Terry Didcott

Freelance Writing Meets Internet Marketing

Posted on June 19, 2009
Category: Writing, internet marketing | 7 Comments

Welcome back to this freelance witter blog of mine. I’m going to re-visit the whole freelance writing thing from a slightly different perspective in this post. I’m not going to promote it as a way to make money online, although it absolutely is. I’m going to take a look at where it can take you in terms of growth, then show you what is possible when freelance writing meets Internet marketing.

There is one great problem with working as a freelance writer online which mirrors working at most forms of gainful employment and that is there is a ceiling on what you can earn. Ok, for some writers who can command a good rate for their work, that ceiling is higher than for most but its still there in the form of time.

What I’m getting at in my usual roundabout fashion is that there are only so many hours in the day and a writer, no matter how prolific, can only write so many words before the physical limitation of the need for sleep shuts them down for the day! So there’s the ceiling. Even if you work flat out, seven days a week you will hit the ceiling because online, especially now in these times of economic turmoil, there is only so much that content writers can expect to be paid.

Unless you are fortunate enough to be able to make the leap from content writer, or ghost writer to full blown, published author in your own right, the sky is considerably higher than the limit.

I know of several freelance writers who are just about at the top of their earning potential and they are not enjoying an easy life by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, in order to earn the kind of money that represents financial freedom, they are literally working their arses off seven days a week, twelve hours a day stuck in a chair chained to a computer. That’s no life! At least not one that has a pot of gold waiting at the end of all those long hours of toil.

This is the problem. Once you’ve worked so hard for a month and made a decent income, paid all your bills and everything else, you can’t sit back and relax while the next month looks after itself. To sustain that income you have to keep going. And keep going some more until you’ve saved enough to allow you to take a couple of weeks off and have a nice holiday. At the end of the holiday, what have you got to look forward to? The endless grindstone, that’s what.

In fact, its no different from working at a job, except you get to work from the comfort of your own home. The downside is that no company would expect you to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Ok, the pay and the conditions may be worse at a J-O-B and you’d probably have to commute (I’d rather shove bamboo splinters up my fingernails) and job security no longer exists, but at least you’d get weekends off and a few weeks paid holiday.

So am I advocating quitting the freelance writing game and returning to gainful employment?

Absolutely not!

I’d sooner commit Hari Kari than work for someone else ever again! But there is an alternative to slogging the hours away writing content that still allows you to stay at the computer and work from home. Its just that it also takes a monumental amount of work, time and perseverance to pull it off.

I know so, because its exactly what I’m doing. Its a marriage of two disciplines, where freelance writing meets Internet marketing. Writing and building a business that has no ceiling on earnings. While still working as a freelance writer I can transfer the writing skills I have to building my ever growing collection of websites which are quietly growing in size and authority with the search engines. I already make money from my freelance writing, and I’ll keep that side going because it would be foolish to stop. But now I also make money online from my websites and the monthly earnings keep growing, steadily month by month.

The Internet marketing income comes from different sources, but the main ones are affiliate commissions on products, services and merchandise that I promote on certain websites, advertising revenue and PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising from Google Adsense. This is what is known as Internet Marketing, or selling/marketing for profit using the Internet as your medium. This income grows in direct proportion to the volume of sites I have out there and their increase in age, stature and authority as they mature. There is no ceiling on this area of income as the Internet is huge, steadily growing and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

This income will gradually displace the freelance writing income and become a kind of income that is what is known as passive, meaning that it will continue whether I sit here in front of my computer slaving away, or sit on a beach enjoying a day off, or lying fast asleep in my bed. Its 24/7 income that just keeps coming. Of course, the more I put into it now, the more it will continue to grow, making for an ever upward spiraling source of income that will not stop if I decide to take a holiday, which it certainly would do if I were relying solely on income from writing.

Is this an easy thing to do? No it is not and when I said it takes perseverance, I’m talking 2 years of learning, implementing what I learned, making mistakes, suffering setback after setback and still hammering away at it until I started showing a profit. I still suffer setbacks and still make mistakes, but they are fewer and father between these days. There is a very bright light at the end of this very long tunnel and getting there has been extremely trying. Luckily for me, I’m a stubborn, tenacious bastard when I get an idea in my head and decide to go for it! Once I get the bit between my teeth, I’ll keep going at it until it pays off.

Failure is a word that does not exist in my vocabulary. Setback and obstacle I can take, because I know that these can be overcome with dogged perseverance, belief and sheer tenacity. Most people give up too soon in this game and that’s a shame, because it really can be done and you really can make a decent living from the Internet if you’re willing and prepared to take everything it can throw at you and still bounce back to progress toward that point where you’re in profit and the money that comes in pays the bills and keeps growing so that the next holiday will be better than the last!

Do you think you’re up for that?

Terry Didcott

10 Excellent Open Courseware Classes For Writers

Posted on June 2, 2009
Category: Writing | Leave a Comment

This is a guest post by Julie-Ann Amos, a freelance writer who covers topics such as online university rankings and reviews, elearning tools, and more.

Many people enjoy writing as a hobby, while others may actually choose to write for a living. Regardless of what type of writing you do, taking an open courseware class can allow you to improve your skills without costing you anything. These courses are offered by schools such as MIT and are literally the same program you would get in a traditional course, although typically there are no credits provided upon completion.

While there are literally hundreds of online free open courseware writing classes to choose from the 10 that will benefit most writers are summarized below.

1. Writing and Experience: Culture Shock! Writing, Editing and Publishing in Cyberspace – an excellent course for anyone interested in writing and publishing over the internet. The focus in on American culture and writing personal, experiential articles for the public. Offered through MIT OpenCourseWare.

2. Writing and Reading The Essay – an in depth look at nonfiction writing across different fields of study. Students will have a chance to read historical essays from early writers through to modern works. During the class both discussion and critique of writing as well as production of unique and original works by the students will be the focus. Offered through MIT OpenCourseWare this class is very popular with writers and students alike.

3. Introduction To Technical Writing – this course offered through MIT allows students to see examples of different types of technical writing across different fields of study. Emphasis is on developing clear, effective communication of technical information with the reader in a logical, structured format.

4. Writing and Reading Short Stories – through a study of outstanding short stories from the 17th century through modern times, students will learn the structure and conventions of effective short story writing. Throughout the course students will create their own short stories designed to hone skills learned through discussions. This program is offered through MIT.

5. Start Writing Fiction – offered through Open University OpenLearn, this program allows students to explore how to create characters and plots for works of fiction.

6. Writing For The Web – information on all you need to know to get started writing content for websites and blogs. This course is offered through ItrainOnline MMTK and provides all the basics to the advanced “must know” techniques to make an impact in online writing and publication.

7. Writing What You Know – a look at how writers use their own personal histories and identities to make their work their own. Students will delve into their own biases and perceptions that shade their writing and be aware of how this can contribute or distract from the writing. This course is offered through Open University OpenLearn.

8. Advanced Essay Writing – for those authors and students that want to go beyond the basics, this MIT OpenWareCourse is designed to allow an in depth study of how writing is developed. Throughout the course students will evaluate historical works and modern essays, plus critique their own works as well as those of others.

9. Technology for Professional Writers – offered through Utah State University OpenCourseWare, this course is designed for those already writing to update their technology skills. It is designed to be practical and provides examples of exercises to help writers improve and build on their current technical skills with regards to writing.

10. Digital Poetry – this MIT OpenCourseWare program allows students to explore and learn about the impact of technology on poetry and poetry creation. Animation, soundscapes and multimedia applications to digital poetry are all examined in the course of study.

American Idol: Who Cares Who Won it?

Posted on May 30, 2009
Category: media | Leave a Comment

So Kris Allen won American Idol season 8, amidst a sea of media hype rapidly followed by a rich helping of good old controversy. And?

Let’s face it, the media hype will be sure to continue for a little while longer to milk the last dregs from the story. The controversy over whether the entire final was rigged will I’m sure continue to rage for as long as anyone still cares to listen. Then one fine singer will embark upon a probably successful career as a singer and the rest of us ordinary folk will get back to our daily lives.

Its the same with anything the media (in this case television) throws at us. Put on a show and fill it with all the right ingredients to get as many people watching as possible, for which said TV station will make a substantial fortune from all the advertising revenue it generates. Its not even a gamble any more, because TV psychologists know exactly which buttons to press to get an already primed public to tune in and lap it up. Such is this incredible power, that they’ve got millions of people glued to their sets to watch absolute crap and not only that but they think they actually enjoy watching it. Not because they think that for themselves, of course. They’re already pre-primed to think it.

Television has got the world brain washed and it beggars belief that so few people actually realise it!

How else can a TV show such as that which spies on a bunch of people off the street living together in a “house” and doesn’t include a single actor pull in millions of viewers? People sit glued to their TV sets for hours watching shows like Big Brother and its several voyeuristic clones people argue with each other about trivial garbage. Then they go to work the next day and sit around gossiping about what those morons on the show argued with each other about the previous night.

Hello? Do you have a life?

Apparently not. It would be sad indeed if a group of people could lead such empty lives as to have nothing better to do than to watch mindless crap on the TV then talk about it amongst themselves all day. But what is even sadder is that its not just a small group of people. Its millions! It would be sad enough if it were just Americans, who, lets face it, as a nation are slaves to their TVs. But its creeping all over the world! The UK, Australia, Europe, Asia (yes they all have their own “reality” show clones).

¡Dios Mio! Has the world gone mad?

Can you imagine if Hitler had had access to this kind of power over people when he decided to have a go at conquering the world? He already knew the principles of mass suggestion and used it with frightening success with his propaganda machine. But had he been able to enslave not just his own nation, but every other in the world using the power of modern TV, the Third Reich would probably never have had to have shot a single bullet.

Hitler could have got the whole world to lay down on their backs and lift their legs in the air for him to rub their grateful bellies.

Is that a frightening thought?

Is it too fantastic to believe ot could ever happen?

Is it any more fantastic than getting several million people to not only watch, but think they’re enjoying watching a bunch of people in a studio house doing mundane stuff?

Is the light bulb coming on yet?

Mmmm. So next time you get into a heated argument with someone over what happened on the TV last night, stop yourself for a second and think it through. Ask yourself how much does it matter to your life to get angry about something you watched on TV that isn’t even real life. And something that cannot, now or ever, really affect your life in any way, shape or form.

If you still think it does, then congratulations, you have been successfully brainwashed and have given up your right to free thought.

If you think that I’m talking rubbish, then the brainwashing is more complete than you’ll ever be able to realise, because when you can’t think for yourself, you are thinking for someone else. Such as your TV masters who control your life and tell you what you need and what to buy and where to buy it from.

For the insignificant minority who know exactly what I’m talking about, there’s not much point in fighting it because its only a matter of time before scientists figure out a way to implant a TV chip inside everyone’s brain so we can never switch the damn thing off…

Then we’ll all be gibbering insignificant monosyllabic verbal effluent about whether a bloke that we know as Dave, if that’s his real name, is going to really tell a girl who calls herself Anne, if that’s her real name, that he thinks she’d look better in the little red dress rather than the little black dress…

And we’ll all care so much about who did or didn’t win American Idol, because our lives would be so pathetically empty without it… sob… sob…

Now lets see how many irate comments I get from the brainwashed masses…

Terry Didcott