And I have come to the conclusion that I am not a blogger nor a writer about writing. I have shared some of my experiences and tips here, but the bottom line is that I don’t really write about writing. I may DO it, but writing about it just doesn’t seem to come very smoothly to me. And so, I am announcing that this site will not be updated at any sort of reasonable frequency. There is still plenty of good stuff here, so browse around (the categories are over there on the right someplace).

When inspiration hits me, I may continue to post more. But for now, I will be focusing on getting my daughter through kindergarten, getting a new book written, getting a multitude of other articles finished and launching a new social network.  Needless to say, I have more than enough to keep my busy. Good luck with all your online writing.

The ever-present risk for freelance writers, whether online or not. After you complete your assigned project, what do you do when no payment appears? I am lucky that this has never happened to me personally, but the chance is always out there that it may. So what do you do?

First of all, set the stage to get paid in the first place. Handle every job professionally and request a contract or agreement. It will show your potential employer that you are a serious writer, and it may give them second thoughts about trying to intentionally screw you over. It also gives you more ammunition later on should they still default on payment. The other half of this tip is that you send an invoice when the work is completed. Your payment may genuinely fall through the cracks if they don’t have the proper documents at their end. (more…)