Blog Writing

TrainSplit

When Fi’s adventures by train caught the eye of ticket-splitting experts TrainSplit, they were keen to get her on board with their web content. With an focus on sustainable transport, all of these advice and suggestion articles have been about how swapping the car for the train can enhance a variety of outdoor adventures.

How to find walking routes from train stations

Five fantastic walks you can get to by train

Strawberry Skys Yurts

One of the joys of working with hospitality businesses is the opportunity to stay in fabulous locations. Fi was more than happy to experience a couple of nights in a beautiful Welsh yurt and has been enjoying writing informative, friendly and SEO driven posts for this client ever since.

The joys of campfire cooking

Red kites in Wales

Flycast Media (UK)

Flycast Media are a quality marketing agency in London specialising in web design and inbound marketing. Our ongoing brief for them is to meet the regular blog requirements of their website clients. Blog posts written for marketing purposes have a dual role, to provide informative content that builds brand trust, and to promote high domain authority and search engine ranking.  With careful research, keyword placement and an understanding of style and tone, our articles continue to have impact for Flycast clients.

Arlington Residential

Hart Water Softeners

Upskilled (Australia)

Upskilled are one of Australia’s leading Registered Training Organisations. Our brief was to help build their reputation as a hub for careers advice whilst encouraging interest in their online training courses. They were so pleased with our work that we are now weekly contributors to the Upskilled blog. For this project, writing often takes an easy-to-read ‘listicle’ approach that blends solid statistical research with light-weight, informative content.

Why Upskilling is the secret to career success

Online learning pathways into tech jobs

Two Blondes Walking

The project that introduced Fi to the world of blogging and online marketing, Two Blondes Walking has gone from strength to strength since its conception in 2012. Eleven years of blog writing has given a wealth of practical and creative experience and, with an ever growing daily readership, the success of this outdoor writing project has been undeniable.

Discovering the England Coast Path

Can insect repellent clothing help you avoid tick bites?

 

Outdoor Writing

It could rightly be said that, as an outdoor writer living in Devon, Fi is ideally situated. With two National Parks, the South West Coastal Path, and amazing adventure opportunities on her doorstep, she has plenty to offer her growing portfolio of outdoor clients. Fi is particularly interested in sustainable transport and has been building a diverse (some might say ‘bizarre’) collection of adventures by train.

Fi also teaches navigation skills and loves weaving the stories of adventure, creating entertaining walks, and giving outdoor advice. Her portfolio of outdoor writing clients includes:

  • Countryfile Magazine – walks, articles, outdoor gear reviews
  • TrainSplit – walks, articles, advice
  • Ordnance Survey – Get Outside, Walk London, Secret Stories
  • Campervan Magazine
  • TGO Magazine
  • The Outdoor Guide
  • Two Blondes Walking

Countryfile Magazine

As a big BBC Countryfile fan, Fi has been thrilled to make regular contributions to Countryfile Magazine  since 2019. This particular writing mission has taken her to some fantastic locations. She’s also written in depth about Dartmoor wild camping, given some useful navigation tips, and is currently engaged in writing a series of outdoor gear reviews.

View Fi’s Countryfile Magazine portfolio

TrainSplit

When Fi’s adventures by train caught the eye of ticket-splitting experts TrainSplit, they were keen to get her on board with their web content. With an focus on sustainable transport, all of these advice and suggestion articles have been about how swapping the car for the train can enhance a variety of outdoor adventures.

How to find walking routes from train stations

Five fantastic walks you can get to by train

Ordnance Survey – Walk London

When a project involves maps and writing, Fi really does get excited. Working with fellow Get Outside champion Belinda Dixon, Fi was proud to provide research and copy for this most innovative of products. Featuring routes through three Royal Parks and along the London section of the Thames Path, the Walk London map guides you through some of the capital’s most popular green spaces. This really is a unique and brilliant way to explore London.

“Thank you so much for your efforts, patience, advice and of course your beautiful words.”

Paul Cross, Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey – Secret Stories

There was certainly plenty of fun to be had with this family-friendly app. The brief was to take a Horrible Histories approach to short walking tours. Working on tours in Edinburgh, Torbay and Dartmoor, Fi introduced children to the Black Death, Agatha Christie, mermaids and pirates (but perhaps not all at once).

This project was route planning at its most fascinating with plenty to consider along the way. From pushchair accessible routes to intriguing local stories, writing for Ordnance Survey’s Secret Stories required a detailed yet humorous and exciting approach eye for detail.

‘Fi came highly recommended by another member of Ordnance Survey’s Consumer Team and she did not disappoint. Her work is always precise, always on time and she can turn her hand to any style. From sparkling, child-friendly humour to detailed, directional information, her knowledge and passion for the outdoors shines through. She is also adept at creating content across many formats, from print guidebooks to digital apps.’

Mary Malyon, Content Editor, Ordnance Survey’s Secret Stories app

Ordnance Survey – Get Outside Champion

With an ongoing brief to support their highly successful Get Outside campaign, Fi’s writing focus for mapping giant Ordnance Survey has been on information and encouragement. Results have been impressive with all three of the below articles ranking consistently in Google top 5 search results.

  

Ordnance Survey – Hammock Camping

Ordnance Survey – Dartmoor Wild Camping

Ordnance Survey – Night Navigation

Campervan Magazine

Fi does have an office but is just as happy travelling around and writing in her Toyota Granvia campervan Greta. She was thrilled when her first musings on the digital nomad lifestyle were picked up by Campervan Magazine and she has enjoyed writing for them.

   

TGO Magazine

TGO (The Great Outdoors) is a prestigious outdoor magazine and Fi was pleased to have an article published about her favourite place to walk, Dartmoor National Park. This was a ‘Where the Locals Walk’ article. TGO Magazine tends to focus on more mountainous regions than Devon so Fi is hoping to persuade them to head southwest more often.

 

Gander Outdoors

Gander Outdoors are big players in the USA outdoor market, with an impressive range of outdoor equipment covering everything from hiking shoes to RVing. Our brief was simple, Gander Outdoors wanted to add value to their customer experience with blog posts covering a range of tried and tested camping tips and ideas. We took a product-first approach and set out to entertain as well as inform. This gig required us to write in US English, which we are, of course, happy to do.

Choosing the Perfect Sleeping Bag

Two Blondes Walking

Two Blondes Walking was Fi’s first blogging project and, seven years worth of daily outdoor blogging later, it has gone from strength to strength leading to over-subscriptions for outdoor courses, TV appearances for BBC and ITV and regular influencer marketing requests. Supplying a daily mixture of outdoor advice, gear reviews and location guides, Two Blondes articles cover a range of genres, from light hearted humour to strong opinion and comment, in a cornucopia of readable styles.

 

 

 

My website needs a blog – where do I start?

Why does my website need a blog?

If your beautifully designed and eye-catching website isn’t presenting itself on the first page of Google searches (SERPs) then you have a problem; most people don’t look beyond this key first page, which means that most people aren’t going to even see your website. Continue reading “My website needs a blog – where do I start?”

5 tips on Choosing the Right Freelance Writing Job from an Online Jobs Board

If you don’t want to use up precious writing (and money earning) time seeking out freelance writing clients and pitching ideas to them, then online jobs boards can be a quick and easy way to find writing jobs that allow you to work from home. Continue reading “5 tips on Choosing the Right Freelance Writing Job from an Online Jobs Board”

How to Get Paid for Writing Quality Blog Posts

If there is one thing we here at Fi Darby Freelance are good at, it is writing blog posts. The life of a blogger is a happy one, you get to research and put down in words all kinds of interesting facts and figures, you also, if you write your own personal blog, get to go out and do interesting things that you can write about. Making money from blog writing takes experience and practice but it can be done. Today we have 6 top blog writing tips that will help you to write blog posts that clients will pay for. Continue reading “How to Get Paid for Writing Quality Blog Posts”

UK English Versus American English

With the continuation of globalisation and the rise of the gig economy most blog or web article copywriters will find themselves with clients from all over the world. This is great news because diversity makes our job much easier but the version of English required by clients can vary from country to country and subtle differences in spelling, word meaning or grammar can catch the unwary copywriter out and irritate clients. We look at some of the key differences between UK English and American English.

Choose the right version of English

If you aren’t sure whether your client wants you to write in UK or American English be certain to ask. Mainland USA obviously uses American English but so do some of the areas of the world that the USA frequently trades or has historical connections with such as Japan, South Korea and Jordan. Most Caribbean countries also opt for American English but those that are part of the Commonwealth prefer the UK version.

American vocabulary is not always the same as English vocabulary

Most of us are used to understanding some of the common USA/UK vocabulary differences. Word interchanges like ‘tap’ and ‘faucet’ or ‘football’ and ‘soccer’ are well known. However, when you are a busy copywriter it is easy to slip up and miss some of the more subtle vocabulary differences. For example, if you are writing a travel post and use the sentence, ‘The coach arrived late’, there is a chance that your audience might be searching for a previous reference to a sports instructor. If you are ever unsure, considering checking with your client which version they prefer. If you don’t want to do that, there is help out there on the web. Oxford Dictionaries, for example, have a fairly comprehensive list of British words and expressions alongside their American equivalents. Some that you might want to watch out from a content point of view include:

  1. ‘car park’ (UK) and ‘parking lot’ (USA)
  2. ‘aluminium’ (UK) and ‘aluminum’ (USA)
  3. ‘current account’ (UK) and ‘checking account’ (USA)
  4. ‘estate agent’ (UK) and ‘real estate agent’ or ‘realtor’ (USA)
  5. ‘pay packet’ (UK) and ‘pay envelope’ (USA)

Learn the common differences between English and US spelling

Whilst it is possible to check any UK and US spelling differences online (Grammarist is a great place to do this) or alter your word processor’s grammar setting to the country of your choice, it will speed up your writing and help you avoid mistakes if you learn some of the basic spelling differences between English and US spelling.

  1. Word ending in ‘ise’ or ‘yse’ in UK English will be correctly spelt with ‘ize’ or ‘yze’ for an American audience. For example, organise/organize.
  2. UK English words that end in ‘our’ will typically be spelt with ‘or’ in USA English. For example, neighbour/neighbor.
  3. Words that in UK English end in ‘ce’ are often written with ‘se’ in American English. It should be noted that the rules for these in UK English can be complicated (usually ‘ce’ for a noun and ‘se’ for a verb).

American punctuation is not always the same as English punctuation

Apart from the obvious issues surrounding the cultural differences between ‘full stops’ and ‘periods’ American punctuation is very similar to English with a couple of key exceptions:

  1. Americans tend to use double quotation marks whereas single ones are more common in English (both are acceptable although not in the same document).
  2. In USA English it is usual for a comma to be placed before the ‘and’ at the end of a list. In UK English this would be incorrect.

We have only picked out a few of the differences between UK English and US English. It is important not to be put off a job just because you will need to write in the version of English that is no so familiar to you. Instead, spend some time reading related blogs and articles in the same version. You will find that this will help to familiarise you with language and grammar expectations. Set your spelling and grammar checker to the version you require and it will do most of the hard work for you. Language is not a static beast and in a few years time, these rules may well have changed. At Fi Darby Freelance we say embrace the differences, they may not be with us for much longer!

For a friendly and experienced chat about web content development for your project in either US or UK English please feel free to get in touch with us at Fi Darby Freelance.

 

 

 

What is a blog?

Almost the first question clients ask us is, ‘What is a blog?’ Hardly surprising, we are surrounded online by all sorts of web content. Social media posts, articles, reviews, product descriptions, the list is endless and sometimes confusing.

The answer is simple: blog is a portmanteau (blended) word created from ‘web’ and ‘log’ which was entered into the Oxford English Dictionary in March 2003. In effect a blog is an online diary. Blogs tend to consist of short articles, written in a friendly tone that are regularly updated. The other common feature of modern blogs is interactivity, i.e. the ability for users to comment and engage in two-way conversation. All of this is great but blogs take time to create and manage.

People read blogs because they are interesting; many of them appeal to niche interests. For example, my outdoors blog Two Blondes Walking is very popular and almost all of our followers love getting outside. People write blogs for different reasons but the main two are: a) because they love their subject and enjoy writing. b) to gain a following.

There is some blog-based terminology, none of it is too complicated:

blog = ‘web’ + ‘log’ (also a verb ‘to blog’)

blogger = the blog’s author (some bloggers have multiple blogs)

blogging = the act of writing a blog

blog post = one section of writing (this could be weekly, monthly or even like Two Blondes, daily)

live blog = a blog written in short snippets as an event is happening

blogosphere = the wide and varied community of bloggers on the internet

blogroll = a list of blogs to which you subscribe

subscribe = sign up to receive updates when new blogs are posted

comment = join in a conversation about a particular blog topic

share = tell other people that you have enjoyed a blog post, usually through social media

You can share this blog post if you like and make this blogger very happy. Our next post will explain why all businesses should seriously consider including a blog on their website.

Ever wondered what SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is? We have some answers for you:

http://www.fidarby.co.uk/2017/01/11/so-what-exactly-is-seo/

The gig economy – the pros and cons of working from home

Freelance writing isn’t the only way you can earn money working from home. The ‘gig economy’ has become so important in the US that it even found a place in the presidential race. In London alone there are over 30,000 Uber drivers and we are starting to see interesting court cases about employment law and employee rights.

Continue reading “The gig economy – the pros and cons of working from home”