Author Archives: Ruth Terry

5 Ways Freelance Writers Can Use the iPhone 5

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The world can finally exhale. At 1:13 EST today, months of speculation culminated in Tim Cook’s unveiling of the iPhone 5, the sixth incarnation of the world’s most popular smart phone, at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Arts Center.

While some freelance writers are still working out the transition from desktop to laptop, many are trying to figure out how to downsize even further, from laptop to handheld device. And that’s where the iPhone 5 can make your life a whole lot easier, especially if you’re already using Mac products.

Here are five ways freelance writers can use the iPhone 5.

1. Record interviews. As far back as the iPhone 3G, you could record high quality audio clips using the phone’s built-in tools. Now the iPhone 5′s ultrafast wireless and three microphones will also help you conduct interviews live or via Skype and FaceTime.

2. Shoot video and produce multimedia content. The iPhone 5 comes with 720p HD recording and face detection in FaceTime, making it great for shooting talking heads. You can even take pictures while shooting video. Wow. What a great way to capture events, press conferences and impromptu newsables, and produce solid content that you can upsell to editors who use multimedia on their websites or companies working doing brand journalism and thought leadership. Apple has updated Garage Band and iMovie so editing is sure to be a snap.

3. Take pictures to illustrate your stories. Don’t want to lug a heavy DSLR around while reporting in the field? Don’t—use the iPhone 5. With eight megapixels, panorama mode, 44 percent more color saturation than the iPhone 4S, and 640 x 1136 resolution, a nice aspect ratio to prevent weird stretching, now you can easily deliver stunning, web ready images along with your stellar prose.

4. To figure out what you’re doing and where you’re going. Enhanced mapping features make it easier than ever to map your route on the go. There’s a new, improved Siri to keep you on task and iPhone 5′s four-inch screen makes it easier to use apps like Andrew Nicolle’s recently released Story Tracker for Mac, which allows users to track queries, submissions and other project info via laptop or mobile device. Any apps that aren’t being updated for iPhone 5 or iOS 6 as I type will run letter boxed.

5. For absolutely everything else in your life. With the iPhone 5, Apple’s put out another lovely updated design—one that’s which 7.6 mm thick, 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than the previous generation and reportedly fits better in the hand. The bigger screen with 326 pixel per inch (ppi) retina display to enhanced mapping means you won’t want to stop looking at it.

Screenshot from Wired.com Gadget Lab’s live feed. 

The Amazing Content Strategy Generator You Didn’t Know You Needed

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To know me is to know that I’m rarely short of ideas…  Implementation is another thing entirely, especially when it comes to blog posts.

That’s because it’s not just about writing anymore. It’s about Tweet-able tie-ins, Pinnable pics and Klout relevance. It’s not what you write, it’s how you market it and who sees it.

How to use the Content Strategy Generator:

Copy this Google doc and type in a keyword. No, really, that’s it.

That’s where this crazy-cool Content Strategy Generator Tool (CSGT), created by Daniel Butler of SEOgadget, comes in. Enter a keyword and find out exactly what topics are making headlines and trending, being “liked” and shared… and much, much more.

There’s so much application here: digital journalists and freelance writers can use the generator to see how much coverage stories have already gotten—a great way to discover new angles before you pitch an editor. Bloggers can see who might be interested in reading (and re-tweeting) their latest posts. And of course, if you find yourself with a paucity of ideas related to your primary topic, this is a great place to start.

Photo by adihrespati
ᔥ Content Strategy Generator Tool, Daniel Butler ↬ ProBlogger

How to tell your brand story by doing nothing, lessons from Chimpanzee

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Last week Maria and I decided to check out what Disneynature’s new film Chimpanzee might have to teach us about storytelling. Turns out, quite a bit.

Led by director Alastair Fothergill, who also produced BBC’s Blue Planet, the Chimpanzee crew set about finding the narrative in what must have appeared to be a series of disparate events when shooting began.

In plain English: they sat around shooting footage and getting attacked by sweat bees, literally waiting for the story to come to them. Later, they used devices like time-lapse sequences to creepy mushrooms (yes, fungi are a device in this movie) to show and tell a fascinating story of love, trust, family and socio-political drama among chimpanzees.

Your company or magazine could definitely do the same, even without sweat bees, especially if you’ve got a brand journalist on your side.

Find out why you should and how you can in our new Story by Numbers podcast available on iTunes now.

Is it nap time yet? Polyphasic sleeping for freelancers

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Ani DiFranco once sang: “Nobody likes their job / Nobody got enough sleep.” Clearly she didn’t know many freelancers. We all love our jobs, all the time, right? OK, maybe not all the time. But we are able, at least in theory, to get enough sleep.

I love the flexibility that freelancing affords to write into the wee hours when I’m “on”—sans anxiety over unfinished business, looming early morning alarms or co-worker judgement about lunch time power naps. And I know I’m not the only freelancer who feels this way.

“I am here to tell you, the way to a more productive, more inspired, more joyful life is: getting enough sleep.” ᔥ Ariana Huffington

Turns out, we’ve got science on our side: 85 percent of mammals enjoy polyphasic sleep—that is, resting in multiple bursts instead of a single eight-hour block. Records show that humans practiced a form of sporadic sleep until relatively recently in our history. According to historian Roger Ekirch, before the 19th century, people tended to sleep in two four-hour blocks, with a break for prayer, reading or leisure activities in between.

In many places outside the work-crazed United States, nap time still comes first. During my caravan in Africa, many of my fellow campers kept a round-the-clock schedule, sleeping an hour or two at a time over a 24-hour period. And, of course, the Spanish have long since appreciated the virtue of a 20—30 minute siesta after the midday meal.

I don’t think I’ll be converting to a full-on polyphasic sleep regimen any time soon, but I have started thinking of “insomnia” as creative time (or “Hunger Games time,” last night.) I write late, I read late and I sleep late and/or power nap as needed the following day.

The Sleep Foundation points out numerous benefits to power napping: improved job performance, an increase in alertness, even a psychological boost from the “luxury” of napping during the day. The key is to keep naps short, to prevent grogginess, and early in the day, so they don’t affect night time sleep.

Still not convinced? Check out media maven Ariana Huffington’s TED Talk on the virtues of sleep.

Photo by tm-tm

Freestyle your hair with homemade beauty products

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After watching the movie No Impact Man last week, I started thinking more about the waste that comes from cosmetics use. Sure, you can recycle all those bottles, but as many experts point out, recycling is often more like “downcycling.” All that plastic isn’t necessarily turned into something better and—surprise!—the recycling process itself requires energy.

Even though I do a lot of DIY-ing, I always kind of left cosmetics, especially hair care items, out of the equation. I rationalized that women who could use hair product of the homemade variety had straight, no-muss-no-fuss hair that just doesn’t require the crazy cocktail my curly locks can’t live without.

But this week I felt convicted, so I decided to do some digging. First stop: Naturallycurly.com, the go-to source for curlies of every spiral, coil and kink. Since my last visit, the website has started a recipe section, which is searchable by hair, product and media type. Turns out a lot of curly girls are trying to minimize the impact of their curl regimen on the environment, not to mention their bank accounts, by experimenting with homemade concoctions—ones that don’t require an advanced degree in chemistry or a storeroom of crazy ingredients to mix up.

As I write this, I’m sitting outside with a coconut milk-and-cornstarch natural curl relaxer and I just cooked up a batch of flaxseed-based hair gel. I can’t tell whether they work yet, but I can say that I’m loving the idea of putting on my body the same things I put in it. I’m also digging the fact that if my curl softening treatment “doesn’t work” the evidence will most likely be that nothing actually happens, not that all my hair breaks off or falls out: a frequent consequence of harsh chemical treatments gone awry. Finally, it turns out that the magical and mysterious product formulas sold by environmentally friendly brands like Aveda and Pureology actually include a lot of same, fairly common, ingredients that I mixed up today.

So why is this in a freelance lifestyle magazine? Well, one of the things I love about setting my own hours is that I have the time—or at least the flexibility to adjust my schedule and make time—to prioritize reducing my lifestyle impact by refinishing/upcycling used furniture, cooking instead of eating out, making my own household cleaners and, now, experimenting with making my own cosmetics.

And there’s another benefit for freelance writers: If you’re trying to carve out a niche for yourself as a green writer or want to set yourself apart from other lifestyle reporters, this is a great way to do it. Just today, I’ve learned about the chemical properties of glycerin, found a community of people (read, potential sources) already trying this stuff and a variety of magazines and blogs who publish related content.

Has the freelance switch lowered your carbon footprint? Do you have a favorite recipe for eco-friendly home or body care? Leave a comment below and tell us about it.