Don’t be Afraid to Write About Nothing

Comments (1) · December 26, 2007 at 5:00 am · Writing Advice

Back when I lost my first web hosting job and I decided I would rather take a track down the road of freelance writing, I went around from web site to web site trying to find a place to work. I quickly realized though after talking with three or four places I wanted to write for that without example articles and stories it would be really hard to show them exactly what I could do.

I know it might sound silly, but if you are a writer without a published work to your name you might need to create a few before you become a hired hand at your favorite blogging spot. Personally I wrote up several different types of articles covering the areas I knew the most about. Then I linked them up on my personal site (which also doubles as my resume) and was ready to give looking for a freelance writing job another chance.

The second time around I was welcomed with much warmer arms of amazement and didn’t have any proverbial doors shut on my nose.

Each time I got a gig’ I added whatever I wrote for them to my resume links, so others could see my work there too. Fast forwarding to where we are now I have written so many articles, posts, podcasts and more there is no way I could fit them all on one list. Just don’t forget that when your first starting out with the online writing game that you have to have examples of your work, the best you have to offer, if you want to make your name from behind your keyboard.

 

Do Your Copywriting Right!

Comments · September 11, 2007 at 5:00 am · Writing Advice

I am often asked by business owners, entrepreneurs, consultants, coaches and others for copywriting tips. Here are my top six:

1. It is actually about them, not you.
Don’t write for yourself, your college professor or your next-door neighbor. It’s not about your style, your preferences or your own “voice.” It’s not even about what you like or want. It’s about the audience, the product/ service and, ultimately, about selling.

2. Be eye-friendly.
Nothing tires the eyes like big blocks of endless black and white text. So include bullets, sun-heads, questions, sidebars and headlines to break your copy into manageable, scannable chunks. Read the rest of this entry »

 

$10,000 Blogging Scholarship

Comments · September 5, 2007 at 6:12 am · Hot Web Topics, Writing Advice

I always love getting surprises in the ol’ e-mail inbox.

This is Shannon Prue, Scholarship Coordinator for the Daniel Kovach Scholarship Foundation. Just this morning, we started accepting applications for our 2nd annual Blogging Scholarship.

The Grand Prize this year is $10,000 and will be presented at the Blog World and New Media Expo in Las Vegas, this upcoming Nov. 8-9.

We are looking for well qualified applicants, so if you think any of your readers would be eligible, then please let them know about this opportunity. Full details are at CollegeScholarships.org:
http://www.collegescholarships.org/our-scholarships/blogging.htm

What are the requirements to enter?

• Your blog must contain unique and interesting information about you and/or things you are passionate about. No spam bloggers please!!!
• U.S. citizen
• Currently attending full-time in post-secondary education; and
• If you win, you must be willing to allow us to list your name and blog on this page. We want to be able to say we knew you before you became a well educated, rich, and famous blogging legend.

I would say this is an open door that can’t be passed up for any young writers out there that have a blog and a skill at the written (or typed I guess I should say) word.

 

Don’t Write for Popularity

Comments (2) · August 31, 2007 at 9:04 am · Writing Advice

It seems like these days when I go check out my feed reader to do some reading from my favorite news sources and blogs - there are a lot of posts you can spot that were written just for the sake of trying to bait the social bookmarking and ranking sites for popularity’s sake.

I am not sure this is the best writing practice. Why? Well after you get success with it once, you try it again and again. After a while, all you have left are a lot of wasted hours that you could have spent doing something more creative.

Sure it seems like a lot of these links that you see on digg, delicious, and others seem to come with a pre-packaged and sure fire way to make it to the top. There is a lot to be said for creativity as well though. Just because you wrote one “top 50 Firefox extensions you can use under water” post does not mean that every top 50 post you write will be just as popular.

You also need to worry about offending your current audience as well. New readers are grand, but if you can’t keep them they might start to look elsewhere. Take for example Mashable.com.

I used to really love reading Pete’s web site but the last few weeks it has been nothing but top ten, twenty and thirty lists. I am sure he’s gotten a lot of incoming links from the social bookmarking places but as a reader - I am bored, and I am sure I am not alone.

So don’t write to become popular - become popular because of what you write.