From Bunny Slippers to Business Plans
It seems that this is a week for saying yes to new experiences. Last night, my husband and I took our first salsa-dancing class, for a piece I’m working on about couple-friendly workouts. And the other day, I scheduled a session with a portraitist who paints Intimate Portraits, and then met up with two other writers I had previously only communicated with online.
It’s tough to tear me away from the computer, though, and I’ve still been reading…
Hey guys! Freelancedom’s Infinite Wisdom of Others series is back, this time with the infinite wisdom of Lisa Romeo, who’s done far more than I could ever hope to do. Because she is incredible. Seriously, check it:
Hey there guys. Check me out over at Darren Rowse’s TwiTip. My guest post — 8 Twitter Networking Tips: From Online to In-the-Flesh — is up. This is relevant to you guys too!
And to everyone visiting from TwiTip, welcome! ::waves:: I hope you find my Freelancedom posts at least somewhat helpful. 🙂
Earlier today, my first guest post ever went live at Darren Rowse’s Twitip, on taking Twitter-based networking from online to in-the-flesh. (Welcome tweeple!)
I’ve already mentioned in the past why guest posting is a good idea, so we won’t go into that again. What I would like to touch upon is how guest posting at someone else’s blog should be treated as seriously as if you were writing an article for New York (or, um, Marie Claire). More specifically, I’d like to focus on how to approach pitching a blog editor.
You already know that I worry about the deterioration of professional decorum due to Web 2.0 practices. I find that bad business practices run especially rampant when it comes to online correspondence.
Show that blog editor your pitching the same respect you would any major magazine or newspaper editor. After the jump, how to go about pitching your guest post:
Since we’re already talking about home offices and the sanctity of your space, I thought that I’d highlight the following for today’s product placement post:
Just the other day, I read a post over at All Freelance Writing on the misconceptions people can have about the freelance life.
Among these was the lack of respect people in our lives can often have for our work hours.
It hit a chord with me as, just the other week, my husband had chewed me out for not taking out the garbage that day. “You were home all day!” he said.
It was true. I had been home all day but, in all that time, I had barely even left my computer, as I had multiple projects on my plate, and not a moment to spare. His presumptuousness made me angry, and I stewed over all the other times him or my mother had asked me to pick up stamps, or run to the supermarket, or do the laundry…all with the assumption that I now had the time to spare, because my commute merely consisted of the walk from the bedroom to the computer room, and I had no one to answer to but myself.
Little did they know that I was a tougher taskmaster than any of my previous bosses had been, and it was because I had to be if I wanted to stay afloat. Unfortunately, it’s tough to change the misconceptions of non-freelancers, but we can at least attempt to do so by setting limits:
Here we are again, you guys. The end of another week (ohthankgod). It’s been a rough one, but the fact that I’ve been running around like a maniac working on multiple projects must mean that I’m doing something right.
Anyways. I’ve managed to pause here and there to squeeze some reading in:
Ever have one of those days where every step of a project feels like pulling teeth?
For me, this usually occurs when I’m working on one of my dating advice columns for Nerve. First, it takes me eons to find enough people willing to participate. And then, when I feel as if I’ve finally overcome all hurdles, and am on the home stretch, my interviewees miss the deadline I’ve given them, or balk at supplying everything they originally agreed to, or just plain flake out.
While I’m always going on and on about this one class I took at New School, there’s another one I took before that — From Pitch to Publish, taught by Cris Beam — at which I learned a very important lesson: You must keep the momentum going.
So as I started receiving my very first rejection letters, I didn’t sulk. Instead, I became a master at not taking it personally, and quickly flipped the pitch.
[Photo via]
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
– Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”
…
Earlier today, I posted on my personal blog about the fear of missing out on alternate lives due to the decisions I make.
I waxed eloquent (I hope) on how worried I am that, because of ways in which I’ve settled in and settled down, there are no more surprises around the bend.
Funny that the same neuroticism doesn’t plague the way I approach my career.
At least not anymore.
