tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79598712755576504332009-12-24T18:37:33.650-05:00Welcome to Dana Prince's freelance writer's blog. I share: tips for writers, start writing discussions, provide mentoring to new writers, and share my own journey as a freelance writer.Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.comBlogger182125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-10984116047841563862009-12-14T10:10:00.006-05:002009-12-14T10:20:05.630-05:00

Inspired Author is having a short story contest. I think it's a great way to do something creative and have some fun with writing this winter. It runs from now until January 10 and I'm helping to run it.Here's how to play:-Start an Inspired Author blog. The blog is free and yours to use however you see fit plus you can monetize the blog, too: http://inspiredauthor.com/wp-signup.php.-Write your

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-32328197641490525772009-12-02T14:12:00.009-05:002009-12-02T22:54:41.864-05:00

Social media is something that nearly everyone is using. It’s not just for teenagers, for techies, and spammers. I firmly believe it can be useful to anyone. It has certainly been useful to me as a freelance writer. Sure, some social marketing tools can be time wasters but there are definitely benefits of using social media to get writing gigs. Sure, there are a few 'paid to tweet' services that

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-82504918766994374292009-11-02T08:49:00.009-05:002009-11-02T10:06:32.724-05:00

I joined Elance last year. I wouldn't call myself an Elance guru by any stretch of the imagination but I did want to share the bit of knowledge I have learned in the last little while. I don't work there constantly but have earned about $4400 in the past year there doing the occasional writing gig. (I do know a writing company that is approaching 7 figures of earnings on Elance since the year

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-20618526510376088542009-10-16T17:31:00.009-05:002009-10-17T10:05:23.111-05:00

If you want to wow your writing clients with your work on SEO articles, give them more than they bargained for.SEO articles are written primarily to increase the client's ability to be found as a listed result when their target audience searches for a word in Google. While these articles are written mainly for this purpose, they can convert visitors to buyers as well.When my writing clients send

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-3943316372313833152009-10-02T12:16:00.005-05:002009-10-07T07:27:57.172-05:00

Do you spend hours endlessly looking for writing jobs? I'll let you in on a little secret....Most people who want to hire a writer don't post the job on a job board. Most of them do what you do when they want to find something online. They Google for it.So, doesn't it make sense to optimise yourself for Google so that people who want to hire a specialist that does what YOU do will land on your

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-51086172052593409812009-09-30T20:01:00.009-05:002009-10-03T12:07:49.401-05:00

Every once in a while someone new asks me how to write for the web. I often share advice and decided that maybe it was time to write a series for this blog that helped those just delving into the world of writing for the web. Because this blog has been about my own journey as a freelance writer, posts typically illustrate where I am in my writing career at the moment I write the post. I thought a

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-48241871493114516552009-08-18T08:36:00.003-05:002009-08-18T09:31:21.580-05:00

Yesterday I found an option similar to Copyscape Premium without paying .05/search. I remember looking for a Copyscape alternative before opening my premium account last year after some unfortunate incidents with a team member but I didn't find anything that was quite the same. Plagium is the closest thing I've seen so far.Plagium is a beta tool that's currently free that offers you the ability

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-23772235217377605552009-07-28T11:01:00.004-05:002009-07-28T11:09:42.007-05:00

Inspired Author has had a recent makeover and it looks great. If you haven't been by lately, the site has a new look and new tools are being added to help writers promote their craft and their work as well as learn from one another. As the site's new community manager, I aim to increase membership so please stop by and register your free blog. My blog used to be a blog to help beginner writers

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-68742886536966516372009-05-17T10:31:00.009-05:002009-05-21T08:50:11.743-05:00

In July of 2007, I wrote a post called How Much Does Freelance Writing Pay? At the time I wrote it because I found that people were arriving on my blog because they asked the search engines that question. I decided to answer it to provide people with information. At that time, I was proud to report that in just over a year of writing for the web from home I had doubled my rates from about .01/

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-52115837774344726912009-04-14T08:05:00.005-05:002009-04-14T08:28:14.390-05:00

I've decided to start a series of my favourite freelance writer blogs. I don't have a set criteria for choosing which blogs to feature other than the fact that these blogs provide value to me as a writer. My first feature has got to be Sharon Hurley Hall's Get Paid To Write Online blog. I met Sharon in 2006 on a blogging community called WritingUp (it's no longer around but was a great place for

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-53844715328256596032009-04-03T08:43:00.010-05:002009-04-03T09:12:59.862-05:00

I have just received a payment from Bukisa for $12.10.While I haven't been aggressively working on making money with Bukisa since my first month, they are demonstrating to me that they are a good source of passive income because I've done very little since my last payment two months ago to earn this money.Bukisa PaymentBukisa paid me $12.10 USD yesterday, bringing my total earnings so far up to

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-30671006500064899552009-03-25T07:47:00.007-05:002009-03-25T12:03:46.028-05:00

eHow currently won't let me participate in their Writer's Compensation Program because I'm outside the U.S. This means I can write but I won't get paid. But, I've decided that I'm going to write for them anyway. Why? Self-promotion, article marketing, and in the hopes that eventually they'll change their mind.I've written for eHow in the past. A little over a year ago I wrote about 100 or more

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-82211415872183431452009-03-23T07:42:00.004-05:002009-03-23T08:09:54.544-05:00

Today I read about a new Craigslist AC scam on the wahm.com forum and as many experienced freelance writers know, there are a lot of scams to watch out for. People lure you into applying for a gig when in reality they really want you to opt in to their email marketing list so they can sell you something. Or, people want you to write samples so they can spin the articles with their software and

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-6354315203128727202009-02-20T14:47:00.006-05:002009-02-20T15:02:19.155-05:00

Today I want to share that .05 cents could save your writing reputation. Small price to pay, huh? There's a valuable writing tool for web writers called Copyscape. Copyscape has a free service that looks for copies of work online and allows five searches a month but the premium service is only a nickel per search and can help you check your articles before they get posted online. You can buy a

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-60889695661957397322009-02-19T09:12:00.004-05:002009-02-19T09:34:06.895-05:00

I thought it might be time to start a new series here on The Writer's blog called Writers Helping Writers. Instead of this just being my soapbox to talk about my journey as a writer, I'm going to move the apostrophe and make this The Writers' Blog for a bit and hope some other writers will participate in the conversations. This writer loves getting traffic and has had some great advice given to

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-62472564044312027162009-02-11T11:45:00.007-05:002009-02-11T19:29:54.990-05:00

I'm drooling over the new Kindle 2 for two reasons.....Some impressive Kindle 2 features:-Wireless access to the Kindle store to buy titles (no wireless fees or worrying about finding WiFi) electronically-Kindle can use text to speech functions to read text to you if you want-Holds up to 1,500 titles-Crisp text makes it as easy to read as a page, even in the sun-Weight of just over ten ounces-You

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-51110871694874363142009-02-08T14:16:00.017-05:002009-02-13T16:24:15.921-05:00

I believe wholeheartedly in living my life with integrity. This is not a sales pitch for me. Sometimes it costs me money or extra time and effort but because of my principles, my actions don't keep me up at night due to a guilty conscience. My conscience speaks much louder to me than greed so it's in my best interests to listen to it. I also know that when little miracles happen in my life, there

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-66850655510195134102009-02-01T09:51:00.006-05:002009-02-01T10:26:10.485-05:00

I haven't spent much time on Bukisa since I initially started The Bukisa Experiment and earlier today was alerted that the Bukisa index was lowered to 3.65 for February. Dropping Bukisa Index?First it was 4.0 (I believe), then 3.95 and now 3.65. Is this a problem? This doesn't really concern me because I know a new site has to attract members at first and then may need to scale back their payout

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-62011852858178553472009-01-22T11:03:00.012-05:002009-02-13T13:53:13.940-05:00

I talked recently about the gamble I took on bidding on freelance writing jobs on Elance. I've only been using the site for three months but it seems that I'm a bit of gambler that way because I've not just rolled the dice but I just had to also learn about folding 'em and knowing when to walk away. I've learned some things this month that will change the way I bid on Elance in the future.A few

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-4971831430910291542009-01-11T11:29:00.007-05:002009-01-13T10:37:48.493-05:00

I last talked about 2009 writing goals and here's a continuation of that post. Because this year is a difficult year for the economy, here's what I'm doing for the moment as work has been a bit less of a veritable smorgasbord and this has required some tweaking of goals and approaches.Existing ClientsI'm doing work for my existing client base (although on a smaller scale) and trying to keep them

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-33522378368309259672009-01-08T20:10:00.007-05:002009-01-11T11:24:11.458-05:00

Happy New Year. I know, I'm over a week late and haven't posted much lately but it's been an interesting month or so. Most years I'm ready well before December 31 with my list of goals and aspirations for a new year but here I am a week in to the new year still defining what I want this year to be about. Why? I think 2009 is going to be a bit of a roller coaster ride so instead of making firm

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-3113535463799559442008-12-09T10:27:00.003-05:002008-12-09T11:05:07.995-05:00

As promised a month ago, here's my 1 month update of how much money I'm earning on Bukisa. After a month of putting in articles, doing a bit of social networking and not all that much effort, my Bukisa earnings are at just over $20.00.The Bukisa IndexLast month Bukisa had an index of 4.20 which meant you got $4.20 for every 1000 page views. This month the Bukisa index is 3.95. I'm a bit

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-75100289407655885362008-11-20T19:46:00.005-05:002009-02-13T13:55:44.871-05:00

Today's post is about my very first experience with the freelance job bidding site Elance.I have known about Elance since I first got started in freelance writing in early 2006 but hadn't taken the plunge for a few reasons. So, I know I'm queen of the mile long posts...but that's because I want to give valuable information instead of just a quick overview so if you've got a cuppa Joe ready,

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-35121598588035981472008-11-20T08:34:00.000-05:002008-11-20T08:38:27.272-05:00

I'm happy to say that I was tied for first place with my good friend Sharon Hurley Hall in the Wrideo referral contest. I haven't decided how to spend my $50 Amazon gift card yet but thank you very much, Wrideo!To recap: Wrideo is a social bookmarking tool for writers. Use it to highlight your own articles and to find interesting articles related to freelance writing, blogging, publishing,

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7959871275557650433.post-52674568184886308542008-11-18T21:38:00.003-05:002008-11-18T23:33:01.349-05:00

In my last post where I talked about what to do when your writing work well runs dry, I got a comment asking about big bulk writing clients:“I'm wondering how exactly you go about finding the big clients in the first place. I'm not talking about the clients you can write articles for, but the ones that provide bulk work that you can then subcontract to other writers. Those are not the kind of

Dana Princehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07039144757399178470noreply@blogger.com2