From Bunny Slippers to Business Plans
Hey there. Remember me? I’m Steph, your friendly neighborhood blogger, who just happened to drop off the face of the blogosphere due to her new, part-time freelance gig as Assistant Editor for YourTango, in addition to other copywriting, newspaper, and magazine deadlines. And career coaching teleclasses. Not to mention Christmas.
As you can imagine, I’ve saved up quite a few links for your reading pleasure in the past few weeks. Please read them instead of dwelling upon how I’ve let you down:
Despite all my preparations, when I finally went full-time freelance, I was clueless when it came to finding new projects. As I had always done before, I scoured the job ads, dutifully sent out cover letters and resumes, found a part-time freelance gig that gave me the feeling of stability and, otherwise, waited for the work to come to me.
And for at least a year, it worked. I eventually ended up with two regular, moneymaking gigs, and additional projects continued to come my way via friends and former colleagues. Within only six months, I had matched my previous corporate salary.
Then the publication I was copy editing for folded and, about six months later, the web magazine I was writing for decided to switch things up, leaving me with a lot less income. And it occurred to me: I had been coasting!
I know I’m not the only one. Other office workers looking to go freelance are often surprised to find out that job-finding tactics are wildly different when you’re in business for yourself.
After the jump, some passive and aggressive ways to find work, and why it’s essential that you cultivate a mixture of both:
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.
Over the past few months, I’ve struggled to find new freelance projects to supplement my regular proofreading and blogging income. Only recently was I able to admit to myself the reason for this partially self-imposed period of limbo: I wasn’t sure what I was looking for.
Obviously, it’s impossible to put together an effective marketing campaign when you’re not quite sure what you’re marketing, or who you’re marketing to. After the jump, the three most basic questions you need to ask yourself before launching your own campaign:
This past week, I’ve had to face the fact that — if I don’t begin to self-market myself more aggressively — my at-home business will never grow. Which is why I focused on self-marketing all week long, with:
Still, even when we know all there is to know about the logistics of self-marketing, we can still have difficulty implementing the necessary steps. Much of this is due to fear.
If you’re interested in practicing a rather…exhibitionistic form of guerrilla self-marketing, there’s nothing like wearing your expertise on your sleeve. Literally.
After reading a ton of Twitter-happy posts over at ProBlogger, I went ahead and opened up my own account. After all, Darren Rowse of ProBlogger believes you can tweet your way to blogging success, while Jen A. Miller showed MediaBistro readers how to twitter in order to promote their books.
I still haven’t gotten the hang of tweeting regularly (or even knowing what’s worth tweeting), but I feel as if Twitter can be an invaluable marketing tool when used in a self-aware and targeted way.
Have any of you used your Twitter accounts to promote a blog or other business? Link to your Twitter profile in the comments!
