Last week in Estancia was one of the best weeks I have ever experienced in my life. So many prayers answered and being around creative energy, music and friendship -- just wonderful.
Blog
Music Man Project Philippines — Inaugral Concert for Botongon
Watch the full Music Man Project Philippines inaugural concert (minus a few speeches) for Botongon (Estancia) Philippines. Held 5.30pm, 15 February 2020 at Barangay Botongon Gym Plaza.
10 Business Blogging Ideas That Anyone Can Use, Anytime
Here’s a quick post to make sure you never, ever run out of blogging ideas. Mix and match these 10 blogging topics with your business, products, and services — and you’ll have a content plan that lasts the whole year.
Do You Have a Quality Website?
Google gives priority in search results to 'quality websites' but gives no single definition of this standard. But there are clues.
Music, Music, Music
The Music Man Program is fully underway here in Botongon, Estancia. It all seems like a blur the last few days -- cancelled flights, rerouting, airport runs, transferring multiple bags and passengers to buses, and finally the 4 hour drive to Estancia.
Preparations for the Medical Mission
If you read my blog yesterday you'll know that in between writing assignments I'm involved in a music program and medical mission here in the Philippines.
Bringing music and medicine to the kids of Botongon (Estancia), Philippines
Imagine how thrilled I was 6 months ago when a friend in the UK contacted me about coming back to the Philippines and bringing a FULLY FUNDED music program and medical mission. Imagine how thrilled I was on Friday when the first of the music and medical team arrived here in Iloilo City.
Have you claimed your Google ‘Knowledge Panel’ yet?
When was the last time you googled yourself -- or your business? A few days I was googling myself to see which of my social media channels was displaying in search -- and was totally delighted to find that Google has created a Knowledge Panel for my name.
How to create a project brief for your freelance writer
How to create a project brief for your freelance writer, including the 5 essentials that will help your content writing project achieve all it's goals and deliverables.
Don’t blog without a business blogging strategy
Without a clear business blogging strategy your hard won traffic could be bouncing off the page within nano-seconds, and never coming back.
Why categorising your blog posts helps your business
Does your business blog organise content into logical categories — or does everything you post end up in the ‘Uncategorized‘ pile? In today’s blog I’m going to be pointing out 5 critical functions that blog categories fulfil on your website. And probably the most important is SEO.
Helping your workers understand their WHS responsibilities
No matter where your business is located, your employees have 4 key WHS responsibilities under the WHS Act in your state or territory. Help them understand what they need to do.
Conrad teaches me the secrets to success in business, friendship, and life generally
Sometimes the most unassuming people teach you the greatest lessons -- about life, and yourself. For me it was Conrad, a friendly tricycle driver in Iloilo City.
A quick guide to business blogging in 2020
What is blogging actually? And why are we all doing it? Blogging seems to be one of those ethereal ‘things’ that everyone is into, but can’t really explain.
BOOK REVIEW: This is Marketing by Seth Godin
This is Marketing by Seth Godin is not a down-to-earth practical guide to marketing. It's big-picture stuff and tends to chop and change ideas rather quickly. That said, I gave it 4 stars (the ideas in the book that is).
5 Essential WHS Duties of Australian Small Business Owners
Start the new year confident by having a better understanding of your WHS duties as an Australian small business owner.
Ways To Optimise Your Website For Google Search
In today's blog I'm outlining 11 ways to optimise your website for Google search. Apply these 11 best practices to all the content on your website -- every post and every page.
5 Essential Elements of Web Content Writing
Outlining 5 essential elements of web content writing to help you write copy that is engaging, readable, and search engine friendly.
Don’t blog like your brother-in-law
Have you ever been invited to your sister’s (or BFF’s) for dinner — only to have the evening hijacked by your brother-in-law (or your BFF’s new girlfriend)?
How Australian Safety Laws Apply to Your Small Business
Today’s blog is a quick introduction to safety legislation in Australia — how to identify the laws that apply to your business and what they mean for you as a small business owner, operator, or manager.
BOOK REVIEW: Graceful by Seth Godin
This is a little book of 30 ideas which push us, prompt us, and dare us to move beyond our training to conform and comply -- and reach for something Seth Godin calls 'graceful'.
6 SEO steps to optimise a web page or blog post
Today I’m unpacking the actual SEO steps I take when writing a page of web copy or publishing a new blog post. Follow the 6 steps and make your own web content more Google-friendly.
How does my business end up in the Google search results?
Nearly every small business owner out there uses Google on a daily basis, but a lot of us don't know how Google actually finds our business website and displays it in their search results.
Talking Work, Health, Safety and Small Business
Most small business owners I talk to would rather be engaged in the money making side of their business than embroiled in compliance talk or scrolling through pages of government websites and safety legislation.
What to do when your business is ranking for the wrong search terms?
My writing business is ranking for the wrong search terms. And its all my fault. Let me explain it to you.
Tweaking your company Mission Statement for web and SEO
If you copied your mission statement verbatim from your website onto a piece of paper, then handed it to a complete stranger — would they immediately know what your business does, and where you are?
What is a Copywriter and Why Would I Need One?
Copywriters? Content Writers? This blog delivers a quick explanation of the difference, because understanding the distinction between these two different types of writers will help you engage a more effective content and marketing strategy for your business.
3 Important Reasons to Display Your CORE VALUES on Your Website
If your business has a written statement of values, it should absolutely be on your website. Did you know that customers are willing to pay more for things when they believe the business selling them is authentic and true to their values?
Don’t Keep Your Copywriter Blindfolded
Sometimes clients forget (or just don't realise) how much background information a copywriter needs before they can start writing a company profile, press release, or set of product descriptions. It's actually quite substantial.
BOOK REVIEW — The Dead Girl: A True Story
The Dead Girl by Melanie Thernstrom is one of those books that has been popping up on my 'must read' lists for years (it was first published in 1990). It's a memoir written by a young college student who's best friend was brutally murdered.
How a freelance writer finds paid work
This blog outlines 10 different strategies for finding paid work as a freelance writer -- it's for new freelancers or anyone thinking about a writing side-hustle.
Inspiration
Whenever I'm lacking belief in my writing or stuck on a client project, I only have to take a quick visit to an old book to find some relief. 'MONET by himself.'
Boy and Brother
Taking Jerry to visit the grave of his mother on All Saints Day 2019. We also spent some time with his elder brother Ryan and his family.
Successful Freelance Writers Know How To Manage Their Time
Your success as a freelance writer -- and this is true for any self-employed person -- is critically linked to your own personal productivity. And I'm not talking your ability to use Productivity Apps and write a to-do list.
Quick Tips For Better Business Blogging
Business blogging is done for one reason, and one reason only. To get people on our websites. And we want them to stay awhile too — check out our content, join the newsletter, and eventually buy something.
Essential Qualities of Successful Freelance Writers (Part 1 Writing Skills)
A successful freelance writer is not just someone who makes a lot of money, but a person who is creatively engaged in work they love, delivering high quality copy to their clients.
Moon Creatures
I love the night culture of the Philippines and how the twilight turns headlights into the moon. After the hot sun sinks and before the moon rises.
To be able to put words to the pain is the beginning of liberation. Jean Vanier -- Seeing Beyond Depression. It's wonderful to feel some energy within myself again for writing. Feeling enthusiasm about anything at all is something that…
Donations: where does the money go exactly?
Maybe you've seen the donation buttons on my website and wonder what I do with the money -- I hope this post will give you a better understanding of what I do, and even inspire you to do more in your own community.
What equipment do I need to start a Writing Business?
You don't need a pile of techie stuff or expensive subscriptions to start a freelance writing business. The best advice I can give you is to concentrate your purchases on the things that will support uninterrupted writing, efficient communication, and…
Growing up
Last night I found a cute little video of Jerry singing. He got hold of my phone not long after he came to live with me in 2015, and watching it caused me a few lamentations about how fast he's…
Losing Rosemarie
Our beloved Rosemarie died suddenly on Sunday morning. If you have been following my blog anytime over the past 5 years you'll have seen many photos of Rosemarie and her family. Her mother had taken her to hospital Saturday night,…
“Stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions … the truth is that what we call ‘interruptions’ are precisely our real life -- the life God is sending us day by day.” C.S. Lewis Hello writing friends. It's been a…
Website upgrade
Hi friends. Thanks for stopping by my website. Things are gonna be looking a bit wonky for the next few weeks -- as I upgrade and get it ready for my new online learning centre and digital download service. It's…
Mangroves
seated the sunshine flecked, with salt
Her Own Shadow
What days are these? Where you can only be found -- inside your own shadow.
All The Way
Most Fridays Jerry and I have breakfast in the Lapaz Public Market before I take him to morning class. We have a simple breakfast with native coffee. It's our Friday treat. So one morning a few weeks back -- as…
Why my blog feels like the ‘Mary Celeste’
Yesterday I read some excellent writing advice on medium.com. Shouting out @tijmenr, who's medium handle I stumbled across yesterday morning while coffeeing and blog browsing in Starbucks Iloilo City. I wish I'd heard it 2 years ago. And when I…
Reflections on a writing practice
For the last five years I've been writing everyday, and over that period have evolved from a sometime poet and blogger to a full-time professional writer. This blog is a short reflection on my writing practice and the art form…
Dengue
Yesterday afternoon Jerry's classroom was fogged for dengue mosquitos. The entire Province of Iloilo is currently in a dengue emergency which includes both Estancia (where Jerry's family, all our friends and sponsored kids live) plus Iloilo City itself. All hospitals…
7+ Freelancing facts they don’t mention in the brochures
Now don't take me the wrong way here, I love my freelance writing life. But I've seen more than one marketing blog that seriously overstates the benefits of freelancing (probably for the purposes of recruiting students/trainees into their freelance learning…
Pineapple Vending
vending pineapples with urgency money. exchange. quick. before the street guard surge Walking out of the money exchange kiosk I found my path blocked by a tricycle stretched with pineapples. A young man was urgently slicing his wares into plastic…
Subay
Subay. It's the Hiligaynon word for ants. Actually it's the Hiligaynon word for one ant -- if you have more than one ant, or a group of ants -- it's mga subay. Mga Subay. In our apartment Jerry calls me…
Last Night’s Rain
tiny bubblets lodge in a spider's trap last night's rain © 2019 Melinda J. Irvine An evening downpour in the Philippine tropics is followed by intense morning sun, giving life to every rivulet and bubble before they transform back to cloud.
Frogs’ Legs
It rained and rained in the middle of the night and Jerry woke up to the shrieking sounds of frogs below his bedroom window. He eagerly grabbed the military grade binoculars given to us last year when our friends Kevin…
What I love most about being a freelance writer
There is plenty to love about freelancing. If it weren't for my freelance writing business, as an Australian I would not be able to stay in the Philippines and take care of Jerry -- the small boy I met wandering…
Your narrative
each new sun lights layers your narrative sensitive to light © 2019 Melinda J. Irvine
Seeing things
Seeing red flowers. For the first time. Seeing red flowers. Everywhere. Seeing. For the first time. It's amazing when you see something for the first time. It grabs at you and pulls you in, and you love everything that's bright…
Book Review: Poetry in the Making by Ted Hughes
This excellent book by Ted Hughes is a collection of the programmes he wrote for the BBC Schools Department ‘Listening and Writing’ series.
Are you a freelance writer, or a paid employee?
If you're considering making the transition from paid employee to freelance writer or consultant, make sure the working relationship you have with clients doesn't breach the taxation laws in your country. This blog explains the difference between true freelancers, contractors,…
Splashed with red flowers
Kid's water park excited shrieks wet selfies. Splashed with red flowers. ‘Tita Mel, you have little red flowers on you’ cried 11 year old Jerry as we were leaving a kid’s waterpark yesterday. Underneath the steps of a shrieking watercoaster,…
Getting all the kids back to school 2019
Each year (with the help of friends and family), I use the money I earn as a freelance writer to support about 20 Filipino kids in their schooling. Throughout the year family and friends (and even a few people I've…
Of trees
keep the secrets of trees close
Rearranging the shadows
inside shadows a young fish passes beyond the mangroves
Green and Red
Everything is green and red TODAY. Jerry picked up a red flower today and asked me to photograph him with his favourite colour. I love living in Jerry’s magical world of flowers and butterflies.
The sun has gone
the sand scorched heat and absence our monsoon rains are late this year and tonight (at last the night) the dogs will sleep inside fresh holes dug to the cool sand not like this burnt afternoon dusk, where the sun…
On the low tide
young palm frond turned, green to burned gold on the low tide © 2019 Melinda J. Irvine
What exactly is a freelance writer anyway?
The earliest 'freelancers' were hired soldiers or 'free lances' who sold their services to kings and rich landlords to defend soil and property. They were an important part of medieval warfare. Freelancers have come along way since those antiquated times…
Book Review: Faith by Tim Costello
Faith by Tim Costello My rating: 5 of 5 stars It is easy to speak highly of book where you agree with nearly everything the author has to say, and in some ways acts as an endorsement for some of…
El Niño
mid-summer heat settled shouts out curling leaf fronds brown and cracked clear voices cry rain hear us rain When my mother and sister arrived in Iloilo City 2 weeks ago, they both asked about the brown stuff they could see…
Boy on Bike
I can ride I can ride I can ride ... He shouts like every kid who ever learned to ride Then hits a tree [not pictured]. Hiring a bicycle for Jerry to learn to ride in the gardens of the…
Crammed in a Van
Sitting in a taxi not fitted with seatbelts, I spotted this group of young men on their way to work. Their van was crammed so full of catering equipment (chairs, tables, tents, and serving trays) -- the workers who would…
The Red
In our family, the iPhone 6 Plus that I absorbed from a finalised Telstra Plan in 2016, is colloquially known as ‘The Red’. Factually, The Red is a piece of melded sapphire glass, aluminium, graphite, cobalt et al that somehow…
Holy Week Processions
One of the things I love best about the Philippines is their strong cultural observances, customs and traditions. You don't have to be Catholic (or even Filipino) to get swept into a Holy Week procession and become part of a…
Art or Autobiography
Is it possible to see a piece of art and not look for yourself? Or arrange each piece without turning it into your own autobiography of lost toys, lost time lost poetry, and lost vindications? Not today. Blogging-U: This blog…
A Visit From Australia
It's been 5 days since my mother and sister went back to Australia. And apart from the picture of me when I was 13 that mum brought over and gave to Jerry, it's hard to imagine them even being here…
When You’ve Just Gotta Dance
Isn’t it just the coolest thing when you’re sitting under a shredded tarpaulin on a stinking hot day — at a school after the Grade 6 graduation — and you look up and here’s this little kid in the full…
As another school year ends
Jerry has just finished Grade 4, receiving his very first recognition medal and awards. It was an exciting experience for both of us, especially when you consider that just 4 years ago Jerry was wandering around the local pier (not…
How to Get Your Books Back Without Using Violence
Last week I was having coffee with a new friend, and she was suggesting things for a newbie to do here in Iloilo City. Museums, galleries, historical sites ... the type of stuff to help you get to know a…
Easter Moon
flying late my Easter moon alighting Dubai
My Big Fat Freelance Life
It's time to talk about that forbidden subject ... the topic that no freelancer wants to discuss with you. The horrifying amount of weight it's possible to gain if you spend your whole life in front of a computer screen,…
Putting out fires
wet skies falling over burnt bits of land My Uncle Richard emailed me his latest watercolour a few days ago -- inspired by the "water, wet skies and bits of land" (he told me) of the NSW New England. Yet all…
Next to the Sun
standing next to the sun I saw the city shine © 2019 Melinda J. Irvine © 2019 Melinda J. Irvine
Freelancing: why you need a writer website
Freelance writers are independent agents who write for a wide range of publications and media. It's absolutely one of the best things about being a freelance writer -- our freedom to write about the topics we love and leave behind…
Memory of a Kiss
glowing on the beach lighting her long hair, carried cool before their kiss
Leaves by the Riverbank
barbed blade and broken midrib, cobweb netted vein cover river sand in your story
Street Cat
Posturing Above his subjects Always a street cat, still
Faded
her painted smile outstretched the years of silent heat and stormed cloud
River Warrior
He is beautiful. Representative of an ideal. But never forget, he can never be real.
Vexillology
little flags cerise black red flapping in the wind
Above the kitchen
wind strikes hollow bamboo sticks against long since seashells
An Imperfect Drawing
Allowing yourself to write sloppy sentences, or draw an imperfect picture, or to keep playing a song with gusto when you miss a chord is great way to invite your timid, self-conscious creativity out into the open. When you allow…
Becoming a ‘successful’ writer
A few months ago I disabled the ‘show likes’ facility on all my blog posts. Like many of us, the yardstick for measuring the ‘success’ of my writing had been reduced to how many people had ‘liked’ or shared something.…
A Ballet of Water
“like ballet” said a young voice “like a ballet of water”
Fueling a Creative Life
While I'm writing I love to be surrounded in books, pictures and musical instruments. For the past few months I've been working on my new writing space and freelancing office, decorating the walls with cut-up art books. It seemed a…
Book Review: The Everyday Work of Art by Eric Booth
Imagine finding an award winning book (signed by the author) -- that teaches you how to awaken the extraordinary in your life -- in a second hand book bin for less than $3. ‘The Everyday Work of Art’ by Eric Booth is…
A Book for Poetry
a gift handbound pages for poems
Ways To Quickly Improve Your Writing
"The morning pages are not supposed to sound smart -- although sometimes they might. Most times they won't, and nobody will ever know except you." Julia Cameron The Artist's Way None of us emerge from the womb accomplished writers. And…
Spinning
shrieks of excitement birthday wrappers all torn spinning toys spin -- for hours
Accessing my local library from anywhere in the world
How wonderful to live in a period of time where you can be anywhere in the world and still use your local library. Even better when you spend 10-11 months of the year abroad with a 10 year old boy…