A New Month, a New Resolution

It's been a long few months.

I've been out of commission on the blog for a long time. My life got incredibly hectic, and I realized around March that I wasn't dealing with a few changes in my life as well as I'd thought. In the course of a few months I ended a nine year relationship, changed cities, and landed a few new and very prolific regular clients. My days got hectic, and between the personal things and the work-related things it was all I could do to keep meeting everyone's expectations.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know I've renewed my commitment to posting regularly--and here are a few things I've learned in the interim.

Admit it when things are going south.I know when this sort of thing happens, what you're supposed to do is post on your blog letting everyone know you'll be out of commission for a few months. I didn't. Mainly because every day I kept thinking, "I'll get to it soon. I don't need to post anything now." Well, I didn't get to it soon, and that was probably a bit of self delusion on my part. I also didn't want to admit that I needed a break. But one day led to a week, and then to a month, and then to a couple of months..and each month it got more difficult to get back to a routine. My lesson? As soon as you feel yourself slipping, let people know. It's okay to slip. But people need to know what to expect.

Even good change causes upheaval. The changes in my life, scary as they sound, have all been good changes. I'm happy in my new place, and I've made some adjustments that absolutely needed to be made. Plus, the new client work has been a blessing. But still it caused me enough disturbance that I felt I had to let everything in my life that wasn't an absolute necessity go, at least for a little while.

Take things one day at a time. There were plenty of days when I had time to post, and didn't. I'm not sure why. Maybe I felt overwhelmed looking back on all that time I'd missed, and had no idea what I'd say in response to that. Until I got to today, and realized I missed it and wanted to start again. Realized I still had things to say.

Change is exhilarating, but sometimes it takes a lot out of you. I had to be away for awhile--but now I'm back, and hopefully I can bring enough insight to this blog that others can learn from my missteps and successes in the meantime.

Announcing Catalyst Website Overhaul!

Well, we're really overdue for this: I've officially overhauled my website. Check out the new design!

The site's now much more professional looking than my old website--which I designed myself. It's a much better reflection of my business as it is now--the old website concentrated mainly on content creation. There's an expanded portfoliio section, which I got to organize by both industry and project type. I uploaded some testimonials and have more on the way. And--I'm really excited about this--I now have an article library of online copywriting tips and a monthly newsletter to send to subscribers. Overall, this site will do a MUCH better job selling me than the old one did.

The best part about this website is the ease with which I can set all this stuff up myself. The site was designed by LucidCrew, an extremely talented group of people--seriously, check out their portfolio; it's awesome. They have a content management system called MediaStove that lets you set up your own blogs, e-blasts, forums, and all kinds of other online marketing tools with pretty much zero effort and no programming knowledge. It's a great way for non-tech-savvy website owners (that's me) to use all these great online marketing techniques we always push--without going through a webmaster all the time or teaching ourselves code and Dreamweaver.

Next item on the agenda is an overhaul of THIS site. I've been wanting to do this for a year, and hopefully soon I'll get that done.

I Owe You An Apology.

Life is getting ahead of me again.

I realize I've let my posting slide, which often signals the death knell for blogs. Rest assured I have no intention of stopping my activities here, although they've thinned out lately. And with good reason.

Since September, I've been pretty much booked solid in terms of writing projects. I've landed one very prolific new regular and seen no slacking off with my old regulars; most of my month is dedicated to keeping them happy. And then there are the new projects: one very large new one spanning multiple months, and a few shorter challenges to keep me on my toes. My writing business is taking off, and I haven't quite gotten into a groove yet that allows comfortable time for blogging. But I will.

If it was just the writing, that would be manageable. But I've seen some major changes in my personal life as well. I'm currently plotting a major move, and just ended a nine-year relationship. Big upheaval.

Regular posting will start again here, but I'm not completely sure when. Hopefully it will this week. That's what I said last week.

In the meantime, if you're interested in guest posting, please get in touch--this will help me fill the gaps. You'll get links within the post and I'll make sure my blogroll also links to your blog, if it doesn't already.

Thanks--and hopefully I'll be back on a regular schedule next week at the latest, after I've moved into my new place.

A Look Back, a Look Ahead

Last year, I posted my business goals for 2008. Yep, there they are, in all their glory. I had great intentions--I even broke everything down into small, manageable goals. And then life intervened. I really don't like it when that happens.

Here's a look back at what I didn't accomplish--and what I did instead.

Moving to Wordpress.The most important goal from last year was moving this blog off Blogger. As you can see, I'm still on Blogger. And it's not for lack of trying--I tried with Wordpress. I really did. And what I learned was that I am not a designer. Really. I have no eye for these things. And if I want to look professional, I should find people whose strengths lie where mine lack, and pay them. That's what professionals do. I"m going to have to make this a priority in 09.

Streamlining my marketing. Still hasn't happened. I did market more last year, but aggressive marketing still isn't how I get most of my business. I believe, however, that I can get higher paying gigs by actively marketing myself to higher paying clients--rather than just waiting to see what comes along. Lots of work does just come along--enough to do fine without marketing at all--but I need to start taking charge of my career. So I'm keeping this resolution.

Finishing my article marketing. This one I actually did accomplish. Last year my business was still coming largely from Elance; this year none of it was. Many of my new clients this year found me through online searches--my ranking was boosted a lot by this campaign--and from reading (and liking) those articles. A few people contacted me in person to ask if they could use my article marketing pieces in print newsletters, which I allowed--the start of several professional relationships that led to lucrative gigs. Article marketing works.

Passive income streams. It takes a lot of time, and I was focused on other things this year. THis is definitely an ultimate goal of mine, but maybe I'm not ready yet--I'll haul this one out again in a few years once I have these other goals taken care of.

This year, I'm not going to announce any specific resolutions other than growing my business and doing the best I can for my clients. Here's wishing everyone a happy new year full of prosperity.

Anyone Else Sick of Technology Prophecies?

There are a lot of predictions on the net about the demise of keyboards with the improvement of touch-screen technology and the development of better voice recognition and even gesture-recognition software. The breathless hype claims that soon we'll all be able to use touch screens, just talk or--better yet--act out the things we wish to type, and our computers will faithfully transcribe them with no actual typing on our part.

Maybe most people don't like to type. I love to type; I can type as fast as I can think thanks to a typing class I took a long time ago in high school. Plus, I'm better at organizing my thoughts on the page than I am in saying them aloud; I could never dictate a client project or a novel, but I'm pretty proficient at writing those things. (Well, maybe not novels. But dictating a novel would lead to a big huge incoherent mess.) I'm not looking forward to anyone rendering my keyboard obsolete. I intend to hang onto it with cracked and bleeding fingernails until the bitter end.

Tech articles that gleefully claim the end of the keyboard is just around the corner seem to forget that this isn't a desirable outcome for some of us. Not only do I not want to dictate, use a touch screen, or--God forbid--gesture my next client project into existence, I don't like writing on tiny screens. I don't need a huge, million-pixeled expensive desktop screen like designers use; I just need to see what I'm writing without squinting, and to see both sides of a page without having to scroll left or right. It's not much to ask. So please don't suggest that laptops will soon be the size of PDA's. You're giving me the heebie-jeebies.

This isn't the only dire prophecy for writers. We're all sick of hearing about the demise of the book. Since people are reading less and spending more time online, people assume that readers are reading online--and now that Google is scanning entire books to make their contents available online, who will want to read a stupid paper book?

Well, I do. Those who love curling up with a book don't love curling up with a laptop. You can't read a laptop screen in the bath. You can't read a laptop screen on the beach. Laptops run out of batteries and have to be plugged in; books don't. You're stuck in your uncomfortable desk chair when you're reading on your desktop; you can sit wherever you want and read a book. Plus reading screens for hours makes my eyes squinty; reading books doesn't. Yes, I read news and some blogs and articles online--but it is absolutely no substitute for a real book.

All of these advances in technology are bad for both writers and readers. My hope is that as technology evolves, it will consider the wants and needs of those who still love and live by the written word--instead of steamrolling over us in the interests of progress.

What I'm Up To

November is over, and I'm re-committing to getting regular posts up this month. I have to admit this year has been crazy; I had to stop blogging regularly this summer and this spring when other commitments got in the way. This is probably why I'll never be a pro blogger--I tend to know when I've got too much to handle, and I tend to drop the least-paying commitments first.

A few people wrote in with offers to do guest posts, and I appreciate the offers. While I didn't take you up on it this time, I will definitely look into it next time I feel a hiatus coming on and will keep your names on file. If you'd like to be considered to write a guest post for me, get in touch. I may be able to work something out where you write a post, send it in, and I save it for a rainy day.

Anyway, here's what I've been up to this month instead of blogging:

A big fiction-writing contest. I'm one of those people who's always talking about writing a book, but I've never finished one. A lot of writers I know commit to National Novel Writing Month every year, but few finish the stated goal: a 50,000 word novel in one month. Granted, 50,000 words is a pretty short novel. Last year I gave it a good try, but finished well short of the goal. This year, with the help of a very close group of like-minded friends, I completed 50,000 words. Doing this involved writing about 2500 words of my novel a night. It was grueling--I gave up social commitments, time spent with family, and even stopped posting on this blog to get through it. But recommitting to my creative goals was really invigorating for me. I punched through a plateau that i thought was going to be endless in this novel, and now I'm finally feeling good about finishing it.

A new regular client. I landed a new regular a few months ago, and while the projects started small, they've been pouring in over the last few weeks. I've been taking on as much as I could possibly handle--more than I usually would--to save up for the holidays and for a move I'm planning in the next month or so.

A new website. I've been uploading samples, tweaking copy, and getting my new website up and running. Ideally I wanted to finish in November, but everything else took a backseat to my noveling and freelancing this month. I swear, guys, it'll be up by 2009.

My Declaration of Independence

Today is the anniversary of the day when our country declared independence from England. Two years ago, around the same time (although not exactly on the same day), I declared independence in my own life--I quit my job and started freelancing full-time.

I had been working as a GED teacher for an adult education nonprofit for two years before I started my freelancing business. Before that, I worked as an editor at a major educational publishing company. Not the type of editor who edits actual books, though; my job was editing test development software that administered licensing tests to insurance agents. When I was hired, I thought I'd be editing the actual tests. In fact, that was the original job description. Then budget cuts ensued, nearly the entire IT department was pink-slipped, and word came down from on high that us editors would now be "our own IT." I am not good at technical matters. I am not good at figuring out technical problems. When left alone with malfunctioning software I get impatient and frustrated and generally need to get away from the electronics before I break things. So this wasn't a good job for me.

Someone I knew gave me Bob Bly's How to Make $80,000 a Year as a Freelance Writer. I read it cover-to-cover and decided business freelancing wasn't something I could do; I'd majored in creative writing in college and I thought I couldn't credibly convince companies to hire me. Then a co-worker at the publishing company told me about Elance, where she made extra money writing. I checked it out, but it seemed like a lot of money--so I didn't buy a membership then.

After a few years I left the publishing company and got a job as a GED teacher at an adult education nonprofit. GED teaching was better for me than the job I'd had earlier, but it still wasn't something I felt I was great at. Still, I stayed for two years. At the end of the first year, I met a woman who had been freelance writing for several years. She was not much older than me, and had a similar background. I remember totally re-evaluating my opinion of freelance writing when I met her--I thought, if she could do it, there's no reason why I couldn't.

I didn't know anything about getting started at first, so I went with the only lead I had: Elance. It took me a little while, but after some time I built up a good reputation on the site and started making what seemed to me at the time to be decent money. Meanwhile, I was getting more and more unsatisfied with my current job--and more convinced that the only way I could be happy at work was to work for myself.

I talked to business owners, my parents, and others I felt would have good advice, and they all unanimously told me not to rush things. Save up money, build up contacts, don't do anything rash. But I reached a point where I felt I couldn't be unhappy at work for one more minute. So after two years of teaching, I left to start freelancing full time.

I can't say it wasn't terrifying, and I can't say this would be the right choice for everyone. But for me, jumping right in worked out well--so far. About two years ago, I declared independence from schedule slavery, a daily commute, and always feeling like my best talents weren't being used. Today, I feel solidarity with my country, which also managed to break away from a dependent situation and forge a new life for itself. The U.S. isn't perfect, but it's the oldest current democracy in the world. Hopefully my move to independence will lead to a future as stable and long-lasting.

Catalyst in the News

Susan Johnston from The Urban Muse interviewed me a while ago for an article about that awkward time after you graduate college and before you have that whole financial-purpose-life thing figured out. You can read it over at Young Money.

People often say that being young is all about being free to explore and do what you want. I've found that my twenties have been largely about compromise--if I want to live where I want to live, I have to a). live with a lot of roommates or b). make a lot more money than I'm making now. I can have a fabulous business of my own, but I still don't have health insurance. (I know, I know, it's dangerous; believe me, my mom brings it up at least once a week). True, I'm compromising a lot less than I would be if I had kids--but is the decision not to have kids to preserve freedom a big compromise of its own?

Maybe for some people, the twenties are easier and more free. But it seems to me that adult life is comprised mainly of a series of compromises, big and little--no matter your age.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Well, they're accepting nominations for the top ten writing blogs for 2007/2008 over at Michael Steizner's blog. If you like this blog, now's the time to show your love!

Eight Random Facts About Me

I've been tagged by Kathy Kehrli at the Irreverent Freelancer for a meme: "The Random 8 Meme: Tagged with My Pants Down!"

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you and post these rules.
2. List eight random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight people at the end of your post and list their names with links.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs.

8 random facts about me:

1. I'm a classically trained singer.

2. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be an actress on Broadway. I'm an (occasionally) working actress now: I've been in a few local commercials and lots of plays in and around Philly. I also model randomly sometimes. I'm on the cover of a romance novel: Kathryn Smith's Taken By the Night, which is coming out in November.

3. I started to write before I could actually write. I used to draw pictures on construction paper, then have my mom write captions underneath. She'd staple them together, and voila: my first paperbacks. She still has a filing cabinet full of these things, which she'll bring out and pass around when I bring guests over.

4. My current boyfriend and I celebrated our eight-year anniversary this June.

5. My favorite foods are sushi and Ethiopian.

6. I'm an avid downhill skier and used to be an instructor in high school and college.

7. I have six toes on one foot.

8. My bedroom has a working wood stove in it.

Just to make it interesting: ONE of these eight facts isn't true!

I'm now tagging Chris, Amy, Laura, Courtney, Susan, The Frump, Matt, and Rico.

Who's Your Alter Ego?

I have a second life.

By day, I'm a mild-mannered freelance writer. I'm a clued-in business writer, cool and professional, working first and foremost for my ciients. Nobody would ever suspect that I have an alter ego: poet and novelist-in-progress. You can even see some of my literary stuff here [warning: slightly adult theme] and here. I'm getting involved in Philly's poetry and literary community. If you happen to be in town in December, you can catch one of my short stories showcased in Interact Theatre's Writing Aloud series.

I'm also an (aspiring) novelist, with about five unfinished novels kicking around my hard drive. Someday, I'd like to write YA fantasy like The Golden Compass or magical realism like The Lovely Bones. I'm even planning to make an attempt at a romance novel someday. I would love to be just like this lady.

For many freelance writers I know, creativity is the driving force behind our writing. Many of us are novelists, playwrights, screenwriters, and poets at heart. When we get into copywriting, it's out of a determination to be a working writer--come hell or high water. When I first started freelancing, it was my hope that owning my own writing business would step up my marketing game and teach me about the business side of being a writer. So far, I've learned a lot in a short amount of time--enough to know how much more there is to learn.

When I first got started, I talked to a few other people who were freelancers. The prevaiing advice was this: present yourself as a businessperson first, and a writer second. Clients want to get a sense that you are a rational, clearheaded businessperson with a solid understanding of how to sell their company. They don't care that you can look at plums and see bats; that you can write a killer line of poetry; that your characterization skills are intense. The "creative writer" label devalues you in your clients' eyes.

So for a while I hid it, never mentioning to my clients that I had another writing personality than the one I showed. Until I got a request from a new client: poetic descriptions of children's toys for their catalog. It occurred to me that in some instances, creative writing skills are a plus to clients.

Now, I'm starting to reject the idea that creativity and business savvy are mutually exclusive. There seems to be a stereotype about creative people: we're disheveled, disorganized geniuses who can't promote ourselves. But when I read about the lives of many successful creative people, I find that self-promotion is just another one of their talents. And I look around at all the other gifted copywriters out there, and I wonder how many of them have secret lives, too.

So for those of you who are copywriters by day--what are you by night? Do you labor over a screenplay, make the rounds at theatre auditions, or craft short stories? Who's your alter ego?

Out of Town

I'll be out of town for two weeks. The next post will be on Tuesday, September 4th.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

My first post!

Here it is, the semi-historic first post. Welcome to CatalystBlogger. I'm Jennifer, and I'm a 20-something freelance web copywriter living in Pennsylvania and writing for people all over the world. My goal here is to write about freelancing issues, web copywriting, maybe a little SEO as I learn it--anything that interests me and might interest my audience. So...here goes!