August Challenge for Authors

[HayleyWriter]

Hi all,

I have been a bit slack lately, but I did write one article for a public request on boats and enjoying the boating lifestyle - Not too much out of my comfort zone because I actually do have a boat. However, the requestor came back with a private request (hurrah!) for 30 articles, some of which are DEFINITELY out of my comfort zone, as I don't fish (Sipping wine on the boat is more my thing), and didn't even know what a Jon boat was (a flat hulled boat for fishing in calm waters!), let alone know which boat magazines and boat shows are popular in America at the moment. It has been a challenge to research and write some of these articles, and interesting too. It is fun to see how a public request I was quite comfortable with turned into my challenge for the month. I am also finding it a challenge to write 30 articles that do not sound the same!

I had planned another article for this challenge but I will have to complete that in September now, as I will run out of time. I'm pushing to get these private request articles done first! I'll let you know when I complete that other idea anyway - it's been simmering for a few weeks, so maybe it won't be completely out of my comfort zone by the time I get to write it.

Hayley

[Debbi]

Hayley,

Congrats on scoring that 30-article private request! I dream of that happening to me some day, though I might get freaked out at thinking about 30 articles all at once. I've been taking it slow and steady like the proverbial tortoise

Almost everything I've written over the past week has been out of my comfort zone -- chinese tomb art, breeding fish, teaching ESL -- it's all new to me and so fascinating! It's hard not to get carried away and spend countless hours reading up on unusual things.

I also wrote for a previous challenge (July, nmaybe?), an article on why you should spoil your kids. It might be too satirical or silly to sell, but I had fun doing it.

Debbi

[HayleyWriter]

Hi Debbi,

Don't worry, you'll get a private request one day! They are not very common, but terrific when you do get them.

There is nothing wrong with the tortoise. I started out slow and steady too, and I think I have been very successful on this site. I'd be more successful if I pulled my finger and actually started writing again most days too, instead of procrastinating. I'm becoming very expert in that area, unfortunately.

I think you've said the most important thing about writing and accepting challenges for CC: "I had fun doing it". As long as you are enjoying the writing, you have benefited from it. The pay is just a bonus!

Hayley

[Celeste Stewart]

Definitely fun! The whole idea of these challenges is to keep us inspired, keep us learning, and challenge us to try new techniques or topics. By pushing ourselves or purely having fun with writing, there's no way that we'll get stuck in a writing rut or fall into the trap of thinking our writing skills are good enough. Hayley, I love that your private request fits in with this month's challenge. A cool side effect of this challenge is that it prepares you for the private request that asks you to write something completely brand new to you. If you can write about sugar daddies or undies (or whatever it is that you've opted to try) because of this request, then yeah, you can write about bass fishing in a foreign country or quilting bees or whatever.

Every now and then, usually after a particularly grueling assignment, I indulge myself and write just for fun - just for me - without worrying if the article or story will ever sell. It's like a reward. Sometimes the final article or story sucks; other times it's awesome. But the reward of writing just for the sheer joy helps me keep my perspective about why I write. I love getting paid to write but I also adore writing for the sake of writing. Let's all make a commitment to keep writing fun, shall we?

[eek]

Funny you should say that about writing for fun, Celeste. I've got my fingers crossed while I cook up an idea I hatched just last night. It's a new topic for me, but a good fit for my interests. I just haven't ventured there before because, like Hayley and her boats, it's something I enjoy but don't know much about. But I think I've found a way to write about this as a beginner. Oh well, I might as well tell you. It's about bird watching. I know, very geeky. Like Celeste, I love to write for fun, and one of my outlets is to make notes in my e-diary about birds. When I presented the idea to Evan (my husband/writing partner) he agreed it was an excellent idea. My inner alter-ego says it probably won't fly, but as soon as I wrap up two other assignments, I'll reward myself with this fun one. And see if anything comes of it.

Kudos to Hayley! I hope all of you who took the challenge are rewarded with sales, if not private requests.

[Antonia]

I loved this challenge. I put my own spin on it by decided to respond to EVERY public request...not just the ones that clicked with me. Well, guess what happened. I wrote an article for one public request...the client not only snapped it up, but wrote an incredibly nice email complimenting my writing and giving me several ideas for more topics she wants. I have written 3 articles for her so far, and feel I am quickly becoming an expert on the field...it's no longer out of my comfort zone!

The next public request I tried was about something I knew well (it was the French travel one), but I normally would have passed it over because the pay was a bit low for the desired wordcount. However, in the spirit of the challenge, I quickly wrote an article...had a LOT of fun doing it and reliving memories of Chartres... and it also got snapped up. Sure, the pay wasn't great...but it was more than ZERO which is what I would have made if I hadn't written it! That client too asked me to write more articles.

So, I may actually not have time to answer any more public requests for a bit, while I work on these...what a great problem to have!

By the way, this means a lot to me because I am flying back to the USA in around a month. I currently live in Nepal where the cost of living is quite low. I was concerned that my husband and I might not be able to afford our lifestyle in USA and might have to get "real" jobs....which I NEVER want to do again! This is really encouraging to me because I now see it as a real possibility that I can earn enough as a writer to make a full-time living. I cannot tell you how good this feels. But you know.

[JD]

Antonia

That's great news - congratulations! Just goes to show that if you keep plugging away it can happen. This should be especially encouraging to new writers as I believe that you yourself are fairly new - good for you!

I know what you mean about a 'real job' - I will very soon have to go and get one of those, although it'll be a temporary post just to bring in some money, so there will be light at the end of the tunnel!

Jane

[Celeste Stewart]

I think that's awesome Antonia! I knew you'd be successful the moment I heard you say you'd try subbing for all public requests for the week. Best of all, you're building a relationship with some of these customers which leads to future assignments! Yay!

[Antonia]

Thanks guys. Love the support here! Yeah, Jane, I am pretty new, I started in May and only really got going with consistent submissions a month or so later. I was impatient then--but so many forum posts hammered home the importance of patience and frequent submissions, that I felt very motivated to continue.

Uh oh, that thing happened where I respond to every recent post on the forum and everyone can see what a forum junkie I am...(runs away from forum vowing not to come back until a decent interval has passed)

[eek]

Uh oh, that thing happened where I respond to every recent post on the forum and everyone can see what a forum junkie I am...(runs away from forum vowing not to come back until a decent interval has passed)

Had to tell you, that made me laugh.
Btw, Antonia, I hope your transition "home" goes smoothly. We've done that several times. It's never as easy to adjust in your home country after living overseas as it would seem. Sure glad you've tasted success here at CC and decided to stick it out!
Jane - hope you'll experience a short tunnel and see lots of light, real soon. I'm pretty sure we've all been there, or are currently.
Emma

[Debbi]

Just an update: That article about why you should spoil your kids for the July Challenge sold today I didn't think it would because it was satirical and many people don't cotton to satire. But at least one person has my sense of humor, I guess. Yay! I have renewed hope for some of my other work now.

I keep thinking about the September challenge. How do you decide on the keywords to use? I've only had a buyer ask for SEO once so am not used to it.

Debbi

[Celeste Stewart]

First, you pick a topic that you're interested in writing about for the challenge. Let's say you want to write about peanut allergies. Go to the Google keyword tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) and enter "peanut allergies." The tool will list variations of keyword phrases that people are entering into the search engine and let you know which ones are most popular. Click on Advertiser Competition to sort by relevance. You'll see which phrases are popular with advertisers. In this example, lots of websites are using the keyword phrase "peanut allergies" but fewer are using "allergy peanut." However, more people are searching for "allergy peanut" than "peanut allergies" according to additional information displayed by the tool (74K vs 18K). So, it would make sense to use "allergy peanut" as a keyword phrase. It's popular with people searching for information, but not too many websites are using that keyword phrase. In theory, your article would rank high in the search results because you optimized your article for the "allergy peanut" keyword phrase.

This tool is also kind of fun for getting article ideas. For example, one of the phrases "peanut allergy safe restaurants" might be fun to explore. Is there such a thing? Can those with peanut allergies even consider eating out? Do restaurants offer non-peanut sections like they did with non-smoking sections?