Hello to all!
This post is going to be different to my usual rabbiting.
I want to know why the USA cannot get it right where guns are concerned.
It is not the gun that is the problem.
I grew up with guns. Some countries allow a gun in every home for whatever reason or other. The children are taught from babyhood what the gun is for and they do National Service as a requirement. Very few of these countries have someone cut loose with a gun or a school or a mosque or anywhere at all just because they are having a bad day and want someone else to pay for it.
Why?
Are they so shallow that they cannot see any further than their own small grudges? Or are they so sick, spoilt or I have no clue what else they are that they cannot just get over it?
Or has the world, the USA in particular, bred a race of people whose self-gratification has got to be met immediately?
I know, every country has people of similar minds. But how come most of them can control this unmitigated anger, lust for revenge or desire for 15 minutes of fame? You don't get that when you are dead. All you are regarded as is some savage dog which needed to be put down.
That's not fame in my book.
Okay, you have this Act written into your Constitution that you can carry arms. That's all very well. Defend yourself by all means. But John Wayne died quite a while ago in case those who have never heard of him but follow his ideas don't know, and the world has moved on.
Why can't there be a simple test that people must take before they can get a gun of any type? It won't stop every lunatic who wants to feel big, but it may stop some of these innocent kids whose only sin was to go to school where they should have been getting blown away by these same lunatics.
Restrict the age of the person who can access the gun. Do some checks and balances before the gun can be bought and stop being so greedy for any dollar that can be had. Make it compulsory for guns to be locked up safely. It won't cost the world and it only takes a second to unlock a cupboard. Maybe that second would be enough for some of these people to think twice about what they have in mind. It may save some lives. Even one is a start.
Otherwise, get some help for the way you feel.
Fast.
Thursday, 1 October 2015
Friday, 15 May 2015
How do you set a price for your work?
Hello to all!
I've been filling in my time checking different blogs to see what questions people seem to want answers to, and one of them happens to be how much do I charge my clients for each piece of writing I do? Do I charge by the word, the topic, how much research?expertise is needed or a hundred other further questions.
I am not an expert on this topic, nor for one minute do I pretend to be. It's a question that has troubled me on occasions. Mostly I have a set scale for anything I write. An article of 500 words on almost any topic you can think of will cost a certain amount. But I do narrow that down a little further. If the article I am writing will take more than ordinary research, such as checking several search engines, then it will cost more. This is figured out as soon as I see what the request is for.
I rarely if ever write acedemic works. I consider them not in the topics I am comfortable with. I do not like Chicago style, different types of referencing and so I do not work with this stuff. I had the same problem when I was at University, so it is nothing new, but then I had to use them. :) Now I do not have to, so I choose not to. Other people do this work better than I can anyway, so why try to compete with them? The stress is not worth it. But, if you like academic writing, then by all means do it. Only try to balance your price against the actual work. If you have to write something that is 1,500 words, referenced and styled, plus research, then it should be worth more than an ordinary 1,500 word article.
When I first started in writing for money, I was terrified that I would charge too high. Then, as now, there were developing nations vying for the jobs as well. I had another job as a trained person, so writing was simply something I wanted to try out. After a time, I decided on a price per word. That was not set in stone, but it would not drop either. I could scale the amount per word according to the feedback I got from the jobs I landed. So, you might decide to do the same.
I know you have heard it a thousand times, but you really do get better the more you write. You learn the quickest ways to research, improve your speed, understand what the client wants. To be honest, you are foolish if you don't. So, if you set your rates at one cent per word, then you are wanting a very low pay and will probably get burned often. Five cents per word is not very much, but a 500 word article at five cents per word is $25. Write three of these per day, fifteen hundred words, that are clean, on topic, give good information and are easy reading and you will have $75. Not a fortune by any means, but if you can do that for several days, then you will have a reasonable amount to spend.
You do not have to be perfect. Clean writing, with no mistakes in spelling, grammar perfect and on-topic have a huge market as something you can deliver. Specialise. Don't be a jack-of-all-trades for long, if you can help it. Set yourself up a small website. You can start free on Weebly for instance. As soon as you can, remove yourself to a hosting service, as free websites are often viewed with a type of contempt. There really is nothing wrong with them, but many mentalities have this harmless snob value built in.
If you want to write for a living, do not expect to get a job that will do that straight up. Unless you are very successful with a book, a coaching service or something like that, you have to build yourself up and become visible.
Ask for feedback on what you write for clients. Clients are funny people at times. They will give you on how bad you are without thought, but often they need a gentle prod to give positive words. But no feedback should be wasted. Take the critism on board and really check it out. Above all, do not take it as personal. It is not directed at you as a person. If it is vague, accept it and move on. If it is specific about something in your writing, take note of it and work on that aspect. If one person has noticed it, then there is a great possibility that another client is going to also.
Above all, ensure you are giving your best. No one starts off perfect, nor do they ever reach perfectionism. If you are just starting out, then set a price for your work that is fair, but not extravagent. No writer ever born was worth X amount of dollars per word immediately they started. All of them worked their way up the scale. So should you.
Do not have an inflated opinion of your writing. You will always find a client who does not like your style, your use of words or some other reason. But do not sell yourself too cheaply either. This will only result in you feeling miserable, broke, frustrated and dciding to give writing away as a bad joke. And do not drop your rate in order to gain more clients. This is a very bad mistake. You cannot start with a price, get a client or two, have one of them disappear for a while, lower your rate, and have the client come back. It makes for very bad relationships with them if you try to set the first rate again because they are an old client.
Set your base rate. It may be two cents per word, or it may be twenty dollars per 500 words. As you gain positive testimonials, you can move your base rate upwards.
If you haven't a client to write for, try the content mills. But I strongly suggest you do not stay there lomg. The rate of burnout is high and the lack of positive feedback is overwhelming. I don't knoiw why this is, but very few clients seem to give their millers any or, if they do, they have used the freelancer for several jobs.
I hope this had helped all of you who worry over this question. Feel free to comment or share it! Or get in touch with me if you wish.
I've been filling in my time checking different blogs to see what questions people seem to want answers to, and one of them happens to be how much do I charge my clients for each piece of writing I do? Do I charge by the word, the topic, how much research?expertise is needed or a hundred other further questions.
I am not an expert on this topic, nor for one minute do I pretend to be. It's a question that has troubled me on occasions. Mostly I have a set scale for anything I write. An article of 500 words on almost any topic you can think of will cost a certain amount. But I do narrow that down a little further. If the article I am writing will take more than ordinary research, such as checking several search engines, then it will cost more. This is figured out as soon as I see what the request is for.
I rarely if ever write acedemic works. I consider them not in the topics I am comfortable with. I do not like Chicago style, different types of referencing and so I do not work with this stuff. I had the same problem when I was at University, so it is nothing new, but then I had to use them. :) Now I do not have to, so I choose not to. Other people do this work better than I can anyway, so why try to compete with them? The stress is not worth it. But, if you like academic writing, then by all means do it. Only try to balance your price against the actual work. If you have to write something that is 1,500 words, referenced and styled, plus research, then it should be worth more than an ordinary 1,500 word article.
When I first started in writing for money, I was terrified that I would charge too high. Then, as now, there were developing nations vying for the jobs as well. I had another job as a trained person, so writing was simply something I wanted to try out. After a time, I decided on a price per word. That was not set in stone, but it would not drop either. I could scale the amount per word according to the feedback I got from the jobs I landed. So, you might decide to do the same.
I know you have heard it a thousand times, but you really do get better the more you write. You learn the quickest ways to research, improve your speed, understand what the client wants. To be honest, you are foolish if you don't. So, if you set your rates at one cent per word, then you are wanting a very low pay and will probably get burned often. Five cents per word is not very much, but a 500 word article at five cents per word is $25. Write three of these per day, fifteen hundred words, that are clean, on topic, give good information and are easy reading and you will have $75. Not a fortune by any means, but if you can do that for several days, then you will have a reasonable amount to spend.
You do not have to be perfect. Clean writing, with no mistakes in spelling, grammar perfect and on-topic have a huge market as something you can deliver. Specialise. Don't be a jack-of-all-trades for long, if you can help it. Set yourself up a small website. You can start free on Weebly for instance. As soon as you can, remove yourself to a hosting service, as free websites are often viewed with a type of contempt. There really is nothing wrong with them, but many mentalities have this harmless snob value built in.
If you want to write for a living, do not expect to get a job that will do that straight up. Unless you are very successful with a book, a coaching service or something like that, you have to build yourself up and become visible.
Ask for feedback on what you write for clients. Clients are funny people at times. They will give you on how bad you are without thought, but often they need a gentle prod to give positive words. But no feedback should be wasted. Take the critism on board and really check it out. Above all, do not take it as personal. It is not directed at you as a person. If it is vague, accept it and move on. If it is specific about something in your writing, take note of it and work on that aspect. If one person has noticed it, then there is a great possibility that another client is going to also.
Above all, ensure you are giving your best. No one starts off perfect, nor do they ever reach perfectionism. If you are just starting out, then set a price for your work that is fair, but not extravagent. No writer ever born was worth X amount of dollars per word immediately they started. All of them worked their way up the scale. So should you.
Do not have an inflated opinion of your writing. You will always find a client who does not like your style, your use of words or some other reason. But do not sell yourself too cheaply either. This will only result in you feeling miserable, broke, frustrated and dciding to give writing away as a bad joke. And do not drop your rate in order to gain more clients. This is a very bad mistake. You cannot start with a price, get a client or two, have one of them disappear for a while, lower your rate, and have the client come back. It makes for very bad relationships with them if you try to set the first rate again because they are an old client.
Set your base rate. It may be two cents per word, or it may be twenty dollars per 500 words. As you gain positive testimonials, you can move your base rate upwards.
If you haven't a client to write for, try the content mills. But I strongly suggest you do not stay there lomg. The rate of burnout is high and the lack of positive feedback is overwhelming. I don't knoiw why this is, but very few clients seem to give their millers any or, if they do, they have used the freelancer for several jobs.
I hope this had helped all of you who worry over this question. Feel free to comment or share it! Or get in touch with me if you wish.
Wednesday, 7 January 2015
Old stuff for new beginnings
Hello to all!
I hope your Christmas and New year were happy and restful and you came up with a few plans on how you are going to progress this year. I have decided to recycle some stuff i wrote in another phase of my life to see if it can help new people. So here is the first of them.
This is a post I wrote quite some time ago as a favour to a friend. I think it got used somewhere. :) Some may find it slightly outdated now, but the topics inside are almost as relevant now as they were some 4-5 years ago.
Enjoy! And feel free to comment.
What is a keyword or, for those a bit more
experienced, SEOs or search engine optimized? Sounds very important, but all it
really means is the words or phrase is one that is used extensively when
someone is looking for something on the web. An experimental way would be:
dating sites, when they are not sure really what they want. If they have some
experience, then it may be: dating sites for early-twenties and so forth. The
keyword only becomes more specific, not the meaning.
Keywords, when writing, must be used to the extent
that the owner of the article has specified. So, in an article of 300 words
that requires a per cent of 1, that will be three times in 100 words. If they
ask for them in random figures, simply work out the per centage.Like so:
1 % = 3 in 300. 5% =5 in 300. etc. Unfortunately a
lot of owners also love overkill with keywords and leave the reader with a case
of shell-shock after reading them, feeling : Well, it was about XZY, but what
exactly did it say?
Or, if you are given 5, 10 or even 12 keywords,
then it impossible to use them in these proportions. So scatter them naturally.
You may use the first kw in the first sentence and not again, unless it
holds more significence than the others. The main objective is to spread them
over the 300 words so they look natural, not forced and to fit right in.
Titles are a good place to start. As a title is usually NOT
part of your 300word-count, then you can use them in the title. For example: kw
= dating sites. Title: Dating sites can be fun. First sentence: When you look
on dating sites, it is often wise to have some idea as to what you are looking
for. Ideally the last use of the keyword should be in the last sentence : If
you are only using dating sites for fun, then still take sensible precautions
to ensure your safety.
If you are at all interested in learning more
about keywords, then type a definition of keywords into Google and there is one
site, Marketing Titan, that is very good
KEYWORDS must be used exactly as they appear. So,
if the keyword is sands Kilimanjaro, then that is exactly as it must be used.
No extra words to make it run smoother even though it looks silly.
Exactly.
Saturday, 29 November 2014
Simple Mistake = Red Face
Hello to all!
Second short story is now on Amazon - it really is true. The more you practice these things, the better you get. I only took 4 hours to get this one up - the first took all day. Now, if I can just get the cover right .... Of course, now I don't look at the ones I've got out at all - I'm too scared to. This one is called " Someone Has To Do Something" and, I have to admit, is one of my favorites I wrote many years ago. As usual, the characters simply appeared with their story one day. I thank who or whatever makes this happen to me. Stephen is just about to have another adventure - should be there next weekend if nothing derails me. :)
My old computer is really starting to annoy me. my fault really - I should have retired it years ago. Officeworks appears to have a neat variety of laptop, so maybe I will go check them out. But I learned a lesson quickly - ALWAYS check exactly how your blog posts or any work looks like.
The colour in this computer is very 'off'. In other words, you cannot tell blue from red or any of those any more. So, I carefully rewrote a work that a client wanted done, checked it for spelling and grammar, took out the original and sent it. Some days later, I got an email saying: Are you mad at me? This rewrite is all in red.
I know what was red - my face! All that checking and the one thing I didn't check was the colour of the print! So it never hurts to have a last look. Even when we are experienced, we can make mistakes. This was a simple mistake I never would have made if I had bothered to get the computer fixed. And it was such a simple mistake. Because the colour appeared black when I put it on Word I left it. Not smart at all.
I feel like I am back in Grade School, writing my every move down and crossing it off now. Yes, paper and pen. But if it gets my work done properly then I am all for it!
Do you make stupid mistakes? Maybe you need to keep pen and paper handy too. After all, the computer is only as smart as its operator.
If you want to share, my email address is taylor.cheryl54@yahoo.com
Write on and shine.
Second short story is now on Amazon - it really is true. The more you practice these things, the better you get. I only took 4 hours to get this one up - the first took all day. Now, if I can just get the cover right .... Of course, now I don't look at the ones I've got out at all - I'm too scared to. This one is called " Someone Has To Do Something" and, I have to admit, is one of my favorites I wrote many years ago. As usual, the characters simply appeared with their story one day. I thank who or whatever makes this happen to me. Stephen is just about to have another adventure - should be there next weekend if nothing derails me. :)
My old computer is really starting to annoy me. my fault really - I should have retired it years ago. Officeworks appears to have a neat variety of laptop, so maybe I will go check them out. But I learned a lesson quickly - ALWAYS check exactly how your blog posts or any work looks like.
The colour in this computer is very 'off'. In other words, you cannot tell blue from red or any of those any more. So, I carefully rewrote a work that a client wanted done, checked it for spelling and grammar, took out the original and sent it. Some days later, I got an email saying: Are you mad at me? This rewrite is all in red.
I know what was red - my face! All that checking and the one thing I didn't check was the colour of the print! So it never hurts to have a last look. Even when we are experienced, we can make mistakes. This was a simple mistake I never would have made if I had bothered to get the computer fixed. And it was such a simple mistake. Because the colour appeared black when I put it on Word I left it. Not smart at all.
I feel like I am back in Grade School, writing my every move down and crossing it off now. Yes, paper and pen. But if it gets my work done properly then I am all for it!
Do you make stupid mistakes? Maybe you need to keep pen and paper handy too. After all, the computer is only as smart as its operator.
If you want to share, my email address is taylor.cheryl54@yahoo.com
Write on and shine.
Monday, 17 November 2014
Improve whatever your venture is
Hello to all!
Absolutely love this quote: Hard work beats talent when talent does not work hard which is somewhere on LinkedIn. So thank you to whoever came up with it. This has got to be one of the most truthful statements ever made.
I found it at this website, which is quite good if you want some good tips for Freelance Writing. http://www.writeawriting.com/freelance/build-your-writing-portfolio/ I haven't followed it for long, but already I've picked up a few things.
It really never hurts to try to squeeze 1/2 hour or so out of even a very heavy day to simply see what you can find to improve your writing. For all of you who say writing never changes from day to day, I say: BULL****. You mightn't notice the changes, but they are there and almost each day there is a new one. Hopefully, you are savvy enough to keep up with the basics of what is changing.
Google started the trend with its alogorhythms, I think. Since it began, everyone is still trying to beat the system and mostly still failing, sometimes very badly. If something is being programmed to be more like a human, then don't you think you should be writing for a human in order to get noticed?
That sounds pretty simple, I guess, but it is amazing how many people trying to build a business fail to do this. Take a look at your speech patterns. Apart from the usual 'um', 'ah' or 'mmm' while your brain is trying to catch up with your mouth, do you REALLY say one sentence of around 20 words and use the keyword for that sentence 5 times in it?
An experiment to do is to pick a word which interests you and you know a bit about and speak a sentence or two into something that will replay it for you. Check how many times you actually use the keyword naturally in that sentence/sentences. If you are not trying to force it, then you may find it there maybe two times. Do this exercise two or three times. If you really take notice, you will find your brain actually tries to substitute other words that mean the same if you allow it to.
No matter how small you consider your vocabulary, you do know at least one other word to mean the same as you are using, or even a phrase. A good speech writer also understands this. The most boring speech on the face of the planet can be livened up simply by substituting some words for ones with more action meaning the same. This is very much like the colour 'red' is supposed to conjure up feelings of warmth, heat, action.
Use a synonym creator. There are plenty of free ones on the Internet. Personally, I like: www.thesaurus.com/browse/creator but there are many out there. If you want to improve your writing,
do check around for synonyms. They will widen your scope and help you enormously to be a better
writer.
So go to it. No one is ever too busy to improve in what they really want to be.
Friday, 14 November 2014
How Long Is Your Headline?
Hello to all!
Yeah, I've been very slack and not followed my own advice. Like everything on this earth, life gets in the way on occasions. Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. :) In other words, I've been plain lazy. Never mind. Let's see if I can impart some wisdom to make up for my tardiness.
Studies are showing a dramatic shortening of our attention spans for whatever reason. Don't believe me? Take a quick look at a study available on buffer.com on its social media tips. buffer.com has a lot of great relevant content, as I've found out over the past few weeks.
Take Twitter for an example. Apparently, a great Tweet is 100 characters or less to make an impact. Don't yell - the study says this is true. Which doesn't leave anyone with much to play with, does it? You can't screw up at all, and that is exactfly what search engines want too. Every one of those 100 characters has to do a job.
Sentence length is so important to a lack of attention. How many times has someone glanced at a sentence, thought: Hell, this has got to be easier somewhere else and gone, never to be seen again? Yeah. I've been guilty of it too. Unfortunately, the sentence has usually been relevant to something I needed. This may have come about through our extremely busy lives, or just a part of the digital age we live in. After all, text messages come in shorthand too, don't they?
Yeah, I've been very slack and not followed my own advice. Like everything on this earth, life gets in the way on occasions. Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. :) In other words, I've been plain lazy. Never mind. Let's see if I can impart some wisdom to make up for my tardiness.
Studies are showing a dramatic shortening of our attention spans for whatever reason. Don't believe me? Take a quick look at a study available on buffer.com on its social media tips. buffer.com has a lot of great relevant content, as I've found out over the past few weeks.
Take Twitter for an example. Apparently, a great Tweet is 100 characters or less to make an impact. Don't yell - the study says this is true. Which doesn't leave anyone with much to play with, does it? You can't screw up at all, and that is exactfly what search engines want too. Every one of those 100 characters has to do a job.
Sentence length is so important to a lack of attention. How many times has someone glanced at a sentence, thought: Hell, this has got to be easier somewhere else and gone, never to be seen again? Yeah. I've been guilty of it too. Unfortunately, the sentence has usually been relevant to something I needed. This may have come about through our extremely busy lives, or just a part of the digital age we live in. After all, text messages come in shorthand too, don't they?
Yayyy - Children's Short Story Published
Hello to all!
Christmas is appearing everywhere - makes you wonder how all this stuff manages to keep looking so clean and saying: Buy ME, Buy ME continually. If I had to do that as merchandise for the ridiculous hours that I was on some shelf before the Big Day eventually arrives, only to find I was grabbed rudely at the post-Christmas sales, I'd deliberately fall off the shelf and hopefully break myself. At least the rubbish bin might be peaceful.
So what books are you thinking of buying this Christmas, either for Kindle, Nook or all the gadgets you can read on these days? Me, I belong in the dinasaur era because I still love the actual feel of a carefully/quickly constructed paper creation in my hands. This is not to say I haven't got a long list to read on my Kindle app on my computer. I have. I find Amazon amazing, which I guess is their wish.
I actually have 3 books there now. All of them are short stories really, ranging between 1,000 words and 10,000 words, but I am so proud of myself. The last one I actually managed to follow the guidelines and get it on Kindle all by myself. Now that is totally awesome, seeing as I am terrified of technology and people actually seeing my work.
The last book, Stephen's Dare, came uninvited but wanted after I wrote it. I've written a couple of kid's things, but none which I have ever wanted to see the light of day. They amused me greatly, but that is why I wrote them. Simply for my own entertainment.
So getting Stephen out there was really pushing past my comfort zone. I like to fool with uncomfortable little stories such as The Stump, which appeared one day, fully formed, straight after a visitor came and demanded why we had not blown the old stump where it was to Kingdom Come. I had this queer vision and The Stump promptly appeared. Needless to say, the original stump is still right where it was, being home to some type of lizard and a strange looking weed. :) Terror reduced me to almost begging someone else to choose the cover and upload it.
But, getting back to Stephen. I cannot see him properly yet. I know he is tall for his age, and frightened of his Mum. His first episode took a weekend to write because he simply was there. I am debating if I actually like him yet, but he came again this morning, with another adventure.
Has this ever happened to you? A character comes fully formed or not, with one story. If you are smart, you will write their story and see if they come back again with another. I have found, over the years, that these types of stories satisfy something in me. Maybe not anyone else, but, if you don't get them out there, how do you know?
After all, no Man is an island, so they say, and, in the vast territory you have within your reach now
thanks to the Internet, why not let your stories reach out to someone else? You may not get rich, but some part of you will be, hopefully, as satisfied as I am that Stephen's Dare is all my own work, from the first word to actually being live. :) Believe me, it is an incredible feeling.
So, what are you waiting for?
Christmas is appearing everywhere - makes you wonder how all this stuff manages to keep looking so clean and saying: Buy ME, Buy ME continually. If I had to do that as merchandise for the ridiculous hours that I was on some shelf before the Big Day eventually arrives, only to find I was grabbed rudely at the post-Christmas sales, I'd deliberately fall off the shelf and hopefully break myself. At least the rubbish bin might be peaceful.
So what books are you thinking of buying this Christmas, either for Kindle, Nook or all the gadgets you can read on these days? Me, I belong in the dinasaur era because I still love the actual feel of a carefully/quickly constructed paper creation in my hands. This is not to say I haven't got a long list to read on my Kindle app on my computer. I have. I find Amazon amazing, which I guess is their wish.
I actually have 3 books there now. All of them are short stories really, ranging between 1,000 words and 10,000 words, but I am so proud of myself. The last one I actually managed to follow the guidelines and get it on Kindle all by myself. Now that is totally awesome, seeing as I am terrified of technology and people actually seeing my work.
The last book, Stephen's Dare, came uninvited but wanted after I wrote it. I've written a couple of kid's things, but none which I have ever wanted to see the light of day. They amused me greatly, but that is why I wrote them. Simply for my own entertainment.
So getting Stephen out there was really pushing past my comfort zone. I like to fool with uncomfortable little stories such as The Stump, which appeared one day, fully formed, straight after a visitor came and demanded why we had not blown the old stump where it was to Kingdom Come. I had this queer vision and The Stump promptly appeared. Needless to say, the original stump is still right where it was, being home to some type of lizard and a strange looking weed. :) Terror reduced me to almost begging someone else to choose the cover and upload it.
But, getting back to Stephen. I cannot see him properly yet. I know he is tall for his age, and frightened of his Mum. His first episode took a weekend to write because he simply was there. I am debating if I actually like him yet, but he came again this morning, with another adventure.
Has this ever happened to you? A character comes fully formed or not, with one story. If you are smart, you will write their story and see if they come back again with another. I have found, over the years, that these types of stories satisfy something in me. Maybe not anyone else, but, if you don't get them out there, how do you know?
After all, no Man is an island, so they say, and, in the vast territory you have within your reach now
thanks to the Internet, why not let your stories reach out to someone else? You may not get rich, but some part of you will be, hopefully, as satisfied as I am that Stephen's Dare is all my own work, from the first word to actually being live. :) Believe me, it is an incredible feeling.
So, what are you waiting for?
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