It’s Day 4 of my blog birthday celebration! And in honor of the party, I ate a bowl of ice cream last night and thought about the past five years. I still can’t quite believe that I have been blogging on my site for five whole years. My book is still holding its spot as the #1 New Release for Small Business books, which is awesome. If you haven’t gotten your copy yet, you only have two more days to get the Kindle version at the special rate of $5.

As part of the celebration, I’m posting every day this week and each post relates to the number – yes, you guessed it, five!

Today, I wanted to share my five favorite resources for freelance content marketing writers:

1. Ed Gandia’s High-Income Business Writing Podcast

Ed offers fantastic advice on his podcast and has great guests on his episodes. I learn something every time I listen. He is very practical while also being inspirational and encouraging. With recent episodes including “What to Do When You Have Too Much Work” as well as “How to Start Prospecting for Clients When You are New,” both newer and experienced writers can find useful episodes.

2. Carol Tice’s website and Freelance Writer Den

While even experienced writers can learn from Carol’s blog Make a Living Writing, her site is especially useful for newer writers. I highly recommend her post on creating a great LinkedIn profile for freelance writers, which is by far my favorite resource on the topic and I highly recommend reading it. For newer writers who are very committed to ramping up quickly and willing to put in the time to really use the resources, I also recommend her paid Freelance Writer Den membership, which includes access to many e-training courses, weekly live events and quarterly boot camps.

3. Freelance Success

I honestly would not be at this point in my career without the connections and job leads that I’ve gotten through Freelance Success, also known as FLX. Freelance Success costs $99 per year, which gives you access to a very helpful forum, weekly newsletters with timely market reports and participation in quarterly marketing challenges. FLX is a super supportive community and I have made back every penny I’ve spent many times over.

4. ASJA

As a member of ASJA for five years and a member of the Board of Directors for four of them, I can directly attribute over $100K of my income over the last five years to my ASJA membership benefits. You have to apply to become a member and there are two levels of membership. Professional members can also meet with editors at the in-person conference – there are over 60 editors meeting with writers next week in NYC. I had one meeting several years ago that has turned into over $75K worth of work over four years and another gig from another member that has been worth over $60K over the past four years.

5. Content Marketing Institute website

CMI is the go-to source for information about content marketing writing and strategy. The website includes blog posts, handbooks and webinars, with new content added daily. I especially like the e-books, which include many examples of great content marketing to help you break out of boring content. It’s especially helpful if you need to learn about the latest trends or are working on content marketing strategy. CMI also hosts a very interesting and fun Twitter chat using #CMWorld every Tuesday at 12pm EST, which is a great way to meet others in the content marketing field.

Since I had a very hard time choosing my top 5, I decided to include three honorable mentions:

• Moz.com – If you want to learn more about SEO or keep up-to-date on the latest changes, check out Moz.com. In addition to a very informative blog, the site also has a ton of other resources, including a Learning Center and a fantastic Beginners Guide that I highly recommend.
• NeilPatel.com – Need help with social media, either for yourself or a client? Head to Neil Patel’s site. He is one of the leaders in social media and has a very good blog with lots of practical information. I interviewed Neil for a story a few years ago and was very impressed with his knowledge and helpfulness.
• FreelanceWriting.com Job Board – So I think that apply to freelance job postings is one of the most ineffective marketing activities. But I have gotten jobs over the years through job postings and know others who have as well. The trick is to only apply to jobs you are super qualified for and to make it a very small portion of your marketing activities. I like the job board at FreelanceWriting.com because they curate jobs from other sites, so you simply go to one place and do a quick drive through. Yes, there are low payers here, but occasionally there are some gems. I also find JournalismJobs.com to often have solid gigs, but these are usually included in FreelanceWriting.com’s listing.

Have you found any of these resources helpful? Do you have any other resources that you regularly use to build and grow your freelance writing business?