Write a blog people will read logo

Freelancers: Prepare to get sick.

by 2 Comments

Two days ago I had cataract surgery on my left eye. Although the outpatient process is fairly simple, it has affected my ability to work.

This reminded me, once again, that freelancers should always be ready to deal with illness or injury.

Independent contractors don’t get sick days. If we don’t work, we don’t get paid. That’s just one more thing to think about if you’re planning to go freelance.

As someone who hasn’t had a square job since 2002, I have a year-round readiness plan in place. If you, too, are your own boss then you need a plan of your own.

 

[Read more…]

A blogging success story.

by Leave a Comment

Sometimes a blog can become a full-time job, as people like Holly Johnson or Steve Chou can attest. Or a personal website could get you nationally known, e.g., Chris Hardwick.

Today I’m going to talk about a guy whose personal blog turned into his dream job – a gig that was not running a blog.

As the Alaska Dispatch News headline puts it, “Anchorage man turns hobby into NBA front office job.”

Seth Partnow, 39, told the newspaper that his job “feels, to some degree, almost like a fantasy camp.”

Not bad for a guy who started blogging about basketball because he was a total stats nerd.

 

[Read more…]

Don’t let Facebook run your life.

by 2 Comments

The November election certainly stirred things up. Even if your preferred candidates won you’ve likely felt some upheaval thanks to relentless Internet uproar, which in some cases led to un-friending – and even un-familying – over political differences.

And if your candidates didn’t prevail? The temptation might be to dig a hole, crawl in and pull it in after you – after you get done un-friending your Facebook buds and cutting yourself off from relatives.

Don’t do that. Instead, take some advice from online course expert David Siteman Garland.

“Your social media is your social media. If you want to talk politics on there all day, that’s your right,” he said in an e-newsletter.

“However…there are better ways to spend your time.”

 

[Read more…]

Win a ticket to FinCon16.

by Leave a Comment

th-1The Financial Bloggers Conference keeps getting bigger and better. Conference founder Phil Taylor (aka PTMoney) is giving back by offering a shot at free admission to FinCon16, which takes place from Sept. 22 to 24 in San Diego.

Last year Taylor gave away 15 such scholarships to new personal finance bloggers. This year all he’ll say is that the winners will number “at least five.” But it could be more.

Before you think, “But I’m not a PF blogger,” know this: The definition of “personal finance” is pretty broad.

 

[Read more…]

Should you hire a writing coach?

by Leave a Comment

th-1A while back freelancer Susan Johnston Taylor was stuck in a rut, feeling “uninspired” and unable to come up with ideas for her regular clients. Hiring a writing coach fired her back up.

Although she bounces questions off fellow freelancers and freelance forums, Taylor will still set up a coaching session now and then.

“Sometimes I find that seeking advice from one person I trust is better than getting a chorus of conflicting opinions, especially when it’s a more personal or complicated issue,” she notes in an article on Contently.

She quoted author and coach Rochelle Melander, who suggested at least two times a writer might want to reach out:

 

[Read more…]

Two essential tools for writers.

by Leave a Comment

th-1Long time no blog! Sorry about that. I’ve been working on a book.

Full disclosure: I’ve also been working on enjoying the Alaska summer, providing some fill-in child care, spending a week at a theater conference, hanging out with my life partner (he and I particularly enjoy the built-from-scraps greenhouse) and my BFF, being a writing coach and helping my daughter promote her book.

Both of us are personal finance writers, so it’s no surprise that both of our books have personal finance underpinnings. Abby’s is called “Frugality For Depressives: Money-Saving Tips For Those Who Find Life A Little Harder,” but it’s not strictly a PF how-to. She writes from painful personal experience about the ways she tried and failed to follow the frugal hacks with which she was raised, and how she (and later her husband) manage their money in the most sustainable ways.

My book also springs from painful experience, but in an odd way: To become a personal finance writer, I had to go broke.*

 

[Read more…]

Things to say to writers.

by 2 Comments

th-1(Note: A version of this article originally appeared on www.donnafreedman.com.)

A Twitter hashtag called #TenThingsNotToSayToAWriter really got my attention a while back. Bet you can imagine why.

Some well-known writers (Jodi Picoult, Harlan Coben, S.E. Hinton, John Scalzi, et al.) played along with the rest of us lesser-known and unknown scribes. Collectively we whirled and howled about stuff like:

  • Low pay and no pay
  • Folks who question why we have to use so many cuss words
  • The assumption that we’ll never get published, i.e., be “real” writers
  • People who treat what we do as a hobby
  • Those who swear they could do this too, if only they had the time

Were we being thin-skinned? You be the judge. Here’s the kind of thing that writers report having heard:

“It’s pretty impressive that you spend so much time on something that has so little chance of success.”

“I downloaded your book for free online. Could you please sign this printout of it?”

[Read more…]

7 gifts for writers (including you).

by Leave a Comment

th-1Trying to get a writing career going? You might be surprised to find how much it can cost just to set up shop – and all before you’ve sold a single paragraph.

Sure, business expenses are tax-deductible. But you have to pay for them up front, and wait a year to deduct. Given how long it can take to market a story or article, you will probably want to economize until the cash flow starts, well, flowing.

So when someone asks what you want for Christmas (or Hanukkah, or your birthday, or Arbor Day), don’t be embarrassed to ask for things that will help you step up your freelancing game.

[Read more…]

Easy self-promotion methods.

by Leave a Comment

th-1At some point a couple of weeks ago I passed the two million pageviews mark at my personal blog, Surviving and Thriving.

[I’m celebrating with a giveaway of six Amazon gift cards. More on that later.]

Given that I’m not a social media wizard I’m absurdly pleased with that number. While others are able to draw in tons of readers through YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Periscope, Blab and other virtual realities, I plug away with basic tweets and FB shares.

Right now I have neither the time nor the inclination to learn new formats, especially as they seem to morph every month or so.

[Read more…]

Wil Wheaton hits ‘reset.’

by Leave a Comment

th-1The actor/writer/geekster recently wrote about seven things he did to reboot his life. The second and third items on the list were the ones that caught my eye:

Read more.

Write more.

In my opinion you can’t have one without the other. Apparently Wheaton feels the same way:

“I need to read so that my imagination is inspired. I need to read so I get an artistic and creative hunger that can only be fed by writing. I need to read so that I feel challenged to scrape ideas out of my skull and turn them into words and images.

“I became a writer 10 years ago because I not only loved it, but because it was a way for me to express myself creatively in a way that ultimately gave me control over my own destiny and my own life.”

Control over destiny and life. Easy for him to say, right? He can make a living as a writer because he’s got a huge audience (including 2.92 million Twitter followers) who will read/listen to whatever he writes/says. But you know what else he’s got?

 

[Read more…]