View awesome conference lectures, engaging how to discussions, and high quality freelance business advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.
This week we look at Career Interview with a Freelance Radio Journalist by Creative Interviews. In this video Career interview with freelance radio journalist, Rene Gutel discusses the freedom and challenges of being a freelance journalist for NPR.
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View awesome conference lectures, engaging how to discussions, and high quality freelance business advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch. This week we look at Orman Clark and the Business of Free by Freelancejam. Can you give great stuff away and expect to make any money? In this video Orman Clark discusses how he does it on a daily basis through his site Premium Pixels. In this episode we dig deeper into how Orman has crafted a site full of self-created freebie graphic files and used it to drive sales of his premium WordPress themes.
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View awesome conference lectures, engaging how to discussions, and high quality freelancing advice via video. This weekend we share the video Guy Kawasaki on the Art of Enchantment by Revolution.
In this video Brian Solis talks with Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist of Apple. Guy is also Co-founder of Alltop.com, Author of Enchantment, Reality Check, The Art of the Star, as well as Founding partner of Garage Technology Ventures. In between the in jokes of tech books and chummy camaraderie is some great information in this interview.
Guy is a charismatic, experienced web business professional, and offers easy to understand advice on enchanting customers. Check out the video interview with Guy at the jump. Run time is a little over 27 minutes.
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Cody McKibben isn’t your ordinary freelancer. After he quit his job in 2007 to begin freelancing, McKibben took off from Northern California and headed for Asia. McKibben currently lives in Thailand and has built up a successful freelance business while exploring Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Bali.
McKibben is also one of the co-founders of Digital Nomad Academy, which provides resources and information about how to create a business and lifestyle that allows you to travel and work — not a bad proposition for many freelancers.
My interest in travel was probably sparked early on. In high school, my French professor was the first one who got me inspired about languages, culture, travel, and music, and actually he planted the first seeds of interest in Southeast Asia in particular too. Later, in college, I worked for the business school, and interacted a lot with the dean and several business professors who also ran their own small businesses. After literally 16 or 17 different jobs, and after reading a lot from really interesting, ambitious entrepreneurs online, I realized that I couldn’t continue to work in the traditional employment world, and I started to do my own freelancing work on the side—both because it was a better creative outlet for me and because it put me more in control of my career path.
I’d say my travel bug and my entrepreneurial spirit both grew organically on their own, separately, until I eventually realized, ‘Hey, I could combine these things and build a business that I can run solely online, that allows me to be anywhere, work with clients anywhere, and have the flexibility to set my own hours and basically travel and live anywhere I want!’
Yes very much. I started out simply doing freelance projects for a lot of authors and small business owners — building websites and blogs, doing tech troubleshooting and maintenance, and so on, especially for a lot of clients in the Silicon Valley area, but also in Canada, Europe, and Australia. That was why it eventually clicked, that I was already working remotely with customers on 3 continents, so it really didn’t matter where I was, and I wasn’t tied down to any one particular location.
And, all along, I was also using those same skills to create my own websites just for the fun of it. For the longest time blogging didn’t earn me any money, I just did a lot of writing simply because I was passionate about sharing my interests, my travels, and my philosophy. But eventually things started to change—I started to spend a lot more time solely working on projects that really got me inspired, focusing much more just on organizations who had causes I cared about, partnering to help out friends here and there, and eventually I dedicated myself to creating my own projects, and now, I really don’t do very much client work at all anymore.
This year I’m really spending most of my time as a teacher really, sharing my knowledge with a bunch of really cool, ambitious students who want to create similar online businesses and be able to live and work anywhere. It’s really fun, it’s completely aligned with who I am and what I stand for, and it gets me fired up. When you’re a freelancer, there is no reason you can’t pour the same energy, skills, and time into building your own projects as opposed to client projects.
Well there are a lot of tricks to remaining productive and focusing on your work when it’s necessary. But, generally if you can work from home, if you’re someone who has the drive to work for yourself or build a business of your own, then you’re not going to have any more trouble working from abroad.
A day in my life is hard to pin down because part of what I enjoy about the lifestyle it allows me is the flexibility, the freedom to work when my energy levels are up, or to randomly take a day off if I want to go climb a mountain or something, or to travel to another country for a week or a weekend, whether it’s for a conference or a romantic getaway. But, yes for the last six months or so I’ve been mostly living in the south of Thailand, in a small town near the beach. I’ve moved around a lot and found a place that I really enjoy, where I’m relaxed and can have a great lifestyle. But most days I wake naturally around 10 or 11am, I make breakfast or sometimes go out for a nice English breakfast with my girlfriend if she’s not working, typically work 4-8 hours a day, and frequently go for a nice dinner out or meet up with friends for a drink to get in some fun and social time.
I still currently pay normal self-employed income taxes back home in the US. Some countries have certain requirements or rules for working there or how long you can stay depending on your personal situation, and I’m not a lawyer so it’s up to you to go find those things out for yourself.
On the bright side, for me I tend to travel very slowly, I live for several months at a time in each given place, and that style of travel is actually surprisingly cheaper than most people imagine. Especially in somewhere like Asia or South America, you can actually live a high standard of living for significantly cheaper than usual back in the US or Europe, for example. So that can actually be a huge advantage for many folks who travel and work.
Well, you can see most of my nomadic toolbox on my site, but really it just comes down to a few things most of the time: my laptop, a decent internet connection, some web development tools, and the software I use to collaborate virtually with my team: things like Skype, Google Docs, DropBox, BaseCamp and so on.
Dig into all the free material available online. There is actually a really large, growing community of digital nomads, location independent professionals and virtual entrepreneurs online, many of whom are very helpful and share great information and advice. If you’re a freelancer already, then you’re in an ideal position to easily start traveling—because for the most part your job is most likely already online and so your biggest hurdle will simply be a mindset change you need to make, and maybe get your finances in order and get your business organized so you can easily travel with things.
Of course, I’m going to recommend you come check out Digital Nomad Academy — an online community and business course that two friends and I built to share our experience, the knowledge, resources, and network we’ve accumulated over the last several years on our own path to building these location-independent businesses. But I will say, it’s only for people who know they want to be living this kind of lifestyle in a year or two down the road. It’s a big commitment—but if you’re motivated and willing to put in the effort to build a location independent lifestyle for yourself, and you need the extra guidance and direct mentorship from a community of experienced, successful folks who have done it, then it could be a great resource for you.
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Not everyone dreams of freelancing. Christine Hofmann-Bourque, a freelance writer from Boston, was just hoping to work at a national magazine — and she did for some time. But when her spouse decided on a career that would require him to relocate, Christine put her creative talents to work as a freelancer. She also decided to leverage connections from her full-time days to help her thrive as a freelancer.
You are now working as a freelance journalist contributing to many premier publications — a career many aspiring and existing writers covet. What was the key to getting where you are? Did putting time in as a full-time employee help to open doors?
When I first set my sights on a career in journalism, my end goal wasn’t to be a freelance writer — it was to work on staff at a national magazine. I got a great job at Meredith Corporation, a big publisher based in Iowa, and eventually moved into the features editor position at Country Home, a fantastic interior design magazine. I loved the staff, I loved the magazine, and I loved the whole creative process of putting a magazine together from start to finish. To this day, few things make me happier than seeing a new magazine in my mailbox! But after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, my husband felt a call to serve in our military. So when he signed away his life to Uncle Sam, I decided to become a freelancer so I could continue to work no matter where he is stationed.
I’ve been a full-time freelancer for almost eight years now and — without doubt — having been on staff at a publishing company was a big part of my initial success. I had already established personal and professional relationships with many magazine and book editors who had nice budgets and were making regular assignments.
Even though I didn’t set out to be a freelancer, it is one of the best things I’ve ever done. Don’t get me wrong: Freelancing is tough, especially in this economic climate. But it has made me into a much, much better writer and editor. Freelancing forces you to be creative. Because you have to prove yourself on every job, it forces you to always be your best.
Did you always know you wanted to write?
I always loved to write, but honestly it didn’t occur to me until after I graduated from college that perhaps I could make a living doing it. I went the route of many young people who don’t know what they want to do in college: I got a liberal arts degree (political science), then worked at a traditional corporate job (at an insurance company) for five years. It was while I was working at a job I knew wasn’t right for me that I finally figured out that what I really wanted to do was create magazines.
Oh, how I understand! So, many writers struggle to get high-profile pieces without having worked at a magazine like you did. How can they overcome that and forge connections as if they were an in-house writer? Did having a Master’s help?
I don’t think having a master’s in journalism necessarily helps. Of course, it doesn’t hurt either. But I got my master’s at Northwestern University because I was making a radical career change after college from a corporate insurance gig into writing and editing at a publishing company. I’d already been in the workforce for five years and didn’t want to necessarily start “at the bottom” again. The master’s degree helped me make a career switch without moving backward.
What is your biggest challenge as a freelance writer?
The biggest challenge of freelancing is that you don’t have one boss, you have dozens of bosses. Every single editor who hires you thinks her or his job is your number one priority. And when deadlines collide and sources don’t return your calls and your brain isn’t coming up with a clever lede, it’s up to you to figure out how to get things done. There’s no calling in sick or asking a coworker to cover for you.
Another huge challenge? I no longer have an IT department to call when the printer goes down or a crazy warning flashes across my laptop’s screen. I have to troubleshoot all problems, which seem to have a knack for showing up when I’m on deadline. I’ll admit I’ve had many a meltdown over technology.
I don’t think you’re alone there. You seem to have a niche writing about home decorating/renovation/design style. How did you get into that? How can other writers create thriving careers writing about the topics they enjoy?
Meredith Corporation, where I used to work on staff, publishes a lot of magazines centered around home and family, so it was natural that those are topics I write a lot about. But I also write about topics such as real estate, the military, personal finance, and food. I’ve learned the hard way that if you don’t enjoy a certain topic, it’s very difficult to write smart leads or do good research. For example, I simply don’t enjoy writing about medical issues. If I even type the word “blood,” I’ll get queasy. (See? I’m getting lightheaded right now.) I know I can’t produce good copy about serious medical topics, so I stick with other topics I can do well.
What was your worst professional experience? How did you learn from it?
Any time a mistake creeps into a publication I’ve worked on, that’s a bad day. But mistakes are inevitable. I just figure out how it happened, and how to prevent it from happening again.
Tell us about how you landed some of your book credits. Did you already know people from your days at Country Home, or did you make more connections?
During the last eight years, most of the freelance work I’ve gotten has been through people I’ve worked with in the past, or people they’ve given my name to. I put my best into every job because I never know what little job could lead to a big one months or even years down the road.
Absolutely. So what else do you want to achieve in your career? What’s next for you?
I have an idea for a book. We’ll see! I continue to work on growing my website called “The Strength Behind the Strong,” which is for people who have friends and family in the military. That continues to be an inspiring project for me, but it is a lot of work! I give bloggers who post daily a lot of credit. But magazines are still my first love, and right now I’m editing and writing most of the articles for the Fall 2011 issue of “Flea Market Style” magazine. I’m also blogging about the making of the Flea Market Style magazine.
What advice do you have for writers that are looking to freelance for leading publications? Should they start with trades, study journalism or work full-time at a magazine if possible?
My best advice? Be more than *just* a writer. I’m a writer — and also an editor, copyeditor, fact checker, copyfitter, blogger, and more. I’d tell anyone who is just starting in this business to work on staff somewhere, whether it’s as an intern or as a paid staffer, whether it’s at a trade or consumer publication. What matters isn’t necessarily where you start but that you learn the ins and outs of publishing. (Now, some people may say print magazines are a dying breed. I disagree. Especially decorating and design magazines, where the photographs are as important as the words. But that’s a whole other discussion …) Being an on-staff editor made me a better writer too because I spent so much time working with terrific writers who knew how to put together a great story. (OK, so I also worked with some not-so-great writers, but that’s a learning experience as well!)
The great news for today’s freelancers is that technology makes it easier than ever to work on cool projects without necessarily living in New York City. The new Spring/Summer 2011 print magazine I just finished working on for Harris Publications — Flea Market Style — was put together by basically four freelancers in four states: Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and California. Thanks to email and my iDisk, which acts as a server, we share everything from scouting shots and page layouts to manuscripts with ease.
Thanks, Christine — we wish you all the best!
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Site: Corbettbarr.com
As creative freelancers many of us have the unique working situation were we can pick up move about, relocate, travel and work from just about anywhere — well at least if you set yourself up for that flexibility. Corbett Barr blogs extensively on this subject of location independence, and in this interview discusses how he has grown his blog ThinkTraffic into a full time business as well. There are some great insights in this interview for those of you looking to add an additional revenue stream to your freelance income through blogging, or for those of you interested in the freedom of working from anywhere.
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Download the podcast file (in MP3 format) via the link (right-click to save).
Editors Note: This audio interview was originally commissioned for Netsetter; however, that blog was put on permanent hiatus, so we’ve placed it here on FreelanceSwtich for you to enjoy.
Thursday Bram: All right, this is Thursday Bram with Netsetter and I’m here with Corbett Barr who has two phenomenal blogs that he’s working on. Corbett, could you tell us a little bit about what you do and how you got started?
Corbett Barr: Sure. Hey Thursday, thanks for having me; I appreciate it. Yeah, I’d love to chat about what I do. I have two blogs, as you mentioned. The first one is called Free Pursuits and that blog is really just about people living unconventional lifestyles, and also about how to pursue what you want to do for a living and how to carve out a life for yourself that you’d like to live. I guess there’s some overlap there with the Netsetter actually.
The other blog is called Think Traffic, and that’s all about how to build a high traffic Web site or blog.
Thursday Bram: Okay. And these two blogs are pretty much how you’re making your living now, right?
Corbett Barr: Yeah, that’s right, either directly or indirectly. So with Think Traffic I offer services and I actually help small businesses and individuals build high traffic Web sites and blogs, either through creating the sites and helping them develop them, or just by helping them with marketing. So I have a full range of consulting services there.
Then, I also sell products. I just released a product called Affiliate Marketing for Beginners, which is really sort of an introductory course to how to do affiliate marketing. I sell that product through both of the blogs. It actually has a standalone site, but I advertise the product on both of the blogs and plan to release other products in the future.
Thursday Bram: Do you have a personal preference for doing services or doing products?
Corbett Barr: Right now, I actually really like the mix of both because I find that services are nice because you get to interact with people. I also find that services are actually a good way to do market research, in a lot of ways. So if you imagine the customers that you work with one-on-one as sort of a case study or a microcosm of the things that the rest of your audience might need help with, then when you work with them one-on-one you learn a lot of things that you can turn into products later on. So I like to use services to get to know people and find out what I might be able to help the broader audience with.
Thursday Bram: Okay. One of the things I really love about your blogs is you’ve talked a little bit about the shift that you made and what you were doing before. Could you tell us about what you were doing before you started blogging and why you made such a dramatic shift in your life?
Corbett Barr: Yeah. So my background originally is in corporate consulting. So I was one of these people that flew across the country on a weekly basis to work with some big Fortune 500 companies and help them through technology transformation projects and to help them align their technology better with their business. The pay is fantastic in those types of roles, and you get to learn a lot really fast, and you meet some really cool people. But for me, I just really got tired of not having any control over my lifestyle and having to away from home every week didn’t really make up for the fact that I got to stay in nice hotels and made a really nice salary.
Eventually I knew that I wanted to be able to go where I wanted to when I wanted to and to be able to spend a lot more time with my family and friends. So at first I actually looked into the traditional startup route as a way to gain freedom for myself. So I founded a company in San Francisco with a former colleague and we actually got pretty far with it. We raised venture capital and launched the service, and then the downturn hit in 2008 and we weren’t able to raise additional money to keep the company going.
So at that point I decided to take a sabbatical and really just take a step back and reevaluate things and decide how I wanted to move forward; that was in early 2009, just about 18 months ago. My wife and I packed up our car and our dog and we headed off on a road trip through Mexico and spent about six months down there and then spent another month and a half or so up in Canada. We drove basically all throughout the country and all throughout Mexico.
While we were on that sabbatical we met a lot of people who were really interesting and who were living lifestyles that I didn’t know were possible really in the past. It really opened my eyes and made me sort of completely reevaluate what I had been doing and what I had been pursuing. These people basically had carved out lifestyles for themselves where their career was either flexible enough to let them take time off every year, or they could operate their career from anywhere in the world; they were truly location independent. That was the first time I had heard of that and here we were meeting dozens of these types of people doing that, living in the glorious sun of Mexico in the winter and getting away from the cold of wherever they lived in the U.S. or Canada or abroad.
So I started Free Pursuits, the blog, basically to explore those ideas and to introduce some of those concepts to other people because it seemed like something people would want to know about, and I didn’t know about a whole lot of blogs that were talking about that at the time.
Thursday Bram: So you’re now a digital nomad or location independent as well, correct?
Corbett Barr: Yeah, that’s right. I actually like to call it location flexible because I’m not a nomad in the sense that I don’t have a permanent home and I work from the road constantly. We actually have a permanent place in San Francisco, or semi-permanent. We live here for, say, six months or so a year, and then for the rest of the time travel. So far we’ve been spending winters in Mexico because we really like it there, and we’re actually headed back there this next winter.
So I like to be able to call a place home, like our apartment in San Francisco, and it’s nice to have that sense of regularity and a place to return to. But it’s also nice to combine that with the flexibility to spend winters somewhere else. Actually, next week we’re taking off for a trip up to the Pacific Northwest for three weeks or so. So it’s nice to have that flexibility and just to be able to take off. And then when we go somewhere I can take my business with me and operate it from the road, and in some cases I can take extended periods of time off as well.
Thursday Bram: Have there been any particular tools or systems that you’ve found that you needed to work with to create that location flexibility?
Corbett Barr: Yeah, definitely. I definitely try to make all of my documents and records and systems online and in the cloud so I don’t necessarily have to have a specific machine with me. So, for instance, I use Google Docs pretty extensively. I also use a service called Dropbox, which is a way to back up files to the cloud and then to be able to retrieve those files from any computer that you need them. That helps a lot when you’re working from different laptops and different locations and things.
So I just try to make sure that everything operates in the cloud. I am also looking for a cloud based accounting system for my business right now. I think I’ve found something, but I haven’t settled on anything yet.
Thursday Bram: Okay. I did notice that your background’s very entrepreneurial, consulting, start ups, that sort of thing; is there anything that particularly led you to be an entrepreneur, to work for yourself? Of was there an evolution?
Corbett Barr: That’s a good question. I guess for some reason I’m just one of those people who grew up always having this idea in the back of my mind that I would be an entrepreneur or I would be a business owner at some point. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s something that my parents instilled in me, or maybe it’s just the sort of general discontent I have with working for other people, or something. I’m not sure.
But yeah, there was certainly an evolution because, as I said, I started out working in the corporate world that was very hierarchical and very rigid, and where you have ten layers of managers above you. There was just something about that that constantly nagged at me. It was as if there was a voice in the back of my head just always telling me that no matter what I did in that environment I would never be truly happy and truly fulfilled.
So the transition that I’ve made to location independence to running my own business, my own very small business, I actually don’t have any employees now; that transition I think has been as much about being entrepreneurial and having the true control over my time and my business as it has been about being able to live and work from anywhere. Because I feel happiest and most fulfilled when I’m able to work on the projects that I want to work on and not have to necessarily answer to a giant hierarchical structure.
The transition I made from the corporate world as I mentioned earlier, actually involved running a sort of, if you can call it traditional, startup. Which is where you get a permanent office and raise investor money and then hire employees and build out a product, and so forth. That transition led me to understand that what people think of as being entrepreneurial and being a startup doesn’t necessarily afford you that much freedom, because in the end when you have investors and employees and an office and creditors and bills to worry about, and so forth, you end up having almost more bosses in a sense that you do when you work in a regular corporate environment.
So that’s really what led me to explore other avenues, and it just seemed that there was a lot of momentum gathering around building a business around a blog. And people like Brian Clark at Copyblogger had shown how that was possible. So that really intrigued me and I decided to take the plunge. Initially I didn’t have big hopes for turning my blog into a business, but I thought it was a good way at least to explore alternative career options for myself, and then it became apparent that actually there was a pretty big market and that I might be able to turn it into a business.
Then I just jumped in with both feet and went full on for it, and I’m glad I did.
Thursday Bram: Was there a particular way that you learned more about blogging as a business? I know a lot of people just sort of jump in and start trying things, but were there any resources, anything that really helped you get your start?
Corbett Barr: Yeah, definitely. I think a lot of what you need is validation that it’s actually possible, because the how-to stuff, there’s so many resources on how-to, right? We hear over and over again how to write a great article and how to sell a product and how to do affiliate marketing, and all this kind of stuff. So the how-to is readily available, but for me it was more about just finding the validation to know that it’s really possible that the people that I’m reading about aren’t BS’ing me in some way or that they didn’t have some sort of golden spoon or something handed to them.
So just reading personal stories about how people got started and how they succeeded. One of my favorites, obviously, probably a lot of people know him, is Chris Guillebeau. Chris started maybe a year or so before I started Free Pursuits and he was gathering a lot of momentum around the time I started reading those types of blogs. So it was really great to follow his progress and just see how he started a blog and launched a product, and just started gathering steam. And of course he’s, in some ways, an exceptional case because he’s had a level of success that a lot of people won’t get to.
But you don’t have to reach that level of success to build a profitable business. I actually am fully supporting myself at this point just about 18 months after starting my first blog, and I had absolutely no blogging experience to begin with and I don’t have the hundreds of thousands of visitors that someone like Copyblogger or Chris Guillebeau might have. But yet, I’m still able to support myself very comfortably.
I think for people just getting started it’s just that they need to hear those real life stories of people and also to realize that there’s no set way that you have to do things, there’s no magic formula. You can make things work however they work for you. If that involves copywriting, like you do Thursday, or if that involves consulting services, or selling products, or maybe advertising even if that’s a route you want to go. You just need find out what works for you and realize that there’s no formula you have to follow.
Thursday Bram: I know that a lot of new bloggers struggle with the content side of things. You write about two very different topics, is there a way that you manage writing about them? Is there a way that you’ve made it easier?
Corbett Barr: I wish I knew a way to make it a lot easier, because to be honest running two blogs takes quite a bit of time. I try to mitigate that a little bit by having really high quality guest posts over at Think Traffic, and that definitely helps. You wrote a great guest post for us a month or two ago, Thursday, thanks for that. But I guess the best advice I can have is just to keep a backlog of ideas because as you’re going throughout your day you tend to have little ideas, oh that would make a good blog post, or oh that would make a good one. And I think what you really need to do is jot those down.
So I like to keep just a running list of ideas and they’re pretty simple, I don’t flush them out too much more than a headline or an idea for a headline. But just keep a backlog of ideas, and then when you go to write something you just sit down and go through that list and something comes up right away. What I’ve found is that if I don’t have that backlog, then one of the most time consuming parts of writing is just sitting down and thinking of an idea. And when you pressure yourself to come up with an idea like that, you end up writing things that are less than stellar and maybe not up to the quality that you’d like to produce every week.
Thursday Bram: I did write a guest post for you when you were starting out with Think Traffic and I looked back on your site recently have you have something like 8,000 readers already.
Corbett Barr: Yeah. So I just wrote the five month monthly report for the site and I have about 8,000 monthly unique visitors, I had close to 11,000 visits last month, and I’m up to 1,835 subscribers or so so far. So it’s been going really nicely and I’m really happy with it. In some ways, there was no other path for me because Think Traffic is a blog about building traffic to your sites, so I really had to walk the walk, right?
Thursday Bram: Mm hmm. Could you give us a little bit of an overview on how you started getting traffic for that site? I don’t want you to give away the secret sauce for your consulting or anything like that, but just –
Corbett Barr: Yeah, no, there isn’t really any secret sauce. The key I think is that traffic isn’t just about promotion. I think when people hear that word, traffic, or if they think about building an audience, they think it’s all about promotional techniques and finding the latest, greatest social network to become a part of and to spread your content through. But really, I like to peel back the layers quite a bit and start out with fundamentals of marketing. One of the most important things that you can do early on is to consider what your unique selling proposition is and to figure out how your business is different and why people should read your blog.
Because the fact is there are millions and millions of blogs out there, and when someone comes to your site you have just a fraction of a second to convince them that your site is worthy of reading. One of the easiest ways to do that is to set yourself apart and create something that’s truly unique. That way, readers have only one choice, if they want to get what you’re writing about they have to come to your site because instead of competing you set yourself apart and decide to innovate.
Some ways to come up with a unique selling proposition could include your personality, if you’re a really interesting, outgoing person, then maybe your personality’s enough. There are a lot of great examples of that, like Naomi Dunford from IttyBiz has a really wild personality so that really has become her unique selling proposition. Aside from that, you can also mash up a couple of ideas. For instance, Everett Bogue at Far Beyond the Stars has basically combined the ideas of minimalism with running a business. Those two things have never really been combined before and he’s had really phenomenal growth over the past nine months.
So again, traffic’s not just about promotion, it’s also about creating great content and then also about the fundamentals of marketing and making sure that you stand out from the competition in a unique way.
Thursday Bram: Great. Do you have anything else that in the pipeline? What’s coming up for you next?
Corbett Barr: So, as I mentioned this – it’s been about 18 months since I started Free Pursuits and I have a few different revenue streams and I run two blogs. The way I’ve put that together, I think, I’d like to share with people. So I’m going to be releasing a book in the next month or six weeks, or so, and it’s going to be all about that journey that I’ve been on over the past 18 months and how I’ve grown to somewhat successful blogs and a fully featured business over that period of time. So watch out for that.
Thursday Bram: Wonderful. So I just have one last question: what would you recommend for somebody who’s only just starting to explore the idea of starting their own business online? Where would you tell them to start?
Corbett Barr: Oh gosh. Well, to be honest, I guess this may sound strange, but the thing that I actually recommend people do is to take some time off. I know that maybe it’s hard to afford taking a lot of time off, but the way I started with the sabbatical I think is idea. And if you could afford to take at least two weeks or a month or a couple of months off and distance yourself from whatever life it is that you’re living and reconsider what it is that you want, what you want from the business and what you want from yourself. Because if you just jump into trying to create a business online and you’re still fully connected to your existing life and the society that we live in that pushes traditional careers and consumerism and all of those trappings, then it’s going to be hard for you to succeed long term, I think.
Because you have to do some soul searching and really figure out what’s important to you and make sure that you’re not pursuing something just for the money and make sure that you’re not pursuing something just because it’s what other people think you should be doing. So I really encourage people to start by taking some time off and then really look to figure out what it is you’re passionate about and what it is you’re good at. Because just jumping on something because it seems like a good opportunity will probably lead you down the wrong path and it’s the wrong types of motivation.
Thursday Bram: All right. And people, our listeners can find you at FreePursuits.com or ThinkTraffic.net, or on Twitter, right? You’re @CorbettBarr?
Corbett Barr: That’s right, C-O-R-B-E-T-T-B-A-R-R.
Thursday Bram: All right, well thank you for joining us.
Corbett Barr: Awesome. Thanks Thursday, this was fun.
View full post on FreelanceSwitch
Site: Shoeboxed
In this interview learn from Taylor Mingos about cloud based apps that can help your freelance business. Shoeboxed is the company he runs, which can save you time by scanning and organizing your business receipts for you. It integrates with Freshbooks and other affordable, open standards online apps as well. Taylor discusses quite a bit about launching a startup, filling a niche market’s needs, and expanding abroad. So for those of you looking to expand beyond freelancing and launch your own business, this interview will be especially interesting.
Hit the flash player below to listen now:
Other listening options:
Download the podcast file (in MP3 format) via the link (right-click to save).
Editors Note: This audio interview was originally commissioned for Netsetter; however, that blog was put on permanent hiatus, so we’ve placed it here on FreelanceSwtich for you to enjoy.
Thursday Bram: Hi, this is Thursday Bram. I’m here with Taylor Mingos from Shoeboxed.com. Taylor, can you tell us a little about Shoeboxed and what you guys do?
Taylor Mingos: Sure. Shoeboxed, we’re a web start-up, a Software As A Service (SAAS) company, we mostly service freelancers and small business owners and we help them get their paper clutter-like receipts, business cards, bills, invoices-digitized with the data extracted totally by us. And we have a lot of integrations with other web apps, such as Outright.com, Freshbooks, Batchbook. We have a new integration with Salesforce. We help get your physical data into these really cool web applications.
Thursday Bram: How did you guys get started with the idea behind Shoeboxed?
Taylor Mingos: It’s been many years in the making, you know. I’ve run small businesses since being in high school. And being in high school, I ran my own video editing and post-production business. That was when Adobe Premier and some of these software packages that were very inexpensive came out, allowing people to do at home what traditionally big production houses had to do with very expensive equipment. And starting a business providing video editing post-production services-that was kind of my first foray into entrepreneurship.
And, kinda that experience, one of the things I hated most about owning my own small company was dealing with paper work, you know, invoicing people, keeping track of receipts for taxes and for documenting your expense log, billing clients, keeping track of dinners and stuff like that and equipment purchases. And that’s kind of where the idea first came about for Shoeboxed, was “man, this paper clutter is a really big hassle.” And people have been talking about the paperless office since the 1960s and we’re still not there yet.
And then kind of over the years, did a number of social media websites, dating sites, was involved most recently before Shoeboxed, in what would become the largest social networking site in Germany. One of the first in poise-it was basically a German version of Facebook-it was not officially associated with Facebook-became the largest social network over there. At that experience, while I was working there, it was clear that that company was going to be successful and exit for a large sum of money, we started kinda thinking about what were some interesting spaces to look at out there.
And we ended up keep coming back to this idea of really trying to bridge the divide between the paper world and all these new exciting stuff that is happening online. We saw a lot of growth in applications starting for freelancers and small businesses and thought it was a really exciting time to be involved. And you know, longer term where developing some software to help prevent generating paper in the first place, but right now we’re focusing on servicing the need of the marketplace, I guess, which is actually digitizing the paper with human verification into all these different apps.
Thursday Bram: Very cool. You mentioned that you saw a lot of room for growth in targeting freelancers and small business owners. Is there a particular reason that you felt that this was a great opportunity? Why did you choose to work with small business owners specifically?
Taylor Mingos: Right. That’s a good question. Well, I can answer that on a couple different fronts. Well, first of all, coming out of a social networking site in Germany, it was very clear at the time-not only in Germany but also in the states-there’s a big bubble I guess you could say, in social networking. I think in Germany alone, there were over 8 or 10 social networking sites for pets that were all Angel or VC funded. There were probably over 8 or 10 social networking sites for athletes that were all Angel or VC funded-and these are business models where you need to get millions of users to get even 5 or 10k a month in revenue-if you’re lucky.
And one reason we were interested was we saw this SaaS was a growing area, where there is actually a business model. You know, people charge for their service because small businesses and freelancers are usually willing to pay a small fee if the service provides value to them. That aspect was interesting. We also just saw, just as a trend in the marketplace saw more and more of these offerings. Salesforce of course was really, really well-known, but there were a lot of other things out there-invoicing, payroll, CRM, and so forth for freelancers and small businesses and we wanted to be a part of that growing market. And it’s a very quickly growing market. You know, 5 or 10 years ago if you were a small business owner or a freelancer, you had to pay an enormous amount of money that would have been prohibitively expensive. To get kind of a good ERP, your good full-out solution to managing a business. We’re talking tens of thousands of dollars probably a month. And now days, it’s 25 dollar packages here and there that you can put together and run your entire business in the cloud. It’s really exciting.
And the market just has incredible potential to grow. When you look at Constant Contact, which I think is the most successful in terms of users, you know email marketing software package, and I think they have, they are apublically traded company, so these numbers are out there, but I think it’s about 400,00/500,000 users. When you think about it for a second that there are 26 million small businesses in the States, it’s not that many. I mean, that’s a lot of users and they’re making an awesome amount of revenue, but there are a lot of small business owners and freelancers out there, that are only now just becoming aware that there are these products that can help them manage and market their business more effectively in the cloud. So, it’s a real growing space, with growing awareness. When email marketing companies, when companies like Shoeboxed talk to business owners, often times, unless they’re very web savvy, we’re not even having to sell why we’re better than some other solution out there. We just have to-most small business owners don’t even know that there are these solutions out there that help them run their business in the cloud. And that’s going to change more and more over the next couple years, and it’s going to be exciting for both freelancers and small business owners, but as well as the startups that target them.
Thursday Bram: I know that Shoeboxed is involved with the Small Business Web Directory. Can you tell us a little about what that is and how you guys got involved.
Taylor Mingos: Yea, I would love to. So, the Small Business Web is kind of a loosely organized-more of a manifesto than a club, I guess you would say. It was founded-Shoeboxed was one of the founding members, along with Outright, Batchbook, Freshbooks, and Mailchimp. Basically, what we really wanted to help advocate with the group was better open standards for transferring data between applications, as well as to help market each other a little bit. We have products that work really well with each other and in some cases, Shoeboxed would love to notify our users that a great thing that Batchbook is doing because we integrate with them and so forth. And it kind started as this manifesto to allow users data to be open and not kind of walled in, like some traditional companies would do, or desktop companies would do. Really promoting simple, open standards for exchanging data, promoting single sign-on, promoting things like this that are good for the user. And it’s grown enormously.
So we started the group at SXSW last year, and this year was kind of the one year anniversary. And it that year, I think the group is at about 180 companies that have kind of signed on to the manifesto, which your required to have an open API to join the group. I think Google Groups is officially a member, Rackspace cloud is a member and co-threw a party with us and some other small business web founders. It’s just really grown and there’s a lot of excitement for this. And members of the group are attending and kind of representing the group at different developer conferences and standards setting conferences to try to promote and really advocate for some really simple standards, so that all these apps that serve freelancers and small businesses can really work nicely with each other and provide a cohesive, unified experience.
Thursday Bram: Wonderful. I want to circle back around a little bit to how you started up Shoeboxed. How did you create a team that could put together-Shoeboxed has just grown amazingly in the past couple years-how did you put together the team that could do that.
Taylor Mingos: Yea, team building is an ongoing thing as part of a startup. Obviously, it’s very important who you have working with you. When I first wanted to start the company, the company I had worked at previously was acquired. I was finishing up my degree at Duke University, in the states, and I started putting together a team of people that ranged from people who had very little interest in startups and wanted to do it as a summer thing to people who had a lot of interest, people who wanted to try something new. And putting together kind of people who-that were willing to come with me to Germany actually and I’d pay for their ticket, their lodging, their expenses and so forth to help me start this company.
So the initial team was kind of a lot of enthusiastic friends and people I had known through acquaintances from Duke as well as people from the previous startup I worked at in Berlin-including Tobi, who is Shoeboxed’s CRO, had an investment banking background, also worked at a German startup. We went to Berlin and the reason we went to Berlin was just because that’s where I had the biggest contact network. Obviously contacts and knowing people is very important and I didn’t really have a contact network established in New York or Silicon Valley as much as I did in Germany. So we went there, talked with some of our mentors, got some feedback on the idea, raised an initial round, and then moved back to the states.
We moved back to the states because we raised the round to target US people. The IRS allowed scanned receipts and scanned documents and were ahead of a lot of other countries at the time. And we’ve been here in the Raleigh-Durham area since that move.
Thursday Bram: So I find it very interesting that you started around Duke and around Raleigh and Durham, when so many startups seem of the opinion that you HAVE to start somewhere else, like Silicon Valley. What is it been like to do a startup in North Carolina? Has there been benefits of working outside Silicon Valley? Has there been any challenges?
Taylor Mingos: You know, that’s a really good question. When we moved back to this area, it was primarily because we still had people that wanted to be involved in Shoeboxed that were still students at Duke. But we stayed-that’s no longer the case-we do have some interns from Duke, but that’s not the main reason we stayed here.
The main reason we stayed here is we’ve grown to really like the area. As a Duke student, I don’t think I was really that aware of what was going on in Durham, Research Triangle Park and Raleigh and Kerry, which make up the triangle area. But, running a business here, I realize there is a wealth of internet startups, there’s a wealth of gaming startups, lots of the big video game companies, like Epic for example, are located here, and there’s a strong community of people here actually that have run startups and have had exits.
On the Shoeboxed management team, we have about 7 or 8 exits for about 50 million dollars represented on the team that are all from local companies. We’ve worked a lot with companies in the area. iContacts is located here, Bronto, a number of other startups. There’s actually-I think-a directory of the area online for the entire area, as well as one that Shoebox helps sponsor and raise awareness of startups in the area-DowntownDurhamStartups.com. There’s a lot of resources here-more than in a typical city this size outside of Silicon Valley for sure.
Some of the advantages we’ve seen are because it’s a tight-knit community here, it can be very helpful working with different community members. The costs here, both in terms of HR-in terms of salaries, as well as in terms of rent, things like that are a lot, lot, lot smaller than in Silicon Valley or Boston.
One disadvantage of the area is there is obviously not as much capital here. I think that’s the biggest disadvantage. Shoeboxed was already funded when we moved here, so that wasn’t a big consideration was raising our first round. There is capital here in the area. I think you have to look a little harder than in Silicon Valley for it. And I think typically a lot of the institutional investors, the VC investors in the area, you know, might be a little more conservative than the companies in the Valley. But, there are great companies, great VCs here, great Angel investors here, there’s a very strong community.
It’s also a $300 ticket to get to Silicon Valley, so we’re there quite a lot for meetings and things like that, but for now we’re based here.
Thursday Bram: You mentioned that several of your team members went to Duke. Do you think that being around a University like Duke for somebody who doesn’t want to be in Silicon Valley would be a good criteria for picking a location?
Taylor Mingos: Yea, I definitely think it’s part of the eco-system. I mean, when you look at the advantages of any area, you’re thinking on a couple different levels and a couple different areas. One is access to capital. A big one is talent. And I think being near a university, plays into the talent side of that. You want to be in an area where people get startups. Where employees here understand how stock options work and understand what that is and they’ve worked at technology companies before and they’ve been involved in acquisitions in similar spaces before.
But you know, having universities nearby is also very helpful-great talent pool. There’s a lot of University resources in terms of networking events and things like that, that can be of great use. And Duke is an excellent university. Has really been growing its entrepreneurship network, doing a lot more events here in the Triangle. We’re also only about 15 minutes away from UNC. We have a couple of employees at Shoeboxed who take transit here from UNC-they’re still students. As well as we have some full-time members who are from UNC, which is Duke’s big rival school. And also NC State, which is located right down the road in Raleigh, has a really top-tier computer science and engineering program. It’s kind of the best one in North Carolina. So, that really does help, I think, keep the area strong, and feed the start up community with, you know, talent and energy and ideas.
And another thing here kind of on the resources-we actually have some incubators opening up here, Launchbox Digital is opening this fall, which is a second location for Launchbox which is a DC incubator. The Universities here, I think all have incubators. I know Duke does and NC State. And also the nations first casual gaming, video game only incubator is opening here, right near our office called Joystick Live, so things kind of also help keep students here in the area and attract talent.
Thursday Bram: Very cool. Now I know that recently you guys recently expanded and opened a new office in Sydney, Australia. Could you talk about how you chose Sydney and maybe a little about the challenges of opening up literally on the other side of the globe?
Taylor Mingos: Haha. Literally. Well, you know, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of interest and people starting foreign versions of Shoeboxed. International expansion is definitely part of our plan. We really liked working with the team that is now Shoeboxed Australia and kind of going through their ideas for the country. They have a lot of experience in startups. They’re a good team. They knew the area. We had been thinking about doing kind of a trial launch of one international company before going all out and launching in a number of different countries, which we’re doing fairly soon here. It just seemed like a logical fit.
We actually, when doing some research, found out we had a lot of Australian users that we didn’t know we’re Australian users. Our system wouldn’t let our Australian users sign up for our paid plans. It restricted to US and Canadian addresses. And a lot of Australians had found a way in the site, in this one page, where they could change the address and sign up. So we had people using us and paying 50, 60 bucks to ship stuff halfway around the world to us-and quite a few of them. We started digging in more and more and seeing that there is a tremendous demand and there is a very interested market, especially for our first international marketing. We went through kind of opening with this team in Australia, Shoeboxed Australia, and that was about a month ago, a month and a half ago.
And another great thing is we actually launched as Seabit Australia, which is the largest tech conference there, and won an award for the best business application, which is really great.
Thursday Bram: Congratulations. So, with Shoeboxed, I would think that you would face a few concerns that would be an issue for other startups, considering that you have a business application and you’re working with companies, business owners, and will eventually have to take their receipts and figure out their taxes at the beginning of the year. Has there been any difficulties adapting the system for Australia and for other countries?
Taylor Mingos: Basically, our system is really, it’s designed by a team-we’re a very international team already in terms of our own composition of the management team and experiences. We designed the system early on, thinking towards internationalization.
And making sure we were doing certain things, just to make it easier down the road for when we pulled the trigger. So, because of our software, it’s been really straightforward actually. And that is a lot of foresight and a lot of thinking and implementing certain things from the beginning that made it kind of easy for us to launch an Australian version of the software.
Thursday Bram: Great. I just have one more question.
Taylor Mingos: Ok.
Thursday Bram: If you had the opportunity to talk to people who were kind of on the edge about doing a startup, trying to make that decisions, would you have any particular advice you would tell them to consider before making the leap?
Taylor Mingos: I, my biggest advice for people thinking about starting a startup is to just do it. Start it, see how it goes, don’t over-plan, especially if it’s a web startup. You can start a web startup, a website, throw a concept up there, for free or for very minimal funds. And I’ve talked to a lot of entrepreneurs who have ideas, who spend months, years kind of planning these ideas and they never really get started, get off the ground.
And I think if you have an idea, have a concept, don’t wait until it’s perfect. Don’t wait until you have everything ready. Just get it up there, get started, start measuring how much attention it’s getting, are things going the way you thought, and then iterate, iterate, iterate, and just get it out there.
I think-that would be my biggest advice, is that if people have an idea, maybe they’re not willing to quit the 9-5 just yet, but just do what you can, get it on there. I don’t believe in trying to keep things secret, I don’t believe in keeping your startup a stealth startup for 2 years, because then what usually happens is it never gets launched at all.
And I think that’s my biggest advice for entrepreneurs-if they have an idea, just go ahead and launch it as quickly as possible.
Get some market feedback. Maybe some market validation and then go from there.
Thursday Bram: Great. Well, thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.
Taylor Mingos: Well, thanks Thursday. See you I guess next year at SXSW, if not before.
Thursday Bram: I hope so.
View full post on FreelanceSwitch
Credit: Yuri Arcurs on Photodune
The art of interviewing is just that—an art. Writers can spend an ungodly amount of time conducting interviews, which in turn costs them money. Here are some tips you can implement to make the process smoother, faster, and even more enjoyable.
Before you even head out the door for the interview you should be prepared—especially if you are interviewing someone who is in the public eye. Don’t waste your time fishing for answers you could easily find somewhere else. Being prepared is one of the most important interview techniques.
Perhaps the person has a bio online or has been featured in other articles. Find out, and read everything you can find. Do they work for a company that has a media relations person? Ask them to send over any information they have on the person. You then want to create a list of questions that fit your story. If you ask yes or no questions you’re going to get yes or no answers—craft your questions in a way that elicits a thoughtful response.
Don’t waste your time fishing for answers you could easily find somewhere else.
If I am looking for specific facts and figures, I’ll send my subject these questions ahead of time so they, too, can be prepared. It’s tough being in an interview and having the person say, over and over again, “I don’t know the numbers off the top of my head, I’ll have to send them to you later.” If they’re a busy person, they might not get you the statistics you need in a timely manner. Ask your subject if they can have this information ready for you on the day of your interview.
This interview technique might sound obvious, but it’s not. The friendlier you are the more you will naturally put your interviewee at ease. Interviewing isn’t just nerve wracking for you, the freelancer—it can also be nerve wracking for your subject. A lot of people I write about aren’t used to being interviewed, so they’re nervous. It’s your job to put them at ease. Smile, be relaxed, comment on your surroundings, look them in the eye when they talk, all of these things will help make them comfortable and, in turn, give a better interview. If you have time, ask them some questions about them—I have found that given the opportunity, people like to talk about themselves.
Like I said above, given the opportunity, people will talk about themselves. And sometimes they talk and talk and talk….It can be hard to interrupt a person once they get on a roll, but keeping the interview on topic is your responsibility—especially if you are short on time. Always be polite. I often find myself steering my subject back to the question by saying “If I could just interrupt for a moment, you said something earlier that I didn’t quite understand…” and then get back to your list of questions.
Sometimes your interviewee has an agenda of their own that they like to push. If you ask a question and they don’t answer it, ask it again in a different way. Easier to reword the question and push the interviewee while you’re there than have to go back and get the answer your editor wants after the fact, especially if it’s something the person doesn’t necessarily want to talk about.
If someone wants to tell me stuff “off the record” I ask them not to. I can’t use it in my story anyway and it just takes up time. An important interview technique is to stick to the stuff they can be quoted on.
Taking notes is a good interview technique. I bring my laptop along to take notes with on interviews. I type faster than I can write and I can maintain eye contact with my subject while typing. Some people prefer to record their interviews, but there is nothing I hate more than transcribing! If you have the means to record and have it transcribed for you—either through a person or software—go for it. I just get nervous that something is going to break. Even when I do record, I usually take notes too. There is nothing more embarrassing (and time consuming) than having to re-interview someone.
Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Yuri Arcurs.
View full post on FreelanceSwitch
Site: Men with Pens
In this interview learn from James Chartrand of how to take your freelancing to the next level. He outlines ways you can grow from a freelancer into an agency, sell your own educational products, and increase your revenue. He runs Men with Pens where he manages a team of creatives that deliver copywriting and graphic design services.
Hit the flash player below to listen now:
Other listening options:
Download the podcast file (in MP3 format) via the link (right-click to save).
Editors Note: This audio interview was originally commissioned for Netsetter; however, that blog was put on permanent hiatus, so we’ve placed it here on FreelanceSwtich for you to enjoy.
Thursday Bram: Hi, this is Thursday Bram with Netsetter and I’m here with James Chartrand of Men with Pens. James, could you tell us a little bit about what you do?
James Chartrand: I’m the owner of Men with Pens, which is a graphic design agency and a copyrighting agency as well. We offer a full service, one stop shop for anyone who wants to take an offline business online, or who wants to take an online business and make it better.
Thursday Bram: I know that you’ve got a couple of e-books, how do having products as well as services play in together in your business?
James Chartrand: I think having products is a really important part, especially when you’re a service based business, because you only have so much energy and so much time in a day, but you still have to earn money. So you have to find other ways to bring in passive income that helps you make a decent living, make a good living, and still have enough free time to do the things that you’d like to do. Very much part of the freelancer lifestyle of building your own schedule and having the available time and money so that you can enjoy your life instead of working day in and day out.
So products are an important part of my business, not a main part of the business yet, though we’re working on expanding the store and getting some new books in, looking in to developing courses, all that so that we can balance out working, doing creative services, and selling products to help us keep our sanity going.
Thursday Bram: How do you keep those products in balance? Like how do you find the time to work on them when you have client work and how do you prioritize what you’re working on?
James Chartrand: I consider myself my own client. My business is my client as much as anyone else is my client as well. It’s really easy for people and freelancers and solopreneurs to get a great idea for a product that they can develop, but when a client comes with money they set their own product aside, no matter how much success that product could bring them if they did develop it. So what happens is that everybody has lots of product ideas or ideas they’d like to pursue that are sitting on the back burner, and they work on it a little bit, they chip away at it, but it never really gets done.
The only way around that is to consider yourself and your business as important a client as anyone else, in fact your first client. You’re responsibility is to your business to make sure it succeeds. So you want to put all the chances on your side.
So when I get a great idea that I know I want to pursue, that I know will bring me better success and more of what I want, I make that a priority. I will schedule that in just like any other project and I will make the time to work on it. Even if it’s just an hour a week, it still progresses along and it gets done. Sometimes I give it more attention and it gets four hours a week. Sometimes the whole week goes to that project. But it gets scheduled in as if I’m my own client.
Thursday Bram: Wonderful. So you started out as a freelance writer and have built up a team. Could you talk about how you got your start and how you educated yourself about writing?
James Chartrand: My start was very simply someone said, “You’re a really good writer, why don’t you see if there’s work online.” At the time I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have income, and I was pretty much at the end of my rope as far as what to do for money. I had two kids to support as well, so it was getting a little bit urgent. Low and behold there was writing work online.
I got the glorious sum of $2.00 for 500 words, and I thought that was absolutely brilliant. Here I was doing something I enjoyed and getting paid for it. Of course I was absolutely clueless. I had no idea what I was doing online.
But it didn’t take me long to figure the game out. When you browse around and you see how clients behave and how other peers behave and what’s going on, and you read various blogs and sites, you learn very quickly. If you take the time to do that, of course. You have to expand your horizons and read around and absorb as much information as you can. So it was pretty easy to see that there’s plenty of work available at much better rates, and it’s just a question of finding the ways to go after it and get it.
I decided that I wanted to develop a team, have other people work with me, and of course make a little bit of profit on the work that they did, together become stronger. So I started hiring other people and learned the kind of people I like to work with, the kind of people I needed to work with me, the kind of skills these people needed to have. At one point I had 30 people working for me, so I had quite the stable going on, and then I realized I didn’t want that big of a stable. I didn’t’ want to be a content mill in that sense.
So I downsized and I decided what I wanted to be, what I wanted my business to be, and narrowed it down to a very small team of highly skilled specialists. I headhunted people that fit right within the business, that had the same mindset, that had exactly what I was looking for, and who also wanted to be part of a team as well. There you have it, here we are today.
Thursday Bram: Have you found that you’re doing less writing because you’re working with a team, or does it free you up from some of the other tasks to focus on your writing?
James Chartrand:There’s actually a whole bunch of benefits to working with other people. I oversee every project that comes through our doors. I’m involved in every one and everyone gets my attention. So I’m always there and present. But I can benefit from having, for example working with Taylor, very often she’ll write a great base and I’ll come and put my magic sprinkles on it. Or sometimes I’m booked and busy, but the client is happy to work with Taylor and we can serve more people that way.
So it does free up my time and it lets me do more of what I enjoy doing as opposed to what I don’t really feel like doing. I think it’s an effective use of my time, and it’s also great to be able to help other people do what they love. Everybody does their own thing and their own specialty, and we all work together to make a really great team.
Thursday Bram: Did you have to change the way that you work or build a system to allow you to work with a team? Especially when you were working with 30 people.
James Chartrand: Yeah, you do have to have some pretty good systems in place. You have to know what you want from people, first and foremost. It’s not enough to say, “Write three pages on X.” You really have to get precise about what you want from them and be very, very specific. Communication is the biggest benefit to a great job, and the biggest barrier to a terrible job. So you really have to develop clear, clear communication with people to make sure you get the results that you want and you need.
Thursday Bram: Do you use any tools in particular that you’d recommend?
James Chartrand: Actually, I’ve browsed the Internet for thousands and thousands of tools, from project management to time management and everything in between, and frankly Gmail and Google services are the winner. They’ve come out ahead every time. You can add what you want and develop a really good system that works for you all within the same place. It sounds silly that such a simple thing would be the winner, but I’ve perused software that costs $500.00 a month and tried it out and it just doesn’t work.
Thursday Bram: Okay. I’d like to shift gears a little bit and talk about how you’ve marketed Men with Pens and how you’ve built it up.
James Chartrand: Sure.
Thursday Bram: One of the things that I first saw you doing was your guest posts on Copyblogger, that’s how I found your site.
James Chartrand: Yeah.
Thursday Bram: What led you to the guest posting strategy and how did you get on Copyblogger?
James Chartrand: I can’t remember exactly when I remembered that guest posting was a marketing option, or that people would even accept guest posts. But whenever I did discover it, it just seemed logical to me to find the biggest, best site that I could that would bring me credibility and maximum exposure. If I’m going to spend my time and energy, I’m going to put that time and energy into the place that’s going to bring me back the best returns.
So it just seemed natural to me that if I wanted to be known, that was the best place to be known. It was the place to go at the time, and it still is, quite frankly. I mean Copyblogger (Skip in tape).
And as far as landing a gig there, quite simply I asked.
Thursday Bram: Mm hmm.
James Chartrand: I have no fear about asking for what I want. The worst I could hear was no, and I wouldn’t have been any worse off than I was before. And the best I could hear was yes. So to me it was a no-brainer. I simply contacted Brian and asked if he was interested, and he was.
Thursday Bram: Wonderful. And you’ve got a very solid blog yourself. It’s won several awards for writing blogs, hasn’t it?
James Chartrand: We’ve been listed in the top ten blogs for writers a few times. It’s got very high PR, it’s got a great Alexa. There’s been plenty of exposure around the Web. It seems that we’re really well known for our blog and the services that we offer. So that’s really great.
Thursday Bram: When you’re writing the blog for your company, do you approach it any differently than guest posts that you’ll be putting up elsewhere? How do you make sure that it really markets you?
James Chartrand: Well, I don’t write guest posts is the number one rule. I never, never sit down and think I’m going to write a guest post for Freelance Switch or for Copyblogger, or for any other blog. I just don’t write for them first. I write for me and my blog first.
So everything that I sit down to write is always written with the intention of showing up on Men with Pens. But when you get to the end and you sit back and you say, “Wow, that was a really good post. That was really good.” That’s the one you give away.
So you look at it and you say, “Where would this be the best fit?” If it’s about copyrighting, Copyblogger should have it. If it’s about freelancing, Freelance Switch or Freelance Folder should get it. You decide that way. So it’s always written for Men with Pens first and it’s never written with guest post in mind.
Thursday Bram: Very interesting. What other strategies do you use for marketing Men with Pens?
James Chartrand: I do some banner advertising here and there, but the returns are low for the price that it costs. Sadly, because it’s a really easy way to market. I hang out on Twitter, you can find me at @MenWithPens on Twitter. I’m there every day, often extensively. Though I don’t particularly market there, I just hang out and chat, which seems to work very well, I think, when people are just looking to goof off in general.
I guess post here and there. I use word of mouth a great deal. A lot of our business simply comes from people who have seen our work elsewhere and they’ve just realized that this is what they want and they come to us. So word of mouth and referrals is a huge, huge part of our marketing, which is great because it means I don’t have to do anything except do a great job.
Thursday Bram: That is very efficient. (Laughter) So where do you see your business going in the future, especially concerning that you’ve already reached working with 30 people at a time and found that it wasn’t the right option for you?
James Chartrand: I have always, always kept in mind a vision of being the resource, the agency, the guys that everyone wants. That’s always, always in the back of my mind, and a lot of steps that we’ve made over the years have been to work towards that. A lot of steps that I’m taking this year in 2010 are definitely towards working to achieve that vision.
I’d like to be a recognized agency, not just in the U.S. because I’m very popular there already, but in different areas of the world. Australia is a target market for me, Canada. I’d like to definitely have people recognize my name no matter where I go.
Thursday Bram: I know that you’re based in Canada and you do a lot of work in the U.S.; how is planning for an international expansion for Australia shaping things for you and for other countries like that?
James Chartrand: Actually it’s, you know, as much as there’s divisions between the countries where there are border lines, when you’re online there is no division. It’s just a name that you call a sector that you haven’t really played in yet. To me, working with American clients is not really much different from working with Australian clients; I just have to change my time zone. It’s the same needs, it’s the same people.
Same thing with working with people in France or Great Britain. I mean there are no borders anymore, so it’s just who do I want to reach, where are they located? And I just go show up there and be present.
Thursday Bram: Okay. Well, that’s pretty much all of the questions that I have except for just one, and this is the one that we always tend wind up with.
James Chartrand: Oh, the trick question. (Laughter)
Thursday Bram: All right, so if you were to only be able to tell somebody interested in building a career for themselves or a business for themselves online one thing before they started, what would you tell them?
James Chartrand: I would tell them make sure you’re dedicated and in it for the long haul. You might be successful in three months, there’s a good chance it’s going to take you a year. It is no different now than it is to going out on the street and building a business from scratch in a physical location. So be dedicated and understand that you’ve got work ahead of you and you’re not going to be rich within three months.
If you are and it works to your advantage, that’s fantastic. It still happens. But the odds are not in your favor anymore and it’s just like any other business.
Thursday Bram: Wonderful advice.
James Chartrand: Kind of depressing advice, I’m sorry. But it’s realistic and I think that’s important that people understand that.
Thursday Bram: Yes, yeah. Okay, well our readers can find you at MenwithPens.ca, correct?
James Chartrand: Yup, that’s it.
Thursday Bram: And on Twitter @MenwithPens.
James Chartrand: That’s right.
Thursday Bram: All right, thank you for joining us.
James Chartrand: Thanks very much for having me; I appreciate that.
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So often when people think of writing, they picture novelists or journalists. But have you considered medical writing?
There is a great deal of opportunity to thrive as a medical writer, and build a career in this arena, for those that take the necessary steps, such as getting to know the field, attending conferences, and networking in this niche.
Cyndy Kryder, a medical writer hailing from the Philadelphia region, got into the field as a way to leverage her health industry experience into a flexible career. Along the way, she’s helped others get into this booming industry. Meet the “accidental medical writer” herself….
Tell us a little bit about how you got into medical writing.
My favorite word to describe how I became a medical writer is “serendipity.” I’m a former speech-language pathologist who worked in pediatric and adult rehabilitation for a number of years, progressing up the ladder until I became director of a transitional living program for adults who had sustained traumatic brain injuries. As a clinician, I had written a lot of patient-education materials for my patients and their families. I had authored a couple of chapters in educational textbooks, and helped with a few journal articles. I also contributed to marketing pieces for the programs I directed. I enjoyed writing, but never saw it as a career.
After my second child was born, I realized I didn’t want to maintain the hectic pace needed to be a health care administrator. I wanted a career that would give me the flexibility I needed to be a parent and a professional. As luck would have it, my neighbor was a medical writer. One day I asked her how I could write and get paid for it. She put me in touch with a woman who needed freelance writers who could write about new and emerging medical technologies, and, as they say, the rest is history. That was 19 years ago, and I’ve never regretted my decision to become a freelance medical writer. By the way, that first company is thriving today and I’m now doing some consulting work for them.
Medical writing can be very lucrative. What kind of prerequisites do you need–is knowing AMA style enough? Is it best to take a course?
Well, most everyone defines lucrative differently, wouldn’t you agree? It’s quite possible, though, to earn a six-figure income as a medical writer, whether you work as a freelancer or you work full-time for a company.
In terms of the prerequisites, knowing how to write according to the AMA Style Guide is not enough. It’s also important to understand the phases of drug development, from preclinical through post-marketing, and the FDA approval process for devices. Having a basic understanding of medical terminology, as well as statistics and research terminology is also important. If you’re planning to freelance, you’ll need some understanding of marketing and promotion, too. If you’re going to be doing any writing related to the promotion of a drug or device, then you need to be familiar with all the FDA regulations regarding drug marketing and promotion. In the United States, there are very specific things pharmaceutical companies can and cannot do when promoting their products. You need to know what they are.
Some people feel most comfortable learning on their own; others need to participate in a structured program. I’m not convinced people need to have a Bachelor’s degree in medical writing, but I do recommend taking some of the courses AMWA offers in medical writing.
Speaking of those courses, how can people break into the medical writing field?
I believe anyone thinking about medical writing first needs to understand the scope of medical writing and then decide what type of medical writing to pursue, and whether to be an employee or a freelancer. In my opinion, medical writing can be divided into 3 broad categories: Regulatory, promotional and educational.
Regulatory writing is highly scientific and involves creating documents that are often submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Promotional writing is any writing created for the purpose of selling or promoting a drug, intervention or medical device. Educational writing includes any materials created for the purpose of educating health care professionals or the general public.
Once you decide what type of medical writing you want to do and how you want to work, the next step is to figure out which companies employ writers or purchase that type of writing. They include pharmaceutical companies, CROs (contract research organizations), medical education companies, medical communications companies, and medical advertising agencies. Of course, you could also decide you want to write for a medical journal or a hospital, or even start a health column in your local newspaper. There are lots of avenues to explore.
What websites provide great information on this arena besides yours? Where can people find jobs?
Thanks for the comment about our website. We do think we offer great content about medical writing.
American Medical Writers Association www.amwa.org and my local chapter, www.amwa-dvc.org, offer online toolkits for new medical writers that are filled with resources. AMWA national also maintains a list of medical writing jobs, but this is a value-added service only for AMWA members. I’ve noticed medical writing jobs on some of the larger online job boards, such as Monster.com. You can also do a search for companies that hire medical writers and contact them directly to see what they have to offer. Just type in “medical communication company” or “medical education company” and you’ll get a long list of possibilities. Also, you’ll find a directory of medical communication firms here: http://www.vendors.pharma-mkting.com/ma-listings.html. Be aware, though, this list isn’t updated regularly, so some of the companies may no longer be in business.
The weekly newsletter, Biotech Ink Insider, is a listing of medical writing jobs, mostly regulatory. To subscribe send an email to caldwell@biotechink.com.
You mentioned the AMWA. How instrumental has that been in helping to advance your career? Do you advise people to join an industry association?
I always advise novice medical writers to join the AMWA. I know when you’re just starting out, annual dues to a professional organization might not be in your budget. But the value you’ll get from an AMWA membership will outweigh its cost. Membership in AMWA is an investment in your future success you don’t want to pass up.
AMWA and its regional chapters sponsor workshops where you can learn different aspects of medical writing. These workshops, and the annual national conference, aren’t just for newbies, though. You’d be surprised by what even an experienced writer or editor can learn in a basic AMWA workshop! Plus, when you attend regional AMWA meetings, you’ll meet other medical writers as well as prospective clients. This face-to-face networking will go a long way in getting freelance work. And you’ll get a feel for the writing needs and the competition in your geographic area.
I firmly believe that membership in AMWA was instrumental in my success. The contacts I’ve made and the skills I’ve learned through this organization are invaluable.
What is your biggest challenge as a freelance writer?
In my opinion the biggest challenge for freelance writers, no matter what area we work in, is getting the next job. We need to be constantly promoting ourselves and our work while we are meeting deadlines for our clients. And most writers aren’t really that good at self-promotion. At one of the workshops I presented at last year’s Freelance Workshop (sponsored by AMWA-DVC), I asked for a show of hands of how many people hated marketing. Nearly everyone in the audience raised their hand. What does that tell you?
What was your worst professional experience? How did you learn from it?
I have been very, very lucky because I’ve had very few bad professional experiences. One that sticks in my mind has to do with juggling family and work. When my kids were toddlers, they both came down with chicken pox at the same time. So I had two itchy, feverish little girls on my hands and a 40-page monograph with a deadline that same week. It was a nightmare!
Instead of pulling out my hair, I called my client, told her about my situation, and asked her if an extension was possible. She was very sympathetic and extended the deadline for me. Fortunately, my husband had some unused vacation days, so he was able to take care of the kids while I worked. I met the original deadline, which made the client very happy. What I learned from that was the importance of communicating and being upfront with my clients. If you don’t think you’ll meet a deadline, tell your client well in advance so they can plan accordingly.
Tell us about how you landed your book work.
Full disclosure here. All of the books, paperback and electronic, that are part of The Accidental Medical Writer Series, are self-published. Nude Mice, the second book in the series, was picked up last year by a Japanese publisher and translated into Japanese. That was a big thrill, even though we can’t read a word of it!
We wrote the books because we saw a need for information for novice medical writers. Since we didn’t want to endure the long lag between writing and publication, we decided to publish the books ourselves. We have several other books in the works. Our biggest problem is finding the time to write the books while doing our other work. Another juggling dilemma I’m sure you’re familiar with, right?
Sure am! So what advice do you have for writers (that are working) to get into the medical writing field?
Figure out the type of medical writing you want to do, then begin a targeted promotional campaign to reach prospective clients (if you want to freelance ) or employers (if you want to be an employee). Join an online social network for professionals, such as LinkedIn or Biznik, and become part of the conversation so that potential clients/employers can get to know you. Create a profile, seek out contacts, and join groups in your industry. Once you’ve become a group member, start discussions and respond to discussions that are already ongoing. Prove to group members that you have valuable information to contribute.
I can’t stress enough the importance of social networking. I stumbled across some interesting research while writing an article for the AMWA Journal. In a 2010 recruiting survey, 83% of companies said they use, or plan to use, social networks to find employees. LinkedIn (78%), Facebook (55%) and Twitter (45%) were the most popular recruiting platforms More importantly, among those companies that were actively hiring, 92% used or planned to use social media. That tells me social media is not a gimmick, but rather a real shift in the way we are doing business today—and will do business in the future
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