Kansas City Freelance Writer Liz Craig

Now I find out your tags don’t matter at all. It’s the keywords in your blog copy that get you ranked on Google. So –

Copywriter, copywriter, freelance copywriter, Kansas City freelance copywriter, freelance writer in Kansas City. Marketing strategist, marketing strategy, advertising consulting, business consulting, creative consulting, strategic marketing, strategic creative, results-driven creative.

There.

Recently, I did a rush article for a client. She agreed to the fee (2 hours’ regular fee plus $50 for rush), and I provided the article hours before her deadline.

I billed her… and waited.

I billed her again… and am still waiting.

E-mails to her have gone unanswered. So I have no idea why she hasn’t paid me. I thought of some possibilities:

• She’s broke and was too embarrassed to say so (I would have worked out a payment plan for her, if that would help).

• She never intended to pay me in the first place (in which case, she’s a cheater and a liar); or

• She meant to pay me, but then she had some unexpected setbacks and couldn’t (See first reason above).

• She ran off to South America after pulling off a bank heist.

• She is lying in a hospital somewhere after a bad accident and can’t speak. Obviously can’t e-mail.

• She is deceased.

No way can I know which if these, if any, is true. That’s what gets to me.

Once, I bugged a client for $400 he owed me for an entire year. Dozens of phone calls, e-mails, calls to the Accounts Payable Department of his company. Finally, I got the check. But what did all this fretting and bugging do to me? It kept me upset for a whole year. Maybe shortened my life by a week or two. That was the first time I got screwed over. This is only the second (unless she pays me) in nine years, so I guess I should be glad that the great majority of my clients are honest and pay for copywriting assignments on time.

So, this time, whether I understand why this client isn’t paying me for some (darn good) copywriting or not, I’m going to forgive her and move on.

Not for her sake, but for my own.

UPDATE!
I found her phone number and called. Turns out she and her family had been out of town for spring break, and she hadn’t had a chance to answer my e-mails. She said someone in the office is cutting me a check today. Will let you know if “the check is in the mail” or not.

UPDATE! Got the check! Wow.

If you have been following me as LizCraig1 on Twitter, and you wish to continue, look for LizCraig2 instead.

Thanks.

Sent to me by a friend:

You may enjoy this one; what a rare find. Notice that there may be some question whether there were rules of the road. Notice the guys pushing a car to get it started. Also all the guys in suits and ladies in dresses.

This film was “lost” for many years. It was the first 35mm film ever. It was taken by a camera mounted on the front of a San Francisco cable car.

The number of automobiles is staggering for 1906. The clock tower at the end of Market Street at the Embarcadero wharf is still there. (I’m also wondering … how many “street cleaning” people were employed to pick up after the horses? Talk about going green!)

Great historical film worth watching. It is long, but very interesting if you watch everything closely.

This film, originally thought to be from 1905 until David Kiehn with the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum figured out exactly when it was shot. From New York trade papers announcing the film showing to the wet streets from recent heavy rainfall & shadows indicating time of year & actual weather and conditions on historical record, even when the cars were registered (he even knows who owned them and when the plates were issued!).. It was filmed only four days before the quake and shipped by train to NY for processing.

I wonder if this street was leveled in the quake…

Exciting e-mail received today!

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Anti-Terrorist And Monitory Crime Division.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation.
J.Edgar.Hoover Building Washington Dc
Tel/Fax 202 386 6756
Website: www.fbi.gov
Customers Service Hours / Monday To Saturday
Office Hours Monday To Saturday:

Dear Beneficiary,

Series of meetings have been held over the past 7 months with the secretary general of the United Nations Organization. This ended 3 days ago. It is obvious that you have not received your fund which is to the tune of $12.5million due to past corrupt Governmental Officials who almost held the fund to themselves for their selfish reason and some individuals who have taken advantage of your fund all in an attempt to swindle your fund which has led to so many losses from your end and unnecessary delay in the receipt of your fund.

I'm rich, rich, rich!!!

The National Central Bureau of Interpol enhanced by the United Nations and Federal Bureau of Investigation have successfully passed a mandate to the current president of Nigeria his Excellency President Umaru Yar’Adua to boost the exercise of clearing all foreign debts owed to you and other individuals and organizations who have been found not to have receive their Contract Sum, Lottery/Gambling, Inheritance and the likes.

Now how would you like to receive your payment? because we have two method of payment which is by Check or by ATM card?
…

That’s some fiction writing, there. But it’s not causing me to suspend my disbelief. First, “Miss Ross Campbell” seems confused about his/her gender. And also about how things work in this country. Finally, about spelling (Note “monitory”)

Maybe in Nigeria, or wherever this e-mail came from, governmental corruption is so bad that the government could cheat a freelance copywriter out of $12.5 million.

“Miss Ross Campbell” obviously is not aware of the newest e-mail scam technique. It’s very simple. The subject line promises some big goodie, and the content of the e-mail says, “Send name, address, e-mail address, bank name and bank routing number immediately.”

Well, just a nanosecond of thought tells me that anyone wanting to send me $12.5 million would already know all about me — especially the FBI!

Can there actually be people stupid enough to respond to these scams?

Wait. I forgot about Tea Party people.

It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. http://bit.ly/cHk9xD

When I had my Omaha digs feng shui’d years ago, the feng shui expert was a real bug about clutter — as in, get rid of it. It blocks energy. And that might account for a slowdown in money coming in, your getting out, a raise, a new job, better social life, or anything. Blocked energy is wasted energy.

Even if you don’t accept feng shui as a valid practice, you have to admit that when you look around your office, home or car and see clutter, empty fast food containers, books, papers, clothes and other stuff you don’t need, it takes your attention.

Subconsciously, you think, “I’ve gotta take that stuff to Goodwill or throw it away or SOMETHING!” Then you feel bad or guilty because you haven’t gotten around to it. More wasted energy — guilt.

Clutter and guilt get in your way.

Make a resolution to clear one room of clutter each day this week. Your mind will enjoy the rest. And you won’t end up like one of those sad souls on “Hoarders” who are literally buried alive in their clutter.

Go on, do it!

“I never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

Sock monkey and his friends take a fun-filled road trip from Las Vegas to NYC in a new Kia Sorento. Love the sock monkey riding a mechanical bull and getting a tatto sewn on. Music is by The Heavy, “How You LIke Me Now.” The spot’s humor drives home the selling message: Hey, you can cut loose and have a ball when you have a 2011 Kia Sorento! Imagine it targets older teens or early 20s, though almost anyone this side of 70 would enjoy the fun these toys are having.

Another 2011 Sorento ad features a family traveling through a forest mysteriously furnished with framed family photographs, furniture and fixtures. Tag line: “Feel at home wherever you go.” It’s okay but much more laid-back than the monkeyshines spot. Aimed at families with kids, apparently.

What about the sock monkey spot? How you like it now?

If you’re like me, you get dozens of e-mails, newsletters and notices in your Inbox every day. You’re on every social media vehicle, from LinkedIn to Plaxo to Twitter and Facebook. I have at least three e-mail accounts, and I write three blogs. Does it ever get to you? I mean, all the “keeping up with” you have to do?

Well, it gets to me.

You can’t not be on these things, but dang, they’re time-suckers. A person has to have time to do paying work, not just check the Inbox every 20 minutes to delete messages to avoid being buried in e-mail. And these are messages I WANTED. Like the NY Times twice-daily news update. Twitter messages (If Guy Kawasaki doesn’t quit tweeting, I’m dropping him.). Minutes from a meeting. Stuff I need to pay attention to.

But as I was saying, if you’re like me, you may be fed up with social media. I’m a Boomer, so I figure there must be millions of other Boomers who are fed up, too.

Here’s my prediction for 2011: Enough people will be fed up with social media that they’ll start meeting face-to-face with friends, family and clients. Yes. It will come to that.

Remember that old out-of-fashion thing called “conversation?” Not tweets or e-mails or Facebook blurbs? but an ongoing exchange of verbal messages, accompanied by real facial expressions instead of emoticons, conducted while the parties thereto are in the same room?

I have hundreds of “friends” on all these social media, but how often do I do friend things with them? Almost never. Unless I go to a Meetup, another social media-driven thing. I joined a Board Games Meetup, and if I ever go, it should be real person-to-person fun.

In 2011, when social media dies and F2F becomes the new thing, remember you heard it here first.