With the economy still sputtering and freelance writers complaining about clients taking longer and longer to pay their bills, it seems like a good time for a SWOT. SWOT is the name of a career assessment technique espoused by Grant Plowman, owner of Interactive Media Publishing, a digital media publishing company in southern Oregon. I […]
Give your freelance writing blog a static front page
If you’re a freelance writer, do you need a Website and a blog? A lot of freelancers I know have both. A Website can be a great showcase for a freelancer’s resume, writing samples and clips, photographs (if they take them), references, recommendations and other marketing materials an editor or book publisher might want to […]
Newspaper industry: worst of times, or best?
To paraphrase Dickens, it is the best of times and the worst of times for the newspapers business. The worst of times: layoffs, more every day including downsizing at some of the country’s biggest papers. Just yesterday, the Los Angeles Times said it was cutting 250 jobs, including 150 in the newsroom, bringing its total […]
How to write blog posts that get comments
Blogs are supposed to be community endeavors. You write something. People read it and respond with their own opinions or experience. But how to get people to leave comments? First you have to get them to your blog. I’m working on that. But once they’ve arrived and read what they’ve come for, how do you […]
WordCount blog: 2008 Q2 report
The end of June marked the end of Q2 of writing this blog, which I officially launched in January to keep track of changes in the freelance writing and online news business. In the past three months, WordCount hit some major milestones. Here are a few: Best month ever – When I decided to write […]
WordCount post included in The New Writer's Handbook 2008
I’m happy to announce that a post from WordCount, my blog about freelance writing, will appear in The New Writer’s Handbook 2008, an anthology about writing scheduled to be published in August by Scarletta Press. The post, Asking the Hard Questions is a list of tips for conducting tough interviews. The New Writer’s Handbook 2008 […]