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The Ventriloquist’s Guide to Get Your Client’s Voice Right for Ghostwriting

The Ventriloquist's Guide to Ghostwriting. Makealivingwriting.com.Have you ever wondered how to master the voice of a ghostwriting client?

When you’re starting out, ghostwriting can be a little tricky. You have to learn how to think and write like your client, and separate that from your own thoughts and writing style.

It’s a lot like a ventriloquist trying to master the skills to bring a doll to life.

When I picked up my vent-figure doll “Dexter Darling,” I had a lot to learn to develop his voice and personality. In the beginning, I wasn’t very good at it. But it’s a skill you can learn, and so is ghostwriting.

After plenty of practice, Dexter Darling and I hit the road to perform at local library shows.

When the audience enjoyed his one-liners and funny antics more than anything I had to say, I realized the process was a lot like ghostwriting.

Here are a few tricks I’ve learned as a ventriloquist to be a better ghostwriter:

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The Ultimate Antidote to Stop Attracting Bad Freelance Writing Jobs

The Antidote for Bad Freelance Writing Jobs. Makealivingwriting.com.Bad freelance writing jobs. It’s a problem I’ve heard from other writers ever since I started this blog and first wrote this post. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s the antidote. Enjoy! —Carol.

Nearly every freelance writer I’ve ever met has had some bad freelance writing jobs.

And for some freelancers, it’s practically a chronic disease fraught with some of the worse offenders:

You know the types:

  • The control freak who wants to instant-message you 24/7.
  • The dreamer who wants the moon, but doesn’t have time to tell you how to fly there and get it for them.
  • The dysfunctional nutjob who doesn’t really know *what* they want…until they see what you wrote. Then they know, that’s not it.
  • The fly-by-night who disappears with your final payment.
  • Last but certainly not least, the super-low payer.

If you’re sick of bad freelance writing jobs, sick-in-the-head clients, and pay rates that make it hard to breathe, here’s the antidote:

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LinkedIn Marketing for Writers: 4 Steps to Get Email Addresses FREE!

LinkedIn Marketing: 4 Steps to Get Email Addresses FREE! Makealivingwriting.com.Do you have a LinkedIn marketing strategy in place to connect with editors and marketing managers in your niche?

Or are you trying to track down a source with a specific set of skills or credentials?

If you just had their email address, it would make things a lot easier. Right?

With an estimated 500 million registered users, LinkedIn makes it easy to find contacts in any niche or industry and make a connection. (If you don’t have a LinkedIn marketing strategy in place as a freelance writer, you should.)

But once you make a connection with a prospect, do you have to rely on the InMail feature inside LinkedIn to pitch a story idea or send a letter of introduction? No.

Or maybe you’ve thought about paying for LinkedIn Premium ($47.99 and up) just to be able to send InMail to people who aren’t in your network yet. There’s a better way.

In fact, there’s a LinkedIn marketing strategy you can use to get the email address for every person you connect with for FREE in just four simple steps. Here’s how it works:

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Use This Pampered Freelancer’s Way to Tap a New Niche Market

Reach Your Niche Market the Pampered Freelancer's Way. Makealivingwriting.com.How do you break into a new niche market without any samples or connections?

Ask Waze the quickest route to freelance success, and it would present one option so much more profoundly efficient than the others that you wouldn’t dream of ditching it.

In fact, a blinking red stop sign would likely appear with six bold words: “Go straight to a niche market.”

But if you’ve never been to that place called Niche Market before, how do you get there? Let me just say, a little pampering might made your journey from where you are to where you want to be as a freelance writer a little easier.

The absolute quickest way to earn more opportunities, improve your authority, get to know key players in your industry, move up and earn more is easy…tap into a niche market.

But how do you do that if you’re just starting out? Here’s how I went from zero contacts and clips in a niche market to landing a major magazine assignment:

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25 Amazing Break-In Stories on How to Be a Freelance Writer

Breaking In: How to Be a Freelance Writer. Makealivingwriting.com.How much time have you spent thinking about how to be a freelance writer?

If it’s always on your mind, what are you waiting for? Just start.

That might sound too simple if you have a million things buzzing inside your brain about how to be a freelance writer like choosing a niche, finding clients, setting rates, productivity, mindset, writing skills, and more.

But here’s the thing. There’s no better way to learn the business and craft of freelance writing than to jump in, get started, and carve out a niche for yourself.

Take one step, and then another. Move up and earn more. Get a couple of solid writing samples, raise your rates, and keep going.

You can’t do any of that if you’re stuck on waiting to find the perfect path for how to be a freelance writer instead of just getting started.

Be a writer, not a waiter. That’s what you’ll learn from the 25 amazing break-in stories from freelance writers featured in this post. Ready to get started?

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Use This Clever, Gutsy Freelancer’s Strategy to Find an Email Address

The Gutsy Freelancer's Way to Find an Email Address. Makealivingwriting.com.Ever struggled to find an email address for a prospect?

You check the website for the business or magazine you want to pitch. You do an exhaustive online search. You even use software apps to try and find an email address for the right person. But all you get is frustration.

Do you settle for the black-hole of email addresses and send your pitch to info@ or editor@ and hope for the best? Don’t do that, OK. There’s a better way.

It’s time to put on your big-girl pants and be a little more clever and gutsy. If you have to work to find an email address, you might as well make it fun.

Using my brilliant tactic, I have never been denied the email address I want. Never!

You’ll need to pick up the phone and leverage the art of creative rhetoric to make it happen (some writer’s might need a personal pep-talk to get started).

But it’s worth it to find an email address for a prospect you can turn into a client. Here’s how I do it:

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