All it takes is one mis-key or a brief power interruption, and you can find yourself staring at a blank screen. Usually after struggling with some particular difficult bit of phrasing. Hit the save key OFTEN. After every sentence wouldn’t be a bad idea. A nice and simple tip for today, and yet it can be pretty important.

And it also carries over to the work you might do online, directly into a database or CMS system. Save frequently in these instances too. There is an extra saving tip I have here as well. If you are working for someone else, and write your material directly into a CMS, I highly recommend you cut and paste a copy into a word processor and store on your hard drive. You could even take a screenshot of the finished piece. You may find yourself without access to your work at a later date, due to technical difficulties or the company you work for closing up shop. I lost a big chunk of work this way just last month.

Save often, even the material that you aren’t writing directly onto your hard drive. And of course it goes without saying that you do a regular back-up of that hard drive, right?

Web design is as varied as any other kind of design, and not everything will appeal to everyone under every circumstance. But there are a few unwritten rules that any successful website should follow. If nothing else, keep these tips in mind when you are designing the layout, theme and format of your website. These are specifically tips on design, not tips for content or anything like that. (more…)

Another thoughtful piece of insight from me today. Since you are freelancing and likely working from home, you are free to work in whatever manner you like. So take advantage of that and don’t worry about trying to stick to any “real-world” schedule or format. I’ve recently come to a couple of realizations about my own work habits and I’m a bit surprised. (more…)

This post is specifically about choosing a topic for your own website, but some of the points will apply if you are doing freelance writing for others at this point. So even if you’re not an independent online writer, keep on reading.

So you’ve decided that you want to work for yourself, and rake in some of those big Google ad bucks. Well, the first step is deciding what you want your new and wonderful website to be about. It may seem like an easy choice, but you should take some thought before getting in too deeply. (more…)

Now, I don’t mean you should trim your text to the bare minimum. But when writing for an online audience, you have to take a short attention span into account. That’s not to put down our loyal readership out there, but it is a fact that with thousands (millions?) of web pages out there on any given topic, a person has a tendency to want immediate results. So you need to get the point and provide the essential information of your topic quickly. Too much flowery prose will have a person clicking off to the next page in a heartbeat. (more…)

One of the quirks about writing for the web instead of print, is the way you have to choose your wording. The most important aspect of your writing work is to make sure your articles are found and read (whether you work for yourself, or are writing for others). And so you need to always keep your thoughts on search engines when you write. Your work isn’t going to do anyone any good if no one can find it. Even when writing for a well-known content network. The trick is to optimize for good keywords. (more…)