Freelance Writers And Business Bullshit

September 15, 2008

I’ve read a lot of articles lately suggesting that freelance writers should start a “proper business”. And some have even gone so far as to suggest that you should just outsource all your work to other folk and pay a manager to run it all. I believe this is complete bullshit & I think the “Everyone Should Start A Business” brigade have gone too far.

It’s apparent that many of these people have not actually done what they advise themselves - they’ve probably been reading too many books like the E-Myth or The 4 Hour Work Week.

Some Good Reasons Why Freelance Writers Should Ignore This Advice

1. I’m guessing that most of you are freelance writers because you love writing. So why give up and pay other people to do the work for you instead?

2. Starting a business, just to make more money - especially when it’s preventing you from doing stuff you love to do isn’t a particularly smart move. You’ll probably spend a lot of time resenting your business for taking you away from doing what you love - writing.

3. If you’re a non-fiction writer, there’s easier and more pleasant ways to create an automated stream of income. What about non-fiction books for a start? Once you’ve written one, you’ll benefit financially for as long as it stays in print. And you could probably write several in the time it takes you to set up a business that runs by itself.

4. You can still outsource and automate mundane tasks and even things like marketing, to free up your time to write. And if that marketing brings you more work than you have time to do, you could outsource some of it to other freelance writers and take a percentage of their payment.

If you do want to start a business instead of writing, then that’s different. And if you’re starting a business which will eventually run on it’s own, to free up your time to write later - prepare for a long hard slog. Few people are able to build a business overnight, which will run without them - you could spend several years trying to achieve that goal.

What do you think? Are you a freelance writer who wants to start a business? Are you doing it because you actually want to start a business, or for some other reason?

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Ideas, Planning | 45 Comments

Can Autopilot Be Interesting?

September 15, 2008

An amazing number of people seem to want to replace themselves altogether. Since “The 4 Hour Work Week” came out, I’ve read so much about automating and outsourcing everything, to the point where you don’t have to work at all.

But I have to wonder how these people will be able to find something to interest them that isn’t work, when they can’t even find work that interests them.

What do you think? Would you get more satisfaction from setting up a pointless business that you’d happily run on autopilot, because you didn’t have the enthusiasm to help it grow?

Or would you prefer to do something you loved so much, it didn’t feel like work?

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Ideas | 15 Comments

Viral Books And Other Things I Like

September 6, 2008

There’s been a lot of talk about viral marketing lately. Many of us would love to work out a way to send heaps of traffic to our website, or blog, using a viral method. Trouble is, folk who’ve had success with viral marketing seem to be in a small minority. So where does that leave people like you and me?

To be honest, I’d always thought of viral marketing as something interesting to discuss, but virtually impossible to do. Then I read about an amazing viral ebook, on Liz Strauss’s Successful Blog. Now, if anyone else had recommended this viral book, I might have been skeptical. But I know Liz is smart and trustworthy, so I thought I’d check the book out.

And I have to say, I was blown away. The guy who wrote the book is a marketing genius. One reviewer described the book as “The greatest viral marketing idea of all time” and I’m inclined to agree.

What amazed me, was that the author allowed me to download the book for free, no strings, he didn’t even take my email address. And I was even more surprised when he showed me how I could actually make money, using his book.

I opted to buy some of the extras, to enable me to start my own viral campaign. But you don’t have to do that - the book is free. If you want to discover how to use viral marketing to drive swarms of traffic to your blog, or website, click here to download your free copy now.

I’ve added a “Things I Like” section to this site. It’s mostly about fun things to do and things that help me learn and I’ll update it roughly once a week. But I’m not selling stuff on there, so I won’t take paid reviews are bribes. The section will only cover things I consider to be brilliant and the things I’ve added already are: Travel To Mexico, Segway Human Transporter, Walt Disney World and The Secret To Writing A Successful and Outstanding Blog.

If you added a “Things I Like” section to your blog, what sort of things would you add?

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Ideas | 11 Comments

Social Media Sites Of The Future

August 31, 2008

If we could fast forward to social media sites of the future, I wonder what we’d see? And what impact will they have on the world in general?

I don’t doubt the fact that social media is here to stay. After all, it seems that almost everyone is using Twitter, Stumbling, Digging and connecting on Facebook, Bebo or LinkedIn. And because folk need to encourage others to join, for the benefit of the network - many social media sites become viral and grow at a rapid rate.

Bebo was targeted primarily at kids - mostly from the UK. Yet only 3 years after it’s launch, it was sold to AOL for over $800 million. LinkedIn has over 8 million members and Facebook is the biggest and fastest growing of all social media sites with over 132 million members.

I think we’re only catching a glimpse of the full potential of social media right now. And I guess anyone who can see five years into the future, could make themselves a fortune. But lets have a bit of fun. What will social media look like five years down the line?

I’m guessing that as well as some of the large sites we’re seeing now, there will be many smaller niche groups and like minded folk will use them to connect and share ideas. Also, I wonder if we’ll see more life like interaction in the future. A bit like they have on sites such as Runescape, but less cartoon like, with more realistic representations of ourselves.

Where do you see social media sites going in the future? And more importantly - what would you like to see?

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Ideas | 24 Comments

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