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Your 10 Best Freelance Writing and Blogging Posts of 2014

Carol Tice

Top 10 articles for writersIn 2014, I published roughly 100 new blog posts about the freelance writing and blogging game here at Make a Living Writing. Whew! No wonder I’m tired.

But enough about me — the important question is: Which of those many posts did you like best?

Here’s my annual list of the posts I published in 2014 that got the most traffic. This is essentially a readers’ choice ranking — you voted with your clicks on which posts were most interesting.

These are ranked with #1 representing the new post that got the most traffic in 2014:

  1. 140 Websites That Pay Writers in 2014 – A reminder that the top thing I can do to help writers around here is provide job leads. More to come! (Note to folks still reading and linking to my older list of 100 markets — this one is more up to date!)
  2. 4 Reasons Why Grammar Police Make Terrible Writers by Linda Formichelli – We writers do like to pick at each others’ writing…when we could be doing something productive instead. I was blown away at how many comments this got!
  3. Can You Spot These 3 Different Freelance Writing Scams? – I wish I didn’t have to *do* posts like this anymore, but new writers keep entering the field, and new scams keep popping up. Gotta stay on this!
  4. What the Elance-oDesk Merger Means for Freelance Writers – Still an interesting story to follow. I gather it hasn’t been all roses for writers since the merger, particularly over on the oDesk side. But my concerns that many more mergers might follow, in a major shakeout of the whole online-bidding space, appear unfounded so far.
  5. I Quit My Job to Be a Freelance Writer: What Was I Thinking? by Teressa Campbell — Apparently, many writers identified with the sense of terror that can descend when you take the plunge into freelancing. As it happens, Teressa got an offer she says was too good to turn down, and she’s gone back to the day-job world.
  6. Bidding on Elance: Here’s How Easily Freelancers Can Get Screwed – This situation was an eye-opener for me — and I’m sorry to report that the problems with identity theft on mass bidding platforms are ongoing.
  7. Writing for Guardian Liberty Voice: 10 Writers’ Stories – I continue to hear from writers who’ve avoided a very low-pay scenario, thanks to finding this post — including many of the writers who initially defended GLV in the comments of this post. It was worth the time doing the many interviews that went into the post.
  8. The 4 Worst Places for Freelance Writers to Start – This primer on why content mills, bid sites, revenue-share offers and the like are to be avoided apparently struck a nerve. Hope this helps some writers avoid wasting time working for pennies.
  9. 37 Essential Freelance Writing Terms You Need to Know by Jennifer Roland – This was real public-service journalism, from my trusty guest post editor Jenn! There’s always more jargon we need to decipher in freelance writing.
  10. 5 Ways to Find Freelance Writing Jobs on Twitter (With Sample Tweets) – This update to my classic Twitter-tips post reminds me that writers want concrete examples of how to do stuff, not just generic advice.

For more popular posts from other years, check out the sidebar and you’ll see a few classics that continue to draw a crowd — and this best-of post from 2013.

What’s the best post about freelance writing or blogging you read last year? Leave a comment and link us to it.

Fire Up Your First Draft: 10 Time-Saving Ways to Boost Writing Speed

Fire Up Your First Draft: 10 Time-Saving Ways to Boost Writing Speed

The Blazing-Fast Way to Boost Writing Speed. Makealivingwriting.com

Are you struggling to boost your writing speed?

You’re not alone. Cranking out a first draft is agony for many freelance writers. It can kill your productivity and suck the joy out of your work. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

I used to hate first drafts, too. I could sweat for hours over one paragraph. Hours! My writing speed was so terrible, I even quit freelance writing for a while. Don’t do that, OK?

When I came back to freelance writing after a long break, I had a new attitude-and a new skill set. I learned how to triple my writing speed. I’m happier, I’m a better writer, and I make more money in less time.

No matter how slow, scared, and perfectionistic you are, you can light up your first-draft writing speed.

It’s not a mysterious, magical gift. It’s a skill, just like knowing where to put the commas or how to pitch an editor. And the better you get at it, the more you can earn.

Ready to fire up your first-draft writing speed? Check out these ten tips to write faster.

7 Reasons Why Writing Killer Headlines Will Change Your Life

Whose responsibility is writing killer headlines anyway? In the old days of journalism, headlines may have been left up to the copy editor to determine but in this digital day and age, writers should pay as much attention as possible to coming up with hooky headlines...