In this series, we personally test traditional online freelance marketplaces to share first-hand experiences and honest assessments of marketplaces and resulting jobs, as many freelance writers turn to these outlets to find writing gigs. You can read all the posts in the series here. I’m depressed. Yes, yes, I know this isn’t LiveJournal but still…depressed. Huh? What? Tear myself away from this jelly doughnut and
Yesterday I announced our December 2009 freelance writing contest — you can win cash and prizes just for thinking about your own marketing for your freelance writing business. Write an elevator pitch / elevator speech of 4-5 sentences. That’s all you have to do! But wait, how do you write an elevator pitch? Here’s a quick “how to” to help you out: Step 1: List
No doubt you’ve stumbled across a competitor at some point and thought “how is this person even in business?” Their credentials aren’t as solid as yours. Their samples are terrible (or they don’t seem to have any to speak of). Their professional site is so dated that it needed to retire a decade ago. Given those things, why are they ranking #1 in the search
Do you know that you need to work harder at marketing your freelance writing services, but maybe you’re not sure where to start? Well, we’re all about the business and marketing side of freelance writing here at AFW, and moving forward I’ll be offering Monday marketing tips to bring you new ideas each week for promoting your services. To kick us off today though, I
I was talking to a new freelance writer recently about getting started in freelancing. One of their questions to me was about which services they should promote the most. In their case they wanted to offer both Web content and Web copywriting services. On the surface, there seemed to be three solutions: Promote the one you enjoy doing the most. Promote the one that pays
Today I’m going to give you a quick tip for better query-free freelancing: give things away for free! People love freebies. If they feel they’ll get something for nothing, they’ll often stop and take notice even if they would have otherwise passed you by. Freebies are especially important during growth phases where you’re trying to expand your visibility or reach within your target market. To
One of the great things about freelance writing is the fact that so much of our marketing and networking can be done through just that–writing! While I’m all for professional sites, forums, and blogs in just about any niche you could work in, one of the “new” tools helping writers reach out to their network is the microblog (like Twitter). If you’re a writer who
I’m a big believer in creating a Web presence as a freelance writer. Frankly, you couldn’t give me an excuse I’d consider good enough for not building a professional website (although some have tried). Let’s explore why I feel they’re so vital, and why it may be worth setting up a professional site even if you already maintain a steady client load without one. What
The Web makes building a writer platform much easier than it would have been years ago, with more of an emphasis required on local networking, securing major media coverage, and setting up speaking engagements. Now in no way am I saying those things aren’t still important. The Web just makes them less of a requirement as you have far more tools and resources at your
If you want to become a query-free freelancer, you can’t just wait around hoping clients are going to find you. You need to create demand for your work. Today I’m going to share a story about how I not only did that, but how I created demand in a relatively new market by identifying a need and choosing to fill it. Those who have known
We recently talked about 30 ways to build your writer platform. In that list of things to consider pursuing to build your visibility, you may have noticed that several platform-building techniques have an added bonus–you can get paid for your efforts! This is one of my favorite things about query-free freelancing. Unlike spending a lot of unpaid time writing queries to various companies and publications
I’ve been a part of an interesting conversation on freelance writing (specifically on the Web) at the DigitalPoint forums recently, and I think it’s a topic worth talking about here. In short, it started with a member asking why buyers always seem to be looking for “cheap content” there instead of quality. Then came calls for us on the forum staff to implement rules or
It’s much too easy to forget about marketing our writing services to someone once we’ve landed them as a client. However, sometimes all it takes is a reminder or a little nudge from you to bring in even more work. Here are five things freelance writers can do to keep existing clients coming back for more: Keep in Touch – A simple email or phone
As a freelance writer, your website can go a long way towards attracting clients in your target market. But is yours currently doing that? Or is it costing you work? When I look to hire a service provider for anything (whether for my business or personal needs), I like to check out their website first to learn more about them, what they’re offering, and what
Today let’s very briefly go over some common components of the author (or book) media kit – in other words, what you should include. While most of these will work for a hard copy media kit / press kit, let’s focus on online author media kits (those in newsroom formats on your website or downloadable .pdf files). Author Media Kit Components – Essential An author
Most authors and publishers these days understand that online book promotion is important, whether for a new release or encouraging sales of existing titles. Blogger relations can play a significant role in the success, or lack thereof, of your online book marketing efforts. Blogger relations is a topic somewhat regularly discussed among PR and social media types, but it’s something I’ve very rarely seen brought
Angela Booth had a great post recently that you should check out: Sell Your Writing: Create a Marketing Campaign. She tackles marketing in a way I really love, because I think it addresses the fears many freelance writers have about the actual act of selling their writing services. She offers a reminder that marketing doesn’t mean you have to make cold calls. It doesn’t mean
We’ve discussed the benefits of specialization and how that can lead to higher earnings as a freelance Web writer. However, the real key to earning a decent income freelance writing online is proving your value to your clients. Specialization plays a major role (if you’re offering a certain amount of depth or understanding others can’t, you’re providing more value). Today let’s talk about other things
One bit of advice I see commonly given to new Web writers (or any type of writers) is that they have to either do free projects for normally-paying clients or take on work at ridiculously low rates (like $5.00 per article) when they’re new just to build a portfolio or get references. That’s a load of garbage. If you’re really cut out to be a
Chris Bibey wrote an interesting post over at ChrisBlogging.com on selling your writing services, and how marketing / selling makes some freelance writers uncomfortable. His post got me thinking about hard-sell versus soft-sell and why, when it comes to “selling yourself” to clients, people seem to automatically picture hard-sell tactics. First things first – what’s the difference? When you hard-sell, you essentially scream “buy from
Anyone can publish anything at any time on a blog or microblogging service, like Twitter. But does the fact that you can publish immediately mean that you should? Personally, I think the answer to that question is a resounding “NO.” I’d like to share some thoughts on the immediacy issue today as it might apply to journalism and get some of your own feedback. The
I’d like to explore the role of pen names in book marketing a little bit more today. We’ve already talked about whether pen names help or hurt marketing efforts, and I think we established that pseudonyms can in fact be beneficial in some marketing campaigns. Today I want to talk about how to actually choose pen names, keeping marketing considerations in mind. Here are some
I was thinking about authors who write under pen names / pseudonyms when publishing their books, and how that choice might affect your marketing. Are they an added benefit? Do they make marketing more difficult for you? I’d love to have some authors share their thoughts here on why they chose to either write under their own name or a pen name, and looking back
Networking is important for any kind of professional, but especially so for freelance writers – where getting the unadvertised “good gigs” is often about who you know. You likely spend time networking whether intentially or not – keeping in touch with colleagues, posting on forums, commenting on blogs, joining social networks, etc. But have you bothered to set any networking objectives? In other words, you
Darren Rowse recently posted an article on ProBlogger about How to Get Media Coverage for Your Blog. Given that PR is my primary area of expertise, it’s a subject pretty near and dear to my heart – I’ve decided to expand upon it here. After reading one of the latest comments about someone doing a radio interview, giving their blog URL (www.IrishPolyglot.com) in the interview,
We’ve talked about book marketing here, but e-book marketing has been relatively neglected. So today, in honor of the recent launch of my own new e-book, I’d like to talk about e-book marketing after the launch phase. I’m the first to admit I didn’t put nearly enough effort into pre-launch marketing for my new release – the Web Writer’s Guide to Launching a Successful Freelance
This is the first of a new monthly feature here at All Freelance Writing. Every month, we’ll talk about marketing things you should be thinking about during that time of the year (or if there’s not much “special” going on, we’ll cover some general marketing you can think about during that month). It’s October and, like it or not, it’s time to start thinking about
Let’s forget about “good” writers today – I want you to think about successful writers. Do you know what they tend to have in common? They’re strong marketers. Being a solid writer simply isn’t enough. Remember, freelance writing is a business – treat it like one, and you’ll improve your chances of reaching whatever goals you set for yourself. Unfortunately, sometimes even the best writers
Not too long ago we talked about character blogs, and I mentioned that I wanted to start one for a novel I’m working on. I’m a big believer in the pre-launch, and want a blog not only setup but bringing in decent traffic and reader interaction before I even consider pitching a manuscript to publishers down the road. To do that, I needed to get
For one of the books I’m working on, I’ve thought about launching a character blog before I either pitch to publishers or decide to self-publish. I’d like to explore the potential ethical issues of a character blog and see what others here think about them. What is a Character Blog? A character blog is a blog authored by a fictional character – in this case,