I love putting this newsletter together. It's a chance to think about what I've learned about the writing business in the past month. This month, there are articles on Bukisa, where you can write and earn; Elance, the freelance marketplace; bidding and some useful resources for writers. Enjoy! Next edition: March 6.

In this issue:

• Bukisa: First Impressions
• Elance Lessons: Bidding Selectively
• The Unlimited Freelancer
• Time Tracking Tools For Writers
• Seven Steps To A Professional Bid
• Writing Talk: Getting Social 
• Diary Of A Working Writer February 2009

Bukisa: First Impressions

by Sharon Hurley Hall

A friend of mine recommended that I try Bukisa, a new (ish) way to write and earn. I've joined sites that made that promise before, and in a lot of cases I was disappointed, but a recent update from my friend convinced me that it was worth a shot. On Bukisa you publish articles and you earn a certain amount per thousand impressions (known as the Bukisa Index). The more people who see your articles, the more you earn. You can also earn when people sign up for the site as part of your network. Since I've just joined, I have no network to speak of, so there's nothing to see in the earnings pot yet.

Publishing Content With Bukisa

Submitting content is simple, though you may struggle to find the categories you want for particular types of articles. (I know I did.) You need a title and summary and you can put your text in a box with rich text editing controls. Once you've done that, Bukisa automatically suggest tags you might use, and you can supplement these with your own. Finally, choose from one of the suggested images (or add your own) and publish. The article immediately appears on your profile.

As far as I can tell, it doesn't matter if you have published an article elsewhere before, as long as you own the rights to it. However, I'm taking the opportunity to update some of mine before publishing them. I'll be interested to see how many I need to publish before I meet the minimum $50 payout (payable by Paypal) and start earning some residual income. I suspect that, like many of these sites, it's a numbers game.

Bukisa also includes the standard social features. As well as your network, you can have friends, can have favorite articles, can create a rich profile with links and can use RSS feeds and widgets to rebadge your content. I'll keep you updated on my Bukisa experiment - and I'd love to hear from you if you have had success with it.

Elance Lessons: Bidding Selectively

Dana Prince of the Writer's Blog comments on her recent experience with Elance.

A few times in my writing career so far, I've had to walk away from clients because of various reasons such as not being suitable for their project, personality conflicts, finding their demands unrealistic, payment problems, and finding the pay to be unworthy of the effort required. I don't take ending relationships lightly but I am trying to remember that as a self-employed individual I get the benefit of deciding what I want to work on and of deciding who I want to work with. With Elance, this can get tricky. Why? The feedback mechanism. Once you accept a job, the buyer can have a big impact on your reputation so my new advice to myself is to be sure I really want to do the job before bidding.

Elance Feedback Scores

Part of the big appeal to buyers on Elance is the ability to get detailed history about providers. They can see how many projects you've worked on, what categories those projects are in, how much it costs the buyer to do business with you and they can see what others thought of your work. So, this means that as a provider on this job bidding site, you want stellar reviews from clients. I've already taken a few lower paying jobs that would help me build a positive reputation on the site but because my stats are still low due to being new to the site, one bad review could ruin all my hard work. I've seen a writer friend of mine have stellar reviews with five stars and a single bad review from a difficult buyer has made her score plummet.

Don't miss the rest of Elance Lessons: Bidding Selectively

The Unlimited Freelancer

Time Tracking Tools For Writers

by Sharon Hurley Hall

We all need to keep track of our projects, both for invoicing and so that we are aware of how we are managing our time. I have previously looked at RescueTime but have discovered that there are many alternatives which offer useful functionality. I  am currently testing OfficeTime, and will publish a review on the blog later this month. However, there are also several others. Here's a list to get you started.

• 14Dayz
• 1TimeTracking
• Complete Time Tracking
• Fanurio
• Freckle
• Harvest
• Intervals
• Klok 
• LiveTimer
• SlimTimer
• Time Assistant
• TSheets
• Toggl

Seven Steps To A Professional Bid

by Sharon Hurley Hall

Bidding can be one of the hardest things to get right. Someone asked me the other day if I had a bidding template. I’ve discussed bidding before, but for those who missed it, here’s a snapshot of my approach to bidding.

1. Read The Brief

I start by reading the brief carefully so that I can identify how my skills match what the client wants. If they don’t, then there’s little point in bidding.

2. Introduce Yourself

The people I am writing to don’t know me, so I start my bid with an introduction. It basically says that I am a freelance writer/ghostwriter/blogger (whichever is most appropriate) and mentions how long I have been doing this job.

3. Cut To The Chase

My potential client has little time to waste, so my next sentence cuts to the chase. It says why I would be perfect for the job. This can take different forms. Depending on what seems most important to the client, I may:

• list the different types of writing or blogging I have done that are relevant to the job
• include the names of some of my clients (those who are happy to be identified)
• highlight qualities such as being a native English speaker, good with deadlines and so on.

Read the rest of Seven Steps To A Professional Bid

Writing Talk - Getting Social

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

Diary Of A Working Writer - February 2009

Like many writers, I started the year wondering what recession would bring. As it turns out, there was no need to worry. The work coming in from new clients who have discovered the benefits of outsourcing balances the work disappearing as other clients tighten their belts. This month, I have been working on the travel blog, as usual. My favorite post was How To Get First Class Travel At Coach Prices.

I've also been writing about another of my favorite - though occasional - topics: parenting, with two new posts up on Momma Helpers. If you thought Mamma Mia was just a musical check out A Parenting Lesson From Mamma Mia. And perhaps work at home writers might recognize their parenting style in What Kind Of Parent Are You? I hope to write more for Momma Helpers this year.

On my to do list for this month are a new portfolio (I'll post on the blog when it's ready), articles on consulting for various clients, a web content revamp and lots and lots of posts for PiggyBankPie. I'm pleased to be writing for that site again.

I hope you have as productive a month as I plan to. See you in March!