When I was in journalism school (in both the late 1990s and mid 2000s), the AP Stylebook was our bible. We didn’t go to class without it and frequently had quizzes and assignments built around it.

I recently wrote a blog post about the future of journalism and how astonished I was to learn that my undergraduate journalism students were never made to even purchase their own copy of the AP Stylebook, let alone use it.

If you are going to write for a newspaper (even some magazines) you need to have your AP Style Guide handy. And the more current the style guide the better. So when I found this article at Ragan.com about frequently botched AP style points, I thought I’d share them. Continue Reading

It’s coming—the Facebook pages update. March 30^th is almost here, and if you haven’t updated your page yet (like me) you’re in for some big changes.

Mari Smith, a social media speaker and author, has a great marked up screen shot on her blog you should check out.

I’ve complained about this upgrade before, and I’m still reluctant about it even though I have no choice. It’s going to take some getting used to, and there’s tons of stuff I need to learn about my new business page to use it effectively. It’s this forced learning that is turning me off. There are so many other things on my to do list that I have just been pushing this off. Time’s a waistin’!

The first thing I need to do is add a cover image. The dimensions for this image are 851 pixels by 315 pixels. Already I’m annoyed. I like to use our cover image for the big “profile” picture. This still exists, albeit small, but now I need to find another photo that captures my brand. Sure, it’s prime real estate, but now I need to find a photo that I can use legally that says something important about me. This will take some thought. Continue Reading

The Pew Research Center recently released their State of the News Media study for 2012, and, believe it or not, it’s not all bad news!

The annual study is an analysis of the health of journalism in America. This year’s study includes special reports on the impact of mobile technology and social media on news. Lets dig in and see what they say!

Evidence shows that the spread of mobile technology is adding to news consumption—that it’s actually boosting the reading of long-form journalism. Great news for you freelance writers out there who love storytelling.

People who use mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, are getting  news on these devices, and appear to be getting it frequently. 34% of desktop or laptop computer users now also get news on their smartphones. 27% of smartphone news consumers also get news on their tablet.

But while online audiences grew, print circulation continued to decline. So did ad revenues. When circulation and advertising revenue are combined, the newspaper industry has shrunk 43% since 2000. Here are some of the major trends the study recognized. Continue Reading

I got a call yesterday from a publishing house in New York City. One of my former interns had given them my contact information to use as a reference for the job she was applying for. I was pleasantly surprised to get the call.

A lot of the former interns who have worked for me, or with me, go out and look for jobs. And a lot of them use me as a reference. Rarely do I ever get a call from an employer who is interviewing these students. I always wonder why.

According to researchers at Cornell University, people are more likely to lie about their work experience on a traditional resume than they are on a social media page, like LinkedIn. In fact, the study found that 92% of college students lie at least once on their resumes.

The study says that websites such as LinkedIn can lead to greater honesty when it comes to résumé claims such as experience and responsibilities. That’s because claims are more easily verified in a public, online setting, so liars are more likely to get caught. —Associated Press

Sure, many people fib on their resumes to make themselves look better. They say their hobbies include reading classical literature or writing poetry when really they spend the majority of their time watching reality television. These things are hard to verify. Which is why people have interviews—to test the legitimacy of the actual resume.

But college students, and others who are looking for work, need to be aware that employers are savvy. They are looking you up online before they call you in for an interview. And if they’re not—they should be. Continue Reading

Are women better leaders than men? This is the central question in a new survey by Utah-based Zegner/Folkman, a leadership development consultancy. The results of this survey might surprise you.

For the survey, 7,280 leaders had their leadership effectiveness evaluated by managers and executives who worked with them. It’s a sample of both male and female leaders who work at progressive, successful companies. About 64% of the data comes from companies based in the U.S. and the rest comes from companies scattered across the globe. Sixty-four of the data set were men and 36% were female.

It’s no surprise that companies tend to have a higher percentage of men who work in top leadership roles than women—it’s just the way the world works. As a woman, I’m not thrilled that this is the case, but I’m realistic about it. Women have made great strides, and there’s a lot more work to be done.

Freelancing is one area of the workforce where women come out on top, numbers wise. According to a 2011 Freelance Industry Report, 67% of freelancers are women. Also, women freelancers tend to earn more money. Continue Reading

Pomegranate is a mentoring emagazine for creative entrepreneurs—that’s you! Their March 2012 issue is all about creating value for your customers.

Creating value is the easiest way to differentiate you from your competitors. To be honest, when I choose vendors to work with, the lowest price doesn’t always win out. I look for what they can offer me beyond the sale—and often it’s the little “extra” things that make paying a little more completely worth it.

“There are two kinds of clients out there—clients who are looking for the lowest price and clients who are looking for the greatest value. Who would you rather work with?” —Peleg Top, Pomegranate

I truly admire the sales director for the magazine I work for. Her consultative selling method and willingness to partner with clients makes her a great success. She doesn’t just sell advertising, she listens to what her clients need and comes up with solutions on how to help. Very often her solutions help us make money, too, but there is always a mutual benefit. When your clients realize you are working with them, and not simply for them, you are creating value.

We make the most money out of working with clients who believe in value. So we work extra hard to find ways to offer added value to these clients. In the end, it pays off, and you can do the same thing with your clients.

I really liked the creating value suggestions Pomegranate editor, Peleg Top, included in the March issue, so I thought I’d share them… Continue Reading

Before I discuss writing for a content mill, it’s best to determine exactly what a content mill is. And, depending on who you ask, they will probably have a different definition.

Content mills (or farms) have been around since the 90s. The Center for Digital Ethics & Policy have described a content mill as having these characteristics:

• Low hiring standards for freelancers
• Low pay for freelancers
• Large stables of freelancers
• Lack of an editorial process/insufficient quality control
• Extraordinarily high volumes of articles

Sites that have been labeled as content mills include Associated Content, Suite 101, All Voices, and Demand Media.

So how do these content mills work? Their goal is to attract online readers by publishing a vast amount of written articles across a wide variety of topics. They also push writers to use SEO techniques to boost their ratings on search engines, such as Google.

Quality vs. Quantity

You know the old saying, “quality vs. quantity”? Content mills are all about quantity, and quality writing, editing, and payment for such work fall to the wayside. You don’t need to have any sort of degree or previous experience to write for a content mill. It’s citizen journalism at the most basic level. Continue Reading

It was 2005 when I arrived on the campus of New York University for the first semester of grad school. I had lofty aspirations and stars in my eyes. I was in the Big Apple! The city was my oyster and I was ready to work my butt off and be published by the likes of The New York Times or New York Magazine. I was ready to be molded into a serious print journalist. What I got instead were some lessons in blogging and online media.

What the heck was a blog? I had no idea. And why was I paying ridiculous amounts of tuition to learn how to blog? I felt insulted at first. THIS was journalism? How could that be? It wasn’t tangible! It was just words on a computer! I was in for a rude awakening. Continue Reading

Have you ever been asked to give a speech somewhere on short notice? Sure, we’d all love to have months to prepare a well rounded and informative speech for an audience, but sometimes we aren’t given the time. You have two options: decline the opportunity or seize it.

If you are apprehensive about speaking in public, force yourself to do it.

I take the opportunity to speak in public as often as possible. Public speaking is easy for me—I don’t normally get nervous and I don’t have stage fright. This is not the case for everyone.

I have to say, practice makes perfect. My years of teaching in front of 10 to 50 undergraduate students has helped. I’m lucky that I have had the chance to practice speaking in public, so that when the opportunity arises for my professional life, I’m not so afraid.

If you are apprehensive about speaking in public, force yourself to do it. Attend networking events where you are asked to get up and introduce yourself. The more you do it the more comfortable you will be.

Does your town or region have any professional groups you can join? Whether it’s a breakfast or lunch event held once a month, or a quarterly business event, put yourself out there. Practice sharing your expertise when someone asks you “So what do you do?”

All of this prep will not only get you used to speaking to strangers, it will help you network. You can make some valuable connections that can lead you to even more public speaking engagements. Continue Reading

I love Dropbox. Finding this interview with one of Dropbox’s founders, Drew Houston, was like finding buried treasure.

In case you haven’t heard of Dropbox before, it’s a file-hosting service that lets people access their files from their computers, smart phones, tablets, you name it. More than 50 million people worldwide use the software. Not too shabby for a couple of MIT graduates.

There is a ton of file sharing software out there on the market, so I was interested to hear how Dropbox got started and learn about it’s rise to success amongst its competitors. As freelancers, we have a lot of competitors out there in the marketplace. Houston’s experience helps us learn how to differentiate ourselves from our competition. Here are my take away’s from this article:

Take Good Ideas and Make Them Your Own

Houston got his idea for Dropbox from a similar program used by MIT students called Athena. The program was simple to use, and anytime someone sat down on a computer and logged in, their entire workstation was summoned to the computer in front of them—even the placement of their icons and folders.

Houston knew that someone in the future was going to build something like this for the general public. Houston wrote some code on the Chinatown bus between Boston and New York that he thought would work. He shared his idea with Arash Ferdowsi, Dropbox’s other founder, and they got to work. Continue Reading

I try very hard not to procrastinate. I’ve been this way my whole life. In college, I’d work ahead of the syllabus just so I knew I would get everything done. For my job at the magazine, I work months, maybe a good year, ahead of time to plan and execute some feature stories.

I chalk this up to being a busy person. In college and grad schools, I worked a lot. I didn’t have a ton of free time so I had to plan on getting assignments done. In my working life, I have a job, I freelance, and I volunteer my time by sitting on the board of two nonprofits. I like to do it all, but I have been learning how to say no.

I also teach an undergraduate course at a local college. In my syllabus it clearly states that if students miss their deadline, they fail the assignment. In the real world, if they fail to pass in a story to their editor, they risk losing their jobs. This deadline also helps me when I go to grade them. I want to be sure I have enough time to read through each students’ work and not rush through it.

When I saw this article on how procrastination is essential to innovation, I was intrigued. I know people who thrive on procrastination as a means to get anything done. To be honest, these people drive me nuts. I find that when you are working on a team and one person puts all of their duties off until the last minute, the entire project suffers. However, when you aren’t working in a team, maybe there really is something to be said about the stress of adrenaline. Continue Reading

I’m going to tell you a little secret that causes me some embarrassment. I still use Photoshop CS3. I’m going to chalk it up to the fact that I am skeptical of constant software upgrades and the fact that I’m not a graphic designer. Still…I’m so behind the times. Please don’t make fun of me.

When Photoshop CS4 came out, the art director I work with and I went “poo-poo.” There wasn’t enough changes for our company to invest in an upgrade. We were OK with that. Then CS5 came around. We realized that with Photoshop 3 we couldn’t open files from people using Photoshop CS5. That just made us mad.

Call me a curmudgeon, but technology moves at such a rapid speed that I sometimes feel dizzy. It even sometimes paralyzes me. I don’t dare buy a new cell phone or computer, because I know that as soon as I do a new version will come out that is cooler, faster, better. Apple is notorious for doing this to me.

If my husband hadn’t bought me an iPad as a wedding gift, I still wouldn’t have one (even though I love it…). The fact that it doesn’t have a USB port confounds me! It doesn’t make any sense to me—except that in the next version (or the one after that) there will probably be one. Grrrrrr.

So when I heard Photoshop CS6 was coming out I felt two things: Old and cheap.

I am, primarily, a writer. Photoshop CS3 still gets me by—and I will continue to use it until I need something more.

You won’t be able to get CS6 until later on this year, but Photoshop has released five sneak peek videos on the Photoshop YouTube channel over the past few weeks. For all you clever designers out there, here are some things you have to look forward to… Continue Reading