Writing Consultation | Freelance Writing

I have asked my readers to submit any question they would like to ask me and after more than a month, it is time to reply. [Have a Question Burning in Your Mind?]

There are 3 questions.

Question 1.

Hi, it is nice to stumble across your blog. I am wondering, is it really important to have a blog for a freelancer? What about the old fashion way? Name cards? Face-to-face job application? Do you meet up with your clients? Thanks!

by: Damian

Answer: Having a blog will boost your credibility and it serves as a platform for your potential clients to have a look at your work. You can still use name cards (business cards) to sell your services if you find this method works well for you. Of course, some clients require face-to-face meeting. I do meet up with my clients from time to time.

Question 2.

Hi Sarah,

My biggest hurdle is in increasing page views per visitor. On normal topics I get very low ratio close to 1. Even on topics related to film actresses I am not getting more than 2 page views per visitor. I expected much higher ratios. So how do you give a strong call for action?

1. Does it depend most on the phrasing of the call for action at the foot note of a page? Say luring the reader falsely.
2. Does it depend most on the topic itself and uncontrolled by us?
3. Does it depend most on the suspense/discontinuity created intentionally to make the reader like to know completely (controlled by the author)?
4. Does it depend most on the compulsive nature of the audience (similar to 2)?

These days I am concluding that 4th is the right one and thus both topic and audience matter. What is your take on this subject.

by: Rajun

Answer: I don’t get many page views as well, especially when I started this blog in January 2009. One thing I do realise is many people are searching for topics related to freelancing. So, I started to research on keywords, related topics, how to write the titles, the content and other SEO methods. I have tried article marketing and forums last year and they are sending traffic to my blog but I can’t rely on article marketing and forums to help generate a steady traffic. The key is to establish an authority blog, and make sure Google verified the blog as an authority blog and cache the content as soon as possible.

To answer your question,

1. Does it depend most on the phrasing of the call for action at the foot note of a page? Say luring the reader falsely.

I believe this is known as link bait. You can give it a try but I haven’t find this useful at the moment.

2. Does it depend most on the topic itself and uncontrolled by us?

At some point, I do believe that we cannot control the traffic we get for our blog. However, with the right practice of SEO, you should be getting more traffic.

3. Does it depend most on the suspense/discontinuity created intentionally to make the reader like to know completely (controlled by the author)?

I don’t think so.

4. Does it depend most on the compulsive nature of the audience (similar to 2)?

Readers choose what they read. Maybe whatever you are offering on your blog is not interesting enough to capture their attention.

I get an average of 300 unique visits per day, with 1000 page views per day.

Question 3.

Hi Sarah,

I hope you will answer this question. I have a burning question for a long time.

I set aside time to write for four or five hours day. But eventually I fail to be consistent. I do write for an hour or so and then stop. Even when I write on a topic that I like the most and have lot of knowledge still I feel that I do less than what I could.

Why does it feel like so tired just after an hour of continued writing?

Is it just the reality or is there some problem with me?

Just want to be focused for at least 2 hours a day in a productive manner. I would appreciate your suggestions.

Answer: You are not alone. The key is to take a short break after writing for an hour (a break of 5 minutes) so that you can walk around, have a cup of tea, take your eyes off your PC/laptop or papers if you are writing using pen and paper.

Why does it feel like so tired just after an hour of continued writing?

This is normal, which is why you need a short break in between writing.

Is it just the reality or is there some problem with me?

Yes, this is the reality. I must admit there are some very hardcore writers who can spend hours writing without a break but not everyone is a super writer.

Just want to be focused for at least 2 hours a day in a productive manner.

This is not a problem at all as long as you take a short break in between your writing task. However, stick to the 5-minute rule or else you won’t be able to resume your writing later because you will be exposed to more distractions if your break takes more than 5 minutes. I can focus for 6 hours of writing during weekdays and 4 hours during weekends. However, my productivity increases at night, so I write mostly after 8pm until late (sometimes very late).

*****

Thanks for all your questions!