18 Mar 10 Is Writing Really Fun?

No. It is not.

Writing is hard work. Go and ask anyone who is in the business for long and he or she will tell you what a drag this is. As they say it, “The worst part of writing career is to sit still on your desk and write.”

Writing never comes easy, no matter at what stage you are into your writing career. It will never come easy. It takes time, effort, and pushing from your side. Do not assume that someone just sits on the desk and starts stroking keys and articles or books or reports or whatever starts forming itself. It never happens this way. To draw an analogy, let me tell you that writing is akin to polishing gold necklace—it required time, determination, precision, attention to details, and ability to continue even when your mind is saying “F” Word out loud.

I have been long enough in this field to realize this. Initially, I was delusional. I thought it will come easy to me as I am into this since I was a kid is class 3rd. But, as I wrote I was delusional.

Should you take up writing?

Indeed, you should. If writing is tough then what is not? Nothing is easy. You will have to exert yourself in everything that you do. But there is one thing about writing that none of the profession shares, at least not in the essence that writing does.

Writing creates a world, where you are in control of what each of your words will do. But, still your readers are in control. As it is upon them to make whatever sense they want from the writing. Writing is a game being played between the minds of the writer, readers and everything that falls in between.

This indeed makes writing fun.

Yes. Writing is fun. In the truest sense of the word, not in the sense that mean no work all play.

Tags: Analogy, Attention To Details, Control, Desk, Essence, F Word, Fun, Game, Gold Necklace, Profession, Sit, Time Determination, Time Effort, Writing Career

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10 Feb 10 Freelance writing – Have You Read Your Job Description?

If you thought by choosing freelance writing as a career you will just write, write, and do nothing else then let me prick the balloon. Your client wants many more things from you. Do not get scared, you will not be asked to do any fancy stuff like coding, scripting, PPC campaigns, and all.

Then what other works a client will demand?

Basically, you will be asked to do stuffs related to writing only. And in my career, primarily I have been asked to do following types of work (other than writing):

Many clients have asked me to do like keyword research, for writing purpose only. This actually is not all that bad. It helped me conceptualize the article or press release while researching.
At times, clients also asked me to submit articles to various social bookmarking sites. I helped my clients with 2-3 submissions, at max. I do not think I would have agreed to submit an article to 100 or so social bookmarking sites. It would have been waste of time for me, but for 3-4, I never said no.
Clients may also ask for content suggestions, and about other things he can do to meet his goal. This in fact is an opportunity in disguise to cross sell other services that you offer. If you are writing only articles for your client then you may suggest him to use press release to get some link juice, or may be forum posting and all.
I have also given some marketing and SEO suggestions to my clients. Depending upon your background (I have my background in marketing), you can either say yes or politely say no.

Word of caution

Do not say no to your clients’ request, at least not directly, if you can help him. And also do not ask for money for every suggestion that you offer—I know people who do so—because it looks cheap. For that work you may get paid, but it will reflect badly on your professionalism. You may lose the client.

If the work is going to take hours of your work then say this to client, and if it is going to take hardly 10-15 minutes then do not bother. It also depends upon your relationship with your client.

Tags: 15 Minutes, Background, Balloon, Campaigns, Caution, Content Suggestions, Disguise, Freelance Job, Job Description, Marketing, Press Release, Professionalism, SEO, Social Bookmarking Sites, Submissions, Suggestion, Waste Of Time, Writing As A Career, Writing Career, Writing Job

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20 Jan 10 Starting An Internet Writing Career

Writing on the internet, and expecting to get paid for your work, isn’t easy. Most people who don’t have experience in the field may think that setting up a blog, and then getting some traffic is enough to make a living, but it isn’t. In truth you have to work at it, craft your ability, and be prepared to go through some rough patches. How you work through these, and adapt your writing ability, are the keys to your success.

The biggest part about being successful writing is pretty much just being diligent. You have to work at any career, and writing on the internet is no different. You can’t allow yourself to second guess your career choice, or give up when the assignments seem too few and far between. Something has to break eventually, but if you give up, you’ll never get that opportunity.

Learn how to use keywords, and to write SEO. Search Engine Optimization is the most important technique for any internet writer. If you want your articles to garner attention, and be read by the mass public, you need them to get noticed on search engines. Because sites like Google operate searches by using keyword recognition, you need to have your articles formatted properly, and with the correct sprinkling of keywords.

Make sure that you make friends within the industry as well. Network, network, network so that you can connect to as many job providers and writers as possible. These are the people that have and will know about the best jobs. Getting connected to them will open up as many doors as possible, and really get your career moving.

As long as you work hard, and are diligent, you can succeed. Just remember to keep at it, and don’t give up on writing.

Tags: blog, Career Choice, doors, Google, Guess, Internet Writer, Job, Jobs, Mass Public, Moving, Rough Patches, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines, Sprinkling, Successful Writing, traffic, Truth, Well Network, Writing Career

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18 Mar 10 Is Writing Really Fun?

Should you take up writing?

20 Jan 10 Starting An Internet Writing Career

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