Freelancing

In social media, don’t ignore the little guys. Or doggies.

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popcorn social media contentThis is the flip side to my previous post on social media, in which I advised that you focus just on the high-value core of your social media network.

Today I’m suggesting that while you keep one eye on developing that core, you should also pay attention to connections which don’t appear to have any immediate value to you.

How come? Why bother with people who don’t have many connections of their own, and don’t appear to offer much value?

For a couple of reasons.

First, because if you dismiss people out of hand, simply because they don’t have many followers or friends, then you’re missing out on the “social” in social media.

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Monday Spark: Reframing just a small slice of your day can make a big difference.

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reframe your dayWe tend to repeat the same old patterns every day.

We have a routine, from the moment the alarm goes off. We get things done in the same sequence. We see the day through the same set of lenses. We have our weekday lenses and our weekend lenses.

There is nothing inherently wrong about this, except that it makes it hard for us to see or do anything different or new. We get stuck in a rut, driven by fixed perceptions.

One of the most fixed events in many people’s lives is the daily commute. Watch this video and see how perceptions of a metro ride can be reframed. (And thank you, Faith Attaguile, for bringing this to my attention through your Google+ post.)

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Freelancers – Engage with the high-value core of your social network.

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social media networkingAs freelancers we can all benefit from social media. By connecting with our peers, industry thought-leaders and client prospects, we can grow our reputations, increase our knowledge and expertise, and find new clients.

However, we can also end up spending way too much time on social media sites for very little return.

We have to look at how much time we are spending on social media each day, and make sure that time is being well spent. You need to balance your billable hours against your unbillable hours.

So how should freelancers use social media, with minimal wastage?

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Online writers and copywriters: Social media IS the web.

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social media conversationMost online writers and copywriters learned their craft at a time when the web was all about static websites.

To put a date on that, let’s say the period of “come and spend time on my great website” was between 1995 and 2008. More or less.

I’m pretty sure the majority of freelancers learned how to write for the web during this period.

Is this a problem? Could be.

Before then, in the eighties and very early nineties, the Internet was around, but the web wasn’t. In other words, people were connecting through the infrastructure of the Internet, but there were no browsers. No web as we know it.

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Monday Spark: Give yourself a break at the weekends.

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freelancer relaxing in hammockI should never have written this post.

This weekend I could definitely have used a break. The last two weeks have been incredibly busy, and I was planning on a 100% work-free weekend.

Then on Friday afternoon my laptop finally died. So off I went to the store to buy a new one. As you know, changing computers involves a ton of work, moving files and reinstalling software. (I still have half a dozen or so programs to install.)

So much for my weekend of rest and relaxation.

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8 Bonuses and $100 off my Copywriting 2.0 program – Deal Expires Today.

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online copywriting courseIt has been about four years now since I first wrote the Copywriting 2.0 program. I wrote it based on my work as a web writer and trainer for companies and organizations like Yahoo!, Intuit, The New York Times, The Getty Trust and many others.

So while I wrote the program for online copywriters at any stage of their careers, even beginners, the content of the program is based on my writing and training work for some of the most respected companies in the world.

In other words, this is a professional-grade program. There is nothing thin or skinny about it.

And since we first published the program, we have been updating and adding to it on an ongoing basis, including the addition of embedded videos.

Also, year by year, I have been creating more and more webinars, teleconferences and written materials to support the program.

As a result, when you buy the program now, you not only get the full, updated program, but also receive all of the following 8 bonuses.

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