Find A New Blog

Have you checked out this month's Interview With A Blogger or Featured Blog? The interview is with Tamahome Jenkins, blogger and writer and the Featured Blog is Directory Journal’s Internet Marketing, Social Media and SEO Blog.

Welcome to the very first in the series of an Interview With A Blogger, an aspect of Find A New Blog that i’m hoping to continue, along with a Featured Blog, on a monthly basis.

This month, Jennifer Mattern, freelance business writer and blogger, took the time out from her schedule to answer a few questions to get the ball rolling for this series.

DS: Hi Jenn. How about some basic information on yourself to get things started?
JM: Well, i’m 29 – soon to be 30 – I live in SE Pennsylvania, USA and am a freelance business writer and blogger.

DS: Whilst you’re a freelance business writer, a substantial amount of people will know you as a blogger. How long have you been blogging?
JM: I’ve been blogging publicly since 2004, with both personal and professional blogs.

DS: What blogs do you currently own / run?
JM: The primary blog I run is AllFreelanceWriting.com. It’s the only one I keep very current, and I have a team of bloggers working for me there. I have quite a few “retired” blogs that remain live and continue to bring in revenue without further updates, or with rare updates. Some of the bigger ones include NakedPR.com, BizHow2.com, AudioXposure.com (which I’ll be unloading soon), and FreeOnlineCourses.info (which I’ll be resuming soon with the help of a blogger who worked for me on another blog previously). I’m also a co-founder of FreelanceTheater.com with Yolander Prinzel. We write and produce audio plays tackling freelance writing issues, in a sort of spoof style of old horror radio plays. We both write and record the scripts. I generally handle the blogging and artwork and Yo handles the post-production. There’s more to it work-wise than typical blogging, but it shows how different mediums can combine. And it’s fun! Those are my niche blogs. I also recently launched a company blog tied to my business site at ProBusinessWriter.com. That one is more directly targeting my potential client base.

DS: Do you find that you share your time around all of your blogs equally?
JM: All Freelance Writing is my primary blog. The business blog will become a bigger priority in coming months, so I’ll be balancing time between those two mostly.

DS: Aside from blogging, what other work interests do you have?
JM: I’m writing a nonfiction book for freelance writers, publish e-books, and run several of my own sites and blogs (in addition to managing client blogs).

DS: In respect of this work, how long have you been doing it?
JM: I’ve been running my own sites since 2004. I began writing e-books around 2006 (maybe 2007 by the time the first was publicly released). I’ve worked on book projects for several years as well. In addition to the nonfiction book proposal I’m finishing up now, I have three novel outlines completed and “on the shelf” waiting for fresh eyes for complete drafts. The first was outlined (meaning about 70 pages of plot and notes) back in 2004.

DS: Do you do it because you enjoy it or because it pays the bills?
JM: Both. My work does an outstanding job of paying the bills, but also gives me much more free time to pursue my own projects than a “normal” job would. The fact that I thoroughly enjoy it on top of that is just a perk (although if I hated it, I can’t imagine staying with it regardless — that’s why I quit the nonprofit world).

DS: So have you always worked on a freelance basis?
JM: No, but it didn’t take me long. I worked freelance part-time in college, but after getting my degree I worked “normal” jobs for about two years. It was a disdain for the politics of the nonprofit sector that finally pushed me to go off on my own. I started a small PR firm. I later dropped the consulting aspect to solely write full-time.

DS: There’s no doubt that you are the envy of a lot of people working not only in the writing industry, but on a freelance basis. For many, it can be difficult to break into both worlds – how did you start off in the industry?
JM: I’ve always wanted to be one of two things: a writer or “an inventor” (as I put it as a child). I did study engineering for a few years, but ultimately enjoyed solving problems with my “mouth” over my hands, which is how I got into PR (I still design, build, etc. as much as possible though — the passion for engineering is still there). PR is naturally a writing-intensive discipline, and that made it easy to branch into similar lines of business writing (which also tied to my educational experiences in business as well as my experience as a business owner myself).

DS: Considering you’re only 29 years old, you seem to have had a really successful freelance career and have achieved a lot already. Is there anything in particular that you’d like to try in the future?
JM: I always want to try new things, and I often do. The Freelance Theater project I mentioned is one example of that — something no one else in the niche was doing. I’m also planning to launch other features this year — a podcast (I’ve hosted an online radio show tied to a previous blog, so it’s not entirely new for me) and possibly a comic series and video collection although I’m still working out details for those projects.

DS: As you said, you always like to try new things and very often do so. Is there any opportunity that you feel you’ve missed throughout your business life so far, or have any regrets?
JM: I regret ever getting involved with content mills / networks. It was a huge mistake and an unnecessary delay in my writing career. If I hadn’t woken up, I wouldn’t be doing this full-time right now and certainly wouldn’t be making a serious living. Let’s just say I earn a very nice hourly rate for the work I do. I billed out my time as a PR consultant at a very nice rate as well. If writing couldn’t consistently offer comparable pay, it wouldn’t have been a good business move. By waking up and putting my PR and marketing background to use for myself I had absolutely no problem meeting (and exceeding) past income levels as a consultant, when even I initially assumed I’d take a pay cut early on. If only I’d thought to put my skills to better use earlier, maybe I’d have a few more of these bigger goals reached by now. That said, I’ve done much more than most people I know as far as pushing for professional goals and meeting them (most friends still work jobs they either don’t like or can’t move up in), so I’m hardly disappointed overall.

DS: Two pretty deep questions now. Firstly, have you ever received an invaluable piece of advice that has helped you through life, either on a personal or professional level?
JM: My academic advisor (and one of my professors) in college actually changed my life more than he could know. His courses went a long way towards helping me open up and be more vocal about things I want to say professionally. More importantly though was some personal advice. I was engaged in college. During a meeting we were talking about where I’d go after graduation. My fiance was accepted to the CIA in New York (culinary institute) so we were planning to move there. To paraphrase, my advisor basically told me I was a fool for being engaged then and that it was bad for my career. I hated him for it at the time (loved him as a prof though). I remember thinking “Who the hell does this guy think he is to meddle in my personal life?” Here’s the thing though. He was right. My fiance’s plans fell through which completely screwed up our plans to move (and my corresponding career path at the time). The engagement as a whole was a huge mistake as I later learned. So how did his advice help me? It served as a reminder that you aren’t always objective about your own life and career. You think that “good enough” is a great place to be when it’s not, and you forget about those goals, ambitions, and making things happen for yourself. You settle. You become complacement. You live life with blinders on sometimes and you don’t even realize it. Because of him and that little piece of overly-personal advice, I’ve learned to be a much more objective person both in business and in life. I take time to look at all sides of a situation or issue before forming strong opinions (if I have a strong opinion and state it publicly, you can be damn sure I know what I’m talking about and probably have plenty of experience on both sides). I’ve learned that sometimes we have to step outside of ourselves and our situation in order to make the best decisions for ourselves, and I’ve gotten very good at doing that (and my life in general is far better because of it).

DS: Secondly, If you could speak to yourself a year before you started working, what piece of advice you would give to yourself?
JM: Make time. Make a plan. Then just get it done! Every moment you waste on something beneath you and out of step with your goals is a moment you’ll never get back. Give yourself too many of those moments and you’ll never make things happen.

DS: Now for something a little easier – in your spare time (which sounds limited at best!), what do you enjoy doing?
JM: I’m a huge genealogy buff (always researching and tracking down odd little family history tid bits, from my puritan ancestors to discovering that I was actually born a dual citizen). I also enjoy walking and hiking when I can, reading (usually nonfiction — I’m an education junkie), watching online university lectures (again, education-junkie), learning new languages (currently learning Greek), and watching well-written films (often foreign films).

DS: You said earlier in the interview that there were several new business projects you’d like to venture into in the future. Is there any personal interests that you’d like to pursue?
JM: I’d like to outline another novel this year — a story very near and dear to my heart through hobbies and interests I mentioned previously. I’d also like to travel more this year to further my genealogy research.

So that wraps up the very first Interview With A Blogger.  Check back in a week or two for another first in the series, this time the first Featured Blog, which along with the Interview With A Blogger, i’m hoping to continue every month.

Happy reading,

Dan

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