You know what I really hate?
When you sit down to write a blog entry and then you don’t finish it because you ran out of time because your honey came home from work and all of the sudden kisses and huggles and episodes of How I Met Your Mother become way more of a priority than baring your soul to the Internet and then when you finally get back to that blog entry that’s been burning a hole in the back of your brain for two days you’re all like, “FUCK! I can’t write this! I’ve totally lost my train of thought and I’m not sure I want to even tell these people this stuff!”
I hate when that happens.
There are a lot of things on my mind these days.
The big ominous cloud over my head has to do with career and money. I’m in a position right now where I don’t have any work lined up, and that’s pretty scary…
I’m trying my best to utilize the time I have right now to make some positive changes towards what sort of business I take on. By far and large, most of the work that I’ve taken on has been subcontract work from other companies… and that’s great, it’s pretty awesome to get a project that takes a month or two, but I’m getting to the point where I want to diversify a bit.
For example, I’d love to take on some smaller projects… like designing and creating custom themes for bloggers, shop owners, small businesses, bands, etc. in addition to the larger projects that I take on.
To add a little diversity to my skill set other than just web presence stuff, I’d love to offer copy and ghostwriting services. I’d love to offer digital scrapbooking for hire services. I’d love to teach people who are totally clueless on how to do all of this social media stuff get themselves up and moving.
And I totally believe I can do all that…
I just feel so overwhelmed with how to market myself because I feel like I am essentially trying to pitch myself to an extremely diverse set of people… and in some cases, I’m not entirely sure exactly WHO I’m marketing myself to.
It’s also really scary to be thinking about reaching out to a new market of people because of the money aspect. I know some of the markets that I’m the most interested in being able to work with are also markets that don’t have megabucks to spend. Pricing is still something that I’m really concerned about, what my policies are regarding avoiding a lot of feature creep and getting paid ought to be, etc.
I’ve been slowly working on a design for my personal portfolio website, and thinking about how I want to present myself… and man… it’s so much easier to do this stuff for someone else! It feels totally counter-intuitive to be bragging about myself! It’s something I totally need to get my butt in gear about because I want to be doing paying work sooner than later!
Nikkiana, I did a professional portfolio a while back and it was daunting work, but well worth the time. I’ve wondered how one gets that profile “out there” once it’s completed. How are you planning on promoting yours?
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This is a really good question!
For me, the market that I really need to reach out to is bloggers, and from what I’ve observed… a huge part of having a successful business that caters to bloggers is demonstrating that you’re a competent, involved member of the blogging community. A huge part of my strategy for promoting my professional portfolio is also promoting my blog.
I plan on adding more regular content that has to do with blogging, design, and social media. I plan on holding a giveaway here for either a new layout or a header. I plan on sponsoring a couple of blogs that have fairly sizable audiences that fall into the demographic that I want to reach, and participate in the giveaways and guest posting opportunities that they have. The more involved I am and the more engaging content I’m writing, the more likely I’m going to get business referred to me.
You have so many nice and fun business ideas! I had the same a few years ago when we lived in Ireland and I quit nursing because working as a nurse sucked over there. I still love web design but find it too hard and time consuming, and I’m too frustrated over certain not-mentioned web browsers that mess up everything you do, so I wouldn’t be able to do that for a living i think. But I still do small modifications for my own personal sites.
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Oh yes, browser incompatibilities are both the bane of my existence AND have been my bread and butter… though, it’s been increasingly less since everyone finally stopped supporting IE6.
thats really true what you explained in the first few lines. Whenever we tried to write it will be constantly disturbed by some honied reasons till we lost the thread of the thought..
your blog is very owsome and looking forward to reading..
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I love the new design!!
Good luck with getting things done on your portfolio and getting some work – I really hope things work out for you!
And being distracted from work can suck, but at least your distractions were good ones, and not things like the oven catching on fire.
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man oh man oh man have i been there. i was in the exact same position a couple years ago and it was a nightmare – so i totally feel your pain. but i realized that once i started continuing to pursue what i was REALLY passionate about, what i loved doing, and gearing that passion towards my “ideal” client – i was so much happier and i was working with people that i loved. i’m still not where i WANT to be, but i’m a whole lot happier now than i was before. i don’t know if that even remotely helps, but just know that this too shall pass and keep doing what you love doing and sharing your passion with people and the work will come.
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When I was applying for jobs I HATED promoting myself. It is so awkward.
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I do all of these things and am very successful at it /nomodesty. My advice: Make a site, sell packages. IE Blogger’s Beginner Package (including social media profile creation, layout design, 3 months consulting). etc etc, pitch it to sites you think need help.
It’s full time work marketing yourself, but well worth it.
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Hello! It is challenging when you are so fabulous and there are so many things you could do! You sound wonderfully creative and generous of spirit. Perhaps you could prioritize which of your many talents you want to work on first? That may make it easier for you to figure out how to target and what to say to them? Once you get that first income stream rolling you can go back and pick up another interest. That way you don’t have to shun any interests but can schedule them (you get to choose) in a way to works for you. Have a powerful weekend, Allegra
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Venturing into new areas can be scary, but not moving forward in your career will be something you regret! You can do it SITS-ter!
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