I love getting comments on my blog posts, so if you’re thinking something while reading my posts, please let me know. One thing I have noticed recently, though, is comments that make no sense. What’s funny is that they have some elements of the post in them, but overall they’re gibberish.

Part of being a “do follow” blog is dealing with comment spam. In case you don’t know, “do follow” means that when you comment here, my site provides a link to your website (assuming you put that information in the comment form). That’s great for building Google PageRank, so I guess a lot of sites comment here just for the links. It doesn’t hurt that my page has some PageRank juice to give out too.

For that reason, I have my comments on moderated status. If you see your comment hasn’t been approved in a couple of days, please feel free to email me. It’s possible I didn’t get to it yet, or it might have wound up in my spam folder. I generally don’t weed through the hundreds of spam messages I get for one or two real comments.

One type of comment spam that’s hard to catch is the “repeat everything” comment. This is where the comment is actually an exact duplicate of some snippet from my posts or from others’ comments. They sound real, and it requires my delving into my memory to realize that it’s something I’ve seen before.

Another common type of comment spam is the “great post” comment. Those are just annoying, but they’re fairly easy to spot. They might say, “Nice blog,” or, “I agree with you,” or other non-specific comments.

Luckily, the Akismet spam catcher thingee does a good job of keeping out most comment spam (like the ads for viagra).

What kinds of comment spam have you had to deal with?

If you’re anything like me, your inbox in your favorite email program is disorganized and full. I use MS Outlook for email, and I fully intend to keep it organized and manageable. But for some reason, I have over 1000 unread messages, and who knows how many read messages. It’s a complete mess! I also forget to respond to people occasionally, making a mental note to get back to them after I’ve given their message more thought. Somehow I forget to give it more thought, I guess.

I really do care about my email messages. I check email a couple times each day. And I even use the folders system to some extent. Because messages are removed from the server after deletion, I have a folder that I call “keep” so I won’t lose important things. At the same time, there are folders for bills (I forget to open that one a lot), and I keep those indefinitely also.

My plan of action is to only “touch” an email once. When it comes into my sight, I have to read it and either do the required action, file the message in an appropriate folder, or delete it. That’s the plan. I’ve had this plan for a long time, though.

What’s your email situation? Are you really organized? Do you keep all of your messages in your main inbox, or do you move them to folders? I really wish that Outlook allowed me to highlight messages (instead of just flagging them). Maybe if I could highlight a message just like I can highlight a row in Excel, I might actually take action on things that I want to take a quick glance at and save for later.

So if you’ve sent me an email and I haven’t responded, please don’t think I’m ignoring it on purpose. I probably just filed it away or it got lost in the inbox ocean.

Please share with us how you keep your email organized and efficient.

Photo – Michaela Kobyakov

If you’ve been reading Crayon Writer for a while, you probably know that it’s not super-easy for me to stick to one plan of action for long. I like variety, though I do like to work on short projects for hours on end.

But one thing that never seems to change for me is the need to have pretty scenery around me. I need to work in a room with a view.

This came up recently because I considered moving to a new apartment. I like mine, but I could use more space so my daughter can have her own playroom, or so I can have a separate office (or both). My apartment complex has amazingly large floor plans, and I was all set to move on up to a larger place.

But I realized that though bigger, the other available apartments don’t have the view I currently enjoy. When I look out my window I see greenery and parts of the beautiful desert. I get wonderful animal visitors too. I’ve seen Gambel’s Quail and their babies, rabbits, different lizard species, hummingbirds, all kinds of birds (I’m a bird watcher), and a gopher snake once. I’ve even seen a bobcat with her cubs/kittens walk across my porch.

Occasionally a neighborhood kid uses my “backyard” for a passageway, but overall I find the beauty to be calming. Sure, a bigger place has its advantages, but if I have to stare at a brick wall or a sidewalk or a parking lot all day, I doubt that my mood would be as serene.

What about you? Do you prefer a certain background for your life?

Do you write for a living, or spend a lot of time writing? For some, writing can be a way to relax and unwind. Others may write because their boss pays them to do so, and still others make money and relax at the same time.

Like other routine tasks, having a ritual can be helpful (or even essential). I like to turn on my saved music list (formerly Imeem, now MySpace Music). It’s not random music like the radio, so I can get into a groove and block out outside distractions. I do find myself singing along, but because I know the songs so well, it doesn’t require any mental energy.

What about you? Do you have favorite songs or a favorite radio station, or does music distract you too much? Maybe you have a special chair or perfect time of day. I also usually have a cup of chai tea before I write…it seems to calm my mind and get it ready to focus.

Maybe your ritual is more eccentric. Do you hop on one foot three times and spin in a circle before you settle down to the task at hand? This cool article from the National Writing Project discusses a few interesting things some writers do before they start writing.

What are your writing rituals?

Are you the kind of person who’s always coming up with great ideas? The next “big thing”? I certainly do, and I really do have some off-the-chart, awesome ideas. But what good are they if I never do anything with them?

I got to thinking about this because of this really cool blog plug-in called Post Ideas. Whenever I think of a nice blog post to write, I add it to my Post Ideas. The probelm is, I never get around to actually writing these posts.

So here’s the first of the post ideas that have been sitting around collecting dust. My library of ideas is full, and I have no excuse to keep you wondering when I’ll next write a post.

Also along the lines of big ideas, feel free to contact me if you need an idea for something. I have a million of them. Just the other day I thought of a really sweet music video. If you’re a friend of the Black-Eyed Peas or any other group of singers/rappers, let me know. It’s a hit (I don’t have music or lyrics, just the concept for a video). I don’t mind sharing my brilliance if I wasn’t planning on using it myself anyway.

Do you have a storehouse of ideas? What are your plans for them?

This is my new mantra. I need to just do it already. Whatever “it” is, I need to get over myself and just do it.

But getting yourself out of the way is easier said than done. Procrastination is much easier than taking action.

As an exercise in procrastinating, I decided to do some research about my affliction. Do you procrastinate too? Well spend some of that extra time reading through these insightful articles. Enjoy!

50 Strategies for Making Yourself Work

Five Reasons Why We Procrastinate and Five Strategies to Put Off Putting it Off

Good and Bad Procrastination

Beating Procrastination

Procrastination: Ten Things to Know

Recently I agreed to do an editing project for an acquaintance of mine. We agreed that I would be getting paid for my services, and I agreed to work for less than I usually do.

This may not be a problem on its own, but I made the HUGE mistake of not getting a written contract. Or even a spoken contract. I trusted the acquaintance and thought that I’d at least get paid a fair wage for my work.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. And I know the damage is done.

Being a nice guy is great, I suppose, but if you want to get paid properly you really need to get some kind of contract. By just letting things fall where they may you set yourself up to be used. You can be a nice guy by giving your friend, family member, or acquaintance a “nice” contract to sign. It may seem harsh, but it’s the only way you can (sort of) protect yourself.

Even with a contract there’s no guarantee you’ll get paid. This is one reason it makes sense to get some type of deposit up-front…at least you get something for your work. But without a contract you set yourself up for getting nothing at all.

What kind of contract should you write?

The simplest (and maybe nicest) contract is an email exchange. After you talk on the phone or in person and iron out the details, send a short email summarizing what price and terms you’ve agreed to. I did do this with my last client, but I didn’t do one more crucial step. Before you start working on the project, WAIT for your client’s emailed response. In that responding email the client should clearly concur with your summation.

Another method is to write up a general agreement that outlines your terms and the price you’re charging. You should sign it and then give it to your client to sign. Either make a copy of the signed agreement or just have two agreements for the each of you to sign. Once you have that in hand, go ahead and start working on the assignment.

Contracts that are spoken — oral agreements — are legally binding, but they’re difficult to prove and, therefore, difficult to enforce. Don’t feel like you’re being a bad guy by running your business properly. As a benefit, you’ll start finding that clients treat you with respect when you command it from the beginning.

What kinds of contracts have you used for your freelance work? Do you have any horror stories?

Follow up. We hear it a thousand times. If you go for a job interview, make cold calls, or deal with a business for just about anything, it’s apparently crucial that you follow up.

Why?

Well after that initial contact — that initial great impression — the person you met with gets busy doing their everyday thing. And unfortunately, they start to forget things. Even that amazing conversation they had with you. Or even if they don’t forget, they get a follow-up call/email/letter from another candidate, and your brilliance suddenly becomes out-of-sight and out-of-mind.

Here’s a quick and easy follow up method. Hopefully it will work, even for the laziest among us:

• Before you head to the interview or appointment, address and put postage on your thank-you note’s envelope.

• During your appointment, start thinking about what you’ll say in your personalized follow-up note. For more ideas on how to accomplish this, take a peek at this Freelance Switch article on following up.

• As soon as you get home, write a personalized handwritten or typed note. If your initial communication was via phone, write a follow-up note before the end of the day.

• Using some type of reminder system (Outlook, tickler files, cellphone, calendar), set a date no more than a month in advance to send another follow-up note. This one will be similar to the first “thank you” note, but it should mention how excited you are to eventually work with them.

• If you’ve gotten no negative remarks, go ahead and schedule another note that goes out during a holiday or something similar. The point is to stay on your prospect’s mind in case a gig becomes available.

In my experience, the most difficult thing about following up is committing to doing it. If you’re pretty good at following up with potential clients, what’s your secret? Do you have a different method to share?

Blogging has been fun for the past 2 years, but recently it seems I’ve lost my mojo. I think about Crayon Writer everyday, but somehow I never could make myself put my fingers to the keyboard.

Part of it has to do with being a perfectionist. I didn’t reach my 400 cold call goal, and I haven’t followed up properly with those calls that I did make. But I have to realize that life still happened and perhaps my readers still want to know what’s going on.

So how am I going to find my lost mojo?

I’ve decided that I’m just going to write about whatever’s going on, even if it isn’t directly related to my writing business.

Crayon Writer is a blog about my life as a single mother of a now 4-year-old daughter, and it’s about my goal of being a freelance-writing, work-at-home parent. Along the way I may work a full-time job, struggle with daycare, and dabble in less lucrative writing ventures. In other words, I may just live life while I reach for my goals.

Though I haven’t done a poll in a while (a long while, actually), please feel free to let me know what you think of my new method to finding my lost blogging passion. A couple of readers did tell me they enjoyed Crayon Writer because it was about a real life aspiring writer. If that’s what you enjoy too, you’re definitely in the right place.

Stay tuned.

A couple of weeks ago I started my Well-Fed Challenge. My goal is to make 400 cold calls to local businesses in 20 work days, letting them know I’m a freelance writer and finding out what their needs are. August 20 is my deadline.

So how am I doing?

So far I’ve made 103 calls! Yay!

Of those 103 calls, about 58 agreed I could send them my online commercial writing portfolio. Mind you, many of them were secretaries who were probably trying to get me off the phone, but it counts. I can now add them to my snail-mailing list of potential clients.

Of the 58 who gave me their email addresses, 18 were “hot” prospects. Either they use freelancer writers or they were very interested in seeing my portfolio. One of them even wants to interview me for a part-time position teaching copywriting at their college. I have the interview next week!

The companies I targeted for this first round all have a website, and were listed as having 25-250 employees in my library’s database. They are also all local. I made sure to have a few website designers, graphic designers, and advertising agencies in there too (so I wouldn’t get a million no’s).

One of my tactics is to be sure to ask for an email address every time, even if the secretary agreed to send me to voicemail. This is something Peter Bowerman suggests in The Well-Fed Writer. I figure that once I have an email address I can send future correspondence by snail mail (postcards, letters, etc.). I’ll start my snail mail follow-up campaign in a week or two.

Now for the downside.

I had to alter my plans a bit. I wanted to make 20-25 calls every day, but child care wasn’t available every day. So several days had to be skipped. On days when I did have child care, I sometimes would only have 2 hours to make my calls (and research each company a little bit before each call).

Also, when I did make my calls for the day, I still had to find time to go back and send emails with a link to my portfolio. With limited child care, and with a limited amount of steam (I fall asleep at about 10pm, shortly after my daughter goes to bed), I found that I needed to create time to send those emails. Sometimes I had to take time away from calling to do that.

After all, making the calls doesn’t get my information in front of people. Most of my calls are for information gathering only.

Next week will be a challenge. I have that interview, a doctor’s appointment, and I’m going to investigate another childcare provider. I will probably only be able to make calls and send emails on just 2 or 3 days (I hope).

Even if I don’t make my goal, I’ll keep reaching for it. Stay tuned!

Do you give up when you realize you can’t make your goal, do you keep trying, or do you alter your goal?