Benefits Of Blogging For Freelance Writers
Aug 23, 2009 Blogging, Writing Resources
The idea of this post comes from Michy’s recent blog post on why writers should blog. I agree with Michy’s list of benefits, although I wanted to elaborate on some and add my advice on how a freelance writer can benefit from blogging.
Blogging does require less structure and it can help you warm up for writing an extensive article that requires some research.
Having a blog can also help you rant, complain or post a snippet of daily thoughts. I have said many times that blogging (and writing) is cheaper than therapy.
With blogging, a freelance writer does not have word-count or keyword requirements. It is your property and your writing outlet. Write whatever you are thinking about, at any given time.
You can write opinion pieces, since there are no requirements. Do you follow the news a lot or feel strongly about a particular topic? Blog about it. Open up your WordPress and click on a New Post. Then write whatever it is that you feel about politics, a political figure or anything else that may have come across your screen.
I especially enjoy networking and feedback that I get from readers. I will get questions e-mailed to me about a particular website that I am writing for. I have even received e-mails about articles I have written that someone wanted a further explanation on, or some of my research links. It gives your followers a way to know you better, as a person and not just another freelance writer who publishes articles for a million websites.
As I mentioned, blogging does not require keywords, but you can get keywords and keyphrases for writing articles! I use a WordPress plugin called StatPress, which is free to install and use. The StatPress plugin allows me to see my referrers, or websites that have linked to me, but also to see keywords someone entered in order for my website to pop-up on Google.
I get a lot of hits for Associated Content and Demand Studios, anything from how to apply to what these websites are about. I could easily turn these keyphrases and keywords into articles, and monetize them. Which means that my own blog is giving me free ideas that I can turn into web articles, page views and profits.
Also, your blog can help promote articles that you have published and that pay you a residual income. Websites such as Associated Content pay residuals for every page view, and you have multiple ways of linking articles on the blog. I for example use RSS Feeds to automatically update my published article list. Driving traffic to these articles from my blog means higher page views, which means a bigger monthly payment that will be coming my way.
In addition to earning a better income as a freelance writer, you can monetize blogs with Google Adsense, AdBrite, or by paid blogging. The amount of money you can make from your blog by monetizing varies, although a few dollars a month would be enough to pay for your web hosting fees. Know what that means? You can have a blog for free 
I think the two main concerns of freelance writers is not knowing how to build a blog site and being afraid that web hosting fees will cost them a lot. I use WordPress, which is completely free to install. I can even install it through my web host just by clicking on a single button. There are hundreds of free WordPress templates you can use too, and a web hosting plan is not that expensive either.
You would need two things: a web hosting plan and registered domain name. I do not particularly like GoDaddy.com, but they do have good deals on domain name registrations for as low as $6 a year. I would strongly advise not purchasing web hosting from GoDaddy, there are better companies out there. While my web hosting plan does not cost me anything, I can tell you that reputable companies sell plans for as low as $5.99 a month. And as I mentioned, you can monetize your blog and pay that $5.99 hosting fee, which means you have a free blog to play with.
I am sure that there are many more benefits of blogging that freelance writers can take advantage of. If I think of more, I’ll be sure to post them. My brain works in very random waves, but I promise you that I know what I am talking about when it comes to blogging. I’ve helped build thousands of websites over the last 11 years, and I have experienced first hand how article promotion through a blog can improve freelance writing income.
If you are a freelance writer and reading this, feel free to ask me any questions about blogs or how to start one. I would be more than happy to help a fellow writer out. That would be free too! Now, please start blogging!
Tags: advantage, benefits, Blogging, Fellow Writers, freelance
