The cost of buying a full suite of design tools for just one job might put you off and make you think you can’t take the job. You could subcontract the design work out or act as a project manager for your client, managing the design work as part of the gig. But it hurts to farm out work you know you have the skill and the time to do.

Enter Adobe’s Creative Cloud. You can purchase a month-to-month membership for $75 per month, or if the project is a longer-term deal, you may be able to save $75 by purchasing a prepaid three-month subscription at Amazon.

If you only need one tool, such as InDesign, you can get a subscription for an even lower cost: $20 per month.

You could also sign up for a year-long commitment to get a monthly rate of $50. And the nice thing about this type of expense is that it is business related, so you may be able to write it off when you file your taxes for the following year.

Once you complete that first design project, you could leverage it to get enough work to justify purchasing full versions of the software. Or you could continue to subscribe. I wrote a post for EdCetera a while back that gives tips for when the Creative Cloud makes sense and when outright purchase is a better choice. In a ntushell, your need to upgrade is the best predictor of which option will save you money — if you want the newest software when it first comes out, you probably will do better with the Creative Cloud.

Once you try the Creative Cloud, you might want to look at other cloud-based tools, such as OFfice 365 or Google Apps. I personally use Google for most of my work because it is easily accessible from multiple computers and I am comfortable with Google’s word processing features. If I did more presentations or needed access to other components of the Microsoft suite, I would go with Office 365 to get the same cloud functionality.

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I get the desire for a cutesy handle. And I know that sometimes you create a personal email address that you would never think of using for business. Back on the day, during my rampant Twin Peaks obsession, I used the name LauraP22390 on AOL and a host of other Internet services. Now, though, I stick with something simple: jennifer@jennifer-roland.com. It leaves no question as to my identity, and it doesn’t embarrass me or make me look unprofessional.

Here are some tips to help you pick an email address that works for you.

Create a New Address

Your friends may love to call you the hippy mama, but potential clients might be scared off by such a casual moniker. Keep your personal life personal by creating a brand new email address for your business.

Keep It Simple

Try using your name. Easy to remember, and helps your clients and potential clients keep you straight from other writers.

Build on Your Brand

Tea Silvestre has branded herself as The Word Chef, and all of her materials, including her URL and email address, build on that. If you have a brand tag, use it in your email address.

Make a Promise

If you are the right writer for the job, let people know that by putting in your email address. jennifer@therightwriter.com has a nice ring to it, right?

Don’t Sell Yourself Short

Whatever you do, don’t put “cheap” or another word that can limit your potential income in your email address. You don’t want to make people think that low prices are the only thing you bring to the table. You gotta put food on the table and keep a roof over your head, after all.

The exception? If frugality is your brand, which is the case for the crew at Frugal Living NW or for the Cheap Green Mommy.

What are some great email addresses or domain names you’ve seen? And what are some of the worst?

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Start Big

What is your dream income goal? $20K? $50K? $100K+? It doesn’t matter what the goal is or whether you think it is actually achievable at this point. Just put down the number you want.

Break It Down

If your goal is $100,000 in annual income, you need to bill just over $8,000 a month. Still sounds like a lot, huh?

Break it down farther. That is $2,000 per week, assuming you take two weeks off completely for a vacation.

Even farther. Can you earn $400 per day? Assuming you work four billable hours and your rate is on the $100 an hour range, you probably can. (Not earning $100 an hour yet? The Freelance Writers Den can help you get the support, skills, and confidence you need to earn the big bucks.) (My affiliate link.)

Look at Your Options

What types of writing can you do to earn $100 an hour? Well, what industries do you know well? Can you target businesses in that industry for blogging, white papers, case studies, or other types of business content?

Are there trade magazines serving those businesses? Send them a letter of introduction to see if they are interested in contracting you for articles.

Get Specific

Once you know how much you want to earn and who you want to earn it from, you can get into the fun part of goal setting: the tasks you will take on every day to reach your big goal.

If trade magazines are where you want to focus your energy, set a goal to send X letters of introduction to trades in your chosen industry each week. Look for a number that allows you to personalize each letter but still keeps you active enough to win the numbers game. (How do you win the numbers game? By sending out so many letters or pitches that (a) you don’t freak out about getting a personal response to each one and (b) you’ve got to get some nibbles.)

Once you hit the trades in your niche industry(ies) and get a few assignments, look at other periodicals put out by the same publisher. Send letters of introduction to their editors.

After you get published in those magazines, go after their competitors. Continually leverage each assignment to increase your bankability as a freelance writer.

And yes, the same strategy can apply to businesses. Send letters of introduction. Get assignments. Use those assignments to get more assignments. Earn a boatload of money.

Sound good? Share your goals on your own blog or here in the comments. I can’t wait to see what you will do to be a more profitable writer in 2013.

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Candid video and photos will continue to play a role in news, but we will always need trained and seasoned journalists to place that information into context.

Take for example, the shooting last night in Colorado. The video footage shot by people at the theater was an important part of the story. But without the context provided by journalists who looked not only at the footage but also at the police statements, moviegoer feedback, and interviews with people who know the alleged shooter, the incident is just a disconnected tragedy. Without someone digging into why the alleged shooter attacked people at a screening of the new Batman movie, people won’t know whether it was an isolated incident or whether they can feel safe attending future movies.

In a climate where many writers feel they can offer nothing other than slapdash content written for pennies per word, this is an important lesson to remember. The service journalists and writers provide goes beyond just the orderly presentation of information. Journalists provide context beyond news and ideas to help the public make decisions about important issues. Content writers help businesses attract and retain customers by showing hoe their product works in real life. And advertising copywriters help companies communicate their product benefits in language that resonates with consumers.

These are all valuable skills, and those of us who have them should ensure that we are paid what they are worth.

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I get it. I don’t always like to talk on the phone with people I don’t know.

And email seems so easy when you are working across time zones, as I frequently do.

But you miss something when you use email. You can’t get a sense of how the person actually speaks. You can’t ask follow-up questions on the fly. And you lose a lot of time composing questions, reading responses, and crafting follow-ups.

Here are some tips to boost your confidence before an interview so you can conquer the phone and get the great quotations.

Do Your Homework

Knowledge = confidence. So, spend some time before your call getting the background info you need to feel smart and competent and to help you understand your sources answers. If there is a new development in the field, read up on it. If your source represents a product that has two big competitors, find out how your interviewee’s product is positioned against them. If there is common jargon in your interviewee’s field, know what it means.

And remember, the more your write on a topic, the less of this background research you will need to do before each call. The knowledge you build up in a topic is how you can complete assignments in less time and charge higher fees over time. Plus, you’ll feel more and more confident each time you interview a subject in your field of specialty.

Prep Some Questions

Put yourself in your reader’s shoes and think of the five questions they will be asking about the topic. Write those down on a separate piece of paper and set them next to your interview pad. (I suggest that you take notes even if you record your interviews. You never know when your technology will fail you, and you can jot down keywords to help you find that quote you know is awesome the second you hear it.)

Gather Your Tools

Have pens or pencils and plenty of paper. If you prefer taking notes on the computer, make sure you are plugged in or have a fully charged battery. Also make sure your mic and recording tool are working properly.

Make sure your cell phone battery is charged.

Grab a glass of water, a cup of coffee, or both. Sit in a comfortable chair. If you have kiddos running around, make sure they are occupied and know the rules for bothering you  while you are working.

Take a deep breath and make the call. You can schedule an interview by email, or you can just cold call your source. Most experts will be flattered and happy to help.

And remember, an interview is nothing more than a conversation between people. Nothing to fear here.

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In the past, I have done things like grab a scrap of paper and a pen to write them before they left my head. I have even used my cell phone to text an idea to myself. (No, I don’t do that anymore. I stopped even before Oprah’s anti-texting campaign.)

I do use my smartphone to capture these ideas using the handy, dandy voice recorder app. With my bluetooth setup, I don’t even have to pull an Agent Cooper and hold my phone like an old-school cassette recorder. This helps me keep my eyes on the road and the police from pulling me over and giving me a ticket for using my phone while driving.

If you don’t have a smartphone or you don’t like the voice recorder it boasts, you can get a separate device. The bonus of having a separate device is that they typically have much more storage and allow longer recordings, so you can use them to do interviews once you sell your awesome article ideas.

I gather from the reporters I have surveyed that the Olympus VN-8100 is a popular choice. There are others at lower price points, though.

I highly recommend having a good recorder that allows easy transfer to your computer. It helps you earn more money by letting you capture those fleeting ideas when inspiration strikes, and if the road is where the inspiration fairy most often visits, it can keep you safe, too. (If the shower is where your inspiration hits, you might want to try thiswaterproof recorder, instead.)

Once you are comfortable using your digital recorder, you might want to make interviews even easier with a microphone or two. This noise-canceling mic and this phone pick up are two options.

How do you capture your inspiration and ideas? Are you digital or analog?

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Later I learned that most musicians love music of all types. They don’t constrain themselves to a pre-defined genre, and they use what they hear to influence themselves to become better songwriters, more accomplished at an instrument, or to broaden their sound.

Writers could learn from their example.

It is important for us to follow our genre to see who is out there, what they are doing that works, and what we can do to fit in. But even more important is getting out of our genre to see how other types of writing work.

My challenge to you is find a work outside of your usual genre. If you write short stories, grab a Russian novel. If literary non-fiction is your weapon of choice, check out some manga. If you are a copywriter, grab a memoir. It doesn’t matter where you go, as long as you choose something you would probably never think to pick up.

Then read it.

Study it to see how the writer uses language. What do you think appeals to the typical reader of the genre you chose? Would you continue reading in this genre? And, most important, how can you incorporate your newest influence into your own writing?

How do you bust out of your own genre rut?

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Taking care of them is all fine and good, but you have to keep track of them to make it easy to contact the right person for your story.

I like to use a spreadsheet, so you can copy me by using Excel, Open Office Calc, Google Docs, or whatever spreadsheet software works for you.

I have different sheets for each topic area, and I track name, phone, email, affiliation, subject area/expertise, date of first contact, article(s), and periodical name(s).

Easy, peasy.

How do you keep track of your sources?

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Our access to experts is one of the reasons we writers can command higher fees as we gain more experience in a particular niche. (The others are our talent, our ability to understand the technical aspects of our niche, and our understanding of the audience’s needs and language, of course.)

Here are some ways to make sure you take good care of your expert sources.

Be Accurate

Make sure you get all of your facts straight, including the correct spelling of the source’s name, their degrees or professional designations, and any products or books they are promoting.

Also do whatever it takes to get their quotations correct, whether that is asking for clarification, recording the call (following the laws of your state when it comes to asking permission to record a call), or paying a transcriptionist to transcribe if it you don’t have the time or inclination to do it yourself.

Provide Information

When a story goes live or appears in your chosen periodical, let your source (and their PR person, if they have) know about it. Send a link or see if your editor can send a hard copy of the publication.

Respect Their Time

When you make an interview appointment, call your source (or answer your phone) at the time you agreed on.

Prep for your interview ahead of time by writing questions or a list of topics to make sure you cover. This keeps you from rambling and taking up too much of your source’s time.

Be Fun

Remember, at its heart, an interview is a conversation. It has a purpose, but it should be fun for both participants. Act as if you are speaking to a professional colleague you like when you are on the phone.

What do you do to ensure that your sources will be happy to hear from you when you call them for new interviews?

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