Yesterday, a writer in my online community for freelancers said you should never listen to success tips that begin with the word "never." That got me thinking. Here's what I thought:

My Never-Say-Never Rules for Freelancers

1. Never work for free. Unless it gets you on The Today...

Call them success secrets or just common sense. Either way, certain principles have guided me for more than two decades as a professional freelancer. Here are my keys to surviving -- no, let's call it thriving -- without having to work for the man:

Think Like an...

I just made these up. It only took me eighteen years of freelancing to think of them. Here's how to survive and thrive in challenging times as a freelance writer:

1. Stop Being Paranoid. People aren't stealing your ideas, they don't hate you, they're not being passive aggressive. And if...

What are you doing?
Quitting Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Too much chatter. Too many birthdays. TMI from Bucky Blankstein from Camp Winn-ee-saw-kee.

What are you doing?
@Peace! Reading actual newspaper. Drinking coffee. TV! Unholy urge to tell someone all this, so am cleaning stove with...

Fame has always been a numbers game. The weekend box office gross. The square footage of your Malibu estate. The hits you get from Googling yourself. With Twitter, numbers tell a deeper story. The more famous your Tweets, the more followers you have. But what do loyal followers get in...

As part of my ongoing effort to keep the public informed about celebritykind, I frequently visit the homes of famous people. Sylvester Stallone lives in a faux-Mediterranean castello high above Beverly Hills with a Rocky statue guarding the pool. Robert Redford's Napa Valley residence is, like the actor himself, a...

Somewhere in heaven, George Carlin is probably watching Lou Dobbs right about now. At the end of the Playboy Interview I did with him a few years ago, he was full of thoughts about the meaning of life, his legacy and what was next -- if anything -- after this...