Are You Always an Asshole or Is It Just When You’re Online?

A couple months ago I joined a few groups on Linked In as a way to promote my work, get to know some other freelance writers (networking!), and possibly connect with people who (I’ve been told) frequent those groups looking for writers to hire.

I wanted to make sure I was in the right places if I was going to spend time in online communities chatting. It needed to be worth my while because I wanted to give the most benefit to the most people by sharing my experiences.

Weeding down to the basic groups that applied to my current position seemed like a smart idea. Groups geared toward freelancers, journalists, writers, etc. Everything was going great.

That is, until I started posting helpful articles.

Because as soon as I started sharing my experiences ofpersonal development as a freelance writer, the jack-assery started to fly.

Of course I want people to hire me but what I was sharing had little if nothing to do with asking people to do that. Quite the contrary, I really just wanted to help other writers. Because we’re all in this together even if what we do is a solopreneur enterprise most of the time.

I wanted to help struggling freelance writers see that it was okay to struggle, that it was normal to have questions. And then I wanted to help by giving my story of breaking into this industry as personal accounting for the answers to those questions.

But apparently some people don’t really want answers. Apparently many of the people in these groups spend little or no time reading the content and show up to do nothing more than attack the poster. It isn’t just my links, I’m seeing these same people belittle everything that’s posted.

They like to battle the advice, not in a challenging way that opens debate or engaging conversation. No. They simply set out to be mean.

And I just do not get it.

The reason it makes no sense is because those same people pose questions and they appear to be looking for answers. They ask how to break in, what kinds of things you need to do to break in, how to be a better writer. Then they stomp all over the people who provide those answers because it appears the advice wasn’t what they wanted to hear.

Sorry to disappoint but there is no magic formula to get rich overnight as a writer. Sorry if you didn’t want to hear that you’d actually have to work for a living. And work hard. That there are things you need to learn how to do before attempting to freelance for income online.

Now I’m not saying I think I have all the answers, I’m not that egocentric, but I have been doing this for a while, have found some clients and made some decent money from my efforts. I thought that’s what they wanted to know how to do too. You know, since they asked.

But apparently their main goal is to waste their own time and everyone else’s by being an asshole. I’m just glad I don’t have to live with these people. If that’s what you’re like online is that what you’re like in life? Yikes.

Maybe you should take some of that snark and channel it into a book or a blog post. Perhaps that’s your voice and you’ll find a few freelance clients who love to pay combative people who already have all the answers to the questions they asked in the first place.

There’s my free advice of the day to all the trolls who find it fun to battle those who came before you - Use your aggression in a more productive way.

Though I highly doubt you’ll take the advice if past history is any indication.

Go ahead, bring on the evil comments. I can take it because in the end my skin is thick enough to shake my head and sigh. Then smile because I’ll be helping the writers who want the help and both of us will be padding our bank accounts with client work that pays while you waste hours you could have been writing for money by being an evil online troll.

Sucks to be you.

I won’t stop posting my advice and suggestions because there have been a few people who have seemed to genuinely benefit from what I’m putting out there. But I won’t engage with people who feel it’s their duty to be a tool just to look like a big shot.

This isn’t grade school people, it’s the internet. Get over yourself.

And now I’m going to get over myself and get back to doing what I do for a living. Writing for writers who want to make money. Just like me.

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I'm Jenn, a Content Marketing Strategist, Blogger for hire and owner of Copywrite That. I can write your blog posts, articles, emails, newsletters, web copy and more. Contact me today: info[at]copywritethat[dot]com

Cluttered House, Cluttered Mind

I’ve opened and closed the ‘New Post’ link so many times now it seems like I should probably just give up trying to write anything. But yet here I am writing some form of drivel anyway. You’re welcome.

It hit me earlier that it’s been over 2 weeks since I’ve even clicked on my own blog page let alone read any of my friend’s posts or considered putting a few letters into words into sentences into paragraphs into my own post. I’ve been so busy trying to do everything that once again it’s feeling like I’m doing nothing.

I started taking this intensive career training and pulling a lot of stuff together to start a Content Marketing and Freelance Blogging business. I’ve been doing it for 6 years already, guess it’s time to start getting paid for all my efforts right?

Yeah well that’s great but now I have to figure out how. And I just keep asking myself, if I hadn’t figured out how to do it in the last 6 years am I really going to now?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is also yes. I’m good at this conversational writing thing and it’s high time someone started paying me to do it for them.

So there’s that.

Then right in the middle of trying to get this business off the ground Matt took 4 days off work last week and the two of us started our renovations. Here’s a before and after for your viewing pleasure:

Most of you are Facebook friends and probably already saw the album so I’m not going to go into too much detail here but suffice to say we tore out a wall and a (3000 pound) rock wall fireplace and now our living room is the size of Jobing.com Arena. We could seriously start charging people to come and use it as a dance floor. So now the next question is what the heck we’re going to do with the massive open space.

The short answer is I have no clue because we’re not millionaires. The long answer is I have no clue because…you get the point.

Anyway, after pulling down and building back up most of the open holes, we went away last weekend so I could attend the bridal shower my sister was throwing for one of her closest friends. It couldn’t have come at a better time. After 4 days of back aching labor work (something I no longer do for a living, and mind you, I’m an old lady now too) I was so ready for a couple days off.

Sleeping on an air mattress (especially one that turns into a hot air balloon overnight) isn’t the most fun when you’ve pulled a muscle near your tailbone but if you ever find yourself in that situation here’s some free advice:

Drink. A lot. Then go dancing. Because all the other muscles you (shockingly) didn’t pull while doing the renovation will be so sore the next day you won’t really notice the one that was causing you to gimp around to begin with.

Sunday was all about chilling out and doing as little as possible. It was so nice in fact that we had a hard time prying ourselves off my sister’s sofa to make the 2 hour drive home. But we did and once we were here it was right back to off-mode as we planted our butts on our own sofa for the rest of the day.

So on Monday I had a ton of email and other stuff to catch up on after taking 6 days off. Catching up took the better part of the day. I was tired and cranky and didn’t really want to work but toughed it out and got through my overflowing inboxes.

Then today I started working on my landing page for my freelancing stuff as mentioned above and realized that my computer is an ancient POS. Luckily I just purchased a new laptop yesterday but it won’t be here for about 3 weeks. So I kept trying to make the site building tools work with my non-compatible machine. Only it was to no avail.

I wasted the whole morning and had nothing to show for it. Instead of getting upset (er) I dialed into a teleconference I’d signed up for through the career training folks. Aptly titled ‘Landing Clients’ it felt like this would be a great way to start figuring out the paycheck part.

Ten minutes into the call it turned into a sales pitch for a big conference/workshop they have coming up this fall. I stayed on the call just to see if there really would be any good tips or advice about how to land clients other than going to the bootcamp.

I wrote down exactly 8 things during the 73 minutes I was on the phone:

• Write about what you’re learning
• Choose a niche right away
• Network with everyone (even the wrong people for your niche)
• Practice talking about your business in person
• Find groups that understand the value a copywriter brings
• Take the action that works for you (calls, blogs, emails, etc.)
• Find opportunities to show yourself as an expert
• Ask friends for referrals

Now I don’t want to sound like an ungrateful person considering the call was free, but other than that last tip, do any of those suggestions tell a person how to land a client?

The short answer is no.

The long answer is that was 73 minutes spent listening to a sales pitch, not a teleconference with any form of benefit like it was originally presented, that I’ll never get back. And I didn’t even get a weekend at a timeshare out of it or anything. All I got was an offer to save money on their very expensive conference.

One I might be able to afford to attend if any of the 7 people on the call actually, you know, gave some information on landing clients.

After the technology and phone call debacles I decided it might be better to spend my time getting my house put back together instead of trying to focus on doing work that was clearly just laid out to frustrate me all day.

So I pulled on my big girl construction pants and finished the second coat of joint compound on the ceiling and wall.

I’m sore again but putting the house back together seemed like the smartest idea for the best way to get my head back together.

I forgot how cranky I get living in a cluttery construction zone.

So for the next couple weeks, until I can finish these home improvement projects I’m taking time away from writing. Well at least away from finding new clients. I’ll still do the work I have for the client that’s already paying me steadily but otherwise no deal.

At least that’s my plan until the laptop shows up. Once my new tech toy arrives all bets on finishing the house are off.

Good thing compound dries pretty quickly in the desert.

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Content Marketing Strategist and Blogger for hire, Jenn has over 12 years of freelancing experience. Follow her antics on twitter @jennshon

Steve Miller Really Knew What He Was Talking About

Time really does seem to be “ticking, ticking, ticking, into the future” at a pretty rapid clip these days. The past few weeks have been super busy learning all this new information on how to start and successfully run my freelance writing career, actually writing and applying to get some freelance writer gigs, chewing on my sequel in the subconscious (yes I’m still going to be writing fiction, no worries there!), and watching lots of exciting, long-winded playoff hockey.

I’ve barely had a minute to put together any kind of comprehendible thought that doesn’t involve SEO, keyword research, content marketing, some other industry specific term, or how many times in a day I can tweet with #BostonBruins.

So some of the stuff I’ve jotted down (because you know I carry a notebook and pen around with me everywhere) or uttered out loud has stuck with me the past couple weeks. In no particular order.

Refinancing your mortgage is kinda like losing your virginity

You wonder if it’s more than you can handle and you know it’ll hurt while it’s happening but it’s such an exciting prospect that you just can’t force yourself to stop moving forward. Especially because you know you’ll come out a different person on the other side. The pressure is off. Things can get back to normal. Maybe. I just hope at the end of it all I’m not left confused and bewildered, wondering if I made the right decision. And the bastard had better call me the next day. And if they can’t get it together to commit forever at least leave my big huge check on the nightstand and get the hell out.

There are at least 83 levels of awesome in “How I Met Your Mother”

Matt and I are TV bingers. When there’s a series that we have interest in watching but didn’t start from the start we add it to our Netflix instant queue and after the series is over we go back to watch all the episodes in one lump sum. Without commercials. “How I Met Your Mother” has been sitting in our queue for about four years and now that they’re coming back in the fall with the last season in the series it seemed like a good time to start watching from the start. I’d seen plenty of disjointed episodes over the years in syndication but something about knowing the full story is legen…wait for it…dary. “The Big Bang Theory” is up next.

Writing with keywords is a pain in the ass on a personal blog

No matter how much I want people to find and read this blog I just can’t make it keyword stuffy. It isn’t what this blog was originally set out to do and I don’t want it to become a chore or I’ll probably stop writing it. I write here to rant and rave and writing for content marketing doesn’t really fit in with that. At least not now. If I figure out how to do it maybe it’ll be so subtle no one will even notice. Until then I always have my website or Green Leaf Reviewer to jam pack with perfectly written keyword articles.

Hockey games should never be five hours long

Don’t get me wrong, I love that the Bruins are in the Stanley Cup Finals and I love that they’re playing the Chicago Blackhawks because having an Original Six matchup for the first time since 1979 is awesome. But there’s a reason I don’t watch much baseball. After the first four hours all I want to do is take a big old nap. So when the Bruins had to play a double overtime game to beat the Penguins and move on to the Stanley Cup Finals I figured that would be the longest game I’d ever seen. I figured wrong. After last night’s game 1 against the Hawks went into triple overtime and the game was within a minute or two of being the longest game ever in NHL history, I slept like a wee baby. All that screaming and excitement can really wear a person out. Please go back to your regularly scheduled two and a half hour running time. My east coast peeps shouldn’t have to be up until 1:00 AM watching these games. Unless the Bruins win of course. Then I don’t care if it takes seven hours. Carry on.

I love the smell of sweat in the morning

I started getting more serious about working out again in the past month or so and it’s all thanks to the stationary bike. That thing was the best $130 investment I’ve ever made. I ride at least five miles every morning, sometimes another five in the afternoon, and I’m already down about four pounds. It isn’t an extreme loss but if I can keep up the pace and intensity I should be up to twenty miles a day in the next few weeks and burning fat regularly. Exercise isn’t on my immediate radar so doing something quick like this really helps me stay motivated to keep doing it. The dancing thing happened a few times but I admit it pretty much fell by the wayside. Oh well.

Still wonky, still have sausage fingers

I found a naturopathic doc who seems pretty cool even though she’s very expensive and not really covered under my insurance. Of course she’s not. She gave me some plant based something-or-another to “completely stop” the wonkiness. It didn’t work. She goaled me to lose ten pounds in the next three months. I’m trying to do more than that. Not sure if I’ll go back or not. None of them seem to have a clue whether trained in east or west. Sometimes I think I’m better left to eating a more natural diet and exercising so I can just work this out on my own.

I’m wearing my hair up until it stops looking like Darth Vader’s helmet

You get what you pay for when you go to the cheapest possible place to get a trim. But really, she went a little too short and blunt this time. I asked her to do a small stack in the back so it would fall more naturally toward my neck instead of fluffing out like it does when it’s all one length. She said no and cut the way she wanted to. In turn I tipped her what I wanted to. Good thing it’s long enough for a ponytail and that I’m okay with my hair being up every day.

I need a new saying because “oh my god it’s a hundred out!” is actually low balling it

Mother fucker it’s blazing hot here. I mean I knew what I was getting into by moving to the desert but its only mid-June and we’ve already had twenty-four days at or above 100 this year according to the National Weather Service. With at least two more months of this on tap I’m just happy to have a pool and central air.

“No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater... than central air.”

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Published in multiple print and online sources, Author, Blogger and Freelance Writer Jenn Flynn-Shon has been writing for publication since 2001. Follow her antics on twitter @jennshon

Losing Weight and Gaining Good Phat

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time you know about my struggle to find a workout program that I can stick to and is actually effective for losing weight. I blogged a while ago about my intention to spend my lunch hour dancing around my office all alone every day.

And you want to hear something awesome? I’m not only enjoying using dancing as a cardio workout, because the options for songs to dance to are endless, but after only thirteen days of doing my new overall workout routine I’m down three pounds!

Woo hoo!

This is a huge accomplishment as far as I’m concerned for a few reasons:

• I’m almost 40 years old
• I’m female
• I’m a desk jockey from 7:00 AM – 4:00 PM all week long
• I’m pretty freaking lazy the rest of the time

Each of those above reasons are facts so that means it’s harder to lose weight. But screw it if anyone thinks little things like that could stop me from getting my body back. It’s so on.

The thing is, I’m completely comfortable with my shape. The shape that exists underneath all these rolls that is. I’m curvy, I’ve got a healthy sized badonkadonk for a petite little Irish girl, and my hips never caught up to the fact that I’m not planning to have kids. Stupid nature doing whatever it wants.

Anyway, by this age I’ve learned to accept these certain facts about myself and I generally like the curves.

But they don’t have to be jiggly on the outside of the underlying shape. So when I saw that my fitness and nutrition plan was working it really made me want to stand up and dance!

Pun intended.

The thing I didn’t anticipate happening with all of this exercise was the side benefit of getting my body right. I’m so much clearer in my head. I’m more focused on my work, on whatever task it is I’m trying to complete actually, and it’s starting to produce results in my efforts of entrepreneurship.

All because I’m swimming three times a week, riding my stationary bike 5 miles a day three days a week & spending 30-45 minutes club-style dancing five days a week?

Hell if all it takes to keep me focused and driven is a collective hour a day of moving my body around then consider me a fitness nut.

I’m in. I’m all in matter of fact. This body will be in a bikini again by next summer and will be so toned that I want people saying shit like ‘Wait, you’re 41 years old? Bitch, I hate you.’

Yup, kinda like the sound of that.

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Published in multiple print and online sources, Author, Blogger and Freelance Writer Jenn Flynn-Shon has been writing for publication since 2001. Follow her antics on twitter @jennshon

From Creative Non-Fiction to Freelance Writing in One Easy Step

With only two days left on my self-imposed May’s Month of Music challenge I’m finding motivation for writing over here has come to a screeching halt. Maybe I ran out of stories to go along with the music? Whatever it is I think my creative non-fiction brain is just shut down for a while.

And that’s okay. I’ve discovered something else I’m really enjoying in the writer world and reaping the benefits of it being in my life. I started Freelance Writing and just the other day I got paid for my very first article. (Okay, to be fair I once made about $2 in ad revenue when writing for a blog that is no longer operational but this is an article.)

The more I uncover about this fascinating industry the more I’m realizing that I’ve actually been Freelancing on Green Leaf Reviewer, EcoEtsy, and my Jenn Flynn-Shon Author blog for a collective of about five years. In addition to those blogs I’ve also written a bunch of articles for eZine and HubPages. So it finally hit me about three weeks ago…

I’ve been Freelancing for five years for FREE!!!

Uh, that’s not cool. And I needed to figure out what to do about it.

Last night while I was at my Scottsdale Society of Women Writers meeting one of the ladies got up and started talking about how she’s doing something similar right now after spending years on books. Because, as she said, sometimes writing isn’t only about helping other people, sometimes it’s just about making some money.

My head almost snapped right off from nodding so furiously.

I’m not planning to be one of those monkeys who write these rambling 300 word paragraphs that make no sense and are terribly written just to make a quick buck though. I plan to do the same level of quality in my writing and research as any and all of those resources above. And so what if I only make enough to buy a cup of coffee every day (right now). It’s sure more than I was making before.

The cool thing about Freelance Writing is I can be as aggressive as I want and the more I write, pitch and land the more I can get quality content out into the world and quality duckets into my PayPal account.

The song inspiring today’s post is basically about getting over yourself so you can find the “me” you were meant to be. Maybe it’s exactly the lesson I need to learn right now. In fact this line:

“Looking everywhere only to find that it’s not the way I’d imagined it all in my mind.”

Is kind of exactly where I’m at with all of this writer’s life stuff.

At first it seemed hard to justify moving onto a new facet of the Writing industry after spending so many years working on fiction. But I finally had to realize that no matter how much I beat my head against the keyboard I was just spinning my wheels, digging into nothing. I have some amazing friends and family behind me and supporting my writing but I will wide-open admit that even though I love that I’m also looking for the financial validation of all my hard work.

Freelance Writing lets me explore that world. I can work as much or as little as I want to make as much or as little as I want (essentially). There are a billion assignments for Writers out there I just have to learn how to find them, pitch them and land them.

Getting over fear of making a living instead of starving to death on my complete lack of royalties might sound ridiculous to some but it was exactly where I was at in my head – a sense of obligation to keep doing what I’d always done even if it never brought the results I wanted.

Yeah, I’m over that now.

I kind of feel like Jerry Maguire telling Bob Sugar to go pound sand:

“Now I want all my clients, and yours too.”

Just because I Freelance doesn’t mean I give up fiction writing completely. In fact one of the main reasons I’m doing this is so I can put some extra money in the bank in order to fund my future book projects. And like I said, I can work the hours I do or don’t want.

For now I’m still learning so much so I’m only writing part time (like VERY PT, about five to seven hours a week). But I already managed to get paid for an article. Before I even knew what I was doing. Before I even knew the best places/ways to pitch.

It was under $4 but a completely successful experiment – if I can sell something before I even know what I’m really doing imagine what I can do when I know how.

And the monetary validation for working hard on something I enjoy writing about was a nice feeling.

My article is called Natural Ways to Kill Weeds without Breaking the Bank and comes from a place I hold near and dear, my eco-conscious lifestyle.

Writing about Green stuff just comes naturally so maybe for once I have found the “Somewhere I Belong”. At least as far as my writing goes. I sure plan to keep doing it, and enjoy the benefits of selling work, for as long as I can.

May’s Month of Music

Somewhere I Belong – Linkin Park (Pandora first track)