Guest Post: Important Investments that Can Help Freelancers Boost their Business

These days, it’s not just enough that you have a typewriter and impeccable grammar in order to become successful in freelance writing. At some point in our career, we need to invest on things in order to grow.

And when it comes to investing, the first thing that you need to learn is that it is a continuous and ever-changing process. It is just like filling your car with gasoline. Yes, the petrol that you poured can take you to faraway places, but you need to refill your tank again after sometime. You need to learn a new writing skill in order to satiate your readers, and you might even need to upgrade some of your gadgets. In this post, you’ll learn about the essential things that freelancers should invest in to boost their craft and their business.

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How to beat the heat while working at home

DAMN it’s getting hot in here. And by that, I really mean, holy crap summer’s here to toast us all.

Maybe it’s because we went to Boracay island early in March that I feel like summer has been going on forever. I’ve forgotten that the season of beaches and bikinis only “officially” starts around this time. Luckily, the maddening heat reminded me that school’s out and it’s time to bask (or burn) in the scorching heat and revel in the “YAY no more school therefore there are less cars on the road YAY” traffic. I don’t drive, but, hey, I’m a passenger and sucky traffic gets to me, too.

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What I look for in book blogs when I’m “working”

When I first started book blogging I was fortunate enough to be hired as an assistant at an author PR and marketing firm. Later on I worked with the author who was my manager from that company. These days I just help her out with stuff as needed.

In my work as an assistant, I often have to do a lot of hopping from one book blog to another. I know, it’s an awesome job. I spend a lot of time looking at blogs to find potential reviewers or to check if a blogger has put up a review or a feature post as agreed. I enjoy it because book blog hopping not only lets me in on what’s happening in the community (what’s new, what’s trending, what are bloggers excited about these days, etc.), but it also helps me discover new blogs and gives me a chance to read about new or even old books.

For work purposes, I tend to zero in on a few things on a book blog. I get giddy when I see a nice design and a clean layout (I’m kind of obsessed with blog design), but those are not the only things that get my attention. Here are a few things that I usually look for in a book blog when I’m looking to connect with bloggers about an author or a book.

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Using a robot proofreader: Yay or Nay?

I used Grammarly to grammar check this post, because I wanted to pit myself against a robot, or in this case a program, and see if I would survive the robot apocalypse. Something like that.

Okay, not really. I was going to do a post about my favorite freelancer’s tools when I received an email about Grammarly, an automated online proofreader. According to the website, it ‘corrects contextual spelling mistakes, checks for more than 250 common grammar errors, enhances vocabulary usage, and provides citation suggestions.’

I was iffy about it at first but the Grammarly rep emphasized that the tool is meant to be a ‘second set of eyes’ to help people with their writing and not as a replacement for a human editor. Okay then. I figured I can at least do a quick test.

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Mid-year review: I think I flunked.

We’re just a little over halfway through 2013 and all I can say is, “Bucket lists suck.” Hah. Okay, I’m feeling that way mostly because I haven’t accomplished anything on my bucket list. And I mean NOTHING. Same goes for my 2013 list. Zip. Nada. NOTHING. So much for to-do lists.

WELL. Clearly, I flunked the first half of the year since I crossed off nothing from any of my grand plans. Oh well. It’s not a total loss though. I did manage to get myself engaged. Hur hur. I also managed to create blog templates for my experimental blog Color It YOU and I’m actually quite happy with that. And I got a sorta regular writing gig with a cool website, so there’s that.

I don’t want to do another list because obviously I don’t get anywhere with them. I don’t know what I’m going to do with my lists. For now I think I’m just going to concentrate on getting more writing gigs, blogging more, getting through my review pile, and experimenting with blog design. I’ll be pretty busy with wedding preps, too, anyway. Hah. Excuses. ;)

Um, I’ve nothing else to say. How was your first half of the year? :)

Listen to me babble on The Freelance Pinoy

Eep, listen to me babble about quitting my 9-5 (um, it was more of a 8-ish to 7-ish job) and going freelance over at The Freelance Pinoy.

Stef of The Freelance Pinoy is having an interview series called Making the Jump from the 9-5: Interviews with Pinoy Freelancers Who Left the Corporate World to Go Freelance. The interview series ‘tackles the questions and concerns of many Pinoys who wish to freelance, but are tied to their full-time jobs.’

It’s funny (and horrifying) when you hear yourself on a recorded interview. I think it’s only the second time I’ve done a live audio interview since I became a freelancer. The first time was when I talked to my awesome author-boss-lady. Most of my work is done through email or text chat.

Anyway, I hope I was able to impart something useful to Stef’s readers. Head on over there now and let’s laugh at my funny voice! ;)


Thinking about Going Freelance? 
Read about my journey here. ;)

March has come and I got zip.

The part where I rant about achieving nada in February. Nada!

How now, browncow? It is MARCH and I have yet to do shit. I mean, really do shit. I seem to have forgotten my bucket list. Well, kind of. Not totally. I’m just not making any real progress.

Okay, let’s see here. I got zip short stories. Zero personal essays. No creative writing pieces for my creative writing challenge. No completed article over at Words.ph. HOLY CRAP. I suck. I suck big time.

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September and October Report

Hullo! Time for another two-month recap of my crazy I-quit-you-corporate-Imma-work-at-home-like-a-boss life. Yeahboy. So, um, here’s the deal, Sparky. There hasn’t been any major change to my current freelancing situation. HAH. I know, right? It’s crazy. It really is.

Anyway, let me go back to the little plans I had back in early September when I hit a teeny weeny bump on the road to freelance greatness. I didn’t really say it back then, but I found myself in a slump-ish type of condition. I was kind of in a what-am-doing-with-my-life state for a moment there.

I had some to-do’s back in September as an attempt to get back into my Dizzizit It’s Time To Fly mode.

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