Demand Studios and content mills? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, my fine freelance writing friends. Forbes is the latest among a group of 30 organizations using Narrative Science software to write computer-generated stories. It’s actually kind of clever—the software uses data to create stories on sports, financial reports, real estate, local community blah blah, polling and elections, ad campaign summaries, sales and operations reports, and market research.

Is the writing going to make anyone forget Damon Runyon? No. Do I feel threatened? Not particularly. By the time Skynet truly goes feral, I imagine my writing career will have long since passed.

OK, now I’ll confess that my headline is pretty much an excuse to post the Dan Mangan “Robots” video imbedded below. It’s a song I got hooked on during our year in Canada. You’ve been warned.

                          

Just a quickie roundup of guest blog posts I’ve contributed to other freelance sites recently.

Your Freelancer Life Cycle: A look at the stages when you move from the point where you don’t know what you don’t know to understanding it so well that it’s second nature. Some great discussion there, too.

February Resolutions: With the post-holiday mayhem tucked away till November, and most of the emergencies taken care of, why I turn to February resolutions to set my course for the year.

Used Car Salesmen Anonymous: Some thoughts on a recent Wall Street Journal article and mp3 with Dr. Robert Cialdini (author of an essential book called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion) about changes that are taking place in sales theory—and how you can do a better job of selling yourself by establishing trust and authority.

Final note: At the risk of being a pest—please make sure to take the Freelance Forecast survey if you haven’t done so already—thanks! It’s a wrap on Feb. 17.

                          

I’ve been doing the Freelance Forecast for four years now, and in addition to the many thoughtful responses I receive to the survey itself, it’s always interesting when someone takes the time to offer detailed criticism—constructive, nit-picky or otherwise. So, I thought I’d pass along a piece of correspondence I received the other day for your consideration:

“[Freelance Forecast is] quite comprehensive and down to earth, but I walked away afterwards wondering what was its purpose and who is it designed to help? Most of it seemed like information a sociologist might gather rather than something useful to working freelancers. The only really useful questions I found were #10 and #13. [Dr's note: Those were the questions about your best way of finding new clients, and the advice you'd give to a struggling freelancer.] The freelance fields listed and personal situations are so different that really no two freelancer’s ‘careers’ are the same or easily compared. For this reason, most of these comparisons struck me as irrelevant.”

I have to admit, the question gave me pause. Am I running a fool’s errand?

After a hefty gulp of pride, I answered him as follows: “I started doing the survey simply because I was curious about what other freelancers were doing and how they were succeeding, failing, pricing, and handling client relationships. I was also curious about what clients (beyond my own) liked/disliked about using freelancers, and how we solo acts collectively could do a better job.

“I had my own opinions based on more than a decade of hiring freelancers while in various editorial positions, and 13 years as a freelancer myself, but I knew I was just a single datapoint. And while freelancers and clients may be unique in the micro view, there are certainly good and bad business practices that are universal.

“As far as it’s usefulness and who it’s designed to help, I can only say that I’ve received a lot of positive feedback over the years from people who appreciated the perspectives from their peers and client-siders, and the ability to get a feel for where they stand. Surely our businesses are different and endlessly diverse, but I’d like to think some of the answers in aggregate may provoke an ‘aha’ moment or two.

“Maybe it’s the coach in me who believes freelancers owe it to themselves to be more proficient businesspeople/salespeople/entrepreneurs–not simply writers/editors/designers–and I’m doing what I can to push them along the curve. If you think that’s quixotic, I won’t argue!”

I appreciate all of the time and energy people have taken in answering the surveys over the years. Thank you. Selfishly speaking, I have learned a lot from hearing the opinions from my peers and clients out there. Most important, I hope that you’ve gleaned actionable information for yourself and your business.

If you haven’t participated in the 2012 survey yet, please do so before February 15: Take the Freelance Forecast survey. And please pass it along to a client or two!

Photo courtesy of Ulrik De Wachter.

                          

I play in a Thursday golf league here in Phoenix, and a few weeks ago one of the partners in my foursome made a comment that I felt I needed to write down: “You just gotta play like you’re rich,” he said.

Think, he said, about the über-wealthy who cruise in on their Gulfstreams to play the best courses in the world. The golf game is part of it, but so’s the camaraderie and the post-round cocktailing, and simply some time away from a high-intensity reality. A rich guy is likely hypercompetitive (read: Trump), and many of them are also highly skilled golfers…but on the other hand, many of them aren’t, and yet they still get enjoyment out of the game.

                          

Yes, it’s time for the Freelance Forecast 2012 survey—an annual forum for freelancers and clients who hire freelance creatives to opine on the best (and worst) practices in the industry, assess their results in 2011 and offer their insights on expectations for 2012.

As in the past, there are two separate surveys. If you are a freelancer who also contracts work, or a client-sider who does moonlight freelancing, you’re welcome to take both.

• The “Freelance Perspectives” survey can be found here.
• The “Client Perspectives” survey can be found here.

Please use Twitter, Google+, Facebook, etc., to spread the word to fellow freelancers and clients—the more the merrier. All contact information and individual responses are kept 100% confidential and are used only for purposes of compiling the results.

All participants receive a copy of the results and will be entered into a drawing for a $100 iTunes or Staples gift certificate. Both surveys will close on February 15.

Thank you for taking the time to participate and share your opinions! You can download 2009, 2010 and 2011 results here.

                          

In the past week, I’ve received three different questions about freelance pricing that were essentially the same: new freelancers who want to know “How much should I charge?”

I don’t mean to be dismissive to respond, “It depends.” Pricing is one of the tougher items to figure out when you’re breaking in, but the main thing to remember is that you can always go lower—raising your price after cutting a deal is very difficult.

But where to start?

• There are a few websites out there with “average” price ranges that people charge, such as Writers Market’s “How Much Should I Charge?” (pdf document) and Editorial Freelancers Association’s “Editorial Rates” chart, among many others.
• Folks like Lori Widmer at Words on the Page, Anne Wayman at About Freelance Writing, and Jenn Mattern at All Freelance Writing have a wealth of posts about pricing and estimating freelance jobs. Dawn Mentzer of The Insatiable Solopreneur (love that name!) recently blogged about “Pricing Your Freelance Services,” as well. Anyway, search “pricing” and you’ll have more than enough fodder.
• At the risk of hat-tipping myself, I’ve blogged on several occasions about pricing and estimating here on Dr. Freelance, such as here, here, here, and here. And past Freelance Forecasts might give you some ideas, too.

It’s worth looking at any or all them to determine the ballpark you want to be in. At some point, you just need to dive in. Even within my own business, there’s a lot of variability: Depending on the project specifications, the timeline and the client, for example, I might charge as little as $200 or as much as $1500 for 500 words. It also depends on how busy I am. On the other hand, there are some things that I do for free if I think it makes business sense.

I know that’s kind of a broad-if-not-wishy-washy answer to “How Much Should I Charge?” but ultimately the best deals are the ones that make you and the client feel like you’re getting value from it. It gets easier with time to figure out your sweet spot, and you also become more confident about negotiating.

A belated Happy New Year to everyone. I hope that 2012 is your most successful freelancing campaign yet!

                          

Last weekend I was outside doing some yardwork, and two neighborhood elementary schoolgirls were doing laps through the cul de sac. First, they came buzzing through on scooters. Then, a couple of circles around on bikes. Next came rollerblades. Then once again, with one of them on a bike, towing the other (somewhat perilously, with a bungee cord) on old-fashioned rollerskates. Every time through, they waved and said “hi,” like they hadn’t seen me in hours.

It was wonderful, keeping me entertained as I was digging in the pipes for our drip irrigation system and winter flowers, and cursing under my breath at the number of tree roots I had to hack out with an ax.

A bit later, they once again appeared, this time in the treehouse in the yard adjacent to ours. They waved again, and I said, “Gee, you guys have been BUSY today, haven’t you?”

They giggled. “We haven’t been busy!” they said.

It was a comment that stopped me in my tracks. Several hours’ worth of activity that would have put an adult on the couch for the rest of the afternoon, and they were scrambling around in a tree simply plotting what to do next.

Now, I’m not going to claim that a freelancer can attack every task with youthful and limitless exuberance. (You’d probably be institutionalized.) Sure, plenty of the things we end up doing are pure drudgery, as Anne Wayman pointed out in her post “It’s OK for Freelance Writers to be Bored” earlier this week. I’ll confess, I’m personally a bit worn out from the pre-holiday crunch, as everyone seems to be trying to close out projects before the end of the year, all at the same time.

Nonetheless, seeing these girls go round in circles was a reminder that, as long as you’re enjoying what you’re doing at the moment, it’s not so bad being busy.

Or whatever you want to call it.

Photo courtesy of Juliet Belasyse-Smith.

                          

I’m a fan of Firefox rather than my Mac’s proprietary Safari browser. But I recently installed version 8 and it has been slow, hanging all the time, collapsing into “Firefox (not responding)” mode and just plain misbehaving. I tried all the usual tricks, such as clearing the cache, dumping my cookies, etc. Nothing worked. Like the time  WordPress was running slow on GoDaddy, the freeze-ups were driving me nuts and preventing me from getting my writing projects done. Slow research=tedious, unproductive workday.

We freelancers don’t have IT departments to lean on, and need to have at least a bit of a knack for troubleshooting. I looked in Activity Monitor, and it revealed that Firefox was spiking the bejeebus out of the CPU; it was actually exceeding 100%, and I could hear my normally quiet hard drive click-click-clicking away way more than it should.

After a quick web search, I found a fix. Don’t worry, it doesn’t take a degree in computer science, just a few simple steps that can be found here: Firefox Freezes for a Moment After Every 10 Sec – Fix. The tip is the same whether you’re using a Mac or a PC, and involves increasing the session store interval time.

Thank you, TechMynd! Your tip saved my sanity, as well as returning my hard drive to its normal, peaceful self. And if anyone from Mozilla happens to be lurking, you might want to lobby for the default session store interval time to be set higher.

                          

A client of mine has asked me to share a web content writer position here in Phoenix that they’ve just listed on the IABC website: details here. This freelance job is for the APS.com customer website, and it’s a biggie: condensing content, writing in web style and within the new design framework for their currently 1800-page site that they want to cut by a third.

Job requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Journalism or related field
• 4  Years Writing/Editing skills
• 1  Year Web usability standards and styles
• 4  Years Web Writing/Editing skills

Image courtesy of Kriss Szkurlatowski.

                          

As writers, we live and die by our intellectual property. Nothing is more infuriating than having someone plagiarize your work or steal your ideas—and thereby take money out of your pocket.

Yet, many of us don’t think twice about grabbing an image off the web. (I’ll confess, early in my blogging evolution, I did it, too.) Today’s guest post is from Par Ghandi of Photos.com, who provides some thoughts on what kinds of images you should use, and how to do it without running into copyright issues.

Your image is your first impression—catching the eye, drawing the reader in, and visually summarizing the main points of a story. An image instantly causes an emotional reaction in the viewer, whether it’s pleasure, laughter, excitement, anxiety, shock, or awe, captured in a fleeting moment while piquing interest in the content.

For maximum effectiveness in grabbing your readers’ attention, you need to consider:

• Subject matter
• Reader demographics
• Reaction you are hoping for
• Style aesthetic you want for your page

But…Is It Legal?

You may find the perfect image on an internet search, but chances are it won’t be the right size or resolution for your purposes. More important, it will indeed have a copyright, even if it isn’t marked as such. Just because it doesn’t have a watermark or logo doesn’t mean it’s available for public use, even if your site isn’t charging for the content.

So…What Are Your Options?

Stock imagery is the perfect solution to copyright issues when pulling visuals for your work, and finding one with a quick and efficient search engine speeds up the job. There are numerous free sites on the web, of course, but they don’t always offer professional quality or much variety—so it can be worth the small investment to make your life easier and your image more businesslike.

So, here’s the pitch. (You knew it was coming!) Photos.com offers a huge selection of images ideal for writers: They are free of logos, have uncluttered backgrounds so copy can be wrapped around the image, as well as other attributes that allow you to individualize how the image fits into your work. You can search in several categories at the same time to maximize your options. And there is also flexibility in buying a single image, packs of images at various resolution sizes and even annual subscriptions.

But the main point is this: Every image on our website is royalty free, and guaranteed not to violate copyright, moral right, trademark and other intellectual property laws or guidelines. Whether you use Photos.com or another stock house, that’s the key.—Par Ghandi