Strangely, Monday still feels like Monday when I am “not working,” because dang it, looking for work is an odious job – practically as bad as working; I’m under-appreciated by prospective employers (ahem, ignored might be a better word) and I’m slightly stressed (running very low on play cash – we have enough for bills, but no new nothin’ for a while). But despite my grumping, I am making a tiny little bit of progress everyday, and also I am cooking, blogging, and reading lots – so how bad can my life be?
I’ve categorized my three main areas of focus for job hunting:
1. Looking for a real job -Â I continue to apply to positions through journalismjobs.com, but I find that I am under-experienced for magazine editorial positions or over-qualified for the entry level jobs. I am now pursuing more freelance style work and also applying to teach art history and/or English at the local community college.
2. Building my clip file or “tears” - in order to land any kind of writing work, I need proof I can write, beyond blogging and my master’s thesis, and yes, beyond the 20-page essay I wrote for an art catalog last year. To this end, I am polishing up a few posts and shopping them about to the Sun Runner, a local hi-desert mag, and Indie Bloggers, a writing blogsite. I have also embarked on a self-directed program to learn the style of writing art blurbs in the LA Weekly and OC Weekly. I’ve also instituted two LA art days a month: two full days completely dedicated to seeing art. That’s a start, although, after only seeing seven galleries this last Saturday, I can see that I may have to start going weekly.
3. Increasing hits on womantalk.org/Building depth versus breadth – What does this mean? It just gives me license to blog as much as I damn well please. No seriously, this blog has been the portal through which I have been reconciled with a victim of my childhood bullying and published for the first time, so it has proved to be a capricious, but effective method of self-promotion.
So, I am posting (almost) every day.
I am actively seeking out other blogs I want to read: Jurgen Nation and Not a Girl, Not Yet a Wino (both are founders of Indie Bloggers), a Thinking Stomach, and others, by following their blogroll links.
I am also actively commenting and involving myself when I find blogs that make me want to say something.
I am checking out one blog from Technorati’s top 100 blogs every day. These are the blogs with the most “authority.” Authority is determined by how many other blogs have linked to you in the last six-month period (multiple links from the same blog counts as one). A site like Engadget has 32,000 links to be at the #1 spot. Boing Boing is #2 with nearly 25,000 links. It’s one way of reading news in the blogosphere and also these blogs are already filtered since thousands of people find these particular blogs interesting enough to link to them. These are the blogs that are (mostly) making enough money to support their writers. My authority is very small, but growing. (I appreciate every link - thanks Jun, for linking to me yesterday!)
I’ve been reading blogging self-help sites, like problogger.net, where Darren Rowse gives all kinds of tips about how to make money blogging. And reading books, such as Rule the Web * by Mark Fraunfelder, the guy who founded Boing Boing (okay – truthfully, I haven’t started reading that yet – I’ve been walking by the table where Corrina‘s been reading it and asking her for encapsulated tips.)
I’ve been revamping my “About” page to include my CV and writing clips. And working on my sidebar to include different kinds of information. I’m building a “Eaten” page which will link to every recipe I’ve ever posted and to a map of my favorite restaurants.
I’ve joined Blogher and Indie Bloggers, and added the Blog Action Day badge. (Blog Action Day is October 15 and everybody is encouraged to post that day about saving the environment.)
And more, but now I’m embarrassed and self-conscious, because holy mother of blogging, do I do anything but sit in front of my computer all day?
I’m off to make chicken tacos for dinner.
*Thanks to John for giving me this book!
