Writing Successful Blog Posts & Articles; Beginners Tips

Many freelance writers and bloggers start off worrying what to write about and how to write it well.  They may write an article or blog post and hesitate about pressing the "send" or "publish" button and making it final for others to read.  That feeling is completely normal, worrying that your writing isn't up to par for being published. You may wonder if others will be receptive to what you have written.  Especially to a new writer who wants to impress an audience, this feeling can be so overwhelming and can cloud the real vision of their writing.

Honestly, without strong content, a blog or article is nothing.  Content is what engages people, what keeps them coming back and what keeps them on a blog or website for a good amount of time.  (In more technical words, it reduces your bounce rate.)  To write well, follow these simple steps.

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A post for National Sibling Day: Adoption and Finding who you really are.

I don't really remember the exact age I found out I was adopted, I just always knew and grew up learning all about adoption and knowing that I had two families who loved me very much.  Since I was born in 1985, my records were sealed and it was a completely closed & private adoption.  The only information I had was the small amount of non identifying information that Catholic Charities had given my parents at the time of my placement.  

All my life I was brought up as an only child and wondering if I had any siblings that I could have grown up with or known.  Even though I was extremely happy with my family and even though I was so thankful that my birth mother decided to give me a better life, I always wondered what could have been if she had chosen a different path and kept me.  I think that's a completely normal thought and feeling for all adoptees who don't know where they came from.  It's just a piece of the puzzle that most people want to know.

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From Blogger to Business. Writing a PR Pitch to Companies.

The most frequent question on bloggers' minds is, "How other bloggers get products to review & giveaway?"

While it might seem exciting to get something for free to review, it's also a lot of hard work to write the review and please the company.  It's not getting something for nothing, like many think.  It's getting a product to review to give the company publicity and writing an efficient review to go along with it.  Basically, the free product is getting paid for the review & real estate on your blog.

Let the company know why you are unique and what you can specifically do for them.  When pitching a company it's imperative to include this information so you can hook the company into reading the rest of your pitch.  Explain to them why you are unique and why they should choose you and your blog for their PR needs.

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Misconceptions & Myths about Work At Home Moms

Work At Home Moms or WAHMs make up a large portion of mothers in this day and age.  While there are many different reasons a woman would choose to be a WAHM, being home with her children and/or saving on childcare is one of the main reasons.  Childhood goes by so quickly and many women want to be able to enjoy every single minute and milestone of their child's life.  However, there are some large misconceptions and myths about Work At Home Moms, as there may be for other career paths/choices.

1. Work At Home Moms just sell for a living.

While there may be many WAHMs that do sell various products or services for a living (Avon, Mary Kay, Insurance, etc...) there are many women who do not.  The majority of Work at Home Moms have their own businesses and are working on developing their brand and business.  Women are brave & brilliant and most have the motivation, determination and drive to jump in with both feet to kick start their business and build it to success.

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Product Review vs Promotion

Let's start with  the question so many people have, "Why are companies willing to send bloggers free products to review?"  Simple!  Sending bloggers an item for review is a very dirt cheap way of getting items promoted.  Companies hope that people who read the blogs the item is posted on will visit their site and buy the featured product, or even other products.  Occasionally, to certain companies, it doesn't matter the blog has 100, 200 or 20,000 readers; any exposure is good exposure and any hits the site might get was worth the small amount of money the company lost while sending that free product.  In reality, if a company was to contact a larger media outlet for promotion, they would have to shell out a free product and a good amount of money to be mentioned at all.  Companies find advertising with bloggers to be a steal.

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Starting a New Job vs. New Girl in Class

Starting a new office job is like walking in as the "new girl" in the middle of the school year.  You want to look your best and dress to impress everyone, but you also are very nervous and don't know if you'll be able to make friends.  Maybe adults don't have "cliques", is what I was trying to remind myself, but I wouldn't know until I actually got there and found out.

Thankfully, as I walked into the old warehouse converted to office building and into my "department", everyone seemed very kind and nice.  My boss introduced me to everyone and explained to me that I was in charge of contacting for the Boston and Houston divisions of our company, yay me.  She then asked me to sit in on my other co-workers calls, just to see what I would have to be doing, no problem!  It actually seems pretty easy, important and yet still a little fun.  My job is a lot of hard work, which actually will make the day go quickly once I finally start doing all of my actual duties next week.

Since I've never had an actual office job before, only retail, getting my desk was very exciting.  It's a fairly decent sized cubicle, but I've never had a place of my own before.  I was really excited to get it decorated a bit to make it more "mine".  Of course, I couldn't go all out and use an incredible amount of pink, but I could still find a way to make my mark on my cubicle. Simplistic, girly and yet me!  That would be my challenge!

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