By John White

The freelance writing life, as my colleague Jim Schott points out, is “a hard way to make an easy living.”

I often quote him because freelance writing does seem like a hard way to make a living (easy or not), especially if you’ve never spent time around people who are in business for themselves. But every day, people cross their fingers and decide to make a go of freelance writing.

If you’re a beginning freelance writer, the way you work is changing. Here are five New Realities for you to consider:

1. You are now in business for yourself, so stop handing out résumés. Your new tools are business cards, an elevator speech (figure out what you write and how to explain it to people in 15 seconds) and a portfolio, whether online or printed.

I get nicked around the ears a lot for proclaiming this New Reality — especially in writing communities where the résumé still has some currency. But in the quest to reinforce the perceptions of colleagues and prospects in your network, nothing says, “I’m in business for myself” quite like a business card, and nothing says, “I’m looking for a job” quite like a résumé. Besides, when somebody at the PTA meeting next month says, “So, how can I find you when I need a writer?” what are you going to pull out of your pocket or purse: A business card or a résumé?

2. Speaking of your network, that’s where the jobs are. The sooner you figure out a way to engage the people in your network consistently and successfully — phone, direct mail, meeting for coffee, e-mail, or on social media — the sooner you and work will find each other.

Keep in mind that you must feed the people in your network two things: Content that helps them, and information about what you’re doing. Nobody cares that you’re available for work right away, but they will care about ways you can help them solve their problems. And sending an occasional note to people in your network is a good way to remind them you’re still in business for yourself. Ask them what they’re looking for so you can keep an eye out for it.

3. You are now responsible for sales, marketing, operations and accounting. That does not mean that you have to do all of them yourself, just be conversant in all of them. Eventually, you can delegate some or all of the details to a partner, spouse or virtual assistant — if you’re a maniac like me, you’ll try to hang on to all of them — but don’t forget that it’s your business, not theirs.

“Fie!” you exclaim, “I just want to get paid for writing all day. I don’t want to waste time with all of that other nonsense.” Sorry, Shakespeare, but somebody in your one-person company needs to send invoices, chase money, back up the hard drive, pay bills, find prospects, close business, read contracts, upgrade your computer…in addition to writing all day.

4. Your workday will feel strange. For several months — or maybe a couple of years — especially if you’ve departed a corporate setting. Your ideas about how you spend hours in the workday may change completely.

If you’re outrageously successful, perhaps you’ll find that all of your time is booked and billable and your workday is like Mark Zuckerberg’s. More likely, you may discover downtime that makes your workday more like a Boston terrier’s. Once you’ve started meeting your income needs, you’ll find that the downtime is less unsettling. “Money will come when you are doing the right thing,” wrote Michael Phillips in The Seven Laws of Money — be prepared to wade through some strangeness on the way to that right thing.

5. You will almost certainly have good and bad months. Or good and bad quarters, or good and bad years. This is the way of all living things — We humans fancy ourselves the exception, but the freelancers among us know better. Happiness and security rarely occur together in nature.

Steady paychecks are in your rearview mirror now, so you had better concentrate on cash flow. Aim for six months of buffer in non-retirement savings. Everybody’s mileage varies, but this freelance writer has had to dig uncomfortably deep into his 3- to 6-month buffer only twice in the past 13 years. Sure, it’s a drag not always being able to predict income two or three or six months out, but if you’re flirting with freelance, you’ve probably already worked out that there’s not much more security inside a company than outside of it, right?

So cross your fingers, mull these New Realities over, and decide whether you have the stomach for the freelance writer’s lifestyle. If you try it for a while and still can’t earn enough to keep body and soul together, at least you can say you tried. But I think most veterans will agree that the universe yields to the determined psyche.

And that’s the most compelling New Reality of all.

John White of venTAJA Marketing is a marketing communications writer for technology companies. Download his eBook, “10 Questions to Ask When Hiring Your Marketing Communications Writer.”

By Carol Tice

Here are some of the techniques I’ve used to connect with clients that pay $1-$2 a word, $100 an hour, and more:

1. SEO your Web site. If you are not yet aware, let me spell it out: Google is the phone book of the 21st Century. Are you easily findable in it? I got both a Fortune 500 company and a well-funded startup as clients recently through the clients’ Google searches for a writer, simply because I’ve worked hard on my search engine rankings for “Seattle freelance writer” and “Seattle freelance copywriter.” I believe SEO for your writer site is only going to get more important from here.

2. Work your LinkedIn profile. If Google is the phone book, LinkedIn is the specialty business-only phone book. Really pay attention to what you’ve got in your profile on LI. Make sure it’s complete and has a nice photo of you.

Is it up to date? Does it link to your writer site? Your blog? Your hottest recent article? Do you belong to relevant groups? Update your status frequently with news of projects you’re working on and sources you need, so it creates a thread of relevant information. Be sure to add new client companies and publications to your status.

Most importantly, look at how you describe yourself, and add every relevant word a prospect might search on to locate you. Play around with your “professional headline” so it includes your keywords. I just updated my bio to say “freelance writer, blogger, copywriter, and writing mentor.” Experiment with your descriptors.

I got my second new Fortune 500 client this year from my LinkedIn profile. The editor of their company newsletters went poking around on there, looking for a local pro writer. They needed a couple of executive profiles done in a huge rush. I made a quick $1,200 doing utterly enjoyable articles, and found out they’re looking for a writer to put on contract for 2011. Now I’m in a great position to go after a long-term contract with them. Worth a few minutes of buffing up that LI profile, I think.

3. Network in a better place. When I first started networking, I went to events in my small town. I met many small-business owners there. I got some nibbles and did a little work that way, but found smaller businesses were just as much of a pain as large ones, but paid less.

So I switched to networking at events in downtown Seattle. Presto! Totally different type and size of business trolling over there. I met editors that pay well, from companies both in the Fortune 500 and smaller ones, too. Know the type of client you want, and if you’re not finding them where you’re hanging out now, try some other in-person networking events until you find the pool you want to swim in.

4. Follow the trail. It pays to know who owns a site. Sometimes, a seemingly rinky-dink place can turn out to be the new URL for a major corporation or Web portal that offers really great pay. I just got two $1-a-word article assignments from an insurance Web site that turned out to be owned by one of the biggest finance sites on the Internet. Now, I have several good-paying Web sites that might assign me, all from making this first connection.

5. Read online job ads carefully. It’s weird, but every once in a while, one of these major publications or corporations just puts out a Craislist ad. Which I hate because it means I have to keep scanning job ads now and then…but there you have it.

I got one $1 a word client I connected with by responding to their online ad. They didn’t mention rates in the ad, but it was a fully fleshed-out ad with links to their Web site, and it was in a specialized niche. I have to admit I think of this one as sort of a moonshot…but it does happen.

By Carol Tice

To earn more, you need to find better-paying clients. To find them, you need to know what you’re looking for.

Here’s a way to think about clients that can serve as a guide: Take out your 1099 forms from last year and look through them. Which one has the biggest number on it? That’s your top client.

I’m going to take a flier here and bet that client gave you work in more than one month of the year. Likely, you did work for that client for many months, or possibly every month, all year.

Next, consider how many hours you spent to earn that big paycheck, and determine that account’s hourly rate. If you’re working too many hours to earn one of those big annual fees, then you want to swap that client for one with a better hourly rate.

To earn more, you want to find big, ongoing clients that will throw you a large quantity of steady work in the course of a year at professional rates.

Having major clients brightens your earning picture in multiple ways. Managing a handful of large-volume clients is far easier and less time-consuming administratively than managing many small fry. You spend less time marketing, maximize your billable hours, and you have more financial security.

Here are five traits I find the best clients — whether corporations or publications — have in common:

1. They  have used freelancers before. You are not breaking this client in. They understand how to work with contractors and respect them as professionals. When you quote them rates like $1oo a blog, $1 a word, or $100 an hour, they don’t bat an eye.
2. They have a large volume of potential work. This is the difference between writing one article, and selling a monthly column. Or writing one Web page, versus writing for a company Web site with thousands of pages that need constant updates. The best clients have steady work you can rely on every month. I’ve had both publications I could count on for $2,000 or more a month of assignments and companies with that much work in billable monthly hours, or more. For the most part, these publications have a large circulation, and the companies are medium- to large-sized (though a well-funded startup can have quite a volume of work as well).
3. You can grow the relationship. This publication has special sections, a quarterly specialty publication, it’s spinning off books or ebooks, or it’s adding Web content. The company is opening new branch offices, or creating new products that will need Web sites. No matter the client type, the bottom line is it’s an expanding, thriving organization. As you make yourself invaluable to your first editor, you can gain access to others and keep growing your earnings from this one client.
4. They’re receptive to project proposals. As you learn more about this client’s needs, you can propose projects they haven’t even realized they need done yet, and get them assigned. Whether it’s starting a new monthly column in a magazine, or creating white papers or ghostwritten articles for CEOs, your handlers are sophisticated enough to value your ideas and have the budget to greenlight content that you can demonstrate will help the organization.
5. They have a large and/or moneyed readership. The company that was my most lucrative account to date had an audience of pension-fund managers, actuaries and insurance companies. The publications have served wealthy venture capitalists and well-off business owners. Think of finding a professional association where members are doctors, lawyers, or university professors. Find organizations where money is flowing in, and they can pay a living wage.

By Carol Tice

By Carol Tice

Even for writers who’re doing well online, print publications retain their allure. There’s something about seeing your byline in print that remains uniquely validating for many writers.

There’s also a popular belief that print publications pay more, which can be true, though there are also great-paying online markets and print publishers who pay squat. Certainly, if you’re writing for $20 an article online, many print publications will pay more. Most of my print articles in recent years have paid $300-$1,500 and up.

In case you think physical magazines are a dying breed, here are some statistics from the Magazine Publishers of America’s 2010/11 Magazine Handbook: Despite the downturn, magazine readership grew in every age category including 18 year-olds from 2005-2009. More than 90 percent of American adults report they read magazines, and the figure is slightly higher for adults under 35. Yes, circulation is currently down a bit — to only 347 million magazine copies sold in 2009.

To sum up, print publications are still very viable markets for freelance writers.

Here is a primer on making the leap from writing online blogs, articles, and Web content to being published in print publications:

1. Conquer your insecurity. A lot of online writers seem to have serious insecurity issues about tackling print. Intimidated? Get over it. I am a college dropout, and I’ve even written a couple of articles for the Wall Street Journal.
2. Discover the wide world of print. When many writers think of print publications, visions of Vogue, Vanity Fair and other super-popular newsstand favorites tend to dance in their heads. But consumer magazines are just one part of the enormous world of print. There are regional magazines, local newspapers, trade magazines, company magazines, college alumni magazines, charity and professional association magazines…right on down to the newsletter published by a local condominium complex. Many of these less-well-known print niches pay surprisingly well, too. New magazines also keep being born that have no established writer pool. Somewhere in there is a publication where you could get an assignment.
3. Identify likely targets. To start, concentrate on a subject you know well, where you can make a strong case that you bring unique skills to the assignment. That really ups your chances. Then, find relevant regional or local publications that need that expertise. Your initial goal is simply to get some print clips — anywhere — so you can use them to pitch bigger, better-paying print markets. You can start discovering publications that use freelance writers by looking at The Writer’s Market, at Media Bistro’s guides, at Wooden Horse’s database, or at the markets in Writer’s Weekly.
4. Get the best online clips you can. While you’re trolling for print markets that might hire you, try to write the strongest material you can online. There are opportunities to write reported stories on some of the major Web sites, and these could also serve as good clips for transitioning to print.
5. Realize print and online are merging. While you’re dreaming about breaking into print publications, know that many print publications are dreaming about migrating to the Web in order to monetize their content with ads, seminars, books and more. Many print pubs also commission online exclusive articles or are looking for experienced bloggers, so don’t be shy about plugging your expertise in these areas. Once you’re in that door, you can just ask your online editor to introduce you to the folks on the print side — or they may be one and the same.
6. Have lots of ideas. You’re likely going to need to send many query letters before you get a “yes,” so you need to develop a long list of potential story ideas. Often, you’ll get a response to a query from an editor that essentially says (either straight-out or between the lines), “You seem professional, but I don’t like this idea. You could pitch me again.” So be ready to follow up with more story ideas. If you’re short of ideas, visit this Copyblogger post.
7. Write reported articles on your blog. If you can’t find anywhere else to do it, pretend you are a print publication. Create a fully reported feature article of 1,000-1,200 words or so, and simply post it as one of your blog entries. If you’re new to interviewing, learn how to do it — it’s an essential skill you will need to succeed in print.
8. Study the publication – hard. This is the step so many writers skip. The most important thing an editor wants to learn in your query is that you understand their publication, tone and audience. Get your hands on multiple copies of this publication, either physical or online. Read their writer’s guidelines and treat them as gospel. Read their editorial calendar to see what special sections might be coming up. Note bylines to identify freelance-written sections of the pub. Build this knowledge into your query, as in, “I saw you have a special issue on home design coming up and thought this idea might be a fit,” or “I have an idea for your ‘Passages’ column.”
9. Strengthen your query skills. If you haven’t sent query letters in the past, know that this is a special little art form all its own. If you’re not getting responses, consider reading a good book about querying such as Linda Formichelli’s The Renegade Writer’s Query Letters That Rock.
10. Reach out in social media. Increasingly, I find editors are accessible through social media, whether print or online. A quick tweet about whether you could pitch them a topic is the right approach for some. Give it a try if you see an editor you want is active on Twitter, for instance.
11. Do in-person networking. I have many editors at in-person networking events over the past several years. Get to know other writers at events, too — the cool ones will introduce you to their editors if they think you’re right for one of their pubs.
12. Join writer groups. Don’t soldier on alone in your quest to break into print, when there are many organizations that could help you. I’ve done great with both MediaBistro and Society of Professional Journalists events personally, and I’m now a member of National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE). These groups hold teleclasses, in-person events, and offer online courses, and often editors are speakers.
13. Use the job ads. One of my favorite techniques for connecting with editors is to scan the job ads on LinkedIn for interesting publications looking for staff writers. An open position means articles aren’t getting written, and they might need freelancers to fill in. Their job ad usually gives you an editor name and contact, too.
14. Find the right editor. A tour of the masthead: Executive editors or editors-in-chief are too high up. Managing editor, articles editor or just plain editor is about right. Associate or assistant editor might also work. Get the right person’s name — it’s not hard with the Internet. Hopefully you have some online writer networks you can tap to help you, too. Try to avoid sending a pitch to “editor.”
15. Pitch and repitch. Once you’ve developed a story idea and taken the time to craft a query, keep it circulating. You can pitch simultaneously to any market that doesn’t share an audience with the others you’ve queried.
16. Multipitch. I personally have had a lot of success pitching two or three story ideas in a single query. Each idea is presented in a tight, single paragraph. While some editors don’t go for this, I’ve found overall it ups your odds that you’re putting an idea in front of an editor that they want.
17. Kill on your assignment. When you get an assignment, hammer out all the details before you begin, including article length, due date, payment amount and terms. Ask how many sources they expect in the story, and of what type. If your story idea evolves as you interview sources, let your editor know immediately, so you can agree on a new direction. Finally, study the publication again for style and tone and then write, rewrite, polish, and proofread the daylights out of your story.
18. Handle edits professionally. This part will be new to some who’ve been writing mostly their own blog, but publications will often want changes to your story. Sometimes, lots of changes, or even additional interviews. Smile and make those changes, especially when you’re new. They’ll usually make your story a better fit for that market’s audience. Remember, you’re here to learn so you can move up.
19. Pitch when you turn in. The whole point of pitching queries and connecting with editors is to establish an ongoing relationship with them, not to write one, single article. Once a publication likes you, you might get multiple assignments from them monthly. The best time to hit an editor with more ideas is right after you turn in a story — on time, of course.
20. Persist. Breaking into print can take a while. Have a variety of entry- to mid-level print publications you’re targeting. If it’s not working, seek feedback from more experienced print writers. If an editor doesn’t flat-out say, “Don’t pitch us anymore,” keep sending more ideas if you think you’re a fit for that publication. If necessary, go back to #9. Keep going until you’ve achieved your goal: A byline you can cut out and paste in your scrapbook.

By Carol Tice

Does the idea of going to a live networking event make your stomach queasy and your palms greasy? We’re going to solve that problem right here, with some tips on how you can use in-person networking to grow your writing business, even if you’re petrified of meeting people face-to-face, hate crowds, or have full-on social anxiety.

Breathe into a paper bag if you need to. OK? Here we go.

First, let me just say that in-person networking is a powerful way to meet people who can connect you to new writing clients. Meeting live humans cannot be beat for this (take that, social media!). Even if you aren’t a social butterfly, I highly recommend giving in-person networking a serious try.

I’ll tell you a little secret about networking — once you get the hang of it, it’s actually fun. No, I’m not joking. You get to leave your cave, have a drink, laugh, and make new friends. It’s a chance to be open to the possibility of making a new connection that could change your whole writing career. And we should all be open to that.

How can you get started in networking, overcome your fears, and make it pay off? Here are my tips:

1. Start slow. Don’t have any goals for your first event except to go, smile at people, walk around, and listen. Don’t feel any pressure to accomplish anything. Just tune your radar in and observe what goes on. Now, that wasn’t too hard, was it?
2. Try different events. I recently took my husband to a Linked:Seattle meetup with more than 200 people. He hated it. “Too overwhelming, too much noise, too crowded, too snobby, too intimidating,” he reported. He later tried a local networking group where just a dozen or two people meet for breakfast on Fridays. He loves it, has made great friends and connections, and goes every week. There are breakfast groups, walk-and-talks, groups that meet in art galleries. There are networking groups that welcome all comers, and types such as BNI, where you pay a membership fee and they only admit one person per industry. Keep looking until you find the place where you feel comfortable and get quality leads.
3. Grow your network. It’s called networking because the point is to grow your network — to increase the number of people who know about your business. I think what makes a lot of people nervous about networking is the idea of asking people for work. But good networkers don’t do that. Finding clients grows naturally from the main task of expanding your circle. It’s a lot less intimidating when you think your goal at a networking event is simply to make new friends.
4. Serve others. The most successful networkers help the people in their network by referring them prospective clients. Make your main goal to get acquainted with people you meet at networking events. Rather than worrying about burnishing a pushy, salesy “elevator speech,” just ask everyone you meet what they do. They’ll be thrilled to tell you. If you know anyone who might need their product or service, let them know you’ll refer them. That’s what it’s all about.
5. Know yourself. Many writers have expressed anxiety to me that they “don’t know what to say” when people ask what they do. If this is you, come up with a statement before you arrive at a networking event. You’ll only have a minute or two to convey your essence to each person, so keep it simple and concise. For instance, I usually say I’m a freelance writer and blogger for both publications and corporations, looking for markets that need ongoing writing help. Defining your ideal client in your statement is a great way to help people remember you and what you’re seeking. Practice your spiel with friends to build confidence.
6. Give something away. One icebreaker at networking events is to make some sort of special offer to event attendees. It could be a discount, promotional product handout, or free hour of consulting, but whatever it is will help you stand out from the crowd. Ideally, print up fliers or special business cards to hand out that have the offer. That’ll give you something to say.
7. Follow up. Meeting someone at a networking event is an opportunity to begin a relationship. Take those business cards home and send an email, connect on LinkedIn, send them an interesting article, or set a time to meet for coffee. Create a followup schedule and stay in touch. I’ve had prospects I knew a year or more before they finally gave me a gig.

by Carol Tice

If you don’t feel self-confident about your writing, what can you do to build yourself up? Here are my tips:

This post originally appeared on the WM Freelance Writer’s Connection.

I recently got a type of paid blogging assignment I hadn’t had before. Instead of writing blogs from scratch, as I usually do, I was asked to improve the existing blog of a small business. I found this an interesting challenge.

This CEO had been blogging and was giving out some great information, but the blog wasn’t in very sharp blog format. As a result, the blogs came off as uninteresting. Readers sort of had to dig to find the nuggets of useful stuff.

I did a lot of what I thought of as very basic, obvious things to his blog…and this client was just thrilled! It was time-consuming to clean up the blogs, but to me didn’t involve any magical abilities.

It made me realize that if you know some fundamentals of blog style,  you can really wow a lot of businesses that need help with their Web sites. Of course, you can also do these things to your personal blog and improve your own posts.

Here are my tips for making yourself look like a blogging superstar:

1. Write shorter paragraphs. Many of this client’s blogs were one giant paragraph! By simply creating short, two- or three-sentence paragraphs, the blog became much more readable.
2. Write shorter sentences. Blog sentences shouldn’t go on for eight lines. Many of the sentences on this blog required a AAA road map to follow, so I broke them up into two or three sentences. The result was an instant improvement in clarity.
3. Add photos. At this point, images are really important in blogging. They make a blog so much more enticing. And adding an image is a chance to do something fun. For instance, for a blog aimed at startup businesses, I found a funny photo of a sign at a town apparently called Startup. The client was blown away by this little bit of creativity. Moral of the story: A little Flickr goes a long way.
4. Be concise. I trimmed out all repetition in the blogs and made them as short as they could be and still convey the information well. You can’t go wrong saying it in less space on the Internet. One of my very favorite blog posts ever is still this one on writing, by Copyblogger’s Brian Clark. It’s less than 40 words long. Won’t work for every topic, but it’s a great example of how brevity is beautiful.
5. Remove all tangents. This business owner had a habit of going off to discuss side issues to the main point. But blogs are too short for wandering off onto side roads. Blogs need to stick to their topic. Trimming out tangents made each blog entry more focused and easier to follow.
6. Remove repetitive words. We all have words we tend to use when we write. In this blogger’s case, it was “basically,” “so,” and “actually.” Trim those out, and you automatically get a more engaging post.
7. Use good grammar. You might be a financial genius or amazing business coach, but that doesn’t mean you know its from it’s, or when to spell out a number and when to use the numeral. The more closely you can follow a style guide along the lines of what newspapers use, such as Associated Press Style, the more readable viewers will find your posts. Cleaning up my client’s grammar foibles made him sound more authoritative.
8. Eliminate jargon. Be clear about who your audience is and what they understand about your industry. My client’s blogs were cluttered with insider references and acronyms the average prospective customer wouldn’t get. Out they went, in favor of spelling out abbreviations and explaining industry terms.
9. Have smooth transitions. I liken article and blog writing to knitting a sweater. Each paragraph should logically follow the one before it, with no dropped stitches — random new thoughts that show up abruptly. Once I’d cleaned it up with the steps above, I went back through my client’s blog to make sure each blog post had a smooth flow from beginning to end.
10. Enliven the byline and kill the signature. So many people miss this great link opportunity. Rather than just letting the blog program put a generic “posted by admin” notation at the top and leave it at that, write an actual byline, and make your name a link to your site. It just looks pro. Like many who are new to blogging, this client was instead signing his blogs with a stationery-style signoff, with his name, professional designations, company name, and phone number. Too formal! I chopped that off in favor of the enlivened byline.
11. Link to busy places. Like many new bloggers, my client was only linking to other pages of his own, low-traffic Web site. This obviously wasn’t helping the company site build its search-engine rankings. I dropped in a few relevant links to major industry organizations and articles in major publications on the same topic to help search engines view the client site as more credible.
12. Make sure links aren’t naked or dead. All of my client’s older blogs had naked links, where the URL address is showing (http://www.makealivingwriting.com), rather than adding links the classy way, where key words are enlivened with the appropriate link (Make a Living Writing). Even worse, most of the naked links were also dead like that naked link above, meaning they were not coded properly and nothing happened when you clicked on them. I killed all the naked, dead links and made them live key words. Now, it’s a blog!

Have any other tips for making your blog look professional? Please leave them in the comments below.

Photo via Flickr user wharman

By Carol Tice

By Carol Tice

What does it take to be successful in today’s world of blogging, Web content and online articles? This question was on my mind after attending a writer’s conference in Seattle sponsored by my local Society of Professional Journalists.

I was a presenter on a panel called “Diversify or Die! — How to Expand Your Services.” We panelists had varied experience — one had moved into PR, and another had a side business selling his photos.

As we told our stories, though, a common thread emerged. At some point over the past few years, someone had approached us and asked us to write something different. A type of writing we’d never done before. In one case, it was press releases. In another, it was doing radio. For me, it was ghost blogging for a company founder.

We all had the same reaction to this out-of-the-blue writing opportunity: “Sure! I think I can do that.”

In every case, that response led us in new directions that diversified our writing careers and increased our income.

All the successful writers shared an openness to new ideas. Our reaction to being presented with an unexpected new challenge was curiosity and even excitement. We were willing to stretch our writing in new directions when opportunity presented itself.

In short, we were flexible. We had career goals and plans, but when something different came along, we were willing to try that path as well.

In the questions at the end of our panel, we heard a lot of questions that started like this: “I worry about trying this new thing because….” or “I’m afraid if I try adding this type of writing, it’ll cause a problem…”

My answer? “Stop worrying. You see an opportunity? Just try it!”

In our fast-changing media world, flexibility is the key. People with rigid mindsets about what journalism is, where and how reporting should happen, what kind of writing they do, what an article should pay, are being left behind. Those willing to keep an open mind and try new things are flourishing.