How to Price Freelance Corporate Writing Assignments

Wednesday, May 9th at 9:00 am CT

Business writing can be a lucrative source of income—if you understand how to sell and price your corporate writing services. This online seminar covers how to price your writing services for the corporate market and how to issue accurate quotes and estimates. 

Who should attend? Freelance writers who want to more accurately price corporate writing assignments. 

 Instructor – Paul Lima has worked as a professional writer, editor, and writing instructor for over 25 years. He has run a successful freelance writing, editing, and copywriting business since 1988. Paul is the author of ten books on business writing and the business of freelance writing (www.paullima.com/books).

Making Decisions for 2012…and 2022

Monday, April 30^th at 7:00 pm CT

Today's college students are graduating with record student loan debt and it can be hard to make decisions that benefit you and not just Sallie Mae. We're going to talk about our fears, break them down, and help you be responsible now, while considering the long-term impact of the decisions you make. 

The Opportunities Project is offering a special, FREE video conference series for college students and recent graduates called The Graduation Project. Tracy Brisson, Founder and CEO of The Opportunities Project, and our social media intern, Lauren Wannermayer (Syracuse 2012) will host each webinar and give their insight on our selected topics based on their experience coaching, hiring, and looking for a job. This is the third of three webinars in the series. 

Organize and Prioritize

Tuesday, May 1^st at 4:26 pm CT

It is time to organize and prioritize your coupons and your stock pile! School will be out for summer and you need to have plenty of healthy snacks on hand. You will need to save your dimes and nickels for any emergencies outside of food i.e. medical, auto, home. 

Organize and prioritize is for you to get it all together before summer hits! Get ready to participate, to have fun, and to save money!

OMG. This is real life.

Presented by The Graduation Project

Monday, April 23^rd at 7:00 pm CT

Transitioning from college to the workplace can be tricky and confusing. Wondering if something you do now would be interpreted incorrectly by your new manager? Lauren will ask Tracy some of the questions she's had as a new grad. 

The Opportunities Project is offering a special, FREE video conference series for college students and recent graduates called The Graduation Project. Tracy Brisson, Founder and CEO of The Opportunities Project, and our social media intern, Lauren Wannermayer (Syracuse 2012) will host each webinar and give their insight on our selected topics based on their experience coaching, hiring, and looking for a job. This is the second of three webinars in the series. 

Ask the CEO: Q & A with BigMarker's Founder and CEO, Zhu-Song Mei

Wednesday, April 25^th at 7:00 pm CT

Do you have any burning questions about the future of BigMarker? Do you want to know the reason behind the yellow highlighter mascot? Chat with the CEO about what you hope BigMarker will become. 

Questions may be submitted beforehand or asked during the Conference.

This post kicks off our new, weekly round-up of Conferences you should check out. Here are this week’s ‘5 Conferences Worth a Peek.’

Solving Your Job Search Mysteries presented by The Graduation Project

Monday, April 16^th 7:00 pm CT

The Opportunities Project is offering a special, FREE video conference series for college students and recent graduates called The Graduation Project. Tracy Brisson, Founder and CEO of The Opportunities Project, and our social media intern, Lauren Wannermayer (Syracuse 2012) will host each webinar and give their insight on our selected topics based on their experience coaching, hiring, and looking for a job. This is the first of three webinars in the series.

Gap Year Webinar for Educators

Friday, April 20^th at 11:30 am CT

We welcome all educators who are interested in learning more about gap years to join us for a "lunch and learn" where we will: Highlight gap year benefits, best practices, and debunking surrounding myths; Provide resources and tools to help students move forward and make informed decisions; Explore strategies for raising awareness in your school and community.

Please join us for this free professional development session hosted by Michelle Garbacz, OCT, from mygapyear.ca - the Gap Year specialists. Please bring your questions and experience to share with your colleagues from across the province.

We are hard at work streamlining features and improving functionality, so rolling changes will be added to BigMarker over the course of the next few months. We will be cataloging these changes on the Blog, so keep checking back for a comprehensive guide of what's new.

Here what’s new this week: 

In the Conference Room 

Full Screen Presentations: The Presentation Panel can now be expanded to fill the entire Browser window, by clicking on the Maximize Window Square in the upper right hand corner of the Presentation Panel.

Attendees no longer need a microphone to listen to a Conference: Now attendees only need a computer with an Internet connection and the latest version of Flash to enter the Conference Room.

Presentations can now have up to 200 slides: Slide show lovers, rejoice! The Presentation Panel can now support slide decks of up to 200 slides.

And the winner of the SXSW Contest and proud new owner of an HP TouchSmart is...Christopher Ritter of the Coffee Party USA!

A big thanks to everyone who participated, and thanks to the Coffee Party for creating such a lively BigMarker Community!

SXSW was a blast! We’ve been back from Austin for a week now, and I think we’ve all finally had some time to recover. A lot happened during our week-long Texas adventure, but here’s a quick recap of the highlights:

Anyone who signs up for a BigMarker membership during SXSW (March 9th through March 18th) will be entered to win an HP TouchSmart computer! The winner will be the Founder of the Community with the most members at 11:59 pm CT on March 18th  March 22nd (*deadline extended!*).

Step One: Sign up for a free BigMarker account

Step Two: Use your personal Community or create a new Community and get inviting!

Step Three: Work fast and furiously to get the most members in your Community by the end of SXSW. Invite whomever you’d like, family, friends, coworkers, anyone! Host a Conference showcasing your hidden talents or your SXSW exploits to get complete strangers to join your Community and support your cause.

Step Four: Create the Community with the most members by March 18th at 11:59 pm CT March 22nd at 11:59 pm CT (*deadline extended!*) and Team BigMarker will send you your well deserved HP TouchSmart computer. To get a sneak peek of the prize, check out the BigMarker Booth, #835!

Calling all SXSW attendees!

Whether you’re a tech lover, wannna-be entrepreneur, brand new start-up, or mega-brand, we’d love for you to come pitch your company (or yourself!) at our booth.

The BigMarker.com Booth (#835, 837, 934, 936) will have a Pitch Station that will be hooked up to a BigMarker Conference Room. Jump on camera to tell BigMarker members from around the world who you and your company are and what you’re doing to become the next Mark Zuckerberg. Once you’ve taken advantage of your free publicity, grab some swag and hit the arduous Austin Convention Center road. Or, kick back and stay a while with to shoot the breeze with Team BigMarker.

Fellow Markers, we have some big news.

BigMarker is Going to SXSW 2012!

And we want to take you along for the ride.

SXSW (South by Southwest) is an annual music, film, and interactive conference and festival held in Austin, TX. Team BigMarker will be showing off the site at the Trade Show, which means BigMarker members have the chance to say ‘hi’ to the 60,000 plus attendees that are expected this year. The SXSW Conference Room we are using to demonstrate the site will be open to the public. So feel free to jump in, tell us who you are, where you’re from, what you do, and hang out with the thousands of people cruising through our booth.