© Martin Green - Fotolia.com

The freelance writing process – it’s different for all of us I bet. Shoot, my own freelance writing process varies from one day to the next and from one project to the next. For example, sometimes I’ll have an article completely written in my head long before I power on the computer. Other times, I have no clue what I’m going to write until I start typing. Sometimes keyword research is involved; other times, academic research. Sometimes I outline; other times I follow a basic formula. Other times (like right now), I wing it and then go back and reorganize after the fact.

In general, my writing process involves:

• Brainstorming – What do I want to write about? What angle should I take? Is the topic assigned or can I come up with my own ideas?
• Percolating – Once I have some ideas, I let them percolate. I love that the subconscious mind works while I do other things.
• Outlining – My outlines are extremely loose: intro, key point 1, key point 2, key point 3, conclusion. But, at least I know what my main points are and in what order I’ll discuss them. My outlines may or may not be written down.
• Research – Depending on the topic, research may take place before or during the writing process.
• Writing – My favorite part of the writing process is actually stringing the words together.
• Proofreading and revising - My least favorite part of the writing process. I really need to pay more attention to this part, but once I’m done with my favorite part, writing, I’m anxious to move on to the next project.

What about you? What’s your writing process like? Share your thoughts below.

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The Internet is filled with keyword tools, many of which are well known. Soovle isn’t all that well known. However, as far as keyword tools go, it’s fairly unique. It’s more of a search engine than a keyword tool, but it’s useful nonetheless. Use Soovle for:

• Checking out your keyword phrases
• Seeing how different search engines “predict and recommend” results
• Getting new keyword phrase ideas

Soovle takes your search entry and displays recommendations by other search engines and authorities such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Amazon, and YouTube. The results appear in real time, changing as you continue filling out your search entry. Finally, when you have completed your entry, Soovle presents you with one search result vetted from the collective recommendations. While this is a good way to find a relevant result, it’s also good to see what keyword phrases the other search engines recommend.

By looking at the predictions, you’ll see what the search engines are prompting to users as the users search. Since some users will accept the recommendations, it’s not a bad idea to target those recommended keyword phrases.

Soovle can also help you think of new article ideas. For example, if you enter the phrase “keyword tools” into Soovle, you’ll see predictions as you type that include phrases such as:

• Keyword linguistics
• Keyword strategies
• Keyword research

Each of those phrases could lend itself to a fresh article optimized for phrases recommended by major search engines.

Your turn: Use keyword tools like Soovle today to generate a new article idea and write an optimized article around one of the recommended phrases. Come back and let us know how it worked out.

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Annoyed by something? Have a pet peeve? Why not write an article about it? I don’t mean a rant; I mean a useful article.

For example, what if you’re still using Word 2003 and your colleagues and clients keep sending you .docx files made in Word 2007 or 2010? Instead of being annoyed that you can’t open these documents, a little research will reveal how you can update Word 2003 to be compatible with the newer .docx format. Use this information to solve your annoying problem as well as help other users in similar situation solve theirs.

Post your finished article on Constant-Content.com or one of the revenue-sharing sites and profit from your pet peeve.

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