Today’s guest post comes to us from Susan Johnston, the Urban Muse Writer. Enjoy! Anyone who has ever sat through drinks or coffee in their search for love knows that first dates can be both exhilarating and nerve-wracking. Freelancing can be much the same. Courting clients isn’t that different from courting a potential mate. You’re nervous as hell, but you still want to make a good impression and hopefully seal the deal. Whether you’re on a first date or courting your first client, here are five dating rules that you can apply. Rule #1: Don’t
> Read MoreArchives for January 2010
Blog Archives
Enjoy 1,000+ articles geared to your content-marketing, writing, freelancing or small business endeavors. Scroll down for recent posts, select a category, or browse the archives here.
Are You Trying to Be Too Smart?
Written by
As a professional writer, your vocabulary is literally your stock in trade. Other businesses have huge stockrooms full of whatever they sell – frozen food, Gucci shoes, leather satchels… You, you have words. If you’re anything like me, you’ve taken some pains to make sure your stock hasn’t been the same since 1997. You read good magazines and periodicals, and you take note of new words when they’re used. If a friend happens to use a word that is new to you in conversation, you may very well follow up on it just because it
> Read MoreAre You Selling Yourself Short?
Written by
If you make your living as a freelancer, you’re going to be asked – constantly – to prove your worth. Your clients want to know if you’re the best person for the job.Your blog readers want to know if you really have the smarts to give them advice. Your social media “friends” want you to prove that you’re interesting, funny, worth their time. With all those people constantly questioning your authority, it’s only natural that you’ll occasionally question your worth. Of course, most of the time, you’ll pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and go
> Read MoreWhy You Don’t Need to Mimic Someone Else’s Fame
Written by Josh Hanagarne
Today’s guest post comes to us from Josh Hanagarne, author of the World’s Strongest Librarian, and a guy I really like as a person. He came online, got whacked by the glittery fame stick in just a few posts and has sat there slightly amazed by it all ever since. Which is pretty cool, if you ask me. The fact that he is still slightly amazed about his fame makes his posts interesting, in that he brings up questions that I think we should all ask ourselves. This post asks a good question indeed. Enjoy.
> Read MoreThe Princess Bride Guide to Copywriting
Written by
So there have been a lot of other posts around the blogosphere lately about the Star Wars Guide to Blogging and the Bridges of Madison County Guide to Marketing and I realized that at Men with Pens, we don’t really draw from pop culture for posts. Then I realized that this is because James doesn’t do anything but work. His most common response to analogies of mine is, “What’s that?” There I stand, agape, saying incredulously, “You don’t know who Joss Whedon is?” “No?” says James. Then, a moment later, rather timidly: “Should I?” Oh,
> Read MoreFour Reasons to Love Your Competition
Written by
Every business owner who has a blog has at some point had the following thought: “Why am I giving away all my hard-earned wisdom for free when my competition could easily snap it up and use it against me?” Competition is a scary thing. We all hope we’ll be the only person with this particular business innovation or that particular moment of genius, and that our idea is what launches us into greatness. Sometimes we’re right, sometimes we’re wrong, but the point is that it doesn’t do to blog about the unique ideas that makes
> Read MoreDrive-By Shooting Special: Melani Ward
Written by
James watched as Harry hitched a tattered leather bag to his bike and revved up the engine. For the last time, he headed off into the sunset. What a character. Man, they’d trashed and torched their share of sites, and done some hits they could be darned proud of. Now James stood in the doorway, the mud spit up by the old bike’s back tire forming grey-brown clumps on his white t-shirt. He was uncharacteristically overwhelmed by the urge to call out to the departing figure. “Hey! That’s my bag!” But Harry was gone. A
> Read MoreThree Ways to Get a Rush from Your Writing
Written by
I have no clue who this guy is. No, really, I don’t. Alright, well, I know he emailed me to let me know I had a broken link in a post. And I know he was interested in what that link led to, which made me think well of him, so I emailed him back. And I also know that he was fast on the replies, quick with the wit, and he had a nice-looking blog. Oh, and he’s written a book. Two books, in fact. I know something else. His name is Phil, and
> Read MoreHow Dirty is Your Mind?
Written by
Sherlock Holmes, the great fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was purported to have one of the best minds of his generation. In one of the first Holmes stories ever written, Holmes described how he came to have such a clever brain: I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of any sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded
> Read MoreDo Clients Need to Like You or Trust You?
Written by
Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few. – George Berkeley There’s a lot of knowledge available for free on the web. “Experts” of every stripe are leaping out of every corner, telling people what to do, insisting that their way is the only way to do it, claiming they know the real truth about business or medicine or law. The problem is, most of them are wrong. As Berkeley says, they’re all crying out that they tell the truth, but few of them actually bother to put in the effort to
> Read More