quotidian: possible client, oddities of email addressing, and PT

[redbird]

I got a call this afternoon from someone who may be sending me freelance work (editing and/or proofreading). They are looking for one or more people to do anything in the range from 20 hours/month to full-time. Their approach seems congenial: thorough editing and proofing, including checking the art, and enough time to do it in, and she assured me that they cut checks weekly.

The woman said she'd found my name in the EFA directory, and apologized for calling without warning, but said there was no email address on my resume there. That seemed odd, and I was going to check my directory entry when we were done talking, but when I gave her my email address so she could send me relevant information, she said something like "oh, I thought that was a website or something." Oddly, rysmiel and I were discussing old email providers (prompted by their having written to a friend who is still using a hotmail address). I mentioned some site (I don't remember which) whose software rejected both my non-gmail addresses as invalid, but we didn't expect a human being to look at a panix address and think "that's not an email address."

I answered the call because I generally answer unknown-number calls unless T-Mobile identifies them as "Scam Likely" or the claimed originating number shares my cell phone's area code and exchange. One advantage of having made two interstate moves while keeping the same phone number is that the scammers aren't faking calls from 617 or 787; those numbers are usually calls I actually want, like my doctor's office or the person delivering a pizza.

I had physical therapy again today; the therapist asked if I thought the PT was helping my knee, and I told her I don't know. We did most of the things we'd done last week, plus a couple of new exercises; one of the new exercises is now part of my at-home routine, and she told me to come back in two weeks, because by then we'll have a better idea of whether the exercises are working/helping significantly.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

That has happened to me too (someone not recognizing my panix email as an email address). weird.

And I am cheering you on in your pt!

[supergee]

Every so often I get e-mail telling me how they can help me increase the traffic to my website at panix.com.

[rafiwinters]

You mention the EFA. Do you find membership helpful? I'm not a member but am considering it in order to boost my workload. Thoughts?

[redbird]

I find it helpful, but haven't gotten a lot of work through EFA. On the other hand, part of what I appreciate about membership is the email discussion list. If you're a copyeditor, I also recommend copyediting-l, which is free.

I haven't taken advantage of the educational opportunities through EFA, but there's a lot there. You don't have to be a member to take courses or buy the booklets, but members get a discount.

In pure financial terms, the jobs I've gotten through EFA have more than paid for my annual membership, but not by a huge margin, bearing in mind that membership is a deductible business expense. I suspect that you're more likely to find jobs through the EFA if you have an unusual specialty or skills. The work I've gotten through the EFA has been through the member directory, not the jobs list (those tend to be filled in about two hours, when they don't specify fluency in Chinese, a doctorate in religion, or the like.

[rafiwinters]

Thanks for the feedback! :-)

[redbird]

One sometimes useful thing about the email discussion list is posts like "has anyone heard of/done business with Six Red Marbles?" and "I got what looked like a query about a job today, but it's pretty clearly a scam because $evidence" or "did anyone else get this email about a possible job?" Sometimes people will say they've worked with the client (and what they thought of them), and other times it's "I got the exact same text but with a different name as the sender."

[rafiwinters]

That's also good to know. :-)