For 26 years until late 2012, I was a secondary school teacher of Accounting, Business, Economics and Computing. And then I wasn’t. I had to discover a new career direction; something that would still engage my brain and keep me mentally alive. It took a while, but eventually, I settled on writing posts for small business blogs.

Alright, let’s be realistic. I didn’t go from high school teacher to freelance writer of small business blogs overnight. There were tough times as I transitioned. There were also periods of indecision and lack of direction.

But gradually I found my calling as a freelance writer. And it all came down to my life-long interest in British t.v. series, Doctor Who. Florida businessman, Freddie Laker, was looking for somebody to help him with his innovation and technology blog, Take Me To Your Leader. Freddie saw my profile on UpWork and noticed that I ran an old website called Doctor Who Products. He decided that it made me quirky enough to write for his blog. As a result, he appointed me to help him.

Before that, I had written some one-off blog posts, often not knowing where the posts would end up. I did write a series of posts about startups for about six months. I find that they were being translated into Japanese. Presumably are somewhere online in their Japanese version.

A problem with writing these one-off and short-term sets of posts was that I never generated any true sense of ownership for the posts. I felt that I was just a commodity – a living, breathing writing-machine.

Technology

It was the Take Me to Your Leader posts that reminded me how much I enjoyed writing about technology. Sure, I’m no longer a cutting-edge twenty-something starting my working career. Nor Have I owned the latest, greatest, flashest phone or gadget. But I still love to read and write about technological advancement.

While Take Me To Your Leader was really Freddie’s personal technology blog – it did introduce me to the world of writing for small business blogs. At the time, Freddie was the Chief Marketing Officer for facial recognition company, Kairos. He brought me in for the first half of 2015 to write all the Kairos blog posts.

I have to admit that I started this writing with some trepidation – I didn’t know anything at that stage about facial recognition software. I was lucky enough to be given access to Kairos’ inner circle and could chat via Slack with their entire team. Their Chief Technical Officer or one of his team was always happy to answer my questions and go through any posts I wrote.

During my time writing for Kairos one of my best friends died, and I was permitted to write a blog post for Kairos as a memorial to him – Face Recognition is Fundamental to Your Memories.

I have continued to write on technological issues since my stint at Kairos. One of the sites where I wrote over 30 posts is voice recognition software company, Rank Miner. Although new posts are now infrequent, I still operate Rank Miner’s social media accounts on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Marketing

Nowadays, I really enjoy writing small business blogs on marketing topics. Indeed I have built up a speciality in influencer marketing almost by accident, as I wrote about in my recent post on How Can Influencer Marketing Help Your Business.

The more I learn about marketing the more I enjoy writing about its different facets. This also led me to me picking up several gigs as a writer for Gingerbread Marketing.

I have since had the opportunity to put some of my marketing writing into practice as a copywriter for various business websites, where I have to write the words on the web pages in a salesy, yet informative, way. Hopefully, the sites are now converting well for their online sales.

Writing About Writing

As my writings skills have developed I have enjoyed writing more regularly about the process of blogging and writing itself. Apart from my tales for this site, I have had the opportunity to ghostwrite for several sites on various facets of writing and operating a blog.

Small Businesses

I have one client (who I won’t  name as I ghostwrite for him) who has asked me to write detailed long-form posts as him on such topics as setting up your business from home, how to land your dream job, best online business courses, and ways to be more productive.

I very much enjoy writing about these topics, to the point that I am slowly altering this site, with Larry’s help, to have a greater emphasis on how to survive, and thrive, online with your own business.

Perhaps my love of writing about small business stems from my days as a Business Studies teacher. I mentored Young Enterprise companies of high school students setting up small businesses. It was very much my favourite part of the teaching career.

Organisation and Personal Development

Alright,  Larry is the guru when it comes to personal development writing. His Healthy Lifestyles Living is one of the best personal development blogs in the world. But it is a topic of writing I also enjoy.

As part of my Gingerbread Marketing work, I wrote a few posts for the productivity app, FocusMe. This included a piece on 3 Things You Will Regret When Wasting Time Online.

Small Business Blogs in General

I have written posts for a wide range of small business blogs on niche topics. For six months I wrote about swings sets for Backyard Discovery. I write about decks for One Stop Deck Shop. I wrote about basement renovations for Craftsman Custom. Believe it or not, I even wrote about sewer plugs for a client – now that was challenging!

Some topics can be difficult, particularly when you have to find new interesting, informative content month after month. But they are all rewarding in their own way.

If you are somebody looking at making a living online, then freelance writing for small business blogs can make you an acceptable living. With the need for constant research, you are also learning of the time, which must be a good thing.

If you are a small business on the lookout for a blog writer, feel free to contact me at a.r.loader@gmail.com.