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April 2008

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WordCount Blogathon: A Post a Day for the Month of May

By Michelle V. Rafter on April 30, 2008 | 7 Responses

Starting tomorrow, May 1, I’ll be embarking on a month-long blogathon that I’m calling A Post A Day for the Month of May.
I have a big birthday in May, and to celebrate I’ll be writing a post every day of the month. I’m also trying to write much shorter, more spontaneous blog posts and this [...]

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10 Ways to Promote Your Freelance Writing

By Michelle V. Rafter on April 28, 2008 | 16 Responses

Long-time freelancers approach writing as a business, and they market it that way too. Not all freelancers do the same kind of marketing. Some have Websites. Some have blogs. Some belong to writers’ groups and regularly attend conferences to meet with other writers and editors.
There are so many ways to promote yourself it’d be easy [...]

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Promote Yourself Through Your Email Signature

By Michelle V. Rafter on April 25, 2008 | 9 Responses

Freelancers often shy away from marketing. Unless you’re a copyrighter or do corporate work, it can seem like foreign territory. But marketing is basically communicating to other people about yourself, and who communicates better than a writer?
If the idea of a full-on marketing program is too scary, start small. A great launch pad is your [...]

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WD's 2008 Best Sites for Writers + Contest

By Michelle V. Rafter on April 23, 2008 | Leave a response

The June 2008 issue of Writer’s Digest features the magazine’s annual listing of 101 best Websites for writers. It’s interesting reading, as much for what it doesn’t include as for what it does.
The listing is broken into research and reference Websites such as Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary and Wikipedia, resources on publishers, agents and the book [...]

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Read All About It: Best Blogs on the Media Biz

By Michelle V. Rafter on April 20, 2008 | 4 Responses

These days freelance writers have to keep up with the times – the New York Times, that is, and the LA Times, the Washington Post and the Christian Science Monitor. Why? The fortunes of newspapers are changing and it’s changing what they want – or don’t want – from freelancers. Shrinking newspapers advertising means shrinking [...]

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Mediabistro.com Portland Writers Party Recap

By Michelle V. Rafter on April 16, 2008 | 1 Response

Last night I went to my first media party hosted by mediabistro.com, the New York company that provides classes, job listings and networking events for freelancers. About 30 of us sipped wine and shared business cards at Vino Paradiso in the Pearl District. Some highlights:
Stacey Wilson, associate editor at Portland Monthly and mediabistro’s Portland [...]

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Writing Blog Posts: Plotted Out or On the Fly?

By Michelle V. Rafter on April 15, 2008 | 3 Responses

I write blog posts a couple different ways. Some days it’s the spur of the moment, when an idea strikes or I’m inspired by the day’s news. Other times I hatch an idea, dash something off in a hurry, then let it simmer half-written for days or weeks before finishing it off. Or I’ll have [...]

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WordCount Blog: 2008 Q1 Report

By Michelle V. Rafter on April 11, 2008 | Leave a response

I’m taking a cue from public companies and issuing a quarterly report on this blog. I started WordCount as a New Year’s resolution, so the end of March marked the end of my first quarter as a blogger. Here are some highlights:
Readership – More people are discovering the blog. Page views grew exponentially over the [...]

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Why I'm Proud to Call Myself a Reporter

By Michelle V. Rafter on April 8, 2008 | 2 Responses

I’d planned to write about something else today, but it can wait. The 2008 Pulitzer Prizes came out yesterday, the newspaper industry’s highest honors. The Washington Post won six, a record for the paper, including the esteemed Public Service award for its reports on sub-par treatment of war veterans at Walter Reed Hospital. The paper [...]

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CJR Covers Biz News Sections' Demise

By Michelle V. Rafter on April 4, 2008 | Leave a response

Maybe I should be pitching stories to the Columbia Journalism Review. CJR, the venerable bimonthly covering the news industry that Columbia University’s Journalism School publishes, just filed this story about the demise of the daily newspaper standalone business section. I wrote about this back in February, when the Denver Post announced it was folding its [...]

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Michelle V. Rafter

Reporting and blogging about business, tech and media.

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