Do All Freelance Writers Need Their Own Blog?
Do all professional freelance writers need their own blog? I’ve got one, and many of the most successful writers I know do, but not all of them. Does this mean you should have one?
I’m going to sound like a politician, but the truth is, it depends.
Blogs got started as journals but were soon recognized as potential marketing tools. Which means writers have two potential reasons to blog:
- to journal in public, or,
- to market themselves and their services.
While most freelancers - almost all, in fact - do need to continually market themselves, blogging may not be the best way to go. Here are some considerations:
- Driving traffic to your blog, even if you’re in a network, takes considerable time, energy, and maybe even some money. Ask yourself if this is the best use of your marketing time.
- To be effective, a marketing blogs needs regular and predictable updating - daily or more often is ideal from a traffic standpoint; monthly is probably not often enough, unless you’ve already got a newsletter and can let people know when you post a new blog entry. Decide how much time you’re realistically willing and able to devote to blogging.
- Blogging can get boring. I know, I’m not supposed to admit that, but figuring out what to say every day gets tiresome, at least for me it has after several years.
On the other hand, and there are at least two sides to blogging for freelance writers:
- I love the interaction with readers through comments and even email.
- This blog has turned out to be a great way to build two newsletter lists, and keep building them - and those lists are suspects for ebooks and what-have-you.
- Blogging is still cool (or is it kewl?).
Write well and often,
Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.
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Tags: blogging, blogs, do writers need blogs, freelance-writing, home-business, marketing, work-at-home, writersRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Blogs for Writers, Marketing Your Writing
15 opinions for Do All Freelance Writers Need Their Own Blog?
Quiet Rebel Writer
Jul 16, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Absolutely agree, Anne. Much more time and effective results can be found for freelancers from other forms of marketing rather than blogging. I chose to blog for enjoyment, for community, and for a slow growth of a platform, as a basis for potential initiatives in the future apart from my main freelancing business. By doing this I’ve found more reason to continue past the occasional boredom and burnout, and a longer-lasting result.
BTW my blog is http://www.quietrebelwriter.com.
Alex Fayle
Jul 16, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I’ve been blogging for two years now and have definitely run out of things to say, so instead of stopping the blog, I’m leveraging the following to take it from journal to business.
Graham Strong
Jul 16, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Hi Anne,
Last week I asked Do Blogs Work? and the topic really seems to have taken off. Quite a few other bloggers picked up on the question, including Men With Pens and Kelly at Maximum Customer Experience just today.
My conclusion? It takes work, but if you do it right it just might pay off. What everyone seems to agree on though is that it has to be part of a larger marketing strategy.
I also think its important to measure your success where possible (unless your blog is just for fun of course…). Otherwise, it’s hard to track your ROI.
Results are slow to come, as many don’t realize, so you really have to commit to a long time period (i.e. probably six months to a year) before you start seeing measurable results.
So if you are not at all interested in the commitment or if you think your marketing efforts are better in a different direction, blogging as a marketing tool is likely not for you.
~Graham
Debbi
Jul 16, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Hi Anne,
I started off blogging for fun and to show people I could do it, in case a blogging gig came along. My first blog is called Random and Sundry Things and it’s at http://mackthewriter.wordpress.com/. As you can see, it’s pretty much what the title says it is.
Then, I noticed a lot of freelancers had blogs and decided to start a blog on the business of writing (all types of writing) at Writing for Hire, http://writing4hire.blogspot.com/.
Finally, I was reading so many books and writing so many reviews for these blogs, I figured I’d start a third blog, The Book Grrl, for book reviews and news at http://thebookgrrl.blogspot.com/.
Have they gotten me a lot of business? Probably not–at least, I don’t think their existence has drawn new business for me. But I do use my posts as samples of my online writing. Like my Web site, they are part of my online “presence.” And they have been fun.
Graham makes a great point about how it takes time to see results from any marketing effort. If I were more serious about using my blogs for that purpose, the return might be worth the effort.
Incidentally, I think a business blogger can get away with writing less frequently than every day. Every two or three days seems okay to me. I agree that it should be updated with some regularity. And once a month won’t cut it.
Anne Wayman
Jul 17, 2008 at 6:37 am
Wow… added you all one way or another to my blog roll and subscription thingie… love it when I get agreement like this ;)
Graham, the question must be in the air ’cause I didn’t see your post before I wrote this one, or at least I don’t think I did.
Alex anyone who can run off to the south of Spain and France always has something to say, even if it’s just profound silence.
And Amy, I love the term, slow growth platform. I just don’t want the growth to be too slow.
jeff
Jul 17, 2008 at 6:47 am
I blog to keep up with what’s going on. If I didn’t look for articles to put on my blog I wouldn’t know most of what’s going on in the world of writing and books. It also keeps me finding good stuff about how to write better and be more creative.
I have two blogs one on writing
http://ineptwriter.wordpress.com/
and one on reading
http://www.carpelibra.org/
michelle of bleeding espresso
Jul 18, 2008 at 4:51 am
I wholeheartedly agree with your answer, Anne: it depends (see, I’m a lawyer by training so I can play the waffling card too!) ;)
To be more specific, to me, it depends on what you would like to get from it. For me, I started a blog for several reasons including to get writing practice and feedback; for those goals, a blog can be quite useful.
Now I’m also making money with mine–an added bonus that I hadn’t really planned on but that *does* take some work (but I’m OK with that since it pays too!).
I’ve actually been offered a book reviewing job with a well-known company based exclusively on my blog as that’s the only book review writing samples I have, so depending on what you write, you can also use your posts as clips if the client will accept them.
Like anything, a blog is what you make of it–and if you have your own domain you can quite easily include a blog as part of your site alongside published clips, writing samples, etc. It’s up to the individual to determine whether it’s worth the time and effort, and for me it definitely is both professionally and personally–I love my blogging community :)
Debbi
Jul 18, 2008 at 8:20 am
That’s funny, Michelle. I’m also a lawyer and was thinking the “it depends” answer was very lawyerly. :)
michelle of bleeding espresso
Jul 18, 2008 at 8:22 am
Hee hee Debbi :)
Even though I don’t practice law, I can’t say I didn’t learn anything in law school ;)
Debbi
Jul 18, 2008 at 9:23 am
I don’t practice anymore and I can’t say I miss it terribly. But I do sometimes refer to myself as a “recovering attorney.” :)
michelle of bleeding espresso
Jul 18, 2008 at 9:30 am
Hah! Love it Debbi :)
Anne Wayman
Jul 18, 2008 at 10:25 am
Gee, and I don’t have a degree in anything! Except, maybe, life ;)
michelle of bleeding espresso
Jul 18, 2008 at 10:30 am
Best degree to have IMHO, Anne :)
Unless there’s one in, say, Chocolate Cake Eating, because that’s some homework I’d like to have ;)
Debbi
Jul 18, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I second Michelle. On both thoughts. :)
Anne Wayman
Jul 19, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I dunno… yesterday I overdosed on Coco’s peach pancakes… haven’t had that much sugar in years… sure enjoyed it, but I’m still hungover ;)
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