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Best Courses for Freelance Writers: Earn More Writing by Holly Johnson

Posted on November 23, 2017 Written by Pinar Tarhan

I’m a big fan of investing in yourself when it comes to your writing career, so whenever a course filled with valuable information and advice that I don’t see often, coming from successful writers who have succeeded brilliantly in a relatively short amount of time, I jump at it.

Partly, it is for me. I love learning new tips and remembering great evergreen advice I know but lack in practice.

Partly, it is for you. I love sharing awesome resources with you.

Now, this post will include affiliate links. It means if you purchase the courses through my links, it won’t cost you extra, but I’ll earn a little something. If you don’t buy, you will still have learned about an amazing blogger who shares awesome free content on her website.

And yes, I own and completed this course. I keep going back to it for reference on a regular basis, even though I’ve been doing this for a while. Sometimes, you need the extra inspiration and motivation.

The course also comes with its own Facebook group. I can say that the members of the group are lovely, helpful and inspiring.

Now that we got that out of the way, the review:

Earn More Writing

Earn More Writing was created by Holly Johnson, a six-figure writer specializing in personal finance and travel. She co-runs the blog Club Thrifty with her husband, where they give smart, fun and applicable advice on living better for less.

I own the standard package that comes with 8 modules and a bonus section.

The modules are video courses with a written summary, and they each have a worksheet you can print out to study and record your progress.

The modules include:

How to Establish Your Blog and Brand
How to Build Your Portfolio and Pitch Clients
Defending Your Work Day
How to Transition from Broke to Rich Writing
Finding and Keeping Your Dream Clients
Actually Getting Paid
Get More Work by Making Editors Happy
Taking Your Income into the Stratosphere

The bonus section includes several guides and a bonus video on ghostwriting for CEOs. The guides include an actual successful pitch letter Holly sent herself, essential resources for freelancers, what editors really want, anatomy of a perfect blog post – and my personal favorite: list of businesses with blogs.

The course, while fun, is a lot of work. However, despite however long you have been doing this, I recommend not skipping even a second of the videos. You can always improve on your brand as a writer.

This course is for all writers of non-fiction who want to make more money and build or maintain a writing career on their own trips. That’s why the course includes modules on branding, time management and relationships with your editors.

About Holly Johnson

You can learn more about Holly through the blog ClubThrifty. Her bylines include The Simple Dollar, Forbes and CNN.

If you have any questions about the course, hit me up in the comments. If I can’t answer it, I’ll ask Holly and get back to you.

You can buy the course here.

How to Get Back to Writing After a Mandatory Break By Realizing Your Resolutions (No Matter The Time of the Year)

Posted on October 9, 2017 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Writer at play.

Man, that was a long title. Sorry about that. I can explain. I was away from the blog for a while, and I have a lot to say. Most importantly, by slowly committing to my daily, weekly, monthly and yearly resolutions, I have finally ticked off some significant items of my calendar and to-do list. I’m by no means done, but I’m content with what I’m achieving each day. Given that my to-do list is gigantic and mostly work-related, this means something.

First, on that mandatory break: I don’t hold back about my health issues on this blog. I even wrote a love letter to freelancers with health problems. Of course, I love you all, but those of us with poor health tend to need the extra motivation.

This time it was my gastritis acting up. I had gotten a bit too focused on trying not to get a cold (by taking fish oil pills) and keeping my blood sugar in check (via medication), that my stomach had its biannual (or more frequent) meltdown by making me feel nauseous for days in a row. After a strict and mandatory diet of mostly toasted bread, white cheese and baked potatoes (and *almost no coffee!), I slowly got better. And this time, I really want to take better care of myself.

I generally take good care of myself, with the exception of chocolate, extra dairy, and the lack of exercise. Seriously. I rarely drink. I don’t smoke or consume soda or sugary drinks. Any dessert that isn’t chocolate-based is a waste of space for me. I don’t even eat that much. Any extra pound (yes, there are many) is due to sitting too much (because hello, writer!), and the chocolate overdose.

So after the nausea went away, I’m still on a residual diet. I watch how many raw vegetables I eat. I try not to overdo coffee (my overdo is 3 mugs per day, tops!), and I eat much, much less chocolate. I also try to walk at least 5000 steps a day.

Now, this might seem laughably few to those who are much more active, but even 5000 is better than 0. I go to the park near my house, get a lot of fresh air and play with adorable kitties. I cut most junk and processed foods a while ago.

I also go to bed a little earlier and get up a little earlier. Oh, and I try to reduce the screen time. (Shut up, Yoda! Trying is better than not doing anything at all!)

This conscious effort to move more and eat better has already shown its benefits. I’m pitching to production companies regularly. My to-do list has never seen this much erasing action. I’m happy.

What does this have to do with resolutions? Because it goes directly to those resolutions that we make with the best of intentions but never get to. Because life. Do these sound familiar?

Eat more healthily.
Drink more water.
Get more done!
Pitch more!
Write more!
Move more.
Lose 10 pounds.
See your friends more.

…..

The list goes on and on, but many of us share them. I used to think I was an all-or-nothing person. But it turns out taking smaller steps is better for me.

Because while 10,000 steps a day might be ideal, 5000 still beats the helluva shit out of 1000. Because while I might not want to or need to cut dairy, I can watch it. I can eat two dark pieces of chocolate instead of two bars.

I’m not saying I am, or my life is, perfect. It’s not even close. But people, it turns out, Yoda is wrong. Try there is.

Keep writing and living!

(*I had Turkish coffee when I was nauseous. It is a tried and working medication, though you still shouldn’t drink more than two cups a day. Not great for the heart. It tends to be strong.)

Writing for Free: Everything Writers Need to Know About Writing for Free

Posted on September 9, 2017 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Ah, the age-old question. Should a writer ever write for free?

The simple answer to that question is that, if you can help it, no. You should not write for free. Writing is work. It’s labor. And we need to be compensated. As awesome as exposure and fame sound, they don’t buy groceries.

Which brings us to the “if you can help it” part. You might consider writing for free when:

You are a newbie with no clips.

What if you can afford not being paid in the short term? Maybe you are still at your full-time job. Maybe you have another source of income or a partner who can help with the cost of living for a bit? Then, you might consider writing for a very authoritative, popular and respected site – like Copyblogger – for free.

While Copyblogger can afford to pay writers, guest posters – as far as I know- are not paid. However, the traffic, social media shares, and hopefully email subscribers are potentially a lot more than you’d get from writing on your own blog or writing for a site that is much smaller, not-as-well-known and pays a pittance.

You’d also be exposing yourself to a wide audience coming from a variety of industries. You would be majorly enhancing your portfolio by including a link to your Copyblogger piece in your pitches. Clients have a better chance of reaching out to you after your piece there as well.

You are an experienced writer but you have no relevant clips, and you are looking venture into a new niche.

Sometimes you have clips, but nothing remotely close to the ones your potential client is looking for. You can try getting published for pay, and that is better than writing for free. But sometimes, you can’t get published for pay.

Sometimes a publication pays but does not offer a byline: You need your byline to add to your portfolio. You can still opt to get paid if you need the money, but that means you still have zero relevant clips.

You can write for a relative/friend/acquaintance for free. They should ideally pay you. But if they can’t afford it, and or you are new at this niche – meaning you have no experience from your education, work experience, etc., you can write in exchange for a stellar testimonial from them.

Remember, we all write for free…for ourselves.

We write our blogs and social media posts. No one pays us. OK, we are our own boss, but we are also our own marketer. We are marketing our writing with each thing we put out there.

Since we already do a lot of free writing, it is better not to write more for free, as much as we can help it.

I believe that most publications that don’t pay are setting a bad precedent.

Make a website, offer exposure, don’t pay anyone. Right…

Yes, obviously, if my favorite author came out of nowhere and asked me to do some writing for free, telling me that he will share my post (with my byline) with everyone, then yes, I’d do it. For the exposure. Because I’d totally fan out on him. (Yeah, probably not a term.)

But my favorite author is filthy rich. And at this point, he knows I can write. Why else would he ask me to write something for him? So, the obvious question is, why the hell is he not paying me?

The lesson to take from this piece is simple: It’s complicated.

Things, unfortunately, can work differently than other professions. The best thing we can do is to go after paid opportunities as well and as much as we can.

But if we need the byline more than the money, we can swallow our wallet (not our pride; writing for them is prestigious, remember?) occasionally to make our portfolio shine.

Yet every time we do swallow our wallet, we are making it harder for other writers to get paid too.

So, let’s have a toast: May we always get paid and get a byline too.

Tell me, what do you think about writing for free? Please share in the comments.

And if you found this post helpful, please share it on social media. My boss, aka me, is paying me with exposure for this one. 😉

16 Non-Writing Tasks to Do When You Have Writer’s Block (or Don’t Feel Like Writing)

Posted on July 28, 2017 Written by Pinar Tarhan

I love the idea that we – writers – are sitting on a porch somewhere with a lovely view, a delicious coffee-based beverage nearby and typing away to our heart’s desire.

Now, we can often be found typing away with a coffee in hand, but we are not always writing a story or an article. (And the view doesn’t always rock, but that’s beside the point.)

Pinar Tarhan, writer — For instance, this is me posing for a picture because we need that too. 🙂

And while we love writing, sometimes we are stuck. Sometimes we’d do anything but, no matter how much we love writing.

But just because you can’t write doesn’t mean your whole work has to go to hell:

16 Non-Writing Tasks to Do When You Have Writer’s Block (or Don’t Feel Like Writing

Pitch. Unfortunately, editors and clients don’t always come to you with assignments and story ideas. You have to create your jobs. So you pitch. You usually have a pitch template than can be tweaked, so this is more editing than actual writing.
Follow-up on previous pitches. You have pitched stories a while back, but you haven’t heard back. So you customize that follow-up template if you need to, and fire away.
Keep track. You make notes on where you pitched and what you followed up. You don’t want to send the same idea to an editor that already turned it down.
Clean your inbox and answer important emails. It’s not advised to check your email every 2 minutes, but you should probably check it at least twice every day – especially if you are expecting responses and you have clients from different time zones. You don’t want to miss an assignment because the message got buried among 100 unimportant other messages.
Read the articles in the publications you are pitching– aka also known as market research.
Read unrelated stuff for fun and inspiration.
Deal with blog administration. There is always a plugin to update, a post to edit.
Apply to jobs and/or pitch to clients.
Post on social media. You have a presence; you need to maintain it.
Talk to other writers. It’s one of my favorite methods for staying sane.
Update social media profiles. Maybe you did something interesting or acquired an impressive byline.
Update your website copy. You might want to review your services and how you present them.
Update your portfolio. Those new bylines won’t add themselves.
Hang around aimlessly – online and offline- looking for inspiration and story ideas. Some of the most obvious ideas arrive when you feel like giving up. And ideas can come from anywhere, including from your favorite comedians.
Clean. I don’t mean spring cleaning, but just a general, mindless tidying up that won’t take too much time. Also, how clean is your computer screen? I swear mine is playing in the dirt when I’m not looking.
Organize. Organize files, on the computer and in your office. Do you need all the paper? Did you notice a publication you loved but forgot about? Saw a book you need to refresh up on? Leave the cleaning and organization to the end, though. You don’t want to use them as procrastination tactics.

What do you work on when you are stuck? Please let me know in the comments.