Blogging
No Unread Items: An Empty RSS Feed
Recently I read something on Brass Tack Thinking about editing your streams mercilessly that almost felt like Amber Naslund had been reading my mind. I’d been thinking about what gets my attention and why. I’m already pretty good at letting go of material objects that don’t serve a purpose yet take up space. I’m even pretty good at editing the people I allow in my life to those that make it better as opposed to bringing me down. But, lately I’d been wondering what was going on my Google Reader account.
Read MoreThe Death of a Blog
All good things must come to an end. Even blogs. I’ve been telling myself that for almost two months now. But somehow it doesn’t make closing down Jargonwriter.com any easier.
In The Beginning. . .
I started the site when I was in college. All the latest and greatest job-hunting advice recommended blogging. So I began writing about the publishing industry.
The site grew even as I did. When I decided to begin freelancing part time, I focused my writing on freelancing. When I left my editing job in August to become a full time freelancer, the blog yet again followed my progress.
However as my business got busier and I invested more time into actually freelancing, I found I had less time to write about it. “Write a post for JW” got pushed further and further down on my to-do list. A week would go by without time to write a post. Then another week. Before I knew it my last post was 2 months ago.
Read MoreWhy You Can’t Guest Post for Me
Remember back when I wanted to make Diary of a Mad Freelancer a big, big site? And then remember when I did that 180 and decided I wanted to keep it small so that it could stay focused? Ok, well neither of those decisions has affected my love of guest posts. Guest posts serve two purposes in my world. First, I don’t have to write anything for that day. That’s major because as ambitious and wired as I may seem, getting out of doing work yet still reaping the benefits is still a win.
Read MoreThe One Where I Do a 180
Using NetworkedBlogs and Facebook
As many articles there are on time management for freelancers, it really just boils down to prioritizing and finding ways to take shortcuts without cutting corners. Over the past year, I’ve learned that automating some of my processes really gives me significant time savings and increased efficiency. Even if you’re worried that automating will take the personality out of some of your tasks, you probably have one or two things that you wouldn’t mind scheduling instead of doing by hand. For me, one of those things is posting my blog entries to its corresponding Facebook fan page.
Today over on She’s Self-Employed, Kate Jones of Om Shanti Handicrafts wrote a very detailed how to post about NetworkedBlogs and Facebook. When she pitched the article to me, I was assuming a decent how to article but I was blown away by her detailed description and screenshots. If you’re thinking of using an automated blog app or if you were eying the NetworkedBlogs app specifically, it might be useful to you. Swing by and check it out.
Read MoreThe Smart Business’ Guide to Winning New Work
You should know that I have not been paid for this post nor have I joined any affiliate programs. And Pawel has turned down my request for six unicorn pony tails and a back rub in return for this review, so I had to do it for free. So this is absolutely how I feel about this book and I’m motivated by nothing but my opinion. So for what it’s worth, here is my two cents:
If you’ve ever visited The Self-Employed Cafe or if you took advantage of The Year 1 Biz Support Group I was talking about last year, then you already know who Pawel Grabowski is. If you haven’t had the opportunity to come in contact with him yet, you’re missing out. Pawel is a veteran entrepreneur who was starting his first business while his peers were still tyring to get the hang of being college freshmen. Today he dispenses free advice for the self-employed through his website, his e-courses and Twitter every day.
Let me tell you about this Pawel guy. I don’t quite remember how I met him but I know it started on Twitter. Days later I moved to WordPress for the first time and he was very helpful, even though he didn’t know me from a can of paint. He made a video to help me work out my permalinks (and I know he made it for me because he was saying my name in the video). On my first day taking Diary of a Mad Freelancer seriously, he told me to do three things for my site. I did two of them. Then months and months later, I did the third thing and my traffic increased 138% in 30 days. No joke. And maybe I was stupid and just didn’t understand WordPress. So what? He didn’t have to hold my hand and help me, but he did. And he does stuff like that all time. Just the other day he was helping Sharon Hurley Hall fix her site header for no reason other than he just does that stuff.
But Pawel’s book can be especially informational to freelancers because it focuses on those areas so many of us have trouble with: prospecting, presenting and followup. It even goes into depth about cold calling and cold emailing new clients. And through it all, Pawel keeps reminding you of what so many freelancers need to hear: You can be a salesperson. You can sell your services. You just need need to know HOW to do it.
And now in the spirit paying it forward, I’m going to pass my copy of the book along. I’m giving away an ebook copy of The Smart Business’ Guide to Winning New Work to one lucky reader. All you have to do to enter is post a comment below about why you’d like to have it. I stop taking entries on Friday at 12:01am, so get to commenting.
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