You know your writing is effective when…

vimlaksh — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:34:02 +0000

In the space of just two weeks I have got two articles published on Ezine, one on outsourcing and the other on hardware requirements for iPhone development. And I feel they already have had some effect, at least the iPhone one. Today I received a mail from one of the iPhone article readers who said he wanted my help in iPhone application development because was new to the field!

Imagine the fella didn’t realise I am no iPhone developer but a generic content writer capable of writing on iPhone hardware requirements. I am pleased that the article was considered to be written by a professional iPhone developer.

Hence the first indication that your writing is having the desired effect is that the reader finds your article not just useful but even asks for further help in the related topic. What better encouragement than this!

My favorite freelancing sites

vimlaksh — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:47:38 +0000

Although there are hundreds of freelancing sites on the net, some truly stand out. While most of the freelancing sites for writer’s and others offer nothing more than virtual jobs and virtual money, some are even worse and offer real jobs to be sure, but no real money! In short, they take you for a ride. So where can a writer earn some decent freelancing income on the net?

oDesk

A fairly new freelancing site set up in 2007, but it has quickly scaled the popularity charts among both, writers and buyers. The best part about freelancing at oDesk is their guaranteed payment system on hourly jobs. No more worrying over payments due. You can also bid for the non-hourly projects, just verify the buyer’s feedback though. The oDesk forum is also abuzz with good amount of activity all the time and the support staff is also quite quick in responding to any queries you have. So go ahead and make a small fortune for yourself on the oConomy.And you know what? oDesk charges upfront 10% of your total project fees as commission, no hidden costs and no stupid connects to buy as on Elance. After all why should you pay to bid on jobs?

Constant-Content

Although some hold the view that CC is Victorian, which may not be very wrong, still it cannot be denied that Constant Content is one of highest quality freelance writing site around. They have in-house editors who whet your submission thoroughly for minor gramatical errors and they run your article through Copy Scape to detect any plagiarism and to ensure ensure it meets all CC guidelines. Writers get three chances to get their article approved, failing which they are booted out from the site. What makes the CC concept interesting is the rare opportunity writers get to decide the price of their articles themselves, rather than some insensitive chap offering $1.25 (yes there are such people) for a 500 word article! Although CC commission is a high 35%, still the fact is that good quality articles easily sell for $25 to $40, so $35 fees is actually worth it. But writers are well advised to proof-read their writeup many times before submitting their articles, you will not regret it once your article gets approved.

There are some other good freelancing sites out there, but am currently reviewing them so will post my views once I am done with them. C YA!

Free Sample, what’s that?

vimlaksh — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:08:59 +0000

Sometimes, clients contact me and ask for ‘free’ sample before they offer the actual project. Now, asking for samples that I have written exclusively for the purpose of showcasing my writing skills is one thing, but when clients ask me to write 300-400 words on a topic of their choice, its fishy, you know.

If I were to write free sample for every client, I will end up writing free samples all my life. Sometimes it so happens that a particular person requests a write up from different providers on topic provided by the former and he is lucky enough to get all his work done for ‘free’.

So esteemed clients, kindly understand my dilemma. As a content writer I want to provide original, well researched SEO articles, and each of these article takes at least 2.5 hours. Now, to write a 400 word article by investing my precious energy and time and not get paid for it, is kicking me where it hurts the most.

That doesn’t mean I don’t want to provide samples of my work. You bet I WANT TO. That’s why I post my articles on Ezine Articles, Blogger and others, so prospective customers can have a good idea about my writing skills and what it can do for their business.

I am also planning to post an online portfolio with links to all my published work and even buyer feedback, whenever available. And lastly, I am always available on Yahoo chat (vimlaksh@yaahoo.com) so we can deliberate on all types of writing projects. I genuinely hope this will be enough give a clear picture of my SEO writing skills and do away with free sample requests. C ya!

contact me for all your writing needs at innovativewriter@gmail.com