In 2012 I registered for my first Arkansas Women Bloggers’ University conference. (I blogged about registering here… but never followed up with a after-conference post. Go figure.) You’ll just have to trust that I left that weekend with a new appreciation and understanding of what my blogging could be. Until that conference, I was just blogging as a kind of replacement journal. And it was sporadic at best. Since that weekend, I have not really pursued a “professional blogger” status, but I have definitely become more serious about the things I put on my blogs, the quality of my photos, etc…

Last spring, I was asked if I would be interested in leading a session at the conference about Freelancing. If you’ve been following me for a little while, you may know that I left a full-time job in early summer of last year to start working toward my goal of being a professional writer. That conference in 2012 ended up becoming a kind of launch-pad for the freelancing I am doing now. It has been a “slow and steady wins the race” kind of journey, but I have definitely learned a lot and loved every minute of it.

Which leads me to this weekend. The 2014 AWBU conference was held just up the road in Rogers, Arkansas, and attracted women from all over the state to spend a couple of days learning, sharing, supporting, and brainstorming about what it means to be a blogger and what we can do individually, and in collaboration, to achieve our writing goals.

A couple of other freelance writers and bloggers joined me Sunday morning to share as much information as we could pack into 45 minutes. Jamie and Rhonda are great examples of how diverse the freelance writing market can be, and how we can create niches for ourselves that fit our individual family schedule, interests, and skills. I think we ended up covering quite a bit, and we heard many kind remarks afterward. Whew!! What a relief!!!

I am happy to share a .pdf of the slides with you! You can click on the Freelancing 101 image at the top of this post to pull up the presentation, or just click here. Whether you are dreaming of working for yourself, or maybe you already are, but have a few questions, I hope you get some good bits of info from it. Feel free to share with your own followers and friends, but please share the credit where credit is deserved. Let me know if you have additional suggestions – I’d love to hear from you in the comments section!