Freelancing

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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Why do some freelancers say Yes, while most say No?

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say yes to opportunitiesI was talking with a coaching client earlier this week, and we were discussing an opportunity that was there in plain view, right in front of her. In fact, she had identified the opportunity herself.

When I asked her when and how she was going to grab hold of that opportunity, her immediate response was to start talking about why she couldn’t, wouldn’t or didn’t want to.

In other words, she began to talk herself out of taking action.

As her coach I asked her to stop for a moment. I wanted to explore her reaction. Why was she finding reasons not to jump forward and take action?

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Why every web page needs rewriting over and over again [VIDEO]

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old web pages new web pagesLook back twenty years and you’ll find that marketing materials had a slightly longer shelf life.

A company could have a brochure written and reasonable expect that brochure to be as relevant in a six months as it was the day it was printed.

Companies came to the web with similar expectations.

Oops.

The thing about the web, particularly today, is that companies are no longer the sole authors of their messages. In fact, their very brands are being formed and changed not by their marketing departments, but by their customers, fans and detractors.

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Monday Spark: Have you lost your song?

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lost your songRobb Braun isn’t famous. At least, I don’t think he is.

What you’ll see in the video below is a talk he gave at Toastmasters. Not at some fancy conference.

But he has a great message. And he’s right. As kids we all had our own song, that sense of who we were, what we felt was special about ourselves, and how we saw ourselves in the world.

But as Robb says, over time most of us learn to quieten that song, because it rarely fits in with what is expected of us…from our families, our schools and our friends. We turn down the volume in order to fit in and not rock the boat.

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As a freelancer, you can make 6 figures a year with just three strong relationships.

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freelance business relationshipsIf you’re a freelancer, you don’t need thousands of friends, followers and connections.

You don’t need to spend hours on Twitter and Facebook, trying to hold the attention of tens of thousands people who are, essentially, complete strangers.

You really don’t need to be connected with that many people.

Just three. Maybe four. Could be five.

When I look back over the last 30 years of freelancing, almost all of my work has come to me as a direct result of the strong business relationships I have had with a very small number of people.

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