When it comes to writing, I see myself as a sprinter rather than a marathon-runner. Few of the articles I write break through the 2,000 word barrier; the majority of my commissions are under 1,500. So, I’m actually pretty pleased – even surprised – that one self-generated writing project now stands at more than 20,000 words. That’s nowhere near the length of a novel but, for me, it’s still rather astounding.
This morning, on LinkedIn, I posted my 101st – and, for the time being, final – “freelance journalism tip”. Since the end of February – barring Sundays and a few days off when other distractions took priority – I’ve posted a 200 word “tip” most days of the week, focused on some aspect of life as a freelance journalist. Some of these tips have been about the practicalities of writing for a living; others have focused more generally on running a business – which, being a freelancer, is what you’re doing. All, hopefully, might be useful to someone, somewhere.
Some have been highlighted, favourited or otherwise mentioned via social media – albeit by a relatively small number of people, so far. Still, many of those people I don’t know – so, new connections, in other words!
Paul’s Freelance Journalism Tips
Admittedly, this isn’t the first time I’ve been bold enough – or, indeed, sufficiently arrogant – to suggest that I’m some sort of freelance journalism expert. I had, during the past few years, posted a small number of blog entries along the lines of “10 things I’ve learned in the last year”, or “Five More Things I’ve learned about Freelance Journalism”. These, though, were only published on my own website, and not actively promoted in any way; they rapidly faded into the background, meaning I was probably the only person aware of them.
The principal difference with Paul’s Freelance Journalism Tips – as I belatedly (and modestly – not!) called this particular project – was that I chose to publish them on LinkedIn. (And, subsequently, their own website.)
I joined LinkedIn on 14 October 2009. Arguably, I’ve spent most of the intervening years apologetically telling people that I probably wasn’t making the most of the platform, or paying it sufficient attention. Yes, I can point to a number of writing gigs that wouldn’t have happened without an initial connection through LinkedIn, but they make up a small proportion of my work when compared to the number of writing gigs gained simply by pitching editors directly.
LinkedIn check-up time.
At some point in January 2016 – possibly after realising how few commissions were (then) lined up in the next few months – the question popped into my head: Could I make better use of LinkedIn? So I decided to see what a more concerted effort to utilise the site might achieve in terms of supporting and helping my freelance journalism.
Or, to put it another way, I wanted to ensure that my LinkedIn profile and on-site activity were effectively pulling their weight in terms of my own professional marketing strategy.
The first phase was simple enough; simply scheduling into my day – every day – some time for LinkedIn and communicating with at least a small proportion of my 800+ connections. The second phase was a tad more proactive, however: I turned to self-declared “Doctor LinkedIn” David Petherick.
For example, I paid for one of David’s regular Friday morning “surgeries” in which, over a quality coffee, he gave my LinkedIn profile a quick “check-up”. I was pleased that I was already doing a few things with my profile that he thought were good, but he also came up with suggestions that were brilliantly sensible – but only retrospectively, so to speak.
Publish or be damned.
One of David’s own, freely given pieces of advice is that everyone on LinkedIn should be regularly posting something: “I share my knowledge about LinkedIn in my articles, and the result is I make more connections, my services and skills are better known, and I even generate business as a result of it. You might even call it part of my personal branding.”
Posted articles show that you have a voice, they increase your “screen real estate” in LinkedIn searches, and are indexed by other search engines – so they’re discoverable well beyond LinkedIn’s own borders. Being a freelance journalist who doesn’t find writing stuff particularly difficult, I had no real excuse not to be posting something, regularly.
I’m essentially lazy, though. When I looked at one of those “10 Things I’ve learned about Freelance Journalism” posts, I thought: “If I expand each of those, they could be the basis for up to 10 posts. Result!”
As for the self-imposed 200 word limit (excluding headlines), that simply arose from my first “expanded” entry initially coming in at 201 words; the length just looked right – neither too short nor too long – on the screen. So I decided to stick with it.
What now?
Six months on, the jury is still out on how well LinkedIn is working for me – in part because I’ve been nowhere as near diligent as I should be when it comes to paying attention to the analytics side of things. I believe I’m being noticed by more people, but the number of visitors to my profile is still small – single digits, when I get notifications from LinkedIn – and there’s certainly no sign yet that this new approach has translated into anything even vaguely approaching a commission.
I may have to put my thoughts to some kind of third phase for my LinkedIn usage.
I’m well aware, though, that I will still have to regularly post something through my profile. Almost certainly it won’t be daily – that schedule was often a nuisance, especially when I hadn’t knuckled down to write several at a time and so give myself an all-too-brief “cushion” of a few days between composition and publication. In the first instance, there’ll be a few posts that will simply link to various “Top 10s” of my tips; but after that, I’m thinking of writing somewhat more general “observations” about life, the universe, and journalism. We’ll see.
My Journalism Tips
One definite tip I’ve picked up from this project has been how to cope with me being – at least when it comes to writing – a sprinter, not a marathon runner.
There’s absolutely no way I could have sat down with the goal of writing 20,000 words; I’d have frozen at the sheer scale of it all. I can, however, clearly write 20,000 words in less than five months, if I do it just 200 words at a time. (Another realisation is just how different those 200 word blocks can look on the page, depending on the number of paragraphs and long words I use. “Every day’s a school day,” as they say: which, incidentally, is the essence of tip #52!)
Anyway; I now have 20,200 words of Freelance Tips – more than 21,000 if you include all the headlines. Yes, I’ve essentially published them on LinkedIn and also on a separate website, but a few people have already asked me if I plan to do something more with them. A book, perhaps? It’d be a short book, admittedly, but in this brave new world of digital publishing, not an impossible one.
Let’s just say, I’m pretty sure this isn’t the end!
