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

You spend hours on a submission perfecting every little detail when along comes an editor to mess with your masterpiece. If you're going to make it as a writer, you will have to deal with editors. A necessary part of the publishing process involves dealing with editors.

Learn to compromise. Editors can and often do change things. That's what they're there for. They catch the little mistakes we make (and we all make mistakes). They also may make changes that are better for structure, your audience, the web, and more. Though you may not always agree with their changes, you will have to deal with many of them. Depending on the publication, you may be able to form a compromise with the editor.

Let it go. That may be easier said than done in many cases. As writers, we see our writings as our little babies, if you will. We work hard on it and it means so much to us. Altering it can feel like someone is trying to change us. After all, it does have our names on it. But at some point, we have to learn to let it go. If the work never bypasses an editor, it may never get out in front of the audience. Try not to get too attached and let the work go once its complete.

What's the change? Instead of becoming to attached to the way the piece is written, focus on the message. If the edits do not take away the message, don't be so hard on the editor. It's perfectly fine to address the editor if you feel that the changes are unsatisfactory or take away from the message. But if the change is nothing that takes away the message, why waste all that energy getting upset? Write another article.

Report the editor. This is only for extreme cases. I say that because as a writer, you will need to learn to deal with the fact that your writing will be changed by editors if you want it published with major companies. If the editor really is making changes that are unreasonable (and not just changes you don't like - changes that affect the quality of the work significantly), that's when you report the editor. I advise not taking this route unless necessary because a writer and editor need to be able to work together peacefully. But obviously, if there is an injustice it should be reported.

Switch venues. If you just cannot deal with a particular editor, write somewhere else. Ultimately, you should be happy with your writing (or any) career. If that's not happening, you haven't found the right venue/s to write for yet. Realize you should not be switching venues every time you don't like what an editor does. But if there is a true problem, remember that you can move on.

Write for yourself. If you truly cannot deal with anyone at all messing with your own work, only wrote for yourself. When someone is paying you to produce work, it should be what they want, hence the editors. If you create your own venue, such as your own website or blog, you make the rules. Even if you go this route it can still be a wise move to have an editor or at least a writing buddy that is willing to be a second pair of eyes. But you'll have the most freedom when writing for yourself.

Bottom line: Editors are a part of the writing and publishing business and writers need to be able to adapt to that fact. Work with (not against) your editor, unless you have a legitimate claim against them.

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

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

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Are you a writer looking for a wider audience? Have you tried facebook? I'm not talking about accepting friend requests from multitudes of people - unless that's your thing. Try creating a facebook fan page.  This is a public place where followers can go to get your updates without you having to give out too much information. From personal experience, I believe all writers should have a facebook fan page.

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Laying blame on the editor is a mistake many online article writers make. Regrettably, there are some editors who analyze work unfairly. Still, for the most part, editors are there to alert you to issues with your writing assignments. Even in the case of harsh judgment, if you want to write for a website, you have to learn to please your editor. Writing articles online is no different than any other job. If you don't make the boss happy, you're fired.

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You've gotten started in freelancing or maybe you've been doing it a while. It's time to network with others in your field. So, how do you know which social networking site is the best one? There are many  out there and they aren't all the same.

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