POST UPDATE:
As an added incentive, Canpages is offering a $100 gift certificate for me to give away to one of my readers who nominates their favourite local business. If your name is drawn, you’ll get a gift certificate for the business you nominate. As a reminder, to enter, scroll down to the bottom of the post to submit your comment. Contest closes Tuesday, July 5th at 2 p.m.

More importantly, I’m delighted to have Canpages sponsor this giveaway, because I really have a keen interest in promoting local businesses and solutions. The SEM and consulting package is valued at $3,000, and while originally it was supposed to go to a local Canadian small business of my choice. I’ve decided to open the contest to my readers.

So, my contest is open to both small business owners and my readers. If you are a reader, submit the name or contact information of a local gem, a small business whose online presence would benefit from this Canpages consultation package. If you are a Canadian small-business owner, please tell me why you’d want to win this contest (e.g. what aspects of your online presence you’d want to improve).

Given that it’s my first time doing this type of giveaway I will keep it open for 3 weeks, so that people have an opportunity to submit their favorite small business. I’ll draw a winner from all entries that come via comments on Tuesday, July 5th, at 2pm. I will announce the winner here on my blog on Wednesday July 6th. The contest is open and valid within Canada.

Some information about Canpages:

Burnaby-based Canpages is a local search company that provides innovative advertising solutions and hands-on marketing support to local businesses across Canada. Canpages recently launched a new online marketing product called Lead Solutions that helps local businesses increase their profile online through search engine marketing (SEM). Canpages wants to give one business owner who will clearly benefit from it, the opportunity to win one of these marketing packages valued at $3,000.

Working with a Canpages consultant, the winning local business will receive one year’s worth of search engine marketing (SEM) support as well as a custom landing page to help build its online presence and visibility in the local community.

The prize consists of:

• A hands-on consultation of the process with a Canpages search engine marketing expert
• Identifying and bidding on keywords for your business on Google, Bing and Yahoo
• Developing a custom landing page (if you don’t already have a website)
• Tracking and reporting the results including number of clicks, phone calls and emails generated

Canpages.ca is Canada’s national online directory for local business and residential searches. In excess of 3.5 million unique visitors visit the site every month with search requests. Rich and relevant local content sets Canpages.ca apart from other local search sites, including photos, videos and other immersive media. Canpages’ robust online directory combines comprehensive data and a unique user experience with maps and satellite images provided by Bing.

Website: Canpages.ca
Twitter: @Canpages
Facebook: Facebook.com/Canpages

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For the past decade, in addition to my research, student mentoring and teaching, I have undertaken consulting assignments. First, as part of a research centre that was trying to move forward towards a more self-sufficient business model, and in the past few years, independently.

In the past year, I have written articles for several outlets, including The Network Hub‘s blog, TechVibes and a number of other online magazines and outlets. That’s part of what being a freelancer is. Moreover, I have done a lot of writing about the topic, and one of my most celebrated posts is my “Freelance is Not Free” post (which then led to a BarCamp discussion last year).

Thus, it is only fitting that I am going to be speaking/facilitating a workshop at FreelanceCamp Vancouver 2010, organized by my good friend Minna, co-hosted as well by John and Jay (co-founders of The Network Hub), and co-organized by a number of local freelancers, including Natalie Sisson, Cecilia Lu, Cathy Browne.

So what is FreelanceCamp Vancouver 2010? it’s a Barcamp format unconference for independent professionals. It will take place on May 29th (Saturday) at The Network Hub (422 Richards Street). You can follow @604freelancers for more information.

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1. Freelance is Not Free: My upcoming workshop at FreelanceCamp
2. Session schedule for FreelanceCamp Vancouver 2010
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In recent months, I had been pondering whether I should continue to maintain a diverse work portfolio. In the past few years, I have written freelance articles (some more tech-oriented, like what I wrote for TechVibes, some focused on coworking like what I’ve published with The Network Hub blog), taught university-level and college-level, coached clients (business strategy), undertaken consulting assignments.

My recent consulting projects have spanned a broad variety of fields, including social media implementation, public and environmental policy analysis and business and corporate strategy. Moreover, I have continued to do the rest of what traditional academics are expected to do: conduct research, write grant proposals and grant-funding reports, mentor undergraduate and graduate students.

For a while there, I had considered not taking on more coaching clients. Not adding any more students to my roster. But to be quite frank, I like a diverse work life. I enjoy being an academic while I am at the university, an instructor when I am at the college, a consultant when I am in meetings with clients, and a researcher when I am in non-traditional-yet-still-scholarly settings.

I think that there is enormous value to diversifying your work portfolio. Not to spread yourself thin, but to make the best use of your training. After all, as I explained yesterday to the academic folks who were at my workshop on social media to advance our research – I started out in the natural sciences and engineering, went to business school for my MBA and now have a PhD with multidisciplinary (public policy, geography, planning, environmental policy-social science) focus. I kind of like it that way.

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This past week I had a taste of what my life is like when I have just about everything going my way. I have been doing a lot of teaching (I teach 2 university-level and 2 college-level courses), research (although this has been a bit stalled thanks to the fact that I’ve been feeling a tad overwhelmed and under the weather), consulting (which is going really well) and I still had some time to do social media stuff, although as I mentioned before, my blogging has suffered as I haven’t really had the time to write as much as I usually would do (up to 3 posts a day). On the flip side, I’m just recovering from three weeks of pretty bad sleep. I spent most of this past weekend having naps.

I was on the 99 B-Line today and it occurred to me that this kind of life is one I actually enjoy a lot. I love having days when I am fully immersed in the university/academic experience (like most of Monday, Wednesday and Friday). However, I also really enjoy my Tuesdays and Thursdays, when I do mostly client work (although I teach on Thursday afternoons too). I do research later during the day and in the evening, and I’ve been slowly gearing towards dancing and volleyball again.

Both worlds (the corporate and the academic) appeal to me, and I enjoy them both enormously. This is the kind of stuff that excites me – shaping people’s minds with my teaching, doing sound scholarly research and providing solutions to my clients. A year ago or so, I might have lamented not having done the whole tenure-track assistant professor life. But, right now? There’s not a single thing I have any right to complain about. Things are going extremely well.

Except, of course, for that pesky rain

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Human beings like classifying things. It’s in our nature. I, unfortunately, defy classification and/or “pigeon-hole”-ing. So, I did take issue when I read a tweet that said “wow, you’re a Jack of All Trades!” Uh, no… I’m NOT a Jack of All Trades. I’m someone who has been blessed with opportunities for work, research, teaching and consulting in a very broad variety of industries. I have been lucky. Very lucky.

I have been involved with and surrounded by extremely bright minds, from my birth (my parents are amazingly smart and my brothers are incredible, seriously outstanding) to when I did my undergraduate, my Masters and my PhD. I have had a very broad education (undergraduate in chemical engineering, Masters in Business Administration with a focus on strategic management and technology management, and doctorate in resource management and environmental studies), a largely eclectic work life (I’ve worked in the soft drinks industry, in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology, I’ve done consulting projects for leather and footwear, and I’ve been involved with the work of my parents as lawyers). And yes, recently I’ve done a lot of social media work, including consulting. Heck, I’m collaborating in a project on mental health!

What can I say? I’m a versatile individual, not a Jack-of-All-Trades. I take issue with anyone who can assume that I’m the kind of guy who is not a master of any kind of job. I prefer the Princeton Dictionary definition “a person who does a number of jobs reasonably well” than the aphorism “Jack of all trades, master of none” describing a person with multiple skills, but no expert proficiency.

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Credit: topyli

So, when do I actually work from home? It’s usually under one of the circumstances below:

• I don’t have meetings with clients set up downtown, nor do I teach on that day.
• I have to wait for any contractors to do work on the house, like today – the plumber had to come and fix our laundry
• I am sick and I don’t want to pass my cold along to anyone else
• I am working late and I realize that taking a bus home at 3:30am is not going to work. So I go home and work from home for the rest of the evening
• I have a particular program that I don’t have uploaded in my laptop and only in my desktop

When do you find yourself working from home? And, do you enjoy it? [On that note, I'm getting ready to go downtown as I was working at home this morning because the contractor was fixing the laundry drain]

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I spend a substantial amount of my working life hours teaching, giving lectures, speaking at panels, presenting papers at academic conferences. Lately, I’ve been giving more seminars and workshops, and I wanted to reflect on what works best for different audiences, and to establish the difference between a seminar and a workshop. They have different objectives.

For example, recently, I gave a workshop to students of the PR program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. This was part of the Computer Skills III course, superbly taught by Carla J. Wolf. I was invited by Erin Raimondo, one of the students in the program (she won the gift certificate I donated to Twestival Vancouver). I originally had said that the 3 hour talk would be a seminar (e.g. lecture style) but I ended up doing a hands-on approach where I intermingled the theory behind social networking sites and the practice.

So how do I differentiate a workshop from a seminar? I think two characteristics make them distinct. Workshops tend to be more hands-on, interactive whereas seminars tend to be more lecture-style. Also, workshops tend to be of longer duration (maybe 3 to 6 hours, maybe a full day) whereas seminars tend to be shorter (I have given a 3 hour seminar non-stop and I can assure you, it’s not all that fun).

photo credit: stevendepolo

Being an academic, I’m very used to giving seminars. I lecture for 45 minutes to 2 hours and then I have a question-answer period. In the past decade, I have melded my previous experience consulting with clients (pre-PhD and post-undergrad and MBA) and my teaching into an interactive seminar style. I still can give seminars and I’m quite used to the “I speak, you listen” model.

I was part of a great panel recently at the Independent Power Producers Conference of British Columbia, and I spoke for 7 minutes, seminar style – I did the same with the seminar on social media for small businesses that I presented at the Vancouver Small Business Entrepreneur Meetup. I basically gave a full-on seminar (45 minutes). Those opportunities and venues don’t lend themselves to running actual workshops.

Lately, I’ve discovered that I enjoy more a hands-on, interactive, workshop style. I really enjoy working together with participants in the workshop and ensuring that they grasp the concepts I am presenting. I wouldn’t scrap the opportunity to give a seminar, but I am thinking that, as I do more teaching and seminars in the academic realm, I’ll be doing more workshops in my client and consulting work.

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The part that gets sketchy is when you are asked for your services and not expected to be compensated for them. [John Bollwitt]

I started meditating about this issue shortly after I received a tweet from Mike Jagger who indicated “you are the Mother Theresa of liveblogs“. That, and the sentence above just absolutely triggered a thinking process around the wrong perception that I give out my services for free. Nothing further from the truth. I don’t want to nor do I plan to be the Mother Theresa of liveblogs. I would like people to appreciate the value of my time, the value of my writing and the value of my research skills. I don’t write “for the exposure“. I *have* the exposure, thank you very much! And bottom line? I write for myself, so whether people read my content or not is not one of my concerns, nor is it being “seen”.

I have volunteered my time for the Vancouver social media/tech community to extreme lengths. I am not self-absorbed or self-congratulatory in saying this, I am just being truthful. I have liveblogged numerous events for free. I have covered many events for free. This doesn’t mean that I have de-valued my own work: it means that I am interested in giving back to the community in the spirit of “paying it forward”. However, I work as a freelancer. I am NOT a freebie. Don’t mistake my generosity for lack of appreciation for my own value.

If people are expecting me to liveblog an event just “‘because” they may probably find that I will decide NOT to do it. Liveblogging, writing content for blogs, reporting on events, etc. are just a few examples of actual services, and people need to learn that they should be paid and rewarded. The perceptions that just because we are bloggers we should feel happy that we get invited to events or that anybody can liveblog an event are completely erroneous. Of course, everybody with some degree of knowledge of computers and technology can fire up a liveblogging event on Cover It Live. That’s not that difficult. It’s the skill required to capture the thoughts and meanings of a speaker that is an acquired, honed and valuable skill. Refusing to pay for a service that is provided is tantamount to trying to get a freebie.

For example, when you go for a consultation with a doctor (medical doctor, MD) or a psychologist or a counsellor, do peoplereally expect to go in, and come out and NOT pay anything? No, right? Then why would people think that they can come, ask me a barrage of questions and expect an in-house, one-on-one, free consultation? I have no clue why, but this has happened to me, more times than I care to remember.

There is a big difference when I deal with my friends. For example, if somebody who is a friend of mine tells me “hey can you translate this short sentence for me” (in any of the languages I speak) I am more than happy to do so. If somebody tells me to spend an hour of my time translating, I’m expecting that either (a) the person asking is a very close friend, and he/she will appreciate what I do and (b) the relationship is so reciprocal that asking a favor back will never be an issue. Or (c) that they are going to pay my translation fee.

I would really like to change people’s perceptions that everything can come for free (or be bartered). That’s not true. As Rebecca Bollwitt noted on her post on bloggers for hire, “bloggers who produce strong, insightful, creative and intelligently content have great value.” Bloggers, consultants, freelancers, researchers, all provide important services, and as such, should be rewarded.

Last year, when I was in the process of establishing more of a consulting practice in social media, I asked how to establish pricing strategies in this field, one that wasn’t really mine from the get-go. Right now, I think of social media as just one more of the fields that I consult on, simply because I have accumulated experience organizing social media conferences, giving talks, testing the tools, writing content, and establishing relationships. I have a PhD in environmental studies, that’s where my initial consulting work is. Social media is my “side job”.

As I mentioned in a comment I posted on John’s excellent post, your knowledge is your currency. I spent numerous years doing rigorous research and becoming a specialist in the fields I have expertise in. If anybody wants my knowledge, it comes at a price. I am wondering how do other freelancers/consultants/writers/bloggers feel about this topic. I know it’s touchy and thorny, but I wanted to put it out there.

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I explained to Jonathon and Joe that in academia, theoretically, you work at a university and you are paid a monthly (bi-weekly) salary for the combined work you do: teaching (both at the undergraduate and graduate levels), research, engagement in university affairs, service to the community (both outside the university and within your academic fields), mentoring of graduate students (and in some cases, undergraduate students too), extension (i.e. teaching continuing education short courses). All of this, yes, for the same salary. I have done all of this at a research centre, and part of this at the university.

I have been invited (asked to/offered/suggested) to write as a freelancer, and I have undertaken work as a contractor/consultant, both independently and as part of a research centre/think tank. Even though you could think that I perceive the life of an academic as MUCH tougher than the life of a consultant, from my own experience (and current levels of stress) I can tell you that they’re both at about the same level.

The interesting thing (and this was something that was discussed over Twitter a few weeks back) is that there’s no guideline as to what a writer/freelancer/copywriter should be paid. There are numerous angles to this discussion but the one that I am approaching is the payment of writing services. I have written thousands of words (maybe millions by now) and I believe I’m a pretty good writer. I can write in academic style and in prose that is more accessible to the general public. I enjoy sharing my academic thoughts and findings on the blog I set up on my research site (and yes, nobody pays me for those).

This blog itself is a labour of love, my repository, the place where I practice my own thinking (I am reminded of the byline that David Eaves uses on his blog – “if writing is a muscle, this is my gym). I don’t get paid for the content I write here (although it definitely has allowed me to create a writing portfolio that has proven valuable). I did write sponsored posts for Blogathon 2009, but that wasn’t payment for the writing, it was a donation (and no monies went to me).

So, I was just looking over the site Writers.ca which provides some guidelines on how much should writers be paid. What do you freelancers/copywriters think? And more on the topic of getting paid what you’re worth, how can we avoid devaluing our work?

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