Tweet {photo by: biblioteekje} What’s the key to success? Well I’ve shared my secret to successful freelance writing in the past. But this post is less of a secret and more of an observation. Here’s a hint: What’s Julia and Julia, Steven Rowland and Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson have in common? They all did something most of us wouldn’t dare do. They took a huge risk and gained not only notoriety and dough, but revelation-a key piece to their success. Let’s look a little closer. The Players: {photo from squidoo} Julie & Julia. Julie Powell’s now become a household…
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Tweet {photo by: penguinsix} On Facebook, I asked whether I should create a blog listing all the places I look for freelance writing jobs. At first, I was just curious to know where other writers go. But then, I realized I had a long list of resources and asked whether anyone would be interested in reading that post. Here’s one response I got from a sweet new Facebook friend: @ Jill Winburn “A post about it would be great! You have been answering my prayers on where to look for work. I am new at this, so this is very helpful. Thanks again…
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Tweet Hope you’ve been enjoying my quick tips for Christmas. Here is another one. Hide Your Desperation Clients can smell fear and desperation miles away. If you feel anxious and doubtful that you will ever be able to make it as a writer, hide it quick. Your worries will only attract other desperate people. It will make you take jobs that are beneath you. It will make you compromise on your values and ethics. And it will get you that much farther from your dreams. Do you remember the guy you couldn’t stand in high school? The girl who you…
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Tweet I’ve been enamored with Bruno Mars’s song Just the Way You Are Lately. I’m not a teenager, nor am I single and looking for love. But I’ve been hooked on the lyrics and can’t get it out of my head. To refresh your memory, here’s a video of the song that’s driving me crazy, in a good way. After humming the catchy tune, it started to hit me. I’m in love with the song because I feel like Bruno Mars is singing to me. It’s the same way I felt about James Blunt and Beautiful. Maybe we’re all a…
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Tweet Freelance writer Laura Spencer wrote another brilliant post on Freelance Folder entitled 30 Spooky Freelancing Practices. Her list included everything from bad mouthing clients to internet surfing instead of working. Anyone guilty of that? I’ll admit to the latter in the past. Oops. But while I have looked fear in its face (sometimes in the eyes of a scary scary client), none of the 30 items (though good) can match the scariest of them all. It’s this: The fear that I’m not good enough that I’ll never make it as a professional writer. If you have never felt this…
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Tweet DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME (or anywhere else for that matter!) 5 Tips for Freelance Writers on What Not to DO Don’t settle. You remember being in your twenties, desperate and single? Or how about a time when you really really wanted something so much so that you felt desperate. That’s kind of how I felt when I first started freelancing. I said, “Sayonara” to my plum job at Apple. With that, I was unemployed and scared silly about what was next. So what’d I do? I applied for every job that came my way and I took any…
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Tweet “I’m a writer and I have low self-esteem.” That’s what I said on Penn & Teller’s Showtime show Bullshit. It was part true, part Hollywood. But I think anyone would agree that writing for a living can break your heart at times, into itty-bitty tiny shattered pieces. And that’s just on a good day. On a bad day, getting rejected or getting no response, can feel worse than working at a job you hate, for a boss you dislike, in a cubicle that feels suffocating. It can feel like hell-a place where there’s no mercy. Why? Because as full-time work…
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Tweet Yes there’s baby blues and even shopping blues, but freelance writing blues? Yep, I think so. If you’re in the low right now, when your phone stops ringing, people stop emailing and your blog is as empty as an ice-cream shop in wintertime, then you know what I mean. You wonder if this is it, the last shebang, the final sign that you didn’t make it, that your just not that good of a writer and you’re ________ (mom, sister/brother, father, uncle/aunt, cousin) was right. But before you throw in the towel and raise that white flag, let’s see if…
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Tweet It’s Day 4 of the 2010 WordCount Blogathon. Here’s a bit of info in case you haven’t heard of it. Reporter, writer, blogger, basically media/publishing entrepreneur, Michelle Rafter created a challenge for herself. In 2008, she blogged every day for the entire month of May. Asking others to join in the fun, she created the WordCount Blogathon to gather a community of bloggers with the mission to learn, write and have a great time doing it. I just joined this year and have been secretly blogging every day on this site as well as my other blogs (not2shabby and…
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Tweet This post will cover the five things you shouldn’t do (not including the basics like failing to do any work for a client or refusing to pay a freelancer) if you want a healthy, happy long-term and profitable business relationship. Whether you’re a freelancer or a start-up looking to hire a freelancer, there are a few things you should know before you start something new. You wouldn’t marry the first person that you meet, so why jump blindly into a partnership with a client/freelancer you hardly know? To prevent lots of time wasted, money lost and bridges burned, read what not…