All Freelance Writing

The Organized Writing Process Resource Post

Jessie Haynes — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:53:55 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk about accountability on All Freelance Writing recently, and that’s important to any aspect of the freelance writing business. I’m bringing you a post today about something very basic, but in that, integral to a freelance writer, and I want you to think about accountability as you read this.

I recently fired a mentee. I said that, until he would invest real time and work in their business, he wouldn’t be receiving my help. I wanted him to be accountable in the way I’m sharing the writing process today, among other things I wanted from him…but the point in mentioning him is saying that I had to stress this again and again:

“Amateur writers are the ones that simply pop off a draft and send it to a client. Professionals organize their work, rewrite for their best work, and proofread for errors.”

Even small, simple projects require at least some outlining and proofreading…it will only take a few more minutes and you’ll be sending a more professional piece of work in, rather than something sloppy. Yes, as professionals, we can “get away” with rushing some things or taking a few short cuts, but if we held ourselves accountable, would we? I think that when someone pays you to perform the core competencies of your business for them, you should provide your best work possible. After all, you should be asking for fair compensation for your work, so how about doing the work you’re being paid for!

Okay, here endeth my rant. Here beginneth the organized writing process post…

The writing process is five steps: prewriting, research, outlining, drafting, and editing. In The Freelance Writer’s Guide to Project Management, I mentioned having contextual to-do lists for these actions. To maintain my writing process workflow, I use folders with each of these contexts labeled and move the project documents from one folder to the next. Because I work with paper, I have a final folder called Data Entry, but as you could easily use this workflow on a computer, you could simply have an Email or Wordpress or similar folder for publishing / sending your work to publishing.

However you decide to organize your writing process workflow, you need to have tools to maintain said organization and to keep you productive. I’ll be walking through each of the five steps with you, and providing some free .pdf documents for reference in creating your own or for printing and using.

1. Prewriting

Prewriting includes mindmapping, drawing correlations, and finding informational needs of a market and developing one or more ideas to publish in that market. During the prewriting process, you’ll need to organize ideas so that you can develop an idea to research, write, and edit.

This often involves a great deal of asking questions, reading around, and sketching and scribbling across paper. The best tool to keep this all organized is an idea inventory. I’ve created an idea inventory index and an idea inventory detail page .pdf so that you can print them out and organize your ideas. You may want to use them as a guide to creating a notebook or digital files to organize your ideas.

Tip: In the table column of the idea inventory index that asks if the idea is active or archived, write an “A” for active when you’re working on the idea and haven’t developed a piece from it. When it is completed, write an “r” so that you have “Ar” for archived.

Freebies:

2. Research

All research for freelance writing projects comes from three sources: other written material, observation / surveys / experiments, and your preexisting knowledge and experience. I use a research plan template to figure out exactly what questions I’m seeking the answers to in order to complete a writing project. The classic reporter’s questions / 5 W’s and H serve as a good guide for what you’ll need to research and learn about a topic. Determine what the question would be for each of these topics, such as the “how” question for an article could be “how can Web writers use a keyword density tool to keep from keyword stuffing an article?”and so on. I also add spaces for follow-up questions to those questions, such as “how can you tell you’re article is keyword stuffed?” for that sample question.

I find working with a research plan template helps me to discover all the questions that need to be asked to fully write a draft. After compiling the questions I search for references and take notes from what I already know, numbering each question with a small, circled number above it on my research plan and answering it and adding the corresponding number to my notes.

Tip: Also ask the question, “What’s the point?” to be sure that you’re developing an idea that matters to editors, publishers, clients, and readers. If you can’t answer that question, there’s no reason to work with what you have. Revisit your idea and your questions to be sure you’re looking for something worth finding.

Freebies:

Research Plan Template

3. Outline

Outlines: best friends to some writers, bane of their existence for others. All an outline needs to do is organize the information you have into something that can become a cohesive draft. Whether you love or love to hate outlines, using my outline template you can quickly and efficiently organize your piece.

Tip: Write notes for your introduction and conclusion last, after you’ve determined the body content of the article, and only touch on important points. Introductions and conclusions are something that will need to be polished throughout the drafting and editing process.

Freebies:

Outline Template

4. Draft
I like to write one draft, after doing steps one through three, without referring to any of the notes and research and outlining. I like to see what kind of writing will come from this first draft, and it frees me up to get the best turns-of-phrase and unique ideas into a project I know I will organize more thoroughly later.

If you don’t have time to do this, however, simply begin writing from the top of your outline to your bottom. This means writing the introduction and the conclusion last. Which one of those you do first is up to you, but I think writing the introduction immediately upon finishing a draft can add immediate pertinence to the introduction, and writing the conclusion as the very last item in drafting leads to the most cohesive conclusions.

Tip: Unless the project is especially large, try to complete a first draft in a single sitting. If you complete the more extemporaneous first draft I suggest, do write it one sitting to capture the freshest ideas within your mind. If you only do the follow-the-outline draft, try to do it as well to get the most coherent depiction of the ideas in your outline.

5. Edit
The editing stage of the writing process involves rewriting and proofreading. Initially, your editing should focus on the big picture-how well you stuck to your outline. After you’ve gone through this initial phase, look at your writing more in pieces: first a full walk through of the paragraphs, and then of sentences. The do a proofreading to check for spelling errors and grammatical inconsistencies that remain in your work.

Tip: Try to create some space between a draft and editing by waiting-whether it be thirty minutes or three days, and between the stages of editing, so that you’ll have fresher eyes to focus on the material. Being too close to your rough draft could compromise your ability to see errors.

Here’s my spin on the writing process. I hope I’ve given you some tools to make this process more organized, and that I’ve not gone too basic this month in the topic.

Tell me more about your writing process, and how you keep it organized.

Take Ownership of Your Finances

LaToya Irby — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:55:52 +0000

Reading Yo’s last post about accountability really got me to thinking, “Are people having financial trouble because they failed to take ownership of their finances?” Could that one word – ownership – have prevented the entire mortgage meltdown and subsequent recession?

Taking ownership of your freelance finances means charging a rate you can live on. It means managing the money you have and storing the excess for times you don’t have as much.

When you take ownership of something, you think and plan for the long term. You make sacrifices today so you’ll have something to look forward to tomorrow. Can you make it as a freelance writer if you never take ownership of your finances? I don’t think so.

If you never take ownership of your finances you may:

Accept jobs that pay an unacceptable rate.
Build your freelance career solely on content mills and other low-paying work.
Spend more money than you can afford to.
Mismanage your money and ignore the importance of budgeting.
Take a head in the sand approach to your checking and savings account balances.
Drain your savings and use debt to make ends meet.
Fail to set aside money for taxes and end up with an IRS collection.
Take out a loan you can’t afford because the bank says you qualify.
Spend the extra money you make during “feast” months rather than save it for a famine.
Market your freelance services only when you’re broke.

“How do I take ownership of my finances?”

Make a budget. There are budget worksheets all over the internet. Don’t mull over them for days trying to figure out which one will work for you. Just print a few, try them out, and tweak one until it works for you.

Evaluate your rates, often. Get in the habit of looking at your rates often to determine if they’re high enough to maintain your lifestyle. When you have a baby, buy a house, get married, or get a divorce, look at your rates to make sure you can continue to live on your current rate.

Stop making excuses. “I don’t make enough money to start an emergency fund.” “I can’t afford to pay my taxes.” Any rebuttal to taking ownership of your finances is an excuse. It’s as simple as that. With proper planning, I’m sure you can afford to take the steps you need to have complete ownership of your finances.

Realize that financial success is key to your freelance success. It doesn’t matter how well you write or market, if you’re not getting paid or you’re mismanaging your money, you won’t be a freelance writer for long.

I know the economy is bad and all that jazz, but I wholeheartedly believe that if you take ownership of your finances, you can make it. It may mean sacrificing. It may mean increasing your rate. It may even mean supplementing your income with some content mill work. If you take ownership of your finances, you’ll figure out a way to make it work.

Experience Writer Needed

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Compensation: 500

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Could Accountability be The Key to A Successful Freelance Writing Career?

Yo Prinzel — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:43:01 +0000

I’m on a diet. Have been for, oh, about 7 weeks now. I’ve lost 7 pounds. Yeah, no, trust me, I’m going somewhere with this.

The reason I’m on a diet is because I have an accountability problem when it comes to food. Generally when I want to eat something bad I come up with some kind of reason that I should eat it.

“I worked hard today”

“I did laundry.”

“I had a difficult phone call.”

“It’s raining.”

You name the situation and I can turn it into an excuse to eat something terrible. But for the last 7 weeks, I haven’t been doing that anymore. Instead, I’ve been holding myself accountable. I’ve realized that the decision to eat stuff I shouldn’t is a decision that I make, not a decision dictated by the day’s events. That gets me out of the excuses thought process and helps me commit to eating properly.

My dieting dilemma reminds me a lot of the blog posts and forum ramblings I see of many freelancers. Every day the same questions appear:

“How do you find clients?”

“How do you find high-paying clients?”

“Are there any high-paying gigs anymore?”

“How do you get clients who pay?”

It’s not that having questions is bad, it’s that all of these questions are answered in about 8 million different free blog posts all over the Internet. This makes me begin to wonder if the real problem is that the writers asking these questions aren’t holding themselves accountable for their careers. It’s just like Rebecca mentioned in her post earlier this week. If someone has to hold your hand and personally escort you down the fanciful freelancing lane, then you probably are not capable of doing it yourself. Not for lack of talent, not for lack of business acumen and not for lack of smarts–for lack of accountability.

So what do you think? If you went out, read all the advice out there on blogs and tried some of it yourself, do you think you would become as successful as you want to be? If you decided to send 10 marketing emails out to potential clients each week–and you made yourself do it–do you think you would get the kind of business you want? If you developed a strategy for making yourself more visible within your specialty and then carried it out, do you think you could become a query free freelancer?

I bet you could.

Hopefully next week I’ll be back with another freelance writing marketplace review. But hell, maybe by then you won’t need it.

InBloom: Free Wordpress Theme

Jennifer Mattern — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:54:03 +0000

We haven’t released a theme from Chris Hennis recently, but here’s his latest. Again, this is a free Wordpress theme available exclusively through All Freelance Writing! It’s ideal both for blogs and professional sites. If you use it, feel free to share a link to your site in the comments so we can see how you’re using it to promote your freelance writing business. Please read the information below before downloading.

What’s Included

The coded theme
.psd files for various theme elements so you can easily change the look of the design

Terms

Please remember that all free Web templates and free Wordpress themes from All Freelance Writing are made available under the following terms: You’re free to use it on your own sites (and you do not have to include a credit link), but you may NOT distribute this template to others in any way. You cannot forward the files to someone via email. You cannot post the files for download on your own site. You cannot link directly to the download file on this site. If someone else wants it, they must visit this page and download it directly from this site. Also, derivative works made from the template may not be released (in other words, you can’t change the design and then distribute it to others – it’s for use on your own sites only).

Screenshot

InBloom: Free Wordpress Theme

Notes

Remember that I do not offer technical support for the downloads. If you have simple questions, please post them as a comment on this post (do not email me about them), and if I can help I will. This way when I can’t help, maybe another member can. I don’t make any guarantees regarding these templates and themes, and I don’t have most of them up on demo sites yet.
You can find more free Wordpress themes and Web templates for freelance writers released exclusively through All Freelance Writing by browsing our full list of free stuff for writers.

To Download

Click the download link below.
Save the file to your hard drive.
Unzip / decompress the file (in Windows, right-click the file name and go to “extract all.”
That will save it to a decompressed folder.

Once you have the folder decompressed, you can upload the theme into your Wordpress installation and activate it by clicking the “themes” link under “Appearance” from your Wordpress admin. You can edit your theme files by visiting the “editor” link from the same menu.

Don’t be a Victim. Stop Content Thieves Dead in Their Tracks

Jennifer Mattern — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:51:18 +0000

If you blog, you’ll likely come across at least one content thief in the process. They’ll take your articles (usually in full) and they’ll publish them on their own sites so they can either monetize your work or use it to build their own false authority. As someone who makes a living from writing, I find content theft infuriating. I’m also the wrong person to steal from, because while many people won’t bother pursuing the issue, I’ll go after a thief and hit them where it hurts (and then hit them again).

My Recent Experience With Content Thieves

In the last week or two, I came across two content thieves stealing material from my PR blog — NakedPR.com. Even though that blog is retired, it brings in a good amount of income, so I really don’t need people swiping the content and dilluting what’s offered there. In one case, a reader discovered the theft and reported it to me. In the other instance, it was a Google alert that turned up the stolen material.

One of the sites promptly removed my material on threat of further action. The other (MarketingTypo.com — which apparently does nothing but aggregate full content, including comments, from other sites under the guise of “fair use”) is still publishing my content illegally. They obviously don’t understand the concept of fair use. That site has already been reported as per my steps below, and is awaiting review by search engines and advertisers.

These two situations weren’t my first in dealing with thieves. In fact, I have the “deal with them” process down to a bit of an art — quick, efficient, and highly successful. Not once have I had to waste my time suing someone over their theft in order to get what I wanted (but I wouldn’t hesitate to do that — being willing to go all out is key, because if you’re not why should they bother doing as you ask when they know they’ll ultimately get away with it?).

Today I want to share the pre-legal route I take when tackling content theft, so you can put it to use should you ever need to.

How to Discover Content Theft

Before we can get into taking on content thieves, you have to be able to identify the theft. I used to do this monthly. Sadly I’ve rarely done this over the last year or so, and it’s tracking I need to get more aggressive about again in the future. Here are a few ways you can identify instances of theft:

Set up a Google or Yahoo alert for your name. If they just copy / paste, your name might still be included as the author. Some thieves think that as long as they credit you, it’s legal to steal and publish your work. It’s not. A by-line does not replace permission.
Set up a Google or Yahoo alert for your site’s URL / domain. In this case, some people think that as long as they link to you it’s okay to steal your content. Again, that’s not true. Be careful though. These will return partial hits too (such as people just publishing short excerpts with a link — which might indeed fall under fair use).
Run title searches. When people copy your content, they often don’t change the title. Search for some of your more popular posts and see if anyone’s ripped them off.

You can certainly do more. These are just some ideas to get you started, and they’ll turn up the bulk of directly-ripped content.

How to Deal With Content Thieves

Make sure you follow these steps in order. I’ll explain why that’s important at the end.

Find the content thief’s contact information. – Sometimes this is available right on the site. Sometimes you have to dig for it. You might need to look up the Whois information for their domain name. If they didn’t go with private registration you can find a name and / or company name, plus a phone number and email address there.
Send the thief a 48-hour cease and desist notice. – I find that 48 hours is more than adequate time to check your email and get my content off your site. If you’re too generous in your time window, you come across as a pushover from the start. You need to be firm and have a “take no sh*t” approach during the entire process. This notice should provide your name, a note that you are the copyright holder of said content, and a mention of where the content was stolen from. Obviously, also tell them which content you’re claiming is infringing on your rights. The person getting your email might not be the same person who published it. In this notice, reiterate that they do not have your permission to publish your content or any derivative work. In many cases, this notice will be enough to have the infringing content removed if you’re firm enough. I like to forewarn them about what I’ll do if they don’t remove the content too. That seems to light a fire under some folks’ asses (see below).
Take note of their advertisers. – Advertisers and ad networks generally don’t want to be associated with content theft. They don’t want to be used to monetize that stolen material. Track down all advertisers associated with the thief’s site and contact them with the details of the original content and the infringing material. The thief almost always loses ad contracts. More importantly, they can be banned entirely from ad networks — meaning not only would they lose Adsense (as an example) sitewide on the infringing site, but also on every other site they use it on. You just hit them where it hurts — in the wallet. But hold on. It gets better.
Report them to the major search engines. – File DMCA notices with all of the major search engines if the infringing content is indexed (it usually is). You’ll need to give them the URLs of all infringing material, as well as the URLs of your original material. The SEs will look into the claims, and when they find the infringement is indeed happening, that content will generally be de-indexed. Ouch. Now you hit what’s likely a primary traffic source for that thief.
Report them to their host. – Only after you’ve done the two previous things should you send a DMCA notice to the thief’s Web hosting company. That’s because you need the infringing material to be live on the site still when the SEs and advertisers review your claims. Basically the idea here is to put their hosting account at risk — even on the rare case where the content isn’t removed by now, they probably don’t want to lose their hosting account and have to move everything to another server because they violated the terms (not to mention the law). Are they hosted somewhere other than the US? Don’t worry. Send a notice anyway. Some thieves think hiding in offshore accounts is enough to protect them. It’s not. Many hosting companies worldwide still will put them on notice or ban their accounts for violating the company’s own terms of use.

How to Find a Content Thief’s Hosting Company

Not sure how to find a site’s Web host? Sometimes this is difficult. However, the following tricks and resources will help you out in many cases:

Visit DomainTools.com and conduct a WhoIs search.
Towards the bottom of the WhoIs results, you’ll see something called domain servers (nsX.hostname.com is the format). Look at the “hostname.com” part of it. Look up AllFreelanceWriting.com as an example, and you’ll see ns29.hostgator.com and ns30.hostgator.com — HostGator.com is the Web hosting company for this website. If you get the actual host, you can stop and contact them. No need to follow the other steps below.
Nameservers from WhoIs Record
Sometimes the domain listed in the nameservers isn’t the actual host. Let’s use my little content thief MarketingTypo.com as an example. You’ll see their nameservers are listed with DomainControl.com. Try to visit that site. Drat! Nothing comes up to tell you what host uses that domain for their name servers. Time to move on.
Pull up your favorite search engine and search for “DomainControl.com” to learn more about it. You’ll discover that it’s used by GoDaddy.com. Oh goodie — the Vietnamese thief is using a US host, which will make my life a wee bit easier later if they don’t remove the content based on the SE and advertiser reports. (How do I know they’re Vietnamese? Check their WhoIs record again.)
If this still doesn’t work, you can try the tool at WhoIsHostingThis.com. Try both AllFreelanceWriting.com and MarketingTypo.com. When you search for this site, you get The Planet as the probable host. But wait. Didn’t I say I used HostGator.com? Yep. The Planet is HostGator’s data center. In that case, the WhoIs lookup was a quicker route to the right answer. Now search for MarketingTypo.com and you’ll see they give you GoDaddy as the hosting company right away. In that case, their tool would save you time, because you wouldn’t have to look up who owns DomainControl.com from the nameserver information.
WhoIsHostingThis.com Results

That’s all there is to it! It sounds like a long process, but it’s really not. Once you do it a few times you’ll get the hang of it. Save your notices and requests as templates for future use, and the process will be a breeze.

Remember, it’s one thing if you grant people permission to republish your material (such as through article marketing). But when you let people get away with stealing your work, as a writer you do yourself a real disservice. After all, if people know they can get away with stealing and republishing your writing for free, why on earth would they pay you to write anything new?

The only way to deter these kinds of thieves is to be strong and take them on as you find them. When they stop thinking all bloggers and writers are suckers who will just let them slide, then maybe the rate of theft will finally settle down. This is one of those situations where if you aren’t a part of the solution, you really are a part of the much larger problem.

Burning Questions Asked of a Freelancing Mama – Will You Show Me How?

Rebecca Garland — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:36:16 +0000

To continue in my (very short) series of common questions asked of a freelancing mom, I’ll now reveal my true personality. It’s not very pretty – really, I know that. But this mom isn’t really that soft and gentle when she’s not dealing with her own children.

It’s the most common question asked of freelance writers around the world that gets under my skin.

“Will you show me how to do what you do?”

Answer: Probably not.

Why? Because, quite simply, if I have to show you how to do it, you probably won’t end up doing it. There. I said it.

Granted, there are plenty of tricks to the trade and I can help you build a business if you’re really serious about getting started, but it’s my experience that about 95% of the people, stay-at-home moms included, who ask me to show them the way don’t really mean it, don’t have the business sense to make it work or think it’s just a fun little hobby that happens to pay pretty well. They don’t even blog. They’ve never posted a comment. Some have no clue what a forum or blog is. And I just don’t have time to keep telling the world how to do what to do if they aren’t going to actually do it.

If you’re the 5% that’s huffing and offended right now, I commend you for being serious about this. And for that 5%, I’ll give you some real tips from one mama to another.

Plenty of mothers, especially those that stay home, are looking for ways to earn a few extra bucks without sacrificing time with their children. This is why the WAHM forums are full of moms working for pennies on projects here and there. They just want a bit more spending money. Pocket money is one thing, but a full-blown career is something else. Getting from one point to the next is not a matter of landing better gigs – it’s a full mentality shift.

When another person asks me how to get started or how to get her daughter or son started writing online, I used to try to give everyone tips and pointers. I’ve written tomes of emails that rival some ebooks and tried to point out the dos and don’ts of getting started online. Now, for the most part, I’ve given up doing all of that. When someone asks me to teach them what I do, I just give them my email address and ask them to email me when they want to talk about setting up a professional online presence and building a portfolio. Of the dozens of emails I’ve given out, I’ve gotten exactly NO inquiries. Go figure.

That being said – I’ve helped more than a few budding writers over IM strangely enough. Maybe that’s the litmus test I need for finding someone serious about writing online. If they have IM, or PM, for that matter, they are far enough along to need help – not a career coach.

Building a writing career is not simple. There are wonderful ways to write as a hobby online and plenty of moms (and others) do exactly that. But regardless of offspring, there only seem to be a handful of people who are serious about building a career in writing. The minute someone serious comes along, this work-at-home (and work-away-from-home) mama will certainly help, especially another mom who’s looking for a way to afford staying home with her kids during the day. Hey, I’m certainly not heartless. I’m just tired of shelling out my career secrets for someone who struggles to pull up Internet Explorer for something other than Facebook games.

If a mom or anyone else isn’t willing to take the first step, she just isn’t serious enough for me. Working at home might seem frivolous to the outside observer, but when there are twenty-four hours in a day and you’re working your not-so-little butt off all but seven of them, you just don’t waste time on those who don’t have the stamina or risk-taking nature to give it a real go.

Will I help someone serious about learning to write professionally? Absolutely! Will I hold their hand and give them an illustrated guide to how the world of web writing works? Probably – but only if they are savvy and dedicated enough to take the first step. Email me if I give you my address. Research the topic the same way you research how to make salt dough ornaments. Google it for goodness sake! If you can’t do that – you’ll never have the chops to make it.

Now I’m off to write loving notes to tuck into the lunchboxes of my little angels.

Writer for Bionic Turtle

Ads — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:01:43 +0000

Name (Full Name or Company Name): Bionic Turtle

Your Website: http://www.bionicturtle.com

Compensation: .10/word (negotiable)

bionicturtle.com looking for educational writer (financial certifications) We are looking for a careful writer (i.e., blogger with pro research skills) to add content to our new Career Guide service. Your focus will be researching and blogging helpful information to visitors who are evaluating various certification/designation options (e.g., CFA, FRM, CFP). Interest in professional finance is desirable (deep experience/expertise not necessary, curiosity and diligence is more important). There is growth opportunity for the writer; e.g., opportunity to help develop leading edge video content and learning spreadsheets.

Please provide compensation requirements and writing sample(s).

Email for additional details! (suzanne@bionicturtle.com

Freelance Writing Jobs – March 9th, 2010

Clint Osterholz — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:59:03 +0000

I can’t believe that last week I was asking you about blizzards, and now this week I’m running around outside with a t-shirt on! Why do I keep talking about the weather like an old man? Maybe I ought to stick to posting freelance writing jobs instead of trying to make conversation…

The Freelance Writing Jobs

Academic Writer – if you’re currently enrolled in college, then this would be a great job for you. It’s a lot of odd jobs–expanding content, creating new content, editing, and researching. To apply, send in your resume as well as a phone number where you can be contacted. This freelance writing job pays $100 – $500 depending on the assignment. Be sure to ask about wordcount to ensure that your compensation is fair.
Real Estate Writer – a real estate website needs someone to produce content for the site as well as work on an ongoing basis for their blog. For the project, however, you will be compensated for the content alone. To apply, send in a resume and writing sample. This freelance writing job pays $500 – $1,000.
Software Tips Writer – love Lifehacker? If you want to work for a blog that does something similar but focusing on software, then this would be great for you! This is an Elance job with long-term potential and the buyer looks to be setting their budget high, so I would recommend submitting a strong sample and then asking a per article rate. This freelance writing job pays a minimum of $1,000.
Ecommerce Blogger – if you’ve got a strong background in PR and you have a history of turning blog traffic up from a 4 to a 10, then you should apply for this job. It’s on Elance, so like the last gig, be sure that you set a per article rate that is fair for you. This freelance writing job pays a minimum of $1,000.
Computer Accessories Blogger – do you have a flair for fashion as well as gadgets? A site that creates reviews of computer bags and Blackberry accessories needs a blogger. Like the other Elance projects, be sure to set a per article rate that’s fair. The AFW standard is a minimum of $.10 per word, so be sure to bid accordingly. This freelance writing job pays a minimum of $1,000.

Freelance Writing Job Tip of the Week

Are you still struggling with setting a fair rate of compensation? Money isn’t always easy for people to envision. Instead of using naked dollar amounts, try attaching the dollar amount to something you like to buy. I like to use cups of coffee or a week’s worth of groceries, but you use what you feel like. When I take a job, I ask myself if what I’m working for is going to be worth it. An article, for me, is a week of groceries. Or maybe it’s 10 Starbucks lattes. When you think of stuff that’s somewhat abstract (like dollar amounts) and figure it in terms of something concrete (like your electric bill) all of a sudden, it makes sense. And all of a sudden, those crappy $.01 per word rates seem awful.

Worst Freelance Writing Job of the Week

I screencapped this one after Brian Orelli sent it to me. I don’t know if it’s still up for bid on Elance, but, well, take a look.

I’m assuming that you already know what’s wrong with this posting (just about everything) but just in case you received a concussion and are currently running around in a state of amnesia, let me break it down. You are meant to write articles under what I would term to be Orwellian conditions for $5. If you do not meet this person’s draconian standards, you will not be given enough compensation for a cup of coffee. This person doesn’t want to correct your grammar, but clearly doesn’t have a firm grasp on it. This is a nightmare boss and you’d be working for a pittance.

If you’d like to look through longer aggregated lists of freelance writing jobs to help you save time in your job search, All Freelance Writing recommends Anne Wayman’s freelance writing jobs at AboutFreelanceWriting.com.

What to do if your Marketing Plan Fails

Chris Bibey — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:49:42 +0000

Imagine this: you have been relying on the same marketing plan for several months or longer. Everything you do, for the most part, has been working. But out of nowhere you hit a snag and now nothing is breaking your way. What are you going to do?

If your marketing plan begins to fail, don’t panic. Instead, follow these steps:

1. Don’t abort what has worked in the past. The first thing you may feel like doing is overhauling your plan and forgetting what has gotten you this far. While there is nothing wrong with trying something new, you don’t want to totally give up on a plan that has worked so well.

2. Try something new. This goes along with tip number one. While you are working to get your old plan back on track, mix in something new that you have never tried before. For instance, if you usually send query letters and cold emails you should continue with this. But at the same time, why not throw in some cold calls to see if this can jumpstart your business? Once everything settles down you will have another marketing method that you are comfortable relying on.

3. Don’t give up. This may sound cliché, but it is entirely true. No matter what happens, recognize that your marketing plan has worked in the past and it will begin to payoff again in the future. The last thing you want to do is panic, make major changes, and find yourself in a worse position.

Final tip: just because you hit a slow period does not mean that your marketing plan suddenly turned bad. Remember, a lot of sales and marketing has to do with luck. You should expect to go through dry spells from time to time.

It would be nice if your marketing plan turned up new clients day after day. And while you may have a lot of success for an extended period of time, realize that this will probably turn 180 degrees sometime in the future.

An Introduction To Writing For Print

catherine — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:00:52 +0000

First let me take a moment to introduce myself.

My name is Catherine–and the plan is for me to share some information with you about my experience with writing for print. I have been a full-time writer for many years, and have had my writing published in national, regional and trade magazines, as well as newspapers, books and custom publications. I have also written text for calenders and planners.

If it’s one thing I love it’s helping writers avoid making some of the mistakes that I did along the way.

So why should you listen to me? I’ll give you three reasons:

I have made piles of money writing for print publications.
I have broken into some big mags–examples include American Style, AAA Living, Boys’ Life and American Fitness, to name a few.
I am willing to share some of the secrets about writing for print. You will find that not too many print writers want to give away their resources.

So with that…why don’t we start this journey by taking a closer look at some of the opportunities out there for getting published on paper. Here are some of the possibilities:

Magazines. Don’t just think about the publications at your local bookstore–there are plenty of magazines out there that are mailed direct to the customer or are written specifically for a particular trade. I write for a publisher that puts together a lifestyle magazine for a very well-known client, and I have penned many a piece for trade magazines out there as well. Hospitals, associations and non-profits are other places to look for magazine writing opportunities. The pay rate range varies a great deal for this type of writing.
Newspapers. There are all kinds of different ways to approach writing for a newspaper. You can get in touch with your local paper to see if they will pay for freelance work or you can write a travel piece for a big city publication. Pay for newspapers tends to be on the low side, but it is a great place to get some published clips if you can find a good angle.
Catalogues. This market is not as large as it used to be, but there are still some jobs writing copy in print these days. Many tend to be employee positions, but sometimes you can find a temp spot as a freelancer. Pay varies.
Greeting Cards. Create text for birthday cards, thank you cards and sympathy cards and make a little money in the process. You won’t get rich off of this one–but it is a fun writing job that doesn’t eat up too much time.
Calendars and planners. Most of these gigs are on a per-project basis, but they can turn into an ongoing job if you impress the client.
Books. You don’t have to write an entire book to get published in one. Other opportunities in this arena include travel guidebooks or anthologies. Many will pay in copies or pay writers a nominal fee, but the prestige can be huge. Some will pay a decent stipend, and fewer still will share royalties with the writer.

Although this isn’t an exhaustive list of places that you can get published in print, it can help you focus in on an area that you may find interesting. Whether you have been writing for the web or are just getting started on a writing career, print can be a little bit intimidating. Luckily there are plenty of ways to get going.

If you have yet to go into a Borders and pick up a magazine with your byline in it–perhaps it’s time to add that to your list of accomplishments. I’ll see if I can’t help you do just that.

I’m here to tell you–it feels pretty amazing.

VI Magazine: Free Wordpress Theme

Jennifer Mattern — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:25:02 +0000

Here’s another neutral styled free Wordpress theme for freelance writers looking to launch their own professional site or blog on the Wordpress platform. Like the last free theme released here, this one was purchased with full rights from the designer for exclusive release here on All Freelance Writing. If you use it, feel free to share a link to your site in the comments so we can see how you’re using it to promote your freelance writing business. Please read the information below before downloading.

What’s Included

The coded theme

Terms

Screenshot

VI Magazine: Free Wordpress Theme

Notes

Remember that I do not offer technical support for the downloads. If you have simple questions, please post them as a comment on this post (do not email me about them), and if I can help I will. This way when I can’t help, maybe another member can. I don’t make any guarantees regarding these templates and themes, and I don’t have most of them up on demo sites yet.

To Download

Click the download link below.
Save the file to your hard drive.
Unzip / decompress the file (in Windows, right-click the file name and go to “extract all.”
That will save it to a decompressed folder.

More on our Free Keyword Density Analyzer

Jennifer Mattern — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:11:13 +0000

You might have already seen our free keyword density analyzer — the latest free online tool for freelance writers. Today I want to talk about some of the quirks and offer some tips on how to use it.

Word Counts

If you use the tool to track your word count, there are a few things you should know:

You get to choose the number of characters that counts as a word. You can choose a minimum character count of 2, 3, or 4 characters. That lets you opt to weed out words like a, an, the, etc. I had it coded with this option to give you a bit of flexibility. I know some clients have their own rules on character counts when it comes to the word counts they order, so this should be adaptable to most projects.
Numbers do not get included in the word count. While this might not be ideal if you’re doing a lot of stats-heavy writing, I felt this was a better option for most content writers who are tracking keyword density. The problem is that if we let numbers through in one sense, they’d also count for things like numbered lists (so if you have a numbered list with 10 items, you’d have 10 extra words in your word count).
We had some issues with symbols being included in the word count, namely the en dash and em dash (- and –). Those were then removed. They shouldn’t affect the count anymore, nor should other standalone symbols. If you come across any that do influence the count, please let me know so I can have the coder take a look.
Please include the article text; not a marked up html version.

Keyword Density Calculations

There are many keyword density analyzers out there, and they can calculate keyword density if different ways. Here’s how this tool calculates it:

# instances of keyword (or phrase) ÷ word count = keyword density percentage

We tried to go a little bit beyond giving you just the keyword density percentage with this tool. For example, next to that you’ll see the total keyword count for your choice keyword or phrase. That makes it a bit easier for you to do a manual check or comparison if something doesn’t look quite right. We also offer highlighting to let you track keyword distribution (not just density), so you can improve the readability of your articles.

Keyword Distribution / Highlighting

You get to choose up to 3 keywords or phrases at a time using this tool. Rather than just show the percentage for the keyword density, we also let you highlight the keywords, so you can track the distribution — where the keywords are in relation to each other. This is to help you spread them out so you’re not using the same phrase or word too many times too closely together, which could make the article more difficult for readers to stomach.

You can use this tool by entering your text to be analyzed, and then entering up to three keyword phrases. Then click the “show text” button below those fields. A preview of your text will appear below, with your keyword phrases highlighted.

Ideally, when using this tool try to avoid overlap. For example, don’t search for “freelance” and “freelance writing” at the same time because it will cause issues with the highlighting as the colors overlap. If you do insist on running these keywords through the keyword density analyzer at the same time, put the longer phrase first. The shorter phrase will still be highlighted over the longer one that way. If you search for the shorter one first, only the shorter one will be highlighted.

If you make changes, it’s pretty easy to see them quickly with this tool. We made the word count and keyword density aspects “live” meaning they change immediately as you type (such as removing a keyword and entering another one). The only thing you’ll have to change yourself is the highlighting. To get the new terms highlighted, just click the “hide text” button to minimize that preview, and then click “show text” again. Your changed text and keyword highlighting will then appear.

If you run into any quirks while using the tool that haven’t been covered here, please let me know and I’ll have someone look into it.

Elitists, Haters, Negativity and Anger—Oh My!

Yo Prinzel — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:00:04 +0000

WARNING: This post is very negative because I was an angry elitist when I wrote it so I fully expect a bunch of haters to come out of the woodwork and say negative things about me, thereby showing what negative, angry elitists they are themselves.

Did the warning above sound kinda circular in its logic when you first read it? Okay, good—it should. If you make your rounds in the freelance blogging community, chances are you’ve seen the words: Elitist, Hater, Negative and Angry come up time and time again on blog posts and in blog comments. They generally come up in two instances:

1. One blogger said something that another blogger or reader does not agree with.

2. Oh, wait, that’s the only time these words seem to come up. Huh. Interesting.

The Problem

So what is the real problem here? Is it the fact that everyone in the freelance writing community doesn’t agree with each other all the time like we live in a freakin’ hippie commune or the fact that it’s difficult for some people to just stand by their convictions using logic and reason alone and not resort to disparaging labels that make them feel safer?

The Example

In my experience, if a blogger thinks that—

writing for content mills full time is a lousy career choice for a writer,
working for a residual income by using Associated Content or Hubpages is a fool’s errand,
print writing is more “legitimate” than web writing,
the marketing tactics of some content mills are shameful,
writing for pennies is not sustainable and is unnecessary,
self-publishing is worthless,
writing on spec is a huge mistake

—then suddenly they are a negative hater or an angry elitist.

How in the world could someone come to that conclusion? If I absolutely despise the thought of eating ham and you like it—does that make either of us elitists, haters, negative or angry? If I love cats and don’t like dogs and you love dogs and don’t like cats, does that make either of us elitists, haters, negative or angry? Of course not.

And guess what? If a blogger writes a general post that happens to disparage the way you decide to run your career, before you tweet about how negative they are or write a comment or email about how they’re such a negative hater who must be angry, you should stop to consider the fact that the post is not about you. It’s about the author and their opinion. You make it about you when you get all weepy and defensive while reading it.

The Solution

So go forth writers and remember—disagreeing with someone, voicing a negative opinion about a gig or process, and standing up for freelancers in whatever way you see fit does not make you negative, hate-filled, angry or elitist—no matter how often you do it or who agrees with you.

And readers, you don’t have to like any of the things that bloggers “say” to you with their posts—but you should remember that if you take it personally or have a strong emotional reaction to it, it’s no one’s fault but your own. Own your feelings and either move on or do your cause or belief a favor and construct a vehement argument that doesn’t attempt to debase the blogger you disagree with because when you do, you’re the one who is a negative and angry hater.

The Disclaimer

Oh, and before you read this post and think it was about you, let me tell you that it wasn’t. Now, I’m not going to go all Carly Simon on you and never tell you who this post was about–well, actually, I am–because it’s not about any one blogger. These words are everywhere. The straw that broke the camel’s back, however, was this.

No related posts.

Freelance Writing Clients I Hate

Clint Osterholz — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:07:30 +0000

I’m a relatively young freelancer compared to a lot of you out there. I haven’t been “in the game” that long and I’m not as “hip to the lingo” as most of you have been. I don’t “make a lot of money” which seems to be really trendy nowadays nor do I “have the ability to pay for groceries” when I’m feeling lazy and don’t pump out some work. Whatever. Don’t judge me.

Have you noticed these types of clients?

The Talker – oh god, the talker. This is the client that wants to discuss everything. He wants to talk about your craft. He’s genuinely interested in what you’re doing. He likes to do phone conferences. He likes to send long emails with lots of notes but not a dang thing to actually do with what you’re doing. You know way more about him than you ever thought possible about another human being. He may or may not own several cats.

El Mysterio - oh, she pays on time. And in full. And she’s always prompt. But she’s short on details and she sends emails from some sort of underground bunker or undisclosed location. If you get something wrong, you’ll feel it. If you get it right, you’ll never know it. Screw up too much, though, and you’ll find yourself stripped to your civvies in a Guatemalan prison.

That hasn’t happened to anyone else? Huh. Weird. I sort of thought that was the norm.

The First-Timer – nervous, twitchy, and afraid of doing it the wrong way, a client who has never hired a freelancer does everything wrong and as awkwardly as possible. They’re terrified of being ripped off but will gladly accept at face value anything you say.

“It’s pretty standard to lease a car for a freelancer,” I said.

“Oh. Well, I hope that a Jaguar XJS is going to be enough!” he said. I laughed evilly as I revved the engine, pointing the hood of the car towards Las Vegas.

“It’s necessary research,” I said.

The Veteran - unlike the first-timer, this client cannot in any way, shape, or form be convinced of anything. Incredibly easy to work for but not very fun. Like clockwork, you get paid and find out about revisions in a timely manner. Reliable. Wouldn’t even pay for my iPhone gold-dipped case.

The Dinosaur - I don’t know if anyone else out there has a client like this, but I live in New York. For some reason, if I land a local client, they LOVE to meet in person. They tell me precisely everything that they could have told me in an email, and then I have to go all the way back home. Thank you for having me pay $5 for the trip plus $20 for a meal plus waste two hours of my time. I want to start charging these guys a PITA rate.

Mom/Best Friend - oh god never work for family/friends. Not only do they expect you to do the work for free anyway, but then they’ll send gobs of emails about how they’re NOT REALLY THAT PUSHY but they’d like to know if you are going to get done with their thing at some point in the near future because that would be OH SO KEEN and maybe you will get a nice meal out of this! There is a reason I no longer do resumes. Or call my parents.

Do you recognize any of these? Let me know in the comments below.

Writer for Brief Course Descriptions: Language Learning

Jennifer Mattern — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:06:57 +0000

THIS JOB HAS BEEN FILLED

Name (Full Name or Company Name): Jennifer Mattern

Your Website: http://FreeOnlineCourses.info

Compensation: $10 per 75-100 word post ($.10+ per word depending on description length)

This blog serves as a directory of free online courses. I need someone familiar with Wordpress who can add language learning course profiles to the site.

The process is this:

1. You’ll be granted access to the Wordpress admin area where you can create new posts.

2. You can use previous posts as templates.

3. Just enter the course name, school / organization, subject matter area, and link the course.

4. Then add a brief description of what the course offers / teaches. That should be between 75 and 100 words, making the per-word rate for these posts $.10 per word (or slightly higher). While you can’t use course descriptions from the course sites word-for-word, you may model the descriptions after ones I’ve already written for courses from the same site or school if applicable. You are NOT expected to actually take and review the courses. These are just descriptions.

This is for one course description in your subject area per week. We’ll discuss the regular day of the week for your posts via email, and I’ll send you links to the first few courses you should add so you’ll get a better idea of what I’m looking for.

Email me at info@freeonlinecourses.info if you’re interested. I’ll be recruiting an additional blogger or two in the near future for other course subjects, so if languages aren’t your thing, keep and eye on this marketplace for leads on other sections of that blog.

NOTE: All payments will be made via Paypal in USD. Please don’t apply unless you can accept Paypal payments.

Freelance Writing Jobs – March 2nd, 2010

Clint Osterholz — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:30:26 +0000

Did you survive last week’s blizzards? I still have a patio table full of snow. At least it’s not slick and dangerous outside now. If I broke my neck running around out there, who’d be around to post all the freelance writing jobs? Probably someone else. But they wouldn’t be as cool as me. Just sayin’. Let’s get to them!

The Freelance Writing Jobs

Career Guide Writer – have you heard of FabJob.com? If you missed the last time we posted this gig, they’re still looking for people to write career guides. They need people with real experience in jobs like feng shui consultant, book publisher, documentary filmmaker, and more. They have their own application process so follow it to the letter. Don’t get creative. This freelance writing job pays $1,500 to $2,000 per long assignment, $150 to $200 per short assignment.
Freelance HR/Employment Law Writer – if you have a degree in law and are familiar with California employment law, this is the job for you! They’re looking for a long-term annual relationship with a talented writer out there so this is your time to shine. Be sure to clarify what they mean by answering emails for content-based subscriber questions–the compensation right now is pretty fair but if you’re going to be working as a virtual assistant, perhaps this is the gig to skip instead! This freelance writing job pays $30,000 per year in monthly installments.
Email Copywriter – a recruitment firm needs you, if you happen to be a great copywriter who specializes in long-form content. If this gig happens to shake out, there’s potentially more work in the mix for you. Send them samples of your work but, moreover, remember that you’re applying for a job in email copywriting. Put that in your cover letter! This freelance writing job pays $100 to $125 per email.
Celebrity Ghostwriter – this job sounds like an awful lot of fun if you have a track record of working well with celebrities and ghostwriting. This is part one of a trilogy (so bear that in mind with your bid) so you would potentially be committing to a long-term relationship here. This freelance writing job pays up to $50,000, depending on your Elance bid. Make sure pay is for your services outright and not based on sales.
Travel Destination Writer – do you write compelling travel copy? This is right up your alley. This company needs 40 different destinations written up at 100 words each with punchy, witty copy. Think luxe. And send in a strong sample–there are already a lot of bidders on this project, and you’ll need to stand out. This freelance writing job pays a minimum of $1,000, depending on your Elance bid.

Freelance Writing Job Tip of the Week

Specialize, specialize, specialize to get better rates. It’s sort of funny to hear that from a guy who’s still not too sure about what he loves writing about most, but I can tell you that the more specialized your writing gets, the more you can get away with charging. Think about it: are you gonna get a ton of money for writing about Octomom if the best you can come up with is stuff you’ve ripped from a Wikipedia article? Okay, bad example. No one cares about Octomom. But you get my point–the more you can specialize, the more you can charge.

And yeah, I guess I should specialize in humor writing. I can think of quite a few people who could use the help.

Worst Gig of the Week

I HAVE A STORY, AND EVERYONE SAYS GET IT ON LIFETIME.
AN AMERICAN STORY OF A FAMILY, A VISION, WORK, HARDSHIP, FUN LAUGHTER, AND THE ENDING WELL THAT IS A BIG ONE.
WILL SHARE THE LIFETIME MONIES WE RECEIVE

Do I really have to tell you guys why this is such an awful gig?

…

Okay fine, I’ll tell you why it’s so awful. There’s no mention of what the story is, no mention of any sort of actual compensation or share of the profits, if it’s ghostwriting or not, and you’re getting paid to do something for free until it succeeds. On top of all that, this person just posted a Craigslist ad in all caps. You really only need one reason. I’ve given you at least six. Fish in a barrel, meet my Colt .45. I’m off to clear off my patio table.

5 Ways to Prevent Cash Flow Clogs

LaToya Irby — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:32:24 +0000

Slow paying clients are a PITA and the wallet. Fortunately, all of my current clients pay promptly, but I have had clients who were slow to follow up on invoices. It’s annoying when your bills are coming due in a few days. It’s infuriating when your bills were due last week.

It’s critical to keep the money coming in on a steady basis and to be paid for your work when it’s complete. Here are some ways to keep your cash flowing easily.

Take deposits.

Requiring a 50% deposit isn’t necessarily about a lack of trust in the client’s ability to pay on time. It’s more of a “good faith” deposit to guarantee my time. It shows the client is serious about the work and won’t back out on the project because they share in the risk, too.

I typically require a 50% deposit on orders that are larger than $100. Orders less than $100 are payable in full upfront. There are a couple of exceptions, but for the most part, those are my payment terms. You can choose to require 50% deposits on all orders, or only orders that are above a certain amount. Choose what you’re most comfortable with.

If you take deposits, let the client know you won’t start working on the project until the deposit has been received.

To be on the safe side, I don’t spend the deposit until I’m done with the project. I don’t necessarily anticipate problems, but I like to err on the side of caution. I always want the ability to easily refund the client’s deposit if there are extenuating circumstances.

Split the project.

If you have a large project that’ll take time to complete, you can split it into parts and have the client pay you as you complete each part. For example, 50-50 payments required at the start of the project and before the second half of the project. Again, this keeps you from being stuck with a large project that you may or may not be paid for. Let the client know that proceeding with the project is contingent upon timely payment.

Another reason for the split is to accommodate clients who don’t want to pay you upfront. I’ve worked with professionals who do charge upfront and others who bill you as the work is being completed.

Set short payment terms.

Set a rule that payment is due no more than seven days after the project is sent. Anything longer than seven days is just enough time for your clients to forget that they owe you money.

Let clients know payment terms upfront and when they see the payment due date on the invoice, there shouldn’t be a surprise. In fact, you can set the payment due date that at the start of the project if you’re working on a fixed deadline.

Invoice immediately.

The longer you wait to send your invoice, the longer it’ll be before you get paid. Get in the habit of sending invoices right after you finish a project. I suggest sending the invoice separate from the project so there’s no confusing the invoice with one of the project documents.

Invoicing isn’t fun, but it shouldn’t be a chore. If you don’t have an invoicing system, check out The Freelancer’s Quick Guide to Accounting and Bookkeeping to get one started.

Explain your payment methods.

Help your clients pay you on time by letting them know exactly how they can pay you. Include it in your initial communications and print it on the bottom of your invoice: “Payment should be made via Paypal to payments@ myemail.com.”

If you accept checks and money orders, state to whom they should be payable and to where they should be sent. Side note: If I were accepting check payments, even eCheck payments, I’d require the complete payment be sent and cleared before work started.

Should you make exceptions?

Not every client will comply with your payment terms. Some have their own rules and will push back saying, “We only pay 30 days after receiving the finale project.” You can choose to make an exception or you can stick by your terms. Will you lose the project if you don’t bend? Perhaps, but a client who gives you grief about your payment terms could be problematic down the line, so losing them early on could be a good thing.

How To Build A Home Office – The Desk

Dan Smith — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:00:52 +0000

When I first started freelancing, I realised that my productivity decreased if I were working from my laptop in a room where there were distractions of some sort. Whether it was the TV, radio, girlfriend or cats, I found that I was producing more work on a quicker basis when I was alone.

So, mixing my passion for DIY with my need for a separate writing space, I decided to create my own office, starting with the desk.

There are two things to note about this post:

1. I wanted to build a desk that would fit into the corner of a room (in an ‘L’ shape) and was 60 inches in length in both directions and 25 inches in depth all the way round. These plans show how to build a desk that size, but they are also easy to change should you need a longer, shorter or deeper desk – just remember to look at ALL measurements if you change one!

2. It was a basic desk, but it served its purpose. If you decide to build it, it will look relatively plain at first, but there are a lot of additions that can be made to ensure that it is a fully functioning and aesthetically pleasing office desk for regular daily use.

Materials Needed:

One piece of ‘L’ shaped plywood that is 60 inches long on both straights and 25 inches deep all around and 3 inches thick (approximately – this was personal preference)

One piece of 60 x 25 inch plywood and one piece of 35 x 25 inch plywood (both approximately 3 inches thick)

AND

One piece of timber that is 25 inches long, 3 inches wide and 1 inch thick
Two pieces of timber, one that is 60 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1 inch deep and one that is 59 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1 inch deep.
Four metal support poles, around 27 inches tall, with fixing brackets
Eight plywood off cuts, around four inches square

Equipment Needed:

Wood glue
Raul plugs
Twelve two inch screws
Electric drill and drill bits
Two clamps
Spirit level
Pencil
Chalk
Tape measure

1. If you couldn’t get one piece of ‘L’ shaped plywood, lay the two individual pieces next to each other upside down on a table or workbench.

2. Place a strip of wood glue down each side of the join and press the piece of timber that is 25 inches long all across the joint, holding firmly for a few seconds. Attach clamps at both ends and leave to dry for at least an hour.

3. In the space where the desk is to go, measure up the wall 27 inches from the floor and mark with a pencil. Do this in three or four times along the wall and then join the dots together with one straight line (using the spirit level) to form a 60 inch line from the corner. Complete the same process for the adjoining wall.

NB: I chose 27 inches as when sat at a desk, your arms should be in an ‘L’ shape with the keyboard and with a desk that is 27 inches tall, it ensures that my arms are at the correct level.

4. On the line that you have drawn, mark five dots – two 2 inches from either end of the line and then three at the 15, 30 and 45 inch points. Complete the same for the adjoining wall.

5. Drill holes where you have just marked and push a Raul plug into each hole, ensuring that it is as flush as possible with the wall.

6. On the two pieces of remaining timber, mark with a pencil the same dots that were on the wall (2 inches from either end and then at 15, 30 and 45 inch intervals).

7. Attach the pieces of timber to the wall with the screws. Start with the longest piece that is going to be right in the corner and then add the second piece after. Remember to only put each screw in place a little and then tighten them all up once the timber is being held freely.

8. On the floor, use the chalk to draw the outline of the desk and then at the front of the desk at either end, mark a four inch square about an inch and a half in from the front. Do the same at the corner of the ‘L’ shape, but make two markings either side of the corner.

9. Place the four plywood cut offs over these markings and use a screw in the centre to the secure them to floor.

10. Attach the metal support poles to these plywood cut offs and then straight into the floorboards using the fixings provided. You may need to pre-drill smaller holes first.

NB: If you do not want to drill into the floor, you could create a direct replica of the actual desk top, place it on the floor, attach it to the wall with brackets and then drill the metal supports to this.

11. Bring the actual desk top to the room and lay it on the frame. If everything fits properly, take it off, place a layer of glue on top of the timber around the wall and lay the desk top back on. Place something heavy around the edge of the desk where the top meets the wall and wipe away any excess glue underneath.

12. Attach the metal supports to a four inch square piece of plywood and then to the bottom of the desk using the fittings, leave everything to set and dry for a few hours and you’ll have yourself a perfectly good office desk!

Comments, questions or suggestions? Let us know!

Email Checking Productivity: A Few More Tips for the Battle

Jessie Haynes — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:00:06 +0000

In January, I posted Slaying the Email Dragon. I was talking with Carol Tice on LinkedIn and she told me that she wished she could follow these rules. In all fairness, those’re some strict rules outlined–you probably have to work up to them. I gave the following advice to Carol, and maybe it can help you too (and be sure to ask me any questions you have and I’ll try my best to help you out):

Take small steps.

Set a goal (or rather table of goals) to check it only once every 30 minutes, then an hour, then every four hours (which is probably twice per workday) and then you can do it once per workday / 24 hours. You can create a time table that works for you.

Charge yourself. You probably have some money you allow yourself to spend on something you don’t have to have, you just really want, like a Starbucks budget or similar. For every time you break your set goal, you take away a certain set amount. It tends to demotivate the bad behavior because it suuucks.

Reward yourself.

Jenn does a great job explaining this in her goal-setting post. (And she really goes into good detail about this in her Web Writer’s Guide. If you haven’t invested the $37 in that book yet, stop reading this post. You’d do better with your time to get to that book now!)

Set reasonable exceptions.

Allow yourself to respond to networking conversations or really important queries when you want to, so you can check for that email (and that email only!) unless it’s a client email.

Really, it is just a good idea to look at email but not take more time than it takes to scan subject lines (or emails if your contacts haven’t maneuvered those well) and only respond during a set, important time and not get distracted and off track.