Would like to Interview Freelancers for About.com

Hi! I'm About.com's Guide to the brand new Consulting / Freelance site!

I'm considering adding some interviews with or articles by freelancers to the site. I'd like to get some input from the freelancers on this forum.

1. If you're interested in being interviewed, to discuss how you got into freelancing, and what the business in general is like, as well as more specifics to your industry, please e-mail me at consulting.guide@about.com.

2. If you're interested in submitting an article for consideration to be published on the site, please send your article to consulting.guide@about.com. Before publishing anything, you'll need to agree to About.com's policies on publishing your work, and I'll send that to you before agreeing to publish anything, via e-mail. Basically, you keep the full copyright, and the right to sell the work later in online, print, or other media, but you grant About.com the right to display your article online indefinitely. Please note that we do not pay for submissions. It's a chance for you to gain some exposure, and you'll be given a byline at the top of the article. You're also welcome to include a brief author bio with a link to your own site.

3. I was approached by a very young freelancer in response to a similar post in the Graphic Design forum earlier today. He ended up giving me a great idea for a new article: "Freelancing Through the Ages" - or something similar. Basically, I'd like to talk to a few very young freelancers - under 21, and some freelancers in their golden years, that have been freelance professionals for the majority of their lives. If you fit into either of those categories, please e-mail me at consulting.guide@about.com, and we'll work your story into the article!

Thanks for your help!

I would like to help out. What kind of questions would you be asking?

guys/gals....here's a good chance for some free publicity. If I were you I would be queueing up for this.

Great idea. I'll maybe write you an article.

The kinds of questions I would be asking would predominantly be in relation to what made you decide to start a freelance career, what sorts of challenges you faced, how you went about getting started, some of your best advice for promoting your work and getting and keeping clients, and for design-related professionals, I would also be asking them about portfolios - as in what makes for a good one, and I would like to spotlight a piece possibly from theirs as an example to the readers, or at least link to an online portfolio.

The idea of the site is for me to give as much information as possible to freelancers and consultants. While I'm a freelance PR consultant, I can talk extensively about PR and Marketing, but I can't give the best advice about other specific fields. So interviews and contributor articles are important to the site in that regards.

As for article submissions, I think what I'll be doing is setting up a submission form right on the site, so you'll be able to agree to all of the terms I need to show you before you submit anything at all. Keeping things as automated as possible should make everyone's life a little bit easier. I'll try to do that today, or tomorrow if I don't get to it right away. I'll post the link to the submission form in this thread once it's ready!

Basically, I'd like to talk to a few very young freelancers - under 21, and some freelancers in their golden years, that have been freelance professionals for the majority of their lives.

jenn, i think you'll be able to find Jeff Fisher over at gdf as well. that's a designer that's been in the business for quite a bit of time. i don't think i fall in any category unfortunately. i am almost 30 yrs old and have been freelancing for about 7 years, which isn't exactly considered the majority of my life.

I will be contacting you shortly, regarding some articles

The age groups I mentioned above were only for one specific article that I'm interested in putting together.

If you're interested in a more standard interview, I would be happy to consider adding you to the list.

Just some quick points I did forget to mention to everyone before though ... for general interviews, I'm predominantly interested in interviewing people that have been in business for at least 5 years. Holding a degree is preferable, but not required. I would also be interested in talking to one or two people fresh out of college that have gone directly into consulting or freelance work, to hear about their reasons for the choice and how they went about it w/o a lot of experience under their belt. The other thing is that when you e-mail me in regards to any article, please be sure to send me a link to an online portfolio or your web site, so that I can verify that you in fact do freelance work. It's just a fact-checking issue before I publish anything, and it would be nice if you'd allow me to link to your portfolio in the article or elsewhere on the site as an example of what online portfolios can and should do.

Thanks!

Feel free to contact me for an interview.

I've been freelancing, (Web design), since 1997 and would be glad to offer an insight into my career.

I've recently, (last week), accepted a full-time position from a company I was freelancing for which now suits me better with a wife and young son, (17 months), to support.

You can check out my portfolio at www.yournewdesigner.com for a better insight into my work.

Since I'm working full-time now evenings/weekends would be the best time to do this.

For those who contacted me in this forum or via email in regards to submitting articles for the site, here's the link to the new submission form:

http://consulting.about.com/library/...s/blsubmit.htm

Please let me know if you have any questions about that.

As for interviews, I'll officially have interview forms up in a day or two, and I'll post that info here for everyone that contacted me with an interest in that.