Month: February 2017

Unlike the yesteryears, freelance writing seems to be the “in thing”. Every person who has the time to write or thinks he or she can write has turned into a freelancer. And there is a reason for it. The market is awash with content work – and every brand (big or small) wants to get content marketing done. Content is the buzzword today and understandably content writers are the bees buzzing around that content hive. In 2017, the benefits of having a career as a freelance content writer seem more lucrative than ever. More and more marketers have created a structured content strategy for their brand and are looking for torchbearers who can lead them to get more conversions and sales. More and more websites have mushroomed with the offer of closing the gap between people who want content and people who write content. But how is that working for the companies, brand and agencies who have started employing this large pool of freelancing talent? What are the things they felt should improve among freelancers? What are the things that would push them to outsource more jobs to freelancers? As an agency, we often work with freelancers when there is work overload or when a client wants a particular industry specialist. So I had a chat with my content manager on her experience in handling freelancers and the things that she expected from her freelance content writers. I posted the same question to my editorial team, a couple of my entrepreneur friends, and another content writing agency who I knew worked with freelancers. This is what they had to say – Advantages of hiring a freelance content resource   i) Cut Costs   Every business house wants to maximise output and minimise costs. Freelancers are sometimes the best fit to an already existing team, bringing in new skill sets at lower costs.   ii) Get the best of content experts     In today’s world, you need a large variety of content to make your marketing work. From blog posts to white papers, to case studies to videos and infographics, it might not possible to get everything done in-house. The best thing to do here, if you have costs to think of, is to hire freelance industry experts to do the job. That way you get to publish authoritative content without burning your pocket. iii) Meet deadlines and be regular One thing about content marketing that everyone needs to know is that it needs regularity. This means that you need the appropriate amount of content at the appropriate time. And that is where the problem arises. Between looking after various priorities, content can get bunted out of the list of priorities. To prevent that from happening, small companies/business can take the freelancer route to content creation. We didn’t want to talk about the disadvantages here. So my next set of question to my peers and colleagues was this – –    What do you want from freelancers? –    What mistakes do you not want them to make? –    What are the things they felt should improve among freelancers? –    What are the things that would push them to outsource more jobs to freelancers? So, freelancers, this one is for you. To ensure those paychecks keep flowing, here are the mistakes you need to avoid. Read, listen, understand, implement.   1. Not having an outstanding pitch Let’s take it from the top. The moment you see a freelance writer job ad that seems to offer decent pay, it seems like an absolute cake-walk that you’ll get it. After all, you have the relevant knowledge, skills and are willing to take up the pay. Guess what, so are a hundred others who applied just before you. Think of the person on the other end of the laptop staring at the 101st application. Will he even get there? And if he does, what reason are you giving him to read it the second time? Being a writer, you have the best arsenal in the world to create an outstanding pitch. But the opening line needs to give enough reason to read what you have to say. Here are some interesting examples: 31 Attention-Grabbing Cover Letter Examples   2. Not following up     Did you think that a job application is going to get you the job? Probably. Probably not. With the deluge of applicants, some tend to fall off the cracks. And it just may be your unlucky day if the fresher HR executive or overworked startup entrepreneur doesn’t get back to you. To avoid this, a follow-up email after a week works like a charm. It shows that you are diligent, can self-manage and are willing to work around your client’s schedule to get the job done. If not, at least you get some answers, which don’t leave you hanging.   3. Not asking the right questions If the client decides to try you out, you’ll have the first opportunity to prove your worth. Asking the right questions can be a great way to find out their expectations. Keep it simple. Get your target persona for whom you will write this article. “A climb to Kilimanjaro” article can be written in many different ways depending on whom you are addressing. It can be a solo woman traveller, a young trekker, an amateur adventure group or just a travel enthusiast. Knowing an expected word count, the frequency of work coming your way and the speed at which you will need to deliver are all very important questions. Also understanding the CTA (Call to Action) for the article and adding it in strategically can be something that your client will thank you for.   4. Not finding stabilizers In the course of a few months of being a freelance writer, you’ll come to understand the reality behind the term ‘freelance’. It does mean that you can choose some of the work you do. But it also means that you’ll have

Have you ever felt stuck? Have you ever felt like you cannot, for the life of you, come up with an idea that works? Have you ever felt so hopeless that innumerable cups of freshly brewed coffee did precious little to pull you out of the rut? Whether or not you are involved in a creative profession, chances are that you must have definitely gone through one or all of these above situations. Though as normal as forgetting to water your plants on some days, getting into a blocked state of mind is something we all would like to avoid as much as un-watered plants. You would like to sit at your desk, your fingers poised over your keyboard, and you would want your ideas or your code to spring to life! So how do we make sure that the story always ends happily, like this? Let us try to go through some ideas which might help you pick yourself up, give your ideas a shot of freshness, and boost your creativity!   1. Get away from it all   It is not uncommon to feel that you simply cannot move ahead or come up with a new idea or concept, regarding writing or designing, among other things. The first step to tackle this block is to step away from it, far away from it. Give it all a break and do something else entirely. Remove yourself from the situation and try to take a hard, close look at it later. The new perspective will shape your mind in a way that you would never have thought possible. For me, it comes most often in the form of a walk. This is the easiest and most practical way out-out of home and out of my mind, especially if the day is beautiful outside and the kids are at school. Sometimes, if deadlines are not looming right up ahead, a day of ‘not-doing-any-work’ or simple binge-watching Netflix works wonders for me. In the best case scenario, if time and your purse permit, a short vacation to a beautiful place, away from your trials and tribulations, would act as a tonic and pep you up no end. A change of scene or activity helps you clear your head and if not anything else, takes your mind away from the depression that comes from being stuck. In most cases, the simple idea of a change in your routine will add that extra spring in your step and an added zing to your creativity. You will be able to get a new idea for a story or come up with a new angle to tackle your problem from, and voila! You will be out of that depressing, mind-numbing rut that had been so bothering you Immerse Yourself in a Related Hobby   Most creative people are passionate about their work. So much so that they end up having hobbies that are directly related to their work. A creative writer most often will love to read – anything and everything, that helps him or her cull nuggets of writing styles or patterns that can help future projects. A digital communication professional will invariably be drawn to new updates in his or her field – the latest trends on Twitter or Instagram or the new things that Facebook and Snapchat throw at you, at regular intervals. At the same time, an online marketer will probably always want to keep abreast of the latest quirky ways of attracting potential consumers online and hooking them while spreading the good word on the Internet. Being on top of the scene in the periphery of your actual work as your hobby goes a long way in keeping your interest alive and kicking, in your head. If you have to groom your mind to feel that way, then do it. It helps, trust me. I, for one, am hooked to blogs on all kinds of writing. While bloggers share their own experiences dealing with a  variety of projects, I can at times identify myself with them. I have later tried their approaches to solve my problems or tackle a situation, and I have benefited. So my blog-following hobby has been my key. It would help you a lot if you could zero in on yours and embrace it. The newness of updates or experiences can get your own creativity going, big time. Engage in Conversation   Different people, with their different mindsets, will have different ways of looking at a problem and working towards its solution. Getting to know new people and talking to them, picking their brains, not necessarily about your specific problem at hand always, can open new horizons for you. You can read somebody’s articles and wonder about the whys and hows but nothing works better than talking to the person and getting your doubts clarified from him or her, face to face. Even without an ulterior motive of finding something exciting from a conversation, it always makes sense to talk to people. I was once speaking to a lady sitting beside me in a tram, while going through a particularly dangerous bout of writer’s block. The conversation I had with her, regarding her small-sized business of party orders for cakes and desserts and how she was using Facebook and Instagram to draw customers from around her neighborhood, made me go back home and check out her Facebook page. And boy, did that little lady know her business and marketing! Needless to say, I was awestruck and that talk was just the right jolt I needed to crawl back out of the hole I thought I had fallen into. So, yes, converse, engage. You never know how it might be of help  Storm your brains out!   What I love best about brainstorming, be it with a group or just picking your own brain from various angles, that the process lets you be. You can think of anything, open the windows of your mind, and let go.

Sitting down to write is one thing. Sending it across for consumption is another. And making sure that your copy is clean and error-free – that is the most important thing of all. For a good piece of writing that offers the impact it was designed to have, you should first make sure that there are no mistakes! Good flow of language, crisp words and catchy phrases, and even timely humorous touches can get lost and overlooked if the copy you send out is pockmarked with errors − the direct result of a not-so-thorough proofread. So, let’s get down to business. Let us try to make a list of strategies or methods we can follow to avoid those unsightly kinks in our writing armours. HERE ARE 7 BRILLIANT WAYS TO GET THE JOB DONE.   1. First of all, just focus More than anything at all, proofreading is an activity that requires you to concentrate, very hard. While you can rely on spell check for some of your mistakes, to spot other than those in spelling, you need your complete and utter focus on the job at hand. Make sure to be in a quiet place, where no one will distract or disturb you and your proofreading activity will not disturb anyone. For example, no matter where I am, I have found that it always helps me if I make it a point to log out of Facebook, put my phone on vibrate mode, and shut down notification alerts for mails, messages, updates etc., to start with. Cutting out the thought of temptation or distraction is always a good place to start.   2. Get a glass of water No, you really don’t have to. What you could do, however, is take a breather after you are done writing your piece. Don’t feel forced to steamroll into the proofreading activity as soon you have typed in your last period. Stop and do something else for a bit…surf a little, take a walk around the room, check your WhatsApp messages, or maybe even get a glass of water… hydrating is always good! Come back to your piece a little later and then attack it with overwhelming force to proofread the errors out of it. I have found that if I proofread my writing, right after typing it out, I am still so in the throes, so to speak, of the content I have just written, that I am sometimes not able to catch even glaring mistakes. They might be staring at me right in the face but I cannot detect them, as I am still caught up in the way my article flows. I am still at the big picture level and too rushed to look at the small issues and brush out the tiny errors. These could be in the form of a wrong comma placement or skipping of a word that MS Word has not caught, or using a long sentence where two short ones would have read better. I have found that the less rushed I am and the longer the time between the writing and the proofreading, the fresher my mind is. This translates directly into a better final output.   3. Show them the finger Relax! I know this sounds much more scandalous than what I am going to talk about now. What I mean is, use your finger to track your words during proofreading. Though it might seem child-like, there is no shame in this finger-tracking process. It is a very useful tool to focus on your work with the keenest of eyes. I highly recommend you to go ahead and try it. I have found that when I am merely reading my copy for mistakes, my eyes generally look for the big words and important parts of sentences. I end up not concentrating on each word separately. This means that a lot of the copy goes practically unread, as my automatic scanning leaves much space for estimation and supposition. The best part of this method is that the forced convergence of tracking and visual acuity slows me down considerably. This, consequently, makes it easier for me to focus on the words better and catch mistakes like a boss.     4. Shout it out Again, no. You do not need to yell. Just say the words aloud. Do it in a way you can hear yourself clearly. It is easy if you are home alone and run no risk of disturbing anyone. It might be a little difficult if you are in a common space, like in an office or at a coffee shop. Then, you need to get creative and create your own personal space, if you want to avoid looking like you are missing a screw, talking to yourself! Close the door to your office cabin or step outside to the terrace or pavement or even the restroom or custodian’s closet, with your copy and read it aloud to yourself. If you think you feel silly doing it, I insist that you try it at least once. I am sure by the end of the process you will be able to figure out for yourself how exactly helpful this method is. I, for one, always do it. This is because when I read my copy aloud, I make sure to take my own sweet time to enunciate each word with a lot of care. This helps me track many kinds of errors, such as mistakes in placement of commas, apostrophes, ‘em’ and ‘en’ dashes, etc. Detecting errors in spelling becomes a rather effortless task when you are hovering a little over each word while reading it aloud. You should understand that the best way to read out our copy would be to read it the way you think your reader will read it – that is, minus your voice intonations or modulations to specify feelings and emotions associated with your copy. Become a robot for a while and read like one. My own