Month: November 2008

Free Pro Blog Accounts for Journalists at TypePad

The folks over at TypePad are offering free pro blogging accounts to journalists and former journalists under the moniker of a “Journalist Bailout Program” (har, very funny fellas). The free plan –which typically costs $14.95 a month– offers technical support, hosting and use of TypePad’s blogging platform (we make heavy use of TypePad for OrlandoSentinel.com’s many blogs, and it’s pretty darn good). While I imagine this behooves TypePad since they’ll get good writers for their ad affiliate program, it’s still a fantastic deal for folks who can’t tell FTP and PHP from the IRS and M&Ms.

Here’s a chance to get a free blog account with technical support on a domain name that YOU own, as opposed to getting a blog on Blogger.com or WordPress.com.

[UPDATE: Six Apart’s Anil Dash’s thoughts on the blog offer]

[Free pro TypePad accounts for journos]

[Hat tip to William Beem for the link]

When is Working for Free OK?

The New York Times Shifting Careers blog has an article that should be of interest to writers and web designers who are thinking of going the freelance route. Michelle Goodman, author of ‘My So-Called Freelance Life,’ has written a guest post outlining how doing freelance work for free –in certain instances– can benefit your freelance career. She also describes how to spot the many junk offers.

Goodman is by no means an advocate of not being compensated for work. But with the slew of non-paid work-just-for-exposure-or-experience offers floating around out there, Goodman has identified what some of the good opportunities are:

You have no clients or portfolio. If you left your staff position without any customer testimonials or work samples, you may have to do a freebie or three for a worthy small business to prove to paying clients that you’ve done this before. Pick short-term projects (several days, tops) so you’re not stuck working pro bono until the next decade.

There’s a wealth of more excellent freelance advice at Goodman’s article.