Book Review: The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead

The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead contains a mixture of an autobiography and facts about the body’s growing and aging. The stories told and the given facts both humor and depress readers. Rather than linearly cover author David Shields’ life from childhood to adulthood sprinkled with quotes and stories about … Read more

Five Ways Freelancers Can Stay on Track

I have a few clients in which the engagements are open-ended. This means helping them with their ongoing content work. As a result, it’s easy to let something drag on without completing it. For example, a client may ask me to revise the Help documentation and write entries for blogs. Rather than just letting it … Read more

Freelance Tip: Reliability, Follow up, and Fear

Freelance Folder writes that a successful freelance career requires reliability. Based on my own experience and others, it’s true. Sometimes I want to stop recommending freelancers to clients. I do this as a favor to the client and the freelancer, but I rarely see positive results. Often, the freelancer stops responding or responds when the mood strikes (one week later instead of within 48 hours) — an unacceptable timeframe for clients.
Freelancers wonder why they can’t make a full-time gig or grow their business. Perhaps, it’s because they have yet to prove themselves as reliable. Many tend to have full-time jobs with a corporation and do freelance on the side in hopes of going full-time. If the full-time job gets in the way of reliability, then maybe they shouldn’t be doing freelancing on the side.
For six months, I worked full-time at a corporation and with my business. This on top of managing a family of five — so it’s not like I had all the free time in the world outside a roughly 50-hour corporate work week.
It could also be a thing of fear. I’m guilty of it (rarely, thankfully). I talked to a freelancer who would use me as a writer with her client. She mentioned writing content would involve calling their staff and pulling information out of them.

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Audience Matters

Here’s a great example I ran into that proves audience matters when writing content and designing Web sites. Audio expert Penny Haynes asked: Is the term “Technically Challenged” a positive, negative or neutral marketing term? I’d really like to hear from people who are NOT comfortable with technology to ascertain if using that term to … Read more

Bit the Twitter

I knew about Twitter when it first turned hot. But I opted not to join because new applications always come out and taking them all on will become a full-time job. Plus, why would people care what we’re doing? Since a friend Twitters, I figure it couldn’t hurt. I won’t put it on the overcrowded … Read more

Yellow Stickies Boost Response Rates

Read an interesting tidbit in cairril.com’s Sparks newsletter, which references a Post-it(R) Note Persuasion: A Sticky Influence study [pdf file] at Social Science Research Network. Sending out a survey or business solicitation letter? Research shows that including a yellow sticky note with what looks like a personal greeting increases response rates. And it’s not enough … Read more

Real-life Examples of Why Content Reigns and Design Boosts

How content and design play together… In the game of chess (kind of hard to shake this analogy when you’re trying to avoid “Content is queen/king.”), the strategies and the moves equate to content. They fascinate chess players and chess fans. The board with its squares keep the content on track. Apple’s product designs for … Read more

Planning a Party or Event: Part II

Part I covers mostly planning. Part II dives into the details. **Buffets**: Set up a few separate buffet tables so that there’s not one long line to one table. Also make it possible to have two lines per tables (on each side). If there’s a chef serving station, try to break it up from the … Read more