Tweet This post is dedicated to all of my writer and wannabe writer friends out there. flickr photo by: Angelina Cupcake Here is why I’m thinking of you this Valentine’s Day: 1. Your courage is admirable. Most people deal with enough rejection in their teens to never want to return to that time period again. But not you! You jump in the fire, putting your heart on the line and opening yourself up to rejection. That takes real honest to goodness courage. 2. Your determination is inspiring. To be a writer means you need determination. Even successful published writers can’t…
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Tweet Call me a snoop or a blogger stalker, but I’ve been known to spy on a few blogs and bloggers to see what they are up to now and again. My curiosity was piqued when I started to notice that some had gained an increasing amount of attention in the blogosphere. Surprisingly, it’s not necessarily great design or title that did it. Instead they all had something special, an “it” factor, if you will, that raised their popularity. Here are five common characteristics I noticed of successful bloggers: They were helpful. From design bloggers to freelance writers, bloggers who…
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Tweet {photo by: burnt out Impurities} I have to thank Laura Spencer aka @TXWriter of Freelance Folder and Natalia Sylvester aka @InkyClean for their Twitter conversation last week. It inspired me to put together this post. Do You Despise Looking for the Right Photo for Your Blog Posts? While I didn’t save the actual conversation, I can tell you the basics. We were chatting about the difficulty of choosing photos for blog posts. In this situation, I was definitely the minority since I L-O-V-E perusing sites like Flickr for just the right picture to match my posts. But I wanted…
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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 I fell asleep last night and woke up to this blog title. Maybe it’s because I’ve been working hard at doing less these days and wanted to help you do the same. You see, there are some things that you need to do to have a successful business. Things like marketing, networking, applying for jobs. But there are tons of other things that are unnecessary and if we were to keep doing them could detract us from our true goals and real intentions. {photo by iko} And when you’re your own boss, time is money. So let’s spend more…
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Tweet When the ball dropped ending 2010, were you praying? Did you wish for a sudden change to your business? A wealthier 2011 with better paying clients and jobs? You were not alone. I was with you too. But here we both are. Sitting in front of our computers with the same issues, concerns and worries that we had in 2010. It’s not bad luck or the economy. It’s us. The only thing you did wrong was believing that somehow your wishes would unfold over night. If you’re like, instead of a bag of wishes fulfilled you ended up with…
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Tweet {photo credit} These days everyone has a gadget, gizmo, strategy or idea that can help you turn your business into a gazillion dollar money-making machine. But how true our their claims? And how much of their “strategy” depends not on real, hard work, but on your own hard earned cash? It’s 2011. It’s time for your business to shine. But be careful what you invest your time and energy in. It could be that all you need is to brush up on your marketing or grammar skills and that “amazing” new program that everyone is talking about is just…
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Tweet {photo credit} This is it! It’s December 31st, 2010. We’re just hours away from the end of the new year. Before 2011, I wanted a chance to give you one more gift. And since it’s the last one, it has to be BIG. So here we go! TIP #8: Live BIG! I don’t know if you noticed, but I haven’t been writing here very often. I actually haven’t been writing anywhere. I stopped writing. Stashed away my laptop. And even put away my pen and notebook. Why? The Importance of Shutting Down I got sick. In Eastern medicine, the…
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Tweet {photo credit} I used to write the way it felt to run against the wind or swim against the current. I wrote to please. I wrote to entertain (and I hope I still do, knock on wood). And I wrote to prove something. I wrote against what felt natural to me. And it was a struggle. But recently I used my calling to write. And when I did, my fingers worked like rapid fire on the keyboard and my words poured out from my heart. A few times, I wrote an entire story in one day and had a…