According to FreelanceSwitch, I’m Doing it All Wrong
I found FreelanceSwitch by way of Jonathan Snook over the weekend. I skimmed their recent posts then subscribed. Definitely looks like a resource I could use as I’m still not up to par with everything that goes along with freelancing. This morning as I’m sipping my coffee and seeing what’s new on the interslice, I saw a title on FreelanceSwitch that interested me – Taking Care of Your Internet Persona. Now, this isn’t the first article of this type I’ve read, but when I got to their list, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
- Don’t swear online.
- Don’t discuss politics online (especially if your views are controversial).
- Avoid personal blogs under your trading name – that’s what aliases are for!
- Definitely avoid having your personal blog on your business website unless it’s about business (trust me, your clients are not interested in many beers you had on the weekend).
- Don’t post any photos or videos of yourself that you wouldn’t want your mother to see (and if you have a really liberal mother then insert the name of someone more conservative into that sentence!).
- Avoid inflammatory comments (including jokes) about sex, race or religion.
- Don’t join any controversial websites under your name or your trading name.
If you’ve been a reader for a while, or even a month for that matter, you’d know why I found this funny. I’ve broken several of their key guidelines and yet, I find myself booked for months on end. Why is that? Not everyone lives their lives “by the book.” And I’m not just talking about myself here, but my clients as well. Over the past 2 years I’ve had the pleasure of working with dozens of amazing people that have come to me via my blog. I’ve been told countless times that people appreciate my openness and honesty and they feel they know me before we even start working on their project. And wouldn’t you know it – I’ve only had a single sour experience and if I were to tell you the profession of all of the people I’ve worked with, this person would probably be your least likely candidate for turning out to be a bag of shit.
Honestly, I’m not worried about making the wrong impression or turning off a potential client. This blog is who I am and what I’m about. I couldn’t care less if you think my work or work ethics are sub par because I swear or post pictures of my cats ballsack on Flickr. If that kind of thing would turn you off working with me, you’re probably not the kind of person I would want to deal with anyway.