Hi all. It’s not a day for writing today – apart from adding a short entry to my 29 Days of Online Writing series. If you read yesterday’s entry you’ll know that I managed to get all my work done in plenty of time to have the whole weekend off. That means I have no excuse for not tidying the office.

It also got me thinking about the state of my desk – the one I am sitting at now. I’m not the tidiest person by a long shot, although I am better than I used to be. If you’d entered the room I had as a kid, you’d know it was like walking on a hilly carpet. Seriously. But my writing desk is, I suppose, a reflection of me. It’s not the tidiest desk you’ll ever see – I am surrounded by notes, Post-Its, diaries, pads and pens. Most of it is relevant to my day’s work – like a list of ‘to do’ tasks that must be completed for example.

But every now and then I feel the need to clear it off and start again. I don’t like (and will never have) a pristine desk. It just won’t happen. But today is the day when the entire office is going to have a clean and tidy from top to bottom. I’ve been in here for an hour or so already and I’ve already made a dent in it. A quick stop for lunch and to write this blog post, and then I must carry on. But I can assure you that by the time I return on Monday morning to see the fruits of my labours, I’ll be glad I spent some time doing this today.

So forgive me for the short post but I have more work to do. Instead of polishing words and making them look good, I shall be polishing my writing desk instead. It’s a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon – and I think it’s necessary from time to time as well. Enjoy your weekend – I shan’t be posting tomorrow as it is a complete day off. But rest assured my series will be back on Monday. See you then – and happy writing.

Oh and don’t forget, if you want to catch up on the previous posts in this series, you can do so by visiting the dedicated 29 Days of Online Writing page.

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

Morning! Ok day three of my 29 Days of Online Writing, and I’d decided I deserved a lie in this morning. For me this typically means setting the alarm for 8am instead of anything between 7am and half past, so not really much of a lie in. But I’ve found I don’t write so well if I get up any later than that on a work day. I can’t help it, I always feel like a lie in is for the weekend.

But this morning, our cat Jasper had other ideas. My fault – the bedroom door was slightly ajar. So I was woken up at 7.10am to the sound of tiny feet. Then loud purring and sniffing in my left ear. Hmm – better than an alarm clock I suppose. Then I opened my eyes and got ‘that look’. Cat owners among you will know The Look – indignant with a definite ‘why are you still in bed when you could be giving me my breakfast?’edge to it. Ho hum.

Which is why I’m sitting typing this at half past seven while eating breakfast and catching up on the news. I love reading the Daily Mail website first thing, just to see what’s going on in the world. The white wonder (Jasper is completely white, except when he’s been rolling in flowerbeds squashing all my flowers) is sitting beside me, watching his territory out of the window. He hates cold weather and they’re threatening snow today and over the weekend, so he’ll likely stay by my side for a while then go back to sleep. It’s alright for some!

0805 – ok so I have just completed a very short article as a rush job for one client I work for. Very easy and quick to do as it was an addition to a previous project, so research wasn’t really necessary this time around. It’s great when you get articles and blogs to write on topics you know a lot about. It means you can write faster and still get a good finished product.

0845 – a short break imposed by Jasper. I’m not actually dressed yet (sometimes it’s good to stay in your dressing gown before you start work! Hey I could never do it when I worked in Ikea…). But Jasper loves my creamy fluffy dressing gown so he has come to say hello to it. This means he is sitting between me and my keyboard and screen, watching what I am trying to type. Think it might be time to go and get dressed…

[A while later...] I did get dressed. Jasper went to sleep. He hates cold weather and they’re still threatening snow here. This is when I love writing because there is no cold commute to do! Unfortunately I do have to go out later to do some shopping; since my partner fell down the stairs a couple of weeks back, I’ve been the chief worker, cook, washer upper and all the rest so I have to juggle my schedule a little more than usual. Thankfully I can, otherwise it would be even harder to manage. Bosses aren’t as sympathetic to stuff that happens in life as self employed people are!

1305 – quick update here. I’m probably over halfway through my workload for today. I have some social media articles to write now on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Oh, and one for Google+. I have my own profile on Google+ now so if you want to follow me there as well, you can add me to your Circles once you have seen my Google+ profile page.

I’m really enjoying this afternoon. I’ve been out for a nice brisk walk – essential to get rid of that muggy mid-afternoon feeling you sometimes get – and I’m continuing with a Facebook related article right now.

I’m also right on schedule to have Saturday AND Sunday off this week, which doesn’t always happen. I should still be blogging tomorrow though, because I am planning on spending at least part of the day tidying the office. If you could see it now you’d probably say it needs all day, but hey… I was going to tackle it during the afternoon one day this week, but it just hasn’t panned out that way.

1635 – a few more short musical website pieces to do today and then that’s it. Oh, apart from some Friday afternoon invoicing to round off the week. I just had a couple of Google Alerts come through to one of my email accounts – these are set up to search for freelance writer jobs and blogging jobs. Nothing in there today but I have found the odd job or two using this method in the past. It might work for you too.

Great finish to the day today – not only did I get all my work done, I have also had advance requests coming in from clients to fill next week. So that schedule is already filling up nicely. I should have plenty to share with you next week. Don’t forget to follow me on Google+ to find out the latest news and views about online writing. I will be back tomorrow even though I am not planning on doing any writing – other than perhaps a few articles for our next small website. And I have an incredibly untidy office to sort out of course…

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

0717 – It’s day two and I got up at 7am this morning to get a good start on the day. Armed with tea and toast, I am going to start by writing three short articles to complete the work due on one of our own sites before I do any client work. I know that if I get our work done first, I can relax and get on with client work for the rest of the day. That way ours doesn’t get pushed down the list and off the bottom! I definitely felt guilty finishing early yesterday, which is why I ended up coming back to my desk after a soak in a nice hot bath and writing the home page for our latest site. Now I just have to do those three articles…

0806 – that didn’t take long! Ok now it’s time to crack on with client work. I’ll wait a while for my next cuppa and do some articles first…

1200 – been a busy morning. Just fleshing out a description for a mobile app (one of those little but interesting jobs I get once in a while!), then it’s time for lunch.

1236 – stopped for lunch and a phone call to my sister. My niece has been poorly for a year now and has been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Not common! [Big hello and hugs to Sarah if you're reading this! I know you do sometimes]

1354 – two short blogs to complete now, followed by some short articles this afternoon.

1425 – doing well, but I am stopping for some hand exercises. I suffer from tendonitis in my left wrist (first triggered by a job I did years ago) and I am suffering a bit at the moment. My partner found some worthwhile hand exercises to do on YouTube and they seem to be working okay. I just need to remember to do them every day.

1625 – on the home straight now. Just writing some very short entries on various pop groups and musicians for a large website. Lots of them to do but they literally require a couple of paragraphs each. This is one of the nice things about online writing – you just never know what will turn up next…(hopefully in this case it will be a cup of tea)

1740 – whew, finished for the day! Just need to post this to my blog and update my professional site, and that’s it. Time for dinner and some downtime… back tomorrow!

UPDATE: there is a weird thing going on with WordPress at the moment. When I looked at the home page of the blog before signing in to post this, ALL my posts and pages had disappeared. After a frantic moment of fanning, panicking and wondering what on earth had happened, my partner finally got it sorted (i.e. the household technical whiz). That was NOT pleasant. Thankfully it was a quick fix.

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

Glad you could join me at the very beginning of my new 29 Days of Online Writing blog series! Here we are on the first day of a brand new month and I’ve kicked off a VERY cold day at 8am by clearing out some emails. I responded to one or two clients, and now it’s time to start writing.

I have a tiny edit and a press release to do for one client first thing, so that’s where I’ll start…

0859: interesting interlude – just had an email from someone responding to one of my Squidoo lenses on writing. I’ve managed to snag a few clients via Squidoo before, and this is someone looking for a writer to create some lenses for them. I’ve sent a quick reply so we’ll see what happens there. (Update – I think the client was looking for some sort of guarantee that they’d receive a certain amount of traffic to the Squidoo lenses. Haven’t heard back so that looks like a bust…)

1028: been emailing the potential client back and forth a couple of times; not sure if this one will pan out or not. The press release is done and I have completed a couple of very short blog posts as well. Time for more tea methinks!

1058 – ok time to finish off the last bit of an ebook project for a client now. You can see that I’ve been working solely on client projects so far today. I’m aiming to devote some time to my own writing projects this month too. If I blog about it I figure it will make me more accountable. My partner and I are looking to set up some simple product review sites and I have the details for the first few articles ready to write now, so I am planning on getting at least the home page done today.

1212 – well the final pages of the ebook are going well. Time to stop for soup and refreshments… and a quick look at my Google Reader account to see if anything interesting has appeared on my realm of RSS feeds. This is one of the ways I’ve used to find jobs in the past, and it does pay to check it on a daily basis.

1306 – lunch is over (nothing worthwhile on Google Reader today). Just finished the last little bit of the eBook so that’s another job ticked off the list. I’ve got to pop into town shortly as my partner and I also run an eBay shop and we’ve got a few parcels to post.

1446 – strange day today. It seems to be flying by. Still have some articles to complete for another client though, so now the eBook has been sent off I can get on with those. All while drinking another cuppa (you’ll notice I’m partial to a nice cuppa!).

1539 – I didn’t plan this. But I’ve got a great example to share that shows you how it pays dividends to get ahead in your schedule. I’ve got a stonking headache this afternoon that I just can’t get rid of. So I’ve adjusted my schedule a bit as I still have plenty of time in hand, and I’m going to finish in the next few minutes. I just have a couple of invoices to send, as well as posting this blog, and that’s it for the day. I’ll be back bright and early tomorrow to get a good start – and to blog on day two of my 29 Days of Online Writing. Catch you then!

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

It’s hard to believe it, but tomorrow is February 1st. And that means it is the first day of my month long insight into the life of an online writer. As of tomorrow I will be posting to my blog every day (except on days off, like Sundays for example) and sharing with you what I get up to during the day. I’ll show you how I find jobs, what I do each day and how successfully (or not) I juggle my home and work life.

If you haven’t yet signed up to my RSS feed (via the familiar button at the top of this page) do so now. You won’t want to miss a thing!

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

I can hardly believe it is the 28th already! It has been a testing month (leaky roof, repairs and a fall down the stairs and a bruised coccyx for my partner) but despite all that I have still managed to achieve my writing goals for the month.

I started the year with the intention of finding some new clients, and I have added 4 to my books since returning to work on 3rd January. One of those was as a direct result of focusing on adding more content and testimonials to my professional site, so I’m pleased as punch about that.

Needless to say I have some goals in mind for February too. The first one is to provide an insight into the daily life of a writer on this very blog. This starts on 1st February – this coming Wednesday – so make sure you sign up to my RSS feed so you don’t miss any of the posts. Whatever happens in my career this coming month, I’ll be sharing it here. Let’s hope for all good news!

If I have learned one thing this month it’s that you need to be able to focus on your writing even when things change around you. There were days very early on in the month when I was sitting here writing with a leaky ceiling and water dripping into a bucket next to me. We had to turn off the power to the lights in the office just to be on the safe side, and make do with desk lamps instead. But thankfully I can still hit all my deadlines.

February should be an interesting month to share with you anyway, as there is every chance we will be booked in for a new roof to be installed on the house. So I could have two to three days of trying to work with all manner of noise going on. As someone who likes to work in peace and quiet it should be interesting! Our cat Jasper doesn’t like it either so he will be very unhappy and skitty as a result.

I’m looking forward to daily blogging from Wednesday onwards but also a little nervous. Will it be a good month to share with you? Will it be full of good things? I want it to be a warts and all experience so make sure you come back on Wednesday to find out what I really do during the day. Oh, and if anyone DOES know where January went, be sure and let me know. I feel like I ought to be starting my Christmas shopping again soon!

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

Just a short post today, because I wanted to share with you what happens when you set a goal to achieve something with your writing. I set myself a goal at the beginning of January to find ONE new client via my professional website, www.allisonwhitehead.co.uk. While some clients have found me through this blog, I did create a separate site targeted purely to them.

However I never seemed to have a lot of time to develop it into the site I wanted it to become. So I set myself the challenge to start adding posts to it more regularly and to add some testimonials to it as well. And I wanted to find one new client before the end of January.

Now I must admit that by Monday this week I thought it wasn’t going to happen. My traffic has improved over on that website, so I was pleased with that. But today I had an email from someone who wanted one weekly blog for their website. A few emails back and forth and I’ve got the client I was looking for.

It just goes to show that with a little effort you CAN find the writing work you want. The clients are out there – and they might be looking for you now. But how easy are you to find?

I can say that my traffic per day for that site is still pretty low compared to this blog. But the additional effort is clearly paying off already. I wonder what February will bring?

PS – don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed, as my month long series “29 Days of Online Writing” is going to kick off next Wednesday – a week from today. I’m going to keep a notepad file open each day, adding to it as I go along. Then I’ll publish it at the end of the day so you can see what I’ve been up to. Don’t miss it – it’s going to be an eye opener! Subscribe now via the big orange RSS button at the top of this site. Thanks!

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

I thought I would stray away from blogging about writing directly today in favour of blogging about my office. I’m lucky enough to have a dedicated room for writing in, although I have still been known to write in bed and even in the bath from time to time. Yep it has happened.

But I think I must have that New Year clear out bug – you know, the one that strikes just after New Year’s Day and (hopefully) lasts long enough to help you spring clean your entire home a few months early. Last week it was the bedroom, this week it’s the office that has borne the full brunt of my determination to get things sorted out. I’ve been toying with putting up a picture of my work desk but I fear you’d disappear or report me to the Untidy Police. I’m one of those creative types that has to have a messy desk so they know where everything is. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Anyway I’ve had a pile of shredding to do for months and while I know I should shred stuff as I go along, this rarely happens (even though I sit right next to the shredder). But since I got back into the office after the festive break I have been ploughing through the shredding like a woman possessed. And now I have but a mere couple of inches of paperwork left to go.

Working in here has been a challenge in the last couple of weeks because we had a leak in our office ceiling on January 3rd (yep the day my business partner and I we went back to work). We have a loft conversion, a leaky dormer window (now fixed) but we need a new roof. Trouble is until it is done we can’t quite be sure whether the leak will happen again. So as I sit and type this I have two buckets beside me (just in case) and a couple of towels. Also just in case. It only seems to leak when the rain is pouring down and the wind blows in the wrong direction. But since we have computer equipment around we take extra steps to keep it all safe and covered during the night and during cloudy weather.

So this desire to tidy and streamline the clutter in the office is doubly impressive when you think about it. I think a declutter is good from time to time, and it has one other major effect as well. It tends to clear out the space between my ears – clears the mind and makes it easier to get stuff done. I’ve already found two new clients this week and there is a third one potentially in the offing too. Maybe it’s all the shredding that’s making it happen?

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

I have had an interesting start to the New Year. I made it a goal that I would find at least one new client during January, and I’ve landed one today. But it came about in an interesting way.

Judging by the emails I get asking about how to get into online writing, it seems that most people want writing jobs to fall into their lap. Now this CAN happen, but you need to show you are capable of writing and that you are a professional first. If you don’t have a blog or a website and you don’t have any clips or any kind of presence at all online, you can forget about people approaching you for work.

It’s like me asking you if you could come and plumb my new bathroom in. I don’t know you; I have no evidence at all that you’re a plumber. So it makes no sense for me to ask you. Yet many would be writers expect writing jobs to appear out of thin air. Sorry, it doesn’t happen like that – at least not when you’re a newbie. You have to get out there and earn your stripes first.

Anyway, back to the story. I started looking around for freelance writing gigs online and applied to a few I thought might be worthwhile. But I also went one step further. I got onto Google and started using all kinds of different search terms to try and find possible outlets for work. I tried all kinds of things – ‘looking for blogger’, ‘SEO company’ (many of them use freelance writers) and all manner of other search terms too. And I found lots of sites that could potentially be looking for writers.

Some of them were indeed looking for writers. They had a page telling me so. So I applied for more information. But not all of them had this page. Some of them clearly used writers but there was no ad telling me they were looking for writers.

Now I’m guessing that some writers would look for a ‘writers’ wanted’ ad, wouldn’t see one, and move on to the next site. But I can testify that it doesn’t pay to do this. Because every site has a contact page. And every site represents a chance to get a foot through the door as a writer. If you send them a quick note, asking if they are looking for writers, you never know what response you are going to get in return. Certainly you might get nothing but silence (I’ve had that happen a few times). But you may just get some nice person saying ‘Actually yes, we ARE looking for writers!’ And in a short while you might have a new job to celebrate.

Try it and see. You just never know…

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time

Unless you are already a writer, you might wonder what an online writer actually gets up to all day. Do we really sit and read tweets and status updates, or even visit our favourite websites when we should be working?

Working from home can definitely have its perks, and I for one wouldn’t want to work in any other way. But it doesn’t suit everyone. This is why it makes sense to find out as much as you can about what to expect if you are thinking of leaving your ‘proper’ job to try freelance or online writing full time. That’s why I am thinking of making February 2012 a “29 Days of Online Writing” month. I’m going to share my experiences and daily life with you every working day during the month. The idea is that you will learn more about what goes on in my daily life as an online writer. After all it’s not just writing – I’ve got other things to do during the day, like quick trips into town to do chores and paperwork stuff too.

I hope that by sharing my days during an entire month, I can help some of those who might be considering making the leap to become full time writers this year. I will make another announcement closer to the start date, because we have some behind the scenes stuff planned for this blog (necessary but boring stuff) that needs to be done first. So in case it takes longer than we think it will (which will probably be the case) I will keep you updated here. Rest assured though that I WILL be doing this, and February is the planned month to do it. If it doesn’t happen then because the blog tweaks backfire, it’ll be March.

In the meantime I would suggest you sign up to my RSS feed so you don’t miss any of the updates when they occur. Stay tuned for more info soon! And thanks for your support

My Online Freelance Writing Career - ... earning a living one word at a time