freelance writer beginners education presentation
TRANSCRIPT
What Do I Need to Start?
Working knowledge of Windows and MS Office.
Basic knowledge of Internet like browsing websites
and using emails
Intermediate knowledge of the English Language.
Good speed at Computer Keyboard Typing.
An instant messenger account or home phone.
Valid Email Address.
Time-Schedule to spare at least 1 to 2 hours a day.
And finally, your interest in writing.
The 2 Most Important Things to Remember
Quality
The only way to increase your pay is to produce quality articles that
go by the specific instructions your provider supplies you with.
Once you have a history as well as a portfolio to offer future clients
your work will begin to be far more fairly compensated
Dependability
You have to be dependable. The content creation business can
sometimes be a quick one. A client may need 20 articles in a day. For
this reason they may need to depend on you regularly. Do not
disappoint them on a deadline and expect more work in the future
Providing a keyword rich article is something that you will have to do if
you are a freelance writer. To do so is not a problem, you will receive the
keywords that you need to use and their placement is your responsibility.
Sometimes you may have specific instructions that the keyword needs to
be in the first and last sentence and throughout the body.
Here are a couple of sites where you can check your keyword density.
http://www.live-keyword-analysis.com/
http://www.youcanwritearticles.com/tools/keyworddensity/
As with any article that you provide research will need to be done and an
interesting and original article should be provided. Never plagiarize!
Use your keyword in the article so that it sounds correct and natural.
There may be a few times that the keyword may be a misspelling of a
word, use it just as the client is requesting.
This should give you something to refer back to if you are asked to
provide a ‘keyword rich’ article.
Keyword Rich Articles
Keyword Rich Articles (cont)
Remember, most keyword rich article requirements will differ from client to client. So be aware and make very sure you have the instructions correct before you begin to invest writing time.
Some clients will request a keyword rich article at a certain percentage. For those articles you will need to use a keyword density checker. A good free one can be found here.
http://www.live-keyword-analysis.com/
This type of keyword density checker will allow you to check offline content. Since none of your content should ever be plagiarized you only need to be sure of the keyword density and ratio yourself.
Ezine Articles
The thing about writing for an Ezine is it can be rather simple, but yet difficult.
Because you need to provide an article that is well written and interesting, but one
that does not promote too much. Links are also not allow in Ezines. The keywords
will be your best friend in writing a good Ezine article that will please the client.
The title of an Ezine article is only allowed to be a maximum of 100 characters and
that will be including your spaces. So something that will grab the reader and let
them know what you are talking about is imperative. It should provide your first
look at the keyword too.
It is important to try and provide a title that will allow people to find it quickly in a
search. Having a title that is a "How to" will come pretty low in most searches
since there are so many out there.
While the Abstract of the article will be targeted towards the publisher you only have about
500 characters to get your point across. That means you need to make it enticing and be
something that urge the reader to continue reading.
Again you have a limit on the description that can be provided; it should be no more than 200
characters. That is about two lines that you will have to describe the article. Keyword rich is
very important here!
Your keywords are the primary point of a good Ezine article and one that will help you do
better in your career and bring in more clients to the customer as well. You have about 12
words for the keywords that will be able to be used. These will be provided by the client study
them and use them well.
For Ezine writing you will want to provide an article that will be from about 250 words at the
shortest to 750 words. You will know ahead of time how many keywords are requested for
that article, and normally this will not be as high as those keyword rich articles you will write.
Ezine Articles (cont)
Smart Quotes are something that you will need to avoid when you are
writing for an Ezine. It is best to use no formatting for these types of
articles, have a single line break and make sure that auto paragraphs are off.
If you are using Word you may be best to turn that Auto Format tool off.
In these types of articles the most popular length will be the 300 word
article. At times they will be more creative in nature and you may have a bit
more chance to expand on your writing and using it creatively.
Promoting of items is not allowed and you may not provide links that are
self serving in these articles. Make sure that you are giving an article that is
all yours and is not using any copyrighted material.
Ezine Articles (cont)
WordPress Blogging
WordPress is a wonderful blog tool used by a lot of companies for marketing
purposes. For this reason a lot of creative content can come in the form of request for
WordPress posting. To become an efficient WordPress writer you will need some
basic instruction and a good clear overall idea of all that may be required of you.
The basic idea behind WordPress blogging is to create a trail of informative keyword
rich or SEO content that will help that companies blog rise to the top of their business
niche. This in turn creates business for them through the hits to their sites and
exposure they may have to potential customers because of post written to the
WordPress blog.
You job here as the content creator on a WordPress site will be to create the content
and then utilize all of the capabilities that are familiar to WordPress, and even
sometimes can be familiar only to certain WordPress blogs.
On the next page we will go over all of the things you may need to do when you post a
WordPress blog.
WordPress Blogging Steps
As usual you will create the content per the clients instructions as far as to how they
want the article for the post. It may be a good idea to still work inside of a text
document or preferably word so you can keep an idea of your word counts as well
when you need to. Additionally this gives you a way to save your work in case the
dreaded and ever present web site error occurs during a post submission.
The following actions may need to be done on a WordPress blog in addition to the content creation:
Category Selection – Just under the publish or schedule button on the upper right of the blog there
is an area to select or to add categories to your blogs. For instance, on a blog cake decoration may
be given an extra boost in a search engine if you put it under the category of cake sales or
personalized cakes.
Keyword Tagging – The keyword tagging, just below categories, is similar to the category
selection but a bit more detailed. Although you do not want to go overboard or over the clients
instructions, you will want to get at least 4 to 6 keyword tags into the blog. So again, if cake
decorating is the blog content, adding keywords that pertain to the content is needed. Cake
decorating tips, cake decorating tools, professional cake decorators, personalized cakes and cake
decorating supplies would be acceptable tags to add if you are trying to generate traffic via those
keywords when they are applied in search engines.
WordPress Blogging Steps (cont)
Excerpts – An excerpt is a short summary or description of your post. Usually two short sentences
that will explain what someone will learn from reading the full article. This short information is often
used to display the excerpt instead of a full blog so this is really your chance in two short sentences
to show what your blog is all about.
Trackbacks – Trackbacks are links that you may have gotten your idea for your post for. Or they
can be your specific business site as well. Trackbacks are a way of letting certain types of sites know
you have linked to them. You may even be required to enter several trackbacks. Always make sure
there is a comma between the links.
These are usually the basics of WordPress blogging. Certain clients may have additional features
enabled on their blog, but it is safe to say that if you can grasp the concept of the basic ideas on the
last two slides then you can likely learn quickly any other type of requirements that WordPress may
use.
One of the most enjoyable types of articles to write is the creative writing article.
You have a lot of space to make a great article for your client here. Being creative
after all could be the main reason why you became a freelance writer in the first
place.
Of course you will need to know what your client wants to have this story or
article about. The topics can be many and with creative writing articles you may
be able to do a lot of story-telling in the process. Making up an imaginary land
and characters is only part of what you will need to do.
It will be within the first paragraph that you will want to hook a reader. Provide
something that will interest them enough to lead them to read more of this article
or story.
A whole new world can come to life with you being the one who creates it all.
Use original ideas and you may find that you have a great article that will have
your client coming back to you again and again.
Creative Writing Articles
When you are dealing with content articles you are providing an article that will
be placed on a web page. It is placed there to bring in traffic or interest on
a certain topic or product that could be offered. Giving a good article is
what your job is all about, and you will need to do this job right to earn
more work in the future.
A well written article and one that is not only interesting, but even offers
humor can get you more clients. If your style of writing is one that many
people like, well the work will be coming to you. So how do you write a
good content article?
First off find out what the topic is and research this topic. There are many
topics that could come up but you have just as many places to research
information. Google is always a big place to search, but if you are doing
something for a specific site you can research that site as well. Adding in a
bit about the company and how long they have been around is always a
good start to content articles.
Creating Web Content
Having content that is interesting and unique is a must, but it should be
well-written too. Providing links that will help the person reading
the article go to the right spot! Place in information that will stay
fresh for a while, it's called the Evergreen approach.
Providing an easily searched site that people can find what they were
hoping to find will make them come back quite often. Make the
content something that is easy to scan because most people will only
scan the first time around and look for certain words. This could be
keywords or just words that they want to find.
Keywords may be required in a certain density if this is the case you can
check out that density free of charge at the following links:
http://www.live-keyword-analysis.com/
http://www.youcanwritearticles.com/tools/keyworddensity/
Creating Web Content (cont)
A nice clear title that spells out just exactly what you will be talking
about is better than a fancy one with content writing. Being cute
with a great title can be used in other types of articles, but do not
use it for this type of article.
Use short but informative paragraphs, trying to keep one idea to a
paragraph. This will make your article much better and work well as
a content article.
Provide an article that is all your own do not plagiarize work. With
these tips you can provide a great article for the content market.
Creating Web Content (cont)
Some Very Helpful Links for Writing
Some good places to research specific topics are the following:
Health Topics:
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=77397
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/SEARCH/Search
General Topics:
http://wiki.answers.com/
http://www.answerbag.com/expert-questions
http://en.allexperts.com/sitesearch.htm?terms=&Action.x=7&Action.
y=8
More Writing Tips
Keyword usage if needed should be kept to the correct percentage
that is requested by the client. You can check out the keyword
density with the following sites free of charge.
http://www.live-keyword-analysis.com/
http://www.youcanwritearticles.com/tools/keyworddensity/
Work that you provide must be 100 percent your own. No plagiarism
EVER. As a freelance writer you need to have a good code of
ethics.
If you can do all this you will be a great asset to a team or a great solo
freelance writer who can expect their profits to go up as their
writing skills and knowledge of marketing practices grows.
Good Writing Practice
Always read the rules of each project before you begin. If you do
not follow them you may be asked to rewrite them. Taking up
yours and others time and possibly money in penalties
Failure to complete an assigned project that you request can result
in loss of money for you or any company or group you may work
for. Additionally, constant complaints from your clients may also
incur penalties or cause your dismissal from their writing providers
lists.
Use an easy program such as WordWeb to be able to check spelling
or use thesaurus capabilities on the fly.
Last Thoughts on Writing
If you are having a hard time finding material on a product, check out Amazon.com
product reviews. There can be helpful information there are rarely circulated items.
Check out more than one review if you need more information. There may be
something listed in another location that you may not have seen yet.
Do not turn in ANY work that hasn’t had a basic spell and grammar check at least once.
Do not be afraid to ask management for assistance or further information about a
project. If they do not know, they will find out for you.
Focus on your work first, if you let too much distract you, it will never get done. Or it
may be low quality work that is done poorly and needs to be rewritten. This will cost
you and the company money and possibly a very valued client. If you do not have the
time to offer your work full focus, please do not claim it.