www.inkthinkerblog.com — A couple of weeks ago, I was surfing around for guitar tab for this song I heard on the teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. I was using my husband’s computer because it was a Saturday night and I didn’t want to risk getting caught up in work stuff on my weekend — and besides, his was on already and he wasn’t home anyway.

I clicked on what looked to be a promising link and was suddenly catapulted to what I swear must be the most offensive porn site in the history of the world. The computer locked up as window after window opened and warnings started flashing left and right. I tried to shut down, but everything I did was “disabled.” Then, I was told that something was making “unauthorized copies of my system files.” That did not sound good. [continue reading…]

www.inkthinkerblog.com — On 12 June 2007, the Consulting and Independent Contracting SIG of the STC WDC chapter sponsored a meeting with speakers Gabe Goldberg and Kristen King that we called “Breaking Out of Solitary Confinement: Networking Tips for Freelancers, Work-at-Homers, and Other Professionals.” Over 50 people attended the event at NRECA in Arlington and it received rave reviews.

If you missed it, I’m now happy to announce that a podcast featuring these same speakers offering a distilled version of the advice they shared at this meeting is now available at the chapter’s blog, where it is currently the latest post, at http://stcwdc.org/wdcblog/

To download the podcast and listen to it in a different media player, find the source at http://stcwdc.podomatic.com/ [continue reading…]

www.inkthinkerblog.com — I asked another freelancer if she would edit a job application essay for me. I e-mailed her on the weekend, and she said she was available Sunday. It would have been a rush job, as the app was due Monday. Long story short: The app deadline was pushed back till this week, but I decided not to apply for the job after all.

I sent her an e-mail explaining this, and she replied with a sorta-mad e-mail saying she had rearranged her schedule to accommodate the job. I feel bad. This kind of thing happens to me occasionally with my clients, and now I’m the client who dropped the ball. Thoughts? As I’m writing this, I’m thinking I should reply to her asking her to bill me for a couple of hours of work, anyway.

I would ask her to bill you for the time since she had already blocked it out for you. And I wouldn’t sweat it. Stuff happens, and if it was a big inconvenience, she shouldn’t have agreed to it anyway if you ask me. But since you did commit to doing it and then the situation changed, I would say that you’re still responsible for the time. She may come back and say, “Whatever, don’t worry about it,” and in that case I would send her a $25 Starbucks gift card or something like that with a note.

A second note from the question asker:

She replied to my offer by stating her per-word rates and asking me to approximate how many words the essay would have been. (It was a 500-word essay.) She also mentioned that her minimum charge was $100. I replied saying that I wasn’t aware of the minimum and that I wished we’d had the rates discussion earlier, because $100 was more than I had budgeted. I offered $50; she sent me back a note saying she doesn’t list her minimum on her Web site because most of her jobs are much larger than 500 words, but she attached an invoice for $50 anyway, and I’ll send her a check in tomorrow’s mail.

My response: 

I’m glad it got resolved, but now I’m a little baffled. If you have a minimum charge for a project, why wouldn’t you put that information on your website, or at least bring it up when someone mentions to you that they have a small project for you? Um, duh? I would not use that person again.

Do you have a freelancing-related question? E-mail me!

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King

www.inkthinkerblog.com — I was recently reading one of my favorite magazines when I noticed a sidebar that it was looking for freelancers.  The request stated one would have to submit to them a resume, and raw (unedited) writing samples.  What exactly does the magazine mean by “raw  (unedited)”?  Does that mean leave grammatical mistakes and errors in the article?  That seemed kind of ridiculous to me. Any insight as to what exactly they may be asking, I’ll be very grateful.

I suspect that what they want is not a published clip but rather the draft you submitted when you turned in the article. In other words, they want to see your raw talent, not how some magazine editor finessed it. Make sense?

But the only way to be 100% sure what they want is to ask the person who wrote the guidelines, so if you don’t feel like this is what they’re looking for based on the rest of the info you have, I’d call them for more information.

Hope that helps!

 Do you have a freelancing-related question? E-mail me!

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King