Register for NABJ Members-only #FreelanceFebruary Webinars

The #FreelanceFebruary series of NABJ members-only webinars will help you answer that question, covering topics including what it takes to get started, finding a #SideHustle and creating an online portfolio to showcase your work.

Journalists have many skills that make ideal side hustles, but you can’t just create them out of thin air. Learn how to get your hustle in this NABJ members-only webinar on Monday, Feb. 13 at 8:00 p.m. Panelists Nicki Mayo of Nicki Mayo News LLC, Dr. Sybril Brown, a hustler and journalism professor at Belmont University, Tenisha Taylor Bell, owner of Perfect Pitch Media Group LLC and Benét Wilson, owner of Aviation Queen LLC will discuss how they started their hustles and what it takes to keep them going. Register here — your NABJ membership number is required.

What if you don’t want to become a freelancer and you want to look for a new job instead? Put your best foot forward with an online portfolio to showcase your work. Web sites, for all of their benefits, can be tough to sift through as ideas about technology and branding change every day. In this webinar, hosted by Marissa Evans of the Texas Tribune, you’ll get tips on how to choose the best web platform for you, the do’s and don’ts of a quality website and best practices for putting your best digital footprint forward, including live critiques. Join us on Saturday, February 18, 11:00 a.m. EST. Again, register here — your NABJ membership number is required.

DJTF will schedule webinars through the NABJ Annual Convention and Career Fair in New Orleans Aug. 9-13, 2017. Do you have an idea for a webinar? Send it here.

3 DJTF Webinars To Prepare You For The 2014 NABJ Convention

It’s amazing, but the 39th Annual NABJ Convention and Career Fair, this year in Boston, is a little more than two months away.  This gives you plenty of time to start getting ready now.

You need to have a resume that’s on point, and you need to have an online portfolio to point potential employers to.  Also, it wouldn’t hurt to start either working on or sharpening up your personal journalism brand.

Lucky for you, the Digital Journalism Task Force did two great hour-long webinars in January on these very topics.  So now is the time to review these webinars so that you’re ready to shine in Boston.

• Developing an Online Portfolio, with Michelle Johnson
• Building Your Brand, with  Dr. Sybril Bennett
• The Do’s and Don’ts of Resumes, with Benet Wilson

You need to submit an email address, but the webinars are free.  I hope they help, and I look forward to seeing you in Boston!

Benét J. Wilson is the vice president of education for the NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force.  She also serves on the board of the Online News Association. She is  the social media/eNewsletters editor for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and  a freelance aviation journalist and blogger.

Best of DJTF Blog: Resources To Build That Perfect Portfolio Website

Editor’s note: We are taking this week off to enjoy the holidays with our families.  So this week, we’ll be re-running past posts.  Today’s post is from DJTF immediate past chair Benet Wilson, who posts tips on how to build a professional online portfolio.  It originally ran on July 5.  Also, join the NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force for a virtual conference “New Year, New You,” on Saturday, Jan. 11 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. In four hour-long sessions, attendees will learn mobile journalism tips and tricks, how to create an online portfolio, steps needed to create your journalism brand and taking your resume to the next level.  You can take 1, 2, 3, or all 4 webinars, and they will be recorded in case you can’t make it. Click here for more information. Enjoy!

As preparation continues for this year’s National Association of Black Journalists Annual Convention and Career Fair, I can feel the excitement and preparation that is taking place.  One of the key items you need to have in time for the convention is an online portfolio where potential employers can see your work all in one place.

Michelle Johnson, Associate Professor of the Practice, Journalism at Boston University, NABJ Educator of the Year AND one of my digital journalism heroes, did a workshop at the 2011 Philadelphia convention –The One-minute Media Mogul: Creating Online Portfolios — that is my go-to resource.  When I got laid off in October 2011, Michelle was one of the first people I called. I wanted to get her notes from her great presentation so I could create my own portfolio.

She kindly gave me permission to share them, so here they are, as promised. I’d love to hear from you on which site you decide to use, and send links to see what you came up with.  Thanks!!

For Building a Free/Low-cost Portfolio or Website
WordPress.com
Wix.com
Tumblr.com
Weebly.com
Squarespace.com
Bluehost.com (for setting up a “self-hosted” version of WordPress)

Tips: Creating an Online Portfolio Using WordPress
WordPress is not just for blogging! It’s a full-fledged “content management system” that you can use to build a web site. With just a few tweaks, you can easily and quickly launch your own site. See these articles for details:
CUNY: Creating a Top-Notch Journalist Portfolio

How to Build a Distinctive Portfolio Site
WordPress.com vs hosted WordPress

“Self-hosted” WordPress Bluehost.com tutorials:
How to Install WordPress
Installing Themes
Setting up WordPress as a CMS
http://wordpress.forthenovice.com (videos)

WordPress.com Tutorials/Help
If you are using the free version of WordPress, look here for tips on how to configure your site: WordPress.com Support

Embedding documents
Do you want to embed :
Scribd.com – Need to embed a pdf of your resume? Try scribd.
Docstoc.com – Similiar to Scribd.
Tutorial: How to Embed PDF, Spreadsheets, etc. into WordPress
WordPress Plugin: Google Doc Embedder (Note: this works only for the self-hosted version of WordPress, not the free version.

WordPress Themes (aka templates)
Wordpress.com Theme Showcase: http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/

Note: The themes below are for “self-hosted” WordPress sites. You cannot install your own themes on the freebie sites available at wordpress.com.

Graph Paper Press: Great templates for photographers, visual types
Gabfire: For creating a news site.
Themeforest.net: My personal favorite. Tip: Click on “Wordpress” in the navigation bar first to filter out other formats.

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org
This article compares the two.

Resources To Build That Perfect Portfolio Website

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/eNewsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Editor’s note: please join me for a free webinar, “Top 10 Dos and Don’ts for Resumes,” on Tuesday, July 9 at 9:00 p.m. ET.  I’ll offer my tips and do three live demos of my famous resume review. Please share this link and encourage folks to attend. It will be recorded for those who can’t make it.

As preparation continues for this year’s National Association of Black Journalists Annual Convention and Career Fair, I can feel the excitement and preparation that is taking place.  One of the key items you need to have in time for the convention is an online portfolio where potential employers can see your work all in one place.

Michelle Johnson, Associate Professor of the Practice, Journalism at Boston University, NABJ Educator of the Year AND one of my digital journalism heroes, did a workshop at the 2011 Philadelphia convention –The One-minute Media Mogul: Creating Online Portfolios — that is my go-to resource.  When I got laid off in October 2011, Michelle was one of the first people I called. I wanted to get her notes from her great presentation so I could create my own portfolio.

She kindly gave me permission to share them, so here they are, as promised. I’d love to hear from you on which site you decide to use, and send links to see what you came up with.  Thanks!!

For Building a Free/Low-cost Portfolio or Website
WordPress.com
Wix.com
Tumblr.com
Weebly.com
Squarespace.com
Bluehost.com (for setting up a “self-hosted” version of WordPress)

Tips: Creating an Online Portfolio Using WordPress
WordPress is not just for blogging! It’s a full-fledged “content management system” that you can use to build a web site. With just a few tweaks, you can easily and quickly launch your own site. See these articles for details:
CUNY: Creating a Top-Notch Journalist Portfolio

How to Build a Distinctive Portfolio Site
WordPress.com vs hosted WordPress

“Self-hosted” WordPress Bluehost.com tutorials:
How to Install WordPress
Installing Themes
Setting up WordPress as a CMS
http://wordpress.forthenovice.com (videos)

WordPress.com Tutorials/Help
If you are using the free version of WordPress, look here for tips on how to configure your site: WordPress.com Support

Embedding documents
Do you want to embed :
Scribd.com – Need to embed a pdf of your resume? Try scribd.
Docstoc.com – Similiar to Scribd.
Tutorial: How to Embed PDF, Spreadsheets, etc. into WordPress
WordPress Plugin: Google Doc Embedder (Note: this works only for the self-hosted version of WordPress, not the free version.

WordPress Themes (aka templates)
Wordpress.com Theme Showcase: http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/

Note: The themes below are for “self-hosted” WordPress sites. You cannot install your own themes on the freebie sites available at wordpress.com.

Graph Paper Press: Great templates for photographers, visual types
Gabfire: For creating a news site.
Themeforest.net: My personal favorite. Tip: Click on “Wordpress” in the navigation bar first to filter out other formats.

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org
This article compares the two.

How To Get DIGITALLY Ready For The NABJ Convention

By Janine Mack, recent graduate, Syracuse University, master’s in broadcast and digital journalism

Editor’s note: Guest blogger Janine Mack offers tips to digitally prepare for the NABJ Annual Convention & Career Fair July 31-Aug. 4, 2013.

It’s that time of year when I urge those in my network to start getting ready for the annual convention. Successfully preparing for NABJ can make the difference between landing an awesome first job or internship and heading back home empty handed. Here are a few tips to get started now.

1. Get an online portfolio! If you do not have a website with at least 8 to 12 clips of either video stories that aired or published print articles, then you are already behind. Ideally, you want your firstnamelastname.com that way when people Google your name, your web presence will be the first thing to come up. I didn’t thing people Googled me until my website showed me otherwise. WordPress, About.me and Weebly are good places to start building a simple portfolio.  Some great examples of each come from Vanessa Deggins, Sarah Glover and Kirstin Garriss, respectively.

2. Google yourself. I always thought people were crazy when they said this, but one day I found old comment I thought was deleted and pictures of other people named Janine Mack half-naked. Recruiters and prospective sources will look so should you. A good rule of thumb is to delete anything that you would not want on your website.

3. I have a website, now what? Make sure to put your resume, some details about what you do and your aspirations, your clips and a nice professional picture of you doing whatever aspect of journalism it is that you do. Some of my favorite examples of how it’s done are Wesley Lowery, Stephanie Siek, Fadia Patterson and Eva McKend. Don’t forget to update it whenever you get a new job or an internship, to have it critiqued BEFORE you head to the convention and that the link is on anything you hand out such as business cards, resumes, demo reels, etc.

4. Build up your social media presence. Start accounts with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, Storify, etc. These accounts should also be as a fine balance of personal, but professional with of course no on grammar, spelling or punctuation errors. Every account should be customized with your first name, last name, a picture and a brief biography of you on it. Once the accounts are established, link them to your webpage and begin to familiarize yourself with each one. You want as many ways as possible for recruiters to search for you, to add you to their network and to keep in touch after the convention is over. Plus, it’s fun to live tweet at the convention.

Pressfolios Offers Updated Features

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/eNewsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Back on May 10, DJTF did a webinar with Pressfolios co-founder Marc Samson. Pressfolios is a pretty simple platform created to help journalists, writers, reporters, bloggers, public relations and other media professionals to back up their news stories, design a beautiful online portfolio website, and showcase their personal brand.

During the webinar, Samson said new features were coming, and now they have arrived.  Among the updates:

• Pocket/Instapaper-Style Story Backups — We’re incredibly excited to announce that Pocket/Instapaper-style PDF backups have now been activated for all Pressfolios users.  From here on out, every story added to Pressfolios now comes with two copies backed up on our servers, safely stored and always close at hand. All stories previously added to your Pressfolios account are in the process of generating full-text backups right now. Read more >>
• Bye-bye “Featured” Tab, Hello Fully Customized Story Ordering — By and far the single-most requested feature since launching the all-new Pressfolios, Custom Story Ordering is now here. This means you can now fully customize the order of ALL stories appearing on your Pressfolio, courtesy of our newly released drag and drop interface. Read more >>
• Your Shiny New Pressfolio Designer — The next time you log into your Pressfolios account, you’ll notice some major changes to the Design Manager (aka the “Customize” tab). First and foremost is a switch from the old tab-based layout to a new streamlined interface pulling all elements of the Pressfolio design workflow onto a single page. Read more >>
• Upload Your Resume & Link to Your Blog — You asked – you got it: Thanks to popular demand (and a few snippets of code) you can now upload and display your resume/CV on Pressfolios, as well as a link to your blog. Read more >>
• Photo Editing Software Aviary Now Integrated into Pressfolios — If you had any trouble with image cropping and positioning in the early days of Pressfolios beta, take heart – your troubles are gone now. The powerful image editing software of Aviary has been integrated into Pressfolios. Read more >>

Pressfolios is still in private beta, but use the code NABJ to bypass the wait for an invitation.  Are you using Pressfolios?  Please send us a link to share with our readers!

Resources To Build That Perfect Portfolio Website

By Benét J. Wilson, NABJ Program Chair, NABJ DJTF chair & freelance aviation/travel journalist and blogger

Yesterday, Marissa Evans, a student at Marquette University, posted an item from the 10000 Words blog: 5 Free Sites to Help Journalists Build an Online Portfolio – 10,000 Words. But the good folks weren’t at last year’s NABJ Annual Convention & Career Fair discovered a better resource.

Michelle Johnson, Associate Professor of the Practice, Journalism at Boston University (and one of my digital journalism heroes), did a workshop at last year’s convention —The One-minute Media Mogul: Creating Online Portfolios — that was much more informative.  When I got laid off last October, Michelle was one of the first people I called. I wanted to get her notes from her great presentation.

She kindly gave me permission to share them, so here they are, as promised. I’d love to hear from you on which site you decide to use, and send links to see what you came up with.  Thanks!!

For Building a Free/Low-cost Portfolio or Website
WordPress.com
Wix.com
Tumblr.com
Weebly.com
Squarespace.com
Bluehost.com (for setting up a “self-hosted” version of WordPress)

Tips: Creating an Online Portfolio Using WordPress
WordPress is not just for blogging! It’s a full-fledged “content management system” that you can use to build a web site. With just a few tweaks, you can easily and quickly launch your own site. See these articles for details:
CUNY: Creating a Top-Notch Journalist Portfolio

How to Build a Distinctive Portfolio Site
WordPress.com vs hosted WordPress

“Self-hosted” WordPress Bluehost.com tutorials:
How to Install WordPress
Installing Themes
Setting up WordPress as a CMS
http://wordpress.forthenovice.com (videos)

WordPress.com Tutorials/Help
If you are using the free version of WordPress, look here for tips on how to configure your site: WordPress.com Support

Embedding documents
Do you want to embed :
Scribd.com – Need to embed a pdf of your resume? Try scribd.
Docstoc.com – Similiar to Scribd.
Tutorial: How to Embed PDF, Spreadsheets, etc. into WordPress
WordPress Plugin: Google Doc Embedder (Note: this works only for the self-hosted version of WordPress, not the free version.

WordPress Themes (aka templates)
Wordpress.com Theme Showcase: http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/

Note: The themes below are for “self-hosted” WordPress sites. You cannot install your own themes on the freebie sites available at wordpress.com.

Graph Paper Press: Great templates for photographers, visual types
Gabfire: For creating a news site.
Themeforest.net: My personal favorite. Tip: Click on “Wordpress” in the navigation bar first to filter out other formats.

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org
This article compares the two.

 

The New Way To Manage Your Online Portfolio

By Danielle Neveles, BA in Journalism ’11 Indiana University Indianapolis School of Journalism, freelance journalist, blogger and editor

Still carrying around all your clips in a folder or portfolio? Well those days are long over. Technology has changed everything about our industry including how we market ourselves and advertise our work samples. With the growth of multimedia and web based careers, employers are looking to see just how web savvy you are. And what better way to present your multimedia clips than on-line.

Nowadays, employers look for links where they can view your work rather than old fashioned print copies of samples or tapes of video. Now don’t get me wrong, some employers still want the traditional samples. But more and more employers look to the web to learn about what you can do. And why not? We use profiles like Facebook and LinkedIn to showcase ourselves professionally and personally. Well now there is a way to market our work this way too.

About.me and Cuttings.me are two sites, which enable journalist to create an online presence dedicated to their work and accomplishments. Sort of a one-stop shop for employers.

Tony Conrad, Ryan Freitas and Tim Young co-founded about.me and were looking to build a single on-line identity. That is exactly what about.me allows you to do.

About.me allows you to create a personal splash page. You can give a brief biography of your experience and background and provide links to all your online sites in one place. This way anyone wanting to learn about you can visit your splash page, learn about what you do and connect with you instantly via your email, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn.

It also enables you to quickly give prospective employers a brief overview of your experience and then direct them to your samples. Jummy Olabanji, a broadcast journalist in the Washington, D.C., area, recently made an about.me profile and linked it to her domain name. She said it wasn’t hard at all to create the splash page.

Cuttings.me is slightly different, but accomplishes the same goal. With cuttings.me you can provide a brief biography of yourself, add links to your Twitter, LinkedIn or Youtube and preview all your writing samples. On the cuttings.me profile employers can quickly scroll through your recent articles or videos and view your work. If they choose, they can be taken directly to the source site of your work.

Both sites are guaranteed to make creating your on-line presence much simpler. Whether you are looking to give employers a splash of your exceptional experience or amaze them with samples of your videos and articles, it will definitely make it easier than carrying around the large book of your print clips. These sites make it easier to prove to employers that you really are a multimedia and web savvy journalist. Don’t just tell them, show them.