Do you struggle to write blog posts when it's noisy? Here are five practical tips to help. It's almost never quiet at my house. It's not an out of control chaotic noise (at least not usually :D), but between the nine kids who live here, the roosters who free range close to the house and crow at all hours of the day, and the typical humming of appliances and all that, noise is a constant in my life. If I could only write blog posts when it was quiet, I'd pretty much flop as a freelancer. I'd ...
Updating the Annual Menu Plan
Can you believe that July's already half over? Seriously, where does the time go? Each July, I spend time revamping our yearly schedule and plans. This weekend, I tackled the annual meal plan. How an Annual Meal Plan Helps My Freelancing As I shared in this post, annual meal plans free up a ton of time. I'm no longer spending time each day trying to figure out what's for dinner. The kids are no longer asking me what we'll be eating. Everyone just knows. I only need to make one master ...
June 2016 Income Report
How was your Independence Day? I had a fabulous weekend with my family, and hope you enjoyed some time as well. Since July is here it's time to crunch some numbers with another income report. I share these reports for a couple of reasons: To give myself a reason to stay on top of my paperwork To motivate me to work harder To offer a transparent look at the possibilities available online I count income as it comes into my bank account rather than when I bill out. Expenses are ...
How to Write in a Client’s Voice
Learning a client's voice takes a bit of time. Whenever I bring on a new client I'll be ghostwriting for, there are several steps I take to ensure my content lines up with their existing content. Let's look at those. Read As Much As You CanIt's so important to immerse yourself in your client's voice, so read as much as you can. Look for blog posts, social media updates, and past newsletters. Read it all. But don't just read to read. Instead, read to learn. You are studying your client, and ...
May Freelance Income Report
Yikes--do you know what happened? I put off writing April's income report because I was pretty bummed about the numbers. Then, it sort of threw me off schedule. You see, I used to write about my income for the previous month around the first of the next month. That makes sense, right? Now here it is almost July, and I'm finally getting around to posting about May. But, my income report is back on my "to-do" list, so June's won't take forever to appear. Let's dive into ...
How I Use Excel as a Freelancer
Paperwork is essential for freelancers! It's how we get paid, how we keep track of deadlines, and how we plan our next steps. I've tried so many different methods of getting all my paperwork organized, and there's one program I keep coming back to. Microsoft Excel. I know. I know. There are new fancy programs out there with bells and whistles. And Excel, well Excel is sort of plain. And old-fashioned. I mean I used how to use Excel way back in high school computer class. But, it works ...