How to Start from Scratch with a New Niche

This is a metaphorical lump of dough.

Like any good love affair, even a thriving writing career can get into a slump. And by “slump,” I’m not referring to the lean times in your typical feast-or-famine cycle. I’m referring to a successful business that — for some reason or another — you just feel bored with.

You know the feeling: Every targeted press release seems to say the same thing. Every forthcoming book you’re offered for review seems to have the same premise. And when your favorite sex toy purveyor offers you the latest and greatest vibrator with all the bells and whistles, you just feel meh.

While your niche may once have been a passion (and perhaps still is), it doesn’t seem to leave room for all the new interests in your life.

But is it worth it to switch gears? Will food editors be interested in a piece from a veteran health and wellness writer? Will tech editors care what the go-to sex columnist has to say?

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Will An Editor Judge You If You Don’t Have An Online Platform?

Yes. She is quietly judging you.

 

As a writer, do you need to have a website or blog?

It’s a question I’m asked pretty regularly by coaching clients, blog readers, and other freelance writers.

My response? Well, I can’t speak for all editors out there but, during my time fielding intern and blogger applications, and freelance queries, I always did the same thing.

If a website, blog, or Twitter URL did not appear as part of the writer’s email signature, I immediately googled their name so as to find it myself.

And if I didn’t find it?

I immediately questioned the abilities of the writer.

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Link Love: October 2

It’s been quite the week. I’ve welcomed a news crew into my home. Gotten started on my career coaching certification program. Upped my posting frequency. Drawn up some lofty goals. And all while coming down with something I fear is the flu. Here’s hoping I can keep up with everything I have planned for myself. At least if I crack under, you’ll have these writers to turn to:

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7 Portfolio Sites That Make It Easy To Strut Your Stuff

I’m a bit behind in updating my online portfolio. Because my professional site is not dynamic, I need to harass my husband every time I want a link to a new clip put up (conveniently, I’m married to my web designer). We plan on making the site dynamic at some point but, for the moment, I’m wondering if I should take advantage of some of the freelancer-friendly, portfolio-specific sites out there.

After the jump, a brief look at 7 different portfolio sites that you should check out.

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How To Get Your Guy, and Look Good Doing It

My pretty pretty website.

After reading a post on website stickiness over at ProBlogger, I spent a good amount of time this past weekend implementing Darren’s tips, in order to make this blog more inviting to readers.

As I uploaded plugin after plugin, and asked my husband to make design tweak after design tweak (I may be his most demanding customer), it occurred to me that a first impression post was in order.

After all, despite our having the ability to wear bunny slippers and fuzzy pants for the bulk of the day, first impressions with prospective clients still count for a lot.

So…what did I learn from the changes I implemented?

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