5 Enterprising Tools for Boosting Freelance Business Communication

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 Editor’s note: This post was written by Sharon, an author who likes to write on themes and issues related to project management software. Through her write-ups, she provides tips and suggestions for businesses, so they can better manage their projects and duly achieve their business objectives. You can also follow her on Twitter.

Freelancers need to communicate and collaborate with a variety of clients while working on multiple projects. This helps them to better understand clients’ specifications and convey to them exact progress achieved over projects. But such communication should be transparent and fast, only then they would be able to get quality results. For such enhanced communication, the best tools need to be used. These would enable freelancers to save their time, effort and costs as well as increase their productivity and profits. They would be able to deliver projects on time and as per their clients’ satisfaction. Happy clients would recommend their services to other people in their community which will boost their business prospects. [Read more…]

Organize Your Blogging Business With A Blog Binder

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Since I began blogging, I’ve found my mind tends to get extremely cluttered with great ideas and good intentions. I find myself continuously thinking about new articles, ways to monetize, affiliates to join, shortcuts I discover, products I like, services I want to remember to praise, the list goes on and on. All of which I would think of, get excited about – then forget! Just like that!

I do have a notebook in nearly every room of my house and keep a clipboard next to my workstation where I make notes throughout the day. However, over time, I end up with lots of notes without organization.

Years ago, a close friend of mine, Julie Bonner introduced me to the idea of a Blog Binder.  I did create one. And I actually did use it for a while. As work decreased and real life shifted it’s gears up a notch, I forgot about that valuable organizational tool that was tucked away in a box when we made our move back in June of 2010.

Having been formally diagnosed with OCD, I have this overwhelming *need* to be and stay organized. Chaos is not my friend. While driving recently (the time when many bright ideas come to me and I can’t write them down), I remembered my binder and decided it was high time to dig that baby out, update it and put it to use again.

The way I have my binder organized is customized to my own projects, schedule and habits. You can take from the suggestions and improve on them to suit your own needs, which is exactly what I did with the suggestions Julie gave, way back when.

This is how I have my binder laid out

My Work Schedule:

At the front of my binder, I have a schedule written out. It’s not an hour by hour schedule, because we all know working from home has it’s interruptions throughout the day. What I have done however is write out descriptions of projects I wish to focus on daily. For example, Monday focuses on traffic, Tuesday I visit new blogs, Wednesday I explore new affiliate options, Thursday may be social networking and so on. I find that if I dedicate specific days to certain projects, I do get more done. If I happen to miss a day, just like a prescription medication – don’t double up on the dose, just get back on schedule the next day.

Keeping It Organized:

Since I do have multiple blogs, and a couple of contract gigs, I took Julie’s suggestion and created a tabbed divider labeled for each blog/gig. Behind that divider, I have placed blank sheets of paper where I keep track of post ideas, items that must be done, new blogs within my niche that I wish to revisit, links to or mention, etc. I don’t allow myself to be interrupted to really visit a blog if it’s not on the schedule. Stay focused!

Favorite Articles:

There are so many times I come across a great post that focuses on a topic that I need to pay a little more attention to and that I want to keep for reference for future projects. I’ve created a section in my binder that holds those articles. I simply print them out (because taking notes would take too much time) and write on the top in bright marker a single descriptive word so I can easily flip through and find the articles focusing on the topic of the day – when that day rolls around.

Creating a binder is really very simple and cost effective. Nothing more then a pack of paper, a 3-ring binder, a pack of dividers, and perhaps a 3-hole punch for those printed articles. A very small price to pay for getting that clutter out of your head and into a single, well organized location.

When you’re working toward building your online reputation, building your freelance business, kicking up your affiliate marketing a notch or simply writing because you have something important to say – this method will help keep the chaos at bay so you can get right to the valuable project at hand.

What are some of your favorite organizational habits or tips?

My Comment Commitment: If you leave a comment on any of my posts, I will visit your blog and “share it” in some way whether on StumbleUpon, Twitter or Facebook depending on if I can find a nice fit. This is my way of saying thank you!

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Too Many Articles Killed the Freelance Writing Star

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Success is going to happen. As a freelance writer, if you keep plugging away, success will happen for you. Sometimes it will hit all of the sudden. A deluge of articles, projects and client meetings suddenly appear in your email box. In between giddy high fives to yourself, you quickly say yes to everything and get to work. Other times it builds slowly, like a tide coming in and you suddenly find yourself surrounded by work.

Soon you’re slogging away frantically trying to meet all your deadlines and while steak for dinner is nice, you don’t really get to enjoy it because you’ve got to wolf it down between edits. Sound familiar? If it doesn’t, it will soon. Too much success can kill your career.

While it’s nice to be popular, if you have too many projects you cannot pay due diligence to each one and you’re going to make mistakes. Silly mistakes you would have caught had you not been so busy. Or you’ll miss deadlines – the ultimate career killer.

“No” is the word.

As a successful freelance writer you need to strike the balance between the feast and famine seasons. It’s against a freelancer’s genetic make-up to turn down work. Yet, the word ‘no‘ must be reinserted into your vocabulary.

Do you have time to complete a 2,000 word article in two hours?

“No.”

See? Easy! Be realistic with time. It doesn’t stop or rewind. Being the crack, go-to-writer for last minute stories is a great way to earn a reputation. What kind of reputation is up to you. If you know you would need two days to turn in a large piece, don’t commit to a tight deadline. This keeps you from making yourself crazy and ticking off an editor who counted on you to get the job done.

For pieces that have a little more lead time, no doesn’t have to be the end of the conversation. Insert a comma after your “no.” Sometimes it’s possible to negotiate deadlines – but do so in the beginning. Waiting until two days after your piece is due is a big no-no.

By now some of my intrepid freelancers are wondering how in the world are they supposed know what they have time to do. Honestly, it just takes knowing your writing style. Unfortunately, it takes time to get to know yourself as a writer. A simple tool can help you develop a good feel for your writing time needs.

Cue the editorial calendar.

Yes, I know, this horse is pretty much dead. I beat it often. It has personally begged me to stop, however I cannot stress the importance of having and MAINTAINING an editorial calendar. Simply putting due dates on a wall calendar is not maintaining a calendar. Jotting everything down dutifully once month and then never looking at it again is not maintaining a calendar. Regularly logging in due dates, carving out writing, editing, revising and “marinating” time for each article or project and noting when pieces are finished is maintaining a proper editorial calendar.

Planning for success means not just listing what you’ll do with all the money flowing in – it means planning for all the work as well. Establish a system now, so when the wave hits, you’ll be ready.

Outline Your Way to A Better Article

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Picture 8All great works start with good foundations and articles are no different. An outline is a great tool to give your article solid support and using one has many benefits:

Faster Writing

Many writers think taking the time to write an outline adds one more time consuming step to the writing process. The truth is, having an outline speeds up the writing process by giving writers a road map to their article. It is much harder to write a clear, focused and coherent article off the cuff. If you tend to write your articles straight from your head, how many times do you stop to think about what direction to take? How much time do you spend editing things on the back end? An outline cuts time off of both processes dramatically.

An outline gets your brain thinking about the order in which to present your information, which information is key to the piece and which information may not be as significant or may need to be presented in a different way i.e. bullet points or pull-out box. It also helps you identify your lead and conclusion, arugably the hardest parts of the article to produce.

Better Organization

Outlines are essentially organization tools. They are your thoughts, research and interview information gathered and structured – they are the bones of your piece. When writing off the cuff, writers often have to stop to go over notes, scroll through interview transcriptions, etc. An outline forces you to go over the information before writing the piece. You can even make an outline detailed to note pages and transcription time or notations, if you choose.

An outline doesn’t have to be the tightly structured, rigid writing technique you learned in middle school. It can adapt to your writing style and needs, remember, it’s to help you get organized, you won’t have to turn it end with your finished project at the end of class! Tomorrow we’ll look at some outline techniques and formats in an effort to find a few that the FWJ community can adopt for your own use.

Do you use an outline before writing an article? What about blogs? Tell us how it works for you!

Writing Through Distractions

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picture-2Busy kids, demanding dogs, grocery runs, alluring refrigerators, visitors, Twitter,  the call of the sun through your window – all worthy adversaries in the battle for your concentration and productivity. As writers, we must guard against the constant intrusions that threaten to turn an hour-long project into a 3 hour-long project.

There are some distractions you can work through if you just can zero in on your focus. Parents become Jedi’s at ignoring the door-knocking, whining or ordinary play noises of kids and it is that selective hearing that will help you get through other distractions. Even if you’re not a parent, you’ve used your selective hearing skills to block out spouses, roommates or your boss’s yammering – all it takes is channeling that focus to blocking out the beeping of Twitter and the phone ringing.

Another way to block out and manage distractions – give yourself a time and a time-limit. If you’re an obsessive email checker like myself, you can easily spend hours checking and rechecking your email. The same holds true for Twitter, Facebook or any of the other social networking sites. Set a time, once every two hours, etc. to check your email, updates, etc., and then only allow yourself 15 mins to respond or surf. This also works for returning phone messages. Knowing when you’ll be able to satisfy your addiction will help you make it through getting actual work done.

Refocusing after an encounter with distractions can take almost as much time as the distraction itself. Often it’s not possible to shift gears and jump right back into the work, so find some focusing or breathing exercises that will work to zone you back in. I tend to use two that work pretty well for me:

I close my eyes and count slowly backwards from 20 to 0. This helps calms my brain and gets me ready to “go back in.” Or I use one of my work songs. Right now I have three on rotation and they aren’t the most politically correct or wholesome songs but they get me motivated. If you like hip hop email me and I’ll let you know what works for me. If not, find a song that motivates you. Two to three minutes of your favorite jam can be enough to not only get you inspired to keep working, but remind you why you’re working.

Got tips for dealing with distractions? Share ’em!

You Missed a Deadline – Now what?

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By Terreece M. Clarke

Writers miss deadlines. Gasp! Shock! Horror! Plenty of writers will swear it has never happened, while others will attest, though usually secretively, that they have missed or come close to missing a deadline.

It’s the “No, No” of “No, No’s” and you’ve just missed one or are close. So what do you do now?

Breathe

There is usually a strong amount of panic when a writer discovers they’ve blown a deadline. Sweaty palms, jerky movements, loud swearing and personal, repetitive self-admonishments are par for the course, but it’s hard to make a rational move while kicking your own butt so calm down. Breathe in and out and get ready for the next step. [Read more…]

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