by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer

Just like a carpet cleaner shouldn't leave behind too many spots, a good writer should have clean copy as well. Think of typos, grammar mistakes, and spelling errors as the spots on your virtual carpet. No one is perfect. But if you are going to write for a living, you need to make sure that your copy is as clean as possible.

Do you think someone is going to hire a carpet cleaner that leaves behind some spots or one that's known for getting out most or all stains? Web writing is the same. You are the expert and your finished product should demonstrate that.

More on this topic:

Clear Writing Makes for Easier Reading

Professional Article Writers: The Importance of Self Editing

About the Author:

Lyn is a freelance web journalist and the Community Advocate at Yahoo! Contributor Network She's also the founder of Write W.A.V.E. Media, parent company to LifeSuccessfully.com and several others. She enjoys helping freelance writers succeed and supports advocacy through journalism. Lyn has been published all over the web with major media companies, as well as smaller businesses and organizations. Contact Lyn for guidance in the world of freelance writing.

Facebook: Lyn Lomasi
Twitter: @LynLomasi

by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer

Oh no! You're in the middle of an article and the site you're typing on crashes. Your hard work is now lost. Another site you had work published on is now nonexistent. But you didn't save a copy of your work on your computer. Back up your work to save yourself from scenarios like this.

Think these things rarely happen? Think again. This is one of the most common issues that new writers come to me with. Always write your work offline and always save it offline, preferably in more than one place. Even if you don't plan on publishing your work in other places you still need to have a backup copy for many reasons.

More web writing tips:

Web Writing Tips: Getting Started

10 Things Every Web Writer Should Know

Running a Freelance Content Business

About the Author:

Lyn is a freelance web journalist and the Community Advocate at Yahoo! Contributor Network She's also the founder of Write W.A.V.E. Media, parent company to LifeSuccessfully.com and several others. She enjoys helping freelance writers succeed and supports advocacy through journalism. Lyn has been published all over the web with major media companies, as well as smaller businesses and organizations. Contact Lyn for guidance in the world of freelance writing.

Facebook: Lyn Lomasi
Twitter: @LynLomasi

by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer

Sometimes when proofing your own content, you might notice something is missing. Just by reading it back, you might not be able to grasp what that something is. Try acting out what you are trying to say for new perspective.

Drawing inspiration from real life is often a big part of writing. Acting out your message can pull that in even more than just using your thoughts and typing.

Is this different? Yes. And that's exactly what makes it work.

About the Author:

Lyn is a freelance web journalist and the Community Advocate at Yahoo! Contributor Network She's also the founder of Write W.A.V.E. Media, parent company to LifeSuccessfully.com and several others. She enjoys helping freelance writers succeed and supports advocacy through journalism. Lyn has been published all over the web with major media companies, as well as smaller businesses and organizations. Contact Lyn for guidance in the world of freelance writing.

Facebook: Lyn Lomasi
Twitter: @LynLomasi

by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer

Part of branding yourself to help develop an audience lies in consistency. If your style is all over the place, it will be harder to create your brand.

Be consistent in the following:

*Topics - You can have more than one niche. But if there are no clear areas of expertise, it will be harder to develop a consistent audience.

*Style - Your writing style should match in all of your work. Frequent readers should be able to tell that a piece is written by you by the style.

*Voice - Be yourself in all of your work. Let your light shine so that readers know the real you. The real you should be consistent in all of your work and should match your true personality.

*Advice - If you advise readers to do one thing one day and another the next, this causes confusion. Be consistent in methods and beliefs.

by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer

Need a simple way to speed up your writing that you can use each and every time? I did too. That's why I invented my own outline or template, modeled after the style I use most frequently. If you write for several venues, you may need a different basic outline for each.

Design your outline. Think about what you will need within all or most of your submissions and design an inclusive outline. Because I most often write informative how-to-type articles for Yahoo! Contributor Network and my own venues, I only needed to design one outline. I use it every time, unless I have a special assignment that requires a different style. For YCN, my outline needed a title, byline, introduction, 5 steps, and a section at the end linking to three related pieces. Because I only write for myself when I'm not writing for YCN, I can use that same format for everything, unless I am doing a quick tip or that outline style won't work for the piece.

Each time you have an article idea, fill in what you can before writing. This has been even more of a life saver than my outline itself. I fill in the title and each point before I start writing. I generally will go through and do this with all my planned articles for each day before beginning to write. Sometimes an article will start flowing while I'm in the middle of this process because once the main points are filled in, it's very simple to complete the process. So I'll stop and finish that article. Once you try it, I can almost guarantee that you will never write an article the 'regular' way again.

Below is a sample outline, followed by that same sample filled in with info to begin an article.

Sample outline:

Title
by Lyn Lomasi

intro

Tip sentence. text

Tip sentence. text

Tip sentence. text

Tip sentence. text

Tip sentence. text

More from Lyn:

link

link

link

(As you can see in the above outline, each area that needs bold or italic text is pre-formatted that way to keep it easy.)

Sample outline 2:

Guide to writing for the web
by Lyn Lomasi

intro

Gear your text toward people and search. text

Gain an audience with niche specialties. text

Keep your audience by being truthful. text

Use personal experience to gain trust. text

Publish often and be consistent. text

More from Lyn:

link

link

link

(As you can see in this second outline sample, it will be very easy for me to write and fill in the rest of the details because I have my main points. They just need to be explained.)

Lyn is the founder of Write W.A.V.E. Media, parent company to LifeSuccessfully.com and several others. She enjoys publishing freelance writers and supports advocacy through journalism. She's also a freelance web journalist, Community Guide at Yahoo! Contributor Network, and a Y! Shine Parenting Guru. The homeschool ‘Momtrepreneur’ teaches with nature, books, and play. Pet and human homelessness, green living, positive parenting, and education choice (including homeschool) are her passions. She has been published all over the web with major media companies, as well as smaller businesses and organizations. Contact Lyn for guidance in the world of freelance writing.

Lyn on Twitter: @LynLomasi

by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer

Ever come across a news or information article only to discover that the facts are all wrong? Don't let that be your article. If you represent something as a fact, be certain you have confirmed the information with more than one source.

Do your research and do it well. Check, double check, and then check again.

Letting misinformation slide even once can damage your web writing reputation. More importantly, misinformation can be potentially dangerous to your readers.

Before you submit that article you just wrote, be sure you have done your research.