Category Archives for Articles
Managing Your Social Media Presence as a Professional Writer (When You Don’t Love Social Media)
There’s nothing like going on a camping trip and being forced to be without internet for four straight days to make you take a good, hard look at yourself and your addiction to your smartphone.
Heck, before I dove into writing this article, can you guess what I was doing? Yup, scrolling mindlessly through my Twitter feed.
At first, while I was camping, I definitely felt anxious about not being able to check my emails or text messages. What’s going on in the outside world? What if my client emails me with an urgent question or request? What if one of the editors needs me? I literally have no reception.
But I also thought to myself … What about my Twitter followers? Or my LinkedIn audience? Will they think I suck at social media?
Balancing the Demands of a Professional Writing Career with a Full-Time Job
While everyone else at the office celebrates another successful commute home by popping the tab on a cold one and settling into the couch for a night in front of the TV, the rest of us brew a pot of coffee (or load the first of many K-Cups), reheat yesterday’s General Tso’s, open our computers, and prepare to camp out for the night.
We’re professional writers, but that might not be what it says on our business cards.
A lot of people who work eight hours a day also have some kind of side hustle, especially those in their 30s or younger, and these after-hours pursuits are not restricted to writing. Painters, composers, upcyclers, photographers, graffiti artists, filmmakers, microbrewers, web designers—they all create in the off-hours, the five-to-nine.
These endeavors are sometimes monetized hobbies, or they can even be secret second jobs in multistage schemes to escape the cubicle life forever.
Either way, at the end of a full workday, these creatives devote themselves to an ambitious pursuit without any guarantee of a payoff beyond the satisfaction of exploring their talents and passions.
6 Secrets to Writing Guest Posts That Editors Love
You’ve probably heard that your business and brand stand to gain a lot when you write guest posts. But maybe you’re at the point where it feels like editors have ganged up to reject all your guest-post pitches.
Getting your guest posts published doesn’t have to be so difficult.
Let’s look at those rejections from another angle: Most likely, you’ll discover that these editors are sending you a message. To understand that message, just take a step back and review everything you’ve been doing, strategically.
Let’s start at the beginning. What exactly is a guest post?
How To Write Content Both Search Engines and Humans Will Love
One of the biggest challenges that professional writers face is the struggle between writing content that is good enough to rank on search engines and sounds natural for their human readers to grasp.
The prospect of search engine optimization (SEO) has evolved constantly with time. Do people still believe in and practice the “Content Is King” principle or is it now just a bygone tactic in its slow demise?