My favorite cheesy aphorism is “variety is the spice of life.” I’ve always had multiple interests, and this has translated to multiple niches in my freelance writing and editing career. I write web/mobile/print copy for nonprofits, startups, and other companies; I write original articles and blog posts on arts, culture, and travel; and I copy edit and proofread everything from novels to research reports.

The way I see it, this variety doesn’t mean I’m stretched too thin. I’m developing an expertise in each area in a way that works best for me. This translates to better work for all clients because I stay engaged in the work, and all the other types of work on my plate have given me time to reenergize for the task at hand. Doing one thing—like proofreading history books or turning out witty copy for a hotel booking company—all day long, or for an entire week or month or 40-year career, would lead to sub-par work.

I’ve always been someone who gets bored doing the same thing day in, day out; even eating the same thing for breakfast for too many days in a row makes me start to feel nauseous by the end of the week. My favorite hobby during college was looking at the course catalog (Cornell’s was deliciously and dangerously thick) and dreaming about all of the classes I could, should, would take, and all the possible careers my choices might lead to. At various times I wanted to become a neuroscientist, an ombudsperson, a DJ, and a translator.

I used to lament that I’d never find a career or hobby to fully devote myself to because I was just blinded by too many choices, too many genuine interests. Barbara Sher, author of Refuse to Choose!, puts a positive spin on the problem and actually recommends the career of freelance writer to many of us so-called “Scanners.” It’s a good fit for me because it lets me use a mix of creative energy and meticulousness, while learning about all sorts of topics through my work.

My passion for publishing goes back as far as I can remember. Upon learning to read and write around age four, I created my first book: a stapled picture book about a fictional cat who was so mean that he kicked my grandma. (Of the other two stories I remember writing as a child, one was called “I Wish I Were a Cat” and the other was about a lost cat. I guess I had another obsession besides publishing.)

Throughout the rest of my childhood, I would pore over books, magazines, and catalogs for hours upon hours. I not only loved to read the stories and look at the pictures, but I hung onto details like copyright pages and mastheads, quizzes, captions, section titles, and product names and descriptions. For a project on viruses in high school biology class, I created an issue of a magazine called Teen Virus, which included a quiz, “What Type of Virus Are You?”

My mother worked in publishing, designing and laying out textbooks. When I got old enough, she would hire me for simple tasks like stamping “MASTER” on the bottom corner of every page of a manuscript. I loved that job. Eventually I graduated to more advanced assignments, such as checking that all the editor’s pencil markups had been incorporated into the electronic version.

In college, I shied away from majoring in English because I thought it was all about overanalyzing old literature and didn’t see a direct connection to the interesting part of the publishing world. I chose to study anthropology, and whenever I worked on research papers, I loved tracking down sources in the library and found myself eagerly jumping to the task of formatting the bibliography before even writing the bulk of the paper.

In 2005 I entered the world of online publishing mostly by mistake; I had a general interest in the nonprofit world, a liberal arts degree, and not a whole lot of direction. I began my first full-time job as a program assistant at Idealist.org; my first task was to come up with suggestions for improving and updating a section of the website, and most of my assignments after that revolved around creating content. I ended up managing translation projects, running a blog, and editing and writing all kinds of web copy.

After a while I realized that I was leading myself back to the world of publishing. I sought more knowledge about books, magazines, blogs, mobile apps, and every other kind of publishing I could think of, and decided that I wanted to try freelancing so that I could use my editorial skills toward contributing to a wider variety of content.

When I took the plunge and became a full-time freelance writer and editor, my mom sent me an old paper she had found. It was a handwritten invoice from the old days, in which I had charged her $12 for two hours of “proofreading.” She trained me well! (Although my rates were a little low, even for a teenager.) Now she refers me to her self-published author clients as a professional proofreader.

There’s something about writing, editing, and prepping content for publication—knowing that the words and images and the whole layout of the thing will go “out there” into the world for someone like my childhood self to worship—that still gives me a thrill.

Today marks my two-year anniversary of full-time freelancing. It has been a fun, challenging, stimulating, constantly changing, satisfying couple of years. Working at home has led a healthier lifestyle, too, since I can prepare fresh lunches for myself and go out for a run in the middle of the day (both make for nice mental breaks).

I don’t interact with people as much as I used to, though, and that’s one thing I made an effort to change this year. One tool to combat loneliness is Loosecubes, a network that connects independent workers with offices that have empty desks. It’s a cool way to find productive work spaces and meet people—both of which often spark new ideas for me. I would recommend it to any freelancer or telecommuter who is feeling a little isolated.

This year I’ve welcomed several new clients. I’ve taken on more book editing projects through the Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency and Boutique of Quality Books Publishing. I’ve started copy editing pieces about classical music for Reflections on a Grand Passion and honing copy for a private social network called GORI. And for the local blog QueensNYC, I’ve been writing about neighborhood history, green initiatives, and cultural happenings.

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to strategies for increasing the likelihood that your web content will be found through Google searches. It’s an important set of knowledge to have in today’s online editorial world. I’m familiar with SEO methods like using straightforward titles containing keywords that people will probably search for (rather than mysterious, pun-filled headlines) and writing descriptive link text (instead of only saying “click here”).

Browsing the job boards for freelance writers, though, it’s easy to become cynical about SEO. So many companies and websites out there are looking to exploit SEO strategies simply to generate more clicks—and, in turn, ad revenue—on their sites. The result is the creation of meaningless, redundant web content that clutters up the internet.

Even well-meaning companies can let SEO get the best of them, trading keyword-richness for readability. I’ve especially noticed this effect on hotel websites. Previously sensible navigation menu items like “About Our Hotel” have been replaced with garbled ones like “Tacoma Washington Hotel Bed and Breakfast B&B Inn.” Tactics like this might make the site rank higher in a Google search, but they also make the potential customer’s life harder when trying to get the information they want. Plus, I think they make the company look desperate for business.

My preferred version of SEO doesn’t differ much from my original style of web writing: keep everything clear, descriptive, and useful. Yes, it’s a good idea to think of keywords that potential readers and customers may be searching for. It’s also smart to keep some of these keywords (and even a variation or two on them) in the title and first paragraph of an article or web page. It makes sense to use specific language for links and tags. And you’ll benefit from updating your site regularly. But don’t let SEO take over; you don’t want readers or customers to feel they’ve been lured to a page that’s not worth reading.

Pinterest

The hottest new social media site, at least among people in my digital neck of the woods, has to be Pinterest, a self-described “online pinboard” that lets users “organize and share things you love.” When I first signed up, posts seemed to pool in the areas of crafting, home decor, fashion, and recipes. But now that I have settled in, I see it can be used for anything with any kind of visual impact. Users post images of actors, tattoos, city blocks, homemade food, inventions, inspirational quotes… the possibilities are endless. I started posting appealing tidbits related to my blog about green, ethical travel.

I even saw a request on a freelance job board for a copywriter to help a company promote its products on Pinterest. There’s plenty of unexplored territory for businesses on Pinterest, but I think nonprofit organizations might even have better luck. People don’t necessarily want to see their creative space cluttered with ads; they may be more open to supporting a cause, though—if it has some visual appeal. Some examples of pinboards nonprofits could create: cute endangered baby animals, the prettiest wildflowers of the Southwest, cool T-shirts to raise awareness about human trafficking, healthy recipes to make with your family, the winning ideas for a green design contest, the sculptures in a museum’s new exhibit, etc. It remains to be seen how this new tool will actually help businesses and nonprofits, but I love the unlimited potential it has.

TweetAdder

Another tool I’ve been using (for clients) is TweetAdder, a program that helps people and businesses save time using Twitter, while continuing to get their message out in a strategic way. The program automates tasks like publishing tweets, following and unfollowing other Twitter users, messaging new followers, sharing other users’ posts and links, and announcing new blog posts.

The major downside of TweetAdder is that the program must be constantly open, on a computer that is turned on and awake, for all automated tasks to run. It does take an initial investment in setup time, and I’m still working out the most efficient way to use it, but it can definitely make social media tasks easier for those who have a high volume of content to share and a large number of followers, and who already have their computers on all day anyway.

Here we are at the end of 2011, my first full year of full-time freelancing.

One of the best parts of freelancing is getting to learn about so many different subjects and organizations and meet so many different people. This year I edited and proofread full-length books, reports for nonprofits, program proposals, web content, and blog posts on topics such as travel accommodations, studying abroad, personal finance, social impact, and management strategies. I researched and wrote about eco-friendly travel, sustainable restaurants, social enterprises, green living, workplace communications, and college readiness.

Photo by Chris Sansenbach

As a result of one travel content editing gig, I’ve become quite knowledgeable about small and mid-sized cities throughout the United States. Apparently, Yuma, Arizona, is the sunniest place on Earth. Appleton, Wisconsin, was the site of the first commercially successful electric street car company in the country. And during the winters in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, skiing was once the only mode of transportation. One day my head will be filled with enough trivia to go on Jeopardy!

I’m grateful to all of my clients for these opportunities and for being so pleasant to work with. Happy New Year, everyone!

As a grammar conscious (and health conscious) person, I know the difference between healthy and healthful. That doesn’t mean I use the words correctly.

Healthful means promoting good health, while healthy means in a state of good health. So, grammatically speaking, foods are only supposed to be healthful, not healthy.

I have been writing quite a bit about nutrition and food recently, so the debate has been on my mind. The web writer in me wants to stick with the more familiar healthy food, while my editor self raises an eyebrow. In the end, the more conversational, common usage wins. I just don’t see the point in holding out on something that is mostly obsolete.

Paul Brians agrees that the incorrect usage of healthy shouldn’t be considered an error anymore. And the Chicago Manual, in its “Good usage versus common usage” section, concedes that “gradually healthy is taking over.” Beverly of AMA Style Insider sounds as if she is willing to give in too.

Honestly, I’m so tired of both words right now. How about nourishing, nutritious, salubrious, wholesome—simply good for you?

These are the things I think about.

Back in November, I spent a week in western Massachusetts as part of an assignment with the travel site Trazzler. Here are some of my favorite experiences:

• Finding Nightlife in the Woods in Becket
• Going Straight to the Creamy Source in Monterey
• Imagining Life as a Dignified Elf in North Adams
• Listening to Water Collide in Mt. Washington
• Overdosing on Chocolate in Lenox

I also compiled some of my encounters with local food, art, and nature into a longer article, which you can read here on GoNOMAD. Enjoy!

Over the weekend, my friends at Idealist.org successfully launched the new version of the site in English, Spanish, and French! The design, copy, and code are brand new, and there are now plenty of interactive features you can use to connect with people and organizations, save searches and listings, and post your own content.

I’m especially proud because I know how much work went into it. From development to copywriting to translation to design, it was a huge team effort that I’ll never forget being a part of. I obsessed over details like the use of capital letters in error messages, the order of links in the footer of the site, and the translated list of country names; and learned to do things like write specifications documents, create wireframes, and administer online translation systems.

If you’re on Idealist, connect with me here.

Photo by djprybyl

In a few days, I’m heading to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts for a travel writing assignment. I’ll be covering 30 unique things to do in the area for the interactive travel site Trazzler. I have been writing about my travels and local adventures for a while, but this is the first time I’m being sent somewhere specifically for a travel writing assignment, so it’s quite an honor.

I’m looking forward to five days of waterfalls and beaver dams, apple cider and goat cheese, contemporary art and indie coffee shops, and getting lost on winding roads. Thanks to the complimentary Wi-Fi everywhere, I’ll still be working on other projects while I’m there.