Finding Work Through Article Marketing.
comment now!“Never Write for Free!” That’s the battlecry most freelance writers shout from the rooftops to other writers. It devalues your work, they say. It lowers the average price other writers can ask for their work. And for the most part I agree. Most everyone makes an exception for pro bono work, if it is a worthwhile, financially strapped organization.
But there is one case where I advocate writing for free: article marketing through submission sites. Places like EzineArticles.com and GoArticles.com. Why the apparent hypocrisy?
Because you’re not really writing for free. You’re writing for yourself. Or, more accurately, for your business.
By writing articles pertinent to the niches you are going after, you are establishing yourself as an expert in your potential client’s eyes. At the same time, you are boosting your search engine rankings by providing links back to your site.
Just remember, you must be producing informative articles with useful information of some sort, not thinly-veiled sales sheets for your copywriting services. The difference between the two is a fine line, but I think you can tell the difference between when you are writing to educate and when you’re writing to sell.
Article Marketing–or Article PR as it is sometimes called–isn’t the same as writing an article for someone else without pay, just for clips. This is a business function you undertake to establish yourself as an expert in a particular field. If you were to write a 200-500 word article and try to sell it…let’s say it takes you an hour. Even if you manage to sell it at 10 cents per word, that’s $50. And all you’d get is a byline. Maybe a shor general bio.
But as a submission article, you get a resource box where you can send them to your website…even to a specific page to capitalize on the interest generated by your article. If you get two tiny two-hour jobs at an hourly rate of $50, then that article just made you $200.
It’s not writing for free…it’s free PR. Take advantage of it.
Easy Money: Turn Every Paycheck Into a Referral
comment now!Referrals can be some of the best business you will ever get, because there is a built in trust factor. If you get a client that you have actively pursued, they might have chosen you because they like the work in your portfolio, because you were able to convince them in person or over the phone—or heck, you might just have been there when the need arose. If they come to you after finding you online or in a directory somewhere, the same could be true. Either way, even though they like you, the have no reason to trust you until they actually work with you.
A referral, however, is different. They got your name from someone they trust. And you benefit by association, getting a little bit of that trust by default. They are coming in already expecting that this will be a good partnership. Which means they will likely be forthcoming, responsive and perhaps even a litter deferential to you as the expert as far as the direction of the piece is concerned.
A simple way to get referrals from your existing clients is to include a survey with your invoice asking the client to help you improve your services even more by rating you in a few categories…whatever those areas may be: responsiveness, professionalism, meets deadlines, etc. Five to ten should be plenty.
Then, after they’ve been thinking about how easy it is to work with you, thank them for their time and mention you hope to work with them again soon. Then simply add that if they know of any colleagues who could use your services, you’d appreciate their passing your name along and enclose two or three business cards.
You’ll be surprised how many referrals the simple act of asking will end up providing.
Putting The “Recess” in Recession
comment now!I’ve been privy to a few conversations lately regarding the state of the economy. Here are the kinds of questions I’m hearing:
- Is it a good time to go freelance?
- Should I get a part-time job?
- Should I be scared about a recession?
Now, I will say that I have been “downsized” in the past, and it’s something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
That said…I’m actually excited about the prospect of a recession. That’s right, excited.
Look, I’m a freelance copywriter. In a recession, one of the first things the corporate world cuts is the marketing budget. And the easiest way for the corps to cut money is to let go of some people. Most of these people will move on to other things…different jobs with different companies.
And now there is this huge company with no staff writer…and a need for copy.
Multiply this scenario through…well, pretty much most of corporate America, and suddenly the outlook for a freelance writer is pretty damn sunny, wouldn’t you say?
So, yes, I’m excited about the coming recession and what it’s going to mean for my business. Aren’t you?
Are you saying we should go off half-cocked?
comment now!In a word…yes.
In my last post, I mentioned coming up with a basic framework of a plan, and then get going. As writers, we’re used to working through multiple drafts and getting things perfect before we let them see the light of day.
But plans are not the same as your writing. Things change. There are things you won’t (and can’t) anticipate. If you invest a lot of time coming up with a foolproof plan, and then hit that unexpected obstacle, you have to change directions, and suddenly your well-thought-out plan is wastebasket fodder.
Disheartened at the unfairness of the world and lamenting the demise of our perfect plan, we give up. We mourn the loss of that great idea.
But if you just jot down the bare bones of a plan and get after it, then your approach will be more open-minded and flexible. You can adapt and adjust your efforts to bring them more in line with the real world, without the attachment to your imaginary world weighing you down.
“But what if…”
Stop right there. You can what-if for a month, and something unexpected will still pop up and surprise you. Worse, most of your what-ifs aren’t going to happen. Until you’ve stepped out there and made a few moves, you’re simply wasting your time.
If you can’t write your plan on the back of your business card, you’ve invested too much time in it without taking action. Put down the pen, and go.
Take Action
1 commentWe’re launching the blog with the single most important piece of advice anyone could ever offer you: take action.
As a writer, believe me I understand the temptation to think yourself into a hole, or out of trying something. But there comes a time when writing and planning only serve as a means of procrastinating.
But here’s the deal: if you don’t get off your butt and try something, you’re never going to make it…and where’s the fun in that? So here’s the rule I had to give myself regarding planning my next moves:
1. Come up with an idea, write 500 words on what the accomplishment will mean to you if you’re successful.
2. Come up with the five core steps that will get you there.
3. Determine the steps required to accomplish the first step–one of which can be performed right now, and another that must be performed within 24 hours.
4. Perform that step right now. You don’t get to write any more about this until you’ve taken that first step. It doesn’t have to be anything big: make a list of prospects you can call. And go ahead and schedule a time tomorrow to take the second action.
You’re free to come up with as many ideas as you want. And you can write about what making those ideas real will mean to you until your pen runs dry. But once you do that, you can’t write anything else about it until you’ve taken action.
Why? Because we’re phenomenal at coming up with an idea, then writing about that idea, then writing a plan for that idea, then writing about that plan, and then remarking on that writing about the plan, and then writing about what we’ll do after that plan succeeds…and then we make plans for those ideas, and then we’ll write about those plans, etc., etc., etc.
In the end we have journals filled with grand ideas, and absolutely nothing to show for it. Anyone could walk in off the street, grab a journal and make ten fortunes off of the ideas inside just by taking action. But we…we’re off writing about that NEXT great idea.
Stop.
Have the idea. Come up with the framework for a plan, and get going.
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