The Writing Base

I maintained a personal blog for almost 4 years. In those years I had no clue that you could actually make money from it. Without realizing it, I had a skill that now pays me for it. Blogging jobs make up for a substantial part of my work and they're also the most fun.

The realization that blogs generate great buzz and do well in search engines have led to the formation of companies that offer blogging services.

The good thing about these companies is that blogging pays (relatively) well and is a great way for beginners to get experience.

Hired to Blog is one such company that offers website marketing services through blogging. They hire bloggers who complete given assignments and are paid for it.

If you're new to paid blogging, companies such as Hired to Blog are an option worth considering.

[This is a paid review]

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When starting a blog, the primary fear of a blogger is that they won't have enough to say to keep updating it regularly. I was no different. This fear was the major part of my decision to only update this blog two to three times a week.

Work related blogs or blogs concentrating on a specific topic or niche, come with more responsibility and pressure. Friends don't count as traffic. You have to plan, edit and proof read posts before publishing them. Then there's the whole process of marketing your blog. Leaving comments on different blogs trying to entice readers to your own through it. It's a lengthy and constant process that takes time, planning and lots of patience. (Yes, I realize it's becoming my mantra but hey, it is true!)

So how do we successfully plan a blog and avoid running out of steam? Before today I would have given a vague answer of making a blog-plan along the lines a small business plan. Had you asked me to lead by example, I would have floundered.

Not anymore however. Ask me that same question and I'd direct you to Blog Energizer. It's a complete dose of everything your blog needs. While there's still two days before it launches (Nov 18th), the cool gifts already on offer are very promising!

• You get a buzz topic report that gives ideas about which topics to write about to create buzz on your blog.
• The 14 months Blogging Calendar is filled with cool observances that can lead to posts, contests and discussions.
• The Blogging Planner is extremely simple and very well thought out.
• You also get a report that talks about thinking outside the box and talks about other ways to gain readers and spread the word.
• There is also a report on different and fun activities to generate more traffic for your blog. After reading them, I found them helpful and will definitely be working towards implementing them.

Head over to Blog Energiser, get your gifts and decide for yourself. Don't forget to sign up for the blog energiser too! I first read about it on the WAHM blog. My first impression of blog energiser is impressive and I plan to follow its development closely.

Tony, this is especially for you in regards to your comment on my previous post. I hope it helps!

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In my last post, I boldly claimed that I knew blogging like the back of my hand. Now I can just imagine the looks I'd have gotten from people who treat their blogs like a business and continuously do so much to make it productive that they can point out ten things that I'm not doing right in this blog with just a glance. The good thing is that so can I. Apart from setting up a blog, updating it regularly, using similar templates for my blog and portfolio blog to give it a sense of connection, I haven't done anything at all. There is no interactiveness here, nothing to tell about the author and absolutely nothing to sell. To begin with I'll point out five things that I know I'm doing wrong. Five is all my ego can take at the moment!

1. No 'About Me' page - There should be one. A picture of the writer is great to associate with the blog but what is the writer like? A page about the writer and/or blog is as important as the blog itself. So why haven't I one? Because I haven't quite worked out how to add a page in blogspot when clearly it doesn't let us put up separate pages like wordpress.

2. No pictures with my posts - This is something I need to work on. Sadly, Flickr is blocked in UAE (which is where I am) so I need to find other sources. I know there are several other sources. I could make an entire blog post out of it. Suffice it to say, I'm lacking in this area because I had this idea to make my own illustrations for posts. The only thing stopping me is that I don't know how to make illustrations. It's in my 'things to learn' list.

3. I'm not selling my services through this blog - Yep, it's the biggest mistake a freelance writer could make. Any potential client coming by my blog has no idea what kind of writing I do or what services I offer. Do I write web content? or blogs? Or do I write for print media? What kind of different writings can I do? No one going through this blog would know.

4. No blogroll - I don't spread link love. Another faux pas, one that is in the works. I subscribe to countless freelancing blogs. And every week they come up with some really great posts and articles about the business of freelancing. Yet I read them, hoard them but don't share them.

5. No promotion of my blog - I haven't done any promotion of 'The Base'. I have possibly one reader which is the witty Sal, and he probably stumbled upon my blog through one of the comments I made on some freelancing blog. Him finding my blog can be chalked off as a fluke because the number of writing blogs I've commented on can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

I also don't use any of the social networking sites to promote my blog except for linkedin. I use Facebook, Digg, Del.icio.us, Stumble Upon and Twitter as well. I'm on a couple of forums too yet the promotion hasn't happened. And its not like I don't know how to promote. I do. Had I stayed back home I would have been working for a major local marketing firm. My internships were all in marketing departments and I was lucky to intern in firms that believed in sucking the intern's brain dry through work. Promotion of my blog is one of the things that will happen in its time.

If I know what I'm not doing right with my blog, then why have I not fixed it yet? Because I'm a firm believer in everything having its own time. It will possibly seem a weird philosophy to most but I like to plan and move things forward in stages. I want to enjoy the process of doing things. I enjoy seeing the progress my changes make. I have given myself six months to develop my blog the way I want it to. In the meantime I will be learning more and more things that will help me. Too much, too soon is not something I want. I don't want success soon. I don't want big bucks soon. I want to improve and progress as a writer.

All this does not mean that I don't have big plans for myself. I most certainly do. My plans are so big that when I accomplish them all, I'll be super woman! With a different costume of course and a laptop as my super power. Patience and hard work is the name of the game called success.

Have anything to add to my list of 'things I'm doing right?' What did you do wrong when you started out? Read more ...

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The title says it all. I'm a new freelance writer with barely enough experience. How I gain experience, build my portfolio and find work that pays (and pays well) will all be written about. I promise not to leave out a single detail. No matter how embarrassing or stupid my mistakes and experiences, they will all be written about.

• How much did I make off my first article?
  

• What lofty ideals did I enter freelancing with?

• What standards did I give up in order to find work?

• Oh and I'll even tell how long it took me to put up this website. It's an embarrassingly long time, which is why it'll make for a good (horror) story about a lazy and scared freelance writer.

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