How to Be a Freelance Writer (Without Leveraging Your Experience or Contacts)

Everywhere you look, you keep reading about people that break into freelance writing by using their professional background or leveraging their corporate contacts. Most of these stories are from writers with a business, IT or real estate background. These niches are highly profitable, but what if you dont have that same background? What if youre a secretary? An artist? A stay-at-home mom whos been out of the workforce for several years? Is it still possible to make a living from writing without using your background? The answer: YES! Of course. I know writers that were forensic scientists turned freelance writer and now write in the entertainment niche. It is entirely possible to start freelance writing with virtually no contacts, no past experience or no knowledge about a niche. Thats exactly how I broke into freelance writing. I Didnt Land ANY Jobs With My Previous Experience Before I was a B2B professional writer, my core background was (and still is) in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). I worked with children with autism by doing behavioral learning strategies to help them speak, play, dress, socialize and more. So, of course, when I started researching how to become a freelance writer, I naturally gravitated towards wanting to write about education, and in particular, ABA. I was able to score a guest post in this niche, which helped me prove my credibility when I sent my pitches to ABA agencies. I was fairly new when I reached out to these agencies. But, as luck would have it, I either didnt hear back from them, or they said they werent focus on building their blog. At the time, I wasnt knowledgeable about how businesses can use a blog to bring in more local businesses, so I left it at that. I had no luck either with finding jobs in the parenting niche and any health writing jobs I saw where low paying (around $.05/word). Freelance writing wasnt working for me. I couldnt find any good paying writing gigs in the special education, parenting or natural health industries. Now, dont get me wrong here. Those are totally viable niches. I have been approached by a parenting blog and a health site that pay extremely well, so it isnt unheard of. This is just my story of how I was struggling to use my experience and background to help me find a freelance writing gig. So, how did I turn this around and become a sought-after freelance writer within two years? When I look back and think about what I did to get to this point in my freelance writing profession, I know that the four fundamental steps I took helped me reach this status without leveraging any past experience or contacts that I had. If you are in the same place, then these steps can help you become a freelance writer that can actually pay the bills. 1. Discover Your Niche Okay. Im sure youve heard this a thousand times. Find your niche. Find any niche. Find five niches. Whats the answer? Personally and truthfully all you need is around 2-3 niches to start off. You can draw from experience or draw from your passion and hobbies. Maybe youre a knitter and its something you know a lot about. Well, you can get paid to write about knitting. Or, maybe you rode horses when you were little. Even better. Whatever your passion or hobby is, Im sure you can find that its something you can write for and get paid in. When discovering your niches, make sure you do your due diligence and research the market to see if its a viable niche. Look to see if there is also room for growth. In other words, how high can you raise your rate in this industry before hitting the ceiling? 2. Market Your Niche as a Profitable Niche You might have a hard time turning your niche into a profitable niche WITHOUT any experience or expert knowledge. So, how do you do this? You have to corner your market in this industry and well, practice makes perfect. You have to write in this topic, read content in this topic, start practicing in this niche and learn as much as you can about it. Some beginner steps include: Creating stellar samples in this niche Get some blog posts or PDFs or Google share docs to show to prospective clients. Create backup samples (of other less profitable niches, but that can help you build your portfolio) Remember those two other niches you decided to discover? Make some backup samples in those topics. This is so you can pitch to those industries, in case your main industry or niche isnt profitable or youre having a hard time finding work in that niche. Create a writer website that speaks to your ideal client (can do this on a budget at first) Do you have a website that speaks 0f your freelance writing services? I suggest you start a blog for your business and start marketing your freelance writing services right away. This shows prospective clients that your writing isnt a hobby its a profession. Start guest posting I am all for guest posting for free. You know why? Because its the best way to get your portfolio up and you never know, that free guest post can turn into a paid writing gig. This phase as a freelance writer is all about getting your author bio out there to the masses. With guest posts, writing on your blog, sharing your content on social media and syndicating your posts on HuffPo, Medium and LinkedIn Pulse youre trying to build your portfolio and reach a big audience that will hire you for your writing. 3. Learn Your Niche You know after writing in the digital marketing niche for a while, I wanted to try my hand in a new industry. I was learning about how writing in the WordPress space can be profitable. I heard about freelance writers commanding $.15/word or more in this niche. This was appealing to me and I wanted to see if I could also do the same. Now, even though I have a WordPress blog and I manage several other WordPress blogs, I wasnt that involved in the backend of it all. So, the first thing I did was learn about plugins, features, themes and more in the WordPress space. I visited websites that catered to WordPress content, watched YouTube videos about setting up a WordPress blog and played around on my site. I absorbed as much information as I could in this new industry. Instead of landing a guest post in this niche, I was fortunate at that time to pitch some of my current clients WordPress type posts. I also reached out to Tom Ewer of WordCandy to work with him. Over time I was able to grow my portfolio in this brand new niche in which I really had no experience in. 4. Pitch the Right Way There is a process to pitching. One of the problems I see in a new freelance writers pitch is that it comes off as either generic or from a company and not from one person. Every day I get pitches for guest posts or for other things like website design and most of these pitches come off as fake and generic. Its just a template they use. I read the first sentence and chuck in the trash. I have no time to invest in these types of pitches. And you know what? Prospective clients dont either. So, look at your pitch and see if it reads like a cookie cutter pitch. Add some personality and make it memorable. Then, stop looking for freelance writing jobs on Upwork or Guru. Start looking at quality job boards that will give you the most bang for your buck. If youre strapped for cash I recommenced using these free job boards: Problogger BloggingPro Journalism Jobs If you want to cut down your competition, try Contena. Psst use elna10 and get a 10% discount on any option. Or 10% off each payment if you choose the payment route. AND if you pay in full you receive a 20% discount PLUS your coupon will stack on top of that! Whats great about this job board is that you can customize your search and only look at gigs in your niche. For me, this is a big time saver. Finally, track your pitches. Open a Google Sheet and keep track of each pitch your sent. This can help you keep track which ads responded and which ones hired you. Its Possible to Be a Successful Freelance Writer Without Any Corporate Background Im proof that a stay at home mom with a background in learning theory and behaviorism is now writing for OptinMonster, Blogging Wizard and now Huffington Post. You dont need a degree in journalism or even any degree to be a profitable freelance writer. You also dont need any expert knowledge in a particular industry or have a corporate background to get started. You also dont need to rely on your contacts or family members. I never did (heck, most of my family and mommy friends have no clue what Im doing and thats my choice to keep it from them). All you need is the desire to make a living from writing, some decent writing skills and the hunger to learn how to do it right. Over to you are you ready? If youre ready to really earn a living from writing, you can get your step-by-step profitable freelance writing blueprint by joining Write Your Way to Your First $1k. It walks you through the exact action steps you need to take to land clients, tweak your website to increase conversions and get paid to write.

The Culture of Voting essays

The Culture of Voting essays "The Culture of Voting" There are a number of different places where people go to vote. The places change from town to town and so do the numbers of places. Where I live everybody goes to vote at the town hall. The town, where I live is small enough that it only needs one voting location. On Tuesday, November 2, the day of the elections, our town hall was very busy. All day it was filled with people who had come to vote. Outside the town hall on the street corners, were a small group of people holding signs that were telling you who to vote for. Everyone could see them standing there as they came to vote. On the front steps where everybody was walking in and out were a few businessmen in their suits standing and talking to each other. While everybody was waiting in line in the entryway, there was a display for them to look at on how to vote correctly on the ballot. In the main room there were five tables set up alphabetically by last name. The town hall is an old building, but the inside was recently restored. The voting space is in the large auditorium a big room with a balcony, a gleaming, polished wooden floor, and a small stage at one end. The recently painted walls shined in the morning sun pouring through the oversized windows. The only decoration on the walls were wooden and brass plaques listing the names of town residents who fought in each war of the past two hundred years. The room smelled of fresh sunshine and new paint. The room temperature was just right not too hot or too cold. The air was filled with the noisy expectation of who would become the next president. Long folding tables were scattered around the room filled with ballots, books and voter registration materials. Four rows of voting booths were set up in the middle of the hall. There were ten booths in each row. Red, white and blue striped curtains provided the brightest colors in the room and provided ...

GROUP DESIGN PAPER Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

GROUP DESIGN PAPER - Essay Example Although motivational interviewing is commonly associated with substance abuse problems, it has also found varied applicability in clinical problems such as psychosis and other severe mental disorders. Clinical practitioners have reported that â€Å"the principles of motivational interviewing have broad applicability for addressing problematic behaviors (including substance abuse and non-adherence to treatment recommendations) that interfere with clients with dual disorders in achieving their personal goals† (Mueser, Noordsy & Drake, 2003, p. 108). It is in light of the issues presented above that I have chosen individuals who have dual disorders – substance abuse and mental disorders – as the treatment population for designing a motivational interviewing group therapy. Many chronic drug abusers, or commonly referred to as addicts, often simultaneously suffer from serious mental disorders. Substance abuse treatment and medical professionals call this condition co-occurring disorder or having dual diagnosis. While doing internship at 26th in California, a court and jail facility, most of the clients have been mandated to attend treatment for substances abuse. While helping clients with substance abuse problems, the court system has no provisions for assistance of co-occurring mental disorders. According to the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV), most individuals who have substance abuse problems also have mental disorders as well. Neglecting these mental disorders is not only detrimental to the patient but will further feed the cycle of violence and crime. I believe that treatment of both the substance abuse and mental problems is the most effective way of decreasing crime rate which is the ultimate goal of our judicial system. The succeeding sections of the paper will discuss the treatment population and the group therapy design for motivational interviewing. As previously discussed, the target population for

Legal Aspect of Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Legal Aspect of Nursing - Essay Example A clear assessment of the evidence of the case study indicates that this is a clear case of negligence which rightfully warrants for suspension. According to the investigations, the only evidence on the nurse is her failure to tally the records between the computerized cabinet and the handwritten documentation. Considering the nurse’s reputation for the twenty-five years she was working at the hospital, she at least was supposed to be given some consideration. The claims of the nurse diverting narcotics from the cabinet do not hold ground because there is no evidence that directly points to her doing the act. The only available evidence is the records which suggest the possibility of such malpractice but still remain unproven. Chances are high that the testimonies by the other nurses will affect the case in a positive way for the defendant. This will aid in proving to the court that the defendant is not diverting narcotics for selfish gain from the hospital and the errors in t he reports can only be a case of negligence. The testimonies from the other nurses are enough to turn the case around implicating the hospital as the defendant. The court will be able to see that cases of negligence in the healthcare unit are common, which means that there is a high chance of the health care being subject to mismanagement. Following the turn of events in the case, the institution has to address some questions to clarify to the court why certain behaviors take place and the reason for certain decisions.... be able to see that cases of negligence in the health care unit are common, which means that there is a high chance of the health care being subject to mismanagement. Following the turn of events in the case, the institution has to address some questions to clarify to the court why certain behaviors take place and the reason for certain decisions. The institution will have to address the court on why there were more nurses admitting to have commit cases of negligence such as filing the records with wrong information. It will also have to address the qualifications of the nurses in the hospital and why is seems that there is a lack of proper supervision at the hospital to curb the cases of malpractice by the nurses. The institution will need to produce further evidence on the nurse to prove their claims concerning the theft of the narcotics as the nurse seems to have a clean record for her 25 years at the institution. The nurse deserves leniency at best a pardon for her negligence cha rges. This is because of her clean record and reputation for her 25 years at the hospital. It is also because there was enough evidence from the testimonies to prove that it was a normal error following the hefty work of the institution. On the matter of committing a malpractice by diverting narcotics for personal gain the right judgment is to dismiss the case due to lack of enough evidence. The institution needs to at least have evidence of the nurse either abusing the narcotics herself or prove that she is trading them for personal gain. There is violation of various principles that involve protecting patient safety that arise in this case. One key principle is the proper administration of medications to patients; an error in medication endangers the safety of the patient (Austin, 2008).

HRA340 MODULE 5; Training Project, Part 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

HRA340 MODULE 5; Training Project, Part 3 - Essay Example The firm can also use social media to offer training since it will save the firm from travelling expenses if all the employees were to travel at the physical premises so as to receive training. (Bacon, 1999). Sales representatives who may be interested in using motorcycles may use interactive multimedia training so as to learn how to ride motorcycles followed by a proficiency test to see how the employee knows how to ride the motorcycle Technology-based learning enables the trainer to get more of the learner’s involvement compared to any other environment. Besides, the trainees have the advantage of learning at their own pace such as through interactive video, PC and phone-based programs, along with interactive multimedia. These technologies are cost effective to the firm to the firm in the long-run, but costly in the short-run since it quite expensive to install internet infrastructure and purchasing computers. Simulators are described by Noe (2013) as an imitation of real work experiences. The simulators may be used to train the new recruits on how to talk with new customers and convince them to buy in a simulated environment. In addition, the motorcycle-sales representatives could utilise simulators to practise responding to dangerous riding circumstances. However, simulators are very costly for a firm like Binz. Purchasing simulators may cost about $5000. Shifting right into work is regarded as one of the most effective ways of training. The trainees will read manuals to get gain knowledge on various tasks in the sales department. The trainer could also use the internet so that the trainees could post their questions regarding the specific duties that will be answered by the trainer. On-the-job training offers employee the motivation to commence a job. Studies have shown that individuals learn more effectively when they learn hands-on. In this case, the new sales representatives could work with the older employees who would teach them how to carry

Genetic Study of Olive Plants

Genetic Study of Olive Plants Introduction Oleaceae family comprises 24 genus which consists of 600 species and its members can be found all over the world. One of the first cultivated agricultural tree crops within Oleaceae family is the olive Olea europaea L which is usually used for production of table olives and edible oil. Olive is the native plant in coastal regions of Mediterranean and there are more than 86 varieties of Europea species found in Anatolia of Turkey. Turkey is known to be one of the largest producers of olive oil and the first producer of black table olive among all the countries in the world. Majority of the black table olive that produced by Turkey is the cultivar of Gemlik which represents 80% of the production. Therefore, many researches in Turkey are mainly focused on molecular and classical breeding program for Gemlik cultivar due to its economical importance. It is essential to have the genetic studies in olive plants in order to understand the genetic mechanisms and hence to improve the quality and quantity of products. Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) which are obtained from the single-pass complementary DNA (cDNA) sequencing can provide genetic information of an organism. Since EST is generated with gene that expressed at certain stage or tissue of organism, the information on mature transcripts for coding region of genome can be shown by EST. Hence, EST databases are useful for functional studies, gene and marker discovery, and gene mapping. Currently, EST libraries for more than 40 plant species are established for providing information that is important for functional genomics studies in which the putative functions of genes can be deduced by searching for homologies with known genes. Before this study, there were just around one thousand EST sequences which were available in GenBank database on February 2009. The EST studies for olives are obviously insufficient and lacking of sequence information may limit the genetic studies in olive plants. In this paper, two separate cDNA libraries which were constructed from young leaves and olive fruits for olive cultivar Gemlik were used to establish a rich EST collection. Clones which were obtained from the cDNA libraries were sequenced to generate ESTs. These sequences were assembled and clustered by using specific software and they were then deposited in GenBank database. Annotation of the generated EST sequences was performed using BLAST and BLAST2GO. Method of preparing Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) database The research material used in this study was the olive (O. europea) cultivar Gemlik (G 20/1). The methodology that involved in preparing EST database for Olea europaea was described by Ozgenturk et al. (2010). Before constructing cDNA library, total RNA was isolated from young leaves and unripe olive fruits by using the RNA extraction kit. In this paper, RNeasy Plant Miniprep kit was used for total RNA extraction. Total RNA was treated with the Oligotex mRNA Mini Kit to obtain purified mRNA. The isolated mRNAs were collected and utilized for constructing two separate cDNA libraries. Since RNA molecules are very unstable and difficult to amplify, it is important to convert mRNAs into cDNAs which are more stable in order to analyse the information carried by mRNA molecules (Mullinax Sorge, 2003; Tovey, 2011). The cDNA libraries can be constructed with the isolated mRNAs by using a cDNA library construction kit and the CloneMiner cDNA Library Construction Kit was used in this paper. Briefly, a double-stranded cDNA (ds cDNA) was first synthesised from mRNA by using primers provided in the kit. For the first strand synthesis, biotin-attB2-Oligo(dT) primer bound to the poly(A) tail of mRNA and the mRNA was used as the template for reverse transcription by SuperScriptTM ΙΙ Reverse Transcriptase. The newly synthesised single-stranded cDNA (ss cDNA) served as the template for second strand synthesis by Escherichia coli DNA Polymerase ÃŽâ„¢. attB1 sequence was then incorporated to the 5’ end of ds cDNA by attB1 Adapter. The synthesized ds cDNA was ligated into pDONR222 vector and transformed into competent E. coli strain DH5. The two cDNA libraries were plated onto LB-kanamycin agar plates. Individual colonies formed on the plates were picked into 384-well plates which containing SOB medium and incubated overnight. The cDNA libraries were then stored at -80 °C after adding with glycerol (10% v/v). Complementary DNA (cDNA) clones were randomly selected for isolating plasmid DNA with alkaline lysis method. The isolated DNA was digested and insert size was identified by performing 1% agarose gel electrophoresis. In this paper, 3840 clones were randomly selected and amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using M13 universal primers. The ABI 3730 capillary sequencer was used for automated sequencing of cDNA in order to generate ESTs. Results Two separate cDNA libraries were established with mRNA extracted from young leaves and fruits respectively. The average insert sizes for the leaf and fruit cDNA libraries were respectively 1.6 kb and 1.1 kb. The leaf cDNA library consisted of 2.4 Ãâ€" 106 clones and 2304 clones were selected for sequencing. Among 2.2 Ãâ€" 105 clones within olive fruit cDNA library, 1536 clones were sequenced. Therefore, altogether 3840 EST sequences were generated from cloned cDNA sequencing. In order to obtain high quality EST sequences, raw EST sequences were processed by using Phred software in which low-quality bases, vector, and adapter were removed. After processing, 106 low quality EST sequences were removed and the remaining 3734 ESTs were kept for contig assembly. Contig Assembly Program 3 (CAP3) was used to assemble leaf and fruit EST sequences into contigs. 205 contigs were generated from the assembling of 2228 leaf ESTs and 69 contigs were generated from 1506 fruit EST sequences assembly. The total numbers of contig and singleton that were established from these two libraries were 274 and 2478 respectively. Altogether 3734 ESTs and 249 high quality contigs were deposited in GenBank under the accession number GO242703 to GO246436 and EZ421546 to EZ421794 respectively. In order to designate annotation of the generated EST sequences, BLAST was performed on the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) web server for searching gene homology. Six hundred thirty five EST’s unique gene sequences were found to have more than 80% homology with sequences of known function in the other species. Two thousand twenty four EST sequences have less than 80% homology to the expressed proteins, hypothetical proteins, putative uncharacterized proteins and unknown proteins in database. There are 1339 EST sequences that shown no homology with the sequences that exist in GenBank and about 96.9% of EST sequences that established in this study are different from that in the existing olive sequences database in NCBI. Therefore, these EST sequences can be considered as novel genes in O. europea. Besides BLAST analysis, gene ontology (GO) annotation was performed for the contig sequences generated from the ESTs by using Blast2GO. GO terms were distributed among the biological process, molecular function and cellular component categories.

Human Genetic Screening Essay -- Science Genes DNA Essays

Human Genetic Screening Human genetic screening is a process that is very complex and very powerful. Genetic screening may detect some inherited traits that may later on cause a person to have a disease that may alter his/her life. Human life, as with any other organism, is b uilt with cells. A human cell consists of forty-six chromosomes, which are paired into twenty-three different pairs. Each one of these chromosomes carries thousands of genes. Each gene consists of information that codes for a particular trait. This information is determined by the DNA found in that gene. A gene for one trait may have various alleles that will make one person appear a little different than that of a person with a different allele. An example would be of a person with brown hair. They would have a dominant allele for hair color, where as a person with blond hair would have two recessive alleles for hair color. It is possible to have a large number of different alleles for each trait, which is why people look so different from on e another (Reilly, Genetics, Law and Social Policy. p. 7). ÒAlthough each person does have some variation in DNA, all members of the human species carry more or less the same set of DNAÓ (Griffiths, An Introduction to Genetic Analysis. p. 4). Because there is such a huge number of genes it is a very complicat ed process to isolate and identify the information in the DNA fragments. In these fragments it is possible for researchers to: Ò isolate and characterize at the molecular level single genes that are responsible for inherited genetic diseases. Genetic ill health can be divided into three major types. The first type is inherited genetic diseases caused by abnormal forms of genes that are passed on from on... .... Complexity Limits the powers of prediction. Feb. 1, 1996: p. 390. Griffiths, Anthony, Jeffrey miller, David Suzuki, Richard Lewontin, William Gelbart, An Introduction to Genetic Analysis, Sixth Edition. W.H. Freeman and Company, 1996: p. 4,5-6. Koenig, Barbara, The New York Times. Gene Tests: What You Know Can Hurt You. April 6,1996: p. 15 Lehrman, Sally, Nature. Genetic testing needs more checks. Nov. 9, 1995: p. 121. Masood, Ehsan, Nature. Gene tests: who benefits from risk? . Feb. 1, 1996: P. 389. Reilly, Phillip, Genetics, Law, and Social Policy. President and fellows of Harvard College. 1977: p. 7. The World Book Encyclopedia, 1993 Edition, 1993 World Book Inc. 1993: p. 85. Web Site #1 Written by: The Exploratorium , 3601 Lyon St., San Francisco, CA 94123 Web Site #2 Written by: The Exploratorium, 3601 Lyon St., San Francisco, CA 94123