Rather, this self-destructive personality is the writer who relies exclusively on third parties to host their content, including articles, photos and other user-generated material that can simply go away in just a moment.

Last month, I wrote “Why Giving Up Blogging May Be Your Worst Decision,” to touch on the importance of maintaining your own site(s). Today, I am going to get specific on how your most valuable content can quickly disappear.

Am I being an alarmist? I’ll let you decide. However, the facts are clear that when you post material to a website or service that you do not control, then you risk having that information deleted, changed or used for purposes other than what you intended.

1. Terms of service. I read recently where a controversial website that was dedicated to exposing the lies of another organization was suddenly shut down. That website seemed to be telling the truth, but it was hosted on WordPress.com, a free blog hosting site managed by the makers of that powerful content management system. The blog’s opponents seized upon WordPress’ “terms of service,” which clearly spell out that “hate speech” is not allowed. The term “hate speech” is loosely defined, but if someone does not like what you have to say and complains to the right source, then your material can be removed. Fortunately for the owners, they had a database backup and were able to transfer their blog to a private hosting company. Others are not so lucky.

2. Rules are changed. Again. The popularity of Facebook is evident with more than 800 million global users registered as we begin 2012. Its strength and influence cannot be denied, but Facebook has lulled legions of users into pouring all of their resources into its vast pit of accumulated content, material that becomes the property of Facebook. Contributing to Facebook isn’t wrong, but it should never be your primary way of reaching your customers or the people you influence. Even if you delete your Facebook account, the process is not an easy one and your information may remain on Facebook’s servers.

3. Strong platforms fade. Facebook has supplanted MySpace in social media and Google has conquered Yahoo in web search. As difficult as it is to imagine either of these newer platforms being overtaken by an emerging entity, that possibility always exists. Back in the 1990s, message boards and forums ruled, and were destinations unto themselves. Users freely shared valuable information that took countless hours to write. Many of those sites are now gone and the content its contributors submitted has long disappeared. You may be satisfied with your content’s short term influence, but if you want what you write to last for the long haul, then only the sites you control can ensure its continued visibility.

4. Your shortened links no longer work. Besides the content you write, the links you share via social media should be of critical importance to you. Those links can attract new clients and be useful for years to come. However, if a link shortener’s service shuts down, then your links will go away with it. Use a stable link shortening platform, particularly one that allows you to track analytics. I recently started using Google’s goo.gl shortener and am impressed by what this service has to offer.

Extreme reliance on others to host your content can adversely impact your business, perhaps forcing you to close up shop. Even if the hit is only temporary, you’ll lose valuable time and will need to expend resources to retrieve what you have lost. I dobut that you can afford to take such a hit nor should you.

I’ve been posting to one or more blogs regularly since 2005. That followed three years of running an online forum and several more years of belonging to one or more groups or forums. I became active online in 1995, but had at least a passing fancy with computers for years before.

Blogging Adventure

A latecomer to blogging, I still have managed to see the blogosphere change dramatically. Technorati was the driving force for many bloggers, a platform by which they got noticed, connected with other bloggers and, hopefully, monetized their sites. Technorati’s influence has gone the way of MySpace and Digg, virtual afterthoughts in all things Internet.

Blogging’s strength can be credited largely to WordPress which took the blogging model and ran with it. Early on, WordPress experienced the usual growing pains, but by the time Word Press 3.0 rolled out, those problems largely disappeared. Today, WP is a stable and broad platform, an excellent content management system whether you use it for blogging or other purposes.

Gone Dark

Lately, I’ve been visiting the blogging sites of some of my colleague writers and have found two that haven’t been kept up in at least six months. Both sites offered engaging and sometimes instructive content, but each appears to have ceased being updated. No word from the blogger that the work had stopped, just an aged post occupying the home page. They’ve gone dark, but nobody has turned out the light.

I understand what may be driving some bloggers to quit, especially writers who have a lot of other projects and perhaps personal websites to manage. Matt’s Musings faded in 2011 as I allowed a steady stream of contributors to fill in. I stopped accepting guest posts last May, realizing that this blog belongs to me and it is my voice I want out there. Besides, I have an ulterior motive for continuing this site. Read on and I’ll explain why giving up blogging may be your worst decision:

It is your site and your voice — How do people find you other than you making regular queries? Querying for work is great and needful, but I must admit that most of my current crop of clients found me. Matt’s Musings was one of several platforms where my writings brought me work. Without it, I would lose an important marketing tool.

You can express yourself — You can’t possibly express yourself to the degree that you want anywhere else including on Facebook, the site that seems to have the most impact on pulling people away from blogging. Sure, longer form writing is possible, but it just isn’t the same. Facebook may also delete your content if Mark Zuckerberg changes the rules again.

You own it — Unless your blog is hosted Blogspot or WordPress.com, you probably own the site and have arranged your own hosting. You dress up your site the way you want it to look and you backup your files automatically. Why contribute content to a site that you don’t own when you can connect with your readers at the home base you do own?

Your expertise can shine forth — People who are experts in anything always have a home site where their thoughts can be shared. Unless you have a redirect to a new website, people may assume you have quit writing. Why degrade your expert status by gradually disappearing or getting lost in a sea of Facebook users?

No blog, no income — It is no secret that bloggers make money off of their sites. Yes, paid links and paid content are no longer part of the mix, but a display ad can certainly be a money generator. Matt’s Musings is not a direct money maker, but I’ve garnered work through this site that pays for my web hosting and my time writing articles many times over.

Having Fun

My points here aren’t meant to dispense guilt on anyone. Your reasons for not blogging may have everything to do with your schedule, your interest and your workload. Still, I would venture to say that you have blogged for the fun of it, not worrying about grammar, syntax and a host of other rules we must follow when writing for our clients.

In nine years of working for myself, only one client has stiffed me. But, he didn’t get away with it.

Unethical Lawyer

I’ve told this story before, how a cheesy lawyer wanted me to write multiple “lemon car” articles that I determined would take me less than an hour each produce. It soon turned out he had something else in mind and expanded the parameters of the assignment after I submitted the first article, wanting more material than what these $25 articles called for. I told him I could accommodate his request, but my rate was now $75 per article based on the expanded research required. He balked, I sent him an invoice, but after repeated attempts at getting paid, he never paid up.

Pay the writer!

It has been said, “the hardest lessons learned are lessons learned nonetheless.” I couldn’t agree more. After that incident, I made sure that all of my future clients were working under a contract. I haven’t had a problem since.

How to Get Paid

This article is based on a conversation I had last week with one of my long term readers. I promised I wouldn’t use her name, but I did ask and received permission to share her story and my tips. The story doesn’t have a happy ending yet, but I believe that said writer’s persistence will result in a positive outcome.

Like most every writer who is self-employed, freelancer “Jane” juggles several clients and has both long- and short-term assignments that she is working on concurrently. It is one of her short-term clients who is giving her a lot of heartburn, someone who came onboard just after Thanksgiving and promised enough work to keep her busy through Christmas and into the new year. Turns out that this client wanted six 1,200- to 1,500-word articles for an online magazine, a project that would pay $150 per article. That’s a low price Jane is charging, but she said it was based on four hours of work per article including research, writing, editing and the rest. That work equals $37.50 per hour.

I asked Jane how she was to get paid and she replied, “Weekly, once each article was accepted.” Her problem wasn’t unlike the trouble I had with my cheesy lawyer client — Jane submitted her first article, the client reviewed it, sent it back for some edits, Jane made the changes and then nothing. Not a word, not a reply to an email, no phone call. Nothing.

Stopping Work

Figuring that the client was busy and that she would still get paid, Jane wrote her next two articles, but decided to wait to submit them until she heard back from her client. That was Jane’s first mistake: assuming that the job was still on and moving forward. Fortunately for her, she made a wise decision not to submit the articles. However, she wasted her time, because it soon became apparent that the client was purposefully out of touch.

On Dec. 14, Jane submitted an invoice for her first article. Three times leading up to Christmas, she sent emails and attempted to contact the client by phone. Still nothing. With the kids home from school and family arriving from out of town, Jane decided to “back burner” the job and celebrate the holidays. On Jan. 3rd with everyone returning to their routines, that is when Jane sent me a note explaining her dilemma. Several back and forth emails revealed the extent of her trouble and a day or two later I suggested a course of action to take. It went as follows:

Send a certified letter, return receipt requested — Jane had no idea whether her client received her invoice or her email follow ups. I told her to write a cover letter explaining what was due and include an invoice. Then, I instructed here to take that letter to the post office and send it out certified with a return receipt requested. This method is the only way to ensure that someone gets a letter from you without going there in person. And that option wasn’t feasible as the client was 1,500 miles away.

Small claims court — Taking a client to court can spur the deadbeat into action. However, if the contract shows that legal jurisdiction over such matters is where the client lives, then your claim must be filed there. That is why when you write a contract, you should insist that legal matters be handled in the state where you live, preferably in your country. Being that I’m in North Carolina, I don’t want my California, Illinois and Florida clients to think I’ll show up there to see them in court. For larger claims, a collection agency may be your best recourse. You’ll lose about half of what you are owed in exchange for getting the collector to help your client “make good” on his debt.

Move on — Some battles you’ll win and some you will lose. What you’ll need to do is move on as quickly as possible whether you win or lose. In my situation, I turned a loss into a very personal gain. Jane may find that it isn’t worth the pursuit to keep pressing the issue. An alternative would be to try to sell the article elsewhere, particularly if it remains unpublished.

I’m sure Jane will find a way to make this situation work out for herself. She already knows that it is important to be emotionally detached when dealing with clients and also to not spend too much time with any client that might adversely impact her other gigs. Deadbeat clients are a drag and if you do lose money you may be able to show that loss on your income taxes. Consult with your financial advisor or tax preparer to find out how to do that.

See Also — Pay the Writer, or Else

You see, after today I’m taking a 3-day break from my labors, one of the few times in a year I put my work to the side for more than one day. It isn’t because I’m addicted to my work, rather my work is constant and affords me little time to take off. Unless I don’t want to earn money!

This year I planned it so that I would have three days off for Christmas, given that the holiday is on a Sunday and the following day is a legal holiday. Who wants to work when everyone you know will be celebrating?

Today is “finish up” day and I’m tying together all of my loose ends before I log off. Early this morning, well before sunrise, I found myself awake and once I was ready to write I wrote five articles. The writing muse within me took over and I was able to come up with five original stories, source my information, complete my edits and upload each article. That allowed me to finish next week’s assignments for a client days in advance and turn my attention to the loose ends.

Ah, but I also chose to work out of the home today, thinking that the distraction of having my wife and children nearby would make it difficult to work. Nada.

At the cafe I like to call home at least once a week, it is quiet with few people coming and going. Still, I managed to strike up a conversation with someone I hadn’t seen in months and thus began my downward spiral into my “I can’t wait to hang it up for Christmas,” mood.

So, I decided to take a break and write this article, one I have been mulling around in my head for the past few days. Besides wishing you a “Merry Christmas,” I wanted to simply encourage you to take a break too.

If you can’t put your work to the side for more than a day or two, then take smaller breaks and work part of the day and simply goof off the rest of the day. Visit family. Entertain friends. Take in a movie. Go bowling. Relax.

When I do come back to work on Tuesday, it will be only for half days for the rest of the week. My advanced planning has given me that luxury and I know my family will be glad to see more of me and I, them. Come Jan. 2 I expect to be back working at my fevered pace, but maybe with the knowledge that my R&R did me much good.

It’ll do you good too. Your work can probably wait and your clients may have long scattered to their vacation destinations, giving little thought to pending projects, deadlines and a host of other “things to do” that are part of our daily schedule.

Meanwhile, I’m returning to my last article and expect to have it done well before my self-imposed 6 p.m. deadline. Merry Christmas!

Is it time for you to bring your old blog out of the box?

Old blogs never die…they just seem to fade away. Well, unless you close down your blog and delete all of your messages, your weblog may last for many years after your final post. That is, if you keep paying for your web hosting and renew your URL.

I’ve seen some really nifty blogs fade away over the years and I can certainly understand why: blogging is a lot of work and many sites gain little or no financial remuneration for all the hard work that writers do. These days, nearly every one of us is scrambling to make a living and that means we have to follow the money trail, as straight and narrow as that may be.

This blog is nearing its sixth anniversary and definitely qualifies as an old blog. Were I to rejuvenate it to its past glory, you’d begin to notice dramatic changes immediately. Alas, I am also chasing money and have little time to breathe new life into this old blog. That doesn’t mean you can’t give your blog a kick start, helping it to regain must of the prominence it once had, by taking the following four steps:

1. Get Writing – What made your blog successful in the past? Likely, it was your frequent postings that attracted a healthy following. Therefore, plan to write your heart out even if your audience isn’t still around to read what you write. Some former readers will come back and you’ll bring in new readers too. Yes, that means making good use of social media, such as Twitter, to let people know that you’re back shaking the blogosphere.

2. Get Your Mojo Back – Your passionate writing of yore may have disappeared, at least with the blog that you once loved and poured your heart and soul into. Tap that passion you’ve since transferred to your other writing gigs and bring it to your blog. Be real too: in life, you may be able to fake people out to their faces, but when it comes to writing they’ll know if you’re authentic or a poser. Allow the passionate blogger within you to take over!

3. Make a Plan – I operate an automotive blog (autotrends.org) and have enjoyed much success with it because I plan ahead. Some of my articles are written a week ahead and will “drip” at the appointed hour days from now. Other articles are sitting on my hard drive in outline form. I also have a draft or two that I’m working on. This type of scheduling and planning works out for me because I can take a break whenever I want (i.e., Thanksgiving and Christmas) and get back to writing when inspiration hits. I wrote this article yesterday and had it all set up to appear today.

4. Engage Your Audience – You want people to follow you, right? Well, engage them in a conversation. But, note this: you don’t have to be 100 percent thorough when discussing a topic. Leave 10 percent untold and your readers will add a point or two to fill in the gap (exception: if you’re giving step by step instructions, then you must be thorough). That way, you’ll elicit more responses from your readers and will respond to their comments – think about creating a dialogue. Leave helpful comments on other people’s blogs too, especially if the topic is similar to your own. I use Google Blog Search to track down related blogs (google.com/blogsearch) and will leave a comment if I find something of value.

You can also participate in various offline activities such as attending seminars, conferences and related events. I regularly hit the road to take in automotive events, passing out my business cards and acquiring cards and contact information as well.

The more involved you are with your blog, the greater the chance you’ll connect with people including industry influencers and others who will buy an ad, invite you to their event or recognize you through their website. Now go and breathe new life into your old blog!

Photo: Svilen Milev

I am sorry that I never followed you back on Twitter. I am sorry that I’ve neglected retweeting your tweets.

I am sorry that I am just an occasional participant on Google + and I am certainly sorry that your last message to me was buried in my Gmail inbox.

How is that for a start?

I am sorry. No, really.

Call me social media engaged, but also call me social media overloaded. I cannot think of the last time I used Digg. Or Reddit. Or Technorati. I am still using StumbleUpon, although my lack of consistency should be evident to all.

Family members beckon me on Facebook, but other than offering up the requisite birthday good wishes, most of my participation involves the automatic postings from Auto Trends and Word Journey. Too much “TMI” has left me wanting less…far less.

I am sorry for forgetting to get back to you about your guest article. Quite frankly, I am working with solicited contributors and don’t have the time to review each of the unsolicited requests. I get tons of them scattered across the blog network that I manage. Most are off topic…many are poorly written.

Still, the invites to this network or that group come in. Everyone on LinkedIn seems to want me to join their group. I prefer to use LinkedIn as my online resume and offer up an occasional question when an article idea requires additonal input.

I have a lot of friends in India – people who want to do business with me, offering to write articles for as low as $1 a piece. Trouble is, the grammatical mistakes, spelling errors and syntax are often so very wrong that I would have to spend as much time editing each article as it would take me to write them. Thanks, but I’ll pass.

I am sorry that your business venture has not worked out or that your webinar cannot seem to find sponsors. The few webinars I’ve participated in have been too long or offered a poor connection. I would rather have read your notes and, if there is something of benefit, share that information with my readers. Most webinars seem to be long on fluff and short on substance. Lots of marketing too. Enough.

To my clients I offer up a sincere apology if Google PageRank still gets you up in arms. In 2006, PR mattered much and I told you so. In 2011, PR is a secondary ranking factor – your placement in the SERPs carries greater weight. Let’s continue to naturally build backlinks and link out to reputable sites again and again and again….

Have I missed someone in my great apology tour? If so, I am sorry. And let’s just leave it at that.

Photo: MorgueFile

I’ve strayed from my original mission and, in the past few months, have turned this site over to contributors or I haven’t posted at all. That means I’m no longer the “voice” of this blog, allowing surrogates to dispense advice, though I must admit that some of the contributors have done a stellar job in conveying useful information. Thank you one and all.

Still, my contributors are just that — guests who have something to share, but not representative of who I am. Thankful though I am for everyone’s help, I’ve decided to come around, full circle, and return this blog to its roots. From this point forward, I’ll be sharing my thoughts here from time to time, musing as in day’s past and without too many constraints. I’ll write in the first person, jumble up some of my sentence structures and violate a few style sheet rules in the process.

Baby, I’m home! And it feels good too.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, I see that I’m not the only one who has abandoned or neglected his or her blog in favor of actively engaging people via social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter. This is understandable, but distressing: I’ve gleaned so much from some people through their blogs that I’m not able to take away much from 140 character tweets or we’re just not connecting on Facebook.

I’m much more open with touching base with people on Twitter, but not so with Facebook. I’ve since limited my FB involvement mostly to family members, as a way to keep up with what everyone is doing. Even then, staying connected is done purely in a “surfacey” way — much of the information shared is of small value. Other information is strictly TMI and not something for a broader audience.

In many ways, writing has been co-opted by corporations which have established websites with the sole purpose of gaining top position in Google’s search engine result pages. Top position means selling prime advertising space including getting those coveted clicks on text and image ads.

User-generated content, as sent to Facebook means that this social media platform is the de facto point of contact for many people online. Even Google is getting squeezed as some people go straight to FB and stay put all day.

That means my audience has likely changed dramatically, with a number of my contacts no longer participating here or managing their own sites. I began to blog when the novelty was still apparent, but those days have since passed. These days, WordPress is a much more robust platform, but it seems that even with an improved content management tool, its effectiveness is being undercut by powerful, external forces.

None of that will stop me, however, as I’m committed to bringing this site back to its roots, perhaps enabling me to reach a new audience. Or at least allow me to muse as I see fit. And thank you for following me here on Matt’s Musings.

Article marketing has always been one of those tried and tested marketing mediums that has stood the test of time. With the constant changes that are evident in the online world and the new and sexy marketing methods being introduced daily, article marketing is still firmly rooted as a stalwart for website promotion.

But as competition in the online marketing industry has grown the ability to generate large amounts of traffic from articles submitted to directories has significantly dissipated. It wouldn’t be uncommon for one article to receive fewer than 10 views each month, revealing that article marketing might be losing its effectiveness. But guess what? At this very point in time there are marketers who are generating five figure monthly incomes from article marketing alone. Article marketing is still alive and kicking!

However, these marketers are utilizing an innovative technique to drive traffic to their sites through the use of article directories, a technique that defers from the traditional article marketing methodology. In this post I will reveal to you what this technique is and why it so effective.

What is the new age of article marketing?

Traditionally, article marketing was used to drive traffic to an internet marketer’s site from articles submitted to directories like Ezine Articles. In today’s environment this isn’t effective as the traffic generated is less than acceptable. For a marketer to succeed with this method he/she will have to submit 5-10 articles a day to receive a respectable amount of traffic from the directories.

The new age of article marketing goes against this trend and relies on article syndication. Article syndication is when an article you’ve written is picked up by other webmasters and published on their sites with proper attribution (links to your site to credit you). What these 5-figure article marketers are doing is basically writing an informative, engaging, and compelling article and submitting it to the top article directories. These articles are then used as web content, or newsletters by webmasters who feel the content will add value to their visitors or subscribers.

The power of this strategy is that one well written article can be syndicated to hundreds of traffic intensive websites. And this will result in traffic being generated from unlikely sources. Beside the traffic there will also be a number of strong backlinks that are built as well. An article written for syndication will have to follow certain criteria:

The article should:

• be engaging, value-adding, and informational
• not be hyped or “salesy”
• not be written to generate a click as a sales letter will

Article syndication does have its disadvantages as well and very often an excellently written article will go unnoticed, but don’t let this deter you as perseverance is the key to success using this model.

When your articles are re-published on other sites you will have the opportunity to form a relationship with the webmaster who published the article and this will lead to a greater amount of opportunities. You will find that the webmaster in question will begin re-publishing your articles more often when you have established a relationship with him/her.

And don’t forget: the traffic that you acquire from your republished articles will be passive in nature. This will result in a never-ending flow of traffic to your site, which will equate to multiple streams of passive income.

Author Information

Neil Jones specializes in launching ecommerce sites and is currently plying his trade as head of marketing for eMobileScan. With 18 websites based all around Europe this company is on course to become one of Europe’s largest online retailers of Industrial handheld computers like the Motorola MC75 and Zebra ZM400. Neil has been an online marketer for the past six years, and has owned and run a range of ecommerce sites.

No, I don’t have work that I “can’t stand,” rather I’ve been maintaining what I have. Over the course of the past month I’ve also had to turn down to gigs. That was hard to do, but I simply could not find a place to fit these jobs in.

I’ve actually stopped blogging on most of my sites except for my main automotive site — Auto Trends Magazine. This past September I updated the theme and made a commitment to add at least two articles daily. That move has paid off as it has brought in more traffic to my site and has raised my visibility in the automotive industry. Clearly, if I had a choice to write about cars or some other topic, cars would win out most every time.

Personal Stuff

Even when clients come a-calling, I won’t stop all of my personal writing projects completely. I set aside 1-2 hours daily for my own stuff which I treat as my online calling card to clients. This special time also allows me to write with few constraints which means I can cover the topics I want and choose the writing style most suitable for me.

Financially, I’m on target for the year, but I have been battling a disturbing trend: slow or late payments from one or more clients. As you might guess the financial slowdown makes it hard on me as my own bills are always due at the appointed hour.  As a result, I decided to let one customer go over this and am getting firm with others who tend to push things to the limits. Yet, I know the economy is tough across the board, so I’m not willing to push to the side anyone who offers a good explanation. So start ‘splaining!

Writing Ahead

November and December are typically two months where I find myself juggling my schedule enough to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family. This year, I plan on setting aside one Saturday morning to write ahead — queuing articles I want to appear around the holidays. That way, if I need or want some extra time off, those articles will automagically appear.

You gotta love blog post dripping!

For 2011, I hope to raise my rates and am toying with that amount which I’m currently pegging at 3 to 5 percent. I have a few customers who are working at my 2007 rates, but haven’t asked for an increase given the recession and weak recovery. Let’s see what kind of tax whack is in store this January — I have a feeling we’ll all be shelling out more money to cover the national debt and healthcare.

Sometimes, I’ll simply tweak the person’s question and post it to this blog as part of my mailbag series, leaving off the person’s name as most people would prefer anonymity. Then, I send a note thanking the person for their inquiry and supply the link to where they can find their answer.

The most frequently asked question lately seems to center on starting a freelance business, particularly as a writer. Many of our fellow bloggers hold down full time jobs and are exploring whether pursuing freelance work is right for them. Granted, I cannot give anyone a specific yes/no answer; instead, I try to impart my knowledge and leave the exploring up to them.

It seems that I am not alone when it comes to freelance inquiries as I have found a spate of posts from other freelancers who are also fielding similar inquiries. For a sampler, why not visit the following blogs to see what these freelancers have to say:

All Freelance Writing — Jennifer Mattern suggests that writers should choose a specialty when seeking a freelance career. The reasons? You’ll be much more knowledgeable about a subject and be able to command more money.

The Writer’s Manifesto — Monika Mundell shares her thoughts about freelance writing rates, discussing the disparity between article mill jobs and offline assignments. Yes, there are jobs out there that pay more per word than what some people pay for an entire article.

A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye — Lillie Ammann is at it again, offering a new article series, this one discussing how to become a freelance writer. Lillie always thoroughly covers a subject so check out her blog to follow this series as it unfolds.

I always encourage people to follow their passions when it comes to choosing any career and that is the same bit of advice I offer to prospective freelancers when pursuing a writing career. If you know that this is something you must do, then follow it with all of your heart. If not, then don’t.

Freelancing can be difficult, especially for the person whose sole bit of income is garnered from their clients. Up and down times will come and not everyone has the intestinal fortitude to stick with it.

My freelance career started in November 2002, but it wasn’t until Spring 2005 that I made the decision to stick with writing and jettison the web design part of my business. The transition was tough, but I’m now getting good paying jobs and have the luxury to cherry pick assignments.

There was a time when I said I wouldn’t work for someone full time again, but I’m not sure that’ll always be the case. Yet, where I am at this point in my career is fine with me with still loftier goals within site.

Related Story: Should you follow your passion?