All posts by Amanda Connor

freelance jobs

Who’s Hiring?

By Amanda Smyth Connor1362732_happy_friends

In this crap economy, is anyone still hiring freelance writers?

Yes! Squee! Oh for joy, some wonderful companies are still hiring! And you might be surprised to hear which companies are in need of fabulous writers like yourself.

1. Gaming companies. Game development companies like Zynga and EA are in a state of fast growth and are pumping out games for various platforms faster that you can say “Alec Baldwin playing Words with Friends.” Look for jobs like “community manager” for social media positions and “content developers” for freelance writing positions.

2. Political campaigns. I’m not talking about writing speeches for Obama (although if you can get that gig, I’d ask that you put in a good word for me.) I’m talking about offering your services up to local politicians in need of bloggers, content managers and social media assistants. Just beware the skeletons in the closet.

3. Start-Ups! Keep a close eye on any start-up that you hear about. It may mean short-term gigs because funds are tight, but start-up companies notoriously need content created in large quantities very quickly as they work to build SEO and marketing campaigns. This will mean flexibility on your part when it comes to tight turnaround and jumping from one project to the next, but if you can get in good on the ground floor of a good start-up, you can position yourself for loads of steady freelance work. ps. Etsy is hiring bloggers right now. FYI.

4. Hit up my favorite industry job board – Mediabistro.com. They have full-time, part-time and freelance job listings for the writing, editing and social media industries. Check it out.

Amanda Smyth Connor is a social media manager for a major publishing company, owns her own wedding planning business and has managed online communities and content development for many start-up and Fortune 500 companies.  She has been a professional editor for more years than she can remember.

advice, social networking

Keep your friends close and your editors closer

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By Amanda Smyth Connor1285834_four_hands

Steady employment for those in the writing/editing industry appears to be going the way of the Dodo in the midst of today’s economic crisis. You may find that one day you are happily emailing your favorite editor and the next day, they’re gone and you’re suddenly working with a new editor – or worse, you can’t figure out who to contact at all.

Crap. Now you have to start the relationship from ground zero and work your way back up with a new editor.

The good news is that, as an editor, every time I have left a job, I have taken all of my favorite writer’s contact info with me. The first thing I do upon taking a new job is to begin reaching out to my existing arsenal of writers. It looks good for me, professionally speaking, to bring these existing relationships with me and it works out well for my writers when I am once again in a position to begin hiring them for new projects.

Editors and writers have a delightfully symbiotic relationship. They need you as much as you need them, so don’t ever believe for one second that you are entirely at their mercy. And because of this shared need to maintain relationships despite unsteady employment, I make it a point to update my LinkedIn as often as possible and to keep my writers up to date on any career changes I undergo, whether it is taking on a new position with my existing company or whether I move to an entirely different company.

Employment opportunities are, as they say, not about what you know as much as who you know, and you never know when you will be in a position to help a friend secure a new position. My advice to you is to keep networking, maintain your relationships and keep that contact list up to date.

advice

Going Up: What’s Your Elevator Pitch?

By Amanda Smyth Connor

You’re at a lovely party with lovely guests and lovely music and things are just terribly lovely from floor to ceiling. All of a sudden, a friend grabs you and introduces you to a hot shot business owner who is in need of compelling and highly engaging content. You have 30 seconds to pitch this stranger and to nab a new client.

832552_antique_elevator_dial

Spotlight is on you, bud.

Do you have an elevator pitch ready to go?  Are you confident in telling this stranger what your strengths are as a writer? Do you even know what your strengths are as a writer? Can you call to mind some of your recent achievements as they relate to this client’s needs?

Don’t get caught unprepared. That’s money that you’ve just left on the table.

Preparing a great elevator pitch:

1. Keep a professional journal of accomplishments, complete with project details, the date you completed each project and the contact information for the respective client, should you ever need a reference.

2. Keep your portfolio up to date at all times. Whether you keep a hard portfolio or (preferably) a digital portfolio, you can’t let this portfolio become outdated because you have the time to update as you went. A great review from a client, coupled with an excerpt of the work you did, becomes a highly effective resume.

3. Take note of your top three most impressive accomplishments as a freelance writer and have those at the tip of your tongue at all times.

You elevator pitch should look and sound something like this:

“I’ve created SEO-friendly feature articles for X company, I’ve developed blog posts for Y company that generally attract [blank] number of hits/traffic, on average, and I frequently work with W company on various marketing projects, such as the [blank] campaign. Tell me more about what you’re looking for in terms of content.”

Having a great elevator pitch ready to go at any time is invaluable. You don’t want to be that guy who can’t sell himself when given the opportunity to do so.

Amanda Smyth Connor is a social media manager for a major publishing company, owns her own wedding planning business and has managed online communities and content development for many start-up and Fortune 500 companies.  She has been a professional editor for more years than she can remember.

advice

A Little Thank You Card Goes a Long Way

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By Amanda Smyth Connorthank-you-and-Follow-up

The holidays are upon us again and I’ve only just recovered from last year. I’ll be taking a different approach to the holidays this year as I continue my journey toward ORGANIZATIONAL NIRVANA!

I’ve started my Christmas shopping early, I booked my travel back in August and we’ve already alerted the in-laws as to which days and times we will be visiting (from 3:00 to 3:04pm on Tuesday.)

What I absolutely cannot forget to do this year is to send thank you cards to all of the clients who hired me. Whether they were completely awesome and fed my positive energy or sucked out my will to live, they still hired me and paid me, and for that I am thankful.

For starters, I’ll be sending a card to each of my new clients that includes a personalized message. For my regular/favorite clients I try to send a little more, like cookies for the editorial team or coffee and bagels for the crew. It’s a nice little “thank you” that won’t cost you an arm and a leg and it keeps your name fresh in their minds.  Remember, it’s not bribery if they’ve already paid you.

What do you do to thank your clients?

Happy Almost Holidays.

Amanda Smyth Connor is a social media manager for a major publishing company, owns her own wedding planning business, and has managed online communities and content development for many start-up and Fortune 500 companies.  She has been a professional editor for more years than she can remember.


advice

Organization Shmorganization

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By Amanda Smyth Connor

The writer's current filing system/day planner
The writer's current filing system. Pink=Top Priority

I’ve uttered these words more than once, thinking to myself that I would just tackle each task as it came. “First come, first served.”

Flash forward to an epic breakdown a week later when I’m overwhelmed with various stages of incomplete projects.

So I’ve once again adopted a new organizational strategy. We’ll see how this one works out.  Many strategies before have tried and failed. Essentially, I’ll be devoting half of my day to one client and half to another. Sure this sounds overly simplified and it may lead to certain disaster, but one thing I am finding is that there’s more than one path to organizational nirvana, so I’ve got to keep looking for the best ways to stay organized.

I am inherently a lazy creature with a mild case of A.D.D. I have every intention in the world of recording meeting notes properly, completing research for a project, keeping up with my Quickbooks and staying on top of emails to clients, but sometimes there’s a “Real Housewives of New Jersey Reunion Marathon Extravaganza” that needs watching and then I forget everything that needs doing until it pops into my head at 4am a week later. Damn you, Andy Cohen.

What works for some doesn’t work for others. It’s not as simple as buying a filing cabinet and some fun post-it notes (see photo insert.) You have to keep developing your organization strategy in order to stay on top of the ebbs and flows of an ongoing workload.

While others may be looking for the meaning of life, my life quest will continue to be a quest for perfect organization. Until then, I’ll thank you for not judging me on my current filing system (again, see photo insert.)

Amanda Smyth Connor is a social media manager for a major publishing company, owns her own wedding planning business, and has managed online communities and content development for many start-up and Fortune 500 companies.  She has been a professional editor for more years than she can remember.

Words and Reason

Here’s to the Nerds

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Dear Steve,

Thank you for leading the revolution that brought us into this golden digital age.

Thank you for creating products that have made my world smaller and more accessible.

Thank you for showing me that it’s not the level of education you achieve, it’s how you use it that matters.

Thank you for creating devices that have enabled me to maintain friendships and relationships around the world without concern for distance or cost or time.

Thank you for giving me new technology that has amazed me and inspired me and allowed me to be creative in new and innovative ways.

Thank you for empowering me with your awe-inspiring devices. They have allowed me to progress farther in my career that I ever could have thought possible.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to play The Oregon Trail on an Apple IIE. And my mother sends her thanks for all of the Printshop cards she received, mostly on Tuesdays, because that’s when computer class was scheduled.

Thank you for being a genius, and a smart ass, and a rebel and for obsessing over the details that would shape the world as we see it. For having never met you, I am profoundly sad at your loss.

Here’s to the Crazy Ones

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs

With deep gratitude,

Amanda Smyth Connor