Welcome to the latest edition of Writing Lab News. At this time of year, it's always nice to remind ourselves of what we've achieved. That's why I've decided to dedicate this month's newsletter to the issues that have been most important to you in the last year. There's also an addition to our new humor section. Thanks for reading Writing Lab News and I wish you all the best for the holiday season. See you next year! Next edition: January 9th.

In this issue:

• How To Create A Writing Portfolio
• Ad Revenue Share Is NOT A Paid Blogging Job
• How To Find Success With Elance
• Taking The Plunge: Becoming A Freelancer
• Getting Back In The Saddle
• Writing Talk: Scam Spotting 2
• Diary Of A Working Writer November 2008

How To Create A Writing Portfolio

by Sharon Hurley Hall

This is an oldie, but it's remained among my most popular posts since it was written.

As a freelance writer, one of the best ways to attract new writing work is to show off examples of work you’ve already done. When I started out in journalism, that meant rigorously collecting copies of every newspaper, newsletter, journal or magazine in which I had a bylined piece (and even, in the early days, some pieces that weren’t bylined). I cut them out, put them in a scrapbook and lugged that around with me every time I went for an interview. Things are easier now.

Since most of my work is now done online, I now collect links to my work. I usually have the original articles stored on my hard drive and backed up to an external source. Even with offline publishing, it’s a simple matter to scan the article in and create a PDF. But how do I make this collection of writing and blogging credits make sense to anyone?

I faced this issue recently, as I was moving my main business site from doublehdesign.com to sharonhurleyhall.com. I looked at a lot of writers’ sites to see what they did. Here’s what I found:

Read the rest of How To Create A Writing Portfolio

Ad Revenue Share Is NOT A Paid Blogging Job

by Sharon Hurley Hall

I am a professional blogger and writer, so pay me in cash. Pay me by Paypal, wire transfer, direct credit or even e-cheque, as long as I get paid for my work. Why do I feel the need to say this? Because I applied for a blogging job today. The ad stated that it was a paid blogging job. I spent some time crafting a suitable letter, emailed it off and waited for a reply. When it arrived, it turned out that the ‘compensation’ they were offering was simply ad revenue share.

The ad asked for high quality bloggers. I’ve been blogging for a few years now and have racked up a lot of well written posts on a lot of topics, so I think I qualify. But that’s exactly why I expect to get paid for my work. What they want me to do is to spend hours, days and weeks creating a good blog for someone else’s site on the off chance that their marketing methods will drive lots of traffic to the site. Sorry guys, been there, done that, got the hole in my bank balance to prove it, so I won’t be taking up your underwhelming offer.

I have nothing against making money from blog advertising, but I don’t need to go to another site to do that. Somewhere out there are about four blogs making me a pittance from the measly page views they garner despite the site owners’ promises of promotion and traffic, so I’m not going down that road again. On this blog, where I have put in the time to develop it and nurture it, I make money from advertising - and I don’t have to share it with anyone.

How To Find Success With Elance

by Kerrie Spencer

I’ve talked to a lot of writers who have nothing but bad experiences with Elance. This isn’t to say there aren’t bad things that happen, but if you know how to use the system, you can make it work FOR you rather than against you.

Getting Personal With Bidding

The main key to landing bids is how you place your bid! DUH! No seriously, bids should not be approached in a pro forma way, but in a personal way. And for heaven’s sake, use the Private Message Board (PMB) to pitch the potential client. Otherwise all and sundry (read your competition) will know what you said to land the bid.

The personal touch means talking to the person like they are - well - a person and not a client. Even if it means addressing them by their sometimes hilarious nicknames (we won’t go there!) just do it.

Read the rest of How To Find Success With Elance

Taking The Plunge: Becoming A Freelancer

by Deb Wunder

It all started with a blog. Seriously. And not even my blog. That was part of the process.

Nor did it hurt that I knew I could write. I knew that because a bit over a decade ago I sold more than enough sf/fantasy short stories to qualify for SFWA, and one had even sold a second time as a reprint. I had also sold a couple of articles on journal-keeping, and even one on e-learning

However, knowing how to write and knowing how to get work writing are two entirely different skills. In fact, the largest reason I didn’t get to find out I could cut it as a writer until shortly after my 40th birthday was that I had no idea about how to sell my work. I didn’t find out how to do that until I became friendly, through a now-defunct chat room, with some sf/fantasy writers, and they mentored me through my first few sales.

Read the rest of Taking The Plunge: Becoming A Freelancer

Getting Back In The Saddle

by Sharon Hurley Hall

If you’re a work at home parent, as I am, then you’ve probably been making some trade-offs over the summer. It’s great to have our little darlings at home, but it’s also frustrating when we can’t work in the usual way. For me, the summer has meant paring down to essentials. I have kept working, but I have had to skimp a bit on promotional activities and new projects that have been in the works for a while.

A New Routine

Once school has started again, there’s a different kind of routine, bounded by the limits of the school day, rather than whatever time you can carve out from parenting. At first, the time seems almost limitless, but it can ebb away if you don’t have an action plan. Knowing what you want to do when is half the battle in getting anything achieved.

Read the rest of Getting Back In The Saddle

Writing Talk - Scam Spotting 3

Here's another in the Writing Talk Series about a common scam. The others are here.

Diary Of A Working Writer - December 2008

One of the things I most enjoyed in November was interviewing Karen Reddick for Daily Writing Tips. Karen publishes Grammar Done Right and has some novel views on writing. I also continued writing for the Taking Off travel blog (the new name for ParkRideFlyUSA's blog). My favorite posts this month were A Mini Florida Eco-Tour and my review of Dopplr. I'm planning to add more reviews to the mix on this blog.

On Techgerm, I began a new series on WordPress plugins, talked yet again about the need for a backup when you rely on the internet and chronicled my switch to Google. I may expand on that on Get Paid To Write Online in the coming month. I haven't blogged as much there lately, but that's because I became so busy that something had to give.

In part, that's because each opportunity spawns a new one, which is great. The Canmaking News gig I mentioned to you last month led to a similar gig for its new sister publication, Manufacturing World News. I've also been working on promotion for my corporate blogging gig. Don't worry, though; I haven't abandoned the blog. I've got some great things planned for this month and next year.

This Christmas, I plan on taking a week long break to recharge my batteries and spend time with my family (not necessarily in that order). Hope you have a fun holiday season too!