September 2010

Ask Me Anything: Health Insurance and Memberships

Mary Jo Campbell asks, What are the best options for health insurance for family? As a writer, insurance can be harder to come by. Personally, I’m in the lucky position of being able to use the insurance my husband gets through his employer, but I haven’t always been so lucky. Before we were married, I [...]

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Conference Sponsorships: Begging Won’t Help Your Cause

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I’ve been seeing a trend among some of the bloggers I follow lately: more than a few people are asking for sponsors to help them attend some conference or another. I consider that the general approach of posting a plea on one’s blog, Twitter account or elsewhere in public to be problematic. In fact, if [...]

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Ask Me Anything: Taxes, WordPress Plugins, Article Lengths and More

Whalen asks, What’s the best tax resource you’ve seen for “Independent Contractors”? When I need tax information, I always start at the IRS’ website. More than once, I’ve seen other websites give out information that directly contradicts the IRS’ policies — and in the event of a problem, who do you think actually matters? The [...]

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Ebyline: Raising the Bar for Online Content?

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The general consensus among professional writers is that content mills are pulling down standards for online writing (personally, I think the content mill debate is more complex). As a response, Ebyline has launched as a content marketplace directed specifically at professional journalists. The goal is to work with editors (hopefully at name-brand publications) to assign [...]

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Ask Me Anything: Subscriptions, Corporate Writing, Pricing and More

Myscha Theriault asks, how do you keep track of due dates on customers on a subscription plan when auto billing isn’t an option? The mechanics of due dates can be tough: for my clients who I bill on a monthly basis, I actually have reoccurring tasks to remind me to bill them every month on [...]

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Productivity and Creativity: A Toolbox to Improve Your Work

Unless this is your first time here, you’ve probably heard my soapbox speech on how pre-packaged productivity systems tend not to work for creative professionals (like those of us who earn our livings writing). I’ve been writing about the topic a lot recently because Ali Hale and I decided to do something about the problem. [...]

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8 Productivity Questions Writers Need to Ask

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When writing is your profession, you have to do it, day in and day out. You can take the occasional break, but the number of words you put on paper (or on screen) directly corresponds to the number of dollars in your bank account. Even if you’ve got some good passive income streams going, you [...]

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