Browse the All Freelance Writing collection of marketing and PR articles below.
You’ll find posts covering how freelance writers can market their services more effectively, build visibility, strengthen positioning, and better understand the promotional side of client work.
This category is especially useful for writers working in content marketing, copywriting, business writing, press releases, and related specialties.
Having a client-focused blog on your freelance writer website is a great idea. That’s especially true if you’re new to freelancing and need a boost in search engine and social media visibility. But what kind of blog should you run on your professional site? Should you share tutorials? Advice? News? Or should you take a more personal approach with storytelling? That’s what Meghan Coughlin wanted to know
This week on the All Freelance Writing Podcast, I tackle a question from Jeremy Tarrier. He was curious about how a writer might protect gender anonymity when writing under a pen name (or if it’s really even a problem). Listen now. This was an interesting topic for me because I actually have the opposite problem: I write under an ambiguous pen name that could easily
One of my current projects is assembling a new media kit. As you might know, I have a background in public relations. So I’m keenly aware of the importance of earned media, and have been securing coverage for my clients for quite some time. While I’ve also secured my fair share of coverage for myself, with changing professional ambitions in my future, doing even more
Every week I receive dozens of guest post pitches across all of my blogs, and it’s not uncommon for that to creep over 100 in a week (and those are just the ones making it past my inbox filters; imagine how many bigger blogs must have to sort through). Yet I respond to less than 10% of those pitches. Even fewer result in guest posts
Last week Paula Hendrickson wrote a great guest post for Lori Widmer’s blog on vetting writing experts. This topic is near and dear to my heart because I’ve had more new writers come to me looking for help after taking horrible advice from pseudo experts than I can count. I feel for those writers. It’s easy to get sucked in because some of these charlatans are masters
The latest episode of the All Freelance Writing Podcast is now live. As promised in my last post’s comments, it includes an extension of the Elance / Upwork fiasco with their lame blogger relations attempt. Then I move on to offer a few tips to bloggers who are tired of finding themselves on these lists. Also in this episode: Is there really a difference
Is your marketing helping you reach the best freelance writing prospects? That depends on your target market and how successful you are at reaching members of that group. One of the biggest mistakes a new freelance writer can make is having no target market. That’s when you simply take any gig that comes along, whether or not you enjoy the work, whether or not you
When you work as a freelancer, sometimes you’ll struggle to reach your goals. But one of the most destructive things you can do when that happens is make excuses. Yet freelance writers makes excuses all the time to justify their lack of success in one area or another. After all, that’s easier than taking responsibility and making changes. Today let’s look at some of those
If you want to move beyond low paying freelance writing jobs, you need a solid marketing strategy. Where many writers go wrong is putting all of their attention on marketing tactics — using social networks, guest posting, or writing query letters for example. While tactics are important, you can never use them to their full potential if you don’t have an underlying strategy and marketing message. That’s
The New Year is a great time to tackle a new writing challenge. So why not start with a 30 day marketing challenge? The goal of this challenge is to do something to market your writing every day for 30 days. That could mean promoting your freelance writing services. It could mean book marketing. Or it might involve marketing your blog. Here’s a free tracker
For this week’s quick tip, I’d like to bring up an oldie but goodie — a tip I’ve been passing along to freelance writers for years, coming from my background in PR. Instead of using the same writer’s market lists that most other freelancers are also using, find new prospects in media directories instead. How Media Directories Are Different Media directories are similar to writer’s
Here’s a quick tip about how you can more effectively promote your writing every month, whether that means marketing your freelance writing services, your books, or your blogs. Use a monthly marketing calendar. What’s the Point of a Monthly Marketing Calendar? A monthly marketing calendar gives you an easy way to keep all of your marketing information on one handy sheet of paper. I have
For this week’s new resource, let’s turn our attention to promoting your writing business. Whether that means promoting your freelance writing services, marketing a book, or growing your blog, there are numerous ways you can turn to other types of writing to promote your work. To point you in the right direction, here are 45 types of content and copywriting you can turn to when you need
Have you ever struggled to pinpoint the target market for your freelance writing services? If so, I have a free tool that might help. I decided to overhaul my old target market worksheet, previously only available to those who purchased my Web Writer’s Guide e-book which is no longer available. I’m releasing the updated version as a freebie. You’ll be able to find it in my collection
If you’re an author, you’ve probably heard plenty about the importance of social media marketing. But when it comes to using social networks as marketing and PR tools, there are right and wrong ways to go about it. Let’s look at Twitter as an example. Here are some Twitter tips that will help you build better relationships with existing fans (which ultimately leads to more
The holiday season is a great time to connect with current and past clients. No matter if you do so on the phone, via email, or even in person, this is one time of the year when you should reach out to every current and past client. While job number one is to wish them a happy holiday season, this is also a great opportunity
I doubt any of you are strangers to spam. My favorites, if you can call them that, are all of the terrible pitches I receive from marketing and design firms as well as other freelancers. Here are the most common I see: “Your website isn’t ranking on the first page of Google,” (followed by all of the reasons I need their SEO services to get
Lori Widmer is a fellow business writer, and one of my “go-to gals” for all conversations business or writing-related. On her Words on the Page blog, Lori encourages new and experienced writing professionals alike to realize their worth and strive for something better. Lori inspires freelance writers to pull themselves up out of the low pay rut, and to do so through better marketing and networking. Her e-book, Marketing
In our interview with Lori Widmer of Words on the Page about marketing your freelance writing services, Lori emphasized the importance of building relationships and following up with prospects. If you’re one of the many writers who are uncomfortable with the idea of marketing from a direct sales perspective, thinking about marketing in terms of relationships can help you ease into a more effective marketing strategy.
There are only a handful of freelance writing colleagues that I turn to on a regular basis to bounce ideas around. Lori Widmer is one of those writers. And one issue where I wouldn’t hesitate to consult her for advice is freelance marketing. Lori comes from a business writing background, but also pursues creative writing projects (currently focusing on poetry). She knows how to adapt
As a freelance writer, there is more to your success than producing high quality content. Even though you may not enjoy the sales and marketing process, it is a big part of achieving your goals. With this in mind, these three words should always be close to your heart: always be closing. In other words, you should always be ready to close a deal. You
Lately, we have been discussing cold calling as a marketing method quite a bit. For example, my last post touched on how to discuss freelance pricing during a cold call. This time around, I want to take a closer look at when you should be making cold calls. If you are going to spend time on the phone, you might as well give yourself the
For many freelance writers, marketing is the “hot topic” of the day. Not only are these people looking for a marketing strategy that works, but they want to rely on something that doesn’t take up all their time. If this sounds familiar, you have probably given cold calling a second thought at some point in time. This is something we have discussed before. For example,
One of the main reasons for your success as a writer is your passion. You love what you do and it shows through in your work. Are you able to take this same passion and translate it to your marketing strategy? If so, you will have an easier time generating interest and landing new clients. Here are three ways to let your passion shine through
If you are going to market your freelance writing services, you might as well do whatever you can to achieve as much success as possible. This means following up on all activity, from cold calls to direct mail and everything in between. It is easy to believe that your marketing strategy will take care of itself the first time around. However, this is not always
For many freelance writers, marketing is not something they enjoy. In fact, this is something they fear for one reason or the next. But why? Why do so many people shy away from this when it could help take their career to the next level? Here are three reasons why some writers avoid creating a detailed marketing strategy: Afraid it won’t work. Let’s face it:
Like most freelance writers, your primary passion is writing. Makes sense, right? While there is nothing wrong with wanting to spend all your time writing, you cannot afford to overlook the marketing aspects of your business. If you have yet to implement a marketing strategy, there is no better time than now to change your ways. What is holding you back? One of the most
If you spend any amount of time cold calling, you will soon find that your primary targets are not always available to talk. For this reason, you have two options: Call back at a later time and/or date Leave a voicemail message and hope for a return call While there are pros and cons of both options, I always prefer to leave a voicemail message.
As a blogger, you’re already used to creating content on a regular basis. That makes content marketing an ideal option for promoting your blog, increasing traffic, and growing your readership. Today let’s talk about the two different kinds of content marketing — inbound content marketing and outbound content marketing — and which makes more sense for blog promotion. Outbound vs Inbound Content Marketing Outbound content
As a freelance writer, new clients are your lifeblood. The more gigs you land the more money you will earn. Pretty simple, right? Your marketing plan is going to determine how much success you have in this area of your business. While true that some marketing strategies are free, others are going to set you back a few dollars from time to time. This leads