Sometimes you discover really cool stuff. Wordle can be a great way to promote your blog. You can enter a Url and get a word cloud. Mine looked like the one below. Pretty cool I must say! There are also plenty of editing option. You can change the color scheme, language, chose which words to omit and if you don’t like the placing of words, you can re-arrange the lay out as well.

When I entered the URL for The Base, this is what it came up with.

Cool huh? Then I decided to play with the name of my blog i.e “The Writing Base”. This is what I ended up saving.

The last one has to be my favourite. Of course, there are no option to place certain colors on certain words. Else the two middle ones would have had different colors on the words.

You can put up these images in other blogs (link them) or post them up a on social networking sites. This could be great if you’re launching a blog and spreading the word about it. For e.g if you make a facebook event out of it, you can use these images as a picture etc.

And now that I’ve wasted so much time on Wordle, it’s time to get back to work.

Has it ever happened to you? Have you found something cool on the net that’s sucked the time out of your workday?

Now that January is over, I can safely say that this month has been great! Of course, this was also the month I was ready to pull my hair out and bang my head against the wall – neither of which I did by the way.

Trials:

I’ll begin with the trials. It was a strange month to say the least.

Blogging everyday: Yes, it’s a trial. I attempted NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) back in November. The idea was to post every single day. I attempted it along with Sal, and managed to do great. Then for some god forsaken reason, I wondered out loud about attempting it again in January on my personal blog and before I knew it I was posting everyday along with a friend. I had no inspiration and absolutely no wish to blog everyday after the first week. I had too much work and what used to be an outlet became a frustration.

Sal warned me against it but I’d already given my word. I stopped after day 28th. Completely. I know it was just three days short but I couldn’t bring myself to spew dribble on a blog that used to be my haven.

Deadlines: I had trouble meeting deadlines this month. Not that I was late. But meeting a deadlines was a trial. I had to push myself really hard to complete the work on time. Has it ever happened to you guys?

Working on side projects: Because my work wasn’t on schedule, I felt guilty even thinking about my personal side projects. Yet they seemed so much more interesting! They still do! I can’t wait take them live!

Triumphs:

Payday: In my short freelancing careers, this month has been the biggest earner. And no I’m not earning anything substantial but its still more than I’ve earned in the past months so I’m feeling very proud!

CSS: I couldn’t make head or tails of it. Then I decided to just do it. I bought a domain, hosted the blog with the guidance of a friend and uploaded a theme. Another friend made me a header which made it look uber cool and suddenly everything just had to be perfect even if it meant I had to learn it from scratch. I read countless tutorials. Bugged designer or CSS savvy friends till I learned enough to tweak/customize a template on my own.

Learning SEO: January has been a month of learning and pushing myself. I took a risk and bought Remarkablogger’s WordPress SEO Secrets. And have to say – so far I haven’t been disappointed. It’s money well invested.

Got rejected: I applied for a gig for an e-learning blog. Since it’s something I’m interested in and felt I was qualified for. Outside of school and college, my learning has all been online and I’ll also be taking a few courses online, so I knew I could do a good job of it. I sent them an email pitch and haven’t heard back. But thanks to Google Analytics I know they checked me out. That  feels like a triumph. It tells me I made it past the initial stage. They decided to check me out. The fact that I didn’t get chosen is of no consequence. There is a huge chance of someone applying who had a lot more experienced than me.

But they checked me out! Why am I taking it as a triumph? Something in my pitch must have been interesting to them for them to not just delete it. I now have some idea of how to write an email application that would attract potential clients.

That’s the summary of my month. How’s yours been?

Clients are on everyone’s minds these days. Or maybe they’re just on mine. For this week’s link love, I’ll be highlighting blog posts that cover various aspects of our work’s lifeblood: Clients.

Freelance Folder had an excellent open thread post. Mason asked ‘Where Do You Get Your Clients?‘ He narrowed it down to three questions that his readers answered in the comments. If you’re looking for ways to find new clients, the comments on this post is a good place to look.

Freelance Switch posted ‘6 Ways to Follow-up With Prospects Without Being Creepy’. If you’re wondering when or how to contact a client you had initial talks with but haven’t heard back from, this post is your answer.

Another blog post from Freelance Switch outlines time-tested sales techniques to win clients.

The Wealthy Freelancer listed ‘4 Simple Rules for Getting More Repeat Business & Referrals’. Returning clients or recommendations are the best way to grow your business. A testimonial from one client is worth more than payments from five when you’re looking to expand your work.

Chrisblogging has a trio of blog posts related to clients that I found helpful.

• Three Times to Ask Clients for More Work
• Don’t Shy Away From Small Clients
• How to Rid of a Freelance Writing Clients

Cedric from Your Article Resource shares (not so secret) Secrets to Keep Your Freelance Clients Happy.

To wrap up the topic of clients, Jennifer Mattern from All Freelance Writing shares a client-from-hell story. Reading ‘Dealing With Abuse as a Freelance Writer’ is important for every freelancer. While some of us are lucky to have great clients, it is only a matter of time before we come across a bad client.

Technorati Tags: Clients, Freelance, Freelancing