Freelance bogging: are you man (or woman) enough?

Freelancing can be pretty cushy. You can throw out your alarm clock and get up whenever you want, you can see movies in the middle of the day, lunches are as long or as short as you like, and shoes are optional. It can also be pretty hair-raising, especially when you’re starting out and trying to build a name for yourself. Contracts can be hard to come by and the wages are notoriously low.

These days, freelance writers are almost spoilt for choice when it comes to genres and media. There are the more traditional print media, such as newspapers and magazines, and there are online media such as blog pages and ezines (online magazines).

Blogging plays an important role in online marketing, as it helps to increase brand awareness, raise company profiles and generate interest in specific industries. As a result, many companies look for professional bloggers to write on their behalf.

Freelance blogging generally allows greater freedom than other forms of writing. So long as you don’t venture into plagiarism, and you maintain the tone of the company you write for, your style can be your own. You don’t need to conform to industry standards as there are none. Blogs are about expression, and you are free to do so in any form you choose, be it writing, pictures, videos or slide shows. You can also set up your own blog space and, if you prove entertaining or informative enough, use it to generate income.

The thing with blogging is that it takes a lot more work than submitting the occasional post. You have to establish an online presence and to do that you need to get involved in relevant online communities. You need to be prepared to spend hours reading other blog posts and commenting on them, with relevant content, not wishy-washy one-liners. You need to join social networks to create contacts and then maintain them. You need to be prolific, especially in the beginning. Content needs to be kept fresh and constantly updated to keep readers coming back for more.

Blogging is about establishing online relationships, between you and your readers, and you and other bloggers. Successful blogging requires a great deal of time and effort and should not be considered an easy path to wealth and prosperity.

In the end, you determine your success. The harder you work, the more likely that success will follow. You need to be disciplined and impose your own deadlines. Perhaps those long lunches should be the exception and not the norm.

Recommended site:

http://networkbloggingtips.com/freelance-writing-vs-freelance-blogging-whats-the-difference/

Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers MediaVision Interactive ZA SEO marketers leading SEO marketers and experts in the field of search.