Welcome to Writing Lab News. This month I've got a mixed bag to offer you, including some advice on subbing work out without getting stung. There's an article on lessons I've learned in my freelancing career, as well as advice on building web writing skills and marketing yourself with social media. I've also included an excerpt of my review of WhiteSmoke Writing Software. Enjoy! Next edition: July 7

In this issue:

• Working With Other Writers
• How to Build Web Writing Skills For Free
• Website Marketing With Twitter
• Reviewing WhiteSmoke
• Five Freelance Writing Lessons 
• Diary Of A Working Writer June 2008

Working With Other Writers

by Sharon Hurley Hall

A friend of mine recently had a bad experience when subbing out some work. She tried to help a friend out and, as she put it, the experience 'bit me in the butt.' That's because the friend didn't have the same writing standards as she did. Working with other writers can be a minefield, yet unless you have superpowers, you will probably end up having to do it at some point. There are a few things you can do to make sure that the experience goes smoothly.

First of all, choose wisely. Not every friend is the right person to write for you. You need to check any potential writer's credentials carefully as your reputation will be on the line if the job isn't done right. Ask for samples and keep a firm hand on the project you are subbing out. That means getting the first part of the project in so that you can check that it's going according to plan.

It's always wise to be clear about your mutual expectations, especially if you are working with friends. You need to say what you expect in terms of deadlines and what you can promise in terms of payment. My friend learned the hard way that a lack of clarity on the job requirements and deadlines left her doing more work than if she had done it herself in the first place. It's a hard lesson, but one many of us have to learn.

To find out more about how you can sub out work successfully, read my recent post on How To Work With Other Writers.

How To Build Web Writing Skills For Free

By Sharon Hurley Hall

This article was originally written for Garden and Hearth. Here's an excerpt:

Consumer reviews sites are hungry for new reviews of all kinds of products, so freelance writers can write about almost anything they choose. You don't often get that chance when working for a client. I have found that writing reviews allows freelance writers a lot of creative freedom and the chance to develop their writing voice.

Getting started is as easy as signing up for one of the consumer reviews sites. These include Epinions, Dooyoo, Ciao and many others. There are also review blogs, where you can get paid to write by earning money from Adsense for the review posts that you write.

Once you have signed up, pick a product to review. The best option is to choose something you have already used, watched, listened to or experienced. We all have opinions on the products and services we use. Now it's time to get paid to write them down.

Read the rest of How To Build Web Writing Skills For Free

Website Marketing With Twitter

By Sharon Hurley Hall

This is an excerpt from a guest post on Mixed Market Arts, outlining how this social media form works well for self promotion and marketing.

Is Twitter just another example of social chatter that is destined to disappear without trace when the buzz is over? No-one really knows the answer to that question, but what I’ve observed is how some of the heavy hitters of the blog world are using it to create even more of a presence online.

Highlighting Good Work

One of the key uses is highlighting the content on your blog, or the resources that you are promoting. Of course, to be polite you have to take part in a lot of the non-promotional chatter, too. But you can post a link to your content and invite your fellow Tweeters to respond or to disagree. This tends to create a snowball effect, resulting in many posts on other blogs responding to your original posting. That expands your reach in the blogosphere and gets your blog known by some new readers. Don't forget to share the love and point out some good resources from other people too.

Read the rest of Website Marketing With Twitter

Reviewing WhiteSmoke

By Sharon Hurley Hall

I recently tried out some writing software called WhiteSmoke, which looked good to me. Here's an excerpt of my review:

You can use WhiteSmoke with any application, since it works with cut and paste, and you can also set it to check as you type. When you paste some text in, and hit one of those two buttons you get some text underlined in different colours. The colour code is blue for enrichment/thesaurus, green for grammar and red for spelling, cleverly following MS Word conventions. Here is where it gets interesting. Click on or hover over an underlined word and you get suggestions for improvement. So, how did WhiteSmoke do? I used it to check three articles I was writing for a client.

It picked up well on spelling errors. I use UK English, so it tried to convert them to US English. It found no grammatical errors - I had to insert a deliberate mistake to test that. That’s a major improvement over Word, which always finds grammatical errors where there are none. For me, the winner was the enrichments popup menu. That’s in two parts. The left suggests adjectives and adverbs you can add to enrich your writing, while the right suggests synonyms. Just click to add your changes. I liked some of the suggestions and can see where this type of software would help people who struggle with writing.

Read the rest of Reviewing WhiteSmoke

Five Freelance Writing Lessons

by Sharon Hurley Hall

This is another of my articles from Garden and Hearth, which outlines five things that I have learned about freelancing. Here's an excerpt:

Leave Time To Take High Paying Writing Jobs
It's great to have residuals but you don't want to be so busy that you have no time to take high paying jobs when they come in. With freelance writing, you need to leave room for the jam, not just the bread and butter. Make sure that your contract work leaves you enough time to do other jobs, because you shouldn't put your eggs in one basket. Don't be too reliant on a single source of writing income or you could be in trouble if it goes belly up.

Make A Backup Plan For Freelance Writing Work
As a freelance writer you’re on your own and that has advantages and disadvantages. Yes, you can set your own schedule, but there's no one to cover if you get ill. One writer I know missed an important deadline and nearly lost a job because she was rushed into hospital before she could deliver the work. We always assume we'll be OK until we aren't and then it's too late. So you need to have a contingency plan to cover your freelance writing work if the unexpected happens. This could be as simple as striking a deal with a few freelance writing friends so they can cover for you in case of emergency. Believe me, this arrangement has saved my bacon a couple of times.

Read the rest of Five Freelance Writing Lessons

Diary Of A Working Writer - June 2008

May was my busiest month so far this year, with a wide range of writing projects on the table. During May I wrote on marine biology, salsa, photo gifts, social media, rubies and alternative health - and that's just for starters. On Daily Writing Tips, I looked at Super Words, Verb Words and talked about Blowing The Gaff as well as uncovering a large number of Arabic loanwords in English.

I've also got properly into my new gig on Daily Tech Bits, covering the Wii Fit, laptop security and Jakob Neilsen's contention that search engines rule the world. On my new parenting blog, I discussed the challenges of working through a play date.

Coming up this month, I'm writing a book on management, articles on parenting and editing my forthcoming ebook on freelance writing. I've also got plans for a new series on promotion on Get Paid To Write Online. Have a great month.