From Bunny Slippers to Business Plans
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.
Freelancedom Halloween Post from Steph Auteri on Vimeo.
Hey guys! Welcome to a new weekly (fingers crossed) series, The Infinite Wisdom of Others, in which I e-interview other freelancers and small business owners about how they do what they do.
If you enjoy what you see here, please do consider participating yourself.
Kicking things off is my husband, Michael Auteri, a copywriter by day, web designer by night (and weekends):
Just the other day, I received quite the happy e-mail. It was from an employment agency, specializing in the creative fields, through which I had applied to two permalance editor gigs. They thought that my work was “dead on,” and were wondering if I would be around that afternoon for a phone interview. After doing a happy dance, I responded that I would be home all day long, and then set up drawing up some notes, based upon questions they might ask me.
While I was in the midst of this, I received a response to my response. [Agency Guy] will be calling you shortly.
Crap.
I was unprepared. I was straight out of the shower, and with a head of wet hair, which wasn’t the most comfortable feeling in my chilly apartment. And I already knew that phone interviews weren’t my strong suit. (Speaking in general isn’t my strong suit; that’s why I became a writer.)
Of course I was dissatisfied with the course my phone interview took. How could I not be? What should I have done to ace that interview?
I must admit, I don’t pitch nearly as much as I should, as I’ve let myself become so distracted by my blogging, but here is proof that I do, in fact, write other things.
Tango magazine has run my story about the desperate measures I took to get myself out of debt, with my marriage as the catalyst that finally forced me to get my finances under control.
Aaaand, on a completely different note, they’ve run my story on what not to do at a sex party.
God, I never would’ve known these had gone up if someone hadn’t e-mailed me with congratulations.
For the longest time, I was using one of the kitchen chairs in my home office, and it was not comfy. Later, I actually carried an old office chair — bound for the scrap heap — from my office in Manhattan to my home in New Jersey piece by piece. It was better than the kitchen chair, but not by much, My dream? The Aeron, pictured above. The problem? $1,255.
The solution?
Hey guys! Exciting news! (Well, I find it exciting…)
As lead blogger over at the Modern Materialist, I’m in charge of making sure content is Awesome. At the moment, I’m thinking things could possibly get even awesomer if I had another male blogger, just to even up the score a bit (apparently, posting about sparkly chandeliers, pretty sofas, and flouncy skirts every five seconds isn’t fair and balanced).
Just for those who haven’t been over there yet, the Modern Materialist is Nerve.com‘s products and home design blog. Bloggers are paid per post ($10/post), with an average of 3-5 posts a day. If you’re interested, or have any questions, please send me an e-mail! If you’re applying for the gig, please do include a letter of interest, and links to relevant clips.
If you know of anyone who might be interested, by all means, spread the word! Thanks guys!
After a brief literary detour, I’ve finally returned to my favorite genre — career/self-help — with Megan Hustad’s How To Be Useful.
The book is thus far sporadically useful in itself, but I did find two especially interesting tips worth mentioning in its chapter on networking and “the Master Mind.”
After the jump, make the most of networking events, connecting with the people who can help you eventually take over the world! (or some such thing)
It gets lonely working from home, all alone except for my three cats. Sometimes I get a bit stir crazy, talking to the cats, sometimes even dancing with them.
While the mental health ramifications of the conversations I have with my cats are questionable, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking a little dance break mid-project.
After the jump, my Dance Machine playlist:
Hey guys! As I’m only one small picture of what freelancedom looks like (and my, what a messy picture it is), I’m thinking of introducing a new Thursday feature to the blog.
In an attempt to forge connections and share others’ infinite wisdom with readers, I’d like to start interviewing all you freelancers and small business owners out there.
The final interview post would include links to your site, photos of or links to product examples and, if you’re willing, some shots of your home office.
If you’re interested in submitting to my silly and not-so-silly questions, leave a comment here, or e-mail me!
