Bring In New Projects Without Lifting a Finger

July 29, 2010 By 22 Comments

Things have been awesomer than usual lately, and that’s a relief.

Because 2009 was a rough one.

This time last year, it seemed that — no matter how desperately I looked — it was impossible to find paying work.

But then, at the end of 2009, shortly after I had started a new part-time job at YourTango, Ian Kerner contacted me about co-writing an ebook with him for his new Good In Bed web project. Several months later, I was contacted by someone at AOL’s Patch about copy editing. The other month, an editor at The Frisky asked me if I’d be interested in writing a regular sex column for them. And then, the other week, someone at Psych Central e-mailed me, asking if I would be interested in writing for their site, as one of their editors had seen my LoveMom piece on depression, and had been impressed.

I’m not trying to gloat (though sometimes I like to point at my husband and say neener-neener). I’m just sayin’… it’s totally possible to bring in new projects without lifting a finger. How?

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Filed Under: finances/income, marketing, networking, productivity Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How To Avoid Social Media Fatigue in 5 Easy Steps

April 8, 2010 By 3 Comments

[Image via]

Oh my god, you guys. The other week, I asked for suggestions on what I should include in my Job Hopping for Word Nerds e-book. Heather of CraftLit provided me with a goldmine of great suggestions, some of which I deemed outside the scope of my book. Still, I thought they would make for some great blog post fodder. So today, I decided to address this one:

How can I use social media without being swallowed by it?

So I opened up my Freelancedom dashboard, typed in the title of this post, aaand… then proceeded to spend the next four hours on Twitter.

Oy.

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Filed Under: balance, community, marketing, networking, productivity Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

I Skipped SXSW. Am I An Idiot?

March 17, 2010 By 2 Comments

So apparently, just about everyone in my Twitter feed was at South by Southwest (SXSW) this past week, a conference (and seemingly non-stop party) that somehow brings together “music, independent films, and emerging technologies.” It’s that last that is of greatest interest to me and, as the web developers, bloggers, content producers, and new media entrepreneurs in my feed live-tweeted talks and workshops, party-hopped, and networked, I started to feel that I was totally missing out.

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Filed Under: community, education, networking Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Road To Freelance Success Is Paved with Good Karma

January 25, 2010 By 6 Comments

[Image via]

Work has been pretty damn good lately (aside from the occasional seasonal slump). And — conceited as it may sound — I credit myself for a lot of that. After all, I’m the one who got me here. When I was unhappy at my 9-to-5, and daydreaming about freelancedom, I figured out the steps I’d need to take in order to make it work, and then took them. I self-educated myself with a shit-ton of how-to books. I took writing and pitching classes through MediaBistro and at the New School. I attended a ton of MediaBistro networking events, and formed a writing group. I secured a freelance gig before jumping ship and, during the transitional period, was working two jobs at once. And when I’d left my 9-to-5 behind, I took on another unpaid, post-college internship in order to gain more experience, contacts, and clips.

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Filed Under: community, networking Tagged With: , , , ,

What I Learned About Running a Business from Tabatha Coffey

October 26, 2009 By 3 Comments

NUP_130199_0199, select, retouched, single

I channel-surfed my way to Tabatha’s Salon Takeover during today’s lunch break. I had never seen it before and, honestly, had never felt compelled to. What did I care about the trials and tribulations of hair salons across the country?

Silly me. I was quickly sucked into a three-hour marathon (I know) and, aside from constantly wondering where she got that fierce black jacket she’s always wearing, I realized: Tabatha Coffey has a lot to teach me about running a business.

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Filed Under: marketing, motivation, networking, words of wisdom Tagged With: , , , ,

InternInc: LinkedIn for the Student Set

October 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

interninc logo

I have to admit. I usually mark most of the press releases that pop up in my inbox as spam. After all, I’m of the mind that these typically untargeted e-mails are just as insidious as the random penile enhancement e-mails my spam folder actually catches.

But then I received an e-mail about InternInc — a new social networking site that touts itself as “Facebook meets LinkedIn for students, employers and universities” — and I was intrigued. I’ve always thought that internships were invaluable for gaining experience, making connections, and trying out new industries commitment-free, and a social networking site that connected students with established internship programs sounded, well, genius.

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Filed Under: education, networking, preparation Tagged With: , , ,

October Monthly Goal Meet-Up

September 30, 2009 By 14 Comments

monthly goal

In the weeks since Brazen Careerist launched their new and improved site, I’ve discovered anew how fabulous it can be to have a dedicated network of bloggers all gathered in one place. Several posts of mine have been featured on the site, bringing greater traffic to my blog. I’ve been learning about new blogs, and meeting new bloggers. And then there are the groups.

Which brings us to this post. Rebecca Thorman of Modite recently created the Monthly Goal Meet-Up Group, in which members post about the next month’s goals on their blogs, and then look back at how they did the month before. After the post goes live, they then head on over to the group page and post a link back to their blog. It’s a way to be held accountable, and also a means of keeping on track with your own self-expectations.

So here it is. My first monthly meet-up post:

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PSA: Bazen Careerist Kicks Ass in a Brand New Way

August 25, 2009 By 1 Comment

bclogo

Quite some time ago, I signed up for Brazen Careerist, a network for young professionals that allowed me to share my blog feed and connect with other awesome people like myself. (You may have noticed the little bookmarklet at the bottom righthand corner of my blog.)

Today, Brazen Careerist has launched itself in a whole new way.

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Filed Under: community, networking, PSA Tagged With:

My Support System

July 31, 2009 By 6 Comments

my-parents

I did not make life easy for my parents.

During my toddler years, they worried over my introversion. During my junior high/high school years, they worried over my fiery temper. During my college years, they worried throughout the course of an abusive relationship I couldn’t bring myself to leave, and then worried some more when I fell into a deep depression and dropped out of college. (I eventually went back to [a different] school and earned my degree.) Post-college, they passed me onto a possibly masochistic husband with a sigh of relief, but still couldn’t help but worry over all my ups, downs, and interminable plateaus.

Throughout the duration, they’ve (for some wild reason) continued to support me in everything I do.

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Filed Under: community, finances/income, motivation, networking Tagged With: ,
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