I really need to focus on breaking into ghostwriting for trade publications. I’ve been writing for trades across several industries for my entire career, so the work itself wouldn’t be a big stretch, but finding potential clients would.

Anne, thank you.

Sharon, thanks as well. That's exactly right. Promotion and simply doing pro bono work are not the same things. Are there some "clients" who try to cross that line by swearing their unpaid projects will offer "exposure?" Sure. But freelancers are business owners, and as such it's our responsibility to be able to tell the difference. My basic rule is this: if they're blatantly soliciting unpaid work (especially if they're making money and not a registered nonprofit organization), that's not marketing or PR. That's being taken advantage of. (And even in the nonprofit case I don't suggest taking on free work unless you do it because you're passionate and would donate your time anyway, and you do it outside of hours reserved for business.)

You're also absolutely right about some paying work having bonus promotional benefits. I don't advocate obsessing over bylines if you can get higher-paying work elsewhere. But it's a good point to remember you can get exposure while you're getting paid (something Lori and I talked about on the podcast recently re: Huffington Post). Writers just have to remember a boost from a byline is not the same thing as more strategic marketing and PR, where the articles or posts are directly designed to lead to paying gigs by taking readers through the problem-solution-CTA process I talked about in this post. The problem isn't taking on paid gigs. It's when writers forget to use their marketing time wisely by thinking they should never do write anything that doesn't directly pay them.

I think the bottom line is that if you are getting marketing value from a guest post, it's not the same as writing for free.

Of course, sometimes you can get double duty from posts for clients, which is even better. Crazy Egg is one of my writing clients, but the work I do there has landed me lots of other clients who want the same kinds of posts.

Thanks Ashley. It's important to remember that we can't do everything. We have limited time for marketing and PR, and we have to be strategic about how we use that time.

Guest posting certainly isn't a wise use of time for every freelancer. So if it's not right for you, there's nothing wrong with that. And know that if you do decide to test it, it doesn't have to involve a huge time commitment (and shouldn't when you target well).

Exactly. I understand why freelance writers have a harder time understanding this than most business owners. When you make your money writing, you naturally want to be paid when you write an article.

It also doesn't help when marketers using "paid guest posts" as a linkbait tactic are out there hyping them up to bloggers for their own self interests (bloggers being a group with a lot of overlap with freelancers).

So I understand why some fall into this trap. But that's why it's so important to remember we're business owners. And when it comes to business decisions, like marketing and PR ones, that's the perspective we should be coming from.

Sharing, or networking. And that's important! But like you point out, it's not necessarily where your focus should be if your goal is landing freelance gigs.

If you're like Lori and me and you have a site for writers to promote, that's a totally different thing. If your goal is landing gigs though, networking is ultimately about leads and referrals. And guest posts aren't the most efficient way to get referrals.

That would instead be about building deeper relationships. You do that one-on-one.

Networking also isn't the best way to aim for gigs when you're fairly new because you haven't proven yourself yet. Promote in other ways to do that first, and let early referrals come from clients who love your work.

Colleague referrals come later and can help you break into new markets or income tiers.

Thanks Cathy. I know you're well-versed in this stuff. For those who don't know, Cathy and I are both involved in these kinds of PR contributions for trade publications on behalf of clients.

I briefly mentioned ghostwriters in the post but didn't get into details because I had to prune some things. But basically, this is a great ghostwriting gig.

You work with industry leaders, pull information from them, then learn to write in their voice. These folks are busy, and many are brilliant in their fields, but terrible writers. That's where you come in.

Often the client already has contacts with the trade mag, or they've already confirmed placement. But sometimes you can take that on as well, getting paid to write the queries or pitch letters in addition to the article.

You'll often get paid far more from these clients than you would if you wrote for the trade pub directly as one of their freelancers.

Then what they're really saying is "you shouldn't guest post, and should only freelance."

If all you care about is direct income and not some bigger business goal, that's fine. You should stick to freelance assignments during your billable time.

Use your marketing / PR time to do something else then. Not all freelancers have to guest post.

If anything, I see newer writers doing it too often, using it as a sort of crutch instead of learning to use them to land the much better gigs they really want.