What I’m listening to: Die Like A Rich Boy by Frightened Rabbit It’s been a few months since we’ve done the This Job, Not That Job tribute to the worst jobs of the moment. It’s not for lack of material. Today’s candidate for the Worst Job on the Internet comes via Jenn Mattern. Jenn spied…
Author: lwidmer
8 Ways to Bury Your Freelance Writing Image
What I’m listening to: Hanuman by Rodrigo y Gabriela I spent the last two days working like mad to get some client work finished – I wanted to head west and bring my mom back here for Easter. But she’s decided she’s staying put this year. She’s really struggling with getting back to a normal…
Free Advice Friday: The Words that Spell Doom to Your Freelance Writing Career
What I’m listening to: Ghost in the Machine by Our Last Night “Terms are terms. They aren’t good or bad until we add context.” That’s the argument I received after objecting to someone’s use of the term “liberal snowflakes” to describe my Facebook video of the recent snowstorm. It seems I made it political by…
Excuses that Kill Your Freelance Writing Career
What I’m listening to: Telescope by Starset Today, I call bullshit. For every writer out there with their own particular brand of excuse that explains why some of us make it as writers and they don’t, I’m calling your bluff. This particular head of steam started on a forum discussion. On it, the advice being…
Marketing Monday: Revamping Marketing Content
Late post today — mostly because I’d thought I’d written one, but found it wasn’t quite finished and I’d left it in my Draft folder. Today is your new year. Tell that to yourself any time you think you need to restart, but are waiting for some magical date or time to do so. Today…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…