Earth Class Email provides a pretty good example of the things that can go wrong. The person in charge of the company’s email Twitter account (@earthclassmail) allowed themselves to be goaded into an ongoing and negative discussion with a “troll” account set up specifically for the purpose of annoying the company. The company representative’s posts came across as angry, containing typos and the kind of language that isn’t appropriate when speaking on behalf of an organization, like telling people to “get a life,” for example.

Picking the Right Person

From an organization’s perspective, it is critical that you pick the right person to represent your company through your social media accounts. This should be someone with good judgment and experience of interacting with the public. I see too many companies delegating their social media accounts to an intern or the most junior member of the team, but this could be a devastating mistake. There are, of course, exceptions; I’ve had a few star interns. It might help to think about it this way: would you put this person in front of the media or allow them to conduct interviews with the press? If so, they would probably be a good candidate to manage your social media efforts. If not, you should look for someone that you can trust in that position. One good strategy is to pair someone less experienced who can do more of the legwork with someone who is very media-savvy and can act as a mentor to provide guidance about the best way to represent the organization.

Representing Your Organization

There are a few things that whoever is posting to the company’s social media accounts should keep in mind:

• Assume that everything you post is public and permanent. Deleted posts are almost always cached and still available somewhere, so be careful about what you post.
• Use the right tone. Think about whether the tones of your posts match the company culture and ideals. A fun, hip startup would probably use different language than a company in a more conservative industry.
• Never post when you’re angry. If someone has you really fired up, take some time to cool off before you post anything in response.
• Always proofread. Yes, mistakes and typos happen to the best of us, but taking a little extra time to proofread will help ensure that such mistakes are rare.
• Use the “mom test.” Before posting anything, think about whether you would feel embarrassed if your mom (or boss, or other role model) saw it. If so, then it probably isn’t appropriate to post on behalf of your company. The “newspaper test” is another good one — would you be embarrassed if you saw the post quoted in the newspaper?

Personal Accounts

This is where it can get a little tricky. The company that I work for doesn’t get to control my personal accounts on social networks, and they don’t get to tell me what I can or can’t post. However, that doesn’t mean that the things we post on our personal accounts don’t have consequences in our professional lives. Heather Armstrong provided one well-known example of how talking about your work experiences on your personal accounts can get you fired, even if you are relating them in a humorous way. Another example comes from the personal Twitter account of James Andrews, a public relations professional who made some negative remarks about the hometown of his firm’s biggest client, which generated quite a bit of negative publicity for his company. In general, I avoid making negative comments that relate to my employer or my job, but each of us needs to figure out where we want to draw the line and live with the consequences of those decisions.

What are your tips for making sure that you don’t become an example of what not to do in social media?

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In this post, I am going to focus specifically on how to balance the personal with the professional, but you should also read Aliza’s post about revisiting her 10 golden rules of social media for more best practices.

You can actually be professional and personal at the same time in social media without too much effort. When we talk about “being personal” on social media web sites, I think that many people confuse “personal” with “private.” The reality is that you get to decide what to share and what not to share, so you can still keep most areas of your private life private. Think about this like the beginning of a conference call on Monday where you spend a few minutes talking about how you spent your weekend. You probably aren’t going to reveal anything private, inappropriate or unprofessional in a conference call with a client or coworkers, but sharing a little personal information does help you get to know each other on a level that is slightly deeper than just having strictly work conversations. This is exactly the type of personal information you can easily share on social media.

Value is an important consideration for both personal and professional social media posts. Before you post something, think about the value that you can offer along with the observation. For example, “making pizza for dinner” is going to be of little value and less interesting to people than if you get detailed about the type of pizza and include a link to the recipe. While you may be thinking it’s silly to post about food, the reality is that people really bond around food; they enjoy talking about it, and it’s way more neutral than politics or religion. In other words, it’s a relatively safe topic, but one that people are very passionate about. Now, you probably wouldn’t post something like this to a corporate account for your brand (unless you are Tony Hsieh from Zappos), but you can talk about your products in a personal way by adding a note about your experience with the product as the author of the post. Maybe you helped with the design or product definition, and you can mention your personal contribution to the product.

Variety can also play a big role in how well you balance the personal and professional. You should strive for an appropriate balance based on your situation with a nice variety in your posts. For example, if you use Facebook mostly for personal reasons, and you start posting almost exclusively professional updates, your personal friends will probably be irritated. Likewise, if you use Twitter mostly for work, and you start posting only personal updates, you’ll lose the people who are following you for your professional insights. The trick is to come up with a balance between the personal and professional that works well in your situation, without swinging too far into either direction. I make a point of looking at my Twitter stream every few days to make sure that I have an appropriate balance of personal and professional along with a few other things that I try to balance (informative vs. fun, self-promotion vs. promoting others, etc.)

Context is also important. Being personal is very important in some cases and less important in others, so you need to think about the context and what you are trying to accomplish as a brand, and make the right decisions for your company. The tricky part is that no one approach will work for everyone and no one piece of advice fits well in every situation. This means living within the norms of the various web sites or networks where you are participating, but coming up with an approach that makes sense for you and your company. No blogger, consultant or industry expert can make the decision about the right balance for you.

How do you balance personal with professional in social media?

Photo by Flickr user D. Sharon Pruitt used under Creative Commons.

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You may not want to do one of the obvious web worker jobs such as being a writer or virtual assistant. Maybe something in this list will resonate with you.

• Accountant / Bookkeeper: The people who keep track of money. They review invoices, expenses, payroll and taxes and make sure everything balances. They also verify the receiving and sending of all payments.
• Coach: While people tend to prefer meeting with coaches face-to-face, some are turning to virtual coaches and communicating with them by phone, email and other online technologies.
• Course Developer: Design courses for online or offline programs. The course developer may or may not also do the teaching.
• Customer Service Rep: Answer customer questions about a company’s products and services. Reps can work with customers by email, phone, online chat and social networks. While this often involves working for a company, web workers can provide customer services for small businesses that don’t have full-time employees to do the job.
• Editor: Slice and dice content to sharpen the writing and improve grammar.
• Graphic Designer: Create, design and modify artwork for web sites, web-based applications, print, brochures, pamphlets and more.
• Marketer and Public Relations (PR): Marketers and PR professionals communicate and build relationships in hopes of getting a product or service in front of customers and the media.
• Online Community Manager: These folks Manage community for businesses or organizations by facilitating, creating content, evangelizing and evolving the community.
• Product Sales: Many people make a full-time career out of selling products via online auctions and stores. Some manage web sites that work like a gateway to many products and sites, earning their cash through affiliate programs or site sponsors.
• Programmer / Developer: Develops software or the back-ends of web sites.
• Publisher: This growing career goes beyond printing books into producing e-books and selling them on their own sites or through affiliates.
• Recruiter / Human Resources (HR): Find and vet candidates for companies needing to fill positions or hire temporary workers.
• Sales / Telemarketer: Despite all the complaints about telemarketers, some businesses do a good job with their sales and telemarketing services.
• SEM and SEO: Study PPC rates, key words and click rates. They determine what works and what doesn’t work, then suggest how to improve the metrics. Beware these are two different specialties requiring different knowledge and skills.
• Teacher / Professor: Getting a college degree online is no longer taboo as many programs have proven to be as good as on-campus programs. High schools offer online classes so students can make up a failed course or get needed credits. Classes aren’t limited to education credits. Plenty of folks want to further their knowledge of a general topic.
• Tech Support: Applications that allow you to work on a computer as if you’re in front of it have opened the door for tech support jobs that you can do anywhere.
• Virtual Assistant: Manage appointments, data entry, time tracking and much more. VAs can very well do many of the jobs listed here, as it has a broad definition.
• Writer: The folks are all about words. They can do blogging, writing for print and online publications, working with businesses on their content or training materials and doing technical writing.
• Web designer: This site and many others would never come to fruition without the talents of a web designer. Not only do they create web sites, but they also design the front-end of web-based applications while the web developer or programmer handles the things we can’t see.
• Web Site Manager / Webmaster: They maintain existing web sites by adding content on a regular basis, optimizing the site, monitoring problems and answering questions that come in. They might also add tools, widgets and other features to grow and enhance the web site as well as manage ads.
• Video Producer and Editor: Create and edit videos to tell a story to communicate the key message for the organization behind the video.

Although web workers have various common traits, discipline is a biggie. Web working requires you be able to motivate yourself to get the work done and to get more business. Unless you’re part of a virtual team, no one will push you to complete your tasks.

What other careers can you do from anywhere?

Photo credit: Brenda Lamothe Coulomme

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1. Get a professional email address. Most clients aren’t likely to take you seriously if you are using an address that contains “hotmama23,” “sexydude12,” “ilovemykittycat,” or anything similar. Your best option is something like yourname@yourdomain.com, or in a pinch, you can use some variation of your full name on Gmail (avoid Hotmail, AOL, and other consumer services that have ever targeted newbie internet users).
2. Have a professional web site. Your web site doesn’t need to be complex or extensive, but you need to have something for potential clients to see, and having a simple, professional site lends credibility to your services. At the minimum, it should have your contact information and an overview of your services presented in a professional manner. If you have a little more time to devote to your web site, a portfolio page with examples of your work and a blog where you can highlight your professional expertise are great additions. Some of the popular blogging platforms are a good choice to act as a content management system for your web site, and most of them can be used with no programming or design work required. I also recommend having your professional web site at the same domain as your email, which should ideally be something like businessname.com or yourfullname.com.
3. Always use clear, concise, professional communications. The most important thing that you can do to have better communications is to carefully proofread every client email. I have a hard time taking someone seriously if their email is littered with mistakes. Your initial communications should be extremely professional with no SMS abbreviations, no smiley faces, no profanity and no other unprofessional language. You can start to relax some of these rules as you get more familiar with your clients. You should also remember that people are busy, so concise and clear communications with clients are important. I always include a descriptive subject line and try to keep my emails as short as possible. Another tip is to put any really critical information in the first couple of lines, along with any requests that you are making of the client. The harsh reality is that if your email is long, most people will start skimming after they get the gist, and any critical information that is buried near the end is more likely to be missed.
4. Dress like a professional. When working from home, pajamas and sweatpants are perfectly acceptable, but when you are meeting with new clients, you need to look like a professional. The definition of professional varies depending on the location and industry; for example, a meeting at a Silicon Valley startup is going to be less formal than a meeting at a financial institution in New York or London. Oregon, where I am based, tends to be much more informal, so I can easily get away with khakis and a nice shirt in most situations. When in doubt, err on the side of being slightly over-dressed rather than appearing under-dressed. Will’s recent post has more tips for surviving client site visits.
5. Use social media wisely. Take a few minutes to look at what your client sees if they search for you on Twitter, forums or other social web sites. Is your client going to see a professional that they can respect? I’m not suggesting that every post be professional. I spend quite a bit of time talking about interesting goings-on in Portland, food and other non-work topics, and I encourage you to show your full range of personality. However, if you are bashing your clients, are often negative or complaining, or are engaging in questionable activities, this can reflect on your professionalism as a freelancer. This is one of those gray areas where you have to balance how you want to behave online with how you want people to see you in your professional career.

These are my top five tips for making a good first impression as a freelancer. What are your tips for making a professional impression, or what are your pet peeves for unprofessional first impressions?

Photo by Flickr user yngrich, used under Creative Commons.

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While video production may involve location-specific elements where you need to go out to capture visuals and sounds, you can still make it a career where you can work anywhere you want.

Is video production the career for you?

Video Production Careers

In video production, some stick to just one task, while others do several things, or even do all the jobs to take a video from start to finish. Here are a few video-related jobs:

Producer: Video businesses vary in the area of production based on the type of videos they create and the topics they cover. Producers may specialize in one or several different types of video. The title “producer” has many meanings, but a producer often oversees the entire video production process.

Post-production: Folks in post-production work with existing video to enhance it, edit it and add to it. These tasks could involve animation, audio, voice-overs, DVD menus, music and graphics.

Editor: Editors compile audio and video to create the final product that meets project requirements. “The editor is much like a cook. We take raw ingredients and combine them artfully into a video that meets the clients’ goals,” says Ed McNichol of EDcetera.

How to Qualify

Video producers and editors are a diverse lot when it comes to how they first entered the video business and gained experience. Tim Clark started on Ken Burns’ documentaries in the editing room. Jack Dever, director of post production at PACSAT,  literally started on the bottom floor by sweeping in a studio before and after shoots. After that, he climbed to assistant video editor, editor, producer, director and supervisor. Many folks in video started at the bottom and worked into jobs in the field.

Kim Brame, executive producer with creative illusions Productions, took every job available to her after college to build a network and learn the craft. Her coworkers have degrees and training in audio engineering, programming, graphic design and animation.

Steve Mann, owner of MannMade Digital Video, lost his job in the dot-com bust. “Over 50 and no higher degree made me virtually invisible in the collapsed high-tech job market. Since my passion was always photography and more recently videography, doing what I enjoy seemed like the best career move,” Mann says.

Vicky Poole didn’t start at the bottom. Rather, she started in a different job as a secretary working for a post-production company. Her boss gave her opportunities to work with equipment and on smaller projects.

A handful of folks say they received a college degree in mass communications, media, film production or something similar. But these same people say that job experience is what really matters. In terms of gaining skills, many say they just learned how to use the software and practice often. No matter where you are in your video career, everyone has benefited from attending seminars and trade shows. Jeff Davis of JD Savage Productions says, “Do what you love, and never stop learning new stuff.”

“There is a balance of technical aptitude and creativity,” says Tom Hinchey of HincheyStudios LLC. Not only do video producers need to know the technical side of things, but also how to create the message the video must communicate.

A person who knows how to use all the video production equipment and tools doesn’t always have the knowledge and skills to be a full-fledged video producer. “You need to first know how to be a storyteller. This is one of the key components that people don’t understand with video,” says David Spark of Spark Media Solutions.

Video Production Tools

Video production involves a long list of tools. After all, you can’t capture sound and visuals without cameras and microsphones, or put all the footage together to tell a good story without apps.

The following popular tools are a smattering of what the professionals use: Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, HD cameras (especially Sony and Canon), AVID, Adobe Creative Suite, Affect Effects and Premiere. Some also use mics, lighting, DVD authoring and scripting tools. Of course, many use a Mac computer to do their work. They often post their videos on web-based video services like YouTube and Vimeo.

Find Clients

Word-of-mouth and happy current clients rule the roost as the best way to get business. Networking both in person and on social network sites works well. Some do formal marketing or post on craigslist. Video producers create a portfolio for their web sites. “Gone are the days of DVD reels. If a client wants instant access to your portfolio, your website can help you lock in that client instantly,” says Kico Velarde.

Crystal Pyramid Productions’ Patty Mooney not only uses a web site and networks, but also finds clients through the Chamber of Commerce, search engine optimization (SEO) and advertising in online and print directories. Another way to break in the field is to volunteer to get experience and build your portfolio.

Thomas Hoebbel took the old fashioned approach by connecting with organizations that could benefit from his work, and they hired him. Some people like Clint Till of Parc Entertainment, Inc. hand out demo reels on DVD and make cold calls.

Would you consider a video production career?

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• In the 2006–07 academic year, 66 percent of the 4,160 accredited US colleges offered college-level distance education courses. (Source: National Center for Education Statistics)
• In fall 2007, 22 percent of U.S. college students took at least one web-based class. (Source: Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States, 2008 from the Sloan Consortium)

Would you believe I have a B.A. in education? Though not a teacher by profession, I’m passionate about education. Perhaps, that’s why I’m a writer — to educate people. Being deaf, I knew I never wanted to teach in a classroom, but I’ve worked with online classes at a major university’s M.S. program. Distance education opens doors for many of us. You can develop expertise in any subject you want.

Online education might make teaching a possible career for those who wouldn’t consider working in a classroom. Is teaching the career for you, or perhaps something you can do on the side?

Types of Teaching Careers

Online programs don’t stop at postsecondary education. School districts offer online classes so students can make up failed classes, get ahead or take extra classes. Professional organizations, specialized schools and programs, community colleges and experts offer non-credit courses for people looking to learn new skills in their professions or hobbies.

I took a handful of online classes through my city’s community college affiliation with Education To Go. The price was right and it helped me conquer QuickBooks and do more with Photoshop.

As an example of the diversity of online learning options and opportunities for teaching posts available, here are some options for writing courses.

• Degree programs: Thomas Edison State College offers a B.A. in Journalism, all done online. Texas Tech has an M.A in Technical Communication.
• College-affiliated resources: Education To Go includes writing courses in its catalog.
• Experts: Professionals with teaching experience, like Christina Katz, conduct email classes. While you can go off and create your own courses to teach like Katz does, you still need to do marketing and earn credibility to encourage people to sign up with you when you’re not affiliated with a college or known organization.
• Online publications and resources: AbsoluteWrite, a popular resource for writers, gives instructors a space to teach their classes. While AbsoluteWrite and its staff don’t teach the classes, it allows credible professionals to affiliate themselves with the respected AbsoluteWrite name.
• High schools: My local independent school district offers English classes in its eSchool.

How to Qualify

For college programs, you typically need at least a Master’s degree and others require a PhD. Danielle McIntosh, White River Online teacher, teaches at a local district’s public online high school that serves students all over Washington State. Before working there, she had 10 years of teaching special education. “Boise State University offers a certificate program for online teaching. However, almost everything has been on-the-job training in my situation,” McIntosh says.

Author Christina Katz believes that credibility is the first qualification to becoming a teacher. “Credibility can come from degrees, experience, word-of-mouth and having been published on your topic of expertise. When it comes to credibility, I don’t think it comes from any one thing but the accumulation of many things — especially what others say about you,” she says.

Teaching Tools

Each online program has a preference as to what application or system it uses as the base for its courses. Some use a third party solution while others create their own system.

Tools of the trade include email, headsets for online lectures/webinars, Microsoft Word and Excel for reviewing student work and tracking grades. Depending on the course type you teach, you may need specific tools or applications. One course I worked with used a web-based simulator where students entered decisions and could see the results of their actions. Danielle McIntosh uses Moodle as well as APEX and PLATOWeb for content.

Find Opportunities

Margaret Garcia recommends looking for posts through the web sites of online colleges or programs. She points out that some schools have stringent hiring requirements while others don’t. “Most people break into online teaching through University of Phoenix — they have an easier hiring process and though they don’t pay well, they are willing to give a break to a possible good teacher. Cappella University, on the other hand, is one of the hardest,” Garcia says. She works with as many as five different online universities including National University and Kaplan University.

In “Get Known before the Book Deal,” Christina Katz recommends starting locally in the classroom with live students to gain experience before teaching online. She suggests looking into organizations, conferences, local meetings and events and adult education centers. While this takes away the web working aspect, it’s just for a short time with places near you. Not only research the sites of those offering online classes, but also remember to network and seek out other teachers who might have insight to offer and decision-makers behind the programs.

Would you consider a career in education?

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The science of marketing involves market research, segmenting the market and building and executing a marketing plan that fulfills business goals.

People in public relations (PR), on the other hand, work to get exposure for the brand, the organization and its people in the media. Although the lines blur between the two careers, they are distinct roles.

Is marketing or PR the web working career for you?

Types of Marketing and PR Careers

Not all marketing and PR jobs involve the same roles and responsibilities. Marketing and PR covers many careers, ranging from advertising manager, to media coordinator and brand manager, to social media manager. Here are some high-level job descriptions:

Marketing: Create, plan and deliver the company’s communications program to promote the company, its brand, its products and its services.

PR and Media Relations: PR and media relations professionals target online and offline media to promote their clients’ business or expertise, with the goal of seeing their name, company or product mentioned. Successful workers build relationships with the media, event coordinators and other organizations for partnering and sponsoring activities as well as working to get the company and its people into stories.

Researcher: The researcher investigates the client’s target market, industry and business.

How to Qualify

Like many other web working jobs, many marketers learned their trade in past jobs. Matt Scherer, president of Scherer Communications, spent 20 years in the Air Force working in public affairs, with ten of them as an editor. He also received a second degree in Marketing before founding his firm. “When I went back to college, I worked part-time as a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News and as a producer for KSAT 12. Those jobs helped me to hone my skills and understand how to pitch to the media,” says Scherer.

Before diving into marketing, web marketer Lorrie Thomas worked for an online advertising network. “I learned by doing. I had no choice: sink or swim. I rolled up my sleeves, ate my humble pie, failed a lot and only asked for help after I had tried as hard as I could first,” Thomas says.

Marketing and PR Tools

Many marketers and PR personnel say they rely on social media tools including Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs, along with their cell phones. Like most web workers, their toolbox holds word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and finance applications.

Online meeting applications provide value for meeting with clients and conducting presentations and webinars. Marketers also use email newsletter services.

Find Clients

Referrals and happy customers are how most marketers and PR professionals land gigs. Scherer says that his San Antonio Express-News blog also helped. Hank Stroll of InternetVIZ, a custom business-to-business newsletter publishing company, saw a need among technology companies that struggled to share their value with clients and prospects. His company created a prototype email newsletter, which grew their business from 250 business executives to over 400,000 readers. He has a call to action offering a free prototype, which brings prospects into his sales cycle. In Lorrie Thomas’ case, she wants to fill seats in her virtual classroom. “Most students confess to checking out my web sites before they sign up for my class because they want to see if I know my stuff first!”

Would you consider a marketing or PR career?

Photo credit: Sophie

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Is tech support or customer service the web working career for you?

Types of Tech Support and Customer Service Careers

Tech support and customer service jobs don’t just involve working directly with customers using a product or service. Brian Roberts of nesaru consulting, for example, acts as the focal point for communications between his clients and their U.S. customers, service centers, sales groups, distributors.

Here are three general careers in tech support and customer service:

Customer service: Provides support for products and services including set up, repair, training, distribution and other logistics.

Tech support: Solves technical problems, remove malware, and provide help with applications. Jobs may involve specializing in several areas, depending on the business and its products or services.

Trainer: Show users how to use business applications. Training may be included in the responsibilities of someone working in tech support or customer service. In addition to offering tech support to clients, tech “go to” guy and WebWorkerDaily writer Scott Blitstein conducts training.

How to Qualify

Tech support pros often begin learning the job by taking care of their own computer problems and becoming the “go to” resource for family and friends. “I have been a technology innovator for almost 30 years. I love learning about new technology; it was fun to roll up my sleeves and learn about VoIP long before it was easy (like 10 years ago),” says F. Andy Seidl, president and co-founder of MyST Technology Partners, Inc.

In his role as founder and president of eSeMBe Technical Services, Scott Blitstein provides technical support services for clients. His experience comes from a combination of formal training, self-teaching and collaborating. “I do a lot of reading and internal testing to stay up to date and comfortable with current technology,” he says.

These jobs often involve interfacing directly with customers, so people skills matter. Managers often say they’d rather hire those with people skills first than those with tech support knowledge, because you can’t teach people skills. Another important trait is patience, as customers often feel frustrated or aggravated and take it out on the first representative they speak with from the company. Representatives not only deal with the physical problem of a product or service, but also the customer.

Tech Support and Customer Service Tools

People in this career rely on specific applications that help them review and identify problems. For example, computer tech support workers use remote control software such as LogMeIn, CrossLoop and NTRsupport Pro to access a customer’s PC to see and fix problems. Of course, a fast Internet connection is a must and headset comes in handy so you can free your hands for heavy-duty keyboarding and mousing. Customer support staff often also rely on a support ticketing app.

They also use many of the common web worker tools: Skype, instant messaging, Basecamp or other project management application and online meeting tools like GoToMeeting.

Find Clients

Word-of-mouth marketing continues to be the leader for lead generation in these fields. F. Andy Seidl finds his company’s primary sources for leads come from the company web site, and via resellers and value-added resellers (VARs).

Cold calling still works, as Brian Roberts attests, and so does face-to-face marketing. “We network a lot in international trade events to identify potential clients and have developed a community of companies and people with complementary skills and services we can offer to our clients,” says Roberts.

Would you consider a tech support or customer service career?

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Graphic Design Career

It’s important to highlight the distinction between web design and graphic design. Those who do graphic design concentrate mostly on print work. They create designs for annual reports, advertisements, brochures, billboards, logos and design identity packages complete with letterhead, envelopes and business cards.

How to Qualify

Unlike many web designers, graphic designers tend to have some formal design education. Lea Ann Stundins worked as a creative director for several agencies before switching to self-employment with her business, Wish List Creative. “The best advice I would offer young people trying to break into design is: go to an art school that has a good reputation according to your ideal design firm/agency. (Ask them, they’ll tell you.) Get an internship at a ‘big name’ agency or design firm. Do anything you have to in order to get that name on your resume. Then, with that school name and that agency name — and a good portfolio, of course — you should be golden,” says Stundins.

Cynthia Courtney, designer and creator of cool stuff, took jobs working with designers she respected so she could learn from them. Although Courtney has a degree in communications design with a minor in illustration, she continues her education by taking courses in Photoshop, business and marketing. “Anyone can use a computer and do a layout with fancy type. Doing it well by creating a piece that solves a client’s problem and can be printed is a whole different ballgame,” says Courtney.

Designer Tools

Stundins lists the important things in her designer toolbox. “My brain mostly. My fingers. A pencil. Paper. Finally, a computer,” she says. Photoshop leads the pack as the “go to” graphic design tool for photo retouching, InDesign is used for page layout, with Illustrator being the choice for logo creation and line art.

Like Stundins, many rely on old-fashioned pencil-and-paper to work through ideas before heading to their Macs turn ideas into pixels. Designers use many ancillary tools such as Acrobat, Stuffit, file transfer protocol (FTP) tools, and file-sharing sites like YouSendIt to send work to clients.

Find Clients

Like many web working careers, marketing remains important. However, most graphic designers find their gigs through word-of-mouth and networking.

Are you considering a career in graphic design?

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Ninety-nine percent of authors don’t make money on their book projects, 99 percent of publishers lose money and 1,500 books are published every day, reports Clint Greenleaf. With those stats, why does anyone consider a career as a writer or editor?

Because even with those stats, it is possible to make a good living. Especially now, as the growing number of online publications means there are many writing and editing opportunities that go beyond traditional books, newspaper and magazines.

Could you consider writing or editing as a career?

Types of Writing and Editing Careers

Book authors need no explanation. However, unless you’re Malcolm Gladwell, Nora Roberts or James Patterson, don’t expect to earn a comfortable living as a fiction author. I’m not trying to crush your dreams; just don’t give up your day job. There are other types of books that need writing, too: ebooks, nonfiction, textbooks, etc. If you write these kinds of books on a regular basis, you can earn a decent living.

Business writers produce white papers, case studies, newsletters, web sites, brochures, ads and business plans.

Technical writers develop product documentation, training materials and assembly instructions.

Web content writers require a different writing style because people read online content differently than they do print. Writers in this area need to think about search engine optimization, readability, organization and structure. Bloggers can make a healthy living or do it as a part-time job; success depends on the publication’s popularity, products for sale, ads and sponsorship.

Copywriters work to promote a product, person, business or idea by choosing the right words, slogans and phrases to compel people to take the desired action. Their writing appears in ads, brochures and other promotional publications.

Proofreaders look for typos, punctuation mistakes, and grammatical errors in copy. Proofreading generally happens right before publishing and after the editor has done his or her job. They generally don’t rewrite sentences and restructure material like copyeditors.

Copyeditors go deeper than proofreaders do in reviewing the finished copy for spelling, punctuation, grammar and word usage errors. They also pay attention to the content for clarity and rewrite and restructure the copy as needed. If the content includes graphics, charts and captions, they ensure the content matches the visuals and captions.

Editing includes commenting on, approving, revising and rejecting writers’ content. Aside from editing for grammar and content, they also ensure the articles follow the publications’ style guidelines.

How to Qualify

Write. Write. Write. Read. Read. Read. Read books and blogs on writing. Practice writing often. Everyone can improve, even good writers. I recoil when I read the papers I wrote in college because of the stiff and formal writing style. A good writer accepts all feedback and makes changes as needed. Those who fight about every word or phrase will have a harder time surviving as a writer.

Anne Toole, television drama and games writer, got her start in television writing when she worked on a series of TV shows as an assistant. When the TV series needed a writer, she was there. “You don’t need a degree, but writing skills, gained through talent, hard work, school or mentoring are essential,” says Toole.

College writing takes a wholly different approach than professional writing and web writing. Study the writing you want to do and practice that style. A career as a writer or editor doesn’t require a related college degree. If you’d like to spiff up your skills, take a writing class at the local community college or online. Join online writing groups and subscribe to email newsletters that cover writing like AbsoluteWrite, Power Writing and Christina Katz’ Writers on the Rise and Get Known Groove. At WebWorkerDaily, we have plenty of tips on freelancing, writing and editing.

Writing and Editing Tools

The bare minimum is a computer with a word processor, like Word, and an Internet connection for submitting your work. Script writers use Final Draft to write and format scripts. Writers and editors rely on Excel, Visio, OneNote and mind-mapping tools for research, brainstorming and other writing-related tasks. References like dictionaries and thesauruses come in handy. Writers and editors also use applications for invoicing, time tracking and taxes. Those determined to work with a publication should grab a copy of “Writer’s Market.”

I could never live without my dual monitor setup; it really helps my productivity. I often have an article draft on one screen and the Internet or other app for referencing on the other.

Find Clients

Jennifer Escalona finds clients online. “When I blind query, I look on freelance job sites like craigslist, FreelanceJobOpenings, Indeed.com and many, many more. I ask for a testimonial and mention that I appreciate referrals. I also network with other freelancer writers, who often have great job leads,” says Escalona.

Many writers say they started landing clients on bidding sites like eLance, though others have complained of lowballing, or quoting low estimates. Keep in mind, too, that writers and editors value word-of-mouth marketing and social networking. Until you have built your portfolio, consider writing unpaid articles for a nonprofit, charity or blog that covers a topic of interest to you.

Are you considering a career in writing or editing?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks