Georganna at Writer’s Edge just posted some suggestions on how to overcome writers block. She got them from a film I have not seen yet, but it might be good to watch it.

View her post here:
www.writers-edge.info

It also got me thinking about something I use:
Do something else.

When I am stuck in one area of my work, I leave it be and do something else.

Now there is a negative side to this, sometimes the something else is not really productive (and then I feel bad and am even more blocked).

But when there are multiple projects where I can do some useful work, it is a great way to free any block.

And another realisation I had is that the time of day is absolutely essential. I am a morning person and I get far more done in the morning than any other time of day.

I know others who are night owls. I think it is best to follow the body and work whenever it is ready to function well.

Thanks for this stimulating post Georganna.

I noticed yesterday that we only had one Craigslist feed (the New York one) integrated into the Freelance Writing Jobs Feed.

If you have used Craigslist before, you know that you always have to select a city before you can see the ads that have been posted.

Well, in total there are 445 cities (or countries) that posts freelance writing jobs. Many of them can be done from anywhere.

They are now all included in our single feed. And if you subscribe via email, you will not miss a single job opportunity coming your way.

Thanks to the great feedback I received via email and at Absolute Write, we have improved the Freelance Writing Jobs Feed.

Every jobs now shows whether it comes from a bidding site (BID), from a site where you have to be a member (MEMBER) to see all the job details, or whether you can apply for free (FREE).

Additionally, the title shows the name of the site the jobs comes from. That way you know whether you are a member or are registered to bid at that site already.

Any other feedback would be great, and we’ll keep improving the service, so you can get the best jobs.

See freelance writing jobs now - click here.

I had my doubts about writers’ inability to overcome writers block before I actually started writing for a living. I thought it was for weak people, and wouldn’t apply to me since I was a fountain of creative ideas.

Boy was I wrong! In this article I am going to talk about writer’s block, when and why it seems to hit me, and some ways in which I attempt to overcome it.

It’s an area that I have really been struggling with lately, so any suggestions from other people would definitely be helpful!

Use proper grammar!

Before I proceed to the “meat” of this article I would like to get something quite clear. I am aware that “overcome writers block” is grammatically incorrect and that there are two different spellings in the body of this article.

The reason is that apparently it is spelled without an apostrophe as an important keyword, which goes to show a couple things. The first is that there are a lot of writers out there in the aspiring category, and the second is that I am a prostitute when it comes to grammatical values.

On to writer’s block

My standards aside, the incorrect grammar is a pretty good thing to start out with when it comes to writer’s block and writing for the Internet, because more often than not it is certain keywords or phrases that get my brain locked up for days and lately even weeks.

Some of the keywords I am required to use just don’t fit together on their own, let alone in a sentence (overcome writers block is not too bad at all). My English teachers would be ripping their hair out if they knew this was how I was using the things they taught me.

Outside Distractions

Another thing that I have found to be a big cause of writer’s block for what I do is outside distractions.

In analyzing my current dilemma, I am fairly aware that part of the problem is a possible responsibility overload. The long period of writer’s block that I am facing now comes on the heels of several major changes in my life; as of September, I had a new baby boy (and he is a MAJOR engager and very distracting).

My daughter started school with the additional responsibilities and stresses that brings, and I started to work with the youth group at my church. All this in addition to my other son, my wife, playing guitar at church four of every six Sundays and other life happenings!

So how do I kick it?

Unfortunately this answer is not so clear. For the most part, I have had to force myself to sit and stare at the computer until I get something produced, but it tends to take a lot out of me.

With the approach of the New Year, I have decided to try and combine all the problems and cover them in one or several resolutions.

1. I have to renew my commitment to my clients, two of whom have been quite patient with me.
2. Next I have to figure out which areas of my life I need to tone down in order to make room for the money (and no, it won’t be the kids!).

Will these strategies help to overcome writers block for me in the New Year? Well only time will tell and I will try and get back to you with the results in a few months. In the meantime, any help is greatly appreciated!

We have added some more sites to the feed, there are a total of 25 sites that contribute to this service.

The only two sites that we want to include but cannot are elance.com and guru.com. The former has an RSS feed without proper dates (it looks like all their posts have been made in the year 1900, so they never pop up in the latest 24 hour posts - but they have promised to fix it).

The latter just does not have any RSS feed on their site, but they have promised that they are working on it.

So we’ll see. I guess 158 jobs that have been posted in the last 24 hours is quite a chunk to work through anyway.

So best of luck with finding fantastic jobs. And we am looking forward to your feedback.

I have just put together an aggregated feed of writing jobs that are offered on the big bidding and job posting sites (currently we are tracking 25 sites). Rather than having to keep track of all sites, you can view the available jobs in one convenient location.

Freelance Writing Opportunities via email or feed reader

If you prefer to receive the latest jobs offers via email, just enter your email address on the right. You will receive the newly added job offers for the last 24 hours once a day. Your details are secure, we will not share them with anyone.
You can also use any feed reader to stay up to date.

Using this service is free for any writer. However, please be aware that some of the job sites need you to be a member before you can apply or bid for jobs. We will never charge you, but are paid by some sites for referrals we send their way.

We appreciate any feedback you have for us, so we can keep improving the service. Please comment.

Where do we get the Freelance Writing Jobs from?

Most of the sites are bidding sites. But we have also included some smaller sites that offer great freelance writing opportunities. We update the jobs that are displayed every 30 minutes, so you can be sure to get the latest.

Craig’s List

Elance.com - Read my review on elance and why it just got harder to get jobs.

GetACoder.com

Getafreelancer.com

GoFreelance.com

IFreelance.com - Read my review on ifreelance.

Indeed.com

Monster.com

ODesk.com

Project4Hire.com

RentACoder.com

Scriptlance.com

Yahoo Jobs

The smaller sites:

AgaveBlue.net

AuthenticJobs.com

BloggerJobs.biz

ContractedWork.com

CoroFlot.com

FreelanceSwitch.com

JournalismJobs.com

Krop.com

ProBlogger.net

VirtualVocations.com

WritingJobRoll.com

One important site we have not been able to integrate as yet is Guru.com (see review). But we are in contact to them to make that possible as well.

I think I admit on the site somewhere that Elance.com is where I have been finding freelance writing job opportunities for the better part of my (short) career. I say “admit” because as I look around at other sites for writers, a lot of them seem to have a problem with the Elance site. In fact it was through one author’s(Sharon Hurley Hall) complaining about Elance that I found my way over to the site.

I will be the first to admit that this is one bidding site that does have its flaws, but I have to temper that with the fact that it has definitely helped me springboard into full time writing for a living.

There seems to be some confusion among writers and those who offer writers advice on the changes that Elance first put through their system (check out webwritinginfo.com). I’d like to offer my take on this subject; as usual I see a few different angles to what Elance is doing.

The Good

Well there’s one thing I certainly can’t complain about, and that is the fact that Elance has changed their pay structure so that individual writers, like myself, are on a more even footing with the big companies.

My monthly fees are half what they used to be because I can’t keep up with companies who use ten writers to produce content, and I don’t need the full allotment of bids.

The Mixed

One grey area for me is the new Premium Provider program. It used to be that you paid a fee and got a Premium membership that let you bid on certain freelance writing job opportunities.

Now Elance has changed the process so that providers have to have over 90% positive bids over a period of six months, have had to have at least two original clients in the past six months, and have to keep their membership fees updated.

The last requirement I have no problem with, nor do I have any problem with the idea behind the first requirement.

Still, I think Elance needs to do a lot of work in clarifying their feedback system and making it a little bit more fair for providers if they truly want to reflect the merit of companies (currently what any client says goes, no matter how demonstrably outrageous the claims and feedback scores).

The Bad

When it comes to finding more than two original clients each month, though, as an individual writer I take exception. Just as with the feedback, this seems to be tailored to give the writing mills an advantage over the individuals on the site. Easy enough to get new clients every week when you are willing to bid $5 for a 500 worder!

The Confusing

For reasons that are not very clear, Elance has decided to call bids “connects”. It sounds nice but still, what really is the point?

Also, the new sponsored bid program is a bit of a joke. Under his program, you can use two of your “connects” to get top placement in the bid section. Only two sponsors per posting though; I don’t really see how this idea works for anyone but Elance, who of course want providers to purchase additional connects as often as possible.

Conclusion

So the changes that Elance has made are not all bad, in fact the price change in particular is great for individual writers.

Still, Elance really has to take a look at their feedback process if they really want to be fair both to buyers and providers, and this still has not been addressed. In fact, it is a problem that may be exacerbated under the new rules.

Even though, I still use Elance to find freelance writing job opportunities.

We want to help you become familiar with writing for the Internet. Especially if you are serious about establishing a freelance writing career.

There probably is no better opportunity for freelance writers in the world than the Internet. In fact there are those who suggest that e-newspapers and e-zines will someday, perhaps very soon, replace printed materials.

That may be so, but the Internet still has a long way to go before it reaches what can truly be called a professional calibre of writing.

The more writers are interested in truly bringing value to the information that can be found on the Internet the better. That means that my focus is on those writing for the Internet with commitment and skill. I want to make sure they know how to apply it.

Right now a quick look around the Internet will demonstrate that there are a lot (and I do mean a LOT) of snake oil salesmen. In fact I think the Internet is the true Final Frontier; people can create a whole new reputation and then use that to manipulate others to their advantage in all areas, and that includes writing.

Many sites out there claim the ability to help you start a freelance writing career, but how many actually succeed? Most of the sites I have been to are really no more than arenas for aspiring writers to posture and judge; as far as practical information that leads to cash in your hand, they are pretty much useless.

With that in mind, I have made a list of some things to look for when it comes to a site that claims to help one write for the Internet.

1. Are there facts and figures?
   The problem with the Internet is that anyone can claim to be someone they are not, and it can be pretty hard to tell if a site’s claims are legitimate or not.
   One thing I look for in a site that claims to have first-hand knowledge about making a living writing are facts and figures. What kind of money does the developer make a month? Where does he or she find jobs? Writers are an elusive bunch, and that isn’t just online; there are plenty of books out there that claim to be great writing resources, but just don’t offer any solid information.
2. Are there obvious mistakes?
   One website I really enjoy is www.stevepavlina.com. He is straightforward and I have referred people to him a couple of times on this website.
   I do take what he says with a grain of salt though, and here’s why: in an article on blogging for money, he claims to make $1000 a day off of his website. He then goes on to say that he only ever does the website as a part time job; in other words, he still retains a job outside of the Internet. Now it could be that Steve loves his land job so much that he does it for the fun, but I do tend to question anyone who makes $30,000 a month but still works another job. Crazy or embellishing, take your pick.
3. Grammar and spelling.
   Every writer knows that there are going to be some mistakes when it comes to grammar and spelling in any piece, no matter how hard you check. All of us have tunnel vision when it comes to our own work, so a few mistakes here and there shouldn’t turn you off totally when it comes to a site.
   If there are constant mistakes throughout all the pages on the site, though, ones that go way beyond simple typos, the odds are pretty good that the site is not a very good resource when it comes to writing for the Internet.

Those are just a few of the things I recommend looking at when you find a potential resource about writing for the Internet. Even on sites where you find some of the flaws I listed above, you will probably be able to glean some useful bits of information. Just make sure to be careful about taking everything they say as Gospel truth!