These look worthy of a second go round!

Oh, come on! You HAD to know you were getting a “Top Posts of 2011″ post!

10. Free Tools For Freelance Writers: Creating An Online Presence: Tips on creating a blog, building a website, and even getting your work out there with neither of those things.

9. When Fiction Meets Nonfiction: Wise Words From Albus Dumbledore: My response to Day 2 of the NAIWE Words Matter Week Blog Challenge. It features Albus Dumbledore, so, you can’t not read it.

8. Elevator Speeches: 3 Tips For Freelancers Writing Elevator Speeches: This ain’t your grandma’s elevator speech; don’t go into it thinking about a sell. All you have to do is learn to identify yourself and what you do, some typical clients, and a few things that point out you’re human.

7. Writers On Twitter: 7 Taboos You MUST Avoid: So, it’s all you, all the time, huh? I do not give a $&*#.

6. Free Tools For Freelance Writers: Article, Website, and Blog Images: EVERYBODY needs free article, website, and blog images.

5. Setting, Increasing, And Sticking To Your Freelance Writing Rates: I can’t tell you WHAT to charge, but I can give a solid outline for determining HOW to charge.

4. Writers Beware: Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Basket: One of the biggest mistakes any freelancer can make.

3. 9 Non-Writing Things Every Freelance Writer Should Do Daily: After all these years, numbers four and seven are still really hard for me.

2. Free Tools For Freelance Writers: Learning Tools: From finding writing classes online to learning more about keyword research and writing website content, I really wish I’d timed how long it took me to compile this list of learning tools for writers.

…aaaaaaaaaaan *drum roll*

1. Creating A Freelance Writer’s Resume: I have a feeling this might ALWAYS be the most popular post at WritingSpark.com.

Honorable Mention: 10 Websites For Finding Writing Contests

How about you, readers? Want to share one of your blog’s most popular posts from 2011? Feel free in the comments!

Sometimes, it *is* personal

QUESTION:

Hi Alicia,

Andy

ANSWER:

Hey Andy,

There’s no way you could have known, but your question is kind of timely. Two weekends ago, not one but two of my friends asked if I’d be offended if they stopped following me on Twitter (my Twitter is about 80% work-related and 20% personal; I tweet A LOT about writing and editing). Of course, I completely understood and told them so, but I later spent some time musing about the benefits of personal versus professional social media accounts.

What I came up with?

There are pros and cons to each, and I think how strong those pros and cons are will depend on each individual case.

Are any of your usernames the names of your website or business? If so, perhaps separate accounts would work best for you. The same might be true if your name is a big part of your brand.

Of course, you can successfully mix the professional with the personal. Look at Brian Clark of @copyblogger, Carrie Wilkerson of @barefoot_exec, and Darren Rowse of @problogger. If any of them has a separate private account (which is entirely possible), I don’t know about it. The tweets on their public accounts are consistent mixes of professional and personal information.

On the other hand, if you’re strictly a freelance writer or editor (i.e. not currently or not ever planning to market your services as anything more involved than one person taking on clients/projects as s/he pleases), then maybe single accounts are fine. While keeping a writing-related theme present might be important to you, being able to tweet to your friends (whether online or off) about weekend plans, a movie you just watched, or a cute picture of your dog also might be important.

See? It really does depend.

Some things to keep in mind:

• Facebook and Google+ make it ridiculously easy to choose who sees what. Choose one or more lists (or circles, in the case of Google+), a handful of people, or even just one person. Twitter is not as involved, but people CAN choose to put you in a list without actually following you in order to check out your tweets when they want to, without being bombarded by all the stuff they may not care about throughout the day.
• Having two different accounts that are both accessible to the public and not dissimilar in terms of content can get confusing and frustrating for followers and friends. A business person I admire has two Facebook accounts: One with the person’s name, the other with the person’s name but as a public figure/business. This person posts duplicate posts on each account. In this person’s defense, I could easily unfriend or unsubscribe and just keep one account. In my defense, it’s not unreasonable to expect different content from different accounts. So, something to think about.
• Spend some time thinking about the social media plan that will work best for you and your social media marketing needs and stick with it. Constantly switching things up – creating new accounts or deleting old accounts in favor of new accounts – could lose you some followers.

Thanks for writing in, Andy, and I hope this helps!

This post is part of the Ask Alicia series at WritingSpark.com. Learn more, or shoot me an e-mail directly at alicia [at] writingspark [dot] com (or click here) with “Ask Alicia” in the subject line.

Now why would I want to do that...?

Okay, “must” is a strong word, but let me tell you a little story…

You know that “Similar to You” section on the right side of your Twitter profile?

Well, the other day (and contrary to its usual function – for some reason, it normally only suggests I follow other users named “Alicia”) it suggested I follow someone who is not only a fellow writer, but also a writer I know.

We’ll call her Jane.

Jane and I belonged to the same e-mail group for writers a few years ago, but have since lost touch, so I was actually excited to see that she was on Twitter, and immediately clicked through to her profile.

Boy, how fast that excitement turned to disappointment.

You see, Jane – like a lot of other writers I’ve seen on Twitter – was committing a Twitter taboo too heinous for me to overlook even though I genuinely enjoyed her friendship years ago.

Well, two, actually.

First, every single tweet was automatically generated from one of her blogs. There was no interaction with other writers on Twitter (or anyone else, for that matter). No replies, no retweets – nothing. Second, every tweet, as you can imagine, was self-promotional.

With a slightly heavy heart, I opted not to follow Jane and closed the tab containing her profile.

Then, I decided to write this post.

Before we launch into it, let me first point out that I know there are zillions of articles out there instructing people on how to use Twitter; providing Twitter tips, especially tips for marketing on Twitter and gaining followers on Twitter.

Please note that this is not another one of those articles; rather, this is a post on a few of the behaviors that I’ve come to label as Twitter taboos: Behaviors that will prevent me from following you most of the time, or, if I do follow you, make it extra crucial for you to kick ass in some other area.

1. Using Only Automated Tweets

Setting up automatic tweets of your latest blog posts is fine, right? Yet, if you don’t care enough about your followers on Twitter to post an actual thought once in a while, why should they care enough to follow you?

2. Interacting With No One

Even if you have a nice blend of automated and “real” tweets, if you’re not interacting with anyone, you’re not connecting with anyone. If you’re not connecting with anyone, you’re not going to be very effective at marketing on Twitter, are you?

3. Doing Nothing For Anyone

How much fun are people who never retweet or post relevant links to blog posts or articles that they didn’t write?

No fun at all.

4. Having No Profile Picture

Okay, so technically you can’t have no profile picture; Twitter has its generic standby that all users get until they upload their own. So, better phrased, “Using Twitter’s Generic Profile Picture.”

Doing this for any longer than it takes to open up your hard drive’s Picture folder and choose a decent shot of your mug (or cover of your novel, or logo for your writing business, or whatever) is dumb. It’s just dumb.

Let Twitter help you correct this dumbness.

5. Being ONLY A Writer

You’re a writer, and you tweet about writing and follow other writers and, you know, write. You do other stuff, though, too – right? If your Twitter bio or stream tells me nothing about you as a person and provides only information about you as a writer, how am I supposed to know if I’m interested? Or, that you’re interesting?

I know @ToddRMoody is a pilot and that @martharandolf kicked cancer’s ass. I also know that @mollygreene doesn’t spend too much money on wine (a woman after my own heart) and likes her dog. I even know his name. It’s Frank.

The point is, you have a life outside of writing, and you’re much more interesting when you admit it.

6. Tweeting Once In A Blue Moon

I hate finding interesting writers on Twitter, only to discover they haven’t tweeted in a month and a half. Usually, this means they’re way too busy to keep up with a Twitter account (which means they’re likely to commit taboos #2 and #3, as well), or they’ve abandoned the account.

Or, they could’ve taken time off to have a baby (in which case a courteous “On hiatus – just had a baby!” would be nice).

7. Promoting The Hell Out Of Yourself

I want to know what you’re doing. Really, I do. I’m interested in what you’re writing, or what you’ve just posted, or the interview you just gave. Otherwise, I wouldn’t follow you. I see what’s going on with you, and I can learn from that – and vice-versa.

What I’m NOT interested in is All You, All The Time. Post a link to your blog post or your most recent article in Whatever Magazine or the occasional link to your book on Amazon, and then ask me how my day’s going.

(NOTE: This goes for bios, too. For example, @hazelindeed managed to let me know she has a YA novel coming out and enjoys life’s simple pleasures. Likewise, @mizwrite tells us she not only writes for LifeScript.com, but she’s also married with kids.)

So, what about you, writers? Agree? Disagree? Have your own Twitter taboos to add to the list?

Image Source: Twitter Buttons

Because I'm so creative with my images.

On Friday, I sort of joked about writing a post titled “The Top 7 Ways to Screw Yourself Out of a Writing Gig,” but over the weekend I thought, “You know what? I really could write that post. I really could list seven ways for a writer to shoot herself in the foot. Whether I’ve witnessed fellow writers make these mistakes, or I’ve made them myself.”

Of course, that last part doesn’t really sound like something to be proud of, I know…

…but, it means my writing career has survived some growing pains, right?

Right.

So, on to the top seven ways to screw yourself out of a writing gig, in no particular order.

#1: Lack Confidence.

This probably sounds like a no-brainer – and applies mostly to new writers – but if you lack the confidence in yourself, your work, and your abilities it takes to apply for a writing job, you’re most likely not going to apply for the job. If you don’t apply for the job, you’re not even giving the advertiser a chance to say no; you’re already telling yourself no.

While this might make sense if you’re looking at a job advertisement for a new Content Director at some high-powered, well-established blogging network and you yourself have only been blogging for a couple of weeks, it’s just not good business if the advertisement you’re looking at calls for press release writer and you have indeed written a handful of press releases in your career.

Of course, you can’t stop at having just enough confidence to apply for the job; you also have to make sure that confidence shines through during your application process. For example, if you receive a followup phone call from the potential client looking for a press release writer and said potential client says, “Tell me a bit more about your experiences with press releases,” replying with “The last press release I wrote was for a South Texas company ready to announce the launch of its new website” sounds far better than “Um, well…I’ve really only written a few.”

#2: Be a Know-It-All.

And by “know-it-all,” I don’t mean a person who knows it all; rather, I mean a person who knows it all (or, knows a hell of a lot about it) and is obnoxious about it.

Look, chances are the potential client already knows he needs help – that’s why he wants to hire someone. The last thing he wants is for someone to point out everything he did wrong until you came along, and everything he’s going to keep doing wrong unless he listens to you.

Which brings us too…

#3: Insult Your Client.

Maybe you think his company logo is tacky, or perhaps you’ve noticed several flaws with the layout of his website. Unless he specifically asks you for your opinion on these things, stick to the job you were hired for. For all you know, his wife designed the logo and his son built the website and his cousin is going to be writing the content if you can’t deal with it.

#4: Refuse to Budge.

At some point in your writing career, there will come a time when a client asks you to write something you’re not entirely comfortable writing. Maybe he manages an online store and has decided to add leather jackets to the inventory and you, as a vegan, aren’t comfortable writing the product descriptions. Or, perhaps he owns a political blog and wants you to cover a few weeks worth of posts about policies you don’t agree with.

Here’s the deal: Sometimes, refusing to budge is okay – as long as you handle it professionally. If writing about these things would bother you, then by all means, bow out. Politely declining a job because of your own beliefs, values, and morals doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve screwed yourself out of a job; however, becoming defensive and trying to change your client’s outlook, picking a fight and potentially burning your bridges (nice transition, there), can mean just that.

#5: Burn Your Bridges.

As described above, situations (unrelated to the completion of a project) might pop up when you and a client part ways. And, also as described above, sometimes these situations are unavoidable.

Regardless of why you need to part ways, the best way to handle it is politely and professionally. Just because the two of you came to a point where you don’t see eye-to-eye and shouldn’t work together anymore doesn’t mean you should end your last call by screaming insults and slamming down the phone.

After all, just because you couldn’t continue working together one one project doesn’t mean another one won’t come along in the future the client would think you were perfect for.

#6: Lack an Online Presence.

These days, many writers and editors turn to the Web for work. Why shouldn’t we? The Internet allows us to easily connect with potential clients and other writers from all over the world and we can, after all, do this from just about anywhere.

It only makes sense then to have an online presence – a “home base,” if you will, that introduces people to who you are and what you do. Some of us go all out with a website, blog, or both, and some of us keep things simple with just a Facebook account.

Whatever you choose to do, do something. Give your potential clients a way to get to know you and your work, and give yourself a chance to connect with your co-workers.

#7: Ignore Social Media.

It’s 2010, and if you’re not involved in some kind of social website – whether it’s a networking site like Twitter, Facebook, or yes, even MySpace, or simply a news-oriented site like Digg, Reddit, or Stumble – you’re pretty much asking the world to overlook you.

Social media sites are powerful tools for connecting with potential clients and fellow writers, as well as checking out the work of others and promoting your own.

Plus, freelancing can get lonely at times and these kinds of sites are nice “water coolers” you can swing by whenever you want and chat up your friends!

Do any of these sound familiar to you? I know I can raise my hand for numbers one and five, and in the past, six and seven, too. Or, have you done something else that’s voided your shot at a writing job?

Alicia