Writer Friend Jen

October 28, 2008

Writer Friend Jen has moved!

I have moved and reorganized a bit. Rather than maintaining three blogs on freelance writing, yoga and food, I’ve combined these into one blog: the Jen Hamilton Blog.

I’ll still be offering tales of my freelance writing experiences. For instance, I’ve had a few clients mention that they have never worked with a freelancer before and would like to know how the process works. A post on that is coming soon, so visit my new blog to keep in touch and to continue receiving freelance writing advice.

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September 12, 2008

Networking vs. Job Boards

Many of you have wondered where I’ve been lately, as I certainly haven’t been posting here. The good news-part 1 is I’ve been working and have been focusing on a couple of new contracts. The good news-part deux is I am not solely a freelance writer anymore–I’m also teaching yoga. My yoga teacher training program will end in December, but I’ve already begun teaching on-site at an office during the lunch hour. This has balanced my time at the desk. For every freelancer, I highly recommend exercise and any opportunity to get out in the community and be around other folks.

I’ve had another major transition as well. A few weeks ago, I left a freelance position that made up half of my workload. Some bloggers who write about freelancing call this “firing a client.” That sounds harsh to me, as it is a natural for freelancers and their clients to move on after a time. Perhaps in a future post I will write about this process, including pros and cons of firing a client (hopefully I will find a better phrase by then), and how to know it’s the right time to do it.

For now, I will say it taught me that (duh!) freelancing is very cyclical in nature and that we have to be willing to let go of contracts that are not working in order to make room for more satisfying work. Indeed, as soon as I left that freelance position, a number of other opportunities came my way. This brings me to what I really wanted to focus on in today’s post: Networking vs. Job Boards.

Each morning, my ritual is to check the job boards for freelancing opportunities before I begin my work. Craigslist, Freelance Writing Jobs and Indeed are my early morning companions. Generally, I find two or three gigs per week that interest me and I apply. But, if I look at the contracts that make up my work week, all originated from networking. I also currently teach ESL three afternoons a week, a job I found on Craigslist and am incredibly happy doing.

How interesting though that all of my writing work is from my network, including new friends made via the Young Women’s Alliance, a networking and community service group in Austin, and via former coworkers. Am I going to stop looking at job boards each morning because I feel it’s a waste of time? Of course not–it’s a ritual that has reached the level of addiction. Reading about the widely varied freelance writing jobs available, seeing how much they pay and using my editorial eye to think about the ways in which these ads are written makes me feel like I’m staying in touch with the market. I’m not convinced yet that it’s a waste of time.

Also, I have come close to getting work I applied for after seeing it on a job board. One publication editor even wrote that he had selected someone else for the gig, an editorial position, but he is interested in the possibility of me writing articles for the publication. So, there is an opportunity there.

This makes me wonder if the job board application process works in the same way advertising does. There is a theory in advertising that the potential customer must hear a message three times before acting upon it. Or maybe it’s seven times. Or 72. I don’t remember, but you get the idea. Though it’s a lot of work for those of us applying for the gigs, I wonder if potential clients who are not part of our networks have to see our names three, seven or 72 times before hiring us. And, if the client is one we’ve had a crush on for a while, or it’s a type of writing we really want to do, then maybe it’s worth it.

What do you think? Does most of your work come from networking or job boards? What has the job board application process been like for you?

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August 14, 2008

More Thoughts on Starting a Freelance Career

After a couple of exhilarating, yet exhausting months of building a freelance business, I escaped the steamy Austin temperatures and visited Washington state–hence the hiatus in blog postings.

I’m back now, and this week I’m reflecting on this busy summer. The past few months I have marveled at the fact that people are hiring me, people are reading my blogs and that this whole freelance dream is actually working out. Many times I have thought of that old Sally Field Oscar acceptance speech, “You like me, you really like me!”

People are hiring me, people are reading my work and I’m not starving. Though it is surprising on most days, I have to remember that for years I have known this could happen. It makes sense: if you are a good writer and a responsible, detail-oriented professional, of course the work will come.

But, I tried this before about four years ago. At that time, I attempted to make a freelance living solely on newspaper stories, which, while they are rewarding, don’t pay that well. So, I went on to full-time teaching, then to editing and eventually to tech training and tech writing.

A former supervisor of mine, who is a writer herself, said that just about everyone is a closet writer. When you start talking to people about your writing, they open up about their own aspirations. Unfortunately, few people nurture this talent.

In the midst of all those other jobs, I continued to dream about a home-based writing business. And, I started compiling photos and quotes that reminded me of where I wanted to be and posting them on a cork board. This is what Oprah and the author of the wildly popular book, “The Secret,” refer to as a vision board. Whatever you want to call it, it kept me focused on what I wanted to do.

While I won’t tell you everything I clipped for that board, I do have one quote to share. Recently, I have spoken with a few writers who themselves would like to become full-time freelancers. If that is you, this quote may remind you to attend to the business of writing, whatever form that writing may take, as it did for me:

“When you look back on a lifetime and think of what has been given to the world by your presence, your fugitive presence, inevitably you have to think of your art, whatever it may be, as the gift you have made to the world in acknowledgement of the gift you have been given, which is the life itself. And I think the world tends to forget that this is the ultimate significance of the body of work each artist produces. It is not an expression of the desire for praise or recognition, or prizes, but the deepest manifestation of your gratitude for the gift of life.” — “The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden” by Stanley Kunitz

Kunitz was one of the great poets of our time and he lived for slightly more than a century. I have always appreciated the experience and advice of people who have been around long enough to know what’s what. And, I still read this quote frequently.

Whether your art is writing (and that doesn’t have to mean the great American novel), or it is cooking a beautiful meal, that is what you should spend more time doing. Like Kunitz says, we don’t just do these things for recognition, but as a gesture of gratitude for being given these gifts and a life in the first place.

Back to the story of my freelance career: So, while things didn’t work out with the newspaper stories in 2004, last spring I started to think differently about my writing and what it could do for people. In the past, I wanted to only write arts and culture features for newspapers and magazines, or short stories or poems. I think I was sort of a literary snob who thought anything else was unworthy of my efforts.

All it took to change that mindset was spending time doing work I didn’t want to be doing and work that wasn’t engaging me as a writer. In addition, wherever I went, people asked me to write and/or edit things for them–ad copy, job announcements and resumes. When I finished these things, the people who had sent them my way were always thankful and relieved. That is when I realized my writing proficiency, being my only talent really, helped people and that I was wasting time by not using it more. The snobbery fell away, and I began writing and editing anything I felt could use my contribution.

Now, my days are filled with writing assignments of every flavor—web copy for a real estate website, search engine optimization articles on a variety of topics, and yes, tech writing. Though I haven’t written any poems or short stories lately, I am much happier now that I am engaging in the writing process each day.

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July 30, 2008

SEM for SMB roundup, Part 3

Two weeks ago, I attended part of the SEM for SMB (that’s search engine marketing for small-to-medium businesses) conference here in Austin, both as an SEO writer and as an entrepreneur who has a few things to learn about search engine marketing. Though I was only able to attend the Thursday morning sessions, I learned plenty as a newcomer to this brave new SEM world. In this series, I am presenting information from the sessions I attended.

The final session I attended was the “Link-Building Workshop” with Ben Finklea, CEO of the search engine optimization firm Volacci. Finklea’s session was perfect for people like me, who are not aware of all of the tools and strategies available for gaining prominence in search engines. Here are highlights from Finklea’s presentation:

Finklea first asked the audience why links are important, and together developed the answer that links are votes for your site. Finklea also said that page rank is not as important as relevance. Your content must be relevant to the searches people are performing. He then went on to discuss a variety of strategies that I found useful as a freelance writer working to build a brand online.

BASIC STRATEGIES

Link exchange: You link to someone’s site and they provide a link to your site. This is ideal for a business in your industry that is not a competitor. For example, I might link to a freelance graphic designer’s site, and they would link to my freelance writing site or blog.

Article Marketing: Everyone is looking for content for their websites. Why not write an article on a subject and be sure the article contains links to your site?

Article Exchange: A version of Article Marketing, Article Exchange is a strategy in which you give someone a free article and permission to post it. You want to find a good site for this. For instance, I might write a free article and send it to the creators of Freelance Writing Jobs, giving them permission to post it. The article would, of course, include a link back to my site.

Testimonials: Do you have a favorite restaurant or product? Write a testimonial for that product, include a link to your site at the end, and then send the testimonial to the company’s webmaster or marketing department with permission to post it on their site.

Press Releases: Embed links in a press release about your product or service and send it to a national press release site such as PR Web.

ADVANCED STRATEGIES

Blogger Surveys: Compile a list of 20 bloggers in your industry, develop an interesting question and send it via email to these bloggers. For instance, I might ask a group of freelance writers, “How much of your day or week do you typically spend searching for and acquiring new work?” Then, with their permission, post their answers on your website or blog, with links back to their sites.

Reviews: Ask your customers to review you. This is something I am currently doing on my own site on the testimonials page.

Videos: Like other SEM for SMB presenters, Finklea also emphasized the importance of videos in search engine marketing. Create a short video detailing your services, then post it on your site as well as on the several video sites out there.

WHAT NOT TO DO

  1. Don’t acquire too many links too quickly. This makes search engines suspicious and doesn’t look good for you.
  2. Don’t sit around waiting for links–actively seek them.
  3. Don’t buy or sell links-this is bad, bad, bad.
  4. Don’t focus on just one strategy–you have many available, so employ a variety of tools.
  5. Don’t use a link farm.

There are so many strategies available to freelancers who are building a brand online that it can be overwhelming. What I’ve taken away from Finklea’s presentation is to invest as much time as you can, and to diversify your efforts. So, I’ve decided to focus my efforts in the next few months on blogger surveys (because they just sound fun) and videos. Any ideas for survey questions or videos that would be helpful to the online freelance writing community?

Cheers!
Jen

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SEM for SMB roundup, Part 2

Two weeks ago,  I attended part of the SEM for SMB (that’s search engine marketing for small-to-medium businesses) conference here in Austin, both as an SEO writer and as an entrepreneur who has a few things to learn about search engine marketing. Though I was only able to attend the Thursday morning sessions, I learned plenty as a newcomer to this brave new SEM world. In this series, I am presenting information from the sessions I attended.

After Thursday’s general session, I headed to “Leveraging Social Media,” a session presented by Connie Reece, founder of Every Dot Connects, and Paul Walhus, founder of The Spring. This session served to reiterate many of the points presented in Thursday’s General Session and throughout the conference. Here are some highlights:

  • Reece emphasized the importance of building networks on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but she warned the audience to value the quality of a network over the quantity.
  • Reece referred to Twitter as “microblogging,” and said that it is an easy way to get a message out about a blog post or other online activity you want to promote.
  • Reece also addressed the question of the ROI of social networking, saying the that time is the big investment, but, she asked, “What is the cost of not participating?”
  • Walhus echoed a message heard elsewhere at the conference–that podcasts and videos are valuable to audiences, and that these media increase a site’s ranking in search engines.

This presentation, along with the General Session, inspired me to create a Twitter account to keep my network aware of blog posts, daily activities and upcoming events. And, for a long-term goal, I am planning to incorporate videos or podcasts into my online marketing plan for my freelance writing services as well. What have you been doing to increase your search engine ranking? Comment away and share your ideas.

Take care,
Jen

Image courtesy of stock.xchng

July 22, 2008

SEM for SMB Conference Roundup, Part 1

Last week I attended part of the SEM for SMB (that’s search engine marketing for small-to-medium businesses) conference here in Austin, both as an SEO writer and as an entrepreneur who has a few things to learn about search engine marketing. Though I was only able to attend the Thursday morning sessions, I learned plenty as a newcomer to this brave new SEM world. This week, I bring you conference highlights, starting with the first Thursday morning session:

Using SEO, Blogs and Social Media Together for Top Results presented by Mark Volpe

Mike Volpe, VP of Marketing at HubSpot spoke at Thursday’s general session. Since the crowd was made up of marketing professionals and business owners, each speaker faced a bit of a challenge. The SEM practitioners already knew much of the material being presented, and many of the small business owners or staffers were beginners. Though I am familiar with a few SEM techniques, much of what I learned was new and gave me many challenges as a writer hoping to market her suite of services to a wider constituency.

Here are a few things I want to pass on from Volpe’s talk:

Every company needs a blog. This is not only to help increase search engine ranking, but also to develop a personality to for your company or brand.

Companies that use videos on their homepages rank better in search engines. How can writers use this knowledge? Create a video detailing your suite of services, post it on YouTube or a similar video site and embed the video on your homepage. This also helps people associate a face with your brand.

Google your company’s name or your name. Are people talking about you? Is it good? Then tell your blog readers and Facebook friends about it. You’re not just promoting your product, you’re promoting all the chatter online about your product or service. Wanna see an example? Last week, I wrote about the Tillamook Cheese Macaroni and Cheese Contest on Foodie Friend Jen. Someone who works for Tillamook found the post and posted it on Tillamook’s Facebook page. Now all of my readers who love cheese can visit the Tillamook Facebook page to read more about cheese, and the Tillamook readers can visit my blog. Woo hoo!

There are plenty of free tools available to help your brand become more prominent online. During his Thursday morning talk, Volpe mentioned blogging, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter and Del.icio.us as free tools of the trade for any business wanting to become more visible. And, these tools can all work together. See the Tillamook Cheese example above. Also, Volpe generously broke down “The Day in the Life of Inbound Marketing” for the audience. One technique he introduced: Post a blog about a topic relevant to your industry, let all your Facebook and Twitter friends know you’ve posted the blog, then once someone else writes about your content, let your friends know about that as well.

Volpe inspired me to become more active in the social networks online. So far, I am on LinkedIn and Twitter, but in the next few weeks I will be experimenting with Facebook as well.

Stay tuned. Later this week I will bring you more goodies from the SEM for SMB Conference.

Let’s follow each other on Twitter

Good morning everyone,

After attending the SEM for SMB conference last week, I have succumbed to the peer pressure–I’m on Twitter. If you’re already Twittering, here’s my profile page: http://twitter.com/writerfriendjen.

If you are not sure what Twitter is, well let me tell you. Twitter is a social networking tool that enables people to share every juicy (and for me, mundane) detail of their lives. It’s sort of a cross between blogging and instant messaging. Since I blog about writing, food and yoga, expect to see Twitter updates about what I’m consuming, writing and reading, as well as what I’m learning in my yoga teacher training program.

Later this week here at Writer Friend Jen, I will be sharing more of the gems I picked up at SEM for SMB.

Take care,
Jen

July 17, 2008

Career Management: Your Online Persona

I hope your Thursday is off to a good start. I’m at the SEM for SMB conference, and you can look forward to an upcoming post on all the things I’m learning about social media, and how that can be useful for freelancers.

In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about a freelance writer’s responsibility to manage her online persona well. Several of my friends are now bloggers, and we’ve chatted about how we have to sometimes edit ourselves when blogging.

After all, if you are a professional, a public blog should not be used as therapy. You don’t want potential or current clients thinking you’re unstable, irresponsible, lazy or any number of other qualities that might raise a red flag. For more on this, see yesterday’s post on Freelance Writing Jobs, “Confessions of a Freelance Writer: ‘I Blogged My Way Out of a Job.’”

Freelance writers who blog should present an online persona that is informative, but still approachable. I’m not saying to write like a robot. But, as a rule, I avoid those things that divide people, like religion and politics. What you post online stays there forever, so be sure to edit before hitting publish. And, if you’re a teacher, be sure to warn your students about the permanence of their online musings. Check out another Freelance Writing Jobs post on this, “Online is Forever.”

I was teaching high school English when MySpace started to really gain momentum. And, I told my students one day that teachers were able to view their MySpace profiles, which were mostly public. One student remarked, “You can’t look at that, that’s private!” That was in 2004, and I hope we’re all more aware now that online privacy is an oxymoron.

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July 15, 2008

Recommended Reading: July 15, 2008

courtesy of stock.xchng

courtesy of stock.xchng

Here’s what I’m reading this week:

I have been looking for a good blog on SEO content writing. Do you have one to recommend? Comment away and send me a link.

July 9, 2008

SEO Writing: What do you want to know?

Happy Wednesday, readers.

I am the luckiest freelancing lady ever. Not only have a lot of opportunities been coming my way in the past few weeks, but now I get to attend the SEM for SMB Conference (that’s Search Engine Marketing for small-to-medium-businesses).

Once you really start snooping around the online freelance writing community, you’ll notice plenty of opportunities for SEO writers. What is this SEO thing? Well, SEO stands for search engine optimization and it is a strategy businesses use to increase their ranking in search engines.

When you perform a Google search, how often do you flip to page two or three of the results? Yeah, I don’t do much flipping either, unless (confession time) I’m Googling myself. That’s what SEO is all about: getting your business to show up on that first page.

There are a lot of strategies involved in achieving that goal, and I am unfamiliar with about 93% of them. What I do know is I’m a competent writer and that’s what SEO firms are looking for. Learning the SEO part of it comes in time. And, it’s a relatively new field, so no one expects an SEO writer to know everything.

But, I am trying to learn more each day, which is why I’ll be attending the Thursday sessions of next week’s SEM for SMB conference here in Austin. If any of you fellow freelancers want to learn along with me, please let me know what questions you’d like me to ask. I will be there to represent. And, once the conference is over, I will post my findings here at Writer Friend Jen.

Cheers!
Jen

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