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- December 23rd, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
It’s All About You
You’re freelancers, entrepreneurs, and nine-to-fivers. You’re single or you’re married or you have so many children that you don’t know what to do, just like the little old lady who lived in a…
- December 21st, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
What to Do with Clients When You’re Sick
A few weeks ago, I was sick. Taylor was sick. Everyone was sick. There are times when you can power through sickness and get your work done. But then there are those other times… The times when your…
- December 16th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Taylor’s a Feminist – But So Is James
Feminism is starting to piss me off. So unless you’ve been living under a rock for last few days, you know that James Chartrand, mon esteemed capitaine, has recently come out as a woman. I’ve kno…
- December 14th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Is Your Education Useless?
Many freelancers have university degrees. Many freelancers don’t have to send their resumes to people anymore, so those degrees don’t see a lot of action, but they’re there, collecting dust on o…
- December 11th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Keep the Freelancer Clock Ticking
Today’s guest post is brought to you by the lovely Elizabeth Fayle, and it’s the last installment on her SMART series, one that’s proven to be an eye opener for many readers just lik…
- December 9th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Have You Been Betrayed by Your Blogger?
This discussion we’ve been having about whether bloggers should get paid for their work is fascinating, and I think it’s pretty great that the whole MwP community here has been so level-headed and…
- December 7th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Are Bloggers Creating Their Own Sweatshop?
“I’ve been blogging for five years. Time to think about the retirement fund.” I was having a conversation with Deb Ng of Freelance Writing Gigs on Twitter, and I smirked at her comm…
- December 2nd, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Which Person Would You Talk To?
We’ll be getting to today’s post in just a second, but bear with me for a moment while I tell you a little story. People always ask, “If there was one person you could have a convers…
- November 30th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Are You Too Tough With Your Website Copy?
There’s a strategy used in copywriting, and it involves being authoritative, even aggressive. Putting confidence into your copy almost to the point of arrogance is pretty powerful stuff, and it work…
- November 27th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Did You Reach Your NaNoWriMo Goal?
It’s November, which means that if you’re a fiction writer, it’s National Novel Writing Month for you. Given that the month is well underway, you may or may not be happy with your progress. And…
- November 25th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
SMART Freelancing: Are You Being Realistic?
Take a NumberAfter a small pause to let you all settle into your SMART freelancing techniques, Elizabeth Fayle is here to give you the next key to rockin’ out your freelance biz. If you’ve…
- November 23rd, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
How to Put Rumors to Rest
I’d like you all to imagine a Jedi hand-wave right now, because that title doesn’t work nearly so well without it. There is no ebook. There has never been an ebook. We never referred to it obliqu…
- November 20th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Why You Shouldn’t Stick to Your Niche
When people out of the blue get in touch with me and offer a guest post, I usually approach the situation with skepticism. It’s like dating – don’t make a move for a home run when we…
- November 18th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Are You Afraid of Success? We Bet Yes.
I have discovered something about myself. I’m terrified of success. Not just terrified. I’m willing to put my health at risk, my reputation, and my financial security. I’m willing to do jus…
- November 16th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
How You Might Be Losing Clients Without Even Knowing It
Most customer experiences you’ll have are fairly average. Not great, not horrible, just somewhere in the middle. Very often, that average experience occurs because the grand majority of people in cu…
- November 13th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
How to Keep Your Blog From Losing Weight During the Holidays
When the holidays roll around, we people worry about packing on the pounds. But your blog has a tendency to lose the ability to throw its weight around. More distractions, parties, and yeah, good food…
- November 10th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
The Freelancer’s Guide to Working With Clients That SUCK
Today’s post comes to us from an international authority in copywriting and peer of mine that I respect highly, Dean Rieck of Direct Creative and Pro Copy Tips. I’m honored to have his wor…
- November 8th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Is Your Website Copy Too Excited?
This is going to be a hard post for some writers to read. There are the exclamation-point addicts out there, you see. They’re the writers who feel they really can’t put across the excitement,…
- November 6th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Special Fiction Writing Week: Creating Prejudice in Fantasy
In honor of the super-exclusive offer for Men with Pens readers only in regards on the Gamer Lifestyle Course, we’re turning our attention in this latter half of the special fiction week towards how…
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Special Fiction Writing Week: Creating Character Flaws
In honor of the super-exclusive offer for Men with Pens readers only in regards on the Gamer Lifestyle Course, we’re turning our attention in this latter half of the special fiction week towards how…
- November 4th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Special Fiction Week: Your Exclusive Men with Pens Offer
We’re going to ask you a serious question: Is copywriting really what you want to do to make money? Because I’ll tell you right now, it’s not what I want to do. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy cop…
- November 3rd, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Special Fiction Writing Week: Creating a Plot
If you’re one of those people who writes copy for a living in order to make enough money to support your fiction writing endeavors, then this series is for you. This week, Men with Pens offers a ful…
- November 2nd, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Special Fiction Writing Week: Creating a Setting
If you’re one of those people who writes articles or ebooks or website copy for a living in order to make enough money to do the other kind of writing – yes, fiction – then this series i…
- November 1st, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Special Fiction Writing Week: Creating a Character
If you’re one of those people who writes articles, ebooks or website copy for a living in order to make enough money to do the other kind of writing – yes, we mean fiction writing – then…
- October 30th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
How to Kill the Scope Creep Beast
Welcome to the fourth installment in our Freelancing SMART series written by resident SMART consultant, Elizabeth Fayle from Make Way for Biz. If you missed the first three posts, you can find them h…
- October 28th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Is Your Email Address Losing You Clients?
New freelancers make a few mistakes that no one will tell you are mistakes, because they don’t want to offend you, or they may have already disregarded you because of this stupid mistake and don…
- October 26th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Want More Clients? Explain Yourself.
I recently wrote about how and why arTEESTes piss me off, and I used the example of an average guy I called Joe, who doesn’t really know why one copywriter or web designer should be worth more than…
- October 25th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Drive-By Shooting Sunday Special: Adventures of a Barefoot Geek
“Ow.” He picked his foot up and grimaced. “Ow-… Look, this is not good. Never again, man. Ow.” “Quit complaining.” James lifted his feet and placed them carefully…
- October 23rd, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Can You Measure Your Worth?
We’ve been pleased to see so many freelancers enjoying our series on working SMARTer. Welcome to the third installment, written by our very own resident consultant, Elizabeth Fayle from Make Way…
- October 22nd, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Drive-By Shooting Special: Cheryl’s Casual Contemplations
James squinted at the figure on the tiny video screen. The man seemed confused, wandering at the side of the building for a minute before staring straight up into the closed-circuit camera that watche…
- October 21st, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
How Does Writing Make you Feel?
There are days when I don’t feel like writing. If we’re going to be perfectly honest about it, there are many days when I don’t feel like writing. In fact, there hasn’t been a single day in re…
- October 19th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Are You a Snotty Artist?
There’s a debate online (and probably offline too) that divides writers, designers and more into two camps: those who consider their work a trade, and those who consider their work an art form.…
- October 16th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
How to Freelance the Specific, Smart Way
And she’s back, folks! Please welcome Elizabeth Fayle from Make Way for Biz, our resident business consultant and systems expert rockin’ our world. In a good way. Not long ago, I wrote abo…
- October 14th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Slaying Writer Dragons: Epic Skill #3, Physical Prowess
This is the final installment in our series on how to fight the dragons of writing. We explained why being a writer is like getting commissions to go out on an epic quest in exchange for monetary rewa…
- October 12th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Are You a Silent Blogger?
In the past few weeks, I’ve been discussing the blogging community, how it’s being misused and abused, and how those who don’t abuse it have become my community. Then I realized that…
- October 9th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Five Things I’ve Learned Since Getting A Book Agent
This is a story about some guy – just a guy like anyone – who decided to start a blog. The next thing he knew…well. I’ll let him tell you about it. Please welcome Josh Hanagarne, t…
- October 7th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Are You Freelancing the SMART Way?
When graceful Elizabeth Fayle and I (and her partner Marc) shared a bottle of Chardonnay one day, little did I know that within one week, I’d hire her as my consultant. Hey – if she’…
- October 5th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
What Walt Disney Can Teach You about Writing
How many of you remember Sunday nights when you were a kid? In my home, that night meant racing through bath time so we could be in front of the TV before Wild Kingdom and The Wonderful World of Disne…
- October 2nd, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Does Your Fiction Novel Have a Theme?
Today’s guest post is from Larry Brooks, the bestselling novelist talking novel over at Storyfix. We hope you enjoy his next installment in his guest series for fiction writers. For an extra bo…
- September 30th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Slaying Writer Dragons: Epic Skill #2, Emotional Prowess
Welcome back, you epic writers, you. For the last two weeks, we’ve been talking about why it’s necessary to make every project into a big bad dragon you have to fight, and what you can do to make…
- September 28th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
How to Decide the Best Community Contribution
Last week, I wrote about deadbeats in the community. I even swore. In English. It was great. I didn’t really mean it. Well, I did mean some of it, like the part where I say screw the deadbeats w…
- September 25th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
What’s Your Style of Writer Underpants?
I’ve been asked a lot of things in my time. There’s very little that phases me. But when Suzannah boldly demanded to know what I wore beneath my jeans, I had to arch an eyebrow. Instead of…
- September 23rd, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Slaying Writer Dragons: Epic Skill #1, Mental Prowess
All right, brave writers of the MwP world. I wrote last week about why you really need to make writing a big dramatic event. So you feel like it’s worth doing. This probably indicates some deep fail…
- September 22nd, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Top Ten Blogs for Writers: The Results are In!
Well, it’s a wrap, folks. The finalists are out for the Top Ten Blogs for Writers, and we’re pleased and honored to have made the grade again. “Oh, come on, James. We all knew you’…
- September 21st, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Screw Community
Community is a word you’ll hear all over the internet. You’re part of a community on Twitter. Blog networks are a community. Your blog’s comment section is a community. The whole blogosp…
- September 18th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Three Words That Help You Finish Any Writing Project
I’ve always liked Ali Hale. She’s been a long-time reader and commentator here at Men with Pens, she blogs around the universe with wisdom and simply worded advice, and always has somethin…
- September 16th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
The Dragons of Writing and How to Fight Them
Writers are notorious procrastinators. If you are a writer (and you can convince people that this is in fact your profession and that you are not just referring to the three chapters of that novel you…
- September 15th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
We Like Special Announcements. Here are Three.
Special announcements are good. Everyone needs special announcements from time to time, right? Well, I have three for you today. Top Ten Blogs for Writers Finalists The 4th annual Top Ten Blogs for Wr…
- September 14th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
How to Add Spice to Your Content
Finding ways to help your readers understand your ideas and concepts isn’t always easy – but there are two writer tricks that you can use to get that “a-ha!” from your crowd: a…
- September 11th, 2009
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MenwithPens has posted a new entry on: Men with Pens - For Freelancers, Writers and Online Entrepreneurs
Todoodle Your To-Do List: The Todoodlist Review
Todoodlist isn’t your ordinary to-do list. Nick Cernis, by his own admission, writes on bananas for fun. Nick Cernis creates analogies that take advantage of helpless kittens, Russian parrot ast…
