Your biggest sales are going to come from your most receptive customers, those with whom you have built trust and a solid relationship. You do this by providing value over time. When people see that the information you provide is reliable, valuable and interesting, then they will begin to trust in what you recommend.
A prime example of this is Darren Rowse at ProBlogger. Over the course of time, Darren’s audience has grown. Because of the quality of posts he offers, readers have become quite loyal. So much so that when he turned a recent series of posts (31 Days to …read more

I found another good post on Writing White Paper’s Top 10 Blog Posts for Writers (The Best From The Best in 2007!). It’s on emomsathome.com which is a blog about freelance writing by two moms.
The post they chose as their best for 2007 was Finding Your Niche. They point out a wide variety of ways to recognize and approach a niche. Take a look.
Do you have a niche for your writing?
Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing – a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision – for those who want to get a …read more

Last week I asked Would You Still Write If You Had A Million Dollars? I was delighted that the comments indicated most of you, like me, would indeed to continue writing if money was no worry.
I was also delighted when both Darren Rowse of Problogger Fame and Mark Silver, of Heart of Business both linked and commented on the entry.
The comments are fascinating. So is Darren’s poll on how much money bloggers made in October. Vote and you can see the results… which are all over the map, and, in some cases inspiring.
But it’s Mark Silver’s comment and his …read more

For some reason, many freelance writers hesitate to say “no,” particularly to a client. I know I used to be afraid. Part of it was my fear that this client might be the very last client I’d ever have. Where I got that notion I have no idea.
I do know that as I matured as a writer, I learned to say no to clients when they asked too much, or wanted me to do something outside my expertise, or something that I simply didn’t want to do.
Of course, I’m usually polite; I often explain why. For example, a client asked …read more

I’d just finished editing a chapter and sending off by email when a writing friend called. As soon as I said hello I realized I was still in my mental writing space and it took a moment to get present with my friend.
I don’t totally understand that space, but I value it. Another friend called it extreme focus and I suppose that’s as good a definition as any. I am focused on the writing and very little gets my attention. It’s almost a meditative space, except words are coming out of my fingers. Maybe it’s an active meditative space …read more

As part of his 31 day project, Darren Rowse is challenging bloggers to share their mission statements.
When I started this blog, if I’d written a mission statement it would have been something like:

To share my experience, resources, etc. about the business of freelance writing.
That’s not bad, but over time, I’ve come to a deeper understanding of what it is I actually do. Also, the shape of my business has changed. My new insights are largely as a result of taking several teleclasses from Mark Silver.
Today the mission statement is:
To help people get their dreams into words.
My website, Writing With Vision, …read more

Successful blogs, by and large, have multiple posts each and every day, or almost. Which is just fine until you need to go out of town for a business conference or simply want a vacation. Assuming your blog client allows it, the secret to real time off is to drip future posts. Here’s what I actually do:

Open a word file and start listing ideas with no attention paid to spelling, grammar, just enough info so I’ll know what I intended. For blog writing the idea may just be a link I want to follow-up on.
When I complete the post, …read more

Darren Rowse, creator of Problogger.net announced the winner of his latest group writing project Saturday. It was Nancy R. Callahan for her entry Baby names from Video Games.
There were almost 900 entries before the contest closed… if you want a full list, it’s here.
Using Firefox’s search gizmo, here are the entries I found dealing one way or another with writing:

Songwriters: Top 5 Ways to Cure Writer’s Block
Top 5 Reasons Why I’m Writing a Blogging Book

5 Tips – Writing for Blogs
Five Reasons to Participate in Group Writing Projects
Using the Web to Find Writing Jobs (The first five steps)