FeedStitch

How Important Are Morals To You As A Freelance Writer?

Morals; stop and worry or go and ignore?

I like to think of myself as a pretty easy going guy.  I try not to let things bother me and I always believe the glass is half full, generally no matter what the situation is.

Something has been niggling at me a little lately, though and it’s not sitting as easy with me as I’d expected.

I’ve recently found out that one of my clients has some…unsavoury press against them.  It’s nothing particularly major (i.e., the board isn’t made up of hardcore KKK members), but they’ve garnered a reputation that isn’t all entirely positive.

Initially, I didn’t think anything of it.  I write for them on a ghost-author basis and so although there’s a lot of different pieces of writing circulating that were created by me, none of them are linked to me in any way, shape or form.

This eased my mind for a few days, until I started thinking about my morals as a writer.

Just because I’m not linked to this company in the public eye, doesn’t mean that producing writing for them makes it right – the more work I produce, the more popular they become, the greater their reputation will be and if their history is anything to go by, the more customers they are likely to upset.

And although I may not be known as a writer who writes for them by the public, there are some writers who know I write for them.  I’m sure they wouldn’t hold it against me, but I think that in some ways it might be a hindrance, such as for work referrals (this is me being at my most pessimistic now!).

Maybe I’m thinking too much into this – a gig’s a gig, right?

Plus, a lot of work I do in general is as a result of my work with them (affiliated companies, referrals, etc).  If I stop writing for them, I’ll be risking losing several other regular projects.

I’m still writing for them at the moment and although I’m sat on the fence a little, I think I’m leaning towards continuing to write for them.  However, I’d appreciate some comments from other writers who have been in the same – or a similar – position and what you did in the end.

How Important Are Morals To You As A Freelance Writer? was originally published on Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall. If you are not reading this in an RSS reader, please contact Sharon.

Related posts:

1. Can Anyone Be A Freelance Writer?
2. Writer Promotion Is Important
3. Recognizing the Signs of Freelance Writer Burnout in Yourself

Swipe – Share Your Purchases With the World

Swipe is a web-app devoted to answering the simple question: What did you buy today? Like Twitter, users can type out short updates about themselves that will show up in the feeds of their followers. What makes Swipe different, though, is that these updates are all centered around the topic of purchases—either what you recently bought or what you want to buy today, tomorrow, or at some point in the future.

To start posting updates on Swipe, sign up, create a profile, and add your photo and personal information. You’ll instantly see a continually updating stream of new posts made on the Swipe network, listing the recent purchases made by Swipe users around the world. To start posting updates of your own, go to your profile page and start typing a message into the text box with information about whatever it is that you want to buy. To update your followers about a special item you’ve already purchased, click “I just bought” and use the provided space to list the price, store, and city where the purchase was made. When your status update is ready to be seen, click “Swipe it” and watch as it’s automatically added to the Swipe network activity stream.

Just like Twitter, Swipe lets users follow each other to keep up-to-date on what people are buying and how they’re using their newest purchases. Ideally, using Swipe should be a great way to find out what others are paying for the items you covet and get instant information when specific stores in your area are offering products at a discounted price. By sharing the inside scoop on all types of retail purchases, Swipe users can get ahead of the game when it comes to scoring deals at retailers and negotiating with salespeople across the world.

Practical Uses:

• Find out what your friends are buying at the mall
• Let other people know about the latest CDs you purchased at the store
• Get inside information when your favorite denim brand goes on sale
• Read real user reviews of products you’ve thought about purchasing

Insider Tips:

• Add the city and store information for any of your status updates
• Follow other Swipe users whose purchases seem intriguing
• Log in using your Facebook account or create a separate profile altogether
• Upload a photo and additional profile information to start getting more followers

What we liked:

• The application tracks the value of all the purchases you’ve entered into the site
• Users can follow other users, or their favorite stores
• The recent activity feed on Swipe’s main page is constantly updating
• Updates are broken down into two categories, listing things that have been bought and things that people want to buy

What we didn’t like:

• Some people may not feel comfortable broadcasting how much money they paid for specific items to so many people online

Alternatives:

• Blippy – blippy.com
• justbought.it – justbought.it

Company Info:

• Launched: 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California
• Founded by: Binny Mathews
• Web site: www.didyouswipe.com

Costs:

• Free

Rating:

• 3 out of 5 (good)

Static 520 – Update Your Facebook Fan Page

Static 520 is an application that businesses and independent professionals can use to put their best foot forward on Facebook. In three simple steps, the application claims it can help users build a fully functional, multifaceted Facebook fan page that their clients and customers can visit with ease. Rather than messing around with complicated codes and hosting issues, users who chose to go with Static 520 can choose a template and upload as many photos, Flash movies, and YouTube videos to their company pages as they wish without having any extensive web coding skills.

To get started building a FBML (Facebook Markup Language) app with Static 520, head to Facebook and create an official page for your company. Click to add the StaticFBML app, then head back to the Static 520 site and login to your company account. You’ll be directed to a template configurator, where you can choose the colors, slogans, and logos you’d like to appear on your page. The photos and videos you upload will be hosted on the Static 520 even though they’ll appear on your Facebook page, and you can add the RSS feed from your own company site to push all the latest content straight to your Facebook wall. The application also makes it easy to add a contact page, to allow fans and followers to get in touch with your business outside of the Facebook site.

Once your template has been customized and photos have been added, you’re ready to go. Add the provided Static 520 code to your Facebook fan page and the content will be uploaded instantly for everyone to see. Static 520 simplifies the process of putting together FBML code and makes it easy enough for even the most basic online user to figure out. Even better, it doesn’t require any outside hosting or software downloads to begin. Static 520 is an application that any small to medium sized company thinking about created a FBML app should check out.

Practical Uses:

• Create a Facebook fan page for your business
• Spread the word about your company to potential customers online
• Upload unlimited photos to show off all the projects your company has going on
• Impress clients with an attractive and professional-looking Facebook page

Insider Tips:

• Static 520 will host your videos and photos on its site
• Add a Feedburner RSS feed to your Facebook page
• Edit your Home and About pages at any time
• Chose a Custom Static 520 plan for a more customized look on your Facebook page

What we liked:

• Updating content is easy enough for any employee to handle
• Facebook fan pages made with Static 520 look professional
• Static 520 templates include a contact page, so potential customers can get in touch
• The template configurator makes it easy to create the Facebook page without making too many design decisions

What we didn’t like:

• Users must upgrade to the Custom Static 520 plan for advanced options like logo resizing and additional color schemes

Alternatives:

• pagemodo – www.pagemodo.com

Company Info:

• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Founded by: Inferno Marketing Group
• Web site: static520.com

Costs:

• Free two-week trial
• Subscription is $19/year

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)

Sneffel – Helping Online Educators

Sneffel is a web-application aimed at online educators and the students they teach. By using a virtual drawing pad in the same way as a chalkboard, distance-learning teachers can draw out their ideas and lessons and watch as their students respond in real-time. What makes Sneffel even better than a traditional chalkboard or whiteboard, however, is that these virtual drawing pads can be saved and “replayed” as an animation, giving students as many chances as they need to review the lesson they’ve just been taught and really learn the material at hand.

If you can write on a basic whiteboard, then there’s a good chance you’ll be able to use Sneffel just fine. Start with a blank drawing pad, and type in any text you’d like to appear on the board. Once this text has been posted, you can move it around or delete it at any time. For ideas and theories that can’t be described through words alone, grab the pencil and start drawing. If you make a mistake, there’s no need to worry. Sneffel offers an eraser that can be resized depending on how much of an error you made. Of course, Sneffel is a collaborative tool, which means students can jump in and start participating at any time, as well. Each collaborator’s work will show up in a different color, and you can invite even more people to participate by sharing the provided URL on the bottom left corner of the page.

When class is over, Sneffel lets you give your students something to take home and study. Just click the “replay” button to view a full animation of everything that happened on the board during the lesson, then distribute that animation URL to students to view as many times as they need while doing homework and cementing the lessons in their mind. For distance learning educators, students, and anyone else who uses a whiteboard regularly for work or play, Sneffel is an easy-to-use application that is worth checking out.

Practical Uses:

• Teach a distance learning class
• Explain complex equations to students who aren’t in the classroom
• Create a group presentation for class or work
• Give students a video of the day’s lesson that they can watch from home

Insider Tips:

• Buy SneffelCredits to access upgraded features such as moderated boards and exporting abilities
• Distribute the animation URL to allow people to watch the day’s lesson without actually participating
• Change the color of your whiteboard marker at any time
• Embed the virtual whiteboard into your own blog or website

What we liked:

• Students can draw on the board just like they would with a traditional whiteboard
• Eraser tool makes it easy to change or update information quickly
• Easy to invite others to participate by emailing out the provided links
• Users can embed the whiteboard onto their own student website

What we didn’t like:

• Users are limited on the number of times they can replay an animation without purchasing additional Sneffel credits

Alternatives:

• Cacoo – cacoo.com
• Imagination Cubed – www.imaginationcubed.com
• Wixie – www.wixie.com

Company Info:

• Launched: July 2010 (Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: London, England
• Founded by: Matthew Eric Bassett
• Web site: www.sneffel.com

Costs:

• Free (in beta)
• $15 for 100 SneffelCredits, which can be used to reactivate boards, export images, and become a whiteboard moderator

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)

Publisha – Create A Digital Publication

Tired of the boring articles put out by most mainstream publications? Why not start your own? Publisha gives its users the tools to do just that. The application helps people publish content onto the iPad, iPhone, Facebook, Twitter, and the web right from their own browser, and makes it easy to create a new iPad or iPod application from scratch. Even better, the digital platforms created with Publisha can be monetized in a snap, so users can actually make money from their online endeavors.

Once you’re a Publisha user, you can use the application to create a new digital publication, or to support the online arm of your existing blog, newspaper, or magazine. Each time you upload new articles into Publisha’s content manager, the application will simultaneously publish those articles across a spectrum of platforms, including your own website, Twitter, Facebook, and any iPhone or iPad apps you’ve developed. Readers will be able to share links to your articles via email, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg, and Delicious, and your RSS feed will be updated quickly so your biggest fans will never miss out.

For anyone who is interested in monetizing their publication, Publisha features a number of tools that can make that happen. The application lets you upload any ads you’ve sold yourself and control how they show up on screen, along with adding affiliate links throughout your site that you can quickly and easily earn commission on. By centralizing your publishing efforts and using just one platform to post content across the web, you can spend less time disseminating your articles and more time creating them.

Practical Uses:

• Create an online magazine from scratch
• Start putting custom ads on your blog
• Publish content across multiple platforms with the push of a button
• Make your online publication easy to read on an iPad

Insider Tips:

• Publish ads without needing any third-party ad servers or plug-ins
• Publisha offers templates to help you create a new website or blog
• Articles published with Facebook are archived forever
• Publisha works behind the scenes to make sure your content is easily found on Google

What we liked:

• Publisha handles the publishing work, and let’s you focus on content creation
• Articles published with Publisha are easy to read on an iPad or iPhone
• RSS feeds are automatically updated whenever you add a new post to your blog
• No need to worry about layouts or PDF files when building a web magazine

What we didn’t like:

• A number of interesting Publisha features aren’t yet available

Alternatives:

• Blogger – www.blogger.com
• WordPress – wordpress.org

Company Info:

• Launched: July 2010 (Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: London, England
• Founded by: Ian Howlett , Richard Hart, Chris Mottes, and Anna Sjöström
• Web site: www.publisha.com

Costs:

• Standard accounts are free
• Professional accounts are $50/month
• Enterprise accounts are $250/month

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)

Pressdoc – Create Your Own Media Releases

For businesses looking for a way to promote themselves to journalists and bloggers without hiring a full-time public relations professional, Pressdoc is an application worth checking out. The quick and easy social media release creator allows companies to write press releases that will appear online. More than just a standard written press release, the social media releases created with Pressdoc can include extras like videos, photos, and links to spread the word and share the releases on all the major social networking sites.

Instead of typing up a press release in Word and faxing or mailing it to all the reporters in your Rolodex, you can use Pressdoc to start creating the type of releases that will definitely get noticed. Using the application’s intuitive interface, you can type up a document letting reporters know the latest developments within your company and why they’d be smart to cover those developments in their own publications. To better illustrate your point, you can include videos and images, and then choose specifically when you’d like the release to be sent out. Pressdoc lets you tweet your release out to followers, or send a link to the release when emailing all the bloggers and reporters you happen to know. People who read your releases can share them even further by posting them on their Facebook wall or re-tweeting the links out to their followers.

Pressdoc makes it easy to tell how many people have viewed your social media release with extensive analytics tools available to all users. The application also creates a one-stop shop for journalists looking for background information on your company, since all your releases will be posted in one centralized place that’s easy to find. For any business without a full-time publicist on staff, Pressdoc is a tool that can help companies get noticed by reporters and bloggers all over the world.

Practical Uses:

• Spread the word about your business’ latest product release
• Increase brand awareness among reporters in your local area
• Get bloggers to notice your startup company
• Notify customers when your store starts carrying different brands

Insider Tips:

• Use Twitter to send your press release to followers
• Check out who’s been viewing your release with the analytics tools
• Select the language you’d like your release to appear in
• Create a press room for your event partners when throwing a gala or party

What we liked:

• Template makes it easy to write a press release for first timers
• Online releases are more likely to be read by reporters than faxes or letters
• Ability to see where the people who read your release were coming from
• Releases made with PressDoc look professional

What we didn’t like:

• For companies that already employ a publicist, using PressDoc might be overkill

Alternatives:

• noodls – www.noodls.com
• Pressitt – pressitt.com
• PRunderground – www.prunderground.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2009
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Amsterdam, Holland
• Founded by: Stefan Borsje, Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, and Marc Köhlbrugge
• Web site: pressdoc.com

Costs:

• €10 for every published PressDoc

Rating:

• 5 out of 5 (wow)

Pinboard – More than a Basic Bookmarking App

For people who love Delicious but think they could never switch to a new social bookmarking app, Pinboard is an application that has the ability to change minds. Billing itself as “social bookmarking for introverts,” Pinboard offers many of the same user-friendly features as other online bookmarking applications. Users can save their favorite URLS, add tags and descriptions, and then access that information from any computer at any time. What makes Pinboard different, however, are all the unique features that the application offers, like automatically bookmarking the links you’ve referenced on Twitter, bulk editing bookmarks with one step, and keeping an archive of every bookmark you’ve ever saved on the site.

Although Pinboard charges a one-time sign up fee, the cost is fully refundable within the first three days of membership if you change your mind and decide to leave the site. Once you’ve gotten started and set up an account, you’ll be able to begin bookmarking your favorite sites and adding descriptions, titles, and tags as you please. Decide whether to mark certain bookmarks as private, or keep your entire account private and secure. The application offers one-touch “read later” bookmarking that puts the titles of unread bookmarks in orange, and includes a starring feature that keeps all the bookmarks you’d like to keep handy on a separate starred page. It also lets you import previously saved bookmarks from Delicious, Google Bookmarks, Diigo, Firefox, Safari, and a handful of other applications.

Pinboard offers a number of other useful features, such as RSS feeds on each page, javascript badges that can be used on blog templates, and a quick-loading mobile site that makes getting ahold of your favorite bookmarks a breeze. Although Pinboard has many of the same features as Delicious, its extensive privacy settings, simple interface, special archiving service, and bulk editing features set it apart from the pack of other popular bookmarking applications.

Practical Uses:

• Save your favorite websites to reference later
• Find the articles you meant to read, but never got around to checking out
• Get ideas for new online sites to visit by seeing what’s popular
• Keep all the sites you have ever enjoyed reading saved in one central spot

Insider Tips:

• Ask for a refund within three days if you’re unhappy with your new account
• Mark your entire account as private, or just mark certain links
• Articles you bookmark with the intention of reading later will be marked in orange
• Bulk edit all your bookmark tags at once

What we liked:

• Simple interface loads the Pinboard pages quickly
• Easy to import links from other bookmarking sites
• URL descriptions can be much longer than the allowable length on Delicious
• Shared links and favorites from Twitter are automatically bookmarked

What we didn’t like:

• Pinboard costs money, whereas most of its competitors are free

Alternatives:

• Delicious – delicious.com
• Diigo – www.diigo.com
• Google Bookmarks – www.google.com/bookmarks

Company Info:

• Launched: July 2009
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Botosani, Romania
• Founded by: Maciej Ceglowski and Peter Gadjokov
• Web site: pinboard.in

Costs:

• One-time signup fee of $6.44
• Archival accounts are $25/year

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)

Meetup – Connect With Likeminded People

Looking for a way to meet new people in your community? Interested in finding a group of guys and girls just as obsessed with Star Wars or French cuisine as yourself? Meetup is a website that can help you do that. The online community connects people in 45,000 cities across the world and helps them creating real-life “meetups” where they can get to know each other and discuss their common interests. The site helps facilitate more than 250,000 monthly meetups at the current time, and actively encourages users to create new local groups centered on whatever topic they wish.

Getting started with Meetup is as simple as typing in a topic or interest and your current location. When you type in an interest like running along with your zip code, you’ll see a list of all the running groups in your local area. You can filter this list by distance, number of members, when the group was created, or view only the groups with upcoming meetups. When you find a group that looks fun, click on the name and check out the group site. You can find out information about the next upcoming event, and then RSVP to attend by entering your name and email address on the right-hand side of the page. To get insight on what you should expect at the meetup, scroll down to the bottom of the group page and chat with other members in the group forum.

If you can’t find the group you’re looking for in your local area, then Meetup offers the ability to create your own. Anyone with an account can create and organize their own Meetup group for as little as $12 a month. The site also allows groups to remain private, which can be a benefit to certain social clubs that want to use the site to organize upcoming group meetings and events. Meetup is a fantastic application for anyone who has ever wanted to get out of his or her comfort zone and make new friends.

Practical Uses:

• Meet people who are as obsessed with Star Trek as you
• Motivate yourself to begin jogging by joining up with a group
• Start a book club for women in your neighborhood
• Get to know new people in town

Insider Tips:

• Export events from a Meetup group page to your personal calendar
• “Check in” to events and see who’s there with the Meetup iPhone application
• Upload photos from previous Meetup events onto the site
• Share the Meetup events you’re attending with your friends on Twitter and Facebook

What we liked:

• Meetup has created an easy way to meet likeminded people in your community
• Get to know people through the site before meeting them in person
• The iPhone application lets you check in and RSVP to events from your phone
• Ability to connect with people who are in a similar life situation to yourself

What we didn’t like:

• Nothing

Alternatives:

• Craigslist – www.craigslist.org
• Yahoo! Groups – groups.yahoo.com

Company Info:

• Launched: January 2002
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: New York, New York
• Founded by: Greg Whalin, Brendan McGovern, Scott Heiferman, Matt Meeker, and Peter Kamali
• Web site: www.meetup.com

Costs:

• Free to use
• Meetup Group Organizers pay $12/month

Rating:

• 5 out of 5 (wow)

Lessons Learned From Getting Stiffed On Writing Jobs

My writing business has changed a lot since I started freelancing. Then, I did lots of one-off jobs for a wide range of small clients, getting many of them through copywriting agencies and the occasional job board posting or ad. Now, I work for a few bigger clients, and many of those have come to me via word of mouth and referrals from other people who have been happy with my work.

One of the advantages of having this type of client is that it makes for a more stable and reliable income. I know that each month, unless something major happens, there’s a basic amount that will be coming in – and I can always increase my earnings by taking more work for a couple of clients who offer regular single item jobs (like resumes).

Of  course, that only works when the clients pay up on time. Most of them do, but then there are the others. I’ve been lucky enough not to get stiffed too many times in the last five years. That’s because I ask for a 50% deposit on all work for new clients and keep that up till we have established a relationship of trust. But it’s after that point that things can go wrong, especially if your client runs into financial difficulty.

Case Study One

One of the sites I blogged for a few years ago (I won’t say which one, as it’s now under new management and it wouldn’t be fair to the new owner) started off as a good gig, where the owner always paid in arrears, but on time, promptly on the first of every month. So when he was a couple of days late one month, I didn’t panic. I figured he was on vacation and would pay when he got back. After a while, though, so much time had passed that I realised that there had to be another reason. After several weeks he finally responded to my email, saying that he’d had a health problem (read ‘an addiction problem’) and had no money but would pay up when he got on his feet. I’m still waiting.  One of the problems I had in this case was that I didn’t have all his contact details. That was a $500 lesson. It’s something that’s now at the top of my client questionnaire.

Case Study Two

In the second case, I was writing for a publication that operated like a print magazine. In other words, you invoiced and got paid once you had delivered the articles. That’s the way it works, and they weren’t going to give a deposit to suit me, though they did make a one-off good faith payment at the start.

I feel a bit sorry for this client, actually, because the recession hit and the client’s advertising income (which basically funded the publication) dried up. Big companies moved from 30 to 90 day payment and the client’s ready cash disappeared. The only trouble was, the client still owed me money and tried to persuade me that I should hang in there a bit longer. I did the maths – had I waited another month, the client would have owed me double the amount, with even less prospect of paying me. So I got out, and the client has paid the debt in increments, though some is still owing. The lesson I’ve learned is to only work on that basis for a bigger, well established publication and to make sure it’s not a big part of my income.

My writing career is a constant learning experience and there’s nothing to make you learn like not getting paid. I have to be honest – the missing money isn’t hurting me financially, it’s just the principle of the thing. I did the work, I should get paid. The big lesson is that even when you do everything right in managing your career, random events can affect the bottom line.

The Lessons

1. Make sure you have full contact details for every client.

2. If you have clients who pay in arrears, make sure they don’t represent too big a chunk of your income – and be rigorous about collecting payment on time.

3. Know when it’s time to end the relationship and get out; don’t be sweet talked or pressured into continuing to deliver work you’re not getting paid for.

4. Remember to consider the effects of random happenings and chance events on your writing income.

Lessons Learned From Getting Stiffed On Writing Jobs was originally published on Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall. If you are not reading this in an RSS reader, please contact Sharon.

Related posts:

1. When Writing Clients Leave
2. Are You Doing Risk Management in Your Writing Biz? You Need To.
3. Five Lessons

Outside.in – Hyperlocal News in Your Neighborhood.

Outside.in is an application that wants to tell you what’s going on in your neighborhood right now. Billed as a “hyperlocal” news site, Outside.in scours newspapers, magazines, blogs, and discussion boards and delivers up-to-the-minute news about what’s going on in more than 57,000 neighborhoods across the United States. Users can search for stories by neighborhood or subject, and get updates on their favorite items delivered to them instantly via a continually updated RSS feed.

To check out the stories that matter to you most, type your city, neighborhood, or street address into the search box on the Outside.in homepage. You’ll be taken to a list of articles that have to do with the place you live—a breaking news alert about a crime that happened nearby, a feature story about a street fair that’s taking place on your block, and an opinion piece debating the merits of your local city council representative could also be included in the comprehensive listing of articles having to do with your community. To get more specific headlines, search for a topic like food, politics, or art from within your selected location. When you spot an article that looks interesting on the list, just click on the headline and you’ll be directed to the specific news source that originally published the article.

Unlike your local newspaper, Outside.in doesn’t limit you to the views of one publication. Instead, the application offers opposing viewpoints from across the web about local issues going on in your neighborhood. The application can even clear out your RSS feed clutter, by providing you with a single feed that can supply you with all the latest news about your neighborhood or street. For news junkies looking for a way to simplify their lives, Outside.in has created an easy way to get access to all the news about a local area without having to read about what’s going on in other towns nearby.

Practical Uses:

• Be the first to know when a crime happens on your block
• Get alerts about breakings news in your local government
• Keep track of the community events going on in your neighborhood
• Save time by not reading traffic reports for any freeway you don’t drive on

Insider Tips:

• Search for specific topics within your pre-selected neighborhood
• Use near.ly to get Twitter messages when breaking news happens within 1,000 feet of your address
• Bloggers can register with Outside.in to have their posts show up on the site
• Email the editors to ask that they add your neighborhood to the list of places they cover, if it isn’t included at the current time

What we liked:

• No need to sign up for an account to use Outside.in
• RSS feeds are available for any neighborhood, or any topic
• Links take you directly to the source where the original article was published
• Bloggers can use Outside.in to help increase their site’s visibility

What we didn’t like:

• A number of features, such as email news alerts and neighbor pages, have recently been suspended

Alternatives:

• Examiner – www.examiner.com
• Fwix – fwix.com
• Topix – www.topix.com

Company Info:

• Launched: October 2006
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Brooklyn, New York
• Founded by: Steven Johnson and John Geraci
• Web site: outside.in

Costs:

• Free

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)

GroupSpaces – Work Faster as a Group

Whether you manage an amateur sports league, take part in a local charity organization, or head up the student council at your high school school, GroupSpaces is an application that can make it easier to keep your group organized and running smoothly. Instead of relying on out-of-date newsletters to keep everyone informed about what’s going on, organizations that use GroupSpaces can quickly and easily create robust websites, group calendars, social media accounts, and professional-looking email newsletters that will make the snail mail variety a thing of the past.

One of the biggest benefits of using GroupSpaces is the application’s easy website creation tools, which allow users with little to no technical knowledge to make fully functioning, branded websites filled with as much information as they wish in just a matter of hours. Depending on the needs of your group, you can set control levels that allow certain members to edit content with the click of a button, as well. The application is also great for member management, offering an online database that can be accessed securely from any computer at any time. Through this database, you can send out notices regarding upcoming events or deadlines for annual dues without having to type in any email addresses or stuff any envelopes. Once each member’s information has been put into the system, you can organize people by membership type or admin level. Using this classification system, you can then send out alerts to certain committee members within your group without bothering everyone else with excessive emails and notifications.

Among the other popular features offered by GroupSpaces are social networking tools—which can turn a basic email list into a custom social network with photos, personal information, and connection opportunities for each member of the group—public or private Wikis, professional newsletter management options, group calendars, and PayPal integration, which allows groups to sell tickets online or accept membership dues without having to deal with personal checks or cash. Thanks to its amazing features and general ease-of-use, GroupSpaces is an application that no group should be without.

Practical Uses:

• Create newsletters to send out to your group
• Recruit more people to join your knitting club
• Build a website for your church group
• Make it easier for the members of your running club to pay dues online

Insider Tips:

• Manage multiple email lists within your group list
• Store up to 250mb of your group’s files for free
• Import or export your membership database to Excel
• Link up with PayPal to start accepting payments through your site

What we liked:

• The app has thought of everything, and includes all the tools a group could need to stay organized
• Management tools make it easy to file members into subcategories of your group
• A public profile for your group is a great way to draw in more potential members
• Ability to create your own unique group-centered social networking site

What we didn’t like:

• Ads will show up on a group’s pages unless they pay a monthly fee

Alternatives:

• Google Groups – groups.google.com
• teamr – www.teamr.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2007
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: London, England
• Founded by: David Langer and Andy Young
• Web site: groupspaces.com

Costs:

• Student groups & groups with fewer than 250 members are free
• Groups with 251 to 500 members are $8/month
• Groups with 501 to 1,000 members are $15/month
• Premium services are also available for additional fees

Rating:

• 5 out of 5 (wow)

Greg’s Pulse – Versatile Text Message Alerts

Need to know the latest sports scores? How about breaking news in your local area, or recent job openings that fit your qualifications? Greg’s Pulse is an application that can get the news to you fast, by delivering text messages to your phone the moment new information is updated online. In addition to delivering RSS feed updates via text message, Greg’s Pulse also scours the online photo galleries and blogs of your friends and family and notifies you instantly whenever updates or changes have been made to the sources you follow.

Once you’ve given Greg’s Pulse your mobile phone number, you’ll get a verification code to type into the site before you can begin. The next step to using Greg’s Pulse is to enter all the job boards, classified listings, photo galleries, personal blogs, and RSS feeds that you’d like to follow. The application is always scouring the web, and it will notify you instantly when new updates have been made to the websites you’ve selected. Depending on your personal interest and why you are using Greg’s Pulse, you may want to sign up to receive instant notifications the moment new job ads are placed for openings in your particular field, or when apartment listings become available in your price range. The application will send you a text notification the moment a new ad is placed online, ensuring you’ll never miss a limited-time opportunity ever again.

Of course, Greg’s Pulse is useful for more than just a job or apartment hunt. Users can sign up to receive notifications when their favorite band starts selling concert tickets online, when new photos are added to a friend’s online gallery, or when news stories have been posted that mention a particular neighborhood or street. For people who aren’t always sitting in front of a computer, Greg’s Pulse is a fantastic way to ensure you will never miss an important breaking new announcement again.

Practical Uses:

• Find out when new apartment listings have been posted online
• Get a text notification whenever your friend updates her blog
• Be the first to know when your favorite band starts selling concert tickets
• Receive instant notifications when new job opportunities become available

Insider Tips:

• The first 10 text messages are free
• Use RSS feeds to get notified by Greg’s Pulse when virtually any website updates its content
• Greg’s Pulse uses Twilio as its SMS gateway
• Sign up for unlimited text messages with your mobile provider to avoid being billed twice for each notification

What we liked:

• Greg’s Pulse works on any mobile phone
• Users can find out instantly when new classified postings go online
• Ability to monitor the online photo galleries of friends
• People outside of the United States can use Greg’s Pulse, too

What we didn’t like:

• The price of Greg’s Pulse seems a little high for each text message alert

Alternatives:

• notify.me – notify.me

Company Info:

• Launched: July 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Victoria, British Columbia, and Waterloo, Ontario
• Founded by: Grigory Kruglov
• Web site: gregspulse.com

Costs:

• First 10 text updates are free
• 20 updates for $3.00
• 30 updates for $4.50
• 50 updates for $6.50
• 80 updates for $10.40
• 100 updates for $12.00

Rating:

• 3 out of 5 (good)

Neighborgoods – Share Your Stuff

Need to use a drill for the afternoon, but hesitant to fork over $200 for a tool you’ll only use once? Neighborgoods is an application that can hook you up. The neighborhood swapping and sharing website encourages people to connect with strangers in their communities to borrow all the items that they don’t want to buy themselves. By offering a helping hand to their neighbors, Neighborgoods lenders can hopefully feel good about themselves and save money if they’re ever on the receiving end of the swapping process in the future.

Unlike eBay, Neighborgoods doesn’t expect anyone to mail anything anywhere. Instead, the application asks you to input your zip code and then brings up a page with all the most recent swapping activity in your surrounding area. Start scrolling down the “Share Your Stuff” list and click the boxes on the right hand size for each item you’ve got stuffed away in a closet and don’t mind lending out for a couple of hours or days. You can also create an inventory of all the items you’ve got stored away that you’re willing to share. To borrow other people’s items, head over to the “Find Stuff” page and type in whatever it is you need. You’ll see a list of available items, with a “Borrow” button on the right hand side.

Neighborgoods let’s you decide whether to offer the item for free or to charge a rental fee, and makes it possible for lenders to only share their goods with “verified” users who’ve paid Neighborgoods’ $4.99 fee. As an added bit of protection, the site never gives out its users’ home addresses. When it comes time to swap items, it lets the lender decide where the pick up/drop off should go down. For anyone looking for a way to save money on the items they’ll only use once, Neighborgoods is an awesome application to check out.

Practical Uses:

• Lend someone the vacuum cleaner you rarely use
• Tune up your car without buying an expensive tool set
• Borrow a waffle iron to make Easter brunch for your friends
• Meet new people in your community by lending your stuff to neighbors

Insider Tips:

• Users can decide whether to lend to everyone, or just friends and verified users
• Create an inventory of items you’re willing to share with others
• Charge a rental fee for people to use your very best tools
• Rate your experience with users after lending or borrowing an item

What we liked:

• Lenders can decide where to meet borrowers, rather than giving out their home addresses
• Users can decide whether to lend to a person by looking at their online feedback
• Wishlist feature lets you add the items you want to borrow
• Users can block anyone who’s constantly asking to borrow their items

What we didn’t like:

• Verifying an account costs $4.99
• Not all items being offered are free, since some come with a rental fee

Alternatives:

• craigslist – craigslist.org
• neigh*borrow – www.neighborrow.com
• Trade Away – www.tradeaway.com

Company Info:

• Launched: June 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Los Angeles, California
• Founded by: Micki Krimmel
• Web site: neighborgoods.net

Costs:

• Free for basic users
• $4.99 for a verified account

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)

Are You Writing In The Most Efficient Way Possible?

Have you seen an increase in your productivity after changing the way you write?

August has been a busy month for me outside of work.  I spent a week in London visiting family during the second week of the month, followed by a long weekend with friends an hour’s drive away last weekend and then this weekend we’re heading back down to London for 4 days.

All in all, I’ve had around 18 available working days, including weekends.

And then there’s the point that mid way through the month one of my regular clients increased their order.  Great stuff in general, but I really could have done with it waiting until September.

So, due to the fact I had a month’s worth of work to do in under 3 weeks, I started thinking about how efficient my writing process way and if there was anyway I could improve my productivity.

Traditionally,  I would receive a request from a client, have a quick look through it and put it to one side for a few days until I had completed the project that I was working on.

When the time would come to work on the next project, I’d open up a Word document, write down a few sentences that I thought I could use or which could come in useful, carry out some research or look for quotes / statistics, write the piece and then proof and edit it straight away.

And to be honest, it seemed pretty efficient.

However , I’m a big believer that there is always room for improvement and so I made 3 changes to my writing process.

1. Firstly, when I received a new order through, I’d spend 10 minutes jotting down some notes that could help me write the piece.  I’d also check out some websites I use regularly for statistics and quotes to see if there was anything immediately obvious that could be of use.
2. Secondly, I decided I would leave the editing to the end of the whole project.  I wondered whether going from writing to proofing to editing and then back to writing was lowering my productivity and was interested to see whether it would increase if I carried out all of the writing first, followed by all of the proofing and editing.
3. Finally, I wanted to try something that I haven’t done before, which was to complete a project in one sitting.  Usually, I look at how many words are going to be needed approximately overall, look at how long I’ve got to the deadline and divide it up so I write a small amount each day.This time, however, I was going to complete it all in one go.

Did it work?

Well, yes and no.

On the first point, I found that this is possibly the best thing I could do.

When I used to get an order of, for example, 20 articles, I would treat each one separately, not looking at the next until I’d finished one.  This month, I discovered that if I jotted down ideas for each (or at least most) of them first, there was no time spent at the start of each article thinking what I was going to write about.  Things just flowed a lot better.

Unfortunately, the second point is arguably the worst thing I’ve ever done.  In fact, it was so bad I only did it for a one project.

When I proof and edit each piece as I go along, it does mean that I spend extra time on it, but once it’s proofed and edited, it’s completed and out of the way completely.

I nearly cried when I realised I’d just finished the twentieth 500 word article but still had all 10,000 words to proof and edit.

My reaction to the third point is mixed.  I experimented on it first with a 22 article project and completed over 11,000 words in around 12 hours.  It was pretty intense and the words weren’t as free flowing after around 7,000, but it felt great when I woke up the next morning and could start a completely new piece of writing.

Considering this month has been pretty hectic, I’ve actually learnt a lot about my writing.  I’ve realised that I’m not as efficient as I thought I was, that proofing and editing in one go really isn’t a good idea and that when I want to be, I can be a writing machine!

Do you have a writing process that you always stick to?  Is it efficient?  Have you ever tried changing it around to see if you can increase your productivity?

Are You Writing In The Most Efficient Way Possible? was originally published on Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall. If you are not reading this in an RSS reader, please contact Sharon.

No related posts.

CloudCanvas – Make Digital Art In Your Web Browser

CloudCanvas is an application that allows people to create digital artwork right from their web browser, without having to download any systems or open up any outside programs. For novice designers and other creative types, CloudCanvas is more than just a basic paint application. It’s an advanced creative suite offering hundreds of tools to create digital designs and rich media projects, which uses HTML-5 and does not require the need for Flash or any plug-ins.

When you launch CloudCanvas and begin running the application within your own browser, you’ll see an interface that looks similar to other design programs like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Start with a blank canvas, and then use any of the hundreds of tools provided to create whatever type of artwork you wish. Basic tools like layers and shapes sit side-by-side with more innovative features like blurring and bevel filters, so it’s up to you how complex you’d like to go with your design. CloudCanvas’ media panel offers tools to add rich content to any project, and you can import files from both online and offline sources. For the less design-savvy among us, CloudCanvas offers templates that make creating any project much, much easier.

Because CloudCanvas offers full integration with Google Docs, you can save your designs within the online system and feel secure that your masterpiece will be safe even if your hard drive suffers a crash. The application is also integrated with Open Clip Art Library, Google Images, and Deviant Art, to make finding and saving images as straightforward and simple as possible. For iPad owners and anyone else looking for a quick way to edit images and create new designs from within their own browser without the need for Flash, CloudCanvas is an innovative application worth trying out.

Practical Uses:

• Edit your best vacation photos to make the colors pop
• Create a new logo for your business
• Make artwork on your iPad
• Draw out your ideas for a new ad campaign that your company is working on

Insider Tips:

• Save your files in Google Docs and get access to them from anywhere
• CloudCanvas offers 500+ fonts for users to choose from
• Use a template to get started on your project quickly
• Import images from Deviant Art into CloudCanvas

What we liked:

• No need to download a new program to get started editing photos
• Interface looks similar to other editing programs like Photoshop
• CloudCanvas offers an optimized iPad version of the site
• Easy to save files in Google Docs

What we didn’t like:

• Getting started with CloudCanvas can be a challenge for novice users

Alternatives:

• Aviary – aviary.com
• Photoshop Express – www.photoshop.com
• Sumo Paint – www.sumopaint.com

Company Info:

• Launched: July 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: San Diego, California
• Founded by: Chance Roth
• Web site: www.cloud-canvas.com

Costs:

• Free

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)

ChompStack – Attract More Customers With a Mobile Site

Looking for a way to increase the number diners who come into your restaurant each night? Why not look for a mobile solution? While standard websites are great for bringing attention to a business, they can be of little help when someone decides to check out a restaurant’s menu or prices online after they’ve already left home for the day. ChompStack is an application that makes it easy for restaurant owners to build mobile websites that can be viewed on any iPhone, Blackberry, or web-enabled device, giving prospective diners an even easier way to check out the specials, the hours, or the prices at the restaurant before they arrive.

Just because you’ve already created a website for your restaurant doesn’t necessarily mean it works on all mobile devices. Websites with Flash features, PDF menus, or confusing navigation bars can be all but impossible to open up and view on a standard iPhone or Blackberry. By signing up with ChompStack and starting a mobile website, you can quickly create a Flash-free information station that will load quickly for mobile users, even when signal strengths aren’t at their highest levels. Mobile sites created with ChompStack can be customized with unique logos, backgrounds, and colors to represent your restaurant brand, and you can choose which features to include or leave out. Upload your restaurant menu, including details such as prices and photos if you’d like, and use the application’s social media integration tools to link your mobile site up with other applications like Twitter, Facebook, OpenTable, and Yelp. If your restaurant has more than one location, you can even include maps and street directions to make it as easy as possible to find your spot.

When customers type in your regular website address on an iPhone or Blackberry, they’ll automatically be redirected to your mobile page. Because ChompStack’s sites are made with mobile devices in mind, there’s no need to worry that customers won’t be able to access certain features with specific types of phones. For smart business owners interested in developing custom mobile websites for their customers to use, ChompStack is an amazing application that offers countless features for a low basic price.

Practical Uses:

• Create a mobile website for your cafe
• Notify customers when you’re running a special deal
• Give diners a way to check out the menu before arriving at your restaurant
• Make it easier for people to find location information for your bistro

Insider Tips:

• Sites creates with ChompStack can be up and running within the day
• Manage your menu and make changes from your ChompStack dashboard
• Include photos to go along with certain menu items
• Integrate with Twitter and Facebook, and let customers visit those applications directly from your mobile site

What we liked:

• Websites made by ChompStack are optimized to load fast on mobile devices
• Sites work on hundreds of devices, not just the iPhone and Blackberry
• Gives customers a way to check out the prices at a restaurant before showing up
• Visitors are automatically redirected from your company’s website when visiting with a mobile phone

What we didn’t like:

• Site analytics tools are only available with upgraded plans

Alternatives:

• Ruxter – www.ruxter.com
• Wapple – wapple.net
• Winksite – winksite.com

Company Info:

• Launched: May 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Los Angeles, California
• Founded by: Hindsight Labs
• Web site: www.chompstack.com

Costs:

• Basic plan is $15/month
• Standard plan is $30/month
• Premium plan is $60/month
• Pro plan is $120/month

Rating:

• 5 out of 5 (wow)

1000 Memories – Keep Your Loved One’s Memory Alive

1000 Memories is an application that brings people together during times of grief. The application offers a simple way to build websites devoted to your deceased loved ones, with photo galleries, guestbooks, and memory walls where visitors can share their most beloved stories with others. In addition to serving as a meeting ground for people during times of mourning, 1000 Memories also makes it easy to set up a donation page so family and friends can give to the charities that matted most to their loved ones and keep their memories alive.

To create a website in honor of a recently departed friend or family member, start by signing in to 1000 Memories with your Facebook login or creating a new account. Enter your loved one’s name as you’d like it to appear on the site, and upload a large-sized main photograph to appear on the homepage. Create a “Projects” page where visitors can donate to your deceased friend’s favorite cause, and share your favorite story of a time you spent together in the “Stories” section of the site. When the website has been fully created and built to your satisfaction, you can click to invite friends and relatives to view your special memorial site.

As friends and family begin visiting the site, they can view photos in the galleries and leave their condolences in the online guest book. Sharing special memories and reading those left by other visitors can offer a sense of comfort during this time of grief, as can clicking through all the photos taken during happier days. For families looking for a permanent way to honor someone who is recently deceased, 1000 Memories has created a way to keep memories alive and give mourners a place to connect.

Practical Uses:

• Keep your deceased friend’s memory alive
• Share stories about your best friend’s life with other mourners
• Upload personal photos of you with your sister during happier times
• Give mourners a way to donate to your brother’s favorite charity in his name

Insider Tips:

• Upload a high-resolution photo for the main page image
• Users are given a subdomain website address based on the loved one’s name
• View all the recent visitors who have come to the memory page
• Invite friends and family members to view the site
• Start a memorial project that everyone can get involved in

What we liked:

• Users can share stories and photos, something that isn’t available with traditional newspaper obituaries
• Websites can be set up in a few short steps
• Subdomains addresses are based on names, to make the sites easy to find
• All memorial websites are completely free

What we didn’t like:

• Nothing

Alternatives:

• Legacy – legacy.com
• Respectance – www.respectance.com

Company Info:

• Launched: July 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Portland, Oregon, New York, New York, and Mexico City, Mexico
• Founded by: Brett Huneycutt, Rudy Adler, and Jonathan Good
• Web site: 1000memories.com

Costs:

• Free

Rating:

• 5 out of 5 (wow)

Zferral – Reach More Customers

When it comes to growing your company’s customer base and increasing sales, there may be no better way to get people moving than by introducing an incentive program. But for small to medium size companies, the question has always been, where to start? Zferral is an application that has an answer to that, by offering fully customizable online affiliate programs that companies can set up and begin using within just a matter of minutes.

Once you sign up with Zferral and choose a custom URL for your company’s Zferral site, the next step is to begin making your new Zferral page look like your own. Upload a company logo and change the color scheme to better reflect your business, and then start creating your first custom campaign. You can set up a flat rate commission structure that allots a certain price for each referral that your company gets, or create a tiered commission structure where people with more referrals receive higher rates. Once your campaign is set up, you’ll get an automatically generated event call code that can be placed on your website to track and analyze your entire campaign. Zferral offers a number of tools to create text ads, upload banner ads, and make new social media posts, which can be embedded with ease.

As your affiliates grow, you can use Zferral to track, manage, activate, and deactivate their accounts with the push of a button. You can also use Zferral to keep a watchful eye on the commission you’re paying out and track the impressions, conversions, click-thrus, and commissions for all of your ads and campaign. For businesses who’ve never offered an affiliate program before, Zferral is an amazing new application that brings big-business capabilities to companies of all sizes.

Practical Uses:

• Create an affiliate program for your company
• Use Facebook and Twitter to spread the word about your business
• Offer incentives for referring new customers to your site
• Give your affiliates the tools necessary to increase awareness about your company

Insider Tips:

• Upload your own colors, logo, and text to your Zferral page
• Create multiple campaigns to use when testing new business models
• Upload your own banners and marketing materials
• Allow your affiliates to login with their Facebook or Twitter accounts

What we liked:

• All commissions must be approved before payments are made
• Affiliates can be sorted and filtered in a number of ways
• Extensive analytics tools make it easy to track usage statistics
• Companies can set minimum requirements for affiliate payouts

What we didn’t like:

• Because the site is still so new, a definitive pricing structure has yet to be determined

Alternatives:

• BuildOffers – www.buildoffers.com
• Next Bee – www.nextbee.com
• t3leads – t3leads.com

Company Info:

• Launched: May 2010 (Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: United States and Poland
• Founded by: Jeff Epstein and Maciej Zawadzinski
• Web Site: zferral.com

Costs:

• Pricing and plans are TBD

Rating:

• 5 out of 5 (wow)

Putting The Free Into Freelance

One of the things I like best about freelancing is the ability to arrange my life to suit myself.  When I first started freelancing, being a freelance writer simply meant doing additional work for someone who was not my regular employer. It wasn’t particularly liberating, but it did bring in some much needed extra cash.

However, as I made the transition to full time freelancing, I discovered that there were untold benefits to the lifestyle. Although I still have deadlines and commitments to clients, I work for myself and in theory I am able to set my own hours. I can also work from anywhere in the world as long as I have a laptop and a decent internet connection.

I think many freelancers value that freedom, though what it looks like differs for different people. For me, freedom is about:

• having the ability to say yes to a last minute trip because I know it won’t affect my work
• being able to spend time with my family, especially my young daughter
• deciding how much I need to earn in a given week or month and tailoring my working hours to suit
• taking time off to have lunch on the beach, go to the gym or have coffee with friends.

For me, these things put the free into freelancing. What puts the free into freelancing for you?

This post originally appeared in Writing Lab News.

Putting The Free Into Freelance was originally published on Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall. If you are not reading this in an RSS reader, please contact Sharon.

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1. How To Crack Your Own Whip As A Freelance Writer
2. The Location Independent Freelancer
3. Freelance Writing: 2007 Career Goals

Do You Always Have Your Business Hat On?

How often do you take your business hat off?

If you follow me on Twitter (or simply realised due to my lack of comments), you’ll be aware that I’ve been away for the past week.

We – my girlfriend and I – have a lot of family in and around London and try get down there as often as we can.

Just like every other time, I worked longer days the week before we set off so that I could take the time off without having to think about any aspect of my business and could enjoy the time off fully.

This time, though, things were slightly different.

Whereas I usually don’t think about work at all or consider my actions in a business sense (I don’t mean I act wild or recklessly, I just mean that I’m not thinking about what might happen to my work if I do one thing or if I don’t impress a person), I found that I was looking at ways to develop my business and speak to people in a way that could be considered networking.

I thought back to the last time I was down. It was for a family wedding in May and although some of it is now a bit hazy (after the church there was a garden party with free alcohol, ahem…), I remember being introduced to people and rather than brushing over the fact I was someone who ‘does a lot of different things’, I focused on the fact I was a writer.

The time before that, however (February 2010), I can’t think of a time where I had my business hat on.

And thinking about it, this fits almost perfectly with how my writer career has developed since the start of 2010. I ended 2009 being a writer who was plodding along quite contently and I don’t really know what happened over Christmas and New Year, but I got a massive kick up the ass and decided 2010 would be the year that I pushed my writing career forward.

I found that this time in London – the city which is supposedly paved with gold – I was looking at everything as a business opportunity.

For some of the break we stayed in a hotel that was heavily business orientated and I couldn’t help but think what would happen if I spent the time striking up a conversation with some people in the lobby or bar and then handing over my business card.

Yes, I guess it’s cold calling, but surely the few minutes it would take saying a quick hello, mentioning a generic topic and working my writing business into the conversation would be worth it eventually?

Even now I’m back home, I’ve realised that I’ve still got my business hat on most times. Not to the extent where I’m constantly working, but that I’m looking at everything as an opportunity and a way to develop my career.

This is kind of a light bulb moment for me. Over the past 8 months things have slowly clicked into place with my writing career and this seems like another piece of the puzzle falling into the right slot – I’m no longer having to think of ideas and ways to develop; they seem to be coming naturally.

The reason I posted this was because I’m interested in hearing from other writers who find – or don’t find – that they’ve always got their business hat on.

Are you constantly looking for opportunities? Is it a bit of a strain or do they flow naturally? Do you like having your business hat on or would you rather you could take it off?

Image: Quinn.Anya (Flickr)

Do You Always Have Your Business Hat On? was originally published on Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall. If you are not reading this in an RSS reader, please contact Sharon.

Related posts:

1. Has Recession Been Good For Your Writing Business?
2. The Business Of Freelance Writing
3. My Writing Business Review