Freelance Writing for Nonprofits

All freelancers who write not just for pleasure but to pay the bills as well have learned one important skill and have successfully put it to work: repurposing content. There is absolutely no shame in recycling your material, as long as (1) you own the copyright (i.e. you haven’t sold all rights to a magazine or written as work-made-for-hire for a client) and (2) you invest a bit of time in making substantive changes.

Say you are a blogger. Where else do you write for publication? Your blog posts could be recycled into articles for your or a client’s website, print newsletter, e-newsletter, press release, e-book, workshop lesson plan, etc.

Use one or more of these techniques to freshen up your original article each time you use it elsewhere.

Change the angle. If you emphasized one particular element of the story, emphasize a new one now. If you told the story from one person’s perspective, tell it from the perspective of someone else in the story.

Change the person. If you wrote the article in third person (”She walked away . . .”), change the article to a first-person account (”I walked away . . .”). You’ll need to ensure that the person telling the story approves the new version told from her point of view.

Make it shorter. Cut out some of the extra details and focus in on just one key point or message.

Make it longer. Add in some additional material from your original research or interview notes.

Rewrite the lead paragraph. Start the article in a new way.

Turn it into a how-to article. What did the story’s participants learn and can that be shared with others? Turn those lessons into a how-to or step-by-step article for others.

Get the most out of the time you spend researching and writing articles by using that material in many different ways.

Need an example? This article is repurposed from one I just wrote on my other blog, Nonprofit Communications. That version emphasizes how nonprofits can recycle their best stories to market their organizations in different ways. To recycle that post for this blog, I pulled out one of the four steps from that article, changed some of the wording to address freelance writers instead of nonprofits, and added a new title and lead paragraph. I spent nearly an hour drafting the first post, but only ten minutes on this one. See how well this can work?

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Being self-employed means you often have to take responsibility for tasks outside your areas of expertise. You become an accidental computer technician, bookkeeper, advertising executive, and, if you have a website, search engine optimization expert. It can all be very overwhelming.

To make at least one of these jobs — online marketing — a bit more manageable, here are seven extremely easy ways that writers can market themselves online.

Comment on blogs. Most bloggers accept comments on their posts. Read blogs related to writing or your areas of expertise and submit comments on the posts. In most cases, a link to your website or blog will be included with your comment. You can search for blogs at technorati.com. For nonprofit blogs, see the Nonprofit Blog Exchange.

Join e-discussion lists. Participate in email discussion lists (sometimes called listserves) to become well-known as an active and knowledgeable writer in your area of specialty. Yahoo! Groups and Google Groups are good places to start. For nonprofit lists, also check out N-TEN’s Affinity Groups.

Spend time on your website page titles. Page titles are used heavily by search engines to determine the relevance of your site. Spend some time making sure they are full of keywords, not just your website name.

Use search engine friendly URLs. Search engines also look at the actual names of your files in your website. Place keywords in your file names to improve their rankings. For example, nonprofit-writer.htm is a better file name than aboutme.htm.

Create an email signature. Every email you send, especially those to e-discussion lists with archives online, should include an email signature with your contact information and a bit of information about the kind of writing you do.

Keep family and friends in the loop. Word-of-mouth referrals are a big source of work for most successful freelance writers, so when you communicate with friends and family via email, be sure to give them an update on the work you are doing and the kind of work you’d like more of. Just about everyone has been involved with a nonprofit for some reason at some point in their lives, so you never know where that next referral could come from.

Recycle your articles. Take something you’ve already written and repurpose it as a marketing piece by submitting it to an online article directory like EzineArticles.com. People can download and use your article for free, but they must include your author information which will naturally include a link to your website.

I’m offering more online marketing tips like these in “25 Easy and Low-Cost Ways for Writers to Market Themselves Online,” which is a free download when you claim a keyword at 500Writers.com.

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As a North Carolina blogger, I am privileged to host this week’s edition of the Tarheel Tavern. If you are here for freelance writing tips, consider this a bonus post. If you are here for the THT, enjoy!

This is not only my first THT hosting gig, but my first step into the Tavern (I’ve just been reading it to date). So here’s a short intro in lieu of a post: I’m a freelance writer who works primarily in the nonprofit sector, thus the blog name. I do email and print newsletters, websites, annual reports, etc. for nonprofit clients while also pursuing a variety of other side businesses, including teaching workshops for the Duke certificate program in nonprofit management and e-courses on my websites. I am originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, but moved to Lexington, NC (my husband’s hometown) in 2001. Two little girls, three cats, one dog. Liberal/Progressive Dem - and not ashamed to be called one, even in ultra-conservative Davidson County. Vegetarian in a town that breathes barbecue. Not a NASCAR fan, but love-love-love Richard Childress for opening his winery here. You get the picture.

I’m hosting because Erin said the Tavern was in a pinch, and thus my first theme was born. Many commented on how great “in a pinch” was as a theme; few submitted posts on theme. If you are ever hosting and are in a pinch for a theme, feel free to recycle this one! Instead of using it, I’m going to start with the three posts that I personally enjoyed the most and then add the others in no particular order. As usual at the THT, it’s a great, fun, engaging mess of wonderful folks contributing. On to the show . . .

Etbnc at Another Blue Puzzle Piece (on theme!) explains what escaping the pinch of the finger trap can teach us about analyzing and solving problems, big and small.

Christine Kane reminds us that we all need to give ourselves just a bit more credit for the good stuff we do and stop feeling like we are insignificant in Don’t Be Eeyore, Either.

Justin Thibault at the View from the Cheap Seats offers up Friday Funnies: Are you a Yankee Or A Rebel - A Case Study. Justin is 60% Rebel. After living here almost five years, I scored “41% Dixie. Barely in Yankeedom.” Give me another five and who knows.

Billy at the Blogging Poet is driving the coolest thing on the streets and it might be for hire if you ask nicely. Hint: He’s now Billy the Flying Poet.

Ron at 2sides2ron has launched a new blog carnival on HIV/AIDS. I started one for nonprofit consultants a month ago, so we are both newbie carnival founders. I’m in good company!

Gordon at Scrutiny Hooligans shares his take on the latest “pinch” of international proportions in Look At Me! I’ve Got Nukes!

In her ongoing quest to raise money for the Heart Walk in every creative way possible, Erin at Poetic Acceptance is selling copies of her poetry chapbook. Get yours while you can.

Alex Wilson is at the Clarion Writing Workshop and shares stories about meeting some of the people who inspire him in Clarion Week 1: Chip and Me.

Laura at Moomin Lights shares her delight in seeing Ben Vereen and the North Carolina Symphony.

Laurie at . . . Slowly She Turned has a garden update with lots of photos. We got a late start on our garden this year (we blame our newborn), so I’m jealous of the produce!

Bora at A Blog Around the Clock asks, Cloning - what’s the big deal? I still think cloning is a bit weird, but I understand it better now that the science has been stripped of the politics.

That’s it for this week. Next week THT will be at A Sort of Notebook. See you there!

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I’ve started a fun new directory of writers at www.500writers.com. It’s based on the wildly successful site by Joel Comm, 500words.com. I figured writers deserved to have some “word cloud” fun too!

Here’s how it works: There are only 500 words/phrases on the site, including writing genres, topics, and locations. Only one writer can claim each word, which is then linked to the writer’s website. Find the keyword that describes you or your writing, and make it yours before someone else does. If you don’t see your ideal word in the cloud already, you can suggest a new one.

I’ll be placing paid ads for the directory on search engines, as well as taking advantage of other marketing tools, so the directory should take off quickly. By claiming your keyword now, you get the search optimization benefits of the link and a shot at all the traffic I’ll be buying. Word clouds pique curiosity, so you are likely to get visitors who would have never found your site otherwise.

I’m also offering a free download for writers who claim words: 25 Easy and Low-Cost Ways for Writers to Market Themselves Online.

Once the 500 words have been claimed, that’s it. No more will be added. Check it out today!

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