BlogathonATX 2012

GAH! I did it…I committed to going to Blogathon 2012 and here I sit in a room of my peers. It’s AWESOME! I work from home, so I tend to turn into a bit of a hermit; and, the more I’m alone, the more I stay alone. You start getting comfortable with not seeing or talking to people all day which eventually makes it harder and harder to get out and be amongst people…especially ‘strangers’. So, my resolution for 2012 was to get out and do more networking events. Thus, my attendance at #BlogathonATX.

This is my third social media networking event of the year. I attended a Social Media Club event (where I spoke on the panel) and a BASHH (Big Ass Social Happy Hour). I really enjoyed the SMC and met some fun ppl, but didn’t get much out of the BASHH…and we didn’t end up staying very long. But this BlogathonATX, I’ve already met like 10 people who are perfect for networking with and learning from. The room is FULL of fantastic fun, personable people. It’s full of energy in here.

Blogathon started as a coffee meetup 3 years ago, and now there are at least 60 ppl here. I’ve only met one full-time blooger so far, but most other people are designers, business owners, writers etc who want to blog more. So it’s been very cool. More updates to come. Just trying to warm up and get motivated to start blogging again.

Social Media Club Infographics Panel

Last night I had the opportunity to speak on the panel of the Social Media Club Austin. It was their monthly meeting and they were discussing Infographics. I think I did pretty well….a few of my comments were tweeted by the crowd, and I didn’t get overly nervous and puke on the table…bonus! It was a great event and really makes me want to go to more of these. A short writeup and photo about the meeting are below.

Infographics – the Long and the Short of It from Social Media Club ATX

Written by: @jmacofearth

I moderated a panel tonight to discuss infographics. You know those little pictograms or things you either love or hate. The USA Today chart that looks like a rain cloud or the really really long image and numbers about how awesome Facebook is. First a thanks to Kat Mandelstein, the chair of #smca for asking me to be a part of this lively discussion. And to Joey McGirr for tagging me in a photo even though I wasn’t in the photo. And thanks to the panel: StatesmanGrafix ekmedia the_infographic Fishco_Studios all worthy folks to follow.

Read the full article »

Austin indy Web designer snags overseas client — blog

Independent web designer Melissa Ek is flying high with her first international client — Saudi Arabian airline nasAir.

She founded ekMedia in 1999, and works primarily with local businesses, including HomeAway Inc., Convio Inc., DogBoy’s Dog Ranch and Tomlinson’s Pet Supplies.

“As a solopreneur, landing an airline client was a really big deal,” Ek said.

Read the full article on the Austin Business Journal »

Use LinkedIn Company Profile Pages to Promote Your Freelance Business

LinkedIn Company Profile Page

You’ve probably been using LinkedIn for a while as a way to personally connect with other like-minded business people via a personal profile. But did you know that LinkedIn has a Company Profile page that you can use to promote your freelance business as well?

How to Spot Difficult Clients BEFORE Signing a Contract

Have you ever gotten half way through a project with a new client, and then realized you never should have signed the project in the first place?

Have you ever recognized too late that this new client is a disaster to work with, and then kicked yourself for not listening to your initial gut reaction?

6 Simple Ways to Effectively Communicate with Your Client

I was talking with another freelancer yesterday, and he mentioned how professional he thought my proposal for an upcoming project was. I didn’t see anything to it…it’s just my standard outline of what I’m going to do for a project. So I started investigating what made it ‘professional.’ I had all the terms outlined, what I was going to do and when, what the client was responsible for, what the project consisted of, even an expiration date for the estimate.