Are you unhappy with the amount of freelance writing income you’re bringing in? The check account is looking bare, and the bills are piling up.

You need more gigs — and you need them now.

Fortunately, there are many basic steps you can take quickly to help you land new assignments at better rates. Here are 10 strategies for growing your writing income fast:

1. Ask for referrals from existing clients. Do all your current clients know you’re looking to add another client or two? If not, be sure to let them know you would appreciate their referrals. They won’t be offended — I promise.
2. Find former clients on LinkedIn. Do you know where every former editor of yours is now? If not, reconnect, catch up…and let them know you’d be interested to work with them again, or to receive their referrals if they hear of anything. Another great way to reconnect — ask for a testimonial. You’ll be surprised how often that leads to a new assignment.

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Remember the good old days before 2008, when freelance writing gigs seemed to just fall out of the trees at you? It’s been a long slog through a tough economy since then, and there’s still no end in sight.

But here’s the thing: you are free to ignore the bad economy and continue to earn a good living.

How do I know? I’ve earned more as a freelance writer each year since 2006. That’s right — straight through the downturn.

While the overall freelance writing market may have shrunk in the crummy economy, if you are that rare freelance writer who is aggressively markets your business, you can still find plenty of work. In the great big world of all freelance writing assignments, there’s enough work left in there for one little ol’ you.

If you know where to look.

How can you use your skills to write your way to a good income despite the lousy economy? Here are my five best strategies: Continue Reading

Want to make money on that app you created? You’ll have to spend money and time on marketing your app outside of app stores for success, according to a recent study conducted by App-Promo, a mobile app marketing company.

The First Annual Developer Survey was created to help understand how developers are really doing with their mobile apps.

I don’t know about you, but the amount of apps on the market is overwhelming! It seems everyone has an app these days. Perhaps you have made a business out of developing these apps for clients, or you are a client who is thinking about hiring someone to create an app for you— this post will help shed some light on the industry.

The study found that most developers are developing apps for the Apple iPhone (58%) and the iPad (54.5%). Nearly 49% of them developed apps for Android users. Most of the developers are pricing their apps as free (35.2%) or at $0.99 (30.7%). They are also employing revenue models outside of paid apps, like advertising. Because, really, it’s about making money. Continue Reading

There’s a reason you see a smattering of women in red business suits in the crowd when you watch the State of the Union address on TV. Red is a power color, and these are powerful women!

The colors you choose to wear and even brand yourself with say a lot about you—individually and as a business.

I have very few business suits. My absolute favorite one is a gorgeous tangerine and hot pink brocade with a mandarin collar. It’s hot. It stands out from the crowd. It is not conservative. Whenever I wear it, I get lots of compliments. It’s sooooooo me!

But I’m not trying to blend in with everyone else around me. That’s not my M.O. I’m a freelance writer, editor, and entrepreneur. I like to have fun with color. I know what colors look good on me and I wear them as often as possible. Does that mean I have an abnormally large collection of bright green shirts? Yes, it does.

I really enjoyed reading this article on Inc.com about being color conscious. Wearing bold, brash colors might not be a great idea for someone who makes a living managing other peoples’ money. You don’t want your financial adviser to look quirky and brash. You want someone who presents themselves in a polished, even conservative manner. That’s why black, gray, and khaki are such popular, classic colors.

But what if you were creating an ad marketing campaign from scratch, or designing a new website? What would you want your designer to look like? I’m guessing the word “boring” doesn’t instantly come to mind. Which is why creative professionals need to be cognizant of color, whether it’s what they wear on their bodies or what is used on their websites.

Take a peek into your closet and at your website or marketing materials and notice what colors are most prevalent. Lets take a look at what those colors might say about you, according to the psychology of color: Continue Reading

I’m a believer that marketing materials will never go out of style. There’s something to be said when you have something really cool to give to someone else that characterizes you and your business.

I’m not talking about one of those squishy, stress reliever balls or a pen with your business name on it—I’m talking about clever marketing materials.

My coworker was at a recent business expo and came across a guy at a booth with cans and cans of corn. Corn? Yes, Del Monte corn. But these were no ordinary cans of corn—they were a business card.

Chris Quimby, owner of NachoTree, a print and digital design company, had created a very special label for these cans of corn.

“I bought a can of Del Monte corn, removed and scanned the label, then modified it in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator,” Quimby says. The label on his can of corn was sharing information about a small local humor paper his company creates. Quimby, who also spends his time working as “Maine’s Funniest Clean Christian Comedian” thought the “corny” business card would get some attention. It certainly caught mine.

My coworker brought a can back to the office, and couldn’t wait to show it to me. It certainly caught her attention! But is it edible?

“My wife took a few cans of it for a recipe a couple of weeks ago,” Quimby says. “I was not pleased, because they were supposed to be used as marketing materials. Now we will have to buy more corn. The story ended well, though, as my wife cooked a delicious meal. I just don’t remember what it was.” Continue Reading

I am a great proponent of saying thank you. I’ve written about gratitude on this blog before and know that you can’t go wrong by thanking someone. Who doesn’t like to be thanked?

I recently read a post on Business Insider about why an email thank you is preferred, and I bristled. On the shelf above my head is a huge box of thank you cards that I send out whenever the need arises. I know how much I love getting thank you notes in the mail from people, so I always send out handwritten notes. It’s just my preference—but it doesn’t mean that I am 100% right.

I thought I would take a look at the difference between an email thank you note and a handwritten one, and single out the pros and cons.

Jessica Liebman, the managing editor of Business Insider and the author of the “why you should send an email thank you instead of a handwritten one” also wrote a post about the importance of sending a thank you note. Liebman is in charge of all the editorial hiring at Business Insider and says that the majority of people she interviews have one thing in common: they never send a thank you email. Continue Reading

I love articles and blog posts telling me what NOT to do. I always read them with a little trepidation, hoping I’m not making the mistakes the writers are warning me about. But it’s also a good way to learn.

I’d much rather learn from someone else’s mistakes than my own!

There was a recent blog post on FastCompany about five social media mistakes we should all avoid. I thought I would share with you their tips and add in a couple of my own.

Avoid the Self-Congratulatory Tweet

Self-promotion isn’t a bad thing—in moderation. You probably know someone who only talks about themselves or their kids, no matter what the conversation is about. The more times this person raves about how wonderful they are or their child is, the less likely you are to listen (and to believe them). The same thing goes for your online marketing.

If you just won a great award, or your story was published on the front page of the New York Times, by all means, shout it from the rooftops! Good news is fun to share. Just be sure you aren’t saturating your social media outlets with your good news. It’s always nice to let others speak for you.

If someone tweets about something you do or why they think you’re great, make sure that you thank them in a retweet with comment, but avoid retweeting without any humbling context or word of gratitude. —FastCompany.com

Avoid Bad Tweet Timing

About a year ago Kenneth Cole pushed “send” on an unfortunate tweet that caused a digital uproar. The fashion designer said ”Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online.” Ouch. Timing was everything (wrong) with this message, which was sent during the dawn of the Arab Spring; it came off as crass rather than triumphant. —FastCompany.com

Yikes! I’m very happy to learn this lesson from Kenneth Cole than from my own mistake. You never want to fall prey to the hashtag #toosoon. Staying sensitive to others, especially in a time of national or international crisis, is important—especially if your followers and clients are going through the turmoil. Forgetting your filter is an easy way to make enemies. Continue Reading

I love notebooks. I am, after all, a writer.

In the world of iPads, smartphones, and other technological devices, there is still something wonderful about a notebook.

I have always been a pen-and-paper person. In college (in the late 90s before PDAs) I kept everything in my trusty planner. I carried that thing with me everywhere. If I lost it, I was doomed. But I never lost it. It had my calendar, address book, membership cards, and even a ruler! I put things I didn’t want to lose in it’s zippered pockets and wrote everything in it.

When I graduated, I ditched the planner. My life was much less chaotic with a full-time job and I didn’t need to keep track of assignments. So I started carrying around a blank, unlined notebook. I started collecting quotes I heard and liked, lists of books I wanted to read, and sketches I drew during my lunch hour spent in downtown Boston. It was like a journal without all the personal secrets.

My favorite kind of notebooks were Moleskine notebooks. They were small, sturdy, and came without those pesky lines. Some of them even had a built-in elastic to keep the books closed. When I saw this post on designboom about a new architecture book series Moleskein was publishing, I thought “Now that’s a great idea!” Continue Reading

You have Twitter followers, connections on LinkedIn, and people who like you on Facebook—but how engaged are these people with your brand?

There’s at least one person out there who believes that it’s not these social media platforms, but email marketing, that makes the most sense when it comes to your business.

Scott Stratten, a small business owner and author of Unmarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging, has over 117,000 Twitter followers, but says that followers and likes are not worth as much as an email subscriber. Stratten’s advice is for people to pick one of the many social media options (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ to name a few) and put time into it.

”The problem I see entrepreneurs making is they open an account on every platform and spend five minutes on each,” he says. ”That’s like trying to go to five networking events in one night.

”You’ve got to pick one … Social media is not being scaleable on every platform – it’s being great at a few.” —The Sydney Morning Herald

This is welcome news to someone like me who feels overwhelmed with the amount of time required to really engage with followers on all these platforms. Personally I use two: Facebook and Twitter. I also have a blog. I’m on LinkedIn, but don’t really use it all that much other than to read the headlines.

Stratten emphasizes that business owners shouldn’t rely entirely on social media.

A Tweet will last minutes, a Facebook status will last minutes – and that’s if it’s even shown in the news feed – but a subscriber has to do something with that message,” Stratten says.

”They’ll see it in their inbox and, to me, it’s much more valuable.’ —The Sydney Morning Herald

This is not the first time I have heard that email marketing is important. But why? Because with email marketing, you are creating a direct line of communication to your consumer. Continue Reading

Headlines from the Internet last week about Pinterest: “How Pinterest is Changing Website Design Forever” Mashable.com. “How Pinterest is Secretly Profiting From Your Links”
Venturebeat.com. “Holy SMOKE! Pinterest is the Fastest Growing Site Ever” Businessinsider.com. “Pinterest Hits 10 Million U.S. Monthly Uniques Faster Than Any Standalone Site Ever” Techcrunch.com. Gosh that’s a lot of headlines…

Know what my chosen headline would be? Pinterest Schminterest. Continue Reading

I have yet to adopt the new Facebook Timeline interface. I don’t want to. I’m comfortable with using Facebook the way it is, thank-you-very-much. When I found this post on mashable about how to revert back to Facebook classic, I knew I wasn’t alone in wishing some things would just stay the same.

I know I probably sound like a curmudgeon to you, but honestly, when things I use on a constant basis—like Facebook—go through an “upgrade” it’s all I can do to not pout. They say they are making their product more user friendly, but all change has a learning curve. I’m a busy freelancer, if I don’t have to learn new things I’m fine with it.

I know that I am going to have to use Facebook Timeline in the near future—there’s no getting around it—but I’m not sure I really like the new look. For one thing, I have to scroll down just to see my friend’s status updates. I don’t really care about having a great big photo at the top, either. I think it just takes up valuable real estate.

“We want to design a place that feels like your home. Where you tell story online is very personal. You spend a lot of time curating it. We want to make timeline a place you’re proud to call your home,” Zuckerberg said of the Timeline at the f8 conference. “It’s a completely new aesthetic for Facebook. It gives you the ability to curate all your stories so you can express who you really are.” —huffingtonpost.com

I don’t want Facebook to feel like my home! I want to have an actual life that doesn’t involve a computer or Internet. I want to be able to enjoy a family meal without someone updating their status, or watch a movie without checking wikipedia for “factual”  information. I’m also not all that interested in “expressing who I really am” on Facebook. That’s not what I use it for. Continue Reading

It’s the beginning of a new year and you have decided to get serious about marketing yourself as a freelancer. Congratulations—that’s half the battle.

You have a lot of work ahead of you, and I found some tips in this article by Steve McKee for businessweek.com that will help you avoid some pitfalls. I’ve taken these tips and turned them towards the freelancing crowd, so you can make quick use of them. Continue Reading