jrnwilliams

[jrnwilliams]

A website I built in Wordpress. I wrote all the copy, designed the site, installed all the plugins and analytics tools, etc.

[jrnwilliams]

This is a thought leadership blog post I wrote while working for Classkick. I also created the graphics.

#blogs #graphics #graphic design #pedagogy

[jrnwilliams]

A series of thought leadership blogs I contributed to and heavily edited while working for Classkick. I also created or revised the graphics for each one.

#blogs #EdTech #graphics

[jrnwilliams]

Social media posts, graphics, and videos I created during my time at Classkick.

#Social media #graphic design #Canva #videos #instagram

[jrnwilliams]

Being a Millennial isn't so bad. Sure, the economy sucks, most of us can’t find jobs with decent pay (if at all), and the Boomers love to blame us for everything. But we’re also a pretty great generation, mainly due to those struggles. Necessity has made us resourceful, open-minded, and focused on friendship and happiness. Ours is the generation of Facebook, Netflix, Zipcar, and rap songs extolling thrift stores. We’ll probably be the generation that saves the environment, if only because we’re too broke to keep trashing it. Homesteading is in, McMansions are out.

Green living as affordable living is nothing new. Poor individuals have been eschewing cars and reusing glass jars for decades. We owe a lot of great innovations to those people, many of whom have been People of Color. Now, as the middle class disappears, more and more of us are being forced to find creative solutions to expensive needs-- particularly housing.

As you’ve likely already figured out, rent can be prohibitively expensive. Even if you can afford a place (usually with roommates), you’re effectively flushing that money down the drain every month. Home ownership is ideal, because you can get a return on your investment, but many of us can’t afford it. And even Millennials who qualify for a mortgage often can’t afford anything else, such as travel (something most of us are obsessed with).

When you look at the Millennial lifestyle and mindset, “hermit crabbing” makes so much sense. After years of living on campus or with roommates, most of us can fit all of our belongings into a room or two. Plus, most of our books, movies, and music are digital now. So why not pack your belongings into an eco-friendly home that can travel with you anywhere, from the beach to that new job?

No, the answer is not “tiny houses,” at least not the kind you’re probably familiar with. Those are fabulous, but I don’t have $40,000+ or excessive handiness to build my own. If you’re in the same boat, the trick is to Google “used RV” instead.

Travel trailers and motorhomes are generally much smaller than park model trailers, and RVs hang out wherever you park them-- most commonly in beautiful campgrounds or RV parks, but sometimes parking lots or the middle of nowhere. They’re also generally pre-furnished, making them a great choice for those of us who have spent our adult lives sleeping in a residence hall or our childhood bed.

Of course, the most exciting aspect is the cost. You can get a decent trailer for as low as $1,500 on Craigslist. If you live remotely close to Louisiana, you can find a nice 2006 FEMA trailer with a full bathroom and kitchen for $2,000-5,000. You’ll probably want to give it a coat of paint, but it’s certainly much less work than building a tiny house from scratch. You’ll get more bang for your buck with a pull-behind trailer than a motorhome, but you have to have a truck/SUV (or a friend with one) to pull your new home somewhere. There are so many types of RVs out there, each with advantages and disadvantages. Do your research and decide which one is best for you!

Once you have your hermit crab “shell,” you’ll need to put it somewhere. A full hookup will run you $300-$500 a month at most RV parks, which usually includes water, sewer, electric, cable, and maybe (if you’re lucky) decent Wi-Fi. Some parks let you work part-time and get free utilities in exchange, but it could work out to less than minimum wage, so do the math before signing up. If you use the campground shower and bathroom facilities, you can often find a place for $150/month for parking and electric. Alternatively, you can toss on some solar panels for a few hundred dollars and then boondock (dry park) for free, driving into town periodically to empty your black water tank and refill on water and food. Most full-timers seem to mix boondocking with campground visits, and there are usually discounts for long-term stays and members of certain clubs.

One big drawback to living in an RV is Wi-Fi, which can be spotty in parks and obviously non-existent while boondocking. Mobile data can be expensive, although obviously not as expensive as normal rent and utilities in an apartment! Also, with a stealthy enough rig, you can park behind a Starbucks or public library for a few hours to get a connection, even if the establishment is closed. I buy enough Starbucks to not feel guilty about doing this, but your mileage may vary.

RV living is not for everyone, but it’s an affordable, environmentally friendly way for Millennials to own homes and travel extensively (or move at a moment’s notice for a new job). For those of us with disabilities and unconventional careers, it can be a miracle option. Best of all, it’s even good for the earth. RV construction is greener than house construction, and lower utility bills also mean lower carbon footprint.

Have you ever considered full-time RV living? Does the idea appeal to you, or would you rather die than live in a trailer? Let me know!

P.S. If you’re curious about RV living or the tiny house movement in general, I hope you’ll come geek out with me on Pinterest!

#rv #millennials #tiny house #tiny houses #full time RVing

[jrnwilliams]

Press Releases and Event Coverage

Please contact me for references regarding these samples. Holocaust Survivor Founder’s Award Murphy Birthday Graduate Students Naturalization Ceremony Most Promising Places to Work Women in Business

[jrnwilliams]

My article from November’s Fayette Woman magazine.

#celiac #food allergies #food restrictions #holiday meals #holiday cooking

[jrnwilliams]

Social Media Marketing for MLs

Social media presence, much less marketing, isn’t required of municipal liaisons. In fact, the Powers That Be at NaNoWriMo HQ would rather have most activity focused on the official regional forums. Nonetheless, nearly every region has a presence on at least one social media platform. When I joined the Atlanta region this year, we had seven: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitch, Flickr, and Youtube. And that’s not counting our WordPress blog or IRC chatroom!

So how did our region handle marketing across all these social networks? For starters, we sat down in September and hashed out all the details. Here are a few factors we considered.

What Type of Marketing?

There are two types of marketing: Inbound and outbound. Inbound is synonymous with blogging and social media—essentially, the consumer comes to you. Conversely, if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of junk mail or telemarketers, congratulations! You’re familiar with outbound marketing. Statistically, inbound marketing is a lot more effective than outbound, but both obviously do co-exist.

Outbound marketing isn’t all bad, of course. How many times have we found something perfect in an unexpected place thanks to an ad or commercial? I got a dream product for my kitchen that way just this week (yay Instant Pot)! However, you’ll almost certainly be using inbound marketing with social media, as the two go hand in hand. Also, outbound marketing (such as placing ads on social media sites) usually costs a lot of money, and we MLs get paid negative money for our time.

Once we agreed (pretty quickly) to focus on inbound marketing, the rest was a lot easier to figure out.

Which Platforms?

The best platforms for your region will depend on a lot of factors. Because we’re a big region, we only cut back on a few (Youtube, Twitch, Flickr). We still have accounts for those sites, but we decided not to do anything with them this year. 

We had several reasons for halving our active social media accounts in 2016. The primary reason was that we wanted to focus more intensely on our other accounts, not to mention our in-person events. Preventing ML burnout was another factor we considered, since all of us had exhausting lives this year outside of NaNoWriMo. We also didn’t want to overwhelm our regional participants with too many accounts to follow and keep up with! Participant burnout is just as real an issue as volunteer burnout.

But to answer the question in the header, why did we pick the ones we did? Again, it was a combination of factors. To start with, far fewer people use those three sites on a daily basis than the four we focused on. When they do use them, they don’t interact the same way. Typically, followers consume but don’t interact as readily on those sites. So we decided to hit the hardest on the platforms our followers used and interacted with the most on a daily basis.

In my opinion, the best platforms are ones you already use, know, and love. When divvying up the work, I picked Tumblr and Instagram. I use them daily, so I’m intimately familiar with how their tagging and SEO features work. I’m also familiar with the general audiences of each. Alicia took Facebook, and we all pitched in with that. If you’re only familiar with Facebook or Twitter, only focus on that platform! 

That said, I do think Facebook groups and pages are considered the “standard,” if there is one. I know it can be overwhelming if you’ve never managed a Facebook page, but it’s a lot less complicated than you’d expect! Check out this guide for getting started, and don’t forget to follow the NaNoWriMo trademark rules for MLs. (tl;dr, you can use “NaNo” but not “NaNoWriMo” in your name, and you can’t use the official logo.)

Speaking of teamwork... Although this is not strictly marketing related, I think it’s worth noting that Facebook was an incredible platform for team collaboration and productivity. If you only have one or two other MLs, a group chat is probably perfect. However, we had five MLs this year! Using a secret Facebook group worked incredibly well for us, because we all got email and phone alerts when someone posted in the group, allowing us to quickly communicate, even on the go. We also liked the hierarchical comment threads, event planning tools, and image uploading capabilities. We tried a Facebook group chat, a Skype group chat, a Discord server, and very nearly a Slack server. We also wasted a lot of time initially trying to fumble with “reply all” in our emails, which led to people getting left out and deadlines being missed. However, as soon as I set up the secret Facebook group, it really streamlined our communication and helped our big group of MLs coordinate practically in real time. It worked brilliantly, even though a couple of us rarely ever use Facebook otherwise. I would highly recommend it if you have more than 3 MLs!

What Content?

Once we had the other details hammered out, it was time to figure out what content we wanted to upload. This was less simple than you might think. We came up with a general idea of what we wanted each platform to focus on, and we tried to avoid crossposting too much. However, don’t get too overwhelmed—if you’re at all familiar with your chosen platform, you probably have a good idea of what works best on it!

Official News and Events

This is the easy one. If you’re not marketing your official news and events on social media, what are you doing with it? However, like every item on here, different platforms call for different strategies.

Facebook works best for official posts, in my opinion. The event creation capabilities can help people RSVP and get reminders relatively seamlessly, which is helpful when packing those goody bags the night before. (Just plan to make an extra bag or 10, to be safe.)

On Tumblr, I posted event fliers and the occasional reminder or link to the big events. I also linked to our official blog posts from time to time. Because of the nature of this platform, I avoided spamming the users too frequently with event reminders.

On Twitter, we mostly just let it automatically remind people about our upcoming events and write-ins via a Google Calendar widget. None of us felt super inspired by the Twitter account this year, so we plan to evaluate the account and revisit our goals for it in 2017.

We used Instagram almost exclusively in this way. I uploaded a few pictures from our events to our account, and people seemed to enjoy that. However, next year we may look at less obvious ways to utilize this platform, such as moodboards and contests.

Although we did not use Youtube or Twitch, a great use for these sites is livestreaming your events (such as a local Night of Writing Dangerously) or holding virtual write-ins. However, when we suggested this as an option, our WriMos mostly reacted pretty negatively to the idea. They wanted us to make a group Skype chat and broadcast the events for them, which is obviously a lot more cumbersome. We’ll see how this goes in the future.

Writing Craft Tips

Tumblr was definitely the place for funny writing prompts and craft masterposts. These posts got the second most engagement levels, after memes and humor. We posted a lesser amount on Facebook, but there wasn’t much engagement there.

Memes and Humor

Don’t underestimate the power of humor! Some of our most engaging posts this year were memes and jokes. We accidentally overlapped on Facebook and Tumblr a few times, but no one complained. Memes and humor made it onto all of our platforms, to varying extents.

Individual Novel Questions

This year, I tried asking our Tumblr followers about their novels, but I had very limited engagement. However, people generally love talking about themselves, so I think it’s a good topic! We’ll revisit the idea again next year; I think these topics would thrive on Facebook.

What Else to Consider?

It can be tempting to measure your success in terms of new followers. I definitely have to avoid this trap this year, particularly with Tumblr (where I had to create a new account and still got more followers than the previous, very old one). However, follower count generally isn’t the best way to tell how effective your social media marketing is. I’ll talk more about metrics in a future post. Right now, I’m too busy celebrating the end of November to even look at our metrics from the past month!

You should give yourself a break, too. Take a few days off, and send me your questions about social media marketing for NaNoWriMo in the meantime! I’m happy to answer your questions, and if they’re about metrics, I just might include them in a future post.

What did your region do for social media this year? What are you planning for next year?

#nanowrimo #municipal liaison #national novel writing month #ml guide #ml guides #unpaid

[jrnwilliams]

Need a break from writing? Need some cool tunes to motivate you? Nosy about what other people are listening to? Today on the NaNoLanta blog, the MLs talk about music, playlists, and white noise! Share your favorite music sites and show us this year’s playlist.

#unpaid #nanowrimo #ml #writing craft

[jrnwilliams]

Covers: A Brief History of My Fails (by Rachael)

Are you making a novel cover this year? Come read which tools Rachael is using to suck slightly less at this whole “graphic design” stuff. And if you’re an expert, chime in on which software you’re using this year!

#nanowrimo #unpaid #writing craft

[jrnwilliams]

Planning, Pantsing, and Pinteresting

Are you a planner or a pantser? Whatever your writing style, Pinterest can be an awesome way to keep track of your story ideas! This week on the Official NaNoLanta Blog, MLs Kate and Rachael discuss how they take their writing process to the next level with the virtual scrapbooking site. Check it out!

The Wild World of Planning by Kate

The Wild World of Not Planning Anything Ever by Rachael

#nanowrimo #unpaid #writing craft

[jrnwilliams]

NaNo, We Have a Problem

Mission Control to NaNoLanta, Come in NaNoLanta.

Phew! We thought we lost you for a sec. We’re detecting some problems on the edge of Thanksgiving's gravitational pull. Sure, this is where some people hit their stride. For most of us, however, this is where things start sucking worse than the cold, black vacuum of space. But don’t worry, NaNoLanta. We’ll get everyone home safely, no matter how bleak things look out there.

Maybe you blasted off perfectly. You cruised on that momentum for a while, but now you’re running on fumes and you’ve lost your navigation panel. You’re drifting off course, and you don’t know if you have the fuel to get to your destination.

Or maybe you’ve had problems since day 1—or before. You might have forgotten about the mission until launch day, or maybe you were even late to the rocket! You might have planned and perfected everything months ago, only for it all to start disintegrating the moment you got into orbit.

Or perhaps you’re one of the many people who launched thinking you were heading to the moon, only to find out that your real destination was Planet X.

Whatever the case, it’s not yet time to abandon hope. If you’re lost in space with your novel, just follow these steps to find your course again:

Find new energy sources

If you’re feeling out of gas, you’re not alone. With school, work, holidays, family responsibilities, and all the other stresses that come with November, inspiration can really suffer. Plus, if you’re like me, you’ve probably written all the fun parts by now. It feels like it’s all hard, boring work from here.

Finding inspiration can be a chore, but during November, it's a chore that can be as fun as washing dishes in a floating bubble. (I don't know if that's a thing that happens in space, but I've always wanted to do that.) Google around or ask a friend (or librarian!) to help you find a TV show, movie, or book that will inspire you. Don’t worry about stealing ideas; your story is special on its own. Other people’s stories can inspire you, and they can help you find things you like about your genre—and things you don’t like! If you’re writing about supervolcanoes, reading a novel about them or watching a docudrama doesn’t mean your story will become just like someone else’s. But it might mean you forgot about a cool consequence (like acid rain or global cooling) that can become a plot point. Don’t be afraid to refuel your creativity with someone else’s ideas. Your output will still be uniquely yours.

Also be sure to check out some writing prompts or plot twist generators. You never know what will inspire you.

Forge a new path

One of the best parts of NaNoWriMo is trying new things. But don't think this only applies to trying new softwares and local coffee shops! If you’ve been jumping around in your novel, try writing linearly one day this week. Start at the beginning and work your way back through. (Just avoid editing!) When I did this, I found a bunch of side plots I had completely forgotten about. I got not only scenes, but entire character arcs and subplots by going back through from the beginning.

And if you’ve been writing scene after scene in a linear way, try doing the opposite one day this week. Write your ending. Write your epilogue. Write the climax. Write that one really cool scene you’ve been anxiously waiting for since October. You may find things start to make more sense and you have more energy and inspiration for your novel.

Come on! It's time to TAKE CHANCES, MAKE MISTAKES, GET MESS— [static] Sorry, U.S.S. NaNoLanta, I'm being told that we cannot, in fact, plagiarize Ms. Frizzle. But the point still stands! NaNoWriMo is all about experimenting, so if you're lost in space without a path to follow, just make your own. It might lead you somewhere cooler than you were planning.

Refuel your brain, too

Creativity almost never shows up when you’re staring at a blank page. It may seem counterintuitive, but the best way to beat writer’s block is to do anything but sit in front of your computer or notebook. When I’m stuck, these activities are guaranteed to give me at least a shooting star's worth of inspiration!

Go for a walk or run

Take a shower or bath

Do the dishes by hand

Go for a long drive

Make a Pinterest board to plan your novel—or to pants it

Make your characters in The Sims and see what they do

Make a new mood board or novel cover

Make a new playlist or ambient noise mixer

Create a blog or social media profile for one of your characters (you can count anything you write as them in your wordcount!)

Find an inspiring location nearby and sit and write

Lie down and pretend like you’re going to sleep

It may be scary to rest up your brain with November slipping away, especially if you're extra limited on writing time. And don't get me wrong: you can definitely fall down a rabbit hole with most of these activities. So try to find a balance that works for you, but don't underestimate the importance of giving your brain a break when you feel uninspired.

Work with your crew

Much like successful space travel, writing a novel can be a team effort. Brainstorm in the chatroom, or talk to some writing buddies. Find a local write-in and let them know you’re struggling. Post your dilemma on the forums. (Plot Doctoring or NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul may be just what you need!) Join some word sprints on Twitter. If things are really dire and you seriously want to give up, consider rebelling instead—just find a fellow WriMo who's also behind and start writing a collaborative novel together!

The biggest difference between writing in November versus the rest of the year is the collective human energy harnessed in NaNoWriMo's core. Use it while you can!

Admire the scenery

Finally, whether you win or lose, just enjoy the ride instead of fretting about the destination.

Sure, you could spend your whole month stressing over NaNoWriMo. Or you could relax and enjoy the ride. Even if you have to head back to Earth without finishing your mission, you still had an adventure, didn’t you? You met new people and went farther than most people ever will. You honed your skills and found new resources. Next year, you’ll use what you learned to go even farther.

Whether you’ve written 1 word or 100,000 this month, congratulate yourself! How many words would you have written this month normally? You’ve already done fantastic work, and there’s still time to do more. If your novel is totally finished or abandoned, be a rebel and start a new writing project. (And don't worry about being judged for "cheating." At least 3 of your MLs have done that this year, so we absolutely love and support our fellow NaNoLanta Rebels!) But chances are, there's still more left to do on that first project you fell in love with. Try a few of the tips in this novel-length pep talk (oops), and don't be shy about posting on the forums if you're stuck.

Now, get back to writing, pal! You’ve still got an amazing story, and those words aren’t gonna write themselves. Do your best, whether you think you have a shot at finishing or not. Just work hard, make yourself proud, and earn that dang TGIO party!  Go out there and kick your novel's butt! Mission control believes in you!

Standing By to Initiate Re-Entry Sequence,

ML Rachael

#nanowrimo #pep talk #nanolanta #ml #unpaid

[jrnwilliams]

News Articles

Wikileaks.org releases thousands of Afghan war secret documents that tell real story of war BP managers named suspects, placed under federal investigation New leak detected near oil spill, US demands action Dead Sea Scrolls secret unlocked by new find Boston Craigslist killer commits suicide Texas man gets life in prison for DWI Flight attendant quits, storms off down inflatable slide Report shows 2000-2009 was the Earth's warmest on record Hartford shooter killed "racists" before killing himself Da Vinci's painting secrets unveiled with x-rays Blagojevich jury deadlocked on 22 of 24 charges, recessed for weekend.

#news #current events #paid

[jrnwilliams]

Health Articles

New Research on Autism/Vaccine Link Fires the Debate Back Up  Promising New Breakthrough in HIV Vaccination Quest! Utah Woman's Twins Have Different Due Dates, Different Wombs. Longer-Lasting Morning After Pill Finally Approved by FDA How to Lose Weight When You're Depressed

#health #paid

[jrnwilliams]

Video Games

Bioshock (Sorry about the formatting; I don't control the website.) Kitsu Saga Perfect World My Game Review Blog

#paid #video games #entertainment

[jrnwilliams]

Press Releases and Event Coverage

Please contact me for references regarding these samples. Holocaust Survivor Founder's Award Murphy Birthday Graduate Students Naturalization Ceremony Most Promising Places to Work Women in Business

#paid #press releases #event coverage

[jrnwilliams]

Assorted Articles

How to Lose Weight When You're Depressed

Top 3 Fitness Hacks for People Who Hate Exercising

8 Ridiculous(ly Fun) Workouts You've Never Tried

How to Enjoy Flossing

Want to Save Money on Healthcare? Take a Vacation.

4 Shocking Things Pregnant Women Do (That Are Actually OK)

Is Your Chair Trying to Kill You? 9 Fun Ways to Fight For Your Life

14 Ways to Fight Stress Like a Superhero, Even If You're Broke

Why You Should Smash Your Scale with a Sledgehammer

How to Get Out of Debt When You Can't Afford Toilet Paper

The Future is Now: Crazy But Effective Birth Control Options

3 Health Lies Doctors Can't Believe People Still Believe

The Best Skincare Products You Didn't Know You Had

You're Probably Not Sleeping Enough-- and It's Killing You

Creative Ways to Drink More Water

Best Foods for Glowing Skin

#uncategorized #writing #paid