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Win a scholarship to FinCon 19.

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I’ve written before about FinCon, aka the Financial Blogger Conference, which I’ve been attending – and speaking at – since 2011. It’s full of programs that can help personal finance writers get better at what they do, and take their websites (and their earnings) to the next level.

However, the conference isn’t strictly limited to PF writers. Scribblers from other genres can also learn from programs that tackle topics such as writing in general, blogging, podcasting, smart use of social media, YouTube channels and affiliate marketing. The networking is huge, as is the opportunity to meet companies looking for freelance writers.

(Not sure you can write PF topics? If you’re a good researcher, you can. Personally, I fell into this kind of writing after 18 years in newspaper journalism – without any particular emphasis on money.)

FinCon 19 takes place from Sept. 4-7 in Washington, D.C. – and there are two opportunities to attend for free or on the cheap. Here’s how.

 

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Freelance writers don’t plan to fail.

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Planning to become a blogger or freelance writer? Plan well.

While some people do strike gold quickly and make a ton of money, it’s best to assume that these folks are outliers. Entrepreneurship is chancy at best and sometimes downright frustrating.

For part of my own freelancing career, two words too often applied: feast, famine.

Too much work, not enough work. A fair amount of work but knowing that in a week’s time I’d be finishing up my final assignments – and no editors seemed interested in my current pitches. More rarely (and usually at the beginning of this journey) I’d have no work at all for weeks at a time, and be mighty glad that I had some side hustles.

Then again, I started freelancing full-time way back in 2002, when blogging wasn’t a big thing and when companies didn’t have to have major online presence. I’d get some magazine or newspaper gigs, and then a whole bunch of rejection slips. Again, thank goodness for alternate income streams (and a super-frugal nature).

“To break in you need to be willing to be broke,” notes Lamine Zarrad in the Freelancers Union blog.

Zarrad suggests that would-be entrepreneurs (including freelance writers) become “scrappy and creative.” He also offers some pretty useful tips for doing so. I’m listing some of them here, along with a few of my own.

 

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Writing contest: A super-short story.

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They say that brevity is the soul of wit. It’s also the soul of a well-written short story, and the Gotham Writers Workshop is posing a really serious writing contest challenge to writers out there.

Specifically: Can you tell a story in 10 words or fewer?

Not kidding. Gotham is inviting writers to tell a complete story in that tiny space – and incidentally, the 10 words includes the story title if you choose to use one.

Like I said: Really serious challenge. It’s based on a perhaps apocryphal story about Ernest Hemingway winning a bet as to whether he could tell a story in 10 words or fewer. Here’s the tale he turned in:

 

For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.

 

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Online writing jobs up by 500+ percent.

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Want to write? Good. Someone wants to pay you to do it, according to Freelancer.com. Between 2017 and 2018, the number of online writing jobs posted on Freelancer rose by 535 percent.

To be clear: Freelancer.com doesn’t necessarily post the best-paying jobs. But it does post jobs. And if you’re trying to get going as a writer you need clips.

The focus of my online course is not just writing your own website. It’s writing a blog people will read. Whether that’s a personal blog or a blog that will pay you to write is up to you.

For some people, getting their own thoughts published is the main goal. But I’m here to tell you that you can also bring in some decent coin – or even make a living – as a freelance writer. I haven’t held a square job since November 2002.

In order to get hired, though, you need to know what you’re doing.

 

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When life hands you blog fodder.

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th(Happy Throwback Thursday! This article was originally published on April 6, 2015, but its sentiments remain fresh.)

Having a bad day? Reach for a pen, or a keyboard.

According to Edna Ferber, “life can’t ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer’s lover until death – fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous, constant.”

Ferber died decades before the invention of the weblog. Yet I think she would have understood its underpinnings.

Sure, the Internet is crammed with cat videos and twee posts about OMG-so-cuuuute toddler birthday party themes. Yet it’s also a place for primal screams.

Writers deal with illnesses – their own or others’ – and grieve when the Lifetime movie ending doesn’t materialize. Parents of teens (or millennials who’ve moved back home) worry not just about money but about their children’s futures.

Young men and women struggle with money, careers and love, or with the lack of all three. Artists toil in obscurity and wonder whether any of this is worth it. Jilted lovers wail and/or plot revenge fantasies that they’ll never really commit.

The common thread? Sometimes, life really stinks – and sometimes writing helps us deal with it.

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The Skilsaw of Skilful Editing™

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Editing is an art form. One of the best editors I ever had really knew how to set limits. When he asked for 25 inches on a given topic, that’s what we were expected to deliver.

Those limits made us focus intensely, winnowing out extraneous details. Instead of meandering, indistinct articles, we turned in pieces that told readers what they needed to know.

This being the features section, we were allowed to do it with a bit of panache. “Voice” was a thing* in our department. Unfortunately, we were sometimes a little too in love with the sounds of our voices.

Invariably, the editor called us out when we turned in 30 inches, or 35. Boy, we hated that.

 

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‘Self-care is part of your work.’

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Paula Pant, who writes the Afford Anything blog, has been a freelance writer since 2010. Recently she posted some excellent advice on Instagram:

The time that you spend going to the gym, practicing yoga, writing in your journal or connecting with a close friend on the phone is not time that you are spending away from work.

Self-care is part of your work.

Even laptops need to recharge.

Paula is a very wise woman. Freelancers would do well to listen to her advice about self-care – especially at this time of year.

 

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Attend FinCon18 without leaving home.

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Every year I attend (and speak at) the Financial Blogger Conference (aka FinCon). It isn’t just for personal finance writers and devotees, though, because it touches on topics important to bloggers, vloggers and freelance writers of all stripes.

Topics such as good writing, effective interviewing (the topic of the panel I chaired), writing and publishing books, creating a niche brand, how to check a source’s credentials, social media, creating top-drawer YouTube videos, affiliate marketing and financial independence.

The conference took place in late September in Orlando, Florida. If you wanted to go but couldn’t, here’s another shot: The FinCon18 Virtual Pass.

You won’t get the in-person networking, the Freelancer Marketplace (which was great – kind of like speed dating for self-employed writers) or the chance to sit in the 16-foot inflatable flamingo. But here’s what you will get:

 

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Give your audience what it needs.

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This year’s Financial Blogger Conference was the biggest yet: 2,000 attendees, including vendors. (Speaking of which: The FinCon18 box of swag giveaway is up on my personal website until Oct. 15. Some really fun stuff in there.)

Someone on the FinCon Facebook page asked other members to name their favorite takeaway(s) from the conference. Here’s the one that got my attention:

 

“Stop trying to be clever and serve your audience’s needs.”

 

That is one solid-gold reminder.

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You’ve been given a gift.

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th

(Happy Throwback Thursday! This article was originally published on May 3, 2016, but its sentiments remain fresh.)

Ever question why you need to write? Not want, need. According to Gary Garrison, it’s because you have “The Gift.”

That’s the name of a short essay that Garrison sent out to fellow members of the Dramatists Guild of America. A friend sent it to me because she found it inspiring and, well, true.

Although Garrison was referring to playwriting, his words apply to bloggers, short-story writers, novelists and others of that ilk. All of them “have the ability to create whole, intricate, dimensional worlds and to people them with infinitely interesting, complex beings.”

Wait…Bloggers create worlds?

 

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