Freelance writers and their own blogs

Many freelancers wonder if it is really necessary to have their own blogs.  This is often a question that is posed by freelance writers. In fact, freelance writers spend so much of their day preparing content for clients, they wonder if they have the time and energy left to create their own blogs. There are different schools of thought when it comes to whether a freelance writer should have a blog and in fact, there are some who think that multiple blogs might be a good option for freelance writers. However, blogging is not without its challenges!  Whether you want to think about it or not, blogs do not maintain themselves.  Here are some of the considerations that a freelance writer should take into consideration before starting their own blog:

Maintenance – Your blog needs care and feeding!   If you want people to read your blog, then you will have to do some work to make sure that it is worth reading. Blogs should be updated between two and five times each week for optimal reader satisfaction. If your blog posts are only a couple of hundred words, then this may be an easy task for you. If you tend to write longer posts, you may want to reconsider whether a blog is right for you.  If you do not have the time to add regular content to your blog you can consider outsourcing, guest bloggers or purchasing private label rights articles with full reprint rights.

Promotion – Just because you write new posts in your blog weekly, does not mean that readers will flock to it. In fact, it takes time, energy and effort to promote your blog. Fortunately, blog promotion is easier than ever with plenty of tools available. Twitter is a great tool for promoting your blog and finding readers who may follow your blog.  Another great source is FaceBook – you can link your most recent blog posts to a FaceBook fan page where people can follow your blog.

Relevance - If you have created a blog that is following a specific theme (such as health, writing, etc.) make sure that you stick with that theme. Do not stray too far off course or you may lose your readers. Keep in mind that there are thousands of blogs available to read on a regular basis and if you start straying off course, you could lose readers to other blogs that they feel fill their needs better.

Comments – It is not recommended that you allow comments to be posted to your blog without reviewing them first. What you are likely to find are several spam blog comments on a daily basis. Carefully review your comments before posting them – otherwise you may find that you are going to chase readers off with the drivel that is being posted in your comment section.

Summary

Freelance writers must decide if they have the time to maintain a blog before they decide to create one. If you have the time to set up a blog it can be a great source of residual income or it can be a great outlet for you to get out your thoughts at the end of a particularly stressful day!

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• Freelancing 101 XII-C3
• Freelancing 101|XIIB

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