So you want to be a freelance photojournalist?

What is the most important gear a photographer must have? What is THE gear you must buy, not matter what?

A cell phone.

And what it the most important part of your marketing tool? What is THE thing you must put money into?

A website.

I just got a phone call from a photo editor in Switzerland. She had two contacts in the area, but she could not reach one of them, and the email of the other one bounced back.

She used Google, and she stumbled into my website. She liked what she saw, and called me. My cell phone is with me all the time, so her problem (finding a photographer) was quickly resolved. And me? I got a neat 2 days assignment, which will pay my cell phone bill and web hosting for many months.

** edit ** 30 minutes after I posted this, I got a second call from a publication in Ontario, thanks to my website.