad categories usually include: art, auto, baby, business, college, education, entertainment, fashion, food, games, health, home, kids, law, marketing, money, movies, music, politics, real estate, religion, science, sports, technology, travel, web design, and women.
Branding
Do a lot of brainstorming and thinking to create your freelance identity. Invent an identity or name you can use for a blog, email address, and to register on freelance writing sites if you so choose. For instance, if you want to start a blog to use for writing posts for clients, let's assume the blog focus will be writing posts about action television shows. Let's call the blog Action Thrills Me. You would then set up an email account to receive correspondence, and you'd want the email address to reflect or relate to the blog. So we'll say you manage to set up a free email account as: ActionThrills @ freeemail.com. Now let's say you register with a service that offers you jobs to blog for pay. You register your user name as Action Thrills.
The point of all this is to become known on the Internet for your brand whatever it may be. The easier it is for people to remember your brand (and email etc.) the better chances you'll have to write for bucks.
Internet Presence
Set up your Internet presence under your own domain name i.e. http://ActionThrillsMe.com rather than http://ActionThrillsMe.freeblogservice.com. It'll cost you a few bucks to get your own domain. Read some of the blogs I wrote about web hosting to find where to get the best deal.
Sure, you can set up a free blog like this one. When I set this blog up, I intended it only as a personal journal. If you use free domains for your blog, it will limit you if you want to blog for pay because the free domains are often excluded from the best paying jobs. The old axiom applies. You have to spend money to make money. I've since purchased my own domain Joan Slings Words for a blog I intend to use for commercial purposes as well as personal expression.
Fake It Till You Make It
Become professional. Learn the protocol professional writers follow. Always be professional in correspondence, work ethic, writing standards, and in negotiating and honoring contracts.
Tomorrow, I'll talk about some scams and writing jobs to avoid.
Takeaway Truth
An ability to work with words is a marketable skill.
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