freelancer – Annetta Ribken

Organizing the Freelance Way

January 19, 2009 by netta

: Image by andyi via Flickr

One of the biggest challenges of a freelancing career is organization, at least in my experience. There’s a fine line between being organized yet flexible; after all, flexibility is one of the best perks of being self-employed. However, if you don’t stay focused on some level, all kinds of things can fall through the cracks and become lost and wandering. This, friends and neighbors, can cost you money and inspire a level of frustration in which you invent scathing swear words not fit for human ears.

There are some things to keep in mind when you’re embarking on a freelance career. It’s not as simple as just reaching for a pen, keyboard or crayon and scribbling away. You have to think about an online presence; marketing; pricing; accounting; prospecting, and at long last, writing. (And you thought you were just going to be writing, didn’t you? Hah. A freelancer must wear many hats.)

Tuesday Round-Up of Worthy Links

January 6, 2009 by netta

: Image via Wikipedia

Sub-title: Traveling Around the Blogosphere

I run across so many great sites, I thought I’d list the best of the best here every Tuesday. Some of them are helpful, some of them are inspiring, some are just quirky. They might be writing-related, and they might not. A good freelancer and flasher is a well-rounded person, and you can learn a lot by ~~wasting time~~ visiting other sites.

A combination of the useful and the quirky, I highly recommend Mercenary Writer’s Press. “All the writing without the pretention” is their mantra — their Kung Fu is strong, even though their preferred torture device is plural gerunds. You might need to invest in Depends Undergarments, but it’s worth it.

Filling Your Basket

December 4, 2008 by netta

Blood Roses — Image by Pablo Moran Jr. via Flickr

Today’s economy sucks, and we all know it. The daily news is rife with information about how difficult it is to work in ANY profession, and freelance writing is just one of them. Freelancing as a writer is difficult under the best of circumstances. Situations change on a daily, almost hourly, basis. What can you do to ride the waves?

Two words – flexibility and persistence, my friends. If flexible and persistent aren’t part of the vocabulary, it might be time to think of another profession. Work opportunities will come and go as fast as blinking your eyes. What might be a great paying gig today could be gone tomorrow. The competition is fierce, reliable job opportunities scarce, and staying motivated and focused can seem impossible.

Working It

October 9, 2008 by netta

Although my first love is, and always will be, flash fiction, the truth of the matter is it’s very difficult to make a living from writing flash fiction. However, it’s been a great training ground for an actual career in making a living for what I love to do most, which is writing in general.

The working life of a freelancer is full of ups and downs. I’ve had some success in writing web content and articles; the problem is finding a steady market. I did some work for a woman who owned several websites, but she insisted on keyword-stuffing the articles, and there were a couple of experiences with flash fiction that really helped me do this.