Upcoming Blog Topics

Following are some topics that will be covered here in the coming weeks. Be sure to check back regularly -- and tell your friends -- about information you find helpful here.

REDESIGN NOTICE: InkwellEditorial.com is currently being redesigned. I appreciate your patience over the next 2-3 weeks. I had hoped to be finished by the end of May, but it's going to take a little bit longer.
Happy Memorial Day!
Sincerely,
Y. Black, Publisher
InkwellEditorial.com & InkwellEditorial.blogspot.com

5 Effective -- and Profitable -- Habits of Successful Freelancers

From the Publisher's Desk: Lessons I've Learned as a Freelancer & Recruiter in the Editorial Industry (learn from 10+ years as a biz owner and 19+ years industry experience)

Podcasting: What it is and Why Every Freelance Writer Should Know About It

The 3 Most Common Mistakes Freelancers Make (& How to Avoid Them)

A Few Hundred Bucks!: How to Easily Make $200-$300/month as a Freelance Writer (I promise, you won't have to send out one query)

How to Develop a Niche with NO Experience (& Make it Profitable for You)

Inkwell Editorial: Staffing Again? (Stay Tuned for Details)

FEEDBACK! Feel free to send in topics, questions, queries and/or experiences. While your concern may not be addressed individually, the answer may be published here (anonymously if you request).
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Learn everything you need to know to work from home as a Freelance Writer, Editor, Proofreader, etc. How?

Get Our Entire Library of Work-at-Home Ebooks for only $19.95! Save $47.70!

Receive 7 EBooks in All, Which Include the Following:
Medical Editing/Copyediting: An Overview (Reg. $4.95);
The Truth about Participating in Surveys & Focus Groups (Reg. $3.95);
How to Really Make a Living as an Editorial Freelancer (Reg. $9.95);
Advice from Successful Editorial Freelancers (Reg. $9.95);
The Small Business Owner's Complete Marketing Kit! (Reg. 24.95);
and more.

P.P.S.: Place Your Order Now for Immediate Delivery via Email!

What's Hot in Freelance Writing: How to Create a Niche & Increase Your Freelance Income

Periodically, I do a sweep of the major job boards (Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs) to see what sectors are hot in freelance writing.

By my obversation, it's technical and financial writing. I've always believed that you should specialize (create a niche) to be more profitable as a freelancer. And, creating a niche within one of these highly sought after disciplines seems to pay off.

How To Create Your Own Niche

What if you have no desire to write within these disciplines? Simple. Don't. BUT, I do advise creating a niche within something. For example, maybe you like writing about real estate. Contact real estate agents around the country and offer to do a newsletter for them on a regular basis -- supplying new, original content on a weekly, monthly, quarterly basis (however often they deem necessary).

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ADVERTISEMENT: POST CONTINUED BELOW

Learn everything you need to know to work from home as a Freelance Writer, Editor, Proofreader, etc. How?

Get Our Entire Library of Work-at-Home Ebooks for only $19.95! Save $47.70!

Receive 7 EBooks in All, Which Include the Following:
Medical Editing/Copyediting: An Overview (Reg. $4.95);
The Truth about Participating in Surveys & Focus Groups (Reg. $3.95);
How to Really Make a Living as an Editorial Freelancer (Reg. $9.95);
Advice from Successful Editorial Freelancers (Reg. $9.95);
The Small Business Owner's Complete Marketing Kit! (Reg. 24.95);
and more.

P.P.S.: Place Your Order Now for Immediate Delivery via Email!
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Write and send potential clients a benefits letter (a marketing letter selling your services), detailing how they can grow their business by publishing a newsletter. Back it up with hard stats from verifiable sources.

Select a market where there are a lot of potential clients (eg, real estate agents), so that you can build a nice client list with minimal effort. An added bonus of choosing a market like real estate agents is that you can target realtors nationwide. All the research you will ever need to do can be found online to write about any market in the country.

The profit potential is amazing if you choose wisely. Eg, charging 20 realtors $100/month for a bi-monthly newsletter can be a nice, steady chunk of income (what freelancer doesn't crave stability).

Other professionals you might target are insurance agents, lawyers, financial advisors, staffing agencies, restaurant owners -- the list is endless. To get ideas of groups to target, flip through your local yellow pages.

RECAP: Finding Your Niche -- How to Go About It

1. Target a PROFESSIONAL market (eg, B2B) with large potential.

2. Offer original content on a consistent basis.

3. Offer to do the design of the newsletter, as well as the writing. After a one-time setup, which can be achieved using many free templates found online, it will be a breeze to just plop new text in. Many professionals are busy and will want you to just "handle it" for them; the less they have to do, the more likey they are to want you to do a newsletter for them.

4. Show potential clients how a newsletter can increase their busines using verifiable statistics (include 1 or 2 sample articles).

5. Build client list to a manageable number for a nice, steady income stream.

Following this basic concept, this may be the only type of freelance writing you will ever have to do. Now, wouldn't that be nice!
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May be reprinted with inclusion of the following in full: © 2006 Yuwanda Black for InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for the creative and editorial industries. Visit our informative, up-to-date editorial blog at http://inkwelleditorial.blogspot.com/ for first-hand information on how to start, grow and/or maintain a successful freelance career.

A New Freelance Success Story Was Posted to InkwellEditorial.com Today

SELECTED EXCERPTS

I’m a freelance writer, graphic designer and photographer. I specialize in designing publications and enjoy all types of writing. While working on my journalism degree, I discovered that in addition to writing I loved laying out newspapers and magazines. I enjoyed having control over the whole project, words and graphics. During this time, I wrote and designed for college newspapers and magazines.
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ADVERTISEMENT: POST CONTINUED BELOW

Learn everything you need to know to work from home as a Freelance Writer, Editor, Proofreader, etc. How?

Get Our Entire Library of Work-at-Home Ebooks for only $19.95! Save $47.70!

Receive 7 EBooks in All, Which Include the Following:
Medical Editing/Copyediting: An Overview (Reg. $4.95);
The Truth about Participating in Surveys & Focus Groups (Reg. $3.95);
How to Really Make a Living as an Editorial Freelancer (Reg. $9.95);
Advice from Successful Editorial Freelancers (Reg. $9.95);
The Small Business Owner's Complete Marketing Kit! (Reg. 24.95);
and more!

P.P.S.: Place Your Order Now for Immediate Delivery via Email!
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To build my graphic design client list I relied heavily on the network of people I’d met at my full-time jobs. I contacted my former co-workers and bosses and let them know I was starting out on my own. Word of mouth advertising works the best. My first clients came to me through these contacts. Some of these first clients are my best clients.

To read the rest of this submission, click here.

New Freelance Writer's Series Announced

My Best, Worst, Most Lucrative and/or Oddest Freelance Job ...

This is InkwellEditorial's new freelancer writer's series. Its purpose? Pure entertainment! From time to time, we will publish first-hand accounts from freelance professionals who tell us the best, worst, most lucrative and/or oddest freelance job they ever had.

Janet Trakin regales us with her "Best Job I Ever Had" tale. Nervous breakdowns, queens on couches, the selling of a soul for great sex -- and more! -- are all covered. She writes:

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ADVERTISEMENT: POST CONTINUED BELOW

Learn everything you need to know to work from home as a Freelance Writer, Editor, Proofreader, etc. How?
Get Our Entire Library of Work-at-Home Ebooks for only $19.95! Save $47.70!

Receive 7 EBooks in All, Which Include the Following:
Medical Editing/Copyediting: An Overview (Reg. $4.95);
The Truth about Participating in Surveys & Focus Groups (Reg. $3.95);
How to Really Make a Living as an Editorial Freelancer (Reg. $9.95);
Advice from Successful Editorial Freelancers (Reg. $9.95);
The Small Business Owner's Complete Marketing Kit! (Reg. 24.95);
and more!

P.P.S.: Place Your Order Now for Immediate Delivery via Email!***********************************************

POST CONTINUED
"It took me 20 years, and job searching in three cities to find my dream job with Self-Help U.S.A. in Deerfield Beach, Florida. I got misguided by a psychiatrist in New York City who turned me into a job whore when she convinced me that taking the secretarial route in order to maintain an apartment so that I could have a sex life was what I wanted."

Read the full story here. Want to submit? Click here for full details.

Resume Tips for Editorial Workers

Looking for a full-time job? Click here to the article on CareerBuilder.com, entitled Seven Signs It's Time to Toss Your Résumé.

As a refresher, read Resume MUSTS for Editorial & Creative Professionals on AssociatedContent.com. Article can also be found on our website. Go to the "Career Center" section.

Happy job hunting!
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Learn everything you need to know to work from home as a Freelance Writer, Editor, Proofreader, etc. How?

Get Our Entire Library of Work-at-Home Ebooks for only $19.95! Save $47.70!

Receive 7 EBooks in All, Which Include the Following:
Medical Editing/Copyediting: An Overview (Reg. $4.95);
The Truth about Participating in Surveys & Focus Groups (Reg. $3.95);
How to Really Make a Living as an Editorial Freelancer (Reg. $9.95);
Advice from Successful Editorial Freelancers (Reg. $9.95);
The Small Business Owner's Complete Marketing Kit! (Reg. 24.95);
and more!

P.P.S.: Place Your Order Now for Immediate Delivery

Freelance writers, editors, copy editors, proofreaders, web designers, etc.?

Are you an editorial/creative freelancer -- eg, a writer, editor, copy editor, proofreader, web designer, etc.? InkwellEditorial.com seeks submissions covering the following topics (you can write on one or all of the following, but please submit each separately):

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ADVERTISEMENT: POST CONTINUED BELOW

Learn everything you need to know to work from home as a Freelance Writer, Editor, Proofreader, etc. How?

Get Our Entire Library of Work-at-Home Ebooks for only $19.95! Save $47.70!

Receive 7 EBooks in All, Which Include the Following:
Medical Editing/Copyediting: An Overview (Reg. $4.95);
The Truth about Participating in Surveys & Focus Groups (Reg. $3.95);
How to Really Make a Living as an Editorial Freelancer (Reg. $9.95);
Advice from Successful Editorial Freelancers (Reg. $9.95);
The Small Business Owner's Complete Marketing Kit! (Reg. 24.95);
and more!

P.P.S.: Place Your Order Now for Immediate Delivery via Email!***********************************************

1. What was the worst job you ever had (doesn't have to be an editorial/creative position) before you began freelancing? Why?

2. What was the best job you ever had (doesn't have to be an editorial/creative position) before you began freelancing? Why?

3. What was the most money you ever made from ONE freelance assignment? How did you get the assignment?

4. What is the strangest thing you've ever written about, edited, copy edited, proofread, designed (website), etc.?

5. Have you ever turned down an assignment because of a personal/religious belief? What was it?

Submissions: All submissions should be at least 400 words (can be longer, but not shorter.) We are looking for accounts with a sense of humor, and those that are unusual and/or obscure. The funnier and more off-beat the account, the more likely we are to publish it.

Pay: $5/per submission. Must have a PayPal account. We pay on the date the submission is published.
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UPDATE TO THIS POST:
A freelancer wrote in: "$5 seems like an awfully small amount to pay for an article and our expertise...."

My response was: I know, I know, I know.

FYI, for anyone else out there who feels this way, I just want to give a little background about InkwellEditorial.com. I run the site as a hobby and when payment for content is offered, I pay from my own pocket.

Many sites don't pay anything and I am well aware of how underpaid and overworked freelancers are -- and I sympathize because I am one of them. However, I feel an obligation to keep the ste going because it gives editorial/creative professionals an insight into the world of other editorial/creative professionals. I feel that the only way to learn is to share information -- and if you can pick up a "little" cash in the process, then all the better.

If you find one bit of useful information on the site, it's because I have taken the time to either write it, research it and/or and post a link to it -- all for no pay. I happen to know that the site is a great resource because many write in to let me know. As an example, I just got the following email this past Friday from a user:

"I just wanted to send you a brag email – I am a former English major who now works in broadcast news – never got a formal grammar background. I certainly wasn’t versed in AP style at all. But then I got an offer for an interview for a copyediting job. In two days. And I was going to have to take an EDITING test. On AP STYLE. PANIC! I did a search, found your site, and after two days and evenings of doing AP Style tests non-stop and cramming with my brand new AP Stylebook, I aced my test and got asked back for a second interview! THANK YOU!" Erin Burt

So, if you are a freelancer who has the time, or just want to contribute out of the goodness of your heart -- great -- it is much appreciated. If not, then feel free to enjoy the accounts of those who do write in.

Sincerely,
Y. Black, Publisher
InkwellEditorial.com
InkwellEditorial.blogspot.com
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