POST #26: 40 Days to a Successful Freelance Writing Career

PUBLISHER NOTE: If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know about the upcoming freelance writing seminar this month. Details.

Many have inquired about what will be discussed at the seminar. So, in order to answer your questions and to get you prepared for what to expect, I started a series of posts entitled "40 Days to a Successful Freelance Writing Career."

To start at the beginning, click here. And, welcome to the blog. Now, on to today’s post . . .

Freelance Writers: How to Get Found on the Internet Using Labels & Tags

Ever since I interviewed Dan Rosandich for Inkwell's newsletter, I've been thinking of ways I can do better with positioning my site online. Dan's been a freelancer for over 30 years, so when someone with that kind of success hammers on a point -- as he did about using the web to get clients -- I listen.

Anyway, my site and its blog both have pretty good PR rankings (4), but only because they've been around for so long (website since 1999 and blog since 2005). It's definitely not because I know what the heck I'm doing when it comes to search engine optimization.

Don't know what PR rank is? I explained it in the e-book on article marketing I wrote. FYI, this e-book is free with this offer.

How to Investigate Your Website/Blog for Web Popularity: A Mini Case Study

At any rate, I did a little investigation of my site, InkwellEditorial.com, using Google. I typed in popular search terms one might use to stumble upon my site and/or its blog, eg, "freelance writing;" "freelance writing jobs;" "writing jobs;" etc.

Neither were anywhere in the first 10 pages of results for these popular phrases, which is widely accepted as where you want to be in search engine results.

"Hmm,"I thought, "what can I do to get better search engine positioning?" As I'm not about to spend chunks of time on this, I wanted some simple things I could do that would help over time. And, one thing occurred to me -- tags, ie, my blog tags/labels.

What are these? At the end of every blog post, you will see the following:

Labels: free ebook, freelance marketing advice, freelance marketing tips, freelance seminar

These are the labels, aka tags, for a particular post. They are, in effect, the search terms an internet surfer uses to find info on line. Tagging your content correctly is critical to getting listed in the results that pop up when a user is looking for your type of product/service.

POST CONTINUED BELOW
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FREE E-Report: How to Make $100/Day as a Freelance Writer! Simply send in your email address and the report will be emailed to you absolutely free.
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For my tags, I usually enter something like "freelance writing seminar." If you do a Google search, InkwellEditorial.com and InkwellEditorial.blogspot.com com up 3 times on the first page for this search term. In fact, InkwellEditorial.blogspot.com com is the first listing.

However, when most are looking for info on freelance writing, they're probably not going to be looking for a seminar, but an article, an ebook, a blog entry, etc. So, I want to be first for those popular terms one might use to find info on freelance writing, ie, "freelance writing jobs."

How One Minor Change Can Make Big Difference in Your Search Engine Positioning

From now on, this tag/label (freelance writing jobs) will go on every one of my blog posts. Then I will list specific tags/labels on the particulars of what that post was about (eg, ebook writing).

Why tag/label like this? Over time, as Google spiders my blog, it will pop up high in the results related to freelance writing. And, I will have achieved a major goal -- improved my search engine positioning without adding a lot of time to my already packed schedule.

Why add this particular search term if the post is not about "freelance writing jobs?" Because, my blog and its site are about the business of freelance writing. So, in fact, every post is about "freelance writing jobs," as in, how to get one.

Some terms InkwellEditorial.com and its blog do rank high for? "Copyediting jobs;" "editorial jobs;" "freelance writing advice;" and "freelance writing tips;" to name a few.

So, all is not completely lost!

Marginally lost on the web,
Yuwanda (who is this person?)

Tomorrow's Post: We'll discuss how to find popular search terms that your site needs to rank well for for you to get found on the net -- and how to use them to your advantage.
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What’s in Inkwell Editorial’s Newsletter? Freelancers who make very good money doing what they love. Inkwell Editorial's newsletter features these successful professionals who put to rest the phrase, "starving freelancer." Subscribe to read all previous issues.

Current Issue: For all you artists our there (illustrators, cartoonists, photographers, this one is for you). I interviewed successful cartoonist Dan Rosendach. He’s been a freelancer since 1976 and lays out some very interesting marketing tactics for keeping the business rolling in.

Next Issue: 10/17. Sue Fagalde Lick, author of Freelancing for Newspapers, has graciously agreed to be interviewed. Whether you are an experienced or inexperienced freelance writer, this is one market that eagerly accepts freelancers, as Sue outlines in her book.

Gain clients, web traffic and brand awareness. How? Let us interview you for our popular newsletter? Full details. Read the first issue here.
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Copyright Notice: May be reprinted with the following, in full: Yuwanda Black is the publisher of InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for and about the editorial and creative industries. First-hand freelance success stories, e-courses, job postings, resume tips, advice on the business of freelancing, and more! Get the e-report, How to Make $100/Day as a Freelance Writer -- free! Log on to http://www.FreelanceWritingWebsite.com for details.
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