How Pinterest Ninja Exploded My Traffic | Review

As bloggers, we all want to drive traffic to our blogs and increase our page views to (hopefully) monetize our blogs and get some money rolling in.

But how do you do that? The answer is actually pretty simple.

Social Media!

When it comes to social media, the options are pretty endless. Increase traffic using Facebook groups, tweet your latest blog post, or share a cute photo on Instagram. While I absolutely love sharing my content with Facebook groups, my favorite way to drive traffic to my blog is by using Pinterest.

If you’ve been blogging for awhile, you’ve probably heard a million times that Pinterest isn’t just a form of social media – it’s a search engine. While you may have grown tired of having that point hammered home, it’s 100% true and you’d be nuts to not utilize it!

Pinterest helped me connect with other freelance writers and gave me a solid place to start my freelance career, so when it came to start my blog, I wanted to do the same for other people.

Where to Find Freelance Writing Jobs

Finding writing jobs is hard for any freelance writer, not just new writers.

With sites like Upwork and Fiverr providing a platform for writers, it’s easy to start out assuming everyone is going to pay top dollar for your written words.

The truth of the matter is, not everyone respects what writer’s do.

More often than not, jobs offered on freelance platforms and content mills pay next to nothing. When you’re first staring out, it’s easy to justify accepting such low paying jobs as a way to build up your portfolio. But it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. (We’re talking less than $.01 for 1600 words kind of jobs here, people!)

Working your butt off for peanuts isn’t exactly going to get you any closer to you end goal, which I’m assuming is a full time freelance career.

I get it though, and I’ve been there. One of the first jobs I was offered on Upwork was writing lifestyle articles for a webzine called Panda Gossips. They paid $5 per 800 words and were asking for a minimum of 1600 words per article. We’re talking less than $.01 a word!

Even though I didn’t love the pay, I took it. I got burnt out after a few months and grew tired of the hours of work that I was putting into each article, but it was definitely a learning experience.

Needless to say, I quit writing for Panda Gossips and using Upwork after a few months. You can read about my Upwork experience here.

So where do you find excellent clients that are willing to pay what you deserve? The truth is, it’s easier than you might think to find them!

5 of the Best Books for Freelance Writers

When I first started freelance writing, I was a little lost when it came time to start. I knew I wanted to be a full time freelance writer, but I didn’t know what I should do first. Sure, I knew I would need to have a portfolio with writing samples for prospective clients, but beyond that I had no idea where to start when it came to finding clients, setting rates, or settling on a niche.

So, being the nerd that I am, I turned to books. I Google searched to find other freelance writers and what they recommended, as well as Googling books for freelance writers. There were A LOT of options! I read reviews before I bought anything which made narrowing them down so much easier!

Not all of them were as great or as helpful as others suggested, but I did find some that have helped me tremendously and I still turn to when I’m feeling unsure or overwhelmed. Without further ado, here are the top five books I recommend to new freelance writers.

Why Quitting Upwork Helped Me Land High Paying Clients as a Freelance Writer

I’ve been freelancing writing for just about a year now (time sure does fly!) and I’m really excited to get to share what I’ve learned with people just like me with this blog.

While I’ve had a lot of success in my business in the last year, especially while juggling both full and part time jobs in addition to freelancing, things didn’t always look so good. 

That’s because I got caught in the rut of using a bidding site in order to find freelance jobs. I know it doesn’t sound like the worst thing in the world, but sometimes a bidding site can be right on par with content mills. I spent about four months using this platform with very little success and I found it was sucking all the time and energy I could have been using elsewhere. 

That’s why I decided to tell you the story of why I quit using Upwork and have stayed away from bidding sites since. So if you’ve been considering Upwork or Fiverr, or you’ve had some experience with it in the past, I hope you find this helpful!