How To Avoid Social Media Fatigue in 5 Easy Steps

April 8, 2010 by 3 Comments

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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: , , , , , , , ,

My New Web Platform Has Launched!

April 5, 2010 by 9 Comments

You guys. I’m so excited I could puke. Last night, my (darling, beloved, uber-talented, handsome) husband put the finishing touches on my new web platform, and then set it to go live. Ever since then, I’ve been gazing at it lovingly, clicking between the different tabs and feeling giddy.

I tasked my husband with this project back in the fall, when I first entered my career coaching certification program. My professional site was feeling a bit out of date, and I wanted a more comprehensive platform that would present me as a writer, editor, and coach in a fairly seamless manner. Voila. Would you like the grand tour?

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Filed Under: marketing, PSA Tagged With: , ,

Where We Work

April 4, 2010 by 2 Comments

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My husband and I have been living in our one-bedroom condo for almost four years now.

When we first moved in, we agreed to forgo the formal dining room in favor of a home office, and so we set up our desks in that space so that we were sitting back-to-back, each of us facing the opposite wall.

Over time, I’ve had less and less patience with this arrangement. Two litter boxes sit to the immediate left of my desk, guaranteeing that there is always a light dusting of litter beneath my feet, and a faint eau-de-cat-poop lingering in the air. The space is also pretty tight. If I shift my chair just slightly, I either bang my left elbow into the china cabinet, or bang the back of my chair into my husband’s. Our office also opens up into the living room, making it impossible for Michael to unwind in front of the television if I happen to be working (he apparently hates the wireless headphones I bought him).

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Filed Under: products Tagged With: , , ,

Crowdsourcing: Does the Corporate Ladder Still Beckon?

March 31, 2010 by 8 Comments

A few weeks ago, one of my YourTango co-workers got a (totally deserved because she’s awesome) promotion.

It got me thinking: What’s the next step for me at this company? And do I even have a future here if I’m unwilling to go full-time?

Because while I love working for this company, and it feels like such a perfect fit for me, I’m a freelancer through and through. I have so many other projects on my plate, large and small. I have a new coaching practice. I plan on having a child soon. I enjoy the flexibility, and the diversity of projects. And I don’t want to have to give up anything!

This led to a late-night conversation with my husband, in which we discussed the fact that neither of us has had any interest in the traditional, corporate “ladder” for quite some time now. Rather, what we both enjoy is the act of creating. Management? A completely unattractive prospect for the both of us.

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Filed Under: career path Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Link Love: March 27, 2010

March 27, 2010 by 3 Comments

It’s been a busy week, and my poor ebook keeps falling to the bottom of the heap in terms of priorities. After all, who has time to whip up a book when there’s an office job to stay on top of, clients to coach, copy to be written, and blog posts to be…well…blogged? Still, my new web platform is slated to launch at the beginning of April (see: clock ticking). And my new web platform will have a products page filled with coaching packages that can be ordered directly through the site. And an additional item — available to order as a standalone product — will be my ebook. Yes, I am currently employing my oh-shit face.

Which is why I’m hunkering down this weekend (my sniffles have effectively quashed the desire to go outside, anyway) and working on nothing but Job Hopping for Word Nerds. Luckily, a good number of you have weighed in with ideas on what I might include in my ebook. Which makes my job a lot easier. (I love you guys.)

Before  brew another pot of coffee, however, and chain myself to the laptop, here are a few pieces you might find worth a read:

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Filed Under: link love Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Pinpointing Dream Job #328

March 25, 2010 by 9 Comments

Once upon a time, I wanted to be a ballerina. I loved the tutus, the leg warmers, and the ’80s dance movies. After a few months of ballet lessons, however, in which I was subjected to an itchy flower costume and an inordinate number of bourrés, it was clear that the American Ballet Academy was not in my future. (I still love the tutus. And the ’80s dance movies.)

In Test-Drive Your Dream Job, Brian Kurth wrote of the fears inherent in throwing yourself into a new career. “What if I pursue the ‘real me’ and then I don’t like it?” he wrote. “Or, scariest of all, what if I pursue the ‘real me’ and then I fail?” A valid fear, but I’ve found that acknowledging the fact that career goals and dream jobs change–and understanding that this is perfectly normal and okay–somehow makes those small leaps less scary.

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Filed Under: career path Tagged With: , , , , , ,

When To Stop Giving It Away

March 24, 2010 by 3 Comments

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Considering that I maintain a how-to blog with no membership fees, donation links, or advertising, you must assume that I love giving it all away. And to some extent, you would be correct. I love how this blog has helped me build up a professional platform. I love how it’s allowed me to connect with fellow freelancers. And, bottom line? I love helping people out.

But lately, two factors have led me to question where I should draw the line when in comes to “free”:

1. The launching of my coaching practice, the eventual success of which relies upon the assumption that people will actually pay me money for my expertise and professional guidance.

2. Repeated questions from newbies that lead me to believe that they haven’t even tried doing their homework. Forget thorough research. A quick search of my blog would have yielded them the desired results! Am I hurting wannabe freelancers by giving them the easy answers?

So how do I know when to provide free advice, when to direct people to my blog, and when to simply say, “Here’s my coaching fee!”?

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Filed Under: coaching, finances/income Tagged With: , , , , ,

Job Hopping for Word Nerds: An Ebook-in-Progress

March 19, 2010 by 15 Comments

Hey there guys — I need your help. Here’s the story: I’m working on an ebook. It’s called Job Hopping for Word Nerds, and I’m writing it with the intention of creating a go-to resource for those interested in finding work within the publishing industry…anywhere in the publishing industry. I plan on including descriptions of the positions available in book publishing, magazines, newspapers, etc. More importantly, I want to create a monster resource manual, filled with links to professional organizations, databases, job sites, blogs, powerful tweeps, and more. In short: I have a vision. 🙂 The resource appendices of self-help books have typically been my favorite part of said books, and that’s what I want to focus on here.

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Filed Under: PSA Tagged With: , , ,

Link Love: March 19, 2010

March 19, 2010 by Leave a Comment

It’s been a long, ridiculously busy week and, I must admit, I’m feeling a bit burnt out. Which is why, last night, I forced myself to step away from my laptop and indulge in an evening of Netflix+hot cocoa. Still, work goes on, and I completed a copywriting project for a new client, had my very first career coaching appointment, and got back into the bloggy swing of things. I’d still like to write up a guest post, organize the content for my new online portfolio, and make some headway on my e-book but, you know…we’ll see how that goes. 🙂 In the meantime:

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Filed Under: link love Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Freelance Dilemma: Brainstorming New Ideas

March 18, 2010 by 3 Comments

For the past six or seven weeks, I’ve been participating in Freelance Success‘s Query Challenge.

The last time I participated, I broke into new markets and gained a whole lot of momentum in my freelance writing career. This time around, I’m floundering. A lot of that is due to the fact that I’m juggling so many different things right now: I work in NYC three days a week, have various copywriting gigs on my plate, and am in the midst of launching my career coaching practice/taking on practicum clients. For these reasons (and because I’m finding that–more and more often–work is coming to me), sending out queries is just a much smaller part of my freelance life at this point.

But the other reason I’m floundering–both in this query challenge and on my blog lately–is because I haven’t been generating new ideas.

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Filed Under: writing Tagged With: , ,
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