Deborah, from ClickWisdom, asked:

…do you recommend any software that will allow me to post to more than one blog? I am looking for software that reduces the number of times I have to log in to every blog for which I wrote. I used to use Qumana for this purpose. What do you recommend these days?

Personally, I’m a big fan of Scribefire for posting to several blogs without having to log in and out of my blogs. Scribefire is a Firefox plugin that, as long as you use Firefox as your web browser, allows you to compose blog posts within the browser. I’ve got mine set up to split the window, half browser and half writing field. This lets me easily do research and write without having to switch back and forth between windows.

Scribefire isn’t the only option, of course. There are several stand-alone software packages that are equally good. If you work primarily in Windows, Windows Live Writer comes particularly well-recommended. It’s surprisingly similar to Microsoft Word but instead saves your posts to your blog. For Mac users, MarsEdit is also very good.

Whichever option you choose will require a little set up: you’ll have to put your user name and password into the software so that it can access your blog. You may also have to adjust some settings for your particular blog, and depending on which blogging platform you use (WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, etc.), you may have to change settings on your blog as well.

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Every so often I see an offer for a freelance writing internship — almost always unpaid. I have to say that these sorts of offers offend my delicate sensibilities. With a few very rare exceptions, these ‘internships’ are just a way to get free work out beginning writers. Magazine, newspaper and marketing internships can truly help a writer (albeit they don’t focus on freelancing at all), because they bring you into the office and teach you the ins and outs of the business. In fact, I think an in-office internship can be a good way to learn more about writing as a career and can quickly show a person whether she really wants to freelance full-time or not.

In contrast, a freelance writing ‘internships’ typically involves little more than someone sending you article descriptions and you cranking them out. There’s no education or other benefit beyond grinding out articles. It so happens that you can grind out articles on your own, and even make at least a little bit of money through content sites or by putting them online with Google Adsense.

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I wanted to highlight Jen Halloran’s comment on my post, Spend Money to Make Money. Jen said:

…in addition to highlighting these points on the Web site and cards, another “spend money to make money” tactic might be having a simple logo created for your brand. Agree?

For some writers, I definitely agree — there are many freelance writers with very effective brand identities, with a logo that ties together their websites and business cards. But there also plenty of writers that don’t have logos and don’t seem to miss them. I think having a logo is useful, but isn’t an absolute requirement.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 11:02 am and is filed under Freelance Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.