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March 2008

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Taking Time Off

Taking Time Off

By Michelle V. Rafter on March 26, 2008 | Leave a response

Sometimes even the most hard-core freelancer has to step away from the keyboard and recharge the old writing batteries. I did last over the past week on a trip to central Oregon. Not far from Bend, I hiked the Deschutes River Trail, which passes waterfalls like this one, Dillon Falls.

I also skied at Mt. Bachelor, [...]

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Grants for Women in Digital Media

By Michelle V. Rafter on March 19, 2008 | Leave a response

Are you a woman journalist who’s dreamed of doing a start up but doesn’t have the $$$?
J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism and the McCormick Tribune Foundation are giving $10,000 to three women-led journalism start ups. Projects have to related to the news business and winners have to blog about their first year getting a [...]

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How to Write Fast

By Michelle V. Rafter on March 17, 2008 | 17 Responses

Don’t believe anybody who tells you it’s easy to write fast.
It’s not.
They may mean it’s easy to write fast when your editor stands up in his cubicle on the other side of the newsroom and glares at you because it’s after 5 p.m. and your story was supposed to be filed before 4:30.
Or it’s easy [...]

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A Few Words on Writing Short

A Few Words on Writing Short

By Michelle V. Rafter on March 14, 2008 | 11 Responses

There are no short cuts to writing short.
It’s hard. It takes practice. Even Mark Twain thought so, as he famously said: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
There are, however, a few good reasons to try:
[...]

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10 Basic Web Tools for Freelancers

By Michelle V. Rafter on March 12, 2008 | 9 Responses

My workday would not be the same without the Web-based tools I use for research and writing. The good part is they’re simple. I may be a tech writer, but as my husband will attest, I an not an early adopter. Whether it’s a computer, software program or cell phone, I stick with the tried [...]

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Keyboard Yoga

By Michelle V. Rafter on March 10, 2008 | 3 Responses

Writing and yoga have a lot in common.
To write or practice yoga, you have to tune everything else out so you can be in the moment. Writing and yoga require practice to maintain a certain level of skill – years of practice to be really good. You could argue, though, that students of writing and [...]

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Social Networks Shrink, But It's Not What You Think

By Michelle V. Rafter on March 6, 2008 | 5 Responses

Any student of online social networks can see that right now, less is more.
It’s not what you think. Social networks aren’t shrinking. The audience they’re trying to reach is. Think LinkedIn or Facebook, but way smaller.
Exhibit A. Today, a new Website for women over 40 called Women on the Web, or Wowowow.com, said it would [...]

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One Writer's Journey From Print to Online News

By Michelle V. Rafter on March 5, 2008 | 6 Responses

How does someone go from mild-mannered print writer to multimedia maven?
It’s the question of the day given the direction the U.S. publishing industry is taking – and if you’re not asking it, you should be. That goes for freelancers as well as staff writers.
To shed some light on reporting and writing in the age of [...]

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SEO and Blog Post Tags: More Isn't Better

By Michelle V. Rafter on March 3, 2008 | 2 Responses

I’m teaching myself about SEO, and it appears I still have a lot to learn.
Last week, I wrote about new skills freelancers should have in the age of digital media. To get things rolling I covered what freelancers should know about SEO, or search engine optimization. That’s the term used to describe the art of [...]

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Michelle V. Rafter

Reporting and blogging about business, tech and media.

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