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Purposeful Marketing for Freelance Writers
What I’m listening to: Airplane by j-hope For the first time in two years, I’m back to active marketing. I had a nice run. At the height of it, I had seven clients month over month. Yet all good things end. In a few cases, it was expected. My marketing these last two years has…
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Marketing Monday: The Lemming-less Freelancer
What I’m listening to: Conductor by We Were Promised Jetpacks It’s not just Monday — it’s the Monday that brings We Were Promised Jetpacks to Philly. My tickets are bought and I’m ready. It’s also Marketing Monday. Sorry to miss the last few. Life (and death) got in the way, to say the least. But…
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The Freelancer and The Ethical Boundary
What I’m listening to: Can’t Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake A year or so ago, I had an unpleasant encounter with an editor that didn’t end well. Normally, I wouldn’t talk about such things openly, but there’s a lesson in here that all freelance writers should be learning. It’s about how much control clients…
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A Freelancer’s Guide to Setting Your Damn Price Already
What I’m listening to: Closer by The Chainsmokers I was reading through some LinkedIn posts the other day when it dawned on me yet again: Freelance writers have no idea how to set rates. No, they really don’t know how to set rates. In a few cases, the questions revolved around “How much should I…
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The Days of Doing Without
This post isn’t about writing. It’s about loss. It’s been eight days since my father died quietly and quickly. In the ten minutes from the time my mom called to say he had a rattle (the death rattle was one we’d watched for in the last few months) and I’d called back to see if…
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Your Boundary-a-Day Freelance Career
To the wishy-washy freelance writers out there, this post is for you. A while ago (years) I was asked to complete a project by a client who’d found me on Twitter. That went well, so I wasn’t surprised when she reappeared the next month with another project. I was surprised by what she wanted me…
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Francis “Jim” Widmer: 1934-2018
Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message ‘He is Dead’. Put crepe bows…
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How Corporate Pay Bands Can Help Freelance Writers Earn More
What I’m listening to: Keep On by Portugal. The Man I was reading an article about how freelancers can stop undervaluing themselves (a subject after my own heart) when it occurred to me that corporations don’t have this problem. Let me rephrase — they don’t have a problem determining the value of each position. That…
