Benefits of Freelancing
Freelancing can be a great career “add-on.” It can give you a modest source of income in addition to a full-time job, it can help you build out your professional portfolio to include demonstrations of additional skills, and it can help you expand the network of people who have first-hand knowledge of those terrific skills.

Freelancing can also offer some pretty interesting psychological benefits. It can provide a greater sense of financial stability (alternative/additional revenue stream) in the midst of ongoing workplace upheaval. It can provide a potential pathway to a new job or career, offering some hope if pink slips seem to be falling all around you. And freelancing can also provide you with the confidence that comes from knowing you control some aspect of your career, that your employer doesn’t “own” all of your efforts or intellectual abilities.

Freelancing While Employed
While I was a single mom, I needed the steady, reliable income of a full-time, permanent job. Fortunately, I had a job that I loved as an information advisor to the CEO of a large telecom company. Later I worked as a managing/acquisitions editor for a publishing company, the developer of an information center for a newly established cultural institution, the interim head of an MLIS program, and the developer of the first virtual academic library, among other positions.

While I had all of these full-time jobs, I also always did freelance jobs on the side. It was part of my “exit strategy” – I always knew I could walk away from a job if I needed to and pick up additional freelance jobs. But it was also a part of my mental-health strategy – I needed to know that my career was independent of my employer, and my freelance work gave me the sense of independence and freedom I craved.

None of my freelance gigs were particularly glamorous – mostly researching, writing, editing, some information organization projects, a bit of training and coaching, and even proofreading – but they all represented potential career paths that could, if necessary or desired, be developed into more robust (and lucrative) professional opportunities.

And, in fact, almost all of them have developed into major revenue streams for me now, as I am asked to take on larger projects (at higher prices, thank you!) by clients who have worked with me through the years. Those freelance gigs over the years turned into Dority & Associates, Inc., my solo-entrepreneur content development business.

Freelancing As a Way to Test Going Independent
In fact, freelancing can be a great way to test whether going independent is something that might appeal to you, without having anything at risk. You quickly find out whether you’re willing to give up your evenings and/or weekends when necessary, you discover how well you manage your time, you determine whether you like working with clients, and you find out whether you’re able and willing to ask a client for money. Also, you can test approaches to marketing to see how comfortable you are with this role.

In my next post I’ll talk about what to avoid when freelancing (lessons learned the hard way!), but please note any questions you have about freelancing here as comments, and we can cover them in future posts.

Or maybe you’re thinking about adding a second revenue stream in addition to your day job. Or wanting to develop a new career path into which you’ll eventually transition. If you’ve got information skills (or are willing to learn them), there are all sorts of ways to turn that knowledge into income.

What kinds of things can you do as an independent information pro? Three of the most popular types of information work are research and analysis, writing and content development, and information products.

Research and analysis. Examples: company research, market research, competitive Intelligence, patent research, donor research, trends analysis, recruitment research, customer research, trends research.

Who needs it? In businesses, departments handling business development, product development, marketing and sales, and communications and public relationships (PR). Nonprofits, depending on size, may also have need for much of the same types of research, but also are the primary users for donor research.

Check out: Building & Running a Successful Research Business, 2d ed. / Mary Ellen Bates, Information Today, 2010. 488p. ISBN 0910965854.Or order from Mary Ellen Bates’ website Infostore to receive an free half-hour of coaching in addition to the book.

Writing and content development. Examples: writing white papers, client newsletters, business plans, grant proposals, content strategy, topical and targeted articles for websites, syndicated articles, and resource materials for business and nonpprofit websites. Sometimes can include social media writing, such as paid blogging, for client organizations.

Who needs it? Any business or nonprofit for whom authoritative content, community outreach, social media engagement, or content-driven website traffic is part of their strategic plan. Which these days is just about everybody….

Check out: Cashing in with Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers into Buyers / David Scott Meerman, Information Today, 2005. 280p. ISBN 0910965714, and Content Strategy for the Web / Kristina Halvorson, New Riders Press, 2009. 192 p. ISBN 0321620062.

Information products. Do you have a specialized area of knowledge or expertise? Then you may want to consider creating information products that package that expertise and enable you to sell them either in hard copy (e.g., a published book), or through a website you’ve created for that purpose.

Think white papers, e-books, DVD-based tutorials, subscription newsletters, annual trends analyses in a niche area, or “how-to” tip sheets for newbies. Also, it’s possible to create a profitable blog on a niche topic – not a fast way to a steady income, but it can be a good long-term strategy for developing a revenue stream.

Who needs it? Individuals, businesses, or organizations looking for current, authoritative, easy-to-understand information that helps them do something better, faster, cheaper, or more effectively.

Check out: ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income / Darren Rouse and Chris Garret, Wiley, 2008. 220p. ISBN 0470246677.

There are lots more ways to work as an independent information professional, offering either an information-based service or product to a multitude of users. Your job? Develop the needed expertise to position yourself as the go-to solution in your chosen area of information specialization.

Check out: Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP).

Infonista: Now My Mom Gets What I Do

Instead, she said, I was an infonista, someone who made her living using, creating, disseminating, or otherwise creating value with, information. I think she nailed it (certainly it offered a way to summarize my job skills for my mother), and I also have found that there are a lot of us who are doing exactly that – making a living with information.

My MLIS skill set provided a platform from which I have moved fairly regularly and easily among the areas of publishing, business research, academia, online content creation, small-business information management, nonprofit information strategy, writing, editing – and helping my nieces and nephews with their college papers.

Building a Career as an Information Professional

In this blog, I hope to explore both the various paths information professionals can take to develop their best, most resilient and rewarding careers, and the resources that will help them get there. Where are the opportunities? What are the attitudes that will connect you to them on an ongoing basis? (Or keep you from them just as predictably.)

I believe without a doubt that having information skills provides you with an unlimited opportunity to create the career of your dreams, understanding that those dreams will be a reflection of your life circumstances at any given moment.

As I noted in a book I wrote, Rethinking Information Work: A Career Guide for Librarians and Other Information Professionals (Libraries Unlimited, 2006), our challenge is to think beyond the boundaries of “librarian,” and realize that while being a librarian is a terrific role, it is one of many career choices you may wish to pursue at different points in your professional life.

Yep, We’ve Got the Coolest Career

Questions? Answers? Ideas? I hope we can get them all in play here. I unabashedly think that being an information specialist – an infonista – is one of the coolest careers anybody can have. And if we pay attention, we’ll have not only one of the coolest careers, but also one of the most resilient – no small feat in today’s chaotic times.