Game 10: #4 Seed Editor’s Blog Versus #5 Seed How to Start a Successful Freelance Writing Career

Posted by John Hewitt on 4/3/2008 under Blogging, March Writing Blog Madness, Writing |

The Matchup

Fourth-seeded Editor’s Blog takes on fifth-seeded How to Start a Successful Freelance Writing Career. On paper, the 4-5 seed battles should be our closest first round matches, but so far that has not proven to be the case.

Introductions

Editor’s Blog

This is the blog of editor Audrey Owen. It is part of her larger site, Writer’s Helper. Owen writes some helpful articles, but much of the blog is devoted to linking to other sites and to self promotion.

Successful Freelance

How to Start a Successful Freelance Writing Career has the longest title in the competition, so I am going to shorten it to Successful Freelance for the rest of the competition, otherwise my headings would explode. The site has been around for a while, and mixes solid advice with perhaps a tad too much self-promotion.

Archives

Editor’s Blog

Most of the archives are announcements for contests or events that have long since passed. Another significant portion is self-promotional in nature. There are some good articles sprinkled throughout the list. They get reposted from time to time, so often you are seeing repeats.

Result: EB scores a point from the free throw line.

Successful Freelance

The archives stretch back to February of 2005. At times Black is quite prolific, but it ebbs at other times. Overall, there is plenty to read here and most of the archive contains at least a nugget of helpful information. The archive feature is pretty good. It lists entries by month, but you can access every page using the cascading menu.

Result: SF scores three for having a substantial and accessible archive.

SF jumps out to an early 3-1 lead.

Design

Editor’s Blog

The design is fairly ordinary and dated looking. The masthead is a custom graphic, so that helps a little, but this is a very plain-looking design.

Result: Result: EB scores a point from the free throw line.

Successful Freelance

For a Blogspot blog, this site doesn’t look too terrible. It proves my general rule that if you can’t design a fancy site, stick to providing plenty of white space. White space is easy on the eyes and easy to create. The downside of the whitespace equation is that Black’s blog entries, which are already on the long side, seem to stretch on forever.

Result: SF scores two for not hurting my eyes.

The score is now 5-2 in favor of SF.

Usability and Navigation

Editor’s Blog

EB uses a blogging package I’ve never heard of. It lacks a comment feature (wow) and only provides permanent links for some of the articles (double wow). There is a feed subscription button and there are month-by-month archive links, but that’s the limit of the user friendly features. Because the blog is a secondary page (not the main page) most of the buttons lead to other non-blog places on the site. In short, it looks like the blog is the red-headed stepchild of this site.

Result: EB scores a point from the free throw line.

Successful Freelance

As I mentioned in the Archives section, I like the tool that SF uses to make its archives all reachable from any page. That is a nice touch. There are a couple of other decent bells and whistles too, such as the ability to link to a page from Digg or Technorati. There is a glaring flaw, however. There is no button you can use to subscribe to the blog feed. Also, Black tends to interrupt her blog entries in the middle in order to add links to her own site. That can be disconcerting.

Result: SF misses the lay-up and has to settle for a point from the stripe.

SF maintains its lead, 6-3.

Purpose

Editor’s Blog

The stated purpose of the site is to help you become a better writer. With a purpose like that, I would expect a lot of instructional articles. There are some, but most of the site content seems to be links to contests and promotion of her services. Most of the valuable material seems to come from interviews with authors, presumably ones she has worked as an editor for.

Result: EB scores a point from the free throw line.

Successful Freelance

The name of the blog sums up the goal, How to Start a Successful Freelance Writing Career. Based on that goal, I have to give Black full credit. Most of her articles tackle freelancing and give you how-to advice, tips, guidelines, and a little motivation.

Result: SF sinks a three. Nothing but net!

This one is starting to get out of hand. It is now 9-4.

Personality

Editor’s Blog

Owen doesn’t talk about herself (in a personal way) very often, but occasionally she opens up a little.

Result: EB scores a point from the free throw line.

Successful Freelance

SF is driven by Black’s straight talking conversational style. It was a little difficult for me to get used to at first, but it grew on me. It certainly sets her voice apart from the many other freelancing blogs out there.

Result: Black makes the three-point play with her unique voice.

With a commanding 12-5 lead SF needs only to run out the clock. The crowd is heading for the exits.

Five Most Recent Posts

Editor’s Blog

Poem Of The Week

Owen gives a little link love to the Canadian poem of the week site.

Terms of Use For Writer’s Helper

This details the rules of the site. Most of them have little to do with the blog.

Announcing The SCRIPT Award

Owen gives more link love, this time to a Canadian writing contest.

Stand-Alone Or Series

Owen asks children’s writer Lee Edward Fodi about the challenges of writing a children’s books as a series versus stand-alone stories.

News From Lee Fodi

Lee Henry Fordi talks about the things he does to market his children’s book. There is some pretty good stuff in this article. It is the lone standout.

All of these posts come within the past week, so on the frequency front there is no problem. Most of the posts aren’t particularly informative abut the interview with Fordi has some nice stuff. Unfortunately, this is actually a repost (unidentified) from her archives.

Result: EB scores a point from the free throw line.

Successful Freelance

Does Social Media Marketing Really Work for Most Blogs?

How to Handle Clients Who Cost You Money

SEO Writer: One Freelance Writer’s Success Story

How to Hire Experienced SEO Writers: Learn from One Freelancer’s Unfortunate Experience

Guidelines for Building a Freelance Writing Portfolio by Blogging

Black writes very long posts, mainly because she includes writing opportunities at the end of each post, and those can run on for quite a bit. Each of these posts is helpful in some way, even before you get to the listings. It is an excellent performance marred only slightly by her tendency to promote herself in the middle of each post.

Result: SF hits a slam dunk. Two points.

The final score is 14-6 in favor of SF.

Post Game Analysis

Freelance Success was never challenged in this one, but it can look forward to much stiffer competition in the next round. The 4-5 matchups have not lived up to their hype. There’s only one more to go. Let’s hope it makes for a better contest.

What They Can Work On

Freelance Success

I believe Black should move her blog off of Blogspot and use blog software to power her central site, inkwelleditorial.com, which could use a new look anyway. That site’s appears to be stuck in 1998. With so much good content to offer, Black could really benefit from an attractive, custom-designed theme. This is a blog that is capable of generating a lot more traffic than it is.

Editor’s Blog

The first thing I would suggest is to switch to a better blogging package. This one managed to make even Blogger look good. Without comments, there is no community. Without a community, the blog will have trouble developing into something worthwhile. I would also like to see less focus on self-promotion and more on content.