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

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

Why would online article writers need a website if many article submission sites allow a professional profile? This is a question I get asked often when I mention the idea. Here are some of the many reasons I feel all freelance web writers need a website of their own.

Writer's Resume
When applying for online writing jobs and gigs, reference links and/or a resume are often required. This will be much simpler for those with a website. Some may create an area where a client can download their resume by requesting the link. Others may post links to samples. Yet others may do both or handle it another way. Online article writers need a website in order to reference their work all in one place.

Professionalism
Professionalism is key, even though you don't see your clients face-to-face when writing online. A freelance writer's website is like a virtual resume, meeting place, and office at the same time. This is where you can let your clientele know you are professional by including all of the right things. A bio, samples, and a contact page are just a few. Read "8 Musts on a Freelance Writer's Website" for more details on those and other must-include items for professionalism.

Info Source
Even if a client finds your work elsewhere, they may want to know more than they can find in a limited bio attached to your profile on a content site. This is where your website comes in handy. Many content sites allow article writers to place a link to their website in their profile or bio. Also, be sure to link to it from any blogs or other profiles you have. Giving clients (both potential and current) a place to find more information about you as a person and as a writer is very beneficial to them as well as to your writing career.

Announcements
If you have any big writing projects, off days, exciting news, etc it can be posted to your website. Of course you don't want to announce information that is too personal, but a web writer's website can serve as a great way to spread the word. Doing this has many benefits. Some include letting clients see that you are accomplishing things, engaging with your audience, and also depending on the announcement it might bring in more readers or clientele.

File Storage
Depending on how much bandwidth your site allows, this can be a great place to store certain files. Of course you still need a hard copy backup, but storing them in a secure, hidden location on your website can help you keep everything related to your online article writing all in one spot. This also can free up space on your computer if you'd rather not have the files there. Just be sure, as mentioned above to keep a hard copy if you go this route.

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.

by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer

What do you want out of your writing? Are you writing for the money? The audience? Do you write to help others? Is it simply because you like it? Whatever you write, always know what it is you want to get from it.

Knowing what you want will help you get to your goal faster. It will also help you make important decisions along the way. Never write a word without knowing its intended purpose as well as where you want to be with writing, in general.

What you want should be apparent in your actions, as well as your words.

Do you know what you want?

by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer

Tired of writing about the same topic all the time? Your readers may be tired of looking at it as well. While it's great to specialize in something, you should also throw in other topics now and then too.

You can specialize in more than one topic without losing credibility with your readers. In fact, you may find they are glad to see random topics mixed in with what they are used to seeing you write.

If you want to succeed in freelance writing, variance can be a very good thing. Clients love writers who specialize. But they also like to see some versatility. This way, if they have a topic that shies away from your usual routine, they know they can at least consider you for the project. However, if you only write on one topic, how will they know if you are able to handle anything else.

Are you showing enough variance in your work?

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 Ann Olson, Y! health contributor

Networking just isn’t essential for improving your writing–it can get you actual writing gigs. Like in the “real” world, most online writing jobs aren’t advertised,  and sometimes networking is the only way to get it.

Establishing relationships with other writers can help you find writing gigs advertised “behind-the-scenes”, eliminating the work of finding a job on your own.

It also helps you establish real connections with writers, allowing you to converse with like-minded people, share your thoughts and frustrations, and receive advice  about issues related to writing or working independently.

Potential Networking Ideas for Writers

If you want to actively network with other writers, your best strategy is to keep it online. Sure, you won’t have human-to-human contact, but you can reach thousands  of potential writers by sticking with online-only contact. When it comes to freelancing, faster is usually better.

Network online by using these websites:

Writing websites: Some websites, such as Associated Content or Constant Content, have forums where you can converse with other writers. Network with like-minded  writers here. Join a conversation, add real value to your replies, and engage others by asking questions. But be tactful when expressing your opinions–being too blunt  or making accusatory statements can give writers the wrong impression about you.

Twitter: It’s harder to engage in personal conversations with other writers on Twitter, but it can be done. Browse your writing friends’ follower lists for writers and  add them if they interest you. If this doesn’t yield favorable results, type in a keyword (such as writing or blogging) into the search bar to find recent tweets from  other writers. Remember, add the ones that only interest you.

To establish a connection immediately, use the retweet button on tweets that could be valuable to your followers–chances are, the original writer of that tweet will  thank you and take more interest in your future tweets. Alternatively, you can reply to them by typing @theirusername and adding your response.

Facebook: The key here is to find the areas where writers congregate, such as user-created groups or fan pages. Fan pages for popular writing or blogging websites,  groups for writing niches, or writing job board groups are almost always flooded with active writers. Add them. If they post an interesting status update or link,  don’t press the like button–comment and share how you feel about it.

Remember, add real conversation to establish real connections with other writers. Commenting for the sake of commenting will earn you a bad reputation fast, so make  your responses genuine–and remember, keep any promotion (websites, articles, products) to a minimum.

* This article was originally published on writingjobresource.com and is used with permission.

Ann Olson is a freelance health writer, featured Y! health contributor and healthy eating advocate.  Some of her work can be found on LIVESTRONG, Blend.com and Yahoo! Sports.

by Lyn Lomasi, Staff Writer

The most important thing a freelance writer can do is stay active. Frequent activity keeps readers interested, as well as shows clients that you are serious about what you do.

If you publish rarely, how is anyone supposed to consider you an expert? Even if your motive is not to gain extra clients, there is still the factor of being loyal to your readers.

Why would they want to visit your site or read your articles if you have little to no activity? There is not a set amount that will work for every freelancer because we all have different needs and goals. But try to remain as active as possible for the best results in your career.

More from Lyn:

Private Clients, Contributor Communities, or Yourself? What's Best for Online Article Writers?

Freelance Writing Tips: Your Client is Not Obligated to Please You

Angie Mohr, Expert Writer and Accountant Offers Great Advice to Non-Fiction Freelancers