People calling me The Famous Ashley Grant has become quite a fun joke for me over the past few months and the humor behind it is why I got the domain www.thefamousashleygrant.com in the first place. After being "dubbed" this goofy name I started using it as a way to introduce myself since it made me laugh and seemed to make others laugh as well.
It wasn't until I started going to amazing seminars like Recipe for Success and Spice Up Your Brand that I realized being The Famous Ashley Grant is becoming my brand. My goal is to be a famous national writer and photographer and in order to do that I have to become my brand and become The Famous Ashley Grant.
So what does that mean exactly? How do I become The Famous Ashley Grant? I need to put myself out there more. I need to start attending every event I can to get my face in peoples' minds. I need to have better business cards and pass them out as often as possible. I need to host events and contests and things of that nature for people to know who I am. I need to amp up my facebooking and my twittering and really get into the groove of being The Famous Ashley Grant.
I plan on doing a new photo shoot with new headshots, I will be doing Youtube videos, making more appearances at events, I'll write more articles, I'll take more pictures and I will blog a lot more as well. I look forward to bumping into more people than ever before and hopefully helping other people with their careers while I boost and expand mine.
Love always,
The Famous Ashley Grant
This is a collection of the writing and photography of Ashley Grant with a few bits and pieces of tales of my freelance life sprinkled in. Enjoy!
Showing posts with label making money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label making money. Show all posts
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
We Have No Budget
As a freelancer a common response I am getting to requests for work is:
"I'm sorry we don't have a budget to pay anyone right now. If you'd like you can still publish and get a clip. We have blah blah blah customers who read our publication and the exposure you will get for having your article in Blah Blah magazine will be payment enough"
Here is my response to that:
Hell no but thanks for the offer!!!
When you give away your work for free you are inviting the magazine to do a few things:
1. They might expect it all the time and thus you will never see a dime from them.
Example, you write the piece and after it's published you ask for a paid piece. The response of the magazine will most likely be something like, "We still don't have a budget and since you wrote for free last time, I'm sure you wouldn't mind doing it again" Sure they won't put it this bluntly...but you get the idea.
2. They might tell other people you are willing to work for free.
Like it or not, magazine publishers that don't hate each other talk. If the subject of how to get free content in their publication were to come up, it is possible that your name will too and you could get the dreaded call of, "Hi, I heard you wrote a free piece for Blah Blah magazine and I was wondering if you would like to do the same for us. We can offer more exposure and I'm sure it will benefit you."
Well- if you have more customers, why can't you pay? If you have more exposure, isn't it safe to assume that you have more advertisers and thus less excuse to not be able to pay?!?
3. They might expect other writers to do it for free.
More and more people want to be writers and there is an excitement that comes with having your name in a publication. Letting a magazine have your work for free makes them think that it is okay to ask others to work for free.
When is it okay to work for free?
If you are an intern working towards a degree. I still find unpaid internships unfair, but they can lead to work for pay.
You should be able to get all the clips you need for a respectable portfolio during your internship and after it has ended command payment for every piece you do after that.
The only other time I think it is acceptable to work for free is if it is for charity. At that point it is not work, it is volunteering for a cause you believe in.
What to do when someone asks you to work for free?
Here you have some options!
You could say no and never call them again.
Be a grown up and respectfully decline and mention that you would like to be remembered when the budget allows for paid writers.
Suggest alternative payment such as trade. Many publications I have encountered receive gift certificates for dining, a day at the salon, shopping or travel. If they insist they can't afford to pay you, ask for some trade that will be the equivalent to your writing rate. Beware of this though if you ever expect to get money out of them in the future!!!
"I'm sorry we don't have a budget to pay anyone right now. If you'd like you can still publish and get a clip. We have blah blah blah customers who read our publication and the exposure you will get for having your article in Blah Blah magazine will be payment enough"
Here is my response to that:
Hell no but thanks for the offer!!!
When you give away your work for free you are inviting the magazine to do a few things:
1. They might expect it all the time and thus you will never see a dime from them.
Example, you write the piece and after it's published you ask for a paid piece. The response of the magazine will most likely be something like, "We still don't have a budget and since you wrote for free last time, I'm sure you wouldn't mind doing it again" Sure they won't put it this bluntly...but you get the idea.
2. They might tell other people you are willing to work for free.
Like it or not, magazine publishers that don't hate each other talk. If the subject of how to get free content in their publication were to come up, it is possible that your name will too and you could get the dreaded call of, "Hi, I heard you wrote a free piece for Blah Blah magazine and I was wondering if you would like to do the same for us. We can offer more exposure and I'm sure it will benefit you."
Well- if you have more customers, why can't you pay? If you have more exposure, isn't it safe to assume that you have more advertisers and thus less excuse to not be able to pay?!?
3. They might expect other writers to do it for free.
More and more people want to be writers and there is an excitement that comes with having your name in a publication. Letting a magazine have your work for free makes them think that it is okay to ask others to work for free.
When is it okay to work for free?
If you are an intern working towards a degree. I still find unpaid internships unfair, but they can lead to work for pay.
You should be able to get all the clips you need for a respectable portfolio during your internship and after it has ended command payment for every piece you do after that.
The only other time I think it is acceptable to work for free is if it is for charity. At that point it is not work, it is volunteering for a cause you believe in.
What to do when someone asks you to work for free?
Here you have some options!
You could say no and never call them again.
Be a grown up and respectfully decline and mention that you would like to be remembered when the budget allows for paid writers.
Suggest alternative payment such as trade. Many publications I have encountered receive gift certificates for dining, a day at the salon, shopping or travel. If they insist they can't afford to pay you, ask for some trade that will be the equivalent to your writing rate. Beware of this though if you ever expect to get money out of them in the future!!!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Glass Half Full
As per usual I'm reflecting on the day since it is late at night and kicking myself for all the things I set out to do and then didn't do.
Here's what I've realized today. When you wake up in a pissy mood, it's easy to stay in a pissy mood. I let myself believe that the day was already ruined because of my mood and thus ruined my entire day because I didn't kick it in the ass upon realization.
What I could have done was gone for a jog, written an article, something proactive! Hmmm...reminds me of a post I read at The Crooked Table about fifteen minutes ago by the fabulous Robert Yaniz Jr.
I actually did accomplish a few things today though. I went grocery shopping, threw out some crap I don't need and began to see the light at the end of the tunnel of disorganization and lack of motivation.
Early this morning I sent off sets of galleries that were going to be published today. I sent off an invoice that has been needing to be sent for a few weeks. I also finished burning 9 CDs worth of images tonight that should have been done a couple of days ago.
Okay, I have huge dreams, but the thing I have to keep in mind is that it is progress to be taking baby steps. I have held onto my dreams for more than 4 years and they are not just going to come true over night. The fact that I did do a few things even though I didn't accomplish everything I had planned to do today is a step in the right direction.
On the docket for tomorrow?
I will be performing as Bubbles the Clown at AMC Regency 24 in Brandon and after that I have a long list of plans towards my dreams and career. I would love to post tomorrow night that I checked off every single thing on my list, but rather than beat myself up for missions unaccomplished, I have decided I will instead praise my self for things I do get done.
Hopefully in praising myself for the stuff that does get done I will encourage myself to continue on and eventually my dreams will come true and then I'll have a chance to come up with new dreams.
What do you do when you don't accomplish the tasks on your to-do list? If you beat yourself up, take a moment and think about the things you did do!!! Positive reinforcement will go a lot further than feeling like a failure.
This week my personal mission since I was not very nice to Monday is to look at the glass half-full.
IMAGE CREDIT CLICK HERE
Here's what I've realized today. When you wake up in a pissy mood, it's easy to stay in a pissy mood. I let myself believe that the day was already ruined because of my mood and thus ruined my entire day because I didn't kick it in the ass upon realization.
What I could have done was gone for a jog, written an article, something proactive! Hmmm...reminds me of a post I read at The Crooked Table about fifteen minutes ago by the fabulous Robert Yaniz Jr.
I actually did accomplish a few things today though. I went grocery shopping, threw out some crap I don't need and began to see the light at the end of the tunnel of disorganization and lack of motivation.
Early this morning I sent off sets of galleries that were going to be published today. I sent off an invoice that has been needing to be sent for a few weeks. I also finished burning 9 CDs worth of images tonight that should have been done a couple of days ago.
Okay, I have huge dreams, but the thing I have to keep in mind is that it is progress to be taking baby steps. I have held onto my dreams for more than 4 years and they are not just going to come true over night. The fact that I did do a few things even though I didn't accomplish everything I had planned to do today is a step in the right direction.
On the docket for tomorrow?
I will be performing as Bubbles the Clown at AMC Regency 24 in Brandon and after that I have a long list of plans towards my dreams and career. I would love to post tomorrow night that I checked off every single thing on my list, but rather than beat myself up for missions unaccomplished, I have decided I will instead praise my self for things I do get done.
Hopefully in praising myself for the stuff that does get done I will encourage myself to continue on and eventually my dreams will come true and then I'll have a chance to come up with new dreams.
What do you do when you don't accomplish the tasks on your to-do list? If you beat yourself up, take a moment and think about the things you did do!!! Positive reinforcement will go a lot further than feeling like a failure.
This week my personal mission since I was not very nice to Monday is to look at the glass half-full.
IMAGE CREDIT CLICK HERE
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Did I Really Only Make $50?!?
So, it just hit me that so far this week I have only made $50!!! Grrr! Grant it I have been sick and have not felt at all like writing, working or asking people for work, but still! This sucks! I basically just got a rude awakening about what happens when you work for yourself! The days you don't work, you don't make money!!!
There are no sick days, no paid vacations, nothing! Sure, there are lots of perks to working for myself, but it was hard to look at my books and see such a dismal amount of money to be made 3 days into the work week. Even more saddening is knowing that I won't make any money again until Saturday because me being ill has kept me from setting up appointments and all that jazz.
This post is not my way of trying to get people to feel bad for me, so let's clear that up right this second. Instead it is my way of showing you that although my job is the coolest ever, it does have its downsides. I'm not a millionaire [yet ;)] and I do have to work every single day that I hope to make money. That is until I come up with some amazing book that makes me royalties while I sleep, right? Hey! It could happen so don't hate.
Photo credit: http://www.momsneedtoknow.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/50.jpg
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