Why I like being a blogger?

The only job that I always wanted to have was of a journalist. I not even wanted to be a writer, even though I always have been into books and literature. I was keen to be close to the reality and put it into my words and explain it to as many people as possible.

Luckily enough and with a lot of work, I was able to work as a journalist for almost 10 years. It was hardly a domain that I did not covered during those years, and although as a woman the life in the media is hard and supposes many personal sacrifices, I succeeded to improve my knowledge about world while meeting interesting people, travelling a lot and writing even more.

The only part that I did not like about media was the presence of too many people that were not driven by the passion for reality and words, but by the need to get rich and influencial and to listen to various orders. I left without regrets and I continued my career in PR and communications, writing books and academic articles. 

Passionate about everything new and fresh in terms of communications, I was more than happy to be one of the first using social media tools and various 2.0 instruments. Blogging was naturally among the first new passions that I regularly followed for many years already. In the last 7 years I closed few and opened even more blogs sharing my passions and the eagerness to share to the world my ideas and love for books and wonderful things. Even though I do not have too much time for such non-profit activities - especially when I need to make a living somehow - I try to contribute regularly to all my online media business. 

I hope that one day each blog will work as a source of profit, and small steps were made for reaching possible sponsors and signing various sponsorships. However, I prefer to stay late in the night looking for subjects to blog than to miss the chance of following my passions. Blogging gave my the chance to write what I want and consider important to write, without the need to request permission and explain my choice and my stance. 

I belive in the power of blogging as much as I believe that we can change the world also with the force of the words. For this, and for many other small wonders of my online world, I am once again thankful for living in the 21st century.

Challenges of a sleepless Freelancer

There are many advantages and disadvantages of the freelance work, but the good side of the story is that the more you are into this domain, the more you would like to learn and improve your portfolio of skills.

And I explain the above optimistic statement with the help of a couple of personal examples.

The decision of becoming a freelancer was the result of relatively simple and classical reasons: the need to spend more time doing what I want to do, in the middle of the family and with a flexible program. In addition, I am the kind of person that desperately wants to do something new every single day and thus, being a freelancer was an opportunity for more daily challenges. Last but not least, my passion for writing and nothing else than writing pushed me forward to projects that will help me to improve my writing skills (in English).

I started my real-life experience in this domain the last December and till now, it was - and most likely it will continue to be - a very interesting experience, with many downs and suprising ups. I experienced people that simply disappeared without paying or did not agree to pay any single cent for a hard writing and editing job. I learned how to recognize the fakes on Freelancer.com and how to better use my marketing skills for improving my credentials and online image. 

The conclusion is banal: being a freelancer is not easy and, in comparison with someone that is employed regularly, no one is paying for my rights of going on vacation. If I do not work one day, I risk to lose around $50 the day and as I consume what I produce, any delay will affect seriously my problematic budget. 

The only possibility to completely start your work as a fresh new freelancer and not starve is to have some savings. Otherwise, you should be aware that until you will have a stable porfolio of customers you will need for around 6 months or even more, depending of your speciality. As a writer and translator in at least 3 languages, I am still not too close from this objective. 

While working, you should consider as well expanding your skills. For instance, I am trying to improve as much as possible the reading and writing skills in another 2 languages and expanding as far as possible my computer skills. Building websites and learning how to use various editing systems - I will write soon in another post about my latest discoveries - are also on my priority lists. Very often, a good attitude - and again, your savings - could save you from the black days when you realize that you worked for two weeks and the employers forgot to make your bank account happy. From time to time, you might expect some 'thank you' notes, but you better get ready for the new assignment and hunt permanently the market for new good accounts and projects.

Despite all the disagreements and problems I encountered in the last months, I still believe in my shinning freelancer star!

Find the right blog

Are you working for a company interested to collaborate with various categories of bloggers? Do you have problems in finding out which blogs are the best to promote your products? Here are a couple of advices about how to make the right choices:

1. Most probably, the products that you are ready to distribute for free are limited and thus, you should be very careful with the category of blogs offered for distribution. The first step is to make a short and long list of networks where you will be interested to see your products presented as well as to define your target group.

2. You should always look for active bloggers - meaning with at least 1-2 posts the week. 

3. Be careful with the new blogs: some people would be happy to use your products for free and for this, they will set up a blog especially for this. Take your time and watch what is going on with the blog in the next weeks and months and start the collaboration only if you are sure that you deal with a committed blogger.

4. The volume of comments is also very important: the best case scenarios are the blogs with more than 5-6 comments for each posts.

5. Other big numbers in social media networks are important: the 'likes' of the Facebook pages, the 'followers' on Twitter or the 'daily ratio' of the readership will automatically pledge the cause of a medium or long term collaboration with a blogger.

6. Beyond those statistical aspects, you should take care of the language and the general design of the blog. Not anyone will be happy to associate his or her products with bloggers assuming vulgarity  or rasist messages whatever the impressive readership, isn't it?

7. Your geographical area of interest is also important. If you want to increase your customers from Asia, you should focus especially on the (big) blogs from this area.

Geek recommendations of the week

Ready to improve your knowledege and tools about web design and Internet. Here are my recommendations of the week:

For simple and efficient JavaScript applications, you should choose qooxdoo.

If you are looking for a webhosting solution, you can give a chance to 1und1.de. If you are not in Germany, you shouldn't have regrets, as the service is also available in: Canada, USA, Poland, Austria, France, UK, Italy, Spain and Romania.   

Looking for a reliable, free and downloadable web analytics software: give a chance to Piwik, available in more than 40 languages.

Worried that you spend too much time on your computer? If you want the analytics, you should try to figure out professionally about the time, by using an efficient time management tool: Rescuetime. For both individuals and businesses it is considered highly accurate. Here you have an evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of this system, compared with another similar tool, Time Doctor, mostly recommended for big companies.

Always in a hurry and you do not have time to watch some interesting videos? Save them for later on, with the help of the Watchlater application.

Coordinating a project is not easy, but with the help of Trello, you can significantly improve your record. 

Love the summer vacation but you would be interested to get some more money from your online activity. Try Shareifyoulike, a free platform that pays you for sharing content. 

Worried about the fate of your website? With Backupify.com, you are care free as you can backup all the information you worked to have online for such a long time.

If you are a graphic artist and creative professional, you are keen to share online your experience and eventually to expand your porfolio of customers. With carbonmade.com, you can do it in a professional way, but setting up and sharing your porftolio online. 

Writing challenges, from print to online

Are you a dedicated print journalist and you realized that you cannot continue without a consistent online presence?

Here are some useful tips about what you can do do enhance your performances and avoid the usual mistake made by those who did not realized clearly the differences between the two. 

If you wondered, it is not difficult and if you have the gift and passion of the writer, you will succeed. 

How to keep in touch with your audience

As an intensive blogger and avid reader of various media and books on different subjects, I know that sometimes it is hardly impossible to keep in touch with all my interests simply by the gentle search. It would mean to spend almost 3-4 hours the day or even more only by searching on the Internet after news. An impossible mission, as long as till now, I passionately blog for free and thus, I need to keep myself busy with jobs, family and other obligations in between.

Thus, how to continue writing while still on the run with other topics?

As in many other situations, you should know what your interests are and what your audience expects from you. Thereafter, you need to set up a list of keywords and set up as your Google search tools.

In addition, you need to find out newspapers, organizations and institutions that sent regularly updates with their news. Once something new appears, you will have it right in your inbox. It will help you to better manage your writing time and increase your efficiency. You can count on the spectacular searches and findings, but you need to increase audience, maybe some profits as well and be professional in a world of professionals. And if you want to play good, use the best resources for the best results. Most likely, you have more opportunities to communicate from time to time with those who are sending the updates and to establish better professional connections.

Of course, you should not forget to read your e-mail regularly and check up what is new in your professional inbox. If you have a blog, you should associate it with an e-mail address dedicated exclusively to the communication dedicated to this blogging activity. It is important that you check it at least twice the week - on Mondays and on Thursdays and try to plan your blogging activities up to this information. In this way, you will be able to navigate easier through the sea of news and try to be one of the first to inform your readers with the best quality of news.

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