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Get a discount on ‘Earn More Writing.’

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One of my personal finance writing buddies has an online course designed to help earn more writing. Starting on Black Friday she’s offering a short-term, 20 percent discount on her Standard and Pro packages.

Why take the Earn More Writing course? Because Holly Porter Johnson knows what she’s talking about.

“I make my living as a freelance writer, not selling courses,” Johnson says.

In other words, she practices what she preaches. Rather than spend all her time promoting her course and selling webinars, she’s a workaday writer who routinely bills five figures per month. Last year she earned $225,000 as a freelancer.

Interested yet?

 

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Writing career tips from a veteran.

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A former editor recently received recognition from his state’s press club. It was sort of a “lifetime achievement” award, although that’s not what it was called.

The guy’s writing career stretched for half a century and across multiple media. His words have appeared on radio and television, in newspapers and magazines, and more recently books and online articles.

A young reporter at the banquet asked for career tips. The editor offered some, and gave me permission to reproduce any that I wanted. The trio I chose may not all apply to your genre, but all three are food for thought.

 

Never turn down any assignment.

 

This is particularly true for freelancers, who may experience long dry spells until they develop their abilities at pitching stories and getting themselves known.

 

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Meet pro bloggers and podcasters (and a rapper!) at Dallas writing event.

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This year’s Financial Blogger Conference has something special planned for members of the public. Despite its name, the conference isn’t strictly for those who write about personal finance (more on that in a minute).

If you’re interested in freelancing writing and/or interested in getting a handle on your money – and if you’re in or near Dallas on Friday, Oct. 27 – then you need to check this out.

“Your Money, Live!” is an eight-hour event with workshops, speeches by (including keynote speaker David Bach), and something called Ignite FinCon, which is TEDx style speaking followed by a networking party where you can meet personal finance writers, bloggers and podcasters.

And did I mention the appearance by rapper Dee-1?

 

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Slang: It’s not the bee’s knees.

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In a recent Washington Post article about John McPhee’s new book*, writer Michael Dirda recounts a talk that McPhee gave to his granddaughter’s senior-high English class.

McPhee read a list of things mentioned in one of his articles and asked the teens to raise their hands whenever they recognized something.

The entire class knew “Woody Allen.” Only five students knew who Norman Rockwell and Truman Capote were. None of them knew recognized Sophia Loren, Bob Woodward or Samuel Johnson.

The idea was not to embarrass the youths, but rather “to emphasize the brief shelf life of cultural references,” Dirda writes.

 

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Writing: You can ALWAYS improve.

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Think you’re already at the pinnacle of your profession? You’re fooling yourself. Even if you’ve been writing for years and years (and years), improvement is always possible.

Recently someone who’d heard about the Write A Blog People Will Read course contacted me about a coupon special* that I was running. The woman, whom I’ll call “Mary” because it’s nowhere close to her real name), told me she’s been writing for a long time. (Hint: She has a kid in college.)

Mostly her work has been in public relations. Lately she’s maintained a blog and is doing guest posts for others.

Mary has taken some other courses, so she wasn’t sure that she needed WABPWR. Given the depth of her experience, I wasn’t sure either.

And then I read her blog.

 

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Proof. Proof! And proof some more.

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My second book is now out. “Your Playbook For Tough Times: Needs And Wants Edition,” like its predecessor, was published by me (on Amazon, Kindle and as a PDF through my personal website).

As a publisher, I’m a pretty good writer. Getting this brainchild born took much whirling and howling in the forms of back-and-forths with designers and formatters, and re-teaching myself how to use the different platforms, and much proofreading.

But apparently not enough proofreading. Shortly after it came out a reader wrote to me:

“I love the book and it is my second frugal bible. … I was upset that the spine has your name spelled incorrectly.”

Hey, thanks! … Wait. Wut?

 

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Vanilla freelancing.

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A post by Suzan St Maur had me laughing out loud recently. In “Vanilla sex: Here, have another helping,” the writer, coach and humorist applied the idea of “vanilla” (boring) to concepts other than sex.

Such as:

“Vanilla Politics: Politicians, usually at local government level, who … hate cutting ribbons and are useless at kissing babies – and expect to justify their existence merely by represent the interests of their electorate.”

“Vanilla Friends: Friends who offer you absolutely nothing in the way of valuable social contacts, wild nights out on the town, parties straight out of Hollywood and air-kissing companionship … and simply exist on the basis of always being around when you need them.”

But it was her “vanilla blogging” example that got my attention. 

 

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Make sure you get paid to write.

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My subconscious is very active while I’m sleeping. Often I wake up with thinking of stuff like the need to send a birthday card, or the perfect lede for an upcoming article.

Recently I sat up straight in the morning and said, out loud, “Did I ever get paid for that (publication redacted) gig?”

In early March I delivered an assignment to a freelance client who pays via direct deposit. Checked my account and nope, the payment never showed.

When I brought this up (politely, via e-mail), the very-busy editor was a very-embarrassed person. The result: an apology, and a slightly higher payment than usual.

There’s a lesson here for me, and for you.

 

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Writing: Cheaper than therapy.

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(Happy Throwback Thursday! Hope you enjoy this blast from my blog’s past.)

One of the speakers at Press Publish in Phoenix dropped this little bon mot: “I didn’t have a therapist, so I started a blog.”

Judging by the lolsnorts that resulted, more than a few audience members have also found this to be true.

Understand: I am in no way snarking on therapy, having undergone it myself. In fact, therapy changed my life, or rather gave me the tools to create a life worth living.

That said, I completely agree with the premise. Whether it’s done in a locked journal or on a wide-open blog, writing can ease aggravations small or large and maybe even change a life – yours, or someone else’s.

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Try editing on paper.

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Three different sets of eyes went over the manuscript for “Your Playbook For Tough Times: Living Large On Small Change, For The Short Term Or The Long Haul.” My daughter, who’s also a writer, read it. I edited it as I wrote it, and read the rough draft from beginning to end more than once.

Finally, a former newspaper colleague gave it a careful going-over, to the point of testing each URL to make sure it worked. (Fun fact: Some of them didn’t, no matter how careful I thought I’d been.)

So guess what I found when I read the finished book?

 

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