I’ve imparted a boatload of marketing ideas in this marketing-basics series.
But there may still be a problem.
Have you started implementing some of these marketing strategies yet?
Only a little? Maybe…not so much?
Mm-hmm. I thought so.
To be a successful freelance marketer, you’ll need to take a few important final steps. These will get you over the hump and started doing your marketing.
When you think about everything you’d like to get done in your freelance writing business this year, it could make your head explode.
So I don’t advocate looking at that long of a timeframe. At least not at first.
For now, decide which of these marketing strategies appeal to you most, and are the best fit for the types of markets you plan to target.
Take a look in the mirror and think about what form of marketing sounds intriguing to you. Maybe even sounds fun. That’s what you should try first.
Choose perhaps two or three methods you will use. Maybe you’ll do in-person networking and send query letters. Or you’ll work on your writer website, find local designers to partner with, and reach out to past editors on LinkedIn.
Whatever feels doable to you and easiest.
Then, write down your realistic goals of what you can get accomplished in marketing in the next 30 days.
Your marketing plan might be three sentences, or it might be pages long. Totally depends on how you like to do these things.
That’s all. If you want to learn more about creating your plan, you can check out my e-book Freelance Business Bootcamp. Got templates and everything.
Now that we have a plan, the question is — what will make you actually do it?
In my experience, the biggest problem freelance writers face is that there is no boss standing over us saying, “OK Carol, make sure those five query letters get out by the end of the week, or else.”
So we don’t do it.
The answer here is to find a way to create accountability. To find someone who could stand in for that boss and make you feel like, “Hey, this is expected of me. People will be disappointed if I don’t get it done.”
In other words, someone who will help you develop a sense of massive guilt if you are not marketing your writing business.
Three great ways to do this:
At the end of month one, take a look at what you got done.
What felt easy? What was agony?
It will be a little early to look at actual results. Allow several months before you do that.
For now, just get a sense of whether you are getting marketing done, and how you feel about different types of marketing.
As you write your next month’s marketing plan, maybe adjust a bit to go in the direction that feels right in your gut.
Once you’re 3-6 months into marketing, it’s time to look back and reflect.
Did you get new clients? If so, were they great payers and the types of writing you really want? Which marketing efforts brought you the most clients? The best clients?
I recommend you at least analyze your marketing success annually. Doing his has saved me a boatload of time on marketing initiatives that weren’t getting me quality clients.
If you go a few months and you’re not getting any results with your marketing, there may be things you could do to improve your marketing pitch.
You might learn more about how to come up with marketable story ideas, or how to write a stronger query letter or letter of introduction.
You might work on your in-person networking pitch.
But whatever you do, don’t beat your head against the wall. If something’s not working, either figure out why and get better at how you’re doing marketing, or try another method.
It can be slow going at first.
Make a promise to yourself that you won’t get discouraged.
Remember that the single best, most empowering, and potentially career-changing thing you can do to take your writing career to the next level is to simply put one foot in front of the other, and keep marketing your business.
If this series helped you, I’d love to hear your success story. I turn some of those into guest posts that I pay $50 for, so if you’ve used these tips, just reply to this email and let me know about it.
Best of luck with your writing —
P.S. Need more resources for learning about freelance writing? Besides Freelance Writers Den (which has a new program for mid-career freelancers, Den 2X Income Accelerator), be sure to check out the courses I co-teach with The Renegade Writer’s Linda Formichelli — they’re over at Useful Writing Courses. Our classes include Escape the Content Mills, 4 Week Journalism School, Freelance Writer’s Pitch Clinic, and Article Writing Masterclass.
Quick: What’s the difference between a freelance-writing hobby and a freelance-writing business?
Marketing.
It’s just that simple. Writers who actively market their business find more and better clients, and end up making more money.
Businesses do marketing. Hobbyists do whatever they feel like doing, or whatever falls in their lap.
Before you start marketing, you need to do one thing. Without doing this step first, the rest of your marketing is likely to fail.
The first step to marketing your writing is pretty simple. Ya gotta believe ya got something to sell.
Something special.
When you’re a writer, what you’re selling is you.
You have to believe in you, or you won’t market your business with any real energy.
Fear will hold you back. I’ve asked about writers’ fears before, so I know many writers are dogged by them. Here’s some of what you’ve told me:
You’re afraid people will figure out you’re a fraud.
You’re afraid you’re not good enough.
You’re afraid because you didn’t go to journalism school.
You’re afraid you don’t have enough clips to be taken seriously.
You’re afraid you’ll screw up and ruin your chances of being a paid writer.
You’re afraid of being laughed at.
Lots of writers want to skip this step, of beating back their fears and building self-esteem. They want to try to fake a positive attitude about what they’re putting out there.
But then, you won’t be prepared to face all the “no”s and take the rejection and just keep right on rolling. Which is what successful freelance writers do.
Here’s the attitude you want to approach your marketing with: You’re not going to let anything stand between you and your freelance-writing career dreams.
If your positive-feelings tank is a little low, how can you fill it up? Here are a few techniques I recommend:
To sum up, get your head on straight. Because people are attracted to people who feel good about themselves.
Prospects can smell that desperate, insecure attitude on you a mile away. So lose it. Then, you’re ready to market your business and get great clients.
Next week, I’ll tell you about the easiest type of marketing you’ll ever do — and it’s a method that gets great results, too.
Why will it work for you? Because you know you’re awesome.
–Carol
Homework: If you need to, do some of the self-esteem exercises above. Get your head in a good place. Next week, we start marketing.
Here it is, Den 2Xers — your handy link to the entire 20-week Marketing 101 course.
Since it covers a lot of the marketing basics, this is a good starting primer to think about the proactive marketing methods you plan to use.
Enjoy!
–Carol
#1: The Easiest Promotional Tactic
#2: Without This Tool, You’re Invisible
#3: How to Lure Great Clients in 60 Seconds
#4: How to Quickly Mine Job Ads for Gold
#5: What You Need Up Your Sleeve
#6: How to Get Gigs Flowing Your Way
#7: How to Find Clients Without Clips
#8: How to Get Free, Targeted Online Ads
#9: How to Get Gigs With Just Your Blog
#10: Here’s Where the Good-Paying Clients Are Hiding
#11: The Quick Way to Hit a Ton of Prospects
#12: How Social Media Really Works
#13: How to Get Editors to Notice You
#14: How to Earn More by Giving Stuff Away
#15: How to Get Prospects Warmed Up
#16: How to Earn More Just From Schmoozing
#17: How to Get Clients the Lazy Way
#18: The Amazing Strategy No One is Using
#19: Are You Missing This Key Ingredient?
#20: How to Get Over the Hump and Do This Thing
By Mitt Ray
A white paper is a cross between a magazine article and a corporate brochure. Most clients want to read the educational magazine article part of the white paper to find out the solutions to their problems — but the persuasive brochure part of the white paper does its job too, and convinces the readers to buy the product or use the service.
This unique feature of the white paper — to educate and sell — makes it one of the most powerful marketing tools. This is the reason why clients are ready to pay $3000-$10,000 for a 6-14 page white paper.
How to gain some experience writing white papers
If you know how to write articles or marketing materials, you should be able to learn how to write white papers with a little effort and practice. The first thing you need to do is read all you can about writing white papers from books, blogs, articles, etc. Also study some well-written white papers. More and more companies are posting white papers online to build their authority — download a few and give them a read.
Now start writing…
After you learn how to write white papers, you can start practicing your skill on a hypothetical or real company. Choose a business-to-business company, as this type of business tends to commission more white papers. They usually have complicated offerings and need to convince business owners to buy their product or service.
Or create a white paper to sell your writing, about how businesses benefit from using freelance writers. Post it on your site as a free download for prospects.
Sharpen your skills by writing as many white papers as you can. Once you feel that you’re ready, start looking for white paper jobs.
Best ways to get your first white writing paper job
Once you have a few samples in your portfolio, you can look for better jobs. The best thing is to advertise your services as a white paper writer through your website, cold calling, and other marketing methods. It’s important that you target B2B companies, as they need white papers. Look for companies that are involved in fields like technology (cloud computing, CRM, content management, IT healthcare), or finance (insurance, banks, re-insurance).
Why and how did I get into writing white papers?
I always liked writing in detail, and when I write articles or marketing material I always have to edit it and make it short and concise. Then I found out about white papers, where you can write everything in great detail.
I did some research and realized white papers exactly suited my style of writing — describing a problem and providing a solution to it in a detailed manner. This is the reason why I started writing in this field.
I read books, white papers, blogs and guides. I asked experts for advice, and after receiving it I started writing white papers. Once I finished writing, I’d send it to some experts who gave me their feedback and helped me improve my skills. Once the people who helped me and I felt I was ready, I looked for work.
I convinced a few of my clients to hire me to write a white paper, and I worked on my portfolio. After I built the portfolio, getting freelance white paper work had become extremely easy for me.
Got questions about writing white papers? Just ask in the comments below.
Mitt Ray is a copywriter. He specializes in writing and marketing white papers. He runs imittcopy which provides copywriting and white paper writing & marketing services. Mitt regularly posts tips on writing and marketing white papers on his White Paper Blog. He is also the author of “Understand and Write White Papers“, a white paper on how to write white papers.
By Sean Platt
Let’s face it, most online writers struggle to survive.
They start out with stars in their eyes, imagining easy dollars earned. Sure, they have a way with words.
But writing online is hard, harder than they expected. In little time, they find themselves writing at all hours of the day and night, writing anything for anyone at any price.
Worst of all, they’re writing without a plan or means to pull free from the insanity.
Sad, but true.
Writers start blogs, figuring it’s easy enough to be a freelance writer. They know their way around a thesaurus and are willing to work hard to make it online.
But they didn’t anticipate the competition, all fighting for their shot at the same slop copy – the kind that’s paid for by the pound. And not just local competition, but GLOBAL – writers who undercut with bargain basement pricing.
Too many writers get snared in this trap.
They find themselves running in the same circles as so many writers before them – writers who went online looking for magic, only to end up fatigued, defeated, and ready to quit.
If this sounds like you, don’t give up.
If you’re at the end of your rope, tie a loop around your wrist and start climbing back to the top.
Despite all that you’ve read above and have seen for yourself, your future has never been brighter.
It’s the best time in history to pick up a pen and write yourself a crazy amazing future.
Whether you want to freelance forever or set your sites on eBooks, the tools to create your art and share it with the world are plentiful, mostly free, and available to everyone.
And it gets better. Effectively leverage your time and writing isn’t just a great job, it’s one of the best in the world.
Balance your work load between high-paying clients and your own assets such as books and information products, and you will increase your hourly rate, while creating assets that will continue to pay, whether you’re working or not.
Don’t waste your time or talent on keyword copy that’s bought and sold for clicks and pennies. You can make a real living, rather than the pittance paid to the majority. But only if you elevate your skill set and learn to write in a way few others can.
Many freelancers can write well.
But few freelancers can write copy that persuades their readers and drives them to action.
Writing blog posts isn’t enough.
Writing keyword articles isn’t enough.
Even writing viral content isn’t enough.
But if you can write copy that tells people what to do, then moves them to do it, you can charge enough per job to make up for more than 10 keyword article jobs.
I used to write cheap articles, too. Until I quit cold turkey.
It was better to get paid nothing than next to nothing, so long as I used my time to sharpen a skill that would help me earn more forever.
So I hunkered down and learned from the best.
I read everything I could. From Sugarman to Kennedy to Cialdini to Ogilvy himself. I learned about the art of persuasion and the science of copywriting, not from today’s bloggers, but from the direct response architects of the past. Information that’s as relevant now as it ever was.
They gave me the bigger, better toolbox I needed to multiply my earning potential and quickly grow my business.
You don’t have to be a starving artist, you just need a few high-quality clients to pay you what you’re worth so you can fund your writing dreams. The dreams that will write your “happily ever after.”
The highest-paid writers in the world aren’t anointed, they’re studied.
Add the art of persuasion to your portfolio of writing tools and you will have the ability to make more money for every word you write.
Sean Platt is Ghostwriter Dad, author of Writing Online.
Do you like to tell stories?
Case studies tell the story of how a customer used a product or service, and their great result.
Companies like to use them because they’re an effective marketing tool. That’s also the reason they pay well for case studies.
Case studies require that you interview the person who used the product/service before you write. The length of the story can vary from a couple of paragraphs (for which pay might be $100+) to four or more pages with charts, graphs and other graphics to help tell the story (for which you might receive $2,500+).
If you are interested in breaking into this lucrative niche, here are some steps to help you succeed:
1. Identify prospects — then, reach out. To find companies that want case studies, contact the marketing or communications department.
2. Thoroughly understand what your client wants from this story. How long should the case study be? Do they have other case stories they want you to match in tone? What are the marketing messages the case study is to reinforce? Familiarize yourself with the product, how it’s used and what it’s used for.
3. Prepare, prepare, prepare. You’ll be interviewing one of the company’s most precious resources: one of their customers. Treat them as such. You’ll get one shot to interview this person, generally by phone, so make it count. Write the questions you’d like to ask them and identify the factors that can be used to tell the story of improvement. Identify what graph or picture will help tell the story.
4. Submit your questions – first to your client for sign-off, then to the person to be interviewed. When reviewing the questions with your client, ask what you’ve left out. Incorporate any client changes and send your questions to the person to be interviewed so that they can also be prepared. Suggest that they use notes during the interview.
5. Establish rapport and conduct interview: Tell the interviewee that your job is to help them tell their story and that they will have the opportunity to approve your draft before it’s published. Then start in a relaxed manner with the spelling of their name and any other identifiers you’ll use like company, city and state, etc. Move to the interview questions they have in front of them. End with an open-ended question: “Is there anything else we haven’t discussed that is essential to the telling of your story?”
6. Write and get approval. Using the information from steps 1 and 4, write your case study and prepare the accompanying visual. When it seems ready for your client’s eyes, submit it, noting that after they are pleased with it, the interviewee still needs to sign off. Make any revisions required; then communicate with your interviewee. Follow up as necessary to assure that the company receives permission to publish.
Carol J. Kaemmerer tells stories about corporations’ life-enhancing therapies and products through powerful case studies and white papers. Learn more at Kaemmerer Group.
By John Soares
Did you graduate from college?
Do you like to learn? Do you think college education is important?
Are you a freelance writer?
Then you have what it takes to make a solid income writing supplements for college textbooks. I’ve been doing it since 1992, and by 1994 I was able to quit my job teaching poli-sci courses at the local community college to do it full time.
A textbook supplement is anything that helps students learn and teachers teach (and test). Top examples:
College teaching experience is a definite plus, but I know several people who haven’t taught college who still get lots of assignments in this field. Most of the editors at textbook publishing companies care about the quality of the work you create, not how many years you’ve taught — or if you’ve taught.
You’ll likely start out in your discipline, but you can quickly branch out as long as you have enough knowledge to do the work in other disciplines.
For example, I have a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a master’s degree in political science. I’ve also taken a lot of courses various subjects, including history, geography, and the earth and life sciences. I started by doing poli-sci projects, but soon branched out to history and all of those other subjects I just listed.
I love doing this. I love to learn new things and reinforce what I already know. I want to know how the world works. The better I understand it, the more I feel a part of it.
Here’s what I’ve done in recent months:
Of course, just about any type of writing is going to seem like “work” sometimes.
I make a minimum of $50 an hour on my projects, and I make substantially more than that on some. I recently finished a one-year project for a private company that worked out to about $150 per hour and about $12,000 total, but that’s less common.
When you first start out you won’t be as experienced or as efficient, so you could initially make less.
Not very. Few people know about it and it’s a multi-billion-dollar industry that’s essentially recession-proof. (Actually, more people go to college during economic downturns, which means more textbooks get sold and there’s more work for supplements writers.)
There’s one main drawback. More assignments are available in certain times of year — summer is one of them — with occasional slow spots. I’ve been doing this full-time since 1994, and I still occasionally have brief periods with no assignments. That’s actually cool with me. I write several blogs and I create information products, and I like to hike and travel, so I like the slow periods.
John Soares has been a full-time freelance writer for college textbook publishers since 1994. He also writes about time management and productivity on his ProductiveWriters blog.
By Carol Tice
I watched a great old movie with my two sons recently — Angels in the Outfield (not that old, the 1994 version).
What’s a kiddie baseball movie have to do with being a successful freelance writer?
Everything.
In case you haven’t seen it, the story concerns a boy in foster care who’s a California Angels baseball fan. The boy prays for the team to start winning, and soon he starts to see angels on the ballfield, helping the team’s players. Only he can sense their presence, but they turn the team around and the Angels start winning.
In the pennant game, though, the angels won’t interfere. The pitcher is an old-timer recently reinvigorated by the angels’ presence, but he starts to falter in the final inning. Without the angels, he can’t do it.
Suddenly the boy realizes how to help. He stands up and flaps his arms, the pre-arranged signal that he sees angels on the field. Believing he has divine assistance, the pitcher reaches inside and becomes more than who he was a moment before. He is lifted up by his faith.
Then he throws that final strike.
No angels were really helping. Only his belief that he could do it made it happen.
In fact, the pitcher is half-dead of lung cancer and has six months to live, the angel reveals. What he did — pitching a winning game with an arm that blew out long ago — was impossible.
But he went out and did it anyway, because he believed he could.
This movie reminded me that there is one precious ingredient freelance writers need to be successful:
If you do not have that faith, down deep in your heart — that writing is your gift to this world and you can use it to earn a living — none of the tips and advice I offer on this blog will help you.
Even though there are a million other wannabe writers out there competing for gigs, you must know you have something special. And you will find your place in the vast freelance-writing market. You know there’s a spot for you in there, somewhere.
Faith makes you unstoppable.
So — believe you can find gigs.
Believe you can write those articles well enough to get the next gig.
Believe you can pay your bills with your writing.
The freelance writing life is just too full of rejection and discouragement and it’s too easy to quit unless you know this is for you.
Then, you will let no obstacle stand in your way. Fifty queries that go unanswered will not turn you back.
Would you believe a college dropout could write for the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and Fortune 500 companies?
I believe I have unlimited potential as a writer, and it happened to me.
Writers often ask me, “Am I qualified to do technical writing? To write for a major national magazine? To write textbook supplements? To write for businesses?”
My answer is: “Do you feel you can?”
Then, yes. Go out and do it. Shine that light.
By Carol Tice
I received a very moving email recently from a longtime professional writer and single mom of two. She’d recently been laid off from a lucrative editing job.
Now, looking out on today’s freelance world full of $15-an-article assignments, she doesn’t know how she will support her family. She’d have to work around the clock at content-mill rates to make ends meet, and doesn’t want to do that kind of work anyway.
“I am just not capable of slapping things together and calling it writing,” she says. “I’m truly afraid that things will not get better.”
Well, she wrote to the right person. Because I’m not afraid.
She needs to be fearless too, and so do you.
In this economy and fast-changing writing landscape, attitude is everything. I believe prospective employers can smell the fear and negativity on applicants from miles off, and they steer clear. And that feeds the cycle of no work, and more fear.
I think the secret of why I’ve had such a successful year is that I never feared. I believe that I am really a talented writer, and that I will continue to find paying clients, no matter what.
Somewhere in the enormous, multi-million-dollar sea that is the freelance writing market, there’s enough lucrative work to provide a good living for one little me.
I believe it.
I’m such a small part of the whole marketplace, that there doesn’t have to be a recession for me. That’s my belief. And that’s why I’ve found good-paying clients, all through this recession.
I am not sitting around mourning the shrinking world of traditional journalism. I’m wide open to new possibilities in my field, so I find them. I am communicating my excitement to everyone I meet at the new opportunities that are arising in the world of writing. I think editors find it refreshing – I’ve often gotten responses with an hour.
When I talk with writers, the ones in the worst shape have very negative attitudes. They don’t believe there’s good-paying work out there for them anymore. They waste time mourning the loss of a job, the loss of the old world of journalism, they want to vent about their raw deal, and mostly they can’t stop wishing things would go back the way they were.
That’s never going to happen. And hiring editors don’t want to hear it.
The negativity becomes self-fulfilling prophecy, and when I check back in with them, usually they’ve given up and are looking for full-time jobs, or have decided to be stay-at-home moms and forget about having a writing career for now.
Do you believe in your writing abilities? Do you think there’s a place for you in the new media order – and are you excited by that?
Then find the good-paying work that’s waiting for you. I believe it’s out there.
This post originally appeared on WM Freelance Writers Connection.
By Carol Tice
New writers often ask me this question. They’ve submitted an article pitch, or an unsolicited manuscript and nothing. How long should they wait before they email or call to ask whether the editor is interested? How long until they can send that pitch or article to the next editor?
I’ve got an easy answer for this.
My personal strong feeling is that if an editor is interested, you’ll likely hear from them right quick. They all say allow 4-6 weeks… but I can’t recall sending a pitch to an editor who called me more than a month later to say they liked it.
It never hurts to send a reminder once, say a month after you submitted. Every once in a while you will find your editor meant to contact you, but your query had gotten lost on their desk. And it’s never rude to follow up once.
But once is the limit, people. More than that and you will set off the editor’s warning system that you are an amateur.
Of course, the reason new writers ask this question is that they feel hampered from sending their pitch or piece to another editor until they get an answer from the first editor. This is a trap you don’t want to fall into.
Always submit your queries with the note that it is a nonexclusive submission. That alerts the editor you are continuing to pitch it around elsewhere. At the speed news moves these days, I think nobody’s too insulted or put off by that. If you’ve crafted a strong pitch or article, it may well have a news angle that won’t keep forever, so they’ll respect that you are continuing to try to get your article in print before your news goes stale.
The other way around it, of course, is to tailor your pitches to each individual publication you are trying. If you’re designing your pitches right, each one is aimed to fill a publication’s particular needs, so while you may have a similar idea you’ve queried other publications with, the slant shouldn’t be identical. This frees you to pitch on and on without waiting around, particularly to non-competing publications.
When you’re new to writing, I think it’s key not to fall into the trap of waiting around for things to happen. You send one query letter and then fall into a funk for a month wondering if the editor wants it. You second-guess yourself – should I have given them a different angle? Mentioned my expert? Written in a breezier style? And so on.
Don’t let this happen! Professionals send queries and then move on, that very hour, to the next pitch. Don’t look back. You can’t make a living unless you are sending many queries each week. Trust that if your idea fills a need for the editor, they will call.
I know writers who have a followup system that reminds them to inquire about their query a few weeks after sending. If you want to do this, know that you don’t need a complicated system.
My personal approach is: I don’t follow up! I trust that if an editor is interested, they’ll be in touch. I send my query, and move on to the next one.
