productivity

Do You Freelance on the Side?

September 2, 2010
By Linda Formichelli
Do You Freelance on the Side?

I had a mentoring client ask me how people who work full time make freelancing work, and I promised I would pose her question on the blog. Last year I did a survey of our readers, and many of you say that freelancing is a side job for you on top of your regular...
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Posted in Help us!, Motivation, productivity | 11 Comments »

Simplifying My Career — And My Life

August 23, 2010
By Linda Formichelli
Simplifying My Career — And My Life

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post called The Dark Side of Diversifying, about how over-diversifying your career can make you feel scattered and at loose ends. As I mentioned, I work on a TON of projects: I write for magazines and corporate clients, write and market books, teach e-courses, do phone...
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Posted in Motivation, Observations, Organization, Personal yammerings, productivity | 8 Comments »

The Dark Side of Diversifying

August 9, 2010
By Linda Formichelli
The Dark Side of Diversifying

Last month, Jennifer Lawler wrote an excellent general copywriting copywriting and editing for universities adoption profile/”dear birthmom” letter writing (I’m starting up the website in a week or so) two e-courses Renegade Writer e-courses (taught by outside instructors) phone mentoring for writers query letter critiquing free query letter packet Review Copy Helper (a list...
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Posted in Advice, Marketing, Observations, Personal yammerings, Rants, productivity | 4 Comments »

Gear Up for Fall — by Investing in Your Professional Development

July 20, 2010
By Linda Formichelli
Gear Up for Fall — by Investing in Your Professional Development

Summer is a lazy time, but if you invest in your professional development now, you’ll be all set for the fall rush — when vacations are over, the kids are back in school, and you’re ready to rack up some new magazine assignments (or maybe your first!). I find that when I invest in...
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Posted in Advice, Cool products, Marketing, Motivation, Query letters, Writing, productivity | 1 Comment »

When Your Priorities Shift: Observations on Parenting and Freelancing

July 12, 2010
By Linda Formichelli
When Your Priorities Shift: Observations on Parenting and Freelancing

Since we brought our son Traver home in early 2009, work seems to have gotten so much easier and I seem to have even more free time than I did before. How can that be? After all, as any freelancing mom or dad will attest, trying to get any writing done with a squalling...
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Posted in Motivation, Observations, Personal yammerings, productivity | 12 Comments »

Bust My Excuse: I Get Held Up Researching markets

May 31, 2010
By Linda Formichelli

A few weeks ago I offered to bust readers’ excuses for not pitching magazines — or, if they’re pitching, for approaching only low/no-pay pubs. (By the way, if you have an excuse you’d like me to bust, you can send it to lindaformichelli@gmail.com.) Here’s Steve’s excuse: It’s not that I don’t pitch or query,...
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Posted in Advice, Magazines, Marketing, productivity | No Comments »

Rant: On Ickiness (Or Those Who Can’t Do, Teach)

May 26, 2010
By Linda Formichelli
Rant: On Ickiness (Or Those Who Can’t Do, Teach)

I recently downloaded the free e-book The Zero-Hour Workweek by Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind. The title is a play off of The 4-Hour Workweek, the popular book by Tim Ferriss. The e-book is pretty inspiring, but when you get right down to it it’s a guide on how to start a blog on...
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Posted in Hooks & Crooks, Observations, Personal yammerings, Rants, Self improvement, Writers, productivity | 15 Comments »

7 Tips for Freelancing at Starbucks (and Borders, and B&N)

May 24, 2010
By Linda Formichelli
7 Tips for Freelancing at Starbucks (and Borders, and B&N)

Last year I rented an outside office in downtown Concord, NH. I loved it, but when I cut my work week down to two days in August of 2009, I realized it wasn’t worth $300 per month to spend a mere eight days in my office every month. So I sublet the office to...
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Posted in Advice, Observations, Writing, productivity | 15 Comments »

Three career-boosting classes start next week

May 10, 2010
By Linda and Diana

Just a quick note to let you know that Diana’s new Become an Idea Machine class, retooled to provide e-mail support, and sessions of Linda’s e-courses Write for Magazines and Get Unstuck! for Freelancers, will start on Monday, May 17, 2010. Diana has reworked her popular idea workshop so that she could provide one-on-one...
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Posted in Classes, Query letters, Writing, productivity | 2 Comments »

What’s Your Excuse?

May 6, 2010
By Linda Formichelli

This week I wrote a post called 3 Excuses That Are Keeping You from a Successful Freelance Writing Career. I received comments and e-mails from several writers listing their own excuses that I hadn’t included on my list. Then I came up with an idea: If you e-mail me your top excuse that’s keeping...
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Posted in Motivation, productivity | 2 Comments »