#BlogHer10 – To All My LadyBloggers

By Amanda Connor

BlogHer.com

Fact: 50% of your time as a professional freelancer should be spent working. The other 50% of your professional time should be spent networking and keeping on top of new trends in the industry.

Networking can be painful – root canal painful. Having to chat up a crowd of strangers can be a miserable and awkward experience. However, BlogHer10 is not your standard networking schmoozefest/snoozefest. It is two days of intensive seminars, hands-on learning and meeting the top female bloggers helping to drive the blogging industry. (Did I mention that this will be an all-women conference?)

What is BlogHer.com? It’s an online community of female bloggers who host, post, dish and share.

BlogHer10: As I write this, hundreds of female bloggers are preparing to descend upon New York City for two days of lectures, meet-ups, round-table discussions and Q&A sessions. I’ve rarely seen this much excitement surrounding a networking event. The buzz is immense on Twitter and Facebook and it makes me wish I was going! This year marks the sixth annual BlogHer conference, and as it has every year before, this year’s event is completely sold out.

This mega-conference, hosted and run by BlogHer.com, will focus on bringing the BlogHer community together to meet, greet, eat and learn together. Lectures this year range from general topics like “Usability Basics for Newbies” to hyper-focused topics like “Fashion Blogging” and how to handle your own blog photography and images.” Essentially, this is blogger bootcamp, designed to celebrate and foster growth within the female blogging community. Can I get a “heck yeah” from all the blogger ladies out there? Woot.

From newbies who need tips on working a Wordpress blog, to professional bloggers looking for better ways to utilize their metrics, this event has it all. Check out the agenda. It makes me salivate.

If you are lucky enough to be attending this year, you have LOADS of networking opps, educational opps and FREE SWAG to look forward to (my God…the swag….the beautiful, beautiful swag.) If you missed out this year, keep it in mind for next year. And if this isn’t up your alley (or if you are of the male gender…) you should be keeping tabs on the best networking events in your area. These events can be invaluable.

Music Reviewers Wanted

Wanted: Celtic CD Reviewers

This is a courtesy post for Marc Gunn of Celtic MP3s Music Magazine:

The Celtic MP3s Music Magazine is looking for people to write CD reviews for the magazine. Reviews need to be about three paragraphs long with about 200 words. Writers should have some familiarity with Wordpress to publish their reviews and should be good at self-editing.

This position is unpaid. However, writers will get a byline where they can promote themselves and a staff bio on the website. All music will be available as downloadable ZIP files through an FTP website, so you should be able to open ZIP files as well.

If you are interested in joining the Celtic MP3s Music Magazine and reach over 20,000 subscribers, then please write a CD review (preferably Celtic) and email it to editor (at ) celticmp3s.com.

FYI–I have written for Marc for many years and it is an enjoyable experience which I highly recommend. It’s a great opportunity to get your feet wet writing music reviews (and get a published credit), and the exposure is excellent.

Personally, I love it because I get to hear all kinds of great Celtic music. Irish girl that I am!   -Catherine

What Would You Do If Your Computer Crashed?

The question above is one I don’t even like to type out. It horrifies me to even think about my computer crashing. While this is a nightmare for most people–for the writer, it is a disaster of epic proportions. Articles you could re-sell, invoices, work in progress…gone…just like that.

I’m a huge fan of backup, and so today we are offering Freelance-Zone readers a peek at an online backup option–Mozy. Here with us today is Brent Bird, the Marketing Manager for Mozy, to share a bit about what the service is like.

(And be sure to check out the special coupon/code they gave us below–just for Freelance-Zone readers! If you aren’t ready for that, try it out for free first and see what you think.)

1. What is Mozy and how would it be useful to a freelance writer?

Mozy provides secure, online backup for all of the files stored on your computer. As a freelance writer, your career and oftentimes years of hard work can be stored on your system’s hard drive. Mozy makes sure you’re protected in case your hard drive crashes, your computer gets a virus or if you accidentally leave your laptop in a taxi or on a plane. Once you’re backed up, all of your most important files are stored in Mozy’s secure datacenters, available to be restored to your new machine, anytime you choose.  

2. Can you explain a bit about how the backup works and what you can store?

When you download Mozy, you are asked to select the files that you’d like to backup. Mozy makes this easy for you by pre-selecting “backup sets” of the most popular file types that customers typically choose to protect—documents, music files, photos, etc. Select what you would like to be backed up on your own hard drive, then choose your backup schedule. You can backup once a week, once a day, or even as often as every two hours. The initial backup can take some time, depending on the amount you’re backing up and your connection speed. However, once all of your information is securely in the cloud, Mozy then searches for changes to existing files or new files, so each subsequent backup is very fast.

3. How do you protect the stored data?

Mozy encrypts all of the data on your computer, in transit and at rest in our datacenters. We use 256-bit AES encryption technology which is the same encryption system used by the military. When you select files for backup, Mozy encrypts them on your computer, and then transports them over the Internet to our datacenters. In transit, the files are encrypted with 128-bit SSL encryption, which is the same technology used by financial institutions to send and receive financial transactions. All of your data is then stored in our datacenters in an encrypted state. You can even choose your own personal encryption key which only you will have access to. Your information cannot be decrypted without this key, so you can have ultimate control. Your data has never been safer.

4. What is the advantage of doing backup this way as opposed to more traditional media, such as DVDs or external hard drives?

Using external hard drives or DVDs to backup your data is a good idea, as any backup method is important. However, Mozy is automatic and secure, so that once you set it up, you’ll never have to think about it again. Your information is also securely encrypted, so your information is protected. With an external hard drive, you’ll need to manually move information to the hard drive on a regular basis or remember to upload your photos or your most recent work. That hard drive can also fail or crash without warning. With Mozy, you can set it and forget it and know that all new and important data is being backed up automatically.

5. What else can you tell freelance writers about Mozy?

Mozy wants to make sure that all freelance writers are protected by offering a 15% discount off of our normal rates. Simply enter promo code FREELANCE15 at purchase to receive the discount. Mozy also gives everyone 2GB for free, so you can try it out and see how it works for you. Need more than 2GB? MozyHome is only $4.95 a month for unlimited storage. Purchase an annual subscription and get a month free or purchase a biennial subscription and get 3 months for free. Whatever you choose, make sure you’re backing up your work somehow.

Does Your Hobby Blog Eclipse Your Pro Blog?

by Joe Wallace

If your hobby blog is overtaking your professional blog, getting more hits and more attention, ask yourself a couple of important questions. After all, we all want our pro blogs to do well and make money–but some people find their pro blogs lagging behind the ones they do for fun.

And there lies the answer, I suspect.

Hobby blogs are often more informal, more fun to read, and definitely more fun to write than pro blogs. I think pro blogs could take a lesson here–at least the ones that don’t seem to be able to compete. I run Turntabling.net, which is a lot more snarky, informal and goofy than Freelance-Zone.com. While Turntabling isn’t a hobby blog per se–I do try to earn some coin on it–I don’t worry nearly as much about content there because it’s far more opinionated and as such is easier to write. While there are opinions here, I find striking a balance between information and opinion more crucial to the success of FZ in general.

If your hobby blog is outpacing your pro blog, ask a few questions of your work:

• What makes the hobby blog fun to read? What is it you do there that you DON’T do on the pro blog?
• Is your pro blogging work too long? Too densely packed with information? Or is it “skimmable”?
• What is the central idea of your pro blog? Can you sum it up in two sentences or less?
• Look at the visual presentation of your pro blog. Is it easy on the eyes? Or is it a cluttery mess?
• Give your blog the Who Cares? test for all your most recent posts. The So What? test is also a good one.

These are only a few of the things you can try, I’ll cover some additional ways to give your pro blog a good, hard look in another post. … Continue Reading

Eight Resources For Veteran Writers

by Joe Wallace

By “veteran writers” I’m talking specifically about writers who are veterans of the United States Military, as opposed to writers who have a lot of experience in the business. There are a lot of us–myself included–who have time in uniform as part of our resumes, and it occurred to me that I’ve never posted any resources for us. It’s high time to correct that oversight, starting with this post.

For starters, if you’re writing about military topics, chances are good you already know about VA.Gov, the Department of Veterans Affairs official site.  But did you know about Jane’s Defense Weekly? Consider Jane’s to be the opposite side of the coin. Where VA.gov caters specifically to the individual veteran and those still in uniform about benefits and related information, Jane’s is aimed at “big picture” military issues including hardware, technology, and related topics. You can get a LOT of source material and background info here.

USO.org is a natural for human-interest pieces and feature stories. Ever wonder what it’s like to go on a USO tour and entertain troops in a combat zone? You might just find a great story idea at the USO you could parlay into several good-paying freelance gigs with the right editor.

I personally have found plenty of good background, stats, and news on veteran’s hiring and employment issues at the U.S. Department of Labor Veterans’ Employment and Training Service official site.

These resources are great, but on a slightly more personal note:

Vets often leave the military and begin small businesses (like Freelance-Zone.com, for example) but need help when it comes to getting started, learning about funding the business, operating it in the early days and surviving the costs of a startup. I spent a lot of time before I left the military exploring sites like the Center For Veterans Enterprise, and the Office Of Veterans Business Development. These sites are quite valuable for developing your own business plans, but also for background on articles and web content that pertain to the same areas. I highly recommend them.

One of the most important documents a veteran possesses is the DD Form 214, the official record of separation from the military. A lot of people who want VA benefits like the GI Bill, VA home loans or VA health care find they have misplaced their DD214 (usually in a relocation from an overseas base back to the USA before retirement/separation). There are plenty of websites offering vets help in getting a replacement DD214–many of them charge a fee which is NOT needed. Vets can get their DD214 FOR FREE direct from the National Archives in St. Louis. (Transparency alert: I recently did some freelance work for DD214.com which has an extensive collection of information on the DD214 which is why it’s been on my mind and included here.)

What You Don’t Know About Twitter CAN Hurt You

by Joe Wallace

Over the last few years, in addition to freelance writer and editor, I’ve also added social media specialist to my list of titles. I got started doing MySpace accounts for music projects and music journalist sites and branched out over time as Twitter, Facebook and other social media gained traction.

Among the many trends I’ve noticed among social media, one thing remains constant regardless of platform preference; there are always people willing to find new ways to send spam. Twitter is a no-brainer when it comes to spam–it’s too easy to tweet, tweet, tweet ad nauseum and send annoying direct messages until the keyboard breaks.

But it’s also just as easy to block spammers, so a bit more innovation is required to send out the annoyance.

One way spammers are using Twitter can actually affect YOUR account’s reputation, get you blocked by potential readers, clients or customers, and give you a bad name all round. And if you’re not disciplined enough to check your account on a daily basis, you might never know it’s happening. … Continue Reading

Freelancers–Work Smarter, Not Harder

By Erin Dalpini

Okay, quick poll: how long did it take you to finish your last freelance assignment?

How about we take that time and slice that in half?

“What?” you say. “I’m already working my fastest.”

Ah, my friend, maybe you are. But maybe, just maybe, there’s a way for you to work more efficiently: smarter, not harder.

If you’re more efficient at work, you get to spend more time doing those other things you like to do: surfing the net, riding your bike, walking the dog, watching a movie, making some Jell-O puddin’ (don’t judge), relaxing with loved ones.

Here are a few tips and techniques to help you work smarter . . .

1. Time Blocking – Learned this one from my boss, and it still helps me on especially busy days. … Continue Reading

Why Hoot Suite Rocks

by Catherine L. Tully

If you are into social media (which you should be in my opinion), you need Hoot Suite. Seriously.

Hoot Suite helps you manage all of your social media accounts from one place, and it has a host of useful features, including:

- The ability to schedule tweets

- Easy updates on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook–all from one page

- The ability to shorten URLs without leaving the page

- Auto complete on your @usernames once you have used them before (I think this may be my fave feature)

- Statistics on how many people click through on the URLs you tweet. And yes–I’m serious!

I tried TweetDeck before, and while I think it looks much better (very slick interface), it is more confusing. I accidentally sent an update meant for Twitter to all of my social media accounts….

Not good.

If you are looking for a simple way to manage your social media without a big learning curve–this is it. I haven’t used the app yet–but there is one available for the iPhone as well. Check it out and you will really be glad you did! No more multiple log-ins and no more time suck. Do it all quick and easy.

I’m loving it!

Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites For Writers, 2010

We have a very happy announcement to make…

Freelance-Zone.com was chosen by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers and we are featured in the May/June issue! We’d like to take a minute to thank all of the loyal readers who voted for us–we really appreciate it!

And thanks to Writer’s Digest for including us.

Be sure to check out the issue of WD for many great resources for writers, including FZ faves such as Grammar Girl, Absolute Write, MediaBistro, The Renegade Writer and Funds for Writers, among others.

(Every year I go through the list and take a peek at everything…it’s a great way to connect with all the great stuff out there on the web! – Catherine)

No Time For Social Media, But Lots Of Time To Waste On Email

Freelance-Zone.com reached out to Joan Stewart, a speaker, trainer and consultant who blogs at Publicity Hound and My Social Media Solution and she shared a great tip on time management in terms of how to find space in your day to utilize social media…

One of our customers told me this morning how frustrated she is that she doesn’t have enough time to spend on social media.

I suggested that she set aside a block of time twice a day, say as soon as she starts work in the morning and again before she closes the office for the day, to blog, post to her Facebook and Twitter profiles and do what needs to be done on LinkedIn.

When she hemmed and hawed about how difficult it would be to find the time, I asked her, “”How much time do you spend on email each day?”

“A lot,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because it’s a way for me to check in with my clients and other people who I like to hear from,” she said.

“How profitable is answering email?” I asked. … Continue Reading

Social Media For Writers

This post is sponsored by FiledBy – where authors can claim their free website and build their online marketing platform

by Catherine L. Tully

I stumbled across a real gem of a site in Social Media for Writers and thought I’d share it with you today. It was great to see something specifically devoted to writers out there, and this site has a little something for everyone…

If you are a rank beginner when it comes to social media sites, the author (Donna Talarico) provides a good overview of two of the best out there–Twitter and Facebook. More advanced users will appreciate things such as information about promoting your blog on Twitter or information on how to use Twitter lists.

One of the most refreshing things about this site is the easy tone that Talarico uses. She communicates good information without talking down to writers, but it isn’t so basic that you’ll be bored. Take a few minutes to check this site out and see what you can learn about making social media work for you.

And if you haven’t already joined us on Twitter or Facebook, please drop by and sign on. We should all be connected!

This post was sponsored by FiledBy – where authors can claim their free website and build their online marketing platform

Writers: Get The Most Out Of Wordpress

This post is sponsored by FiledBy – where authors can claim their free website and build their online marketing platform.

If you use Wordpress, how can you be sure you are getting the most out of it? As a hard-working writer, you can’t afford to miss out on the simple things that will make a big difference. Take a look at these strategies for maximizing your time and effort…or for getting started…

Brian Horn gives some great basics in terms of tagging and SEO.

Concerned about security? Check out Lorelle on Wordpress for the real scoop on how safe you are.

Just getting started with Wordpress? How about some recommendations in terms of themes? Editor Unleashed has a great post on this subject.

Google Analytics is a fantastic tool for understanding who is using your site, where your hits are coming from and how many you are getting. It has an amazing number of features you can check out. (FYI…you can’t use this with Wordpress.com accounts since they use their own tracking system.)

Blog maintenance is crucial. Take a look at this basic checklist for keeping yours up-to-date. And don’t forget to back up your blog too.

This post was brought to you by FiledBy

Grammar, Grammar, Grammar!

This post is sposnored by FiledBy – where authors can claim their free website and build their online marketing platform.

by Catherine L. Tully

I know I have mentioned this great resource before, but only in passing. Grammar Girl is a heavy-duty tool for the writer–new or experienced. Mignon Fogarty is the name behind this character, and her “Quick and Dirty Tips For Better Writing” include goodies such as:

• Affect vs. Effect
• Toward vs. Towards
• All Right vs. Alright
• Lay vs. Lie

These are excellent, bite-sized tips for the writer that can mean the difference between getting a query nod and having the editor hit delete. Let’s face it–in this business, you’ve got to know what you are doing when it comes to grammar and sentence structure.

It doesn’t really matter how you decide to keep up with Grammar Girl. She’s on Twitter and she even has her own podcast on iTunes. A little honesty? It’s the only podcast that I have actually downloaded and listened to on my iPhone.

Naturally, if you prefer a good, old-fashioned book you can go that route as well.

Why am I so excited about this? Well, grammar is huge, and it is usually presented in the most awful, boring format. Grammar Girl gives it to you straight, but in a palatable way, without taking too long to get the point across. I’m a serious fan.

This post was brought to you by FiledBy

Check Out All Freelance Writing…

by Catherine L. Tully

Hey! Just a quick post to let everyone know that I will be doing a regular series on “Writing For Print” on All Freelance Writing. This is a great site and I highly recommend it for both new and experienced freelance writers. Owner/Author Jennifer Mattern has pulled together a very eclectic group of freelancers–and they are all sharing advice and opinions that can help you advance your career.

Drop by and take a peek–and bookmark this site–it’s terrific!

Blogger Beware: The Schedule Function in Wordpress

by Joe Wallace

Freelance productivity tools are supposed to help you get things done while you’re busy on other tasks. But sometimes the very tools you’re using to help you can come back to haunt you in ways you never expected.

In the freelance game, as in life, perception is often more important than reality. Here’s a puzzler for you–could your freelance tools actually lend the impression that you’re stealing company time from one client to service your other clients or your own freelance blog?

I run another blog, Turntabling.net. It’s a site for vinyl junkies, soundtrack collectors, and drive-in movie lovers. Part of the reason I’m able to do Turntabling is because I write the blog posts two and three at a time in my off hours, and use the Wordpress Schedule function to add the posts in over time during the day. … Continue Reading