A picture of a wheat field in Kansas under a partly cloudy, very sunny and blue sky.

The FLK blog

Tips and tricks. Outside reading. Musings on journalism, communications, content marketing, social media and more.

Welcome

An icon -- a white square with the words Freelance Kansas inside.

Featured: Tips for the weary

Also: musings and client success stories.

What you can expect here right up top (and from Freelance Kansas in general) is more give than get.

Just like owner Haines Eason tells his clients:

FLK wants you to grow.

That good result will naturally take care of us, your customers and the wider world.

Contractors: You Don’t Need a Social Media Strategy

If you run a newish or smaller contracting or home-service business and need to get the word out, you don't need to summon the dark lords of marketing to get results. You need two accounts.

A woman's hand placing a sticker on a metal post. Sticker is a blue speech bubble with the words Think again inside. Background is blurred.

Street Marketing Smarts: Strategic Flyering FTW

Yes, flyering is throwback. But search as we know it is ending. Even better: Maybe cash is tight. What to do? Go guerilla. Flyering is one way to make a splash locally with nearly no spend.

AI image of a cat holding an ice cream cone wearing a party hat. Cat is staring longingly at a whipped topping kind of cake that is covered in candy.

Can you ChatGPT to an early retirement?

Seduced by AI? You should be. But the real world isn't going anywhere just yet.

A person with long hair -- hair is swept forward over their face. Sunglasses have been set on the face over the hair. Person is wearing a red plaid shirt.

FLK small biz marketing tip: Sharing others’ content

Sharing others’ work is a requirement for me — I want to grow and inform my audiences beyond the boundaries of my own brand.

Selection of external clips

A picture from above of three suburban houses. The one in the middle features solar panels.

From The Guardian

Solar pushback: how US power firms try to make people pay for going green

Kevin Good is the president of a small solar power company in Kansas – a state that tends to be so sunny you’d think he’d have it made.

“I got into solar at maybe the worst point to do so in the last 50 years,” said Good, who runs Good Energy Solutions in Lawrence, a town of about 100,000.

A screenshot of the original Mickey Mouse, Steamboat Willie, at the wheel of a paddleboat.

From FlatlandKC (KC PBS)

How KC’s Walt Disney Learned the Hard Way About Copyright

Disney creation Steamboat Willie has entered the public domain after 95 years of copyright protection. The mouse’s adventures in new genres are well underway.

A photo of the large doors at KU's Strong Hall. The craftsmen responsible for rebuilding them are pictured on either side.

From KU Today

KU Craftsmen Roll Up Their Sleeves to Rebuild the Historic "Doors to Campus"

The bold, iconic entrance to Strong Hall has been the “doorway to KU” for generations of Jayhawks. The two-story main entrance with its 18 windows and 234 panes of glass stands stalwart as the seasons pass and thousands of students, faculty and staff flow through its historic doors. Those doors, however, had seen better times...

A picture of scientist Lee-Gray Boze at work in his lab. There are lots of wires, tubes, and computer screens.

From Montanan Magazine

To the Arctic and Beyond: UM Geoscience Grads Succeed in a Changing Field

Lee-Gray Boze, at 5 foot 10 and wiry in frame, might not be who you think of when you think of a caver – or an arctic explorer for that matter.