Are You a Professional Writer or Not?

You know, if there is one thing that is absolutely driving me out against the walls it is so called self acclaimed “professional writers”!

What I understand from the term professional and in order to be called a “professional writer”, you need to have knowledge of your subject field. In our case – Writing! It is imperative that you have an outstanding command over the language you are working in, and in the majority of cases – English.

Apart from the skills that you need, you need to have proper practical experience. What does that mean? Having experience is something you only accomplish by writing and writing and more writing.

My personal opinion is that in the web writing industry you can never gain enough experience. Why? Simply because there are too many subject fields or niches one can write on, unless you focus on a specific niche and only write for that particular niche.

A major distinction between an apprentice and a professional writer is the quality of work you present and the way you approach your work. A professional web writer provides his client with a piece of work ready to be published.

There are countless self acclaimed “professionals” who deliver work in a format that make editors cry! Ask yourself if the articles you present are ready to be published. Nine out of ten “professionals” do not make the mark on this factor alone!

Being a professional web writer demand from you to provide your client with an elevated standard of ethics and conduct while executing your task. As a professional you are obliged to present your client with amplified responsibility. A client expects from a professional to treat a project as if it is your own.

Disappointedly, another quality plenty of writers fail to establish. There is this current amateur attitude of “just getting the job done as soon as possible in order to get paid”.

If there is one thing that will show you the difference between a professional and an amateur writer, it is editing. An amateur is so attached to his piece of work he spent hours on that the slightest request for revision or editing will result in a fiery remonstration.

The professional on the other hand knows that there are various factors involved for various clients. With this said it does not mean that professional writers say thank you every time you request them to revise or change their work! However, they are well aware of the fact that a good editor makes them and their work appear only better. Writers who can not live with or accept editing on their work are not regarded as professionals for very long.

Surely the most significant difference between amateur and professional writers is their level of eagerness to adjust. Most amateurs are resistant to change or not capable to make adjustments. This serves to be an indication that their devotion to the language is just another recreational thing to do.

The true professional writer is the one who have a passion for his work, adapt and change as needed with the fulfilling advantage of being paid for what he loves doing and does it for a living.

At the end of the day it seems that being a professional writer has got more to do with your approach and mind-set than the amount of creativity and competence you have.

Are You Professional or Not?

The Importance of Character

Character – How Important Is Character it in the Freelance Writing World?

Being a Christian, it is important to me to start my day in the presence of the Lord and request His guidance for the day ahead. This morning I received this daily devotional on character…

After a few moments chewing on this thought, I could not help to think how a freelance writers’ and article buyers’ character reflects in their dealings.

What made me think was this story of George Jones. I did not know about George Jones before today, simply because I am a South African and not really into the American printed media and even less the history thereof, however, the story of George Jones gave me hope to act in good faith and let the bad characters in the freelance writing world just pass by.

I learned that George Jones started his career as a humble clerk in a supermarket. He soon gained a firm reputation of being someone with commendable work ethics and being a perfect example of Proverbs 12:22; “False lips are hated by the Lord, but those whose acts are true are his delight.”

Due to this commendable character of George Jones, a very famous journalist at that time, Henry Raymond, was so impressed with George character that they became good friends. This friendship resulted in one of the greatest business partnerships of all times! The New York Times.

Years after the birth of The New York Times, George received a bribe offer of £500 000 to retire and relocate to Europe, because of the firm stand the paper took against the gangster Boss Tweed. This was in an extreme amount in the late 1800’s! Even today one would smile if your bank account carried that type of balance!

George declined the offer even after he was reminded that he could live like a prince until the day he dies with the remark: “Yes, but I should know that I was a rascal. I can not consider your offer…”

This just once more reminded me that nothing is so important than your character. Regardless of how rich or how poor you are, how successful your life may or may not be, what you achieve in life or did not achieve, once you have lost your character, you have lost everything.

Next time that thought of “who will know” comes to mind, just remember – You will know!

I have to live with myself and so,

I want to be fit for myself to know.

I want to be able as days go by,

always to look myself in the eye.

I don’t want to stand in the setting sun

and hate myself for the things I’ve done.

I don’t want to keep on a closet shelf,

a lot of secrets about myself;

and fool myself as I come and go,

into thinking nobody else will know –
the kind of man I really am.

~Author Unknown~

Your Writer Profile – How do You Paint the Picture

Have you ever went shopping, filled with sheer excitement, and find exactly that special item you were looking for just to start another search for the price? There are very little things in life that can be more frustrating than playing the guessing game in a store. The same goes for clients and article buyers!

I am constantly searching for new writers to add to my team. I can not help to think how many talented and skilled writers lost an opportunity simply because there is no information in their profile!

That brings me to the question: How do YOU paint your profile?

The fact is, without a proper informative profile your chances are zero to none to land a proper project. If you do, well then Lady Luck loves you!

When clients search for a freelance writer, knowing that you are from India, the States or London does not say much. To me personally that is just an indication of the time zone I will have to deal with.

Very few new freelance writers realize that the overall appearance of their profile is the first impression your client will have of you. Sorry to be so frank, but if your profile happens to be a blank form, well then you appear to be blank as well.

Taking a glance at your profile tells me more than just who you are. It actually shows me how serious you are, how you will treat my projects, the type of commitment you have and how much you think of me that needs to spend time finding out about you and many more!  You do not send a dummy for an interview when you applied for a previous job! Why do you do it online?

English is a universal language, and with some level of competency you will be able to communicate your way through what you need to say.  However as a buyer or a client, having some command over English does not qualify you as a good English writer. A translated version of your native tongue with your native language’s grammar into English is not good enough.

If you are proficient in English, and it is not your native tongue, make it clear in your profile why and how you became proficient.

All applicants believe they are the best person for the job. A client wants to know why you think so. Have you written before? Did you work for a PR company? Did you work for a publishing company?

Tell your prospective client why you can do justice to his/her project and keep it short and simple.

If you do not have experience, say so. Do not just skip the field. Many clients prefer to train an inexperienced person to be a good web writer. Your profile gives a prospecting client a good idea what he/she can expect from your work.

Make sure the picture you paint, reflects the true you and the work you will deliver.

Time...

The value of time...

 Although I had all the good intentions to do a post at least once a week, it seems Father Time got the better of me too… This made me think a bit on time management and the whole concept around the word “time”.

This post is more philosophical than facts related such as the previous posts, however, for us as writers, time is not only an important but a precious commodity as well.

I have read a piece where the author says that our days are like two identical suitcases. Some of us manage to put more in one suitcase than others do. How do they do that? We all have the identical type and size of suitcase called “a day”. Yes, 24 hours, that is the capacity of all of our suitcases.

I suppose it is just like when you travel. Some manage to pack twice as much in their suitcases than others because they know how to pack it the right way in order to get the optimum use of the space provided.

We all have 24 hours a day to utilize, but not all of us know how to get the same use or results from those 24 hours. As the author mentioned, the reason might be that we manage our lives and not our time.

We can not control time. It moves on indefinite regardless of what we do or how clever we are. None of us can save one second from one day to carry it over to the next day. With all the technology and scientific resources it is still impossible to “create” an extra minute. With all the money in the world at your disposal you are not able to buy an extra hour to add to your day.

How often do you hear people talking about “I will make some time…”? We might as well stop searching because as time waits for nobody, it does not lay around for us to pick up when needed either.

Twenty four hours, that is it, that is the most all of us will receive each day. So the question arises if you are wise enough to know that time is your most valuable commodity? Do you know how to spend your time optimally and on what to spend your time to get the most value out of your 24 hours?

Charles Spezanno, in his book “What To Do Between Birth and Death: The Art of Growing Up” makes the remark that one does not pay for things with money, you pay with your time. How many times at one time or another did us all not say: “In ten years time I would have saved enough money to buy that car I am dreaming about”.

Do we realize what we are saying? Ten years of our lives is about a 15% of your lifetime! Worse, calculated from age 20 to 60, it is 25% of your productive adult life you will be spending on a car!

So what is the bottom line? Before you spend time on anything, a car, furniture, appliances or what ever, convert the cost thereof in to time and ask yourself if it is still worth it.

Until next time - all in good time!
God Bless!

What is Plagiarism?

It is Theft!
There is no better way to describe plagiarism as plain, common theft and fraud.

“Theft of what?”
To put it plain and simple as possible; Plagiarism is when you steal someone else’s work and claim for it to be your own. It can be ideas, writing, or any form of use of printed or published language use without giving credit to the original source.

This might be a very expansive explanation, yet, the bottom line of it all is very simple to understand. You only need to ask yourself one question: “How much of this work is my own”? If it is not your own work, well, then you stole it from someone and that is plagiarism.

“How can it be fraud?”

This clarifies the theft part, but what about the accusation of fraud? When you submit a plagiarized piece of work to a client you are actually placing him under the impression that it is your work! Work of which you are the original creator and on payment you are transferring the copyright to your client!

It is scandalous to see how many articles written for the web or content pages are duplicated content with only a few synonym changes or scrambling of words to get it Copyscape passed! Just before you smile when you get that confirmation message that no matches have been found for the text you pasted on Copyscape or any other plagiarism checker for that matter, just thing for a moment, you are gambling with your integrity and reputation as a writer here.

How Does Plagiarism Happen?

Although accidental plagiarism is possible, the two most common ways plagiarism are committed is by:

• Cutting and Pasting – Wether it is only a couple of words, paragraph, or believe it or not, a whole article and present it as your own work, you are committing plagiarism.

• Making use of others’ headings or titles – If you write an article on fruit and use the title “5 Most Healthy Fruit to Eat” and list 5 types of fruit and I go and write an article using your listed content with the same title it is regarded as plagiarism as well. Scrambling the content will not change anything. However if I list five different kinds of fruit than those you have mentioned in your article, it is not plagiarism.

Plagiarism is the ultimate crime a writer can commit. It is almost an unforgivable sin in the writing industry and as said before, it reflects severely on your integrity and honesty.

When one look at the two reasons for plagiarism given above, it becomes clear that those methods are used by lousy and lazy writers. The type of writers we need to get rid of and discard from the industry.

The Grief of Spelling & Grammar

"You don’t go to a bakery and tell the baker please make sure you have an oven to bake the bread or take your kids to school and ask the principal to please make sure there will be a teacher to present your kids with lessons! It is like sending a soldier to war and remind him to take his ammunition! Why on earth would you want to tell a writer then to take up his spelling and grammar tools to do his work?"

Amongst the most common mistakes writers make, you will mostly find that spelling and grammar are one of the first mentioned errors we are warned against and it happens that it is also one of the first prerequisites clients mention for their work. This is wrong. As a writer, spelling and grammar are your tools you use to do your work.

You don’t go to a bakery and tell the baker please make sure you have an oven to bake the bread or take your kids to school and ask the principal to please make sure there will be a teacher to present your kids with lessons! It is like sending a soldier to war and remind him to take his ammunition! Why on earth would you want to tell a writer then to take up his spelling and grammar tools to do his work?

The bottom line is, even if you are a second language writer, your spelling, grammar and sentence construction abilities, is not negotiable. If you do not possess those skills, you are not equipped to be a writer.

Language is the medium you use to “paint the picture” to your reader and therefore it needs to be perfect. Therefore, it is wrong to regard spelling and grammar as a writing mistake. Spelling and grammar “mistakes” in writing are like cheating on your spouse in your marriage or relationship. It is just not suppose to happen!

As mentioned before, when you present a piece of your writing work, it is important to remember that what you place in front of your reader is a representation of yourself. When a client hires you to write an article it is so easy to forget that your client actually hires you to represent his website with your article.

If you are not able to adhere to the ultimate fundamentals of writing – spelling and grammar – it is unlikely that you will be able to make the mark with the rest of your article.

Article Writing for the Web is Different

Many seasoned article writers are of the opinion, because they have published a poem, a novel, wrote for the local press etc, qualifies them to be a good article writer for the web. Sorry people, that is not true.

 

Writing for the web is something completely different from printed media. With printed media you write for someone who will start at one point and are likely to read all that is offered. With web article writing, your article will not be placed in front of the reader and he looks through it and sees if he wants to read it. He must search for it before he can read it!

 

The way you have to structure your web articles is not a complicated formula you need to apply. You can use your own creativity and test various ways and find one that you are comfortable with and most importantly, a way that is acceptable to your clients.

 

Most of the times, your client inform you about the specific structure requirements he have for his articles. You may not agree with this, but do remember, first of all, the client knows why he wants it that way and secondly, while your client does the paying, he can have it the way he want.

 

The Best Structure for a Web Article

 

A properly structured web article will always have 3 basic elements. Note: Not can have; will always have:

• A proper introduction
• Text body that provide the reader with information on the topic
• Summary of the content or a closing paragraph.

 

The Introduction

 

The introduction paragraph needs to put readers in the picture on what they will be reading in the article. It needs to be strong and grasp the interest of your reader instantaneously. Apart from making it attention grabbing, this is one of the most important places to use keywords. It is advisable to use keywords as close to the start of the first sentence of the introduction as possible. This is done so that search engines pick up the article easily during a search. After all, this is the main objective of SEO.

 

 

The Body Text

 

As an article writer that conducts many searches on the internet, you ought to know how frustrating it is to read half of the site before you find the information you are looking for.

 

When you start with the body text, put the facts on the table right away. Give the reader immediately what he is looking for. Web readers are impatient. If they do not find the information they are looking for in the first couple of paragraphs, they are likely to move on the next article that most likely will.

 

To ensure you client receive optimum use from your work, make sure to include the keywords through out the body text in a natural way without compromising the reading ease or flow of the article. However be careful not to start each sentence with the keywords or flood the article with keywords. The secret is to use the keywords without the reader noticing them worked into the article.

 

 

Summary or Closing Paragraph

 

Commonly the closing paragraph serves as a final summary of the content you provided the reader with. In addition, your closing paragraph must create the urge with the reader to take action of some kind or the type of action the client would require from the purpose of the article. Using the keywords in the summary paragraph is very important for SEO purposes.

 

 

With these three elements in your article, you can be sure to end up with a professionally constructed article and moreover one that is effective in the purpose it needs to serve. Always try to make the article as simple and uncomplicated to read.

The Effect of Proper Formatting on Your Articles

 

I am still of the old school type that firmly believe that the type of work that I send off to my client is in large a reflection of myself. Unfortunately, looking at some of the assignments I receive at times, it seems that some people do not really care what others read or see in their work.

When it comes to that old saying about first impressions… That is very much applicable when it comes to presenting your writing work as well! If I open a website, and I am willing to bet on it you too, and it is all cramped up and disorderly I really do not feel like reading there anymore. I rather look for another site where it is well structured and easy to read. The same goes for when I open an article a writer send me. 

Formatting of your work is very important.
It is your job to ensure whoever might cast an eye on it must find it easy to read and have interest at first glance. The content might be absolutely brilliant, but if it is a cluttered, disorderly block of text, the reader will approach your thoughts with negativity before he even read a word.


Now you might ask, what is proper formatting of an article? It sounds much more complicated than it really is. A golden rule I always apply in all I do is to make it look the way I would have liked it to be if I would be the one reading it.

Formatting is about how the article looks even before you start reading it. It is not about the content thereof.

• Structure your article properly with a proper heading and if needed sub-headings.
• Divide your text in to paragraphs of about 3 to 4 sentences. Present every thought you want to convey with a separate paragraph.  
• Separate each paragraph properly with a clear line in between.
• Use proper punctuation.
• Bold the headings and write it in title case letters. Headings are not supposed to be all in capitals. That is SHOUTING! and extremely rude.
• If permitted, use a numbered or a bulleted list to create order.

Even though you may be very liberal and not part of the old school – some things never change and proper formatting of an article is one of those things.

~~~oOo~~~

“Oh! You are an article writer! What do you write?”

Every time I have to disclose my occupation for some or other reason it appears as if I have just landed from another planet! “Oh! You are an article writer! What do you write?” “I write articles for websites…” “Oh! That must be very interesting…”

I can not help to think for myself “goodness people? From what time and age are you? Don’t you use the internet? Where do you think all the information of all the websites come from?”


Why Do We Write?


Do you write articles because it is a way of earning extra money part time? Alternatively, do you write because you are an expressionist and find writing to be a comfortable and safe way to express yourself?


Maybe you find writing to be the perfect way to clear your mind while relaxing at the same time.


I write because I am absolutely hopelessly inquisitive. Writing articles for clients open up thousands of different worlds of which you never even might have thought of. Things like dental vacations! I am having a hard time just to visit the dentist if really needed due to the fear I have for these people and there are actually people who go on a week long dental vacation! Unbelievable!


More so too because I hate stagnation. I can not imagine myself doing the same thing every day at the same time, day in and day out over and over again. When writing articles for the web, you run through various topics a day, research and read, communicate with clients, inspire new writers. Never a dull moment.


Writing provides me with an income with the freedom to schedule and apply my time according to my own needs and the requirements of my family. I have the freedom to choose when and how much I want to work. However, don’t forget, if you work freelance there is no boss looking over your shoulder to ensure you deliver the work you are getting paid for! You and you alone determine you remuneration just as you determine your working hours and quantity of work. Self discipline is of the essence if you want to be successful.


At the end, the most important reason of all – I have a passion for writing. Starting with a simple thought and turning it into a piece of work that makes your client smile is priceless.

So why do you write?

The Beginning...

Not knowing where to start exactly with a first blog post, I reckoned the best will be to introduce myself before we get to work.

I am a full time freelance writer, residing in South Africa.

When I started my online writing career, I never thought that I would be entering a world so diverse, constantly changing and impossible to end up in a monotonous ditch.

Personally I do not think you choose writing as a career - it happens that you end up spending your time doing something you love and with commitment end up being paid for it.

Providing high quality, precise and focused work at a reasonable price is the key to success and that what I aim to do with all projects I take on.

I have experience in various fields of writing but the subjects closest to my heart are personal topics such as depression and trauma. More specific occupational trauma amongst emergency workers. All relating to the experience I gained through being a life coach.

Having experience as an International Public Relations Officer, certified Estate Agent, being the CEO of a community based collaboration program between the Police and the local Community in the past, sure helped to increase my general knowledge and the way the world works in more than one aspect.

Through these involvements, I have seen and experienced life from various angles and through the eyes of all walks of life and with these perspectives I graduated from The University of Life.

Appart from portraying a professional and quality image to potential clients, I would like to see this blog serving potential writers as well. It must serve as a medium where the newcommers of the trade can come and find guidance and advice.

After much contemplation, I can not seem to find a proper way to thank those significant people who served me with guidance and support, which enabled me to reach this point in my career. Leoni, Guilherme, Ali, Sunita, I sincerely hope that I will do justice and portray your excellent advice and guidance through this blog.

Being a devoted Christian, it is amazing to get to this point and look back on the road I have traveled and notice how the imense grace and work of Jesus Christ is visible in all I do and achieve. It is with sincere humbleness that I devote all the honor and glory to Him and go on my knees and thank Him for the endless blessings I am showered with every day.

May you all be blessed in all you do…