Meryl’s Notes Blog

Five Ways Freelancers Can Stay on Track

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Planning a Party or Event: Part I

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What the hey? This blog may cover a variety of things … but planning a party? I used a lot of technology to make the party planning almost effortless. Anything with technology qualifies, right?
**Sign up for a reminder service**: When I planned a big event, I lucked out and found a Web site that sends e-mails on milestone dates (one year before the event, nine months before the event, six months, and so on) that explained what to do in that timeframe.
**Invitations**: Most events come with an invitation in two parts: One for the service (like the wedding ceremony) and one for the party. Try to put both parts on one invitation (unless you’re inviting a lot of people to one event and not the other). That way, you don’t run into a situation where someone grabs only one part of the invitation and not the other and gets stuck not having the address to the other event.
**Manage guests with a spreadsheet**: One of the biggest problems is figuring out how many will come as vendors generally need this number to prepare. I haven’t found a formula that works (i.e. expect half to attend, expect 60% to attend). In this spreadsheet, I created columns for:

  • Number of invitations: This column typically has all 1’s).
  • Number invited: One invitation might cover a family of five.
  • Number of adults.
  • Number of children: Especially for occasions where children have their own food. stations — if not, you may not need this unless you need to account for babysitting.
  • Out of town: This can help with determining how many will attend as out-of-towners are less likely to attend than in-towners. It also helps you track how many treat baskets you might need should you decide to do one. Treat baskets contain a welcome letter, drinks, food, flyer with weekend agenda, etc.

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Microsoft Word 2007 Acts Funky

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My laptop has Office 2007 on Vista (let’s not argue about Vista or why it’s on my laptop). I used Word without a problem and the next day, it started misbehaving. First, it wouldn’t recognize the mouse. Then it wouldn’t let me select other tabs in Options even using the keyboard. Naturally, I went to … Read more