Six Figure Writing

Hi from SueC here at Six Figure Writing! As a new reader, be sure to subscribe to my email list, and my RSS feed to get the most out of SFW. Thanks for stopping by!

Despite the radio silence here on SFW of the past few months, I’ve been busily working on new writing gigs and projects.  The reason I’ve been cranking up the output is that as the economy slows (and according to the “experts” I’m listening to, that’s a given) I believe freelancers are possibly in the best position to make something of the situation.

How?  By doing what we do as freelancers: Get creative.

My projects right now include some writing for other folks - blogs, articles - but also writing a lot of web content for my own web sites and publications.  In other words, I don’t just think of myself as a writer, but as the owner of publishing business.  Blogs, websites, ebooks, and also providing writing “services” for clients; these and many other products are my company’s business. (If you haven’t seen the interviews and resoruces on my Freebies page, check out the Tiffany Dow interview to see how someone can take action to build a business as a writer.)

Writers who think of themselves only as “writers”, who look for freelance “jobs” and “clients” all day, and work primarily on stuff other people will own, could be missing out big opportunities.  As a publisher, I write all I want, on anything I want, whenever I want - but I also hire other writers and designers, to build my own assets including Web “real estate” and other intellectual property.  Writers who work as publishers controlling their own content stand to weather the storm over the next few years, by opening up their options to sell not just to clients, but also directly to readers and consumers.

To light your creative fire, here are posts with ideas you can use to leverage your biggest asset - your creativity - in a financially-tightening marketplace.  One of my favorites is Pamela Slim’s post in June about what to do if the economy’s got your down.

Here’s another post from Seth Godin’s blog, about how to maintain your competitive advantage.  If you don’t read his blog on a regular basis, start now, if you want to not only keep your head above water, but thrive, no matter the economy.

What are you doing now to grow and build your business?

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• Where Have All the Freelance Writing Jobs Gone?

Tags: content writing, freelance, Freelance Jobs, freelance promotion, freelance writing, freelance writing jobs, make money in a down economy, make money writing, Marketing, writing for money

written by SueC \\ tags: content writing, freelance, Freelance Jobs, freelance promotion, freelance writing, freelance writing jobs, make money in a down economy, make money writing, Marketing, writing for money

As a writer, I want to take advantage of more of what the Internet offers. I recently saw online a l-o-o-o-ng discussion about why a potential publisher sent a writer seemingly contradictory messages about why they were not accepting their submission for publication. The writer was baffled. And hundreds (I think) of people responded with similar experiences.

I always wonder why so many writers still choose to follow the traditional path, instead of jumping in to market and sell on the Web. I mean, for the writer who was posting to that forum, why not tell the publishers to shove it, and publish your own stuff, on your own site, for readers who WANT IT because you know there are there (and publishers aren’t generally in the niche or long-tail business)?

Anyway, I digress. If you are reading this blog, I hope it’s because you are looking for NEW ways to make money, and MORE ways to make money, and sticking to the query-wait-query-wait-small-sale method just isn’t cutting it for you. Next up, I am working on a multi-part “how to” for digging deeper into ways to sell your work on the web.

My question (after that long rant) is: People who read this, or subscribe to my list, are all over the map in terms of experience. Where do you think you fall in terms of knowing about writing, marketing and selling on the Web?

Ex., some of you probably already have subscriber lists, successful blogs, etc. My plan is to write up basics, in a shorter format (because there are SO MANY great resoruces about getting started, like Tiff Dow’s ebook which you can find on this page) and then let readers follow along as I venture into selling direct, using affilaites, Web 2.0 and the like.

Let’s get started real quick with a couple basic musts:

• If you don’t have your own domain name, get one. You can use your own name, but honestly, if you want to build search engine traffic, you should also register a name that represents your work - like “http://american-catfish-cooking,com” if you write catfish cookbooks, for example. No one is likely to be searching (yet) for your name. So use a domain name they ARE searching for.

• Get your own email. You want email that says “suec@american-catfish-cooking.com” not “suec@hotmail.com”. My fave host and registrar for ten years is Dreamhost.

• How to find what your readers are searching for? Visit SEO Book keyword search tool.

Let me know where you are in your process, building an online presence, marketing, using Web 2.0 successfully, etc. I’d like to feature some of the better responses in a future post.

Tags: freelance writing, online writing, writing business

written by SueC \\ tags: freelance writing, online writing, writing business

Below are a list of giveaways from Six Figure Writers, which we’ll be updating on a regular basis as we send more free stuff to our list and find good, free resources.  We’ve also included useful tools we find on the Web that are either free or low cost .  If you want to get first crack at these as we find them, be sure to sign up for the newsletter!

Most of these documents are in Adobe Reader PDF format, you can download a free copy at Adobe if you don’t have it already installed.

Freebies from SFW

Interview with Six Figure writer Tiffany Dow

Interview with Funds For Writers editor C. Hope Clark

Mega List of Freelance Writing Sites

Build An Ebook Empire by Tiffany Dow - free sample chapter

Squidoo Manual by Tiffany Dow - free sample chapter

Tools For Writers

RescueTime - Tracks your work on the PC so you can see where you’re spending the most time.

247 Ways to Increase Your Website Traffic - This report for just $7 has a great list of ways to bring visitors to your site.

E-Junkie - Affordable way to resell your e-goods online. Shopping cart, buy buttons and more. You can also resell goods from others as an affiliate

Google Webmaster Tools - if you aren’t familiar with this toolkit, you are missing some of the best free tools on the Web for improving the results from your website.

Tags: freelance writing

written by SueC \\ tags: freelance writing

Tomorrow I’ll be releasing the list of all the places online you can go to find new freelance writing jobs, as well as places to sell your own work.  (If you want to get access first, you’ll have to join the list by signing up to the right - I’ll be sending out an announcement soon!)  While it lists many, many places to sell your work and writing services,  It’s not a traditional list, meaning just another list of websites that post freelance gigs and jobs.  I’m adding a whole section about places you can go to sell your own products, either direct to your audience/clients, or through affiliates.  I’m also posting links to sites like Elance where you can bid on specific jobs.

The best way to use this list is to not only look for places where you can send a submission or bid on a job posting.  Instead, when you read these postings, consider what the buyer is doing with the writing you produce:  Are they running a topical website in a niche you are passionate about? Are they hiring a bunch of writers to handle bulk tasks (like writing dozens of articles)? Are the looking for someone to ghostwrite an eBook - what do you imagine they would do with that?  Buyers aren’t hiring writers unless there is a market to resell the work at a nice profit, you can assume they are paying you a fraction of what they will make selling your work to their customers!  How can you cut out the middleman, and reachthose customers directly with your own product?

The sites I list are good places to find jobs, but also good places to research.  which bring me to my next offering - The Hidden Web - Exposed!  I’m also going to be posting a new eBook listing dozens of deep-web research sources, places you can find ideas, products, public domain materials, web partners, newsletters and email lists farbeyond what is accessible just through Google (think “500 TIMES” more material!)  If you are serious about creating content - and to reach six figures, you should be - you’ll want to get your hands on this ebook.

Look for more tomorrow and Thursday about these great offerings, plus some goodies too…

Tags: freelance writing, freelance writing jobs, research, search engines, Writing Jobs

written by SueC \\ tags: freelance writing, freelance writing jobs, research, search engines, Writing Jobs