Time and time again I have preached that freelance writers need to treat their work as an actual business. Just because you do not work for somebody else does not mean that you should throw all business theories out the window. One of the many details that go into running an effective business is marketing. Do you know how to market your freelance writing services? Believe it or not, the ways that you market and advertise your services will have a lot to do with your success; at least early in your career.
Here are three of the best methods for freelance writers.
1. You need to have a website which offers the following: a bio, pricing information, samples, and several methods of contact. It is not necessary to spend thousands of dollars on a website; something functional will do just fine. A website will give you a place to send interested clients, while hopefully bringing visitors from the search engines as well.
2. More and more freelance writers are finding that a blog is a great way to market their services. Although the main point of this blog is not to increase my freelance writing workload, I have received several quality jobs from readers. The nice thing about a blog is that clients will be able to get a good feel for who you are, as well as your writing style.
3. It is not fun for most people to make cold calls, but this is a sales and marketing method that freelance writers should not overlook. When you call somebody on the phone they are more or less forced to deal with you on the spot. At the very least you will be able to tell them who you are, and give them some information on yourself. You are not going to be successful with every cold call that you make, but you never know when your big break will come. And remember, just because somebody tells you no the first time you call does not mean that they won’t get in touch when their needs change.
This is not my first post on how to market your freelance writing services. The reason that I talk about this so much is that it is one of the more important aspects of the industry. If you are going to be a successful freelance writer, a lot of it will fall back on how well you market your services. Use the three points above to put together a killer marketing plan for 2008.
Freelance writers deal with ups and downs throughout the year. In my past experiences, the month of December is one of the worst for business. Although I am not 100 percent sure of why this happens, my guess is that a lot of it has to do with the holidays. Not only did Thanksgiving just end, but Christmas and the New Year pretty much shut the month down a week early. In turn, this means that you only have three weeks or so of good work time; and even that is a stretch in most cases.
Last December I earned just around $4,000. Although it was a disappointing month, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Luckily, I am doing much better this December, and hope to break the $5k mark with ease.
What are freelance writers to do if work is slow during December? Try the following ideas to stay busy until 2008.
1. If you are not writing, strongly market your services so that you can hit the ground running in 2008. Remember, December may be slow, but you want to make sure that the new year does not start off at the same pace. Personally, I love to have a solid month in January as to set a positive tone for the rest of the year.
2. Update all of your files. This includes everything from payment receipts to contact lists. By doing this now, you can avoid being bogged down next month. The bottom line is that you want to free up all of your time for actual writing related tasks starting January 1.
3. Make a list of both short and long term goals. When doing this you want to set big goals, but not ones that are impossible to reach. If you are constantly failing, it will begin to take a toll on you.
There is a good chance that you are having a slow month; this is common among freelance writers in December. But remember, just because you do not have a lot of work, does not mean that you cannot be productive.Â
I just wanted to send a quick thanks to all of my RSS readers. Today is the first time that I broke the 100 subscriber mark! Although this is a long way from where I want to be, it is one of the many goals that I set for myself upon starting this blog.
To tell you the truth, I don’t have any secrets on how to increase this number, etc. Unlike some of the big “make money online†bloggers, this number is not a measure of success for me. Generally speaking, my main goal is to provide high quality, useful information, and then let readers decide if they want to add me to their reader; some do, some don’t.
Many have told me that reaching 100 subscribers is the most difficult. Hopefully 200 will be right around the corner.
Thanks again, and if you have yet to subscribe, you can do so here!
