A living wage for journalists?

Is there a living wage for journalists?  What should it be?  Arianna Huffington says a “living wage” for her journalists is still being worked out.  My opinion  –  and I may be wrong or just completely biased  –  is that journalism doesn’t pay a living wage.  You do it for the love.  I think in the long-term, I will make my money doing other things.  Can one make a good living in journalism today?

The downside of sovereignty

Now that I’ve raved about the sovereignty of working for oneself as a freelance writer…let me tell you about the downside.  The one thing that was lacking for me as a freelancer who worked at home was one of the most important: peers.  Say what you want about your coworkers, but they are essential.  Having a second opinion sitting one desk over from you is invaluable.

Can you recreate this experience as a freelancer?

It’s an important thing to ask yourself if you are thinking about going out on your own and stepping away from the corporate environment.  A lot of people here in Phoenix like to go to co-working places and/or coffee shops.  To be honest, sometimes I like working in coffee shops but other times, not so much.  I guess it depends on the atmosphere on any given day.  I most often like working in my own home office where I can control my own atmosphere.  But sometimes it gets to feeling like an island and the coffee shop starts to become appealing again.

But as a writer, peers are so important.  I work in a newsroom and can’t begin to tell you the importance of a second set of eyes on a piece of copy.  When I work on my own I have to change my work habits to give myself extra time for revisions.  I write and then let my work “cool” for a while before I re-read and revise.  Without a coworker sitting next to me to serve as my second set of eyes, I can only depend on my own.  So I come up with little tricks like letting a draft “cool” for a couple hours or overnight before I come back to it.  (This method has really helped with a few Boston University papers, too).

Freelancing from home means I have to create my own peers.  Twitter and Facebook are great for this. But so are instant messaging, email, and Skype.  It never hurts to have someone you can call or IM for advice or a second pair of eyes when needed.  I’ve met a few great freelance writers online and they have given great help over the years.  It’s also great to keep in touch with others to see how their careers take shape and see how they market themselves.  It’s so good to see how others succeed — it’s inspiring.

Sometimes that’s the most important thing.  Do your coworkers inspire you?  Do they make you better? Do they make you want to step up your game?  Are they supportive?  If not, maybe you would be better off creating a community of peers on your own.

Sovereignty

I’d like to take a few blog posts to explain why, after two years of full-time employment, I am yearning for my old life as a freelance writer.  The first idea I’d like to get across is that freelance writing, however scary it may be at times, is a completely sovereign activity.  That’s the first and most important reason why I loved it, why I now miss it.  I miss my sovereignty as a freelance writer and realize I have desperately been trying to recreate it with my blogs in my spare time.  I don’t care if I only make $1 per month as a freelancer, as long as I am doing it again.

What brought this on?  I was reading this just now after reading the new Seth Godin ebook, “What Matters Now.”

I realize I cannot extol the virtues of Seth Godin in all corporate environments.  Some dig it while the cultures of some companies don’t make for happy, energetic, and creative environments.  But I can do that on my own as a freelancer!  I can enjoy Seth’s ideas all I want when I’m on my own.  I can even fit reading Seth’s blog into my actual workday as something that adds value to my experience.  But in some corporate environments, people just don’t get this.

I am really loving Seth’s new ebook today and stopped at Hugh Macleod’s entry in it, which took me to his website…and I realize I live my life more in the Hugh Macleod way than in the corporate sheep way. I think I’ll be buying Ignore Everybody later.

But first, I have to get to work.  Creativity time is over so I can go make a CEO richer.

Top-searched words in 2009 at Dictionary.com

Drumroll, please…  We still have no idea what the difference is between “affect” and “effect.”  Seriously!  According to Dictionary.com, the top 10 most-searched words in 2009 were:

1. Affect

2. Ubiquitous

3. Irony

4. Socialism

5. Effect

6. Melancholy

7. Love

8. Integrity

9. Nostalgic

10. Pedantic

I will be the first to admit to having had a lively discussion in our own newsroom about affect/effect.  We’ve all fallen victim to that one once or twice.

The only real interesting reflection of our culture in 2009 has to be #4.  Apparently we were all looking that one up to see if others were using it properly?  What term in 2009 was thrown around more casually than “socialism?” There had to be a few looking it up just to see if it fit their rhetoric.  And so, 2009 was the year we learned the definition of socialism.  Or tried to, anyway.

On that note, the top decliners of 2009 were:

1. Bush

2. Maverick

3. Solace

4. Liberal

5. Obsequious

6. Rhetoric

7. Superfluous

8. Condescending

9. Cynical

10. Ostentatious

Apparently the abuse of “maverick” stopped in 2009.  I think we all know who we can credit that too…and she was probably responsible for putting “socialism” at #4 in the first list.  So what did we want more of in 2009?  Greed!  Dictionary.com users needed a new word for it, and “esurient” was the one. Twitter made it in at #10 on the list of 2009 gainers in an obvious nod to the growth of the social networking site.  I honestly have no idea how “namaste” made it onto the list unless yoga had a boom in popularity this year too.

Top Gainers of 2009:

1. Esurient

2. Impeded

3. Shuddering

4. Fugacious

5. Suffering

6. Negative

7. Namaste

8. Adjuvant

9. Callipygian

10. Twitter

I am surprised to see that words like “furlough” and “bailout” didn’t make the list.  But most of us know the meaning of those all too well.

Where are your ideas?

Just a little thought for the day:

Where are your ideas?  Are they so light they evaporate up into the atmosphere?  Are they so heavy they sink with a thud, never able to get off the ground?  Or are they light enough to just levitate around you? What gives them that levity? What keeps them close to your awareness?

Another new low in celebrity journalism: a psychic channels MJ

I couldn’t agree more with FishBowl LA.  This sinks pretty low to the level of sleaze.  This can’t even be called “journalism.”  If ever I would have done something like this, it would have been as a morning radio jock doing a stunt and never considered “news” or “journalism.”  Michael Jackson has been a star for 40 years; certainly we can all come up with something better than this to fill space.  With “This Is It” just smoking the box office right now, this cannot be the best a person can do.  Good grief, go see the film and review it.  But don’t screw around putting out trash.  Find a new angle or let the story die.

Who is changing the media game?

I give up.  Who is it?  The Huffington Post is asking this question and we get to vote on the nominees.  I hardly think of anyone making traditional media moves as a game-changer.  I’m learning towards the folks at The Atlantic for “treating its website as an extension of the brand.”  I’d like to see every traditional media business adopt this way of doing things.  Print and broadcast can benefit from evolving onto the web and finding new and non-traditional ways of creating revenue.

Who are the game changers in the media?  People like Gary Vaynerchuk?  How about Pam Slim?  I like people like Shira Lazar and iJustine.  All of these people have done something unique by combining their personal brand with several forms of media.  You can’t just be in one kind of media anymore–you have to expand.  I can’t just do radio and expect to survive.  I love radio, but I also want to change it.  The old models don’t work.  So who’s coming up with the new business model?  Who do you think the game game-changers are?

An honest mistake in a changing celebrity news landscape

This Q&A with John Mayer by New York Magazine’s pop culture “Vulture” was pretty dang funny, to say the least.  I only happened upon it after one of my Twitter followers sent out a tweet that Mayer had threatened to sodomize female journalists.  As both a fan of Mayer and as a radio professional who has played his records since the beginning, I had to click on the link in her tweet.  As I started to read the Q&A with Mayer, I began to realize the joke, but my Twitter friend hadn’t and instead was upset with Mayer.  She had taken his words literally when he said, “I’m going to forcefully sodomize your editor.”

Here’s what might have happened.

An editor gave her writer questions to ask Mayer that were absurd.  But how absurd are they really?  In an age when what we post online is driven by page views and how much audience we can gain, the NY editor didn’t really make a mistake here.  The Q&A has me blogging about it and, earlier in the week, my twitter pal was up in arms about it.  So that’s two people driving traffic to the NY Mag site.

It seems to me like the editor thought she may get Mayer to say something controversial and newsworthy about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize. The questions asked seemed like attempts to snag something newsworthy to drive traffic to the site by asking serious questions.  We see TMZ.com do it all the time in their videos.  But the plan doesn’t always work when you ask a celeb a question like this.  Usually, they have no opinion or nothing newsworthy to say.

C’mon, editors, like you’re really going to get well-coached stars to say something to give you a hot story?  Mayer would rather say something smart ass about sodomizing you than take a Nobel question seriously.  He’s got a record to promote, so he’s not going to say anything to piss off his red state or blue state fans.  To me, this just seemed like an attempt to compete with TMZ gone wrong.

We’ve hit the saturation point with celebrity news and gossip.  How are we going to do it differently?

By not falling victims to trends or by copying what everyone else is doing.  But there’s also one vital thing to do.  If you’re going to cover celebrity news for a living, it doesn’t stop  when your 40 hours a week are up in the newsroom.  You don’t walk up to Mayer and ask him dumb questions like he’s a stranger you have no respect for.  Do your research.  And when I say “research,” Google doesn’t count.

You have to live this stuff.

You lifestyle has to be celebrity/entertainment news 24/7/365.  You can’t miss a thing.  Mayer fans know he’s a smart ass with dry, sarcastic, rude humor.  The fans also know he loves to liberally dish out his unique humor to journalists.  The editor and her writer would have known this if they’d been fans, or had at least watched Mayer on some TMZ videos verbally sparring with paparazzi and journalists.  The guy’s current single is about, “who says I can’t?”  Well, what do you think you’re going to get when you hit him up with your tape recorder at a party or on a red carpet?  Who says I can’t smart-ass this journalist chick who didn’t do her homework on me?

I’ve got clients to serve who want news on Mayer’s new album.  I’m not going to waste 2 minutes with him by asking him lame questions.  Tell me about “Battle Studies.”  (She did at least ask about that after asking a bunch of questions that annoyed him.  Way to go to build rapport…)

You never know where a conversation will go anyway.

I talked to Mike Kennerty of the All-American Rejects last week about how the band was getting back on the road after Tyson Ritter had emergency knee surgery.  Somehow we got to talking about a few different subjects, which was really cool and unexpected.  It wasn’t an exclusive; a lot of us got to do press over the phone with members of the band.  So we all had the story about them going back on tour.  But I know I got a couple of other tidbits out of him that will be exclusive to my Westwood One clients only.

I get what I get from people by doing my own thing and not trying to be like everyone else out there.  I treat artists with respect.  In Kennerty’s case, he was calling from London on a day off.  How would you like a bunch of strangers asking you questions for a few hours on end on your “day off?”  Exactly.  This is why you get so much more as a journalist just by being cool with people.

Anyone can put up a blog and start trying to compete with TMZ or Perez Hilton or whomever in online celebrity news and gossip you idolize.  Some of us were doing celeb news before it grew to what is currently is online, which is a massive echo-chamber.  I did it in radio first and I still do it for radio.

How do you do entertainment news today and stand out from the crowd?  How do you not fall victim to the echo chamber trap?  How can you do music news and still compete with countless blogs all writing about the same thing at the same time?  Should we even call it “news” any more?

Disclosure: I am a “New York” magazine subscriber and long-time fan of the online site.  Opinions expressed on this blog do not reflect that of any of my various employers.  I have also bought every John Mayer album I’ve ever had.

Gone are the days of having a “comfort zone”

This is why I stopped freelancing nearly two years ago.  I wanted a “comfort zone” and was driven by a boyfriend-at-the-time to “get a real job” that was “steady” that I could “depend on.”  It was a nice idea at the time and it’s just what I did.  I don’t think such a thing exists anymore and it is something I never believed in anyway.  The reason why I was freelancing to begin with was because I felt to my core that you can’t depend on anyone but yourself to make a living.  I have also worked in radio broadcasting for 11 years now, which is an unpredictable industry to say the least.  I was used to the idea of always having a resume ready to go.

Two years later and single, my core beliefs have been proven right on once again.  The economy is much different than it was then, and in ways I couldn’t have foreseen.  I knew then you couldn’t depend on “father employer” to always provide for you, and today we all see why that is.  When Westwood One told us about our pay cut/furloughs at the end of September, I realized you can no longer depend 100% on a full-time job for income.  Since we got the news, I started talking to friends whose furloughs and pay cuts are more severe than mine, and also to friends who’ve been out of work for over a year now.

The only thing I can conclude from this experience is that every one of us must learn to provide for ourselves.  Here’s what I’m thinking…

My full-time, 40-hours-per-week job no longer pays my bills.  At least, not for the next three months and even after these three tight months are past, it still doesn’t help me meet my financial goals.  However, it does have some benefits I won’t get in freelancing like a paycheck every two weeks.  I do know I will at least get some kind of check every two weeks, no matter how small.

I also get health insurance for a dirt cheap monthly fee.  While I do still get stiffed with a lot of health bills I can’t afford on my salary, I know it could be much worse.  I’ve been there, done that in the days of providing my own health insurance.  I don’t even want to know what that would cost me today.  I am guessing at least $300 a month with expensive copays and prescriptions on top of that.

Another benefit of a full-time job, even if I don’t make full-time pay is sick and vacation time.  If I’m running a fever, I can call in sick, unlike in freelancing where a deadline is a deadline.  I do also have paid vacation time.  It’s so hard to take a vacation or sick day when you are your own boss.  If I am too sick to leave my home, I can call in sick to my full-time job but I’ll still have to turn in my freelance work.  Hey, at least I won’t have to do both.

Having a full-time job also gets me out of the house  five days a week, which is also a plus.  I get to interact with coworkers and learn from them, which is something I don’t get working alone at home. Freelancing interaction for me in 2006-2008 was limited to email, phone, Skype, MySpace, and Twitter.  I spent next to nothing on gas, but I think I also ended up out of touch without all those great “water cooler” chats I have now with coworkers.

So those are all the great things about having a full-time job.  You get sick time, vacation time, a paycheck every two weeks, cheaper health benefits than one can provide oneself, and a sense of community.  Not to mention how good it looks on the resume as you seek jobs.  The best time to get a job is when you already have a job.  I know it’s a cliche, but it’s true.

But when the rent doesn’t get paid…it’s not so fun anymore.  This brings me to the entire point of this post:

Don’t depend on an employer to be your everything in 2009 and beyond!

We have got to be moonlighting on the side, whether it is by selling crafts, cleaning houses, DJ’ing weddings, or walking dogs.  I just don’t see being able to get by on one income anymore like our employers are some kind of gods meant to provide for us.  Being in such a comfort zone is a mistake.

I plan to treat my full-time job as my main source of income and benefits–but not as my only source of income and benefits.  To me now, it’s like just another freelance gig to juggle; the income from it can go away at any time.  When I juggled several freelance gigs, I knew this.  When one gig went away, it didn’t make me sad or angry.  I just moved on to the next gig.

So I can continue to be bitter and angry at my employer for cutting my pay, or I can move on to the next gig.  I think I can accept what I’ve known for years in my gut–that only I can create my income by using my unique talents and ideas to find meaningful work I enjoy that pays the bills.

I am looking for freelance writing gigs as I re-brand myself

I am on a furlough day today.  After catching up on “The Office” and “Community” on Hulu.com this morning, my attention naturally drifted towards searching the Internet for freelance writing gigs.  As a full-time entertainment news writer suffering a severe pay cut, I feel the need to support my writing habit with…more writing jobs.

So I begin a serious search for gigs once again for the first time in nearly two years.  I honestly don’t remember where I found the good gigs before.  Some quick searches today showed me that ads online for gigs haven’t changed much in two years.  I used to apply for any and every appealing gig I saw–and took every single one I was offered.  I had to; freelancing was my primary income.  I would like my freelance income to supplement my main income today, as I do have a full-time job and therefore not as much time to freelance.

Branding

The other thing I want to accomplish with freelancing now that I didn’t think about before is personal branding.  Each gig I take now is an opportunity to increase my personal brand.  I can write about anything.  Freelance writers are generalists and being able to write about any and every subject assigned to you is survival.  But there are a few things I am really good at like music news, entertainment news, podcasting, being a radio personality, writing for the web, national news, and anything pop culture.  Actually, increasing my pop culture brand is the best thing I can do right now.

My Brand: Pop Culture

I think that’s a good goal above all else: increase my brand as a pop culture writer/content provider. Because I can create pop culture content for the web, print, and broadcast.  I hope you’ll join me as I blog about my career recreation right now.  Is it a recreation?  A makeover?  A re-branding?  I am not sure which word applies best to what I am trying to do.  I guess we’ll see as time goes on how this evolves…

Working on my MediaBistro.com profile

I love that this profile gives me a place where I can showcase my experience and upload my clips.  It’s just that for some reason today, not all the changes I am making to my profile are being saved.  So it’s not quite finished, but looking better.

http://www.mediabistro.com/HeatherLarson

A new, improved “about me” page

I just shut down the $9/month Godaddy website tonight account for WriterHeather.com.  You know what?  It’s not a big deal. I already moved my “about me” page here to this blog.  I think I like it much better.  Everyone who is out of work right now or looking for extra work can easily put up a resume and about me page on WordPress and start blogging about their area of expertise.

On a furlough.

To make a very long story very short, my “furlough” at work is a two-week decrease in pay without actually being two weeks off.  So I’m now faced with restarting my freelance writing business with absolutely no money at my disposal to invest in it.  When I started freelancing from home in 2006, I did it on a rock n’ roll budget, well–for a first-time freelancer anyway.  Today, I kick it off on a country song budget with Jennifer Nettles’ voice in my head on repeat singing, “Livin’ on a shoestring…”

So I’m pretty sure I’m closing down my WriterHeather.com and moving its contents elsewhere before I send out a single query or resume.  I’m uploading clips to my Media Bistro profile and it will likely make a functional “ground zero” for me at this point.  This blog, as well as EverythingHeather.wordpress.com will also be good tools in my war chest right now.  It cuts my expenses by about $9/month to close WriterHeather.com, which is no big deal as I was about to redo the site anyway.  Plus, now I need that $9 to buy new business cards!  That’s what a small amount from Overnightprints.com costs.

I’m trying to show you how easy and cheap it is to start freelancing from home since I know so many people are in the same boat right now.  Media Bistro is something I pay $50/year for, but it has so many benefits for that price that I think it’s worth it.

Money is one thing, but time is another.  It takes time to start freelancing more than it takes anything else.  I’m finishing up my 15th Boston University class right now, which means I have two papers left to turn in and one of them is actually my final project.  I’m also moving.  (The second time I have been in the process of moving while working on a final!)  I’m also still required to show up to my full-time job every day at Westwood One Metro Source, where I’m a broadcast entertainment news writer.  And you know I’ll drop everything to fill in on the air at my radio station, 98.7 The Peak, if anyone needs some time off.

So if I can do it, you can do it.  And you’re probably even busier than me.

Back to one Twitter account

Forget everything I said in my last post!

I just backed down my three Twitter accounts to one. My original thought was that I should have one for each major interest in my life. The @heatherlarson account I have is the Twitter account I’ve had the longest, since March 2007.  I used to be afraid I’d annoy my followers with my on-air tweets when I’m on 98.7 The Peak, so I created @heathercast. Eventually, true Peak fans found me in both places and thought it was confusing for me to have two accounts.

I Must Be Confused…

I like to take my Macbook to the station and do 12 Seconds videos when I’m on the air, but my 12 Seconds account was linked only to my @heatherlarson account, so I’d have to retweet those 12 seconds videos from @heathercast. That’s a good example of how it got confusing. Then I was getting a lot of spam followers on @heathercast. I’m also on the air so rarely, usually only every other weekend, so my followers got used to me being on @heatherlarson.

Finding A Focused Audience

I rarely get on @curecjd, and I should more often. I don’t think that I shouldn’t tweet about CJD from the @heatherlarson account. But the beauty of the @curecjd account is that I am following only CJD-oriented people there, so they aren’t getting lost in the ton of followers I have at my oldest account. I think I’ll still log into it and post links to blogs there when I write them for curecjd.wordpress.com and to see what people interested in CJD are tweeting about.

It’s All About Me

So over time, the @heatherlarson Twitter account has become the all-encompassing, all-about-me type of thing it really should be since it bears my name. I think in the beginning when I created @heathercast, it was possible to offend people by tweeting too much about being on the air, so it was a good idea at the time. Tweeting too much of one thing did run the risk of turning off followers. But Twitter has really grown and evolved to where I don’t think people get too uptight if you get on one subject for a while. Sometimes I worry that too much shameless self-promotion turns people off, so I try to mix it up. Because I DO unfollow people who consistently do only shameless self-promotion about one thing and never join the conversation.

Audience Building

My advice for those new to Twitter is to keep it real. Be you. Twitter is part of your brand and helps you stand out. It helps you network with people of like minds across the world and also with people in your town who become your audience. Whatever I do, whether it is being on the air, blogging, or writing, the name of the game is to build an audience. Writers need readers. Radio personalities need listeners. If you’re blogging and Tweeting right now to market yourself for work, then you’re a job seeker who needs an employer. Widget sellers need buyers, and so on. Don’t believe the people who think blogs and Twitter are silly. If someone thinks it’s just about self-centered real-time “what I’m doing right now” updates, they’ve missed the point. When you approach these social networking sites like the valuable tools they are, you won’t be disappointed.

Why multiple Twitter accounts?

Let’s see…I have:

@heatherlarson

@heathercast

@curecjd

But why? What’s the point?

@heatherlarson is my regular, day-to-day Twitter account. I tweet to it from Tweetie on my iPod,  Twitterberry on my Blackberry, and currently Spaz on my Mac. I’ve also liked Seesmic and Tweetdeck, but I just want to try all the desktop apps. I like to use the @heatherlarson account for everything; school, work, entertainment, food allergy issues, feedback, jokes, etc. It’s the most “me” account but also the grab bag one. I also use it to drive Twitter followers to my two additional accounts if they are even interested.

That is it right there–interest. I figure my @heatherlarson followers shouldn’t be bombarded with @heathercast and @curecjd if the stuff I tweet there isn’t their thing. I don’t want to turn off the people who aren’t into hearing about the human form of “mad cow disease” or DJ stuff. That’s why I keep one radio-specific account and one that’s only about CJD. If I used one account for all three, the radio stuff would make me lose credibility in CJD World.

@heathercast is the one I use while I am on the air at 98.7 The Peak. Many of my Twitter followers are in Phoenix, but many are out of state too. They can only get The Peak if they listen to the station online. I also don’t want to annoy the regular followers I network with about, “Coming up, your chance to win tickets to see Aerosmith,” or “Thanks to Phil for listening and requesting The Police…”

However I also use @heatherlarson to promote The Peak if I’m at home and see our afternoon guy, @HiSteveDouglas has posted a Twitpic of our new studio or a funny new “Hollywood Hoo Hah” video starring our illustrious midday girl Monica Nelson, aka @justhighonlife. I try later to “RT” or “retweet” it from @heathercast but often forget. I’m happy to promote The Peak at either account when I’m off the air. Die-hard Peak listeners follow me at both @heatherlarson and @heathercast.

Then there’s @curecjd, which is quite a coup to get for being someone not-too-important in the CJD realm. I’m no neurologist. But @priongirl is. This Twitter account has helped others interested in/involved with CJD to find me, and me them. I use it to post links to articles about CJD and to post links back to my CJD blog. What’s cool is when all the article links show up on my blog since I installed a Twitter widget there. It’s a good visual/content addition to that blog and also helps add content (in a small way) to that blog when I only have time to Tweet about CJD and can’t fit in a proper blog entry.

I’m fascinated with how people are using Twitter today. It’s a geek thing that has really evolved into many very different things during the 2.5 years I’ve been on it. While I think it’s great for self-promotion, you can overdo it too. I’d say this blog is going a bit far in self-promotion! If nothing else, I hope it gives you ideas. I don’t plug every blog post on Twitter. And guess what? People still find and comment on my blogs. If I make a post I am especially proud of or really need feedback on, I definitely post a link on Twitter. I used to get a lot of responses quickly from doing that but not as much since Twitter has grown. I think we all have too many followers now. Getting tons of instant feedback is no longer common. I’m probably missing out on giving others good feedback on their posts too, though I do try.

Clearing my name after being attacked on “The Rip Off Report”

My Rip-Off Report Rebuttal

I Googled myself tonight and found this.

Instead of using a website as obviously questionable as the Rip-Off Report, I figured I’d use my own website to issue a rebuttal to some online slander about me which is entirely untrue. It is clear to me as I read this that someone was merely taking details off my freelance writing resume on WriterHeather.com and stringing them together so that someone might actually believe “the facts check out” if they look up “Heather Larson” or “Freelance writer Heather Larson” after reading this silliness on the Rip Off Report.

I do not write books, nor have I ever. I attempted to write one once for a client who never paid, thus it didn’t work out. (More on that freelance writing assignment gone wrong below). I write SEO content and I write and edit news for broadcast, print, and online platforms. I also write and produce podcasts. But I do not, as a freelance writer, write books nor have I ever. And yes, I am also a disc jockey on the air at 98-7 The Peak in Phoenix, Arizona.

Let me go through this lie by lie to straighten it out.

First of all, I would never “brag” about my writing on the air at 98-7 The Peak. I keep the various companies I work for separate from each other while also separating my freelance work from those companies. I would also never look for clients on the Peak request lines. And if you hadn’t already guessed it, most people don’t hire writers by having their sons call radio station request lines.

I don’t have a high hourly rate nor do I have 9 years of book writing experience. I have no book writing experience and never do I even look for this kind of work. I’m doing SEO content writing right now for a client who already knows me. I haven’t been actively looking for freelance work in a while, although I am Googling myself before I start looking again. This has obviously proved to be a wise move!

I am not a Boston University graduate. I am in the middle ofcompleting my BLS and graduate in May of 2010 from Boston University, which I attend online from Phoenix. I never tell people I am a BU graduate and you will not find one credible piece of literature anywhere calling me that. Everyone who really knows me and has worked with me knows I am currently in the Executive Undergrad Completion Program online at Boston University’s Metropolitan College.

I have never charged anyone a retainer; my clients pay me once my work is completed, turned in, and invoiced to them. I shouldn’t even have to explain that one…

I have never “disappeared.” I have been in Phoenix for eight years working in the local media here. I’m pretty findable with my various websites, Twitter accounts, MySpace accounts, blogs, podcasts, LinkedIn, Facebook…need I go on? I’m an open book, probably too much in fact. I also have a good reputation with everyone who has ever worked with me. If you know anyone at a local radio station, go ahead and ask them about me. They probably know me or know someone who does and I’m sure they’ll give you a glowing review of me and my work. The Phoenix radio community is a tight knit family like that.

I don’t think I even need to dignify with comment the part about me thinking this person is a stalker for calling the radio station looking for me. Whoever wrote this has never called the radio station looking for me to my knowledge. They can only call the request line to get a hold of me as I am on the air and not working in the station’s business offices during the daytime. I do not have a phone number and extension at 98-7 The Peak that I can be reached at.

The comment about me being “busy doing work for Need-An-Article.com and CJD” is a complete lie and another set of details scammed off of my official website, WriterHeather.com. I was never “busy” at Need-An-Article, though I did work there writing SEO content during lean times as a freelance writer. I have done nothing “for CJD” since speaking at Barrow Neurological Institute in January of 2007 aside from blogging about a cureless and fatal disease that has killed two of my immediate family members since 2004. To create lies surrounding this is completely classless.

I have never in my lifetime plagiarized anything. I have been writing copious amounts of material since I was a little kid and have never been at a loss for words. Plagiarizing in the current age of the Internet in which we live and work is next to impossible with sites like Copyscape. Honesty is important, which is why you won’t find me ripping apart innocent and hardworking people online. I don’t hide online behind names like “LoriGardenBooks” or“Lorichildrensbooks.” I use my first and last name online because I have nothing to hide.

I have never threatened anyone or anyone’s son, and especially not with my SEO content writing expertise. I don’t do business with non-paying clients by threatening or name-calling and if you know me, you know it’s not only not my style but also not my personality. I’m also not “mental,” and would happily release any and all of my medical records; all you’ll find about me is I snapped an ankle ligament in half once and take prescription decongestant. I’ll pass any drug test and background check. I’ve passed an SEC background check for crying out loud. I’m one of the most honest people you will ever deal with – and my honesty is blunt at that. There isn’t a soul on this Earth I need to “leave alone” because I’m not harassing anyone.

The final paragraph is true only when it says I have no book writing experience. I addressed this above and I will say it again—I do not have any book writing experience nor do I claim that I do. I’ve been published in local and national magazines and a full list of where my work has been published is available on WriterHeather.com’s About Me page.

I have been sued once and the case was dismissed. It was brought against me by a client who actually owed me money. I had reported him to Angela Hoy of Writer’s Weekly.com and I’m sure the report is still up there to be read. He sued me for defamation of character in San Diego County—after I had signed a freelance contract to do work that was to be construed by the laws of the State of Arizona. He wanted me to write—you guessed it—a book despite the fact that I had no experience doing any book writing. Considering I only wrote a select few pages for this person before I realized he’d never pay, I certainly don’t count it as “book writing experience.” I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the same person trying to slam me on The Rip Off Report as this is the only person who I have had a bad experience with as a freelance writer. Then again, it could be a an ex-boyfriend.  Who knows?  If you hide behind online handles and don’t reveal your real name, no one knows who you are and your statements hold no credibility. If it is the person who attempted to sue me, he has a pretty hefty judgment against him in Arizona by another freelance writer he never paid. I was taken advantage of by this person at a time when I had only just begun working as a full-time freelance writer in 2006.

I, Heather Larson, do not have a journalism degree, nor do I claim that I have one. I have a certificate in journalism from Paradise Valley Community College and plenty of experience gained through working in print, broadcast, and online media.

Yes, I am still attending Boston University online. I am exactly halfway through the program. And yes, I write all my own stuff. I’ve even gotten A grades on some of it.

If I am being investigated for anything, I would love to hear about it and so would my lawyer. I would especially love to know if I am being investigated for embezzling money “from some CJD charity.” I’m not, of course. I have never even been involved in raising money for CJD charities. I volunteer my time by speaking at Barrow Neurological Institute with doctors from the CDC when invited and have only done that once. I also volunteer my time by raising awareness of CJD online on my websites and by networking with other CJD families from all over the world. I have been busy on occasion raising money for or volunteering my time for other local charities, but never busy enough to turn down work!

The Rip Off Report states that it does not release the names of people who write these reports on their website. This makes it very easy for someone to post anything they want without owning up to who they really are. You can go on the Rip OffReport and say whatever you want about Heather Larson or anyone else for that matter without revealing who you really are. So I don’t know who wrote this, but whoever it is should be a writer because they have very creative fiction skills. I am honest about who I am online and have courageously posted information like my resume and even my family history of fatal genetics.

I have never heard of a person named Lori who writes gardening or children’s books and none of her post is true, save for the part about me not being a book writer. That is something I have honestly never claimed to be.

I will close by saying I am Heather Larson, a freelance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona. If you have found your way to this posting and know me personally, feel free to leave a comment endorsing me in a positive light. (As if you haven’t already on LinkedIn). Please speak about my character and your experience in dealing with me on either a personal or professional level.

This post was originally pubished 10/20/2008 at 8:58 pm on blog.writerheather.com

Quick tips for those new to freelancing online

I’ve been freelancing with not much more than a Macbook and a prayer for over two years now, however, it’s no longer a full-time gig for me.  I’m looking to get some good freelance gigs again, but they have to be right.  Since I work full-time as a digital editor for Westwood One Web, I have the luxury of being able to pick and choose gigs I’m crazy about instead of just taking whatever comes along that pays.  In the meantime, I’m most interested in creating my online brand so that it’s clear who I am, what I do, and what I’m after in my career.  If your business is right for me, I’m sure our paths will intercept somehow.  That’s my take now.  Know who you are, be clear and steady with what your personal brand is (mine is music/entertainment and hippy-oriented lifestyle stuff).  Be yourself 150% and the work will come to you.  That’s my first tip.

My second tip is Twitter.

My God, how I love this site.  If they ever make an IPO, I’m buying stock.  It is the next big thing.  I’ve been on it for a long time and follow 150 people or so.  This site is singularly responsible for connecting me with colleagues, other freelancers, journalists, the local Phoenix web community, old friends, and new friends.  I think it just may be the glue holding the Phoenix new media community together.  If you’re a freelancer, you have to be on here.  If you have a website to promote, you have to be on Twitter.  I’ve gotten more traffic to my sites from my Twitter followers than I have through SEO tricks.  Twitter works.  My Twitter followers will actually visit my blog if I ‘Tweet’ a link to them if they are interested enough.  I don’t want people to bother if they aren’t into what I’ve just blogged about.  Those who do visit from Twitter leave really good comments on my blogs.  I would post links to blogs on MySpace and never got the response I got from Twitter.  I think it’s because my ‘Tweeps’ and I share a more intimate day-to-day experience.  We also all happen to be social media whores who are way too interested in the ‘net and who would be more than happy to read one another’s daily blog posts just because that’s the type of geeks we are.

Avoid Craigslist

There are some legitimate employers on Craigslist but this site isn’t where it’s at for freelance gigs.  Use it at your own risk. It’s a site where I’ve had really good experiences as well as the worst ever experiences as a freelancer.  There is no middle ground.  My advice is to find connections through friends and colleagues over any job board.  Follow your interests; you’re likely to find the right obscure job board that fits your experience and passion in life.  If you find an unbeatable gig on Craigslist, just do your research on the company and person running it.

This post was originally published on blog.writerheather.com 9/24/08 at 5:35 pm

Recycling a blog post from last year about new media jobs

I published this on the original WriterHeather blog last year:

I’ve noticed quite often lately that all the cool writing and journalism jobs are in what we call “new media,” or working in the realm of the Internet.  The majority of new jobs listed on MediaBistro.com are in the new media category.  Yet a friend of mine did something I think is insane–he took his first job out of college in print media at a small, local paper.  On one hand, this could be his last chance to enjoy the print industry.  I think it’s dying or at least shrinking to the point where job competition will be fierce.  The jobs of the present and future for those of us who are writers and journalists will require skills like SEO/SEM, podcasting, blogging, social networking, and video editing.  Can you create original content that no one else is doing?  Do you offer something no one else can?  This is where the future is headed.  Are you able to navigate around various social networks?  Do you understand why this is valuable knowledge?  Only time will tell as to whether or not my friend made the right decision for his career.  I am interested to see where he goes once he feels it is time to move on from the print news job.  I’m sure the print sensibility he is gaining will be useful wherever he goes.  Meanwhile, I continue trying to bridge traditional broadcast media with the internet between my jobs at both Westwood One and Bonneville International.

Vindication:

I wrote this August 17, 2008. I think it is even more true nearly a year later. I think today we’re all either:

1. New media journalists

2. Learning to be new media journalists, or

3. Wanting to figure out how to be new media folk of any capacity

We’re basically trying to adapt. There are fewer jobs in the media than ever; I have more friends out of work than I can find work for. And the friend I wrote about last year? No longer at that paper…