Sharon Hurley Hall

It’s always interesting to decide how to present my work to clients. A couple of weeks ago, I was referred to a client wanting web copy for a site in the health and fitness niche. I booked a short meeting with the client and took along this short presentation of four sites I’d worked on recently, a few main points about each of them and the process of working with me. Overall, I was pretty pleased with it – as it was simple and effective and proved that I could do the job. I’m now working with those clients on their web copy. For some reason this won’t embed, but here’s the link if you want to take a look.

Presenting work to clients

December was one of my best months ever, not just because of the work I did, but because of the interest people expressed in using my services in the New Year. Those people have started to come back to me now and I’m confidently expecting to work with a couple of new people on ebook writing and publishing and blog editing and management. Since those are some of my favorite things to do, I’m excited about the opportunities they present. I’ll tell you more when they become a reality, but until then, Happy New Year, and have a wonderful and productive year.

It’s only the middle of the week, but I have so many updates (plus the rest of my week planned out) so I thought I’d let you know now what I’ve been up to.

At the start of the week (well, really the end of last week) I got my newsletter out.  It comes out every 4-6 weeks and is aimed at freelance writers. That always takes a couple of hours to put together, especially as I’ve given myself the task of adding a cartoon to most issues.

Since my last writing update, I’ve been busy, busy, busy! I’ve continued to write for the Quips and Tips group of sites, with a post on tracking writer income. I’m expecting to do more posts for that site in the next month, with three ideas already submitted and approved.

I’ve been travel blogging, of course, writing resumes, preparing press releases and helping my clients with social media promotion. But most of all, I’ve been guest blogging, sometimes for clients and sometimes for myself. Here are some of my recent posts:

• Barbados: Behind the Scenes on Sharing Travel Experiences
• How To Publish Your Ebook on the Amazon Kindle Platform on Rinf
• Vitamins and Minerals – Which Fruit to Choose on Bond with Karla
• 8 Online Lists to Help You Get Packing Under Control on Best Travel Websites
• Tips On Avoiding Dehydration on eScoutRoom
• Potty Training in a Weekend – It’s A Myth! on Creative Homemaking

I’ve covered everything from travel to health to parenting  – and I’ve got another post on moving scheduled for later in the month.  I’ve also done some ghost blogging for a client who runs a funeral home (don’t worry; it’s nothing morbid) and have helped with the preparation of a social media and blogging strategy for a client.

As you can see, it’s been a full couple of weeks – and I anticipate the rest of April being just as busy. Coming up, I’ll be helping a client rewrite homepage copy, and I’ve been asked to quote for two jobs where I’ll actually have to leave my desk: interviewing staff to write profiles for a website and interviewing awardees for profiles for a book coming out later this year. Looks like those journalism skills will come in handy!

If you want to hire me to update your blog, promote your business with a press release, write an article or an ebook or revamp your resume, request a quote for my writing services and I’ll be in touch within 2 business days to discuss your requirements.

I’ve been a nomad all my life, which is one reason why my latest gig at ParkRideFlyUSA is such a boon. In between client jobs, I’ve written up a few of my travel experiences on my Writing Lab blog. Here’s what there is so far.

Venezuela

• Red Lights
• Lost In Venezuela
• Guns By Night
• No Way Back

Germany

• German Weekend
• The Hotel
• The Wedding

US

• Disneyed
• Done by Disney
• Exploring The Animal Kingdom
• Prequel To Disney: Vista Cay
• The Disney Blizzard
• Blizzard Beach Pictures

General

• Caribbean Magic

Here’s a round up of the work I’ve had published in the last month or so.

Appvita

• Plurk review
• Friendster review
• SecondBrain review

Daily Writing Tips

• Obsessed With Ob- Words
• Cockney Rhyming Slang
• The Scandinavian Connection
• Complacent, Complaisant

Eclectic Rebel Travel Blog

• Three Essential Gadgets For The Business Traveler
• Layover In Chicago Midway Airport (MDW)
• Hey Big Spenders – Travel News

Ezine Articles

• How to Choose a Flooring Tile

Hubpages

• Choosing A Jogging Stroller

MommaHelpers

• Parenting: Should You Sweat The Small Stuff?

TechGerm

• Add-On Of The Week: GMail Manager
• Managing Your Passwords
• Android On The Horizon
• Add-On Of The Week: FoxClocks
• Delicious – A Firefox Bookmarks Replacement?
• Feedly Gets A Facelift
• Add-On Of The Week – Shareaholic
• LoJack Saves Your Laptop
• Making Friends On Friendster
• Add-On Of The Week – Aksimet Auntie Spam
• Evernote – Never Lose Your Online Stuff
• Lifestreaming With Swurl
• Add-On Of The Week – Greasemonkey

Or should that be: writing for a books site? One of my latest gigs is writing for Webooks. It’s an ebook publishing site that is expanding to include articles related to the books’ content. I’ve written four articles for them so far, and two have been published. They are Moving Your Article From Mag To Web and Proofreading Tips For Writers. Hope you enjoy them. Bookmark my profile page so you’ll know when the next ones appear.

Well, I couldn’t resist adding my name to another site, especially when it comes from Google. I’ve just published my first Knol using a sample article on off plan property that I had lying around.  It was very easy to publish and I think I’ll put more of my work there in the future. To go along with it, I’ve also published Written A Knol Yet? – my review of the process on TechGerm.

Katie Price, the British glamour model formerly known as Jordan, revealed that she doesn’t write her own books. Instead, she comes up with the concept and a ghostwriter fleshes it out.

‘I say how I want the storyline to be, each chapter is done, I read through it change it and then it goes away to be written.’

Ms Price is now on her third bestselling book, which means her ghostwriter is doing a great job.  And she’s not the only one to hire a ghostwriter to write her life story. Why don’t you have a look at the latest celeb biographies and guess which ones are ghostwritten? You might get a surprise!

Men with Pens wrote today about how a great reputation can ruin your business, making the point that sometimes the work you publicize creates a particular image of the skills you have. It occurred to me that all of us have skills that we don’t promote, but which we use competently. Here are some of the things I have done that are not on my resume:

• I have bought domain names and arranged hosting for several sites.
• I have customized WordPress themes, including changing the colours, sidebar and footer on this one (the banner design is from Men with Pens)
• I currently manage a website on a volunteer basis, as well as several of my own.
• I write resumes for people.
• I advise people on managing their writing careers.

In other words, I do more than just write SEO articles and ebooks and blog.  So if you’re on this site because you’re wondering what I can do for you, these are a few things to add to the list – and I will add them to my resume one day.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, so I thought I’d bring you up to date on what I’ve been doing in June.  I started the month with articles on eco-friendly travel in Florida, and wrote some new posts for Daily Writing Tips, where one of the posts that got the most attention was on travel writing resources.

For a site which should go live in the next couple of months, I’ve written on safety for children and pregnancy ultrasounds. Meanwhile, I’ve continued to work on a book on management and on posts for Daily Tech Bits. I wrote a report on Twitter and have been writing about eco friendly living in Canada, as well as penning a couple of articles on writing for a books site.