Written on March 14th, 2007 at 10:03 am by Darren Rowse
Speedlinking – 14 March 2007
A Guide to Freelancing
North x East has a great article up that is a Comprehensive Guide to Starting your Freelancing Career. It covers everything from branding, to where to find work, advice on quoting prices and invoicing (and more).
More and more bloggers are using their blogging as a launching pad for a freelancing career in writing – I’m sure this will be helpful for those just starting out.
Why Commenting is a Good Practice
Chris Garrett has also put together a good post today and gives 10 reasons why commenting on other people’s blogs is good for you. The benefits of being a regular contributer to other’s blogs in their comment section go beyond that they might click on your name and discover your blog.
I personally find that many of my best ideas come to me during a comment on someone else’s blog which then turns into a post on my own.
Blogging Toolkit
Ian from Ian’s Messy Desk has put together his Blogging Toolkit? having bounced off my question about the blog tools you use. While I don’t have the time to do a fully fledged group writing project this week if it’s a topic that is appropriate for your blog feel free to write up a post and leave a link in the comments of my previous post so the rest of us can check out what you use and why.
The list of tools people are submitting is turning out to be a great conversation already and I’ll be sending quite a few people to it in the coming month – thanks everyone!
23 Responses to “Speedlinking – 14 March 2007” - Add Yours
ilker
March 14th, 2007 11:04 am
Thanks for sharing these Darren.. I found the “Guide to Freelancing” very comprehensive and useful. It was a really good find for a freelance graphic designer like me.
Perhaps you can make a post about blogging toolbox from the comments left there.
Shane
March 14th, 2007 11:18 am
Great insight Darren.
When I leave a comment, many times it’s because I see a unique perspective to add to the conversation. That new twist on the subject sometimes becomes the seed for a great post idea.
Bes Zain
March 14th, 2007 1:17 pm
About your 2nd link, one has to make sure that commenting is not being done simply to attract new people to your own site by exposing your link to other sites. Commenting on new sites while forgetting all the previous ones is in my view selfish. Commenting on new sites while keeping the previous ones in mind is better.
Haacked
March 14th, 2007 3:40 pm
What a great question concerning your blogging toolkit. I happened to just put together a list (not having noticed your question) of my toolkit which consists of 20 essential web-based toolkits – No Installation Required.
http://www.haacked.com/archive/2007/03/13/improve-your-blogs-reach-with-these-20-essential-web-utilities.aspx
I’m sure you’ll see many of these mentioned in the answer to your toolkit question.
Quais Waseeq
March 14th, 2007 4:16 pm
Thank you Darren for the great links. I also found the ‘commenting reasons’ link very useful and interesting.
Interesting to see how you have changed the format of your ’speed linking’ post. Are you experimenting something, or is it just a one off thing?
Collis
March 14th, 2007 5:01 pm
Thanks for the link up Darren. Sadly that article was a little too popular and shortly after making it to del.icio.us’ popular list my dreamhost account decided that serving so many people really wasn’t its kind of thing :-(
Alas the price of popularity! Never mind tomorrow I shall be switching to a pricier but hopefully more stable server.
In any case it all started here at this post as far as i can tell, so thanks!
Kumiko
March 14th, 2007 5:11 pm
I like this more detailed version of ‘Speedlinking’. It’s a lot easier to know if I’m interested in the articles or not. :)
Kumiko
Darren Rowse
March 14th, 2007 5:28 pm
Kumiko – thought I’d try something different today with it – hopefully it’s a more useful speedlinking. Not sure I’ll do it every day but so far it seems to be working out.
Collis – sorry to hear that. Get a nice beefy hosting service if you’re going to put out quality posts like that one!
collis
March 14th, 2007 6:21 pm
Yes indeed, will do :-)
Oh and I second Kumiko’s comment, new more detailed version of Speed Linking is much nicer!
markowe
March 14th, 2007 7:12 pm
Yes, I agree, commenting on other people’s blogs is a good idea. People should do it more. Yes, definitely, I will recommend this practice to my friends too :)
Daniele
March 14th, 2007 10:44 pm
I agree, commenting other blogs gives inspiration for future posts on my blog
Mert
March 15th, 2007 4:19 am
I can not open your first link :
http://northxeast.com/branding-and-design/a-comprehensive-guide-to-starting-your-freelance-career/
Chuck
March 15th, 2007 6:11 am
I think commenting is a wonderful way to:
- contribute to the conversation with affirmation and additional info
- stimulate the debate with new ideas
- show your support for the blog/blogger in question
- get a link back to your own site
However, I wish we could get some sort of “feedback machine” that would send an electric current back to shock the snot out of blog spammers: Those whose contribution in comments is nothing relevant or contextual (”Great post!”)…which is functionally nothing more than a lazy way to get a link. If you can’t contribute more than that, please just keep your thoughts to yourself.
Arghhhh…
Neil Galloway
March 15th, 2007 8:26 am
Yeah, I have been terrible at commenting. I started to do it more often and I was surprised how helpful it is to get “involved”. You get a few people who follow the link back to your own site as well which is always nice, but the real value is that is helps to develop the community as a whole. It pays off in spades if you take the time to leave a well thought out, meaningful comment.
Mert
March 15th, 2007 5:16 pm
Am i the only one in this planet who can not open the below link mentioned on Darren’s post ?
http://northxeast.com/branding-and-design/a-comprehensive-guide-to-starting-your-freelance-career/
It seems to me that it is broken.
I will appreciate your help. Thanks in advance!
Back in Blogging Business at North x East
March 15th, 2007 8:15 pm
[...] Well yesterday I published a post called A Comprehensive Guide to Starting your Freelance Career and it was a hit… at least it was for a moment. Ivan very kindly wrote to Problogger and they linked up to the post, this was followed by a surge in del.icio.us bookmarks and the page made it to the del.icio.us/popular list, got stumbled and then the server died [...]
Dealing with the freelance lifestyle at acidlabs
March 15th, 2007 10:28 pm
[...] I know it sounds like I’m harping on financial issues here, but frankly, business is about the bottom line. No matter how good you are at your job, you’re doomed if you can’t sort the money side of the business out. Via Problogger. [...]
Jen
March 15th, 2007 11:34 pm
Mert, the link works fine for me… Do keep trying it, in case it’s just a traffic block somewhere between you and it on the ‘net, because it’s an excellent post — long, but well worth the time to read (twice!).
Jen
March 15th, 2007 11:36 pm
p.s. There’s a full feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/NorthxEast — if anyone else is having Mert’s trouble in getting the link, maybe you can read the article there.
Mert
March 16th, 2007 6:18 am
Thanks a lot Jen! It works now! I appreciate your help..
Lucas McDonnell
March 16th, 2007 7:04 am
The detailed descriptions of the posts are great for deciding whether I want to read them or not, as Kumiko said. I second that opinion.
JennDZ
March 16th, 2007 7:41 am
I actually love commenting on other people’s blogs. It is really fun, and I agree that it helps you really condense your thoughts, and I get a lot of my own value in the creative process by reading and participating in other people’s blogs!
kevstelo
June 11th, 2007 5:25 pm
I think I’ve read something simillar a few days ago. I don’t remember where, might have been on digg.com or slashdot.
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