Nerve wrecking.
That’s what it means. And I don’t mean the actual travelling. Its the before leaving for the trip that’s nerve wrecking. From planning & scheduling to informing to trying to do everything yourself. It’s just mind boggling, stressing and frustrating!
It’s not supposed to be so stressful. I get it. It’s just not that easy to do y’know? A couple of weeks before I left, I read an extremely well timed guest post by Alex Fayle on Men with Pens in which he gave some excellent advice on planning a freelance vacation.
Half of it was about dealing with ongoing projects and hiring someone to take care of your email etc. I didn’t have the time to sort it all out so I decided to finish up all my ongoing assignments. I also emailed all the people who needed to know that I was going on a break.
Till here, it was all hunky dory.
Then I took a pill of stupid and decided to take on my blog and schedule three week’s worth of posts for The Base instead of getting guest posters to contribute. I’d realized there was too little time and I had to do everything myself.
Even that would have been fine because I did manage to set up the scheduled posts. But then my trip got extended by a week and it didn’t occur to me that I’d need to schedule more posts.
Yeah, math was never my strong point. The result was my blog being neglected for an entire week.
As is obvious, I forgot to repeat to myself: I am not the centre of the universe. Had I asked for it, people would have helped me. We have twitter nowadays for god’s sake!
I’ll be travelling again later this year and for longer than a couple of weeks. I’m already working out the details even though I’m months away from it.
Ever had trouble like this while on a break? What’s your worst vacation story as a freelancer? Come on. Make me feel better.
Samar is a freelance blogger, e-book writer and the voice behind this blog. She loves her kid, her work and helping freelance writers break free from low paying content mills .
@ Shikoh - First thing first. What I do (that you find quite interesting :) is freelance writing. It's not easy and it involves all hours - at least for me and will for you too as we're on this side of the globe and most of the online work I get is on the other side. Marc is right. You are good enough! You're a marketer, you already know that. Follow marc's advice and you're good to go. Start a blog. Doesn't necessarily have to be about writing. Can be anything that showcases your writing skills. Then look into sites like elance.com and guru.com to get your start. Follow blogs that post jobs several times a week. Keep a track on industry blogs. Read Copyblogger, problogger, menwithpens, freelanceparents, etc. Hope you get your visit visa soon! I'm confident you'll get a marketing job in UAE. Things are tough here recruiting wise, but not as tough as the media makes it out to be. I still see ads for marketing jobs in monster gulf, naukri.com etc. Follow Marc's advice. He's spot on. @ Marc - Since I live away from my home country I'll be taking at least one break every year. And since both my husband and I love to travel, that will be another break whenever we can afford it. Just got back from a 10 day trip to India. As for my blog - I keep trying to find a posting schedule that suits me and attracts readers. I also have these grand plans for a wordpress theme that isn't as bland and sucky as this one. Btw, I love your blog!
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