GOING FREELANCE: An All-Day Seminar on Saturday, October 18, 2008
Jointly sponsored by Johns Hopkins University Masters of Arts in Writing Program and American Independent Writers

Johns Hopkins University
Bernstein-Offit Building  (Lower-Level Conference Hall)
1717 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Metro: Red Line, Dupont Circle

8:30-9:00 a.m. Registration and continental breakfast

9:00-9:15 a.m. Welcome

9:15-10:30 a.m. The Fundamentals of Freelance Business

How do you know what to charge for your hard freelance work? Or what records to keep? Or whether you’re being taken advantage of? This panel presents expert and experienced advice on rate-setting, accounting, record-keeping, legal issues, tax basics, and other nuts and bolts of successful freelancing.

John D. Mason is a Washington DC/Maryland based art, entertainment, and intellectual property attorney. His practice focuses on copyright and trademark matters, litigation, contracts, and commercial matters. He works with writers, artists, and creative people and companies to protect and exploit their work and is also a literary agent. The website for his new firm, The Intellectual Property Group, PLLC, is www.artlaws.com and his e-mail is artlaws2@aol.com.

Ken Norkin is an ADDY- and ASPC Colonial Award-winning copywriter and full-time freelancer specializing in business-to-business marketing communications for technology-based products and services. Since establishing his own business—KN Creative—in 1991, he has written ads, brochures, annual reports and Web content for Sprint, Nextel, Mobile ESPN, IBM, Citrix, Carl Zeiss, Road Runner, MCI, Savin, Sharp and the American Gas Association. Beyond the tech market, Norkin has written for T. Rowe Price, Arlington and Prince William Counties, The Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Holy Cross Hospital, the Vince Lombardi Cancer Research Center, The Washington Post, PBS, the Discovery Channel and many other companies. His ability to share what he’s learned in 30 years of writing for a living makes Norkin a frequent and sought-after speaker on the business of freelancing and creative self-employment.

Alan C. Portner spent 35 years in the newspaper business as a reporter, editor and publisher throughout the country including Hawaii, California, Iowa and the metro DC area. He has spent the past five years as a freelance writer and author, as well as the president and founder of The Assignment Desk.

10:45: 12 Noon Finding Work in Commercial Writing

While we all want to publish our essays in national magazines, some of the most lucrative freelancing in the Washington-Baltimore area involves annual reports, media releases, marketing materials, and other writing-for-hire work. This session describes how to network and find the opportunities.

Shashi Bellamkonda (aka, ShashiB) works for Network Solutions as the first-ever Network Solutions “Social Media Swami.” A prolific Twitterer, blogger, and product innovator, Shashi loves technology, testing new things, and helping people. A self-described “Internet junkie,” Shashi has presented previously on “How to Sell Social Media to Your Boss” and “Social Media tools for Small Business.” He’s been in love with social media since his previous life working in the hotel world and, believe it or not, as an executive chef, and Shashi started his blog to keep his many on- and offline friends up to date on the coolest new things to check out and answer their questions on social media and technology—from what to use and how, how to prevent pop-ups, how to avoid viruses, how to save computers from hackers, and the ever popular “Why is my computer freezing?” Shashi’s life’s mission is to be helpful to others and achieve dreams in installments.

Lisa Daniel is an award-winning writer and editor with more than 2,000 published articles. She has reported on all levels of government, from school boards to the White House, for general circulation newspapers and trade presses. She has covered Congress, multiple cabinet departments and all branches of the U.S. armed services for Army Times Publishing Co./Gannett, Federal Times, military.com and UPI. As a freelancer, her feature articles have been published in The Boston Globe, HR Magazine, Government Executive, Retired Officer, National Guard and other trade magazines, newsletters and Web sites. In 1999, Daniel became a full-time freelance writer, editor and communications consultant. She created successful branding and marketing copy in the real estate development, space technology and national security communities. As a freelancer, Daniel also specialized in writing about business and careers. She wrote for several publications of the Society for Human Resource Managers and for two years wrote a weekly careers column for Federal Times/Gannett. Since 2001, Daniel has been a regular contributor to Washingtonian magazine’s biennial “Best Workplaces” cover story and authored a Washingtonian cover story on how people can get ahead in their careers, which won a 2002 Apex Award for excellence in journalism. In December 2007, Daniel returned to a staff position as an editor for American Forces Press Service, a military-based wire service. She has been a two-term board member of American Independent Writers and chaired the 27th Washington Writers Conference in 2006. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism degree from West Virginia University and has completed graduate work at George Mason University’s School of Public Policy.

Lester Reingold has been a freelance writer and editor for more than 30 years, concentrating primarily on aviation and space. He has written for magazines such as Air & Space/Smithsonian, American Heritage and Condé Nast Traveler and newspapers such The Washington Post and USA Today, plus many aerospace trade publications. His first book, a pictorial history of the Wright Brothers’ home town—Dayton, Ohio—was published in 2005. He is a commentator for WAMU and for NPR’s Morning Edition. After the accident that destroyed Space Shuttle Columbia, Reingold served as Lead Editor in the investigation. Since then, he has continued to work as Publications Editor on projects for NASA. A former AIW Board member, Reingold won the 2004 Washington Writing Prize for Reported Nonfiction and was runner-up in the 2003 competition.

Noon-1:30 p.m. Lunch and Networking on your own

1:30-2:45 p.m. It’s Time to Publish

Okay, you have a great idea for an essay or article. Now what? This panel covers the many venues open to publishing creative writing, from online and print journals to magazines and newspapers. The focus will be on publishing essays or articles, although many suggestions will help poets and fiction writers, too. We’ll discuss how to target your work, the need for persistence, and the all-important query and cover letters.

Cathy Alter is a successful freelance writer and author whose feature articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in local and national newspapers and magazines including Washingtonian, Self, Fitness, McSweeney’s, Preservation, and Might. Her book, Virgin Territory: Stories from the Road to Womanhood (Three Rivers Press) was released in 2004 and her memoir, Up for Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me About Love, Sex, and Starting Over (Atria) was released in July 2008. She teaches nonfiction at the Johns Hopkins M.A. in Writing Program and has lectured for many writing conferences and groups.

Tim Wendel is an award-winning novelist and journalist. His books include the novel, Castro’s Curveball (Ballantine) and The New Face of Baseball (Rayo/HarperCollins), which was named Top History Book for 2004 in the Latino Literary Awards. His new novel, Red Rain, will be released in the fall of 2008. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Esquire, Washingtonian and GQ, and his columns appear on the USA Today op-ed page, where he is on the Board of Contributors. He has been a Tennessee Williams Scholar to the Sewanee Writing Conference and Pen/Faulkner visiting writer to the Washington, D.C. Public Schools. He teaches in the M.A. in Writing Program at Johns Hopkins.

Additional panelist to be announced

3:00-4:15 p.m. Blogging and Your Writing Career

Blogs are everywhere, but they can be more important than simple personal expression. This panel discusses how blog writing differs from other types of writing, how you can make money from a blog, how blogging can jumpstart your career, and how blogs can be a pathway to more prestigious writing work.

Jeff Sypeck is the author of Becoming Charlemagne: Europe, Baghdad, and the Empires of A.D. 800 (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2006). He teaches medieval literature at the University of Maryland University College; his articles about books, history, and travel have appeared in the Washington Post and Salon; and he is also the author of a biography of Charlemagne for middle-school children. He writes about the modern persistence of medieval history and culture on his blog, “Quid Plura?” www.quidplura.com.

Michael Yessis, who co-founded the popular World Hum travel blog and website in 2001, has worked as an editor at Men’s Fitness, Men’s Journal and Journey magazines, and as the Destinations Editor at USATODAY.com. His stories have appeared in Salon, Sunset, Via, Playboy, Westways, E!Online, Outdoor Explorer and many other publications. He lives in the Washington D.C. area. Follow him on Twitter, or see Michael Yessis.net.

Additional panelists to be announced

4:15-5:00 p.m. Informal Networking

AIW Members’ cost is $89; non-members’ cost is $129, and non-Hopkins students’ cost is $49. Hopkins Writing Program students are admitted free of charge, but all must RSVP by calling (202) 775-5150, emailing rsvp@aiwriters.org, or registering online at www.aiwriters.org. Please mention the event for which you are responding and your membership status.

My Friend Kristen King wrote about it here http://www.inkthinkerblog.com/2008/10/01/updated-program-going-freelance-seminar-on-october-18/

American Independent Writers

http://www.washwriter.org/special.html

http://www.americanindependentwriters.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=116

Rohit Bhargava is rising star in the PR and Social Media world. Rohit is a founding member of the pioneering 360 Digital Influence Group at Ogilvy – a leading group in helping clients around the world navigate the social media universe. He publishes the award winning Influential Marketing blog which listed as one of the top 50 marketing blogs in the world by AdAge magazine. Rohit is frequently featured in media worldwide including The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Marketing China (China) and AdWeek (Australia).

The last event with Rohit that was hosted by Network Solutions was very well attended despite the massive storms. Tonight looks like it is going to be a scene from Monsoon Wedding as well. Rohit must be someone who can “bring the rain” instead of “bring the pain”, but I digress. There was some great coverage from two previous posts. The first post covered all the different blogs and interviews from attendees and the second post was of Johnny Goldstein’s podcast “Johnny’s Par-tay”.

Here is the play-by-play of the event…

Tonight we are at the Network Solutions HQ here in wild and exciting Herndon, VA. There are about 75 people here and the room is standing room only. We started the evening with an intro by Frank Gruber, Product Manager of Social Platforms for AOL. Frank is a very prolific blogger and social media junkie. His blog, SomewhatFrank.com is about all the bright and shiny technology things that he comes across. He and Rohit were talking about their first time meeting where Frank had a camera attached to his head.

The idea of this book is about setting yourself apart as a company through the personality of your brand. One of his first ideas was to create a “choose your own adventure” marketing book but that was revealed to be a VERY BAD idea. He wanted to make the book so that it was relevant to how you operate in business every day. He spent time putting in real stories because that is what people really connect and relate to instead of a marketing “expert” telling them how to operate their business.

The other key is the advice section that makes the book useful all the time. He provides some very useful lists…

One powerful thing in companies are the “accidental spokesperson” who become the impromptu go-to person for all things related to “your company”. Frank goes on to ask about big versus small companies – does size matter? It is a myth that all big companies are faceless and all small companies are quirky and hip. In a big company there are more challenging because of “slios” – web dept, marketing dept, product dept. etc. They are a located in different places, lead by different people and paid differently with different missions.

Karmic Marketing is Powerful, but fuzzy. Look at Zappos, their customer service team is empowered to make the decisions (like send a client flowers) and really affect brand loyalty for the positive.

Frank takes the devil’s advocate position as a product person and asks about what happens when you have a great product.
- Twitter is a great example. Twitter is failing alot lately and user experience is suffering greatly. So what do you do when it comes to personality? It is alot like being in an abusive relationship, but who is the enabler – twitter or us?

Rohit brings up the first generation iPhone and when they dropped the price so quickly. Apple is a great case study in good brand marketing, however, they don’t let their employees blog, talk, or communicate with the press unless they tightly control it.

Frank decides to move away from technology companies and ask about how this approach works in other industries. Rohit talks about the time he went to a restaurant called “WD50” which uses a technique called molecular gastronomy to create food. Then, there is a restaurant called “mini-bar” which is inside of Cafe Atlantico in Washington, DC. – which is also one that focuses on serving six, that’s right SIX (6) people per dinner every evening in two hour blocks and twice a night. This creates an experience that is UAT (Unique, Authentic and Talkable.

Lastly, you need to take on the approach that is what he calls “Curiosity Marketing” that is really described as more of a viral marketing strategy, but could definitely relate to social media as well. One of the things that intrigues people is when you give them a secret to hold.

Now we go to the audience:

Q: Does this apply to Non-profits
Rohit: Definitely. This really fits the “passionate enthusasts” model. We used Kiva as a great example in the book.

Q: Does social media allow us to share our stories and more of our personality?
Rohit: Absolutely. I didn’t want to write another “Blog book” and I wanted to go broad enough but it is where something like social media these days, versus five years ago, you have to have incorporated into their strategy.

There are some more great questions and Rohit answers them for the audience. Check out the video below for the full presentation and Q&A.

There were three sessions that flowed in themes of Listening, Participation and Creation. Here is a summary of what was learned and how it small businesses can leverage social media.

First Session: What is Social Media and how can you make it work for you?

Panel: Geoff Livingston, Livingston Communications; Dave Troy, Roundhouse Technologies; Jared Goralnick, SET Consulting; Greg Cangialosi, Blue Sky Factory

Theme: Listening and Monitoring

Summary: Social Media is rewarded by search engines because content is updated all the time. This beats traditional sites that may be more powerful but they have static content. Dell went from -49% brand perception before blogging and has gone to -21% after they started blogging.

Traditional PR was about controlling your brand. Now, if your message is not aligned with your brand people will talk about it and there is nothing you can do about it.

For small businesses, Social Media is cheap cost-wise but expensive resource-wise.

Small businesses should leverage the power of Crowdsourcing to capture all the ideas or thoughts and collectively people can help you uncover the trends and desires of the market.

Use technologies to monitor your brand and also your competitors. Use RSS to create feeds and follow alerts in a more regular basis.

Greg Cangialosi from Blue Sky Factory notes the tools of the Social Web:

• AIM
• Google Alerts
• Technorati
• Summize
• Bloglines
• Wordpress
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Digg
• Del.icio.us
• Flickr
• YouTube
• Blip.TV
• CollectiveX

David Troy says that Social Media has old roots. Early examples include Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) and Community Forums. People are tired of one-way conversations and you really should look at tools that you use in your business as those that create a conversation and not a broadcast.

Second Session: How do you use Social Media?

Panel: Geoff Livingston, Livingston Communications; Yair Flicker, Smart Logic Solutions; Sean Oakley, Congruent Media; Matt Goddard, R2i.ntegrated

Theme: Participation

Summary: There are so many tools out there; you should try as many as you can to find what mix works for you. It is important that you differentiate participation on a personal level and a professional level.

Unfortunately, many times they cross over. For example, when you interview for a job, an HR person might not only Google you but look you up on LinkedIn and Facebook. General social networking sites could do harm to you if you participate in the wrong way with your comments, or pictures you post.

Using these tools is great at a macro, national level but what about the local markets so someone in a small business like a Regional Biz Dev person can use this?

It is not different than targeting at a vertical but you must move toward Geo-targeting with your campaigns. Geo-targeting is basing your campaigns by location so you can measure impact at a more micro level.

The theme of participation is that you always need to create content for the “outside”. Before communications where always thought to be private. You should set the tone that this is for the outside so that when you do publish content that it is not hard to put the information out there.

There is also a fine line in promoting yourself and your product/company. You need to balance yourself and not go over the top in using the tools.

Third Session: How do you analyze and measure the ROI of your Social Media efforts?

Panel: Dave Troy, Roundhouse Technologies; Jared Goralnick, SET Consulting; Greg Cangialosi, Blue Sky Factory

Theme: Creation

Summary: One key way for small businesses to create word of mouth marketing is to market through influencers. Using tools like blogs are free and the content is easily shared and distributed becoming your virtual personal relationship. You can track conversations that have been created through services like Summize.com.

Measurement using these kinds of tools is critical and things like page views and user subscriptions are just the beginning. If you can find people who could potentially use your products they could be the traffic funnels that you never expected.

Whenever possible, were ever you spend a lot of time, try and build a following and make the investment so that you too can become the influencer that others creating content will come to you when the time is right.
For more information about GBTC and future events check out their site.

Shashi Bellamkonda from Network Solutions was on the Social media 101 panel and could not attend due to jury duty.

You can register directly at http://podcampdc.eventbrite.com/