Tag Archives: Freelance Writing

Your Online Resume is Everywhere

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Back in the day (we’re talking 1990s) I used to spend a couple of hours every year keeping my paper resume up-to-date.

‘The Internet’ was still a phrase used mainly by geeks and required connecting a modem to a phone line, and then dialing into your email. Lord knows if anyone ever got hired online lol!

Anyway, step forward nearly 20 years, and while paper resumes are still handled and looked at, for many hiring managers the first touch will be a digital one.

Oh, I know what you’re thinking:

I’ll just update my paper resume to an online format.

That approach can still work, especially if you have contacts within the corporate world.

But it won’t be too long before the resume as a standalone document will be only one of several online scores that determine whether you even get to first base i.e. an ‘interview’.

And I’m not referring to the daily digital footprint you leave online.  That’s a mainly passive and reactive view of the persona you appear to be. I say, ‘appear’, because at the moment, “on the Internet no one knows you’re a dog”.

(Check out that famous cartoon from the New Yorker magazine a while back.)

No, if you want to become top of mind for many of those looking for talent via the web, you’ll have to start creating an active and responsive trail leading to the real you.

And how is that done?

Well, here’s someone who’s done all of that and more. And who now looks for the same, or better, in the talent he hires.

The article’s titled “Seven Ways to Position Yourself for Unlimited Work, by Joe Pulizzi.

True, the article’s thrust is toward creative types in the media e.g. journalists, freelance writers and marketers.

However, in a vast digital world where talent for almost any career path’s now located far and wide, you will need to be very clear in your online message and presence. Of course, the ‘offline’ you is still very important but there’s a merging of digital with physical coming, courtesy of awesome networked computing power and bandwidth.

Be prepared!

- Mark McClure

PS – This is the final post on this blog for 2010.

I’ll have a short break for Japanese New Year celebrations and then it’s full steam ahead in the “Year of the rabbit”. Happy New Year!

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Drinking The Quit Your Job Kool-Aid

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“Sell the sizzle, not the steak” – some readers may know of this famous phrase from the world of sales and marketing; and attributed to the master American salesman of the 1930s, Elmer Wheeler.

It precisely summarizes how advertisers appeal to human nature – they sell through the senses (“hmm, steak smells good!”) and to our emotional triggers.

Of course ‘they’ are not just faceless ad executives.

With varying degrees of ability and success, ‘we’ do this whenever influence and persuasion are required in our daily lives. Think “performance review time” or even “finding a mate” ;-)

Another example is the “quit your job and work at home” lifestyle – often aimed at people fed up with “working for the (wo)man”.

On the face of it the idea seems wonderful – kick back, fire your tyrant boss and work from home in your pajamas. Take vacations when you want. Goof off till noon etc.

Yes sir, that’s one mouthwatering sizzle folks imagine they’ll be chewing on.

The reality is usually very different – a very, very few will “aim for the moon, overshoot and hit the stars” almost their first time at bat. These are the ones you’ll hear and read about.

But for the majority it’s likely to be a sobering case of:

“When opportunity knocks, it comes dressed in overalls and looks like hard work”.

Be Prepared!

Four years ago the debt-fueled housing/economic boom in US, UK and other countries drove a “rising tide lifts all boats” belief in the seemingly endless ability of stock, property and “good times” to keep on rolling.

Even career change was seen as something folks could drop into – and out of again. Plenty of jobs out there…

Spring 2009 paints a different picture of increasing job losses, wage deflation and of firms hunkering down for even tougher times.

So, with my career coaching hat on, think very carefully before leaving a well-paying (mortgage, food-on-the-table, daily living) job for the uncertainties of “working from home.”

But do consider starting a part-time business on the side – especially if you think you might be getting a pink slip before long.

Obviously, I can’t advise you on the risk/reward of your particular situation – but I do believe it’s worth learning from people who are successfully doing what I want to do.

One such person is the freelance writer, Nick Usborne. As well as sharing great articles on his site(s) he’s also released a free, 21 page guide on the popular document sharing site, scribd.com titled:

Are You Really Ready To Quit Your Job And Work From Home?

nick-usborne-quit-job

Nick’s been doing exactly that for over 25 years – check him out.

- Mark McClure

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The Samurai Writer Takes Up His Elance

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If coaching has taught me anything, it’s that accountability is a formidable tool for personal change when wielded constructively. People often hire coaches to hold their proverbial feet to the fire – and that can be well worth the cost.

Another approach is to follow the ‘success crumbs’ of someone who’s already doing what interests you. That’s how I’m going about adding freelance writing to a mid-career change repertoire.

I signed up for Angela Booth’s “Sell Your Writing Online Now“, and for $37 per month I get a weekly lesson on a particular writing topic – along with some exercises. And usually a bonus file. (BTW – Studying Angela’s online marketing approach for this course is a great way to learn about outsourced passive income streams, ably run by her virtual assistant. But that’s a story for another blog!)

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We never knew that it was impossible!

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As regular readers may know, my current mid-career change strategy follows a multi-pronged approach – and includes roles from my professional past, such as school teaching.

It’s still very much a work-in-progress and I’m making things up as I go along – while trusting in the serendipity goddess to make an appearance from time to time ;-)

This week I did some substitute teaching which included showing video #1 from the PBS series, “Triumph of the Nerds“. Although made in 1996, it’s still an amusingly watchable and fascinating story of the PC / microprocessor revolution.

Of course, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs feature prominently but other players such as Paul Allen and Steve Wozniak get honorable mentions.

Another gentleman’s story, Ed Roberts, kept me guessing as to the connection between the 1970s “solution-in-search-of-a-problem” personal computers he helped bring into being, and the “BASIC interpreter” software that Gates and Allen were busy sculpting. (Wikipedia does a good job of filling in those details.)

What struck me about Ed Roberts was that even though many other professionals at the time thought what they were doing wouldn’t work, he and his colleagues persevered. I think he said on video words to the effect of:

“We kept going because we never knew that it was impossible.”

There were surely business reasons behind Ed’s desire to succeed but also a very personal ‘wish’ to simply have a computer of his own (however impractical – see the wiki article!) to play with.

And that’s as good a working definition of “do what you love” (and the money might follow) as I’ve seen!

- Mark McClure

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Chance Favours The Prepared Mind – Louis Pasteur

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And for those who spell differently…
“Chance Favors The Prepared Mind.” ;-)

I’ve always loved that line attributed to the French scientist, Louis Pasteur – he of pasteurized milk and rabies vaccination fame.

So what exactly is a prepared mind?
Well, here’s an example of one half prepared…

Having coded and launched my new web content writing site a few weeks back, I was shocked to discover my contact page looked like this on Monday morning:

contact-mark-firefoxcontact-mark-explorer

The image on the left is with FireFox. On the right is with Internet Explorer (6).

Duh! Bye-Bye!
There go 50% of the visitors to that contact page (stats say around 47% are using Internet explorer browsers.)

And the only reason I checked was because of problems on Sunday with this blog and Internet Explorer – the ‘Widget’ code on the right hand column was screwed up and displaying annoying “bullet points’ everywhere.

Anyway, the contact info image is now displaying correctly after I added the width and height pixel sizes to the html code. I must’ve forgot to do so at the time because this is what it looked like beforehand:

contact-mark-html

Lessons Learned?

1- Ass-umptions are for tripping over!
I knew I’d checked some of the web pages – but had no system for recording that I’d checked each page after a change was made.

2- Being 1/2 prepared was better than nothing – but what chances were thrown away because I’d reduced the odds of potential clients making contact (“First impressions count”.)

3- Systems Rock! – If I’ve learned anything from years in business, it’s that documented, checked and audited systems work! (It’s not rocket science – simple enough to work will do for starters…)

Followup Questions:

Is chance favo( )ring u?

What % of opportunities are passing you by?

Where and what are your systems for a prepared mind in career, business and life?

- Mark McClure

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