Ann Olson is a freelance writer, blogger and the founder of WritingJobResource.com, a writing resource for novice and professional writers.  She started her online writing career in 2007 on the website AssociatedContent.com, becoming a full-time writing professional in less than a year.

Some of her accolades include being awarded the Top 1000 Contributors of AC award in 2008 and 2009, contributing local articles to Trails.com, becoming a regular contributor on DietSpotlight.com and being awarded the bronze expertise badge by BrightHub.com in 2009.  She currently writes health features for AssociatedContent.com, Bright Hub, eHow, Diet Spotlight and several private clients.

When she is not writing, she enjoys spending time with her husband, who can be heard on Sherdog Radio, and her lovable cat named Sephiroth.

Q&A with Ann

Q. What helped you succeed?

A. The helpful people on the Associated Content forum were a definite help.  They helped me improve my writing, learn how to use SEO effectively and learn how to master web writing.  I converse with them outside of AC more often now, but I still find them an immense help.  I am constantly improving.

Q. What helped you not succeed?

Knitting circles.  I joined them early on hoping to gain a few page views, but I found focusing more on SEO helped me get five times more page views compared to knitting circles.  They also seemed less receptive to continual improvement.  It just wasn’t a good fit for what I wanted to achieve.

Q. Why did you begin to write?

I’m pretty much a text book Scorpio, and love the process of investigation.  Being able to do it for a living is incredibly awesome.

Q. Where do you like to write the most?

I really enjoy writing for private clients the most because I’m able to be more creative.  Each website has its pros and cons, so I can’t really say which website I like the most.

Q. What are your favorite topics to write about?

I love writing about health topics.  Ironically enough, even though I am a huge gamer I hate writing about that topic the most.  Go figure!