The Weekly Resource RoundUp

Things have been so hectic lately that I haven't had a chance to compile the roundup for a couple weeks. Hopefully this week's mega roundup will make up for it.

Obviously none of us got into freelancing to work for free. However, there are some times when working for nothing can be good for your business. In a guest post at The Wealthy Freelancer, Michelle Goodman shares thoughts on when it works in your favor as well as things to watch out for.

Word of mouth is how many of us advertise our services. Check out these 18 essential tools for word of mouth marketing. While the list is geared more towards those with established brands, there are still some great tools for those in the process of building their name.

For many of us, working from home is a dream. There are so many different work at home jobs out there that you are sure to find something. Some jobs may surprise you.

We know about passive income, but what about passive job hunting? Dana Prince offers tips on self-promotion so the clients come to you without you having to hunt them down.
If you are a work at home parent, it can be hectic. The Work at Home Woman offers some great tips to balance life, work and family.

If you are trying to get a book published, be sure to check out the SFWA Thumbs Down Agency List. The literary agents and agencies on the list have had a high number of complaints or have other issues that might make you rethink hiring them.

Chris Brogan shares some great tips on how to blog almost every day. Now I just need to put these tips into practice.

The Weekly Resource RoundUp

I haven't had much time to post lately. As I mentioned in a post earlier this month, my entire family, including myself, got sick. I ended up losing close to a week of writing time. It was not exactly an ideal start for the month. I've been scrambling all month to make up for the lost income so I can still reach my goal of $400 in writing income.

Anyway, on to this week's resource round up. Since many of us haven't reached the point where we make enough income to pay for things we need, I thought I would share some freebies for freelancers that I have came across on the web.

Visit Writing Career to get some free e-books that can help expand your skills. If you are looking for information on how to make money writing for gaming sites, Freelance Poker Writing will help. Creative Freelancing shows you the various careers you can pursue from home, including freelance writing, programming, graphic design and more. If you write a lot of promotional copy or are considering adding that to your repertoire, check out The Lousy Writer's Guide to Writing Persuasively.

If you do not have Microsoft Office or perhaps you have a client that doesn't, Open Office is an excellent substitution. It is an open source (FREE) software suite that gives you word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, graphic and database functionality. It is similar to Microsoft Office so there is no steep learning curve. Extensions to improve functionality are also available for free.

Nothing interferes with a freelancer's work more than their computer having problems. Avast! Antivirus Home Edition will help protect you from damage caused by viruses. Spybot S&D will search out spyware for you. If you use IE8, be sure to scroll down the page to read about a possible issue and how to fix it. Finally, Ad-Aware Free is another program that finds spyware and adware on your computer. I like to use both it and Spybot because each will catch whatever the other one misses. When downloading, make sure you have selected the free version as they also offer paid versions with more features.

The Weekly Resource RoundUp

One thing I've found since starting my freelance writing career is that research is essential for many articles. Even if you know the subject enough to write off the top of your head, there are some sites that require you to document sources. So I thought I'd share a few of my favorite research places.

If you need a study to back up a claim on something medical related, you can't go wrong with PubMed. A service of the US Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health, PubMed allows users to search through literally millions of citations from medical and science journals. The search does include some foreign language journal and there are not always translations. In most cases, results of your search will give you abstracts and point you to wherever you need to go to read the full text. I have found PubMed especially helpful in writing articles on alternative health such as herbs. My clients have really liked having scientific studies to back up the claims. "In a 2004 study by British researchers, the herb was found to increase energy by 80%." is a lot more effective than "The herb increases energy."

If you want to look for information in books, but don't feel like wading through the offerings at your local library, Google Books can help. Just type in your search terms and it will search through its large library of books. Depending on the book, you may be able to read it online entirely, get a preview or, in some cases, get nothing more than the name of the book and author. If you're interested in those that do not offer full text, you can then check your library to see if they have a copy available.

The CIA World Factbook is a good jumping off point if you are writing about countries you are not familiar with. It gives information and statistics on the country's geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military and transnational issues. You can find out everything from the average life expectancy to how many cell phones there are in the country.

Ask your local library if there is a state program that offers reference material. I'm not sure about other states, but I know in my home state of North Carolina, we have access to a large online database that links us to reference sites for all kinds of subjects from auto repair to science and technology. Many of the sites normally require membership fees, but by going through the state database, residents are able to access the information for free. All I had to do was give my local library a call and ask for the password for home access. If you are a freelance writer living in North Carolina, leave me a comment and I'll help you get set up.

The Weekly Resource RoundUp

This week's roundup is all about blogs and blogging. While most of these resources focus on running your own blog, some of the tips can also be applied to paid blogging for other people.

Jade Craven highlights 892 tips you can learn from some of the top bloggers on the web. Darren Rowse (Problogger), Michael Martine (Remarkablogger) and James Chartrand (Men with Pens) are only a few of the gurus on the list.

Learn 10 tips to help tidy up your blog categories. I've been working on this myself here on The Freelance Experiment. As you can see, I still have work to do.

The Weblogs category at About.com has a nice directory of advertising opportunities. If you're wanting to monetize your blog, you might want to check it out. While it doesn't cover all the options for monetizing your blog, it's a good jumping off point.

Daily Blog Tips shares 4 ways to promote your blog offline. The blogger at Balkhis shares 13 ways he promoted his blog. Between these two, you should get some good ideas on blog promotion.

Finally, check out Dragos Roua's list of 100 ways to improve your blog. The list covers content, layout, plugins, promotion, networking and money. It's a long read, but full of great tips.

The Weekly Resource RoundUp

This week's roundup will focus on running your freelance business. No matter how good a freelance writer you are, you will need some business skills to survive as a freelancer.

To start, we should know what not to do when starting out as a freelancer.

If you are considering leaving your 9-5 for a freelance career, check out the get started now guide to becoming self employed at Zen Habits. If you have time, take a look at the comments too to pick up some more great tips.

Before you rush out to purchase a bunch of software or other tools for your new business, take a look at 10 awesome online tools your business should be using. Some are even free!

Deb Ng asks (and answers) the question "Do freelancer writers need business cards?" To be honest, I never really thought about it until reading her post. Now I'm thinking about potential designs.

The Weekly Resource RoundUp

No one wants to put a lot of work into applying for a writing job only to find out that it's a scam. James of Men With Pens shares three scams freelancers face and how to avoid them. It is an older post (September 2007), but many of these scams are still in use today.

If you're writing content for the web, search engine optimization, often referred to as SEO, is something you need to know about. Check out this great list of free SEO tools. If you're writing for a share of ad revenue, you'll definitely want to check out the keyword tools.

Unless you plan to stay with content sites, odds are you're going to start looking for your own clients at some point in the future. Daily Writing Tips gives us 5 tips when bidding for freelance work.

Freelance Parent gives us 67 freelance niche writing markets you may have never considered.

The Weekly Resource Round Up

This week's round up has a few more goodies for you. If you have good resource or tool to share, let me know by commenting.

If you're feeling frazzled, stop by and check out Will Write for Chocolate for a laugh break. The comics never fail to make me smile.

Are you in personal branding prison? James Chartrand of Men With Pens offers some great advice about branding on a Copyblogger guest post.

Laura Spencer at Freelance Folder gives us ten tips to stay motivated even when you really don't feel like working.

If you need a refresher on punctuation, grammar or AP style, be sure to check out News University's course Cleaning Your Copy. The course is free. You just have to register with NewsU to take it.

Stock XChng is a good source for free photos to use in articles and blogs. Be sure to check the restrictions when using photos. Some require permission to use in a public work or ask that you give them a photo credit. Even if they have no requirements to use the photo, I always credit the photographer and leave a note letting them know where I used it.

The Weekly Resource Round Up

Note to readers: The Weekly Resource Round Up is a new feature and will appear every Wednesday. I spend a couple hours each week browsing the internet in search of information related to freelance writing. I'm constantly coming across some great information and tools and wanted to share them with you to help you in your own journey.

Deb Ng of Freelance Writing Jobs shares 50 Places that Hire Freelance Writers. Be sure to check out her freelance writing job leads as well.

Mira's List offers a large frequently updated list of grants, fellowships and residencies for individuals working in the arts. A number of these are specifically for freelance writers.

You can check the Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) of your headlines at the Advanced Marketing Institute. The free Headline Analyzer is an excellent tool for finding a headline that make an impact on your readers.

Web Doctus offers tips on using twitter to find freelance writing jobs.

Free Courses to Help with Your Freelancing Career

When it comes to being a freelance writer , you need skills in writing, marketing and business. However, as a stay at home managing our bills on one income, paying for classes on these subjects isn't an option. So I started searching the web for free online classes.

News University offers courses on subjects ranging from advertising sales to writing. While some of the courses do have a fee, there are several that are offered at no cost. You do have to sign up for a free account to take advantage of the courses.

Suite 101 offers a variety of courses. Be sure to check out the articles on starting and running a small business, professional writing, and writing well.

Writer 2 Writer has a few free courses. However, you should be aware that you will be automatically added to their ezine when you sign up for one of the free courses.

The business courses at Free-Ed will help you learn how to manage your freelance business.

*Photo by Sanja Gjenero

Freelancing Blogs I Like

I'm the type of person who will research something for weeks before diving in. My decision to give freelance writing a try is no different. Through my research, I've came across several great blogs about freelancing.

The Freelance Home Writer is one of my favorite blogs when I'm deciding what other sites I want to try writing for. The blogger, Willow Sidhe, gives tips on writing for money and points out the various websites that you can write for. I like the fact that she links to comments on forums and blogs about the sites she's not personally familiar with them.

Freelance Parent is a great blog that combines information on freelancing with balancing family and work. Since that is something I hope to do, it's a good source of information for me.

I love the style of Men with Pens. It's a great combo of helpful information, humor and sometimes a little sarcasm.

Angela Booth has a little bit of everything on her writing blog. I like that she has tips on writing as well as tips on running the business side.

Write to Done has a ton of tips for writers. They have plenty of guest bloggers as well so you get a variety of viewpoints.

Get Paid to Write Online is another blog I like. You can find great information on everything from writing blogs to tools.

*Photo by Emre Nacigil