As a freelancer, my job is to find the facts, write a short (600-800- word) article, and present in the best fashion relevant information that is easy to read, easy to understand, and is written in small sized “chunks” that a reader can quickly digest. This may sound easy - it is not.

Because the average surfer has the attention span of a gnat, I often find that adding what I feel is relevant to the situation is tough. I have agonized over articles for my editor that I felt just weren’t giving the information I thought should be portrayed in the article. To my chagrin, it is the way of the business world. So, I need to often downsize, re-write, and otherwise make it what the may with the big pocketbook wants. No artistic freedom here - I want to get paid…

Let’s look at an example - I wrote a series of articles on tires recently for a “do it yourself” website. Because of WC limitations, I had to leave out the point that car tires need to be balanced. My reasoning came to this - when people buy new tires, or they are rotated on their car, a good mechanic always balances the tires. So that fell by the wayside, but I feel I did not give misinformation.

So how do I begin research? Firstly I always use longtail keyword phrases. I never go after “golf” when I want to find out information on “golf clothing”. and I never go after “golf clothing” if I am going after “golf clothing for women”. See how it begins to work? We are drilling down here to find relevant information. As freelance writing is a numbers game, I can’t spend hours on a simple search. I want the stuff now. I use Google a lot for research, as others do. I only pick articles in the top four of non-sponsored searches, and the first thing I do is look at the size of the site. If it is something like 5K, I don’t bother. I want information! From Google, I may go to Ask.com, to get answers I need. They put a much different slant on things than Google, which is more organic in my opinion. Can’t find enough there? Go to Haika.com to find answers to your burning questions. They are in beta, but are very good.

To get technical, I go to Google Scholar, and find a ton of articles on any subject I need. For a “going green” series for the same website, I used Google Scholar to find pertinent stats, so that I could present my information in an authoritative way. Nothing speaks like numbers…

I am an old school writer. I do not agonize over what I am writing. I just write on the fly, letting the words flow. I don’t worry about punctuation or grammar - this is handled by my word processor. And it is why I can successfully write, and make a good living. Use what is there, people. Your pocketbook will thank you, and your reputation will surely grow.

Peace,

Charlie~

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