For aspiring freelance writers, a professional blog dedicated to their writing career can be extremely beneficial, even if the writer has yet to be published.
Blogging can be used for building writing clips, connecting with other writers and professionals in the publishing industry, and a way to promote work.
Build a Writing Portfolio With a Blog
A basic blog is free, fun, and easy to set up and maintain. One of the biggest challenges freelance writers must overcome in the beginning is inexperience. Many magazines and websites prefer for writers to be previously published, or at least be able to provide sample clips.
While there is no money to be made from blogging at first, the blog will provide the clips a writer needs as long as the posts are relevant. A travel magazine editor won't want to read about what the writer's cat ate for breakfast, but he will be interested in the essay the writer posted on the nightlife in San Diego.
Develop a Niche as a Freelance Writer by Blogging
One of the most important thing a new freelance writer should focus on is developing a niche, and a blog is a great way to establish this. A niche is a very specific area in which the writer can claim expertise, the more focused the better. For example, parenting is a broad niche, but holistic parenting skills is even more narrow. A writer who is very knowledgeable about making organic, homemade baby food has a very narrow niche indeed, which will put them in much higher demand.
Let's continue with that example in terms of blogging. A writer with this expertise can start a simple blog with Wordpress or Blogger on the topic of making organic baby foods and natural remedies for common children's illnesses. Once a few posts are up, the writer can begin finding a readership, to be discussed later.
When editors of parenting magazines and websites are looking for articles about holistic childcare, the writer's blog will provide veritable proof that he/she is indeed knowledgeable about the topic and capable of writing coherent, helpful articles.
Freelance Writers and Bloggers are a Community
The blog also serves as a tool for the writer to meet and mingle with others in the freelance writing community, and promote their work. Networking leads to readership, simply put. Let's use the parenting writer again as an example.
The writer should find other writers who blog about parenting, perhaps specifically about holistic lifestyles. Writers are not in competition; they are a community that helps each other out, and by linking and commenting on one another's blogs, they can pass along knowledge, tips, and even work opportunities.
The organic baby food expert can become active on parenting blogs and organic lifestyle blogs. When someone on the parenting blog expresses interest in homemade or organic baby food, the writer can leave a helpful comment with a link to his blog, increasing traffic. Likewise, he can leave tips on the organic lifestyle blog about foods for babies, gaining traffic from this source as well.
Links are the best way to increase blog traffic. Time and effort must be put in, and the writer must be sincere about being genuinely helpful; otherwise this technique can appear as spam.
Set Up a Blog Today!
Creating a blog with Wordpress, Blogger, or Tumblr is free and easy to do, and doesn't require heavy knowledge of computers. Writers who are new to blogging will find it simple to create a clean, attractive blog and start posting right away.
Writing a novel? Here are a few reasons novelists should blog too!
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