That’s All Very Fine And Good, But…
I read a lot of blogs every day. They’re rarely the same ones, apart from the few favourites I mentioned yesterday – and I have RSS feeds from them, so I don’t always actually visit. A lot of the blogs I do visit are, not surprisingly, about freelancing or writing.
Some of the others are even about business, if they touch on aspects that are interesting – like SBO, which is not only informative, but also hilarious a lot of the time, particularly in the comments. It’s also mercifully free of buzzwords and manager-speak most of the time.
One thing I have noticed on a lot of freelancing and writing sites is that a great deal of the advice comes from people who are successful. This is the point where you say “Duh!” because advice from unsuccessful people wouldn’t be very useful.
What I mean is that the majority of these people are really successful. They’re published authors, have won awards, hold highly-paid writing positions at funky companies, maintain wildly popular blogs or have their own business that provides them with a six-figure income (although they may have to count the decimals for that).
And that’s all very fine and good, but it does mean that a lot of the information is what I would call “inspirational”. You know, like those business conferences where inordinately rich (and generally puffed-up) entrepreneurs go on about releasing your inner worth, converting by inverting and other such buzzword nonsense. It also means that a lot of the advice is really generic and vague, especially when it comes to questions that might induce legal problems if a visitor were to take that advice as fact.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with inspirational posts if you need a bit of a morale boost, but when it comes down to it, it’s fluff. It doesn’t actually help you do anything.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not demeaning the blogs or their authors. I’m just saying that, if you’re looking for practical, reliable advice, it’s very hard to find. Especially if you’re not a reasonably successful freelancer already, but are still floundering at the “breaking in” stage.
And that’s why (he says, finally getting to the point), this post by Shack is so darned cool. Not only is it an absolutely enormous list of tips, thus ensuring that at least some are useful for everyone, but it’s practical. It’s actually something that helps, even if you’re a total noob.
It has also inspired me (yes, it’s inspirational at the same time) to make a new rule for myself: that every post on ScrawlBug shall include something practical to help fellow writers and freelancers. Even if it’s only the news that Sainsbury’s scotch eggs are cheaper than the ones at Somerfield and taste just as good.
Go and read that post now, bookmark it and thank Shack for it. Practical advice is far too rare.
Excuse the language but…
Bloody Hell Spike.
I caught your tweet and popped over to have a look. Then, well, Oh!
I am truly gobsmacked, gone red in the face and – - – Very grateful.
So very pleased you found it not just useful but also inspirational.
Blushing
Andy
I was just going to type “This sucks”, but it wouldn’t have filled up a whole post. Not!
That post was like the moment of enlightenment when my lady came up with the tagline for ScrawlBug: one of those things that just makes sense and something clicks. What’s the point in advice if it’s all vague? Be practical. Darned fine idea.
Again, thanks for the inspiration, even if it kind of came out of left field (as the Yanks would say) and had nothing directly to add to your original post!
I am trying with all my posts to finish them with two elements.
1, Call to action
2, Knowledge nugget
Both lessons I picked up from @problogger.
If the final part of a post has the reader nodding because there is some useful stuff (nugget), even if they are only agreeing with what they already know. Then the remembered ‘worth’ of the post is higher.
Plus if they are charged from the nugget, then the call to action may actually gain a response.
If you finish of on something mundane or sales prompt, well you can guess how people feel.
I ‘feel’ this is right and it suits me and my approach to helping people.
I followed you over from Deb’s blog because your response seems far closer to me than all the others who huff and puff when others accept jobs that, while not what they’re really after, might be jobs that help them get to where they want to go.
I appreciate this article you wrote, and agree with it 100%. A lot of the stuff out there is fluff, and has done nothing at all to help me on my way to freelance nirvana.
A lot of these folks who have found success have done so outside of the Internet. As some said on Deb’s site, they went to a party and met someone who gave them the work. Then it’s a matter of networking, and voila, you’re dining on caviar. Then there’s the “Yeah, I was a magazine writer for x years before I got into blogging.” Great, but what about for those of us who haven’t been writing for x years for established print media?
My reason for wanting to get onto the freelance bandwagon is to get my hands on an income that doesn’t depend on me being anywhere. For a lot of the soccer moms who post on Deb’s site, they want to be moms and make a wage. For me, I want to be able to hit the road and make a living, or dive into a cubby hole when I’m road weary without burning through my savings.
What gets me about Deb’s site – and the reason I don’t look on it for jobs anymore, is that I got put onto a spam list for having tried to apply to one of those jobs which was just a credit card scam.