Writing and communicating - not just everyday business letters

I've received comments that I just produce ideas on self employment and haven't DONE anything.

I have. I've applied to become a freelance writer at Suite 101. http://www.suite101.com/

Today I received an email from them saying my request to join them as a contributing writer has been REJECTED after I sent them my draft business plan. I know... I should treat these things more seriously.

It was a generic letter to all rejected applicants. It reads,

"Your application to be a Contributing Writer to Suite101.com has been declined for ONE of the following reasons:

• Your areas of expertise and samples did not reflect the search interests of our Web audience;
• Your educational and employment experience did not suggest authoritative expertise re the subject areas you wish to cover;
• The tone of your samples was better suited to a site either more or less formal than our own;
• Your writing sample may have had serious errors in language use, structure, grammar, spelling, or punctuation;
• Your writing suggested a first-person, experiential, or opinion-based approach to material rather than an objective journalistic style that quoted verifiable sources."

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Not everyone is a born writer. Writing sounds easy but it takes practice to be good. Sure, I write lots of work emails and reports, but writing good material others want to read is harder. To gain insight on how to improve my writing/blogging, I referred to online tips. Copyblogger http://www.copyblogger.com/ernest-hemingway-top-5-tips-for-writing-well/ suggests writing in short sentences, like Hemingway advocates. I'll start. Now.