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What is Epic Fu you ask? Ahhhh…..something you shouldn’t be without, I say! Seriously though….

Epic Fu is a great web guide that can help you stay connected as well as be savvy about what is hot online. This site deals with art, technology, music and other great stuff. You have to see it to get it; but its pretty amazing. The host, Zadi Diaz provides an energetic foil for the info she delivers and everything is bite-sized so you don’t have to spend a lot of time finding out what is new and fantastic on the web!

If you haven’t already heard of “ONE,” you will soon. The latest commercial has Matt Damon’s face, but he isn’t the only big celebrity to lend support to this campaign. The idea behind it is to raise awareness about issues such as global poverty, hunger, AIDS and other diseases, and the efforts that are being put forth to combat them.

Drop by and read about this organization. It’s a great one to be aware of–and a part of. It also makes for great writing fodder….

The Dell XPS 1330 is a sweet machine and a great purchase. How do I know? I’m typing on mine right now. I looked at several computers before investing in this one. It was between a Mac and this, and it was no contest. The size is incredibly compact; at 13.3 inches, it has a super-thin profile and great mobility. I opted to pop for longer battery life by upping mine to the next option and I go for close to six hours. I will admit that I dislike Vista, but that has nothing to do with the XPS.

The laptop has a slot-load CD/DVD drive, 2 USB ports, built-in WiFi and an Intel^® Core^TM  2 Duo processor. The weight comes in at just under 4 lbs, although I think mine may be a little bit higher because of the increased battery power. Tuck it under your arm and go. And as for looks–it is sleek and very sexy! I got mine in red, but there are other colors available. Check out the specs yourself, but know that this computer is sure to satisfy….I totally love it!

Some people believe writing online isn’t “real writing”. I never gave this notion much thought until reading a post at The Writing Journey titled Why Real Writers Don’t Write On the Internet. The opening line in this well-intentioned piece includes the following:

“I’m just going to say it. Real writers wouldn’t get caught dead blogging or writing web content. By real writers, I’m talking about print writers, folks.  I call them real because, well, that’s how many of them distinguish themselves from us Internet writers.”

Now the author goes on to say he’s writing with a bit of snark when addressing the habits of “real” writers, so we have to cut the author some slack–he’s not REALLY claiming that print writers wouldn’t be caught dead writing blogs or online material. Or at least I HOPE he isn’t, because the evidence is overwhelmingly against such an idea. Neil Gaiman, William Gibson, Poppy Z. Brite and hundreds of other print writers all know the power of blogs and online writing to boost their print material. William Gibson isn’t just a scribbler of great computer-geek-centric science fiction, he’s also a contributor to Wired and other respected publications. That include online content, too. But what DOES qualify someone as a “real” writer? Read the rest of this entry →

Visit this site to “up” your vocuabulary a bit if you need a mental break from writing an article or searching for query ideas. Vocaboly has some cool vocabulary tests–GRE, SAT, GMAT and more–and they are all different lengths as well. Select a 10, 20 or 40 question test and see how you fare…

Joe’s post made me think about how tough this writing game–heck–this life is without a little help. Everyone needs a hand to hold, an ear to listen to them and a person in their corner when things get tough. Mentors are those people. They are hard on you. They give you a chance. They help you out.

Are you someone’s mentor? There is always someone who has less experience than you; even if you are new to writing. Help them out.

But don’t stop there…ask yourself…are you a mentee? Do you have someone above you helping to guide you? Both are valuable. Go for too long as a mentor without the benefit of someone wiser than you and you get cocky. You stop growing.

So I guess this post is an encouragement to be both. Keep learning–and pass it on. You don’t have to go it alone…

There are two kinds of karma a freelancer can earn. In the earliest days of my career as a writer/producer for radio and television, I had three people who took the time to pass on some genuine wisdom about how to survive and grow in the craft. One was exceptionally generous–even monetarily. I was in my early 20s at the time and had a lot to learn, so for anybody to take a snotnosed, know-it-all punk in tow had to have a great deal of patience.

Especially with ME.

One thing that my three mentors passed on to me was the notion that I didn’t owe them anything except one thing: when I had the opportunity to do the same for someone else, I’d be obligated to do so.

Many years later I find that opportunity again and again. Every time I have an opportunity, I feel obligated to at least try to do SOMETHING. It’s the only way I can pay back the people who took the time and energy to help polish my rough edges off.

The thing is, freelancer karma works both ways.

Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away I had to let a freelancer go. It was someone I had tried to work with, giving a lot of advice, fine tuning, trying to work with someone who clearly needed some guidance. The problem was, this was a writer in the early stages of a career and didn’t a lot of polish. In fact, the skills were really quite basic, but I took a chance on this person anyway. I thought I saw some potential, but when the going got tough, the effort just wasn’t there and we had to part ways.

The business relationship didn’t last a terribly long time, just long enough for an editor to figure out what the writing on the wall was saying and terminate things before they got truly awful. Unfortunately, when it came time to part ways, the writer didn’t take it very well. This person did not go gentle into that good night. In fact, with apologies to Dylan Thomas, Read the rest of this entry →

Georganna Hancock is the voice behind A Writer’s Edge, a blog I stumbled upon earlier today. It is a refreshing change from some of the others that I’ve seen lately. She has filled it with literate posts of just the right length and tone. It caught my eye and I stayed a while…

It is pretty rare that a writer can lure me in. I tire of the typical rants and raves out there looking for an audience. Hancock manages to air her feelings without going too far, along with providing interesting posts that are delivered with what I consider to be a lovely attitude. I’ll be back to visit this blog again…

As some of our our readers know, I have a big soft spot for music journalism. I’ve been a muso journo for a very long time, starting as early as 1992 as a self-publisher in the zine craze to my “serious” interviews with Nine Inch Nails, Cheap Trick, and Glen “Once” Hansard.

Normally an event like the Pygmalion Music Festival would be a bit outside the pale of our coverage here at Freelance-Zone.com, but if you are getting your feet wet in freelance music journalism, here is a chance to cover a serious event featuring up-and-coming acts and regional favorites alike. These folks are accessible, they genuinely appreciate good press and the fest is bound to be a lot of fun for any freelancer who goes out to cover it. Pygmalion is located in Champaign-Urbana in Illinois September 17-20th.

Here’s a hint for an eager freelancer–this festival is put on by a partnership between a few different entities including the indie label Polyvinyl. A GREAT hook for covering this festival is that Polyvinyl is a label which issues new music on record albums as well as MP3s and other media. How does such a label manage to do all this–put out vinyl albums, help put on a music festival, etc–in today’s absolutely consumer-unfriendly economy? The bands on this label face the same financial struggles the label does…everybody’s future is at stake. How DO they manage?

Seth Hubbard is the press contact for the festival, drop him a line to get press credential information and to learn more about the event seth@polyvinylrecords.com

Gear, gear, everywhere! How to choose where to spend your hard-earned dollars? Why CNET of course! CNET does reviews on everything from MP3 players to GPS systems. You name it, they’ve probably done it. (Within reason of course….) This is considered a very reliable site, and if you want to weigh your options before making a buy–it can be a great idea to check out what is said here first.

One of my favorite royalty-free image sites is the cleverly named StockXchng.com. Browse from over a quarter of a million free images, and you can even create an account to upload your own. Want to get paid a small fee every time somebody uses that pic of your dog catching a frisbee with an exploding sand castle in the background? This is your first step into a larger world of images and royalties. You won’t get paid by Stock Xchng, but you might learn where to shop your photos from the community that’s grown around the site.

There are plenty of resources on this site for photographers and those who need images, and Stock Xchng just got new servers so the site moves faster than before…very nice indeed. By the way, Freelance-Zone.com has used images from this great resource on more than one occasion, so we figured it was time to give them some love.

 How good are you at searching the internet? Do you want to get better? If so, check in with UC Berkeley’s online tutorial for some up-to-date tips and tricks. It has a glossary of web jargon, style sheets for citing resources and a checklist for evaluating websites. My personal favorite is the page that compares the search engines–you are sure to learn something there. Worth a peek!

 For those of you who are trying to make headway on the digital camera front; this is for you. Photonhead will give you some information on things such as buying a camera, controlling flash, camera modes and more. Browse around–you’re likely to learn something useful!

If you learn how to take your own photos–you can really add to your income. Big time. Take my word for it!

I was browsing PoeWar.com and ran across an interesting article by Meryl K. Evans about making the most of the freelance writing game. Some of the advice is standard motivational and money management stuff, but one excellent point made in this piece makes this one shine–the portion titled, “Make marketing a regular part of your job”. A brilliant suggestion many of us–even established writers–sometimes neglect. This is a good read. Check it out here.

If you like the article, have a look at Meryl Evans’s site. She has plenty of articles and there’s a lot of info for those of you who are getting into content writing. Drop her a line and tell be sure to mention that Freelance-Zone.com sent you…

I’ve debated the merits of using Craigslist to find freelance writing gigs, but for those of you who still use CL, it’s important to avoid wasting time on the sort of idiotic scams that pop up on CL with annoying regularity. I myself fell prey to a few of these in my less informed days, so I pass along the benefit of my experiences on to you.

The following is reprinted verbatim from a recent post to the Writing Jobs section of Craigslist:

“A media blog is seeking review writers. You will be reviewing hot products of the new age and writing 500-700 word articles on them. For the application, we will require sample reviews to be written. We have 4 openings. If you are selected as a writer, work will be part-time and 20-25 jobs per week. Will be paying $100/article. Please send your request for more information (no resumes, please) to our email. Thank you.”

Now let’s dissect this ad and see why you should avoid posts like these at all costs.

1. Nomenclature written by the cluelesss. The ad is for a “media blog”. It then goes on to say that you are expected to review ‘hot products’. We’re already off to a bad start here as a media blog would, by implication, be reviewing media. Sure, it’s possible they want you to review downloads, DVDs, or other media, but in my experience, “media blogs” are commenting on either the media itself or streaming content as opposed to disc-based material. Another warning sign here is the phrase “of the new age”. What the writer MEANS to say is “hot new products of the Internet age” or some other such nonsense. As New Age pertains to a religious movement rather than technology, my bullshit detector on this tells me that the writer is a barely-literate scam artist who is throwing around terms they don’t really understand. Again, I could be TOTALLY WRONG. But we know I’m not, don’t we?

2. Confused (and confusing) expectations. The ad starts out saying they are a blog. Then the ad states that 500-700 word articles are needed. Is this a blog or a magazine? If the “blog” is paying $100 per post, the people running this are either on the scam or are the most clueless blog owners on the planet. No blog pays $100 for a blog entry. The ad says they want to fire FOUR PEOPLE at around $2500 a month each. What kind of new blog has this type of budget? Why, a non-existent one, of course! They want to shell out $10 K a month just for writers? Are you laughing yet?

3. They want you to work for free. ” For the application, we will require sample reviews to be written”. Read the rest of this entry →