Life of A Writer

Here while back I mentioned that Philip Davis had scheduled a Podcast interview with me and I promised to share the link to that interview with y'all, once it was available. In the interview, I read a passage from Help From Above, shared some of my marketing techniques, discussed both my books and talked a bit about print on demand publishing. When you have the time to spare, I invite you to listen to the interview, and I hope that the information I shared on marketing and print on demand will help you with your publishing adventures.

You will get to hear my voice for the first time, so allow me to explain, please. It seems I inherited a gene from my Dad's side of the family. People say that my dad, uncles and I talk through our nose. Of all the things to inherit, this one was that I wished would have skipped a generation, but it didn't. Growing up I would tell people, "That's how God made me," so I've learned to live with it. I'm telling you because I've avoided phone and face-to-face interviews for many years for this reason, but I finally gave in and wanted to let you know what to expect. Let's just say I write better than I talk.

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I've gone and done it again: joined another social network site to keep up with. Oh well, I'm all for social networking, because I truly believe it helps you promote yourself and meet new people with the same interests. Problem is, after I joined Twitter, I went in search of many of you, as well as those of you who have a blog that I read often, but I couldn't hardly find anyone. Do you Twitter or am I the only one? If you do, then please follow me so I can find you.

I know it's short, but I had to let y'all know I was searching for you on Twitter. Hope to see you on Twitter soon!

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As you can see, I gave Life of a Writer a new look! I've been searching a while for a three column template, and I finally found one that I'm quite satisfied with. In case you're looking for something for your Blogger blog, I found my three column template at Blogger Buster.

I've not put my Adsense ads back up in the sidebar yet, but I'm planning to do that soon -- maybe next week. However, at the end of every post, you'll find links to a few social bookmark websites I'm a member of, and I encourage you to click on the links to share any of my posts that you enjoyed or found helpful. At the top, you should see links to my writing services webpage, my portfolio, contact page and my writing resume (all should open in a new window). Above my posts you'll find the links to subscribe to my blog's full RSS feed, and finally, my sidebars include links for writers, links to some of the blogs I read, links to my most recent blog posts, recent comments left by y'all, my blog's archives and categories, and I've even included the widget from Indeed so you can search for writing gigs or any other job you're currently seeking. There's more to come, but I'm going to try to keep my sidebar widgets to a minimum to keep from making my blog look cluttered.

So, tell me, what do you think of the new look? Do you have any suggestions? Please share your feedback and suggestions in the comments area.

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After I signed up for a free Entrecard account, I browsed their website to learn more. While browsing, I went into the Shop section and noticed writers offering to write blog posts for payment in Entrecard credits. That's when I realized this could be a great way for writers to market their writing services.

Many of you may already write guest posts for other blogs related to yours in an effort to create a backlink to your blog and draw in more traffic. Well, now you can market your writing services through Entrecard, and it's the same concept. You'll offer to write guest posts on blogs in exchange for payment in Entrecard credits. Or, in addition to writing guest posts for blogs, you could offer to write short articles for websites, newsletters, e-zines and other publications as well. However, before you advertise your writing services on Entrecard, think about your current writing schedule. Will you be able to handle the extra work? If you're schedule isn't full or you currently have no clients but are looking for clients, then marketing your writing services on Entrecard may help you fill your writing schedule with clients that pay in dollars. Again, I strongly advise you to make sure you can fit extra work into your current writing schedule, because I've read where many writers with Entrecard accounts have had tons of contacts after they marketed their writing services on Entrecard.

Can you handle the extra work? If so, keep reading to find out how you can market your writing services on Entrecard.

Create your ad

This should be your first step. All you need to do is write a short ad to place in Entrecard's "Shop" section. Your ad should begin with a sentence or two about your writing experience. Next, mention the minimum and maximum word count that you're willing to write; if you prefer to write for blogs and/or websites with a certain Google PageRank, mention what their PR must be; specify the amount of time it will take you to deliver the guest post and/or article to the Entrecard buyer (i.e. 24 hours, one day, one week, etc.); and finally, let the potential Entrecard buyer know what topics you will write about. In regards to the topics you plan to write, mention topics that you would normally write for clients compensating you in dollars; this will allow you to build your experience. After all, you are marketing your writing services to gain paying clients for your freelance writing career.

Link to your writing samples

After you create your ad, include links to two or three of your writing samples. List the titles of each published article, and then include the link to those articles. This allows the potential Entrecard buyer to see if your writing style fits the style they're looking for, and it lets them see how well you write. Make sure you link to your best writing samples.

Determine your price in Entrecard credits

Determine how much you think your writing services are worth in Entrecard credits. I've seen some writing services in the Entrecard shop go for 500 Entrecard credits. Your Entrecard credits could be used to advertise your own blog on other blogs. If you'd rather exchange the Entrecard credits you earn for real money, go to your Entrecard dashboard and click on "Exchange Settings" under "Your Account."

State the rights you'll be selling

Usually a blog posts is written to sell all rights, but you can state in your advertisement that a short bio and a link to your blog, as well as your writing services page, is required. If you're selling an article to a website, e-zine, newsletter or other publication in addition to blog posts, then mention that those articles are available for X rights only and must also include a short bio with links.

Place your writing services advertisement on Entrecard

According to Entrecard's blog, they plan to place a link in the shop section for those interested in selling their services and/or products for Entrecard credits, but at the time of this writing, Entrecard has yet to add that link. Therefore, to market your writing services in the Entrecard shop, Entrecard is advising all sellers send their advertisement through the feedback form. You'll find the feedback form in your dashboard.

Once you've placed your ad in the shop section on Entrecard, you should start receiving responses soon. After you've received enough requests and are satisfied with the guest posts and/or articles you have in cyberspace, then you can send Entrecard a request to remove your writing services ad from their shop section. Good luck!

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Due to an unexpected situation I had to reschedule my interview with Phil Davis from Authors on the Net. However, he sent me an outline to help prepare me for the interview, and his outline prompted me to share some phone interview tips.

Schedule your phone interview in advance

E-mail or call the person you plan to interview and schedule a date and time in advance. Be sure to find out what time zone they're in and ask what day and time would work best for them. Next, confirm the date and time.

Send an outline to the person you plan to interview

After you've scheduled a date and time for your phone interview, prepare an outline to send to the interviewee via e-mail. Your outline should include the following:

• Date and time of the interview in their time zone.
• Calling instructions if they need to call a special number.
• Your introduction: what you'll say before getting the questions.
• The questions you plan to ask, and let them know to e-mail you any questions they'd like to add.
  

Setup the recorder

A few minutes before the scheduled interview you'll want to be prepared, so make sure the recorder is setup in advance.

Confirm the interviewee's answers

Once the interview is finished, transcribe your interview. Next, e-mail the transcript to the interviewee and ask him or her to confirm their answers.

E-mail the interviewee the link to the interview or the file

As soon as you've published the interview, send the link to the interviewee so he or she can promote it on their website, blog, social network profiles and etc. If the phone interview was made into a Podcast interview, send them the file and give them permission to promote it instead.

If you apply the aforementioned phone interview tips, your phone interviews should go much smoothly, because both you and the person you plan to interview will be prepared ahead of time. Do you have any additional phone interview tips to add? Please share them in the comments section below.

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Are you an entrepreneur or freelance writer looking for some extra exposure? If so, I could use your assistance. In return for your assistance, you'll receive a link to your website or blog.

I contribute regularly to a blog that promotes How to Become a Total Failure: 10 Rules of Highly Unsuccessful People, written by Bill Guillory and Phil Davis. With that said, I'm looking for entrepreneurs and freelance writers who have made mistakes in their business and learned from those mistakes. In fact, many businesses have become successful by learning from their mistakes. Did you ever make mistakes when you first began your business, and later you learned from those mistakes, which contributed to your success today? If you're nodding your head, then please contact me and tell me your story. Let me know what business mistakes you made, what you learned from them, and where you're at today. If I need any additional information, I will let you know via e-mail. Also include your name, title (i.e. CEO, editor, author, freelance writer, journalists, etc), the title of your website or blog and the URL to your website or blog so I can link to it as promised. By sharing your business mistakes and what you learned from them, you'll not only be helping me, but you'll also be helping others, too.

Send your story and information to services(at)mistisandefur.com. Please put "Business Mistake Story" in the subject line. I will confirm receipt of your story via e-mail and let you know when your story will be published on the How to Become a Total Failure blog.

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Would you like to know more about my writing and blogging adventures as well as my books? If so, I invite you to check out my latest interviews. In February, Yuwanda Black, publisher of Inkwell Editorial, interviewed me. Then last night Michele Tune from Writing the Cyber Highway published her interview with me on her blog. It doesn't stop there, though. On March 17, Phil Davis from Authors on the Net will also do an interview with me via Podcast. This will be my first Podcast interview, so I'm not sure how this works, but Phil e-mailed me to let me know he'd be sending the instructions soon. I will post the audio or link to my Podcast interview with Phil Davis just as soon as the interview is complete. So stay tuned in to Life of a Writer for my first Podcast interview. Until then, check out my latest interviews by clicking the links above.

If you'd like to contact me for an interview, I would be honored. Just send an e-mail to mediainquiry(at)mistisandefur.com or click on the "Contact Me" link in the sidebar. Place Interview Request in the subject line, please.

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The next time you send off a letter of interest to apply for a writing or blogging job consider the following writing tips to impress potential clients:

Visit their website or blog. When potential clients announce a writing or blogging job, some provide a link to the website or blog they want you to write for. Many do this to give you an idea of the type of writing you will be doing. Don't look over the link, instead visit it and study their style -- just like you would a publication, before sending your query letter. If the link sends you to a blog, read a few of the posts. If you believe you can add additional tips, do so by leaving a comment. Be sure to give your full name so potential clients will recognize it when you send them the letter of interest for the writing or blogging job. Others may not leave a link, but if they provide an e-mail address, the link may be attached to the end of their e-mail. Take mine for example; it ends mistisandefur.com, which is my website, of course. Furthermore, if they fail to leave a link and the end of their e-mail address is of no help, read the job announcement closely for mention of a company name. If you come across one, Google the company name and see what pops up.

By studying your potential clients, you'll be able to tweak your letter of interest to fit their style. You could also mention something that lets them know you visited their website or blog.

Last night I applied for a blogging job, but the potential client didn't leave a website address. However, he did leave his company name, and the end of his e-mail address was the link to his website. In his announcement for a blog writer, he said he wanted someone to write for his company's blog, which was the website I was on. Once there, the website had the link to the company's blog. I clicked the link, read through some wonderful posts, and left a comment with a few additional tips. Maybe when he gets my letter of interest he'll recognize my name and see from the additional tips that I am qualified for the position. It's worth a shot, right?

Tweak your letter of interest to fit the position. If the potential client needs a writer to write or blog about small business, don't send samples of parenting articles you've had published. Instead send links to samples related to small business. In addition, try to focus more on your small business experiences rather than your parenting experiences.

Send your best samples. Potential clients may request links to samples of your articles or blog posts to get a feel for your style and etc. In this case, send links to your best samples, and make sure your samples are relevant to the job. Last night, for example, I sent links to three of my best blog posts that I had written for a client, and those three blog posts were not only relevant to the job, but they were the ones that generated the most comments.

Give potential clients what they ask for. Read their ad thoroughly and deliver everything that they request. If they want a link to blogs you currently write for, as well as your profile and your resume, send them all three links.

I hope the above writing tips help you impress your potential clients, but most of all, I hope they aid you in landing the writing or blogging job you apply for. Do you have any further writing tips you'd like to add? Please share them in the comments section.

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On March 1st I celebrated the birth of Help From Above, my Christian fiction novel! Wow! I can hardly believe it has been six years since Help From Above was first published! Anyway, to celebrate, I'm running a contest where you'll receive the gift, which is a free autographed copy of Help From Above! This is the first of the surprises that I said was in store for my 2008 goals. Even if you already own a copy, you're still welcome to enter, because this Christian fiction novel makes a wonderful gift! Here are the details:

First, the basics: The contest ends on April 3, 2008 at 12:00 a.m. Central time. The winner's name will be drawn from a hat by yours truly. You will get a chance to have your name placed in the hat four times. Now, are you ready to find out how to enter? Great! Here's how:

1. Announce this contest on your blog. You must place a link to the contest from your blog. Once you've announced the contest on your blog, return here and leave a comment with the URL to your blog, so I can confirm your entry.

2. Subscribe to my RSS feed via e-mail. You must subscribe via e-mail so I can confirm your entry. After you've subscribed, contact me (see the link in sidebar) with your name and the e-mail address you subscribed with. This allows me to associate the name with the e-mail, because the winner will be announced on this blog, and I don't want to make your e-mail address public if you're the lucky one.

3. Head to my website to read the first three chapters of Help From Above free. Next, return here and leave a comment to let me know your thoughts on the first three chapters. Your comment must include a short review based on the first three chapters of Help From Above in order for this entry to be valid.

4. Place an announcement about this contest in your newsletter or e-zine; the announcement must include the link to this contest. After you've placed the announcement in your newsletter or e-zine, contact me (see link in sidebar) with a link to the newsletter or e-zine, or forward me a copy of the newsletter or e-zine that you placed the announcement in. Again, this allows me to confirm your entry.

You can enter using as many of the four aforementioned ways as you wish. For example, if you perform number one and number two, then you'll receive two entries into the Help From Above Birthday Contest, which means your name will be placed in the hat twice. Perform all four and I'll put your name in the hat four times. Sound fair? Then by all means, place your entries before the deadline!

The winner name will be revealed here on April 6, 2008. At that time, I'll provide instructions for sending me your address so I can ship the book to you. By the way, shipping, of course, is free too. Good luck!

Help From Above Birthday Contest Deadline: April 3, 2008, 12:00 a.m. CST.

Photo credit: Flickr

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