Thank you one and all for visiting this blog, some of you who are fans with a handful I can truly call a friend.

I decided to close down this blog as I have said all that I can say regarding freelancing and article writing, choosing to concentrate on specific niche blogging instead. This blog will remain in place for the long haul, receiving the customary Word Press and plug-in updates, but all comments have been turned off.

I don’t expect to post fresh material here again, but I may update some of the earlier posts from time to time. If you are listed on my blogroll or have received some other benefit by posting a comment here, rest assured that everything will remain in place as is.

My writing career continues to grow and evolve — I am now a contributing writer/columnist for three print publications and am negotiating with a fourth company to provide content for their corporate newsletter. In addition, I am the lead blogger for three blogs and will continue to maintain my niche network of sites. Please visit my Blog Roll to find out where else I am blogging and stop by to say “hello” and/or to leave a comment.

Again, thank you for being with me during these past 29 months and I know our paths will cross again in cyberspace, perhaps even in person.

“I’ve decided to shelve my site for awhile because the new job is taking up all of my time. I’m even considering deleting most of my pages and I may not renew my domain.”

When I learned that a friend was planning to shutter his website, I wasn’t too surprised. He launched his first site in 2004 and soon after we exchanged links, shared tips, and I even sold one of my domains to him. Later, when his “real job” took off, he sold everything that he had except for his original, flagship site.

“Good for him,” I thought when I read his note, but then it quickly occurred to me that this move would actually be bad for him. The “bad” wasn’t the new job which was paying him quite well and providing what his family needed, rather removing the last vestige of his online presence was a move that I didn’t agree with. I quickly wrote back and encouraged him to rethink his strategy.

To make a case for keeping his site, I shared the following bit of advice with him. These tips are something I routinely mull over whenever I consider selling a site or closing down a slow performer:

How old are you? Your domain name, that is. My friend Brian’s site was established in Spring 2004, making it four years old. In that time, he has accumulated a lot of backlinks including some from a handful of .gov and .edu sites. Though his site currently has less than 60 pages to it, many of these pages have been around for three or more years and nearly all have received PageRank. Clearly, the search engines recognize that there is some value to his site as the inner pages are ranked and have inbound links.

How deep is your love? Relating to the backlink issue, Brian’s site is linked out to several authority sites and a few of those link back to his site. His links appear naturally and they are the types of links readers would find valuable, complementing his pages and making for good “further reading” material.

Should you sell instead? In almost all cases I would instruct the person who no longer wants to manage a site to simply sell it. Although Brian’s site was never much of an income producer, all of the material on his site is original and written by him. Many buyers will look at monthly income and simply offer 6-18 times the average monthly ad income amount for a site, but the age of the domain, number of pages, and the quality of the backlinks demonstrates that this is a poor way to calculate its worth. Definitely, his site has an intrinsic value that the average buyer would not recognize. I suggested that he consider offering it to one of his business partners if he absolutely had to dispose of it.

After considering my points, there were a couple of other things which Brian hadn’t thought of which eventually convinced him that shuttering or selling his site wasn’t in his best interest:

Careers change, a site is a valuable marketing tool. Like so many people these days, I rarely send out a resume. Why? Because, this site is the best example of what I can do for a customer. Brian realized that although he loved his job, having an online presence would allow him to maintain his visibility, a good idea whether his career takes an unexpected turn or not. With companies merging, downsizing, going out of business, or otherwise changing, his passion for his work could eventually cool. An attractive and informative website can be the best personal marketing and networking tool for anyone.

Good hosting is cheap these days. The cost for keeping his site running is negligible as he uses shared hosting. Domain registration and annual hosting fees cost him about $60 annually, not much money to make this an issue. To manage his site in his spare time, he’ll be deleting several outdated pages and redirecting the search engines to other pages on his site. I encouraged him to set aside a few hours monthly to regularly tweak his remaining pages which should keep his site fresh going forward.

Just about every site has value based on its age, content, links, authority, income, and more. The hidden value is often what we don’t immediately recognize, the personal marketing angle that would take months, perhaps years to replace if a treasured site is sold or shut down.

I try to answer most of my emails quickly and directly, but that isn’t always the case. There are times when I’m under a deadline or an emergency pops up and I’m just not able to tackle an inquiry immediately.

Sometimes, I’ll simply tweak the person’s question and post it to this blog as part of my mailbag series, leaving off the person’s name as most people would prefer anonymity. Then, I send a note thanking the person for their inquiry and supply the link to where they can find their answer.

The most frequently asked question lately seems to center on starting a freelance business, particularly as a writer. Many of our fellow bloggers hold down full time jobs and are exploring whether pursuing freelance work is right for them. Granted, I cannot give anyone a specific yes/no answer; instead, I try to impart my knowledge and leave the exploring up to them.

It seems that I am not alone when it comes to freelance inquiries as I have found a spate of posts from other freelancers who are also fielding similar inquiries. For a sampler, why not visit the following blogs to see what these freelancers have to say:

All Freelance Writing — Jennifer Mattern suggests that writers should choose a specialty when seeking a freelance career. The reasons? You’ll be much more knowledgeable about a subject and be able to command more money.

The Writer’s Manifesto — Monika Mundell shares her thoughts about freelance writing rates, discussing the disparity between article mill jobs and offline assignments. Yes, there are jobs out there that pay more per word than what some people pay for an entire article.

A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye — Lillie Ammann is at it again, offering a new article series, this one discussing how to become a freelance writer. Lillie always thoroughly covers a subject so check out her blog to follow this series as it unfolds.

I always encourage people to follow their passions when it comes to choosing any career and that is the same bit of advice I offer to prospective freelancers when pursuing a writing career. If you know that this is something you must do, then follow it with all of your heart. If not, then don’t.

Freelancing can be difficult, especially for the person whose sole bit of income is garnered from their clients. Up and down times will come and not everyone has the intestinal fortitude to stick with it.

My freelance career started in November 2002, but it wasn’t until Spring 2005 that I made the decision to stick with writing and jettison the web design part of my business. The transition was tough, but I’m now getting good paying jobs and have the luxury to cherry pick assignments.

There was a time when I said I wouldn’t work for someone full time again, but I’m not sure that’ll always be the case. Yet, where I am at this point in my career is fine with me with still loftier goals within site.

Related Story: Should you follow your passion?

A. I haven’t joined a writers guild or association, but I’m not opposed to them. Therefore, I cannot share my personal experience with them and exactly what sort of benefit they could have for you.

I am familiar with the IABC — an association of business communicators whose members somewhat parallel the services that I provide. The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is a worldwide organization, that seeks to provide a professional network for business communicators. The IABC throws a very wide membership net to include graphic artists, HR folks, and video producers along with all types of people who provide corporate writing.

I can see how a writers group can be beneficial especially if connecting at conferences, taking workshops and attending classes appeals to you. In some cases a writers association offers other tangible benefits, namely group health insurance coverage and other perks. You might also find that members share job or project opportunities not posted elsewhere, therefore by having your face and name “on the roster” could help you cross paths with people who can help you out.

At the very least, make sure that you have both a LinkedIn and Facebook account. I’m much more active with LinkedIn, but lots of business people are on Facebook, making it the preferred business networking site online.

After just over one month of doing the “Entrecard thing” I have decided to pull the plug.

All right, let me rephrase my statement: After using Entrecard for the past five weeks on five different blogs, I removed the Big E’s widget from the sidebar of this blog and on my automotive blog. I’m still running Entrecard on three blogs, but I’m only accepting new ads on one of them.

My reasons for cutting back on Entrecard are many and include the following:

Entrecard takes up a lot of time. Yes, there were a few days where I hit the 300 limit for one site (600 total drops for all sites) and I realized two hours had gone by. Time carefully expended in exchange for a small amount of fleeting traffic — not good!

Quite a few sites were dead or rarely updated. I don’t mind visiting blogs but there has to be something new for me to read. I rather not drop and run, but if there isn’t anything else for me to do, why should I visit an aged or neglected blog in the first place?

Newer blogs benefit, but for older blogs it can be a drag. Don’t get me wrong if you found this blog via Entrecard and are now a regular reader — thank you and please stay! But, the quality of the blogs submitted for advertising here just hasn’t measured up.

Bait and switch. I know that I shouldn’t depend on power dropping sites for my supply of websites to visit, but they can be useful to find blogs to visit and drop cards on. Unfortunately, some sites are suddenly converted to porn or other senseless babble, sullying Entrecard in the process. What a shame.

Of course, there are some benefits to Entrecard including:

Newer sites. I launched Auto Trends last month and got more than 1100 visitors from Entrecard alone. Add in all of my digging, stumbling, and propelling and the site got off to a nice start. It remains the only site where I am still accepting ads to this day.

Networking. Some of the bloggers I have met have been friendly and helpful, the usual trolls notwithstanding. I’m sure many of the more active users are also active elsewhere and our paths will cross again and again.

Please don’t take this as a slam of Entrecard as it isn’t — Entrecard just isn’t working that well for me. After this month I may remove the widget from one or two other sites and I’m not planning to resume regular card dropping on a consistent basis.

My time is valuable to me and dropping cards doesn’t seem to add value to my time.

Further Reading

Entrecard and Other Internet Mysteries

Entrecard Notes, Update 1

Entrecard Notes, Update 2

Soon after joining Wikipedia, I also registered for Citizendium, another wiki-style site which launched in early 2007. Founded by the same person who started Wikipedia, Larry Sanger, Citizendium is small potatoes compared to Wikipedia.

It is also a lot more accurate than Wikipedia, in my opinion.

Yes, Sanger feels the same way that I do — Wikipedia’s purity has been sullied by its anonymity, something Citizendium has corrected by requiring contributors to disclose who they are. With Wikipedia, there isn’t anything more annoying than some cyber-troll coming along and mashing up your contributions. Sure, you can reverse the vandalism and dispute changes, but there are some article topics which seem to be dominated by editors with an agenda to uphold.

No, I haven’t done anything with my Citizendium membership, but that is likely to change. The first Wednesdays of the month is Citizendium’s “Write-A-Thon” day where members are encouraged to contribute a new article (even if just a stub) or provide a substantive edit to a current article. By participating you’ll contribute to a growing and respectful resource that is controlled by its members, not by a foundation, private entity, or public owners.

To get a feel for Citizendium, check out their blog. If you have a wee bit of extra time during the month, then stop by and lend a hand. I won’t be able to participate in this month’s “Write-A-Thon” which is today, but I plan on offering some assistance in the near future.

Three Years Later…Success!

It was three years ago this month that I launched “The Article Writer” having previously had an online presence through other sites that I owned, but nothing dedicated exclusively to what I do. Sure, my corporate flight attendant site  (sold June 2007) was already three years old when this site was launched, but it was the act of extracting my identity from these other sites and creating a site pitching my capabilities which made all of the difference in the world for me.

I had no idea that this particular move would be so beneficial to me. Up until then, all of my clients came through phone work, third party job sites, referrals, and previous clients. Soon after launching this site I was “discovered” by the first of several big clients, confirming that my decision to strike out independently was a good one.

Self Reliance Pays Off

I’m not writing this to boast about my personal success, rather to encourage people who do not have a visible online presence to get one. Specifically, two points come to mind when developing an online presence:

• If you don’t yet have a website or your site/blog isn’t easily visible (on its own domain and not hiding on blogspot. com or wordpress.com) then you are making it difficult for customers to find you. Almost always a client mentions that they found me through one of my blogs or through an article I published which links back to this site.

• If you have a website, is it properly optimized? We writers are usually very good at what we do — write — but not particularly good when it comes to promoting our personal sites. Your site doesn’t have to look spectacular but you should be easily found in the SERPs, have a strong linking strategy, and your name should be found elsewhere.

I don’t advertise my services, at least I haven’t done so in more than a year. I don’t use Guru, eLance, or other job sites and I haven’t used AdWords in ages. However, I do keep up with people through social media sites and email.

Success won’t come to you overnight, but you’ll be successful if you develop a strong online presence and maintain it. Maybe I shouldn’t be so forthcoming about my work — I could be giving some valuable grist to someone else’s mill — but that is the risk I am willing to take.

Have you found success online?

I’m not a professional researcher, but as a writer I do research various topics to help form the backbone for many of my articles. Oftentimes, I’ll come across something online worth quoting or get information directly from a source (e.g., a press release) and use that as the basis for what I write.

Occasionally, I’ll find something that’ll raise my eyebrows, details which can have serious repercussions if I choose to include it. The fall out from damaging information could be far-reaching — negative news which might impact a company’s earnings, lower employee morale, and bring about a whole host of unimaginable consequences.

If I do choose to go with negative publicity, there is certain personal criteria that must be met before I will include that information:

1. I must be able to verify the news through at least two sources.

2. The quality of those sources has to be reputable — I’ve come across claims on a message board that while likely containing an element of truth, isn’t always posted without malice.

3. I need to ask myself — “Am I including this information to benefit my career or to inform the public?”

Lest you think that I’m being completely altruistic by not including something that might benefit my career, I’m not. However, if building up my career to bring down others is my motivation, then I’ve lost sight of the reason why I’m sharing what I know — to inform the public.

Yes, the basis for this article stems from recent experience where I chose to shelve damaging information instead of sharing it. While some people might have been helped by what I discovered, the first two of my personal criteria were not met. However, instead of tossing the information away I have saved it in the event additional veriable details eventually surface.

I don’t shy away from sharing potentially damaging information, but my personal reputation trumps the public’s so-called “need to know.”

Just for giggles, I enjoy hanging out at various webmaster forums including Digital Point where I can get a sense for what so many people are thinking. That place is frequently rife with rumors as members try to get into the colossal mind of Google, Alexa, and other internet measuring devices to see how they can improve their own sites by exchanging links, working the system, and more.

Well, wouldn’t you know that last night’s visit actually did reveal something of value — Google has updated their PageRank, completing the export of the new numbers to the Google toolbar.

Yes, this blog is now PR5 as is The Auto Writer and many internal pages on this site are showing at least PR3, though the home page of the URL is curiously still locked in at PR4. For those of you who insist that PageRank doesn’t matter, I say to you: bull. You know that you just stopped reading this post long enough to check on your site!

Last October when Google zapped a number of people’s PageRank over the issue of paid links, some of the loudest cries came from so-called SEO experts who had been telling us that PageRank really doesn’t matter. A handful of these same people have long poked fun at Alexa, too, but when Alexa overhauled their algorithm two weeks ago and exported their new numbers, guess what they were blogging about? The all-new Alexa.

Honestly, Page Rank, Alexa, and the number of back links pointing to your site won’t necessarily bring in the customers. I’ve visited sites where the Alexa was clearly gamed and the number of back links scraped together in the tens of thousands, but came away from the site not too impressed. I do not recall a customer saying that they found me because my site was ranked at a certain level. Instead, they typically like the way that I write and/or the subjects I write about — these are people who know nothing of Page Rank, Alexa, or even SEO.

Still, when you dress up to go to the dance it sure is nice when that pretty gal, Alexa, flashes that welcoming smile your way.

Instead, I shared with her how I handle the writing submission/approval process, one that helps me avoid guarantees, whether expressed or implied:

• If a customer is dissatisfied with my work before my final submission, then I do what it takes to make the work acceptable to them.

• Once a job is finished, my work is done and I expect my final payment to be made. If the customer comes to me after the fact and asks that additional changes be made or if they are unhappy with the results, then they must pay for the work I do over and above the original project.

In early 2007, I had dealings with a doctor who was unhappy that his press release didn’t bring in the results he wanted. It was well written (’natch) and submitted to a leading PR distributor, but it wasn’t the springboard to new customers he thought it would be. He didn’t ask for a guarantee for future work and I never broached the subject. We parted ways which was fine as I sensed that he wanted me to give to him something (customers) I couldn’t deliver.

I work with four excellent clients right now who know what kind of work that I provide, what I can deliver, while leaving the results to them. I cannot worry about people who are dissatisfied after the fact, but I’ll do what must be done before we both sign off on the final copy.