7 Steps to Catch up Quickly after a Break

I took my first break in ages — that didn’t include an illness or a holiday — for a few days last week for spring break. We went to San Marcos and San Antonio and visited Wonderworld, Sea World, and the Riverwalk. Wonderworld contains a dry cave created by an earthquake on the Balcones Fault … 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.

Read more

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

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

Client Evaluations: Improve your work and client relationships

Do you ask your client for feedback on your work? Some freelancers and contractors don’t have annual or formal reviews. Large contracts usually make reviews a part of the process, but that’s not always the case with individual freelancers. Sending a client a separate e-mail asking for a project check up signals a few things … Read more

Book Review: Sell Your Book on Amazon

Despite a way too long subtitle and “salesy” claims, Sell Your Book on Amazon surprises. Its format simplifies finding the sections of interest – couple that with the ratings from five stars indicating “a must do” item to one star meaning “Don’t waste your time.” Authors who publish their books using a print-on-demand (POD) service … Read more

Usability Testing Cheap and Fast Part II

Dennison asked excellent questions in response to How to Do Usability Testing Cheap and Fast:
Tell me if I follow correctly: Do you do the test only on users that have their own PC with them? So if you happen to be in a store where nobody has a machine or is willing to take the test, then, tough luck?
Why worry about having the users test in their own environment (PC)? The focus of the test is on usability. Testing to see if the site works properly across different systems should be part of QA work and can be done separately.
Bill Moore from RadioTime responded:

Read more