Ever wish you could get seasoned freelance writers to help you with your

career?

Experienced pros to answer your questions and help keep you on track…

With the economy still tough, knowledge and support have never been more important.

Here’s a chance to join a writing-career coaching program at an affordable price — and skyrocket your income.

Introducing:

A 4-week group coaching course

presented by Carol Tice of Make a Living Writing

and Linda Formichelli of The Renegade Writer

for new writers — and writers who are new to freelancing

Next session:

Jan. 24-Feb. 14, 2012

Sorry – this session is now closed.

We are currently expecting to hold the Blast Off class again in April 2012. To get first notice of new class sessions, sign up on our waiting list by clicking the red button.

We offer three class options to fit your needs — and budget

GOOD: Audit the Class: $97	BETTER: Participate: $197	BEST: Get Mentored: $275 (Limit: 20 students)
7 hours of recordings of teleseminars and webinars.	Recordings of the four hour-long teleseminars and webinars and bonus 90-minute recording of past website critiques.	Recordings of the four hour-long teleseminars and webinars and bonus 90-minute recording of past website critiques.
More than 40 pages of worksheets, advice, and resources for freelance-writing success.	More than 40 pages of worksheets, advice, and resources for freelance-writing success.	More than 40 pages of worksheets, advice, and resources for freelance-writing success.
A bonus, 1-hour Story Idea Lab podcast recording.	A bonus, 1-hour Story Idea Lab podcast recording.	A bonus, 1-hour Story Idea Lab podcast recording.
Option to join the Freelance Writers Den separately for additional support.	FREE 1-month membership in the Freelance Writers Den (a $25 value).	FREE 1-month membership in the Freelance Writers Den (a $25 value).
	Full participation in all four live calls — ask your questions via Chat and build camaraderie with other like-minded writers.	Full participation in all four live calls — ask your questions via Chat and build camaraderie with other like-minded writers.
	One initial email from Linda and Carol with feedback on the best writing niches that fit your life experience, and a critique of your writer website (a $75 value)	Two 30-minute phone mentoring sessions with both Carol and Linda (a $200 value) – one the week before the class starts and one after it ends — where we’ll explore your writing niche, critique your website, and answer your questions.
		Get a critique of a query or letter of introduction.

Grads earn more

More than 70 writers have been through this program, and e-mails are flowing in from our grateful students – like the one who earned more than $5,000 using advice she gleaned from the course. Or the writer who received her first $1/word assignment. Not to mention the writer who went from writing for $100 per month to commanding $1,000 per feature article.

Who is the Blast-Off for?

• Brand-new freelance writers
• Writers looking to move up from content mills
• Writers with a few clips who need to earn more writing income

What grads say about the Blast-Off class:

Thanks for the great advice — I just landed my first client. Being a content-mill survivor, it was really weird for me to quote $50 a blog post, but they accepted my rates and I will now have $1300-$1500 of work from them every month!

I used my last bit of money to sign up for the Blast-Off class and had $8 left in the bank. Now, I’m hoping to earn $2000 my first month. Thanks for all the help — and the support in Freelance Writer’s Den. –Robert Drake

I’ve recently encouraged several friends to enroll in the Blast Off, which gave me a hugely helpful jumpstart. Update: In the past couple months, I’ve picked up a freelance marketing gig and a tech company client — I’m blogging for them and would have had no idea what $$ to ask for if I hadn’t taken your course. That in itself more than paid for the class. I also launched my Plan B Nation blog–which in its first two months has been featured on New England NPR and named Website of the Week by SecondAct Magazine.–Amy Gutman, PlanB Nation .

“It’s an understatement how valuable this training has been for me. I just started freelancing this past January, so I am fairly new to this industry. After last week’s letter-of-intent/Query lesson, I put one together and sent it off (via email) to a few publications this week. I received a response immediately from a large technology magazine who wanted clips and my resume. A conference call this morning with 2 editors and bam! I’m now getting my largest assignment to date at $1.00 per word.  I am still shaking in my boots!

I am ecstatic over the short timeline of LOI submission to assignment. But I know it was what I’ve been learning in class, and more importantly applying it that made the difference. Now I have a better idea what to say to actually get my foot in the next door. Thanks Carol and Linda.–Rose McNeill, RoseWrites

Starting a career from scratch as a freelance writer without formal training in marketing or journalism feels like cliff-diving while you still need water wings. Since taking the class, I’ve gained one client and upgraded another from a $100-a-month blog gig to a contract for three features at $1,000 each. My new website was noticed immediately. Financial return: 1,600%. Confidence dividends: Priceless. –Christy Corp-Minamiji, Vet-Writer.

“I’ve been working as a professional writer and editor for nearly a decade, but this class has opened my eyes to new and expanded possibilities for my career. I feel more hopeful and confident with every class session. Carol and Linda are knowledgeable guides with an engaging style. What a wonderful investment in my career. Is there a part 2? Sign me up!”—Sarah Tieck

“I have taken many online and in-person workshops on freelance writing, but by far the best one I have taken was the Blast-Off course Carol Tice and Linda Formichelli offer together. Talk about a tag team! Two different styles of working, two different success stories – one serious “how-to” with some great direct answers and feedback about what has worked and not worked for them. It’s live, it’s interactive, and I made sure I didn’t miss a minute–it was that good. During the class, I recontacted an editor about a query I had sent — and got the assignment. It’s with a national magazine and my check from that will more than pay for the course. This class was the confidence boost that I needed, with the advice that got me to tweak that query and land that assignment.”–Rosa Lee Jude

What you’ll learn:

• Preclass: Mentoring students will get a live half-hour review your interests, appropriate markets for your talents, and a review of your writer website. Participation students get individual email feedback on your best markets and feedback on your writer website.
• Week one: All about markets. In this 1-hour Webinar, we’ll discuss all of the types of writing gigs available, and the differences between various publication and website types.
• Week two: Smart marketing. In this 1-hour Webinar, you’ll get a primer on all of the marketing strategies that get good results, and come up with a plan for how you will promote your writing business.
• Week three: Queries and letters of introduction. We’ll provide tips for grabbing editors’ attention and getting the sale with query letters and letters of introduction in this 1-hour teleclass.
• BONUS: Story Idea Lab – Listen in on a 1-hour recording in which we discuss our techniques for finding and developing story ideas that sell.
• Week four: Managing your freelance writing business. In our final, 1-hour class, we’ll talk time management, money management, how to negotiate rates — all the nuts and bolts of maximizing your earnings.
• Post-class (for Mentoring students): We’ll help you create your initial marketing plan and goals and answer any final questions in a second half-hour call.

Why did we start a group coaching program?

Mostly because you told us to.

We’re passionate about helping freelance writers grow their earnings, and we want to help as many writers as we can, as fast as we can. Our individual mentoring programs are helping some writers, but many writers let us know the $3-400 price tag was beyond their budget.

At the same time, we’ve learned something from one-on-one coaching: Support is important. We found writers who bonded with a support group tended to be more successful in pursuing their dreams of achieving better pay.

So we’ve created a course that provides better group support and offers options to fit all budgets.

We used to limit each Blast-Off class to just 14 students — and have sold out our spaces in as little as four hours.

Due to the demand, we’ve reformatted the class so we can accommodate an unlimited number of students, and 20 at our top level — while also providing more support and individual help than ever.

Did you miss out on past Blast-Offs? Here’s your chance to start 2012 with the tools to grow your income.

We’ll be offering the Freelance Writers Blast Off class only four times this year…so if you want to kick off 2012 with the knowledge and skills to land more writing assignments and make more money doing what you love — invest in your success today.

Meet the presenters:

Linda Formichelli is a longtime freelance writer and the co-author of The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success and The Renegade Writer’s Query Letters That Rock. Linda has written for more than 130 magazines — from USA Weekend to Redbook — and two dozen corporate clients, including Pizzeria Uno, OnStar, and Sprint. She teaches an 8-week course on breaking into magazines and also offers phone mentoring. Her blog is The Renegade Writer.

Carol Tice is a longtime freelance writer who’s earned more each year straight through the downturn. Her clients have included Alaska Airlines Magazine, Seattle Magazine, Entrepreneur, Costco, Lending Tree and many others. Her Make a Living Writing blog was named one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers 2011, and she recently opened the support community Freelance Writers Den. Carol’s e-book is Make a Living Writing: The 21st Century Guide.

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Praise for Carol’s Webinars:

The Webinar was fantastic. I really appreciated your answering all of the questions in Q&A, as I shared many of them. I’ve got three pages of notes and some ideas about how to move forward in my freelance career.–Patricia Woodside, Readinnwritin blog.

I wasn’t sure about taking this Webinar, but I’m glad I did. It was very helpful. I now have a game plan for finding work and especially for finding work that pays better. Thank you especially for emphasizing how important it is to have a website and for giving so many options for doing that. I’m confident that what I learned on this Webinar will pay for itself many times over. Thanks again. — Linda Young, Linda J. Young Writes

Praise for Linda’s one-on-one mentoring:

“The phone mentoring session was amazing! Linda answered all of my questions, and she gave me a lot of great advice on how to work more efficiently. She really helped me to get unstuck. Just a few days later, I landed an assignment with Spry magazine. I was thrilled. I would recommend the phone mentoring session to any newbie freelance writer.”
—Gail Short

“You’re good! I talked to you on what? Tuesday? And have a positive response (copied and pasted below) by Thursday! Holy cow, that’s the fastest any advice I’ve ever received has worked.”
—Karen Scott

“In just a half hour session, Linda distilled years of information in a way that was instantly accessible. I started getting paying assignments in just ten days after following through on just one of many suggestions! Although I am a seasoned writer and have had my name in print, getting insider tips from someone in the know is invaluable.”
— Yael Grauer

Praise for Carol’s one-on-one mentoring:

When I made the jump to freelance writing full-time, I had dozens of questions and gobs of concerns. Carol not only helped guide me in the right direction through her mentoring program, but she still provides ongoing support and encouragement that has directly resulted in my landing several high-paying writing opportunities. I’d recommend Carol’s services to anyone looking to jump-start their writing career. — James Patterson, OnPoint Writing and Communications