One of my absolute least favorite things about being a freelance writer is trying to keep ideas flowing for multiple outlets. Some weeks, brainstorming for article topics feels like drawing blood from a stone. To come out on top, even in thin times, I’ve sourced a few locations where I know I can always find titles for blog posts. Continue reading
Tag: blogging
A Guide to Image Licensing for Bloggers
When I first sat down to start a blog, I knew that I wanted those big, pretty images I saw on other people’s websites, but I had no clue how to get them. I knew I had to pay – in money or attribution – to use images that weren’t mine, but I didn’t know how to properly go about it. The licenses just looked like a mess.
How to Develop Your Writing Skills
Despite the pervasive rumor that our dependence on the Internet is killing the English language, in today’s economy, everyone needs to be able to write well. If you’re a job-seeker, you absolutely must develop your writing skills if you expect to succeed. Employers and savvy potential employees realize that email, text messages, social media posts, and professional apps – such as Slack, Google Docs, and Trello – all use written language in order to communicate, and having more competent writers on a team means having fewer mix-ups down the line.
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How to Start a Blog
How do you start a blog? I’ve been asked this question at least five times in the last six weeks. I say that not with self-importance but with shock. Why would anyone ask me how to blog? I’m certainly not the most successful blogger out there. In fact, I feel as if I google “how to blog” every other day. No lie. Continue reading
UPDATE: An Advice Manual for College Freshmen Is Now My Main Project
I just finished Austin Kleon‘s Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered—and I’ll have a book review for you guys on Tuesday—and somewhere in the process of reading the first two chapters, I found my niche. When you start a blog, the first thing every advice page will tell you is to find your niche and identity your target audience before you write the first word. This tip was a stumbling block to me: what the hell should I write about? I don’t know about anything! Can’t I just blog about miscellany? For me, niches are elusive. As a class jack-of-all-trades, I’m good at a lot of things but not particularly great at any of them. I don’t have just one major hobby to occupy my spare time; I read, I write, I play video games, and watch movies, and look at food porn. Writing about food porn is not exactly the most promising career move. Continue reading