Seeking freelancers, web work, creative activisty people of AWESOME
Tiara The Merch Girl
Sarah, an awesome grrrl herself from San Francisco, has a number of
opportunities for freelancers and those seeking freelance work. Check
out her email below (you don't have to be based in the US to take
advantage of any of these) and if they suit you, get in touch!
Tiara
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sarah Dopp <sa...@sarahdopp.com>
Date: 28 October 2010 09:37
Subject: Dopp Brain: the secret decoder ring at the bottom of this cereal box.
To: sarahdo...@googlegroups.com
Hello, beautiful posse of creative collaboration! My, you're looking
sharp today.
It's the end of October. Barely seems possible, doesn't it? I
launched my new baby, http://CultureConductor.com in late July, and
have been running -- freakishly wild-eyed -- on a surreal,
shape-shifting, squeaky gerbil wheel of a To Do list since then. But
I think I've got my feet mostly back on the ground now, and have a LOT
to talk with you about. Ready?
Yep! BRING IT!
1. The State of the Culture Conductor Address
2. Get Published + Get Free Community Help = We Win at the Internet!
3. Need help? Need work? It's time to play.... FREELANCER ROULETTE!
4. People I Can Make Really Happy
5. Oh hey... is anyone here running a community space on Facebook?
6. The secret prize for making it to the end of this long email.
1) The State of the Culture Conductor Address
We! Did it! The baby is ALIVE! And talking! And walking! WAHOOOOO!!!!
The last time you saw me, I was on my knees begging for editing help.
I had just launched a new publication and was hiding under a rock,
panicking at the reality of having to gather, write, edit, and publish
regular content, every day for the rest of my life FOREVER. You saved
my butt. You brought me a whole bunch of sane, skilled publication
editors who wanted to help. Tarrant Figlio is the one who joined the
team -- a long-time blogger and editor, and the former community
manager of Web MD.
And with her help, I'm now cranking out weekly polished articles,
hosting a community links feed, and wrangling other kinds of content
in the door. It's like being married, only better.
Which means -- ladies, gentlemen, and all the rest of us -- that
content production at http://CultureConductor.com , one of the few
spots on the web dedicated to online community management practices,
is officially stable. And it's filling up with some utterly useful
information.
Recent juicy bits include:
- A better method for collecting votes from your mailing list
- Where to build your community?: An overview of your software options.
- How to write your blog comment policy
- Dopp's guidelines for managing volunteers
And in celebration of this new stability, we also finally kicked off
The Conductor Cafe, a discussion group for sharing resources about
online community management. Come sign up if this sounds like your
scene! http://cultureconductor.com/the-conductor-cafe/
2) Get Published + Get Free Community Help = We Win at the Internet!
After the site launched, a handful of community managers approached me
for help working out problems they're having in their communities.
Most of them are people I consider peers -- longtime bloggers who
ended up as community stewards, just by being interesting and
supportive. They just wanted another brain-like-theirs on board to
help solve a problem.
In one of these cases -- with Ariel Meadow Stallings of Offbeat Bride
-- we agreed to a work trade. One hour of consulting time from me
equaled one article for Culture Conductor from her. It was a bit of an
experiment, but it worked out perfectly. I asked her to describe the
consulting experience so I could share it with you, and here's what
she said:
"When I found myself panicking in the face an online community
migration project that had started to eat resources and time, I turned
to Sarah for guidance. She came to the rescue, helping me untangle my
thoughts, assess my budget, and manage my priorities. With her
guidance, I was able to gain new and crucially important perspectives
on my project -- ultimately, shifting my strategy in a way that saved
me thousands of dollars. As truly gifted consultant, Sarah never once
told me what to do: she supported me as I came to my own decisions.
Thanks to just five hours of Sarah's time, a project that had
stretched on for six months was wrapped up in less than six weeks."
You can see the posts we're running from Ariel here:
http://cultureconductor.com/author/ariel/
(And I feel incredibly honored to be publishing them. She's a great
writer with a boatload of experience. It's just... wow.)
All of this worked out so extraordinarily well that I'd like to make
it a Thing. Here's how to play:
Is this you?
You’re a skilled blogger or an otherwise experienced writer.
You have a bunch of experience building or managing community dynamics online.
You run a community, money’s tight, and you’re stuck on an issue
that’s bugging you. Maybe it's technical, maybe it's social, maybe
it's something totally weird. You could really use a few hours of
discussion, digging, and advising help to unpack it... except that the
idea of hiring someone just adds to your stress.
How about I trade some consulting hours in exchange for you writing a
few articles for Culture Conductor? Sound like a good idea? Please get
in touch with me (sa...@sarahdopp.com), and I'll let you know when I'm
available.
For those who don't know me well, there's an overview of my skills and
experience here: http://www.sarahdopp.com/about.php
Pass it on!
3) Need help? Need work? It's time to play... FREELANCER ROULETTE!!
Okay, maybe this isn't quite as random as roulette, but I do think
it's time we mixed things up a bit around here.
Here's the deal: I'm shifting from "website builder" to "community
builder". This means I have six years worth of clients, leads, and
reputation built up that I want to reorganize and/or redirect. It
would help me out HUGELY if a bunch smart, talented, client-savvy
freelancers stepped forward and said, "Hey! We want that work!"
So let's do that right now. Tell me about your work. Forward this
email to the kick-ass freelancer or consulting firm you know that
would like more work right now. The Golden Rule of Internet Karma
applies: only send over people you trust and adore.
IF YOU WANT CLIENTS RIGHT NOW....
Send an email to Queen Emma (my organization assistant of sanity) and
I, telling us everything we need to know in order to match you to the
right clients.
Address it to: sa...@sarahdopp.com, em...@sarahdopp.com
Keep in mind that most of the people I work with on websites fall into
the following categories:
- Development
- Design
- Content
- Strategy
...so that's how I'm keeping track of ya'll. Tell me which list you
belong on, or if you're definitely an Other, and what kind of Other
that might be.
Then tell me the juicy bits:
- What are your skills?
- What are your interests?
- Who are your ideal clients?
- How are you pricing your work right now?
- What have you worked on?
- How experienced are you as a freelancer/contractor/consultant?
(e.g., handling contracts, estimates, invoicing, subcontractors,
project management, client diplomacy, etc)
I need a mix of people who span the gamut. Low rates or high rates;
super experienced or just figuring things out. Send me all of them
(as long as they're adored and trusted. those are the only
requirements).
(Tip: Don't tell me you can do 'anything'. For one thing, I won't
believe you. For another, I won't think of you when an opportunity
pops up. Being everything is not memorable.)
I'm especially interested in folks who...
- kick ass in Wordpress, Drupal, Ning, or Joomla (high tech
developers, capable template hackers, and smart content managers all
needed)
- know their way around HTML and CSS extremely well, and can fake
their way around PHP in a template.
- kick ass at social media marketing
- care a lot about feminism, sexuality politics, or LGBT /
gender-variance issues, and are happy to charge lower rates for good
causes in those areas.
- can build a custom CMS from scratch
- can manage a contract for a full custom website, probably overseeing
subcontractors
- love tinkering and fixing stuff
- love teaching clients how to be better at the internet
- know their way around community management and moderation
But I want to hear from everyone else, too.
~~~~~~~
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! (oh god. it's never all.)
Whenever I ask people to send me freelancers, I usually get more than
I can hand work to. And they're usually all amazing. So let's just
broaden the game, and get more work leads into the mix, just for
kicks. And because I know you need a hand.
Do you need help with ANYTHING relating to the internet, social media,
or websites? ANYTHING! Go dig it up! What's that thing that's been
bugging you? Can you pay for it, or offer a valuable trade? You
should tell me about it right now, because your perfect freelancer
probably just emailed me, asking where their perfect client is, and I
want to introduce you guys.
So! IF YOU NEED WEB HELP RIGHT NOW....
Send an email to Queen Emma (my organization assistant of sanity) and
I, telling us everything we need to know in order to match you to the
right consultant.
Address it to: sa...@sarahdopp.com, em...@sarahdopp.com
And give us as much detail as possible. What you need, who you think
would be ideal, what you can offer in compensation, and how urgently
you need it done.
And we'll see what we can do. :)
4) People I Can Make Really Happy
This all brings up the next question: what kind of work am I looking
for now? I'm looking for clients that I can make really happy.
For where I'm at right now, those clients probably fall into these two
categories:
1) Companies and Nonprofits
- They're building community momentum around their products and causes
online, but they feel like their work is getting stuck or stale (or
they don't know how to start), and they want some help.
- They want to bring in a fresh mind to revitalize the project for at
least a few weeks (i.e., at least 60 hours).
2) Consulting Firms
- They're already taking care of the web and social media needs of
companies and nonprofits
- They want a smart, experienced, multi-skilled consultant to bring
onto their team when their workload is high, or when they need a
community specialist
A good overview of my skills and experience is here:
http://sarahdopp.com/about.php
If you know the person I should be talking to for my next round of
work, please introduce us. I will give you a cookie. A really, really
yummy one. The best ever. And a kiss. The platonic kind. Probably.
Thanks!
5) Oh hey... is anyone around here running a community space on Facebook?
... not a quiet fan page that just sits there and collects names, but
an actual, live, functioning community discussion area? I'm writing
an article for Culture Conductor about Facebook communities, and I'd
love to ask you some questions. Email me: sa...@sarahdopp.com
(If you know someone who fits this, please introduce us. Thanks!)
6) The Secret Prize for making it to the end of this long email.
You DID IT! You got to the VERY END of my VERY LONG email to you! Or
maybe you just saw this bullet point at the top and scrolled to the
bottom. Either way, you've totally earned a prize. Here's some love:
A secret decoder badge, just for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xDvVcTr4NI
The zombie-themed music video for "Internet Killed the Video Star":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx5tSmOY_iM
(you might also like this article:
http://social-creature.com/how-the-internet-killed-the-rock-star-not-the-way-you-think
)
Cthulhu's impression of that Old Spice commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc90UhV6hJA
A re-creation of the computer app that kept me endlessly amused in
1998: http://www.axlrosen.net/rainbox/rainbox-large.html
And... that's it! Thanks for playing! I hope the sky is blue wherever
it is that you're looking up from.
Love you,
Sarah
--
Sarah Dopp
site: http://sarahdopp.com / blog: http://doppjuice.com /
tweet: http://twitter.com/sarahdopp
art: http://genderfork.com / show: http://queeropenmic.com /
love: http://cultureconductor.com
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the mailing
list, "Sarah Dopp's Brain". Thank you for your interest and support!
You can unsubscribe any time and my feelings won't be hurt. Just send
an email to sarahdoppsbra...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/sarahdoppsbrain?hl=en