Archives for June 2008

For Clients, Hiring a New Freelancer is Like a Box of Chocolates: They Don’t Know What They Are Going to Get

June 11, 2008 by david 14 Comments

Just for a minute, I want us to consider what it’s like to be in the employer’s seat when it comes time to put out an ad for a new freelancer (or several of them). I know that we talk a lot here about what the freelancing world is like from the point of view of the people looking for work, and I think it’s only fair to look at what it may be like from the opposite side of the desk.

Here we go: You have been magically transformed into the employer instead of the freelancer. You prepare an ad outlining what you are looking for, including the type of writing you need, what qualifications would dazzle you, and possibly how much you are prepared to pay.

You get a ton of responses and you weed through them to find the freelancers who seem like the best fit for your project. But before you get to that point, you need to go through people who:

Didn’t follow instructions properly and include a resume and samples

Decided to rake you over the coals about your business, the project, and/or the rate of pay

Didn’t have the level of experience you specified in your ad

Filled your e-mail box with spam

Once you find the people you are interested in working with, you contact them and give them the specifications of the project. Depending on the freelancer’s policies and yours, you may pay a deposit up front to get work started.

Now The Fun Begins

You may get work back that is not of the same quality as the samples you were given.

You may get work back that doesn’t look anything like what you ordered.

You may never hear from the freelancer again.

Or you might be pleasantly surprised that you get the work you ordered back

On Time

The Correct Length

On Topic

Written by Someone who Takes Pride in Their Work

The next time you need work done, which type of freelancer are you going to hire?
More to the point, which type of freelancer are you?

We do take a chance when we start working for a new client, but the flip side to that is that they take a chance when they hire us too. If we do our work well, chances are very good that instead of placing another ad, the next time they need work done they will go back to the freelancers they had a good working relationship with.

One of the keys to success in this business is about building good relationships with your clients. Give them your best effort, and they will remember you long after the initial project ends.

16 Things You Need to Make it as a Blogger

June 11, 2008 by david 8 Comments

Think anyone can blog? Think again! While it’s true that anyone can start, the fact is very few people can successfully pull it off. If you want to truly make it as a blogger, you need to have several things. I’m not talking laptops and software, indeed those are important. Most of what you need to become a successful blogger can’t be found in stores, or even blogs about blogging.

1. A good idea –Not the same idea as everyone else. Not a copycat of someone else’s blog, but your own unique, good idea. If you want to make it as a blogger, you have to have content and a fresh idea. You have to be able to say something different.

2. Creativity –You’re going to need to update your blog, at the very least, several times a week. A successful blogger is creative enough to come up with fresh, engaging content every time.

3. Passion for Your Topic – If you choose a topic you love, your passion will show through. If you choose a topic you don’t know much about, that will be apparent as well.

4. A good work ethic – If you think blogging is just writing a quick five minute post and forgetting about it until next time, you couldn’t be more wrong. You’re going to spend hours on your blog writing it, promoting it and more.

5. A thick skin – Trolls, chronic malcontents and basic rudeness can be commonplace. People are going to pick your blog posts apart and call you names. You can let it get to you or you can develop a thick skin.

6. The ability to work alone – Most bloggers work alone. You have to be able to shut out all of the distractions of home or the coffee shop and concentrate on creating a good post.

7. A notebook. You’re going to come up with ideas at the oddest times. It’s helpful to have a notebook or PDA handy so you can jot down ideas.

8. A thriving social network. It helps to have people to talk to, network with and shoot ideas off. Plus social networking eliminates the loneliness some probloggers experience. By interacting with others you’re sure to come up with fresh new ideas and avoid some of that solitude.

9. Motivation. What keeps you motivated? Passion for your topic? The adoration of your public? Whatever it is, channel it and use it to keep you driven.

10. Longevity – Blogging isn’t a fly by night operation. If you want to succeed, if you want your readers to trust your name, you’ll want your blogs to last through the ages. The most successful blogs have been around for a few years. It’s the people who cut bait and run after two months of blogging that fail.

11. Long term vision – Sure, you have a month’s worth of posts written in your head, but what about a month from now? Two months? Two years?

12. The ability to work odd hours – Blogging isn’t exactly a 9 to 5 gig. Ideas hit at any time. Many probloggers even work well into the night or the wake at the crack of dawn to fit blogging into a busy day.

13. A willingness to learn new things – As a blogger you want to continue to feed your readers new information. This means you’ll have to set a portion of your day aside to read other blogs, books, magazines and websites in your niche.

14. An open mind – Sometimes bloggers need to completely change their line of thinking. What might have worked a year ago, doesn’t work now. Tools and techniques become obsolete. Keep an open mind, don’t be afraid to admit defeat and always be on the lookout for new trends and ideas.

15. The ability to teach – Blogging isn’t always talking about yourself. It’s about sharing what you know with someone else. Many bloggers are teachers, not story tellers – though it’s not a bad thing to be able to tell a story either.

16. Patience –Blogging isn’t instant gratification. It takes time and patience to build up a successful blog. Traffic doesn’t happen over night and any network penalizing you for not having high numbers in the beginning doesn’t know enough about blogging to succeed.

This post originally appeared at About.com Weblogs, I thought it was appropriate here as well. – Deb

Freelance Parenting: Imperfect but Complete

June 11, 2008 by david 29 Comments

by Annie Mueller

I’m serving my daughter stale crackers and some cubes of cheddar for lunch because I’ve been too busy pushing through another article to go buy groceries. She munches away, but I feel the eyes of the world peering in my large front window, hear their voices saying, “What is she thinking?”

Some days I’m clear. I’m set. I’m confident. Other days I think I must be ruining my children, damaging their psyches, sending them unalterable signals that will make them question my love. I comfort myself in these times by thinking back to my own childhood and realizing how much I don’t remember.

I don’t remember ever feeling unloved, even though my Mom was busy over the years heading up local and state organizations and running a variety of small business ventures. Sometimes my questions had to wait because she was on a phone call. Sometimes we spent Saturday afternoon helping her stuff mailers for a state-wide convention.

I don’t remember every feeling neglected, though we ate out-of-the-freezer fish sticks or chicken pot pies or canned tomato soup for lunch many days. I don’t remember feeling unimportant, even when Mom was too busy for an hour of coloring with me.

What I do remember gives me a clue for my own life. I remember a busy, happy Mom with plates spinning and heart racing, who enjoyed the adventure of keeping it all together, who relished both the adrenaline and the relaxation. Sure, she messed up on some stuff. She probably made bad decisions sometimes. Maybe there were even entire weeks when she was just off balance on key areas of life. But I didn’t know that then, and I can’t feel any negative effects from it now.

That’s what I think about as I wipe the cracker crumbs off my daughter’s hands and off my laptop. My son gurgles at me from the floor and continues to chew on the book corner. Their childhood won’t be perfect, but that’s okay. They won’t remember it wasn’t perfect; they’ll remember that I was here, with a whole lot of imperfect love. And someday they’ll forgive me for using them as content.

Annie Mueller feeds her kids with one hand and scrolls through websites with the other. Her children have survived so far. She writes about working at home, writing, reading, and building a better life at www.SisterWisdom.com.