Do I really need a blog?

[Kiki Rodriguez]

I am soooo lost right now guys! Like seriously confused.... blllaah! ;(

Do I actually need a blog? I understand the portfolio as a resume even tho I have nothing to put on it... But what is the blog for? Just to practice writing.... That sounds pretty lame and a waste of time.

I guess I'm also asking what should I do? I have no real experience other than the few articles that I wrote for my "client". My resume has nothing to do with writing. How do I get a client with nothing to show them? Ahhhh!!! I'm getting frustrated...:((

Thank you for being so nice!! I hope this place stays around or whatevr it is doing.. :))

[blueroomwriting]

To expand your portfolio I would suggest the same advice that was given to me by a knowledgable bloke in Skype. He told me to write up a fake brief (making it clear that it is fake) and write the advert/copy/whatever based off that. If you need help writing the brief you only have to Google advertisement brief example, or suchlike, and you will be away.

Now, do you need a blog? No. But if you want one, what would you post on this blog? Your portfolio? Seems like a waste to me. Your portfolio should be a clear, easy-to-navigate, collection of your best work not a series of blog posts that a potential client must trawl through. A blog, however, can be incredibly useful for increasing your writing pace and for you to find joy in writing. If you're struggling as to what to post, just take a look at a few that are around. Hey, you could start with mine ;)
SmallSmilingPrincess.Wordpress.com for poetry and
BlueRoomWriter.Wordpress.com for book reviews (and some upcoming essays)

I hope that's answered at least some of your questions and has settled your panic a little.

Regards,
Andrew

[FWPMikeyDee]

Kiki, 

So sorry for late reply, but now that Andrew is here, he answered everything almost exactly as I would have said. The only difference that I would make is this simple thing: Create your main, simple portfolio site that has a blog as well. Now this may seem confusing but I'll explain as best as I can. 

Your portfolio site is what you want your clients to see. However, a portfolio site doesn't have enough SEO content on it for your clients to find it thus you're stuck actively marketing your portfolio which means a lot of time querying, bidding or finding clients with a small chance of actually landing them. By including a blog, you can draw clients to your site and establish a passive marketing campaign. (And Ki, don't worry your little head about this, I will show you the way of the Freelance Jedi) We'll tailor your blog to the niche that you want to target. Let's say that you love DIY projects and could write for days about them. Then we do a bunch of tecno babble to figure out your keywords, client base, where they congregate on the web and a number of other things too involved for the scope of this post. 

Once we have your content strategy set in stone, we begin writing SEO posts. Once all that is setup, with my help we could do it in a day or two, you can start focusing on finding clients, learning styles of writing and engaging your niche clients on the socials, forums, blogs and sites where they congregate. This will start building your community interaction, niche expertise and backlinks.

 In our DIY example, we want to find web owners of DIY or construction sites, other DIY bloggers, businesses that help DIYers, etc etc etc. Then we start discussions, leave comments with your blog link, query site, business and blog owners for guest posts, targeted proposals detailing a unique idea for a post beneficial to their readers and generally building connections and networks. 

I'll stop now before I continue to overwhelm you with info-overload. Seriously though Ki, hit the new Contact Michael page and I will guide you step by step. Oh, the ultimate goal of all of the above is to get your portfolio with a side blog established with some posts so that you can set it and forget it. Then you make a new post every week, or more if you have time, and eventually you'll have established a passive marketing campaign that organically brings the clients to you. In the meantime, you'll go out and market yourself aggressively in every single market related to your DIY niche. Ok I'll stop!!!!!! I have so much to tell you. The Contact Me page is yours and every members direct access to me. We will talk more asap. Sleep tight and don't the freelance bugs keep you sleepless tonight. 

All the very best,

Michael

[FWPMikeyDee]

Andrew,

I am adding your blogs to the Blogs I Like sidebar of FWP. Feel free to add FWP to yours. Thanks and awesome post!

Best,

Michael