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Do what you want. Self-publishing simply means you write a book and you figure out how to get it into the hands of other people. It might just be you sell it on your email list. Congrats! You're then a published author. In my post "How to Self Publish a Bestseller" I write about the details and the numbers.

This seems opposite of what I said above. But blogging is not such a bad idea. How come? Because it makes you write every day. And it also is fun to build friends and community around your blog. But if you want to blog, don't just register a domain name and start blogging. You won't get any traffic.

There's a thousand ways to build community and practice writing on the Internet. Blog is one of them but there are many others. My #1 suggestion: first practice on Quora (cc Marc Bodnick) If you go there, follow me and say "Hi!".

If you don't write every day, you won't know what your potential skill level is. You will be producing sub-par work. And in a world where 15 million books will be published this year, your book will have little chance to shine.

Do the math: if you just write 1,000 words a day that are publishable then you have a book every two months. 1,000 words a day is not easy. But it's not hard either.

No. You used to be able to make a living writing articles. Just a few years ago. In 2005 I made a good living writing about 3-4 articles a day for different publications while I was running my fund and before I started and sold Stockpickr. But those days are over. People just don't pay for content. And there are too many writers. It's a supply and demand thing.

ou have to write more than one book. And for most people, you have to write dozens of books.

The problem is that once you have accepted an article you have 24 hours to write it. While that is not a problem in and of itself, while you have that article selected you cannot select another article. You write one, submit it and then choose another one.

The writing platform at Textbroker is not great. There is really no way to sugarcoat it and make it seem better than it is. It’s basic, has no automatic save and is honestly one of the worst out there.

Every article you write is rated. Your rating is the average of the last 5 articles that you have written. If you have consistently high ratings, ask to be moved to a higher category. Your rating can also be lowered if your reviews are consistently poor. There is room to move at Textbroker.

oday is the day for cold calling. Most people don’t particularly enjoy this aspect of marketing but it is extremely valuable. Use the list you made on Monday and call each company.

By now you are getting some serious responses to your quick burst activities. So today you want to focus on social media. If you don’t already have Facebook and Twitter accounts for your freelance writing business, this is the time to set them up. You should also have a LinkedIn account. If not, set one of those up as well. Then go into the settings of LinkedIn and Twitter and set them up to update whenever you post to the associated Facebook page. Properly setting up your social media pages is extremely important; you are selling yourself. Make it look good.

You’ll catch clunky sentences, missing and repetitive words, and misspellings.

Make a list of your most common offenders. Then search for those words and see if you can take them out without altering your intended meaning.

Take a look at each sentence and see how many words you can cut out.

Check to make sure you put commas before direct address in dialog.

The most mutilated verbs are lay, sink, drag, swim, and shine.

Flowery verbs such as quizzed, extrapolated, exclaimed, and interjected, stick out. Instead, use said and asked, with an occasional replied or answered.

When sentences begin with “it was” and “there were,” readers are left wondering exactly what “it” is. These words are vague. “It was hot today” can easily be replaced with “the sun baked his shoulders,” which paints a clearer picture. Think: strong nouns and verbs.

Make sure a clear connection exists between the opening of your post and the headline.

If a sentence, phrase or word is particularly important or significant, use bold or italics to add stress. But don’t overdo it.

Always be consistent with your terminology.

If a point is worth making, it’s worth making twice. Or even three times.

Only tell them what they need to know to follow your argument. Share the minimum you need to convey the desired message.

Clear examples help readers understand difficult concepts.

Concrete language describes something detectable by the senses. Something you can see, feel, hear, smell or taste. Abstract concepts are much harder to imagine.

When you provide specific detail in your writing, there’s less room for ambiguity. Your reader is far more likely to end up with the same idea in their head as you have in yours.

Clarity does not tolerate “might,” “may” or “possibly.” If you can’t say something with certainty, perhaps you shouldn’t be writing about it at all.

if you’re in the business of spreading ideas, you must make friends with bullets.

Bullets are a valuable tool, but you should never drop your reader into a list without first setting the scene.

make sure each point is recognizably related to the others.

If you were giving your reader a list of steps, you’d present them in the order they needed doing, right? Obviously. But if the items in your list aren’t steps, they often still have a natural order – even if you didn’t have one in mind when you wrote them.

always supply everything the reader needs to fully understand your points within the post itself.

You think you’re being generous but truthfully you’re being greedy. Greedy with your reader’s time, their attention, and their patience.

include a clear call-to-action. Tell your reader what you want them to do.

A rather odd note is that the writing block area specifically tells you not to copy and paste from other software into the block. However the FAQ suggests doing so. I recommend the copy and paste method simply because if there is a glitch during submission then there is little chance of recovery and you would need to start over. As an alternate, you can copy and past your work from the writing block into your word processor.

Essentially, you have to write at least 30 articles and have a rating of 4 stars to move to the Premium level. Once you hit 4.6 stars you move into the Elite tier. The only ratings that count are those from clients, iWriter only counts your articles. Because of this it’s important to do a good job for the clients and it’s also important to pay attention to the types of clients that you choose. Clients that reject often and are overly demanding may not be worth the effort.

Payment is made once your account reaches the minimum of $20 and is paid to your Paypal account.

You can choose up to 7 interest categories and then select a star rating based on your expertise in the area. Because your list of available jobs is based on this list, you might want to tweak it to get the best search results. It’s not a long list and the categories are fairly standard with one exception: There is a separate are for the sensitive topics of religion and pornography.

There are two methods of finding a job on this site: Look for one and wait for one to come to you.

there is no direct client to writer communication which almost always increases the issues with editing.

there is the warning that if a writer has a lot of requests for rewrites or changes their status may be downgraded and eventually suspended.

How Much Clutter Can You See?

What’s the Mood of Your Room Like?

Are Your Tools Good Ones?

Just imagine trying to write with a dried-up pen, where you have to keep stopping to go over too-faint words.

Are You Allowing Distractions In?

To keep advancing you have to stretch your limits. And sometimes that means writing from the point of view of someone who is super not you.