Real life can take a back seat

Now that all of the packing is done, I just have to venture back to the old apartment tomorrow to let the movers in for the big stuff. My lease isn't up until the end of August, so I will have plenty of time to clean and pick up those last few pieces of mail that I didn't get forwarded.

All my attention can now be focused on my writing career. Not that it's spectacular in any way, it's just that when I want to make money, I neglect my fiction. Fiction is the one writing style that I'm hoping to get paid for one day instead of writing 200 words on a keyword that doesn't make sense in any sentence. My schedule is working, and I'm glad I have to the determination to stick to it this time!

I can't neglect other areas of my writing either--such as this blog. You all are a big part of my motivation. Knowing that even just a few of you read my blog on a regular basis has pushed me to write better, more informative posts. You are keeping me accountable for what I put on the Internet, and I appreciate it.

To continue to show my appreciation, I'm also developing those interview questions I have been promising for the last few months. Once they are complete (no later than the end of September), I will send out requests to interview writers who blog or bloggers who write, depending on how they seem themselves. Those will be featured on Friday's posts.

I am also contemplating a change in the ads that I post on this blog. Right now, most are through pay-per-blog opportunities. I would rather have ads that better reflect the needs of the freelance writer/blogger, so once I come up with a fair price to place ads here, I will let you all know.

Choosing Hot Topics to Write About

Every freelance writer knows that choosing hot topics to write about is the best way to get page views. In many cases, the more page views an article receives, the more money the writer earns. With sites such as eHow, Triond, and Associated Content a writer needs to pay attention to popular topics in order to earn money each month.

There are a few simple ways that a writer can find popular topics to write about. First, pay attention to what you and your peers are searching for online. If you are searching for information on Obama's plans for healthcare reform, chances are others will be searching that topic and hitting the same sites. Knowing your own habits can also be a curse. If your interests fall into a small niche, such as collecting vintage copies of an author's work, writing about those topics may be fulfilling and interesting, but not profitable.

The next step is to check out what others are writing about. Look at a few articles with high page views. If you can reasonably add information to the topic or find a new angle to write about, your article can be just as popular. This also works with the individual writer. Using the same topic for multiple articles is an easy way for your readers to get more in-depth information from another supplement articles on the main topic. The result is that you have a good chance of getting more than one page view from many of your readers.

A third way to find hot topics to write about is look at the top keyword searches at Google, Yahoo!, or other top search engines. Take an interesting keyword and put it into a keyword suggestion tool to find similar keywords. These additional keywords can also turn into additional articles if you are searching on a broad topic such as "Crohn's disease."

The best way to write a profitable article is to just keep writing and pay attention to how long it takes to write a single article. Many writers have to time their articles just right in order to get the most page views. If you miss the peak of that topic, find another hot topic to write about.