DIGITAL PROMOTION 101
May 9, 2008 by Deb
Filed under Writing Tips
Knowing how to promote oneself online is essential in the age of Web 2.0, regardless of whether or not your work includes web writing. If you write your own check– as freelance writers do– you’ve got to know how to market yourself using every tool you can get your hands on. Doing this successfully will allow you to expand the audience for your work and help you land more frequent and higher-paying gigs. The key is to create a campaign that gets your name in front of the people who are likely to be most interested in your work. Here are some ways to start doing just that:
A Personal Website Or Blog
You’ve got to have one or the other, if not both. Limited technical skills are no excuse: there are many services that create sites for you with little to no effort on your part. I created my website in about an hour on Google Page Creator, using a domain that I bought from GoDaddy.com for $10. If you’re ready to jump into the world of blogging, use one of the dozens of free blogging services you can find by simply Googling "free blog." When I started my first blog I used Xanga, and then moved on to Blogger. There are pros and cons to whatever service you use, so do some research before committing. Freelance Writing Gigs had a great post a while back on how to drive more traffic to your blog: take her suggestion and keep up with the latest tips on blog promotion. You can use these ideas to promote any sort of site, as well as your freelance writing business.
Email Signatures
It’s one of the simplest and most effective ways to promote yourself, and yet freelancers constantly forget about it. Including your personal website or blog in your email signature takes about 30 seconds and it allows you to instantly create a viral advertisement about yourself in every email you send. Program your email client so that it includes your signature at the end of every message; otherwise, you’ll get awfully tired of writing out your contact info manually.
Press Releases
It may sound silly to write a press release about yourself, but if you are your own business, you need to be your own PR department. This is most successful when you can write the release around some sort of event: for example, if you are re-launching your freelance business under a new name or creating a new blog. Press releases follow a very specific format, so be sure you follow the accepted guidelines (Publicity Insider has a pretty good tutorial on this topic). Now it’s time to distribute your press release to the masses. Unless you have access to a subscription service, it is most economical to use a free service like Free-Press-Release.com or PR.com’s free version. These sites put your press release all over the internet, where it will be picked up by online news aggregators looking for certain key words. As a result, for a few weeks after you send out your release, you’ll have a bunch of websites advertising you and your services for free!
Social Bookmarking Sites
Social bookmarking sites allow users to store links to web pages and share them with other users. Many of these sites also allow users to vote on which web pages they find most interesting, and then those web pages appear on the home page of the bookmarking site, allowing their content to be seen by millions of viewers. These sites are essential for blog owners looking to distribute their content, but almost any type of URL can be submitted to these sites. If you have a piece that you’re proud of and want to share with others, check out these social bookmarking sites: Digg, Technorati, Reddit, del.icio.us, NewsVine, Furl, StumbleUpon, Google Bookmarks, etc.
Facebook and MySpace
These social networking sites allow you to make "friends," as well as create bookmarks, upload videos, write blogs, and execute various other activities. New social networking sites seem to pop up every day, but Facebook and MySpace have been around the block and have millions of users apiece. You should also check out LinkedIn for a more career-focused site that also posts writing jobs. Some people try to join every social networking site they can find in order to get their name out there, but I think it’s a better use of your time to focus on the ones that are most likely to contain your target audience.
Flickr and YouTube
Beyond their social networking function, sites like Flickr and YouTube are great ways to showcase different dimensions of your business. Let’s say that you are writing a travel piece on vacationing in Belize (lucky!). Why not upload your photos from the trip on Flickr and include a link to the published article? Or maybe you could use your digital camera to record a 3-minute video of you talking about your hotel room and showing the viewer what you do and do not like about it. There’s no need to try to become the next viral sensation; your goal here is to add another dimension to your online persona. I loved Deb’s tour of her office at Simply Thrifty– she immediately became "real" in my mind, and not just another blogger trying to say something about writing.
eBooks
Consider writing and selling an eBook about a topic about which you are both knowledgeable and passionate. Before you publish the final manuscript, be sure that your name and homepage URL is placed prominently on the front page as well as throughout the document. There are tons of articles out there on the best way to create and market eBooks, so be sure to check them out. I found this one to be a pretty good overview of the process.
Online Communities
The internet is not a vacuum of faceless users: it is a community of people with an infinite number of interests. Find the ones who are interested in the same things you are and connect with them. Participate on message boards, comment on blogs, and find new forums for discussing your passions. By developing a trustworthy and multifaceted online persona, people will feel like they already have a sense for who you are and how you operate. And when they suddenly come across a project that needs a freelance writer, who do you think they’re going to think of first?
This is only a small sample of the things you can do to promote yourself online. By all means, include more in the comments section.
Learn more about Marie and her work at www.mariecbaca.com.
Thank you for the great tips! I just tagged you on my del.icio.ous. This is something all freelance writers need to know, an I think you really made some great points! Brava!
Thank you, Marie. I’ve been hoping someone would tackle this subject this month. I’m awful at marketing myself, and while at the moment I’m busy enough, in the fall I plan on taking this full time and I know I’ll need to actively promote.
Good post.
@ Marie – Well done! I agree that you are your own PR entourage, and you need to make the most of it. Also, I have had great success with LinkedIn.
I do have one question I want to throwh out to the group. What kind of content are you using to keep your web site fresh so you keep getting hits? I have been shying away from creating a web site because I didn’t know if I would have the time to create content to keep it going.
I also want to send a shout out to everybody who participates in these discussions. I think you all bring a great deal of personal insights to the table that provide a lot to chew on.
Like Robin, I’m terrible at marketing myself and hate it. I’m definitely going to look into Press Releases more, especially to try to market my new book.
Thanks, Marie!
I think the next step for me is a blog. The thing that’s holding me back is that I’m intimidated by the idea of blogging. I know it’s the right thing, but I just don’t know where to start. How do you do it so that it doesn’t turn into a time-sucker?
I write posts in my head and have good ideas about what I want it to do, but I just can’t get off the start-line.
You don’t have to write something every day on a blog to have an audience. If everyone had a blog that required you to check it daily to keep up, you’d only be able to read 1 or 2.
If you post something good and thoughtful (and on topic) once a week, you can still maintain an audience.
Most people check blogs they read regularly with RSS feeds anyways, so they’re immediately informed when you’ve posted something new.
Quality over quantity.
And I should emphasize the “on topic” part.
Nobody is going to want to read your diary.
Pick a theme and stick with it. If you’re writing about 18th century Italian Art, don’t include a blog about the New York Yankees. You’re just going to alienate your audience, and while you might get some random hits from Yankees fans, they won’t become long-time readers.
Actually, Adam. I’m going to disagree with you. While quality is indeed important, so is posting often. To keep up traffic, especially if revenue is involved, you want to post AT LEAST several times a week. Otherwise your traffic will stagnate. To keep it flowing you have to continuously provide quality content. That’s why the best probloggers often post more than once a day.
Now I’m not saying you can’t have a good once a week blog – but you can’t expect much in the way of good traffic in that case.
Fair assessment Deb, bit I was thinking more of something that promotes yourself, rather than a professional for-profit blog.
Hey guy, thanks for all the great feedback!
@Maria: Right now I’m keeping my website fresh with the updates you see in the “Recent News” section. It takes less time than a blog, but there’s still something new to see every week or so.
@Hazel: I think the key to keeping blogs from being a time-sucker is to apply the same rules of time management you use for your other freelance work. Make a schedule and stick to it, and when you have free time write posts that you can post-date and use later.
Marie: Thanks for the great tips!
To anyone: what do you think are the best (inexpensive) website domains to use? I have a former roommate who (is amazing and) agreed to design one for me, but I’d still need to have a website, first. What are the some of the pros and cons?
One way you could better control the time you spend on your blog is to write several posts ahead of time while these ideas are fresh. Get into the brainstorming stage, then outline several of them, then draft and polish them up.
You could still dole them out over a few weeks if you had several to work with. That would give you some time to search out other topics in your mind (or online for ideas) while still having something coming on a regular basis.
I’ve been starting a problogging thing and I’m finding it more taxing to go from idea to post in a short time than if I do what I said above by separating my “brain functions.” Brainstorm several, outline several, draft several, polish and post several (or wait on the posting).
That seems to be hurting my head less, plus I can maybe throw in a few extra into the hopper for when I get busy with something else. It can buy me some time.
Also for ideas – I’ve registered several Google alerts with keywords of stuff I’m looking for. It’s kind of like wading through a murky pond at times – gotta throw plenty out. But every so often I’ll come across a great idea seed or website to bookmark. And I didn’t have to go troll – the sites and posts “came to me”.
Hope that helps.
Now, if I could just get the kids to quit screaming, I could use this brilliant plan of mine to get something done!
Excellent tips, and for those afraid of blogging–just do it! Not only do you get practice writing (I know a lot of people groan at this, but for me it’s a plus) you can also meet some great people along the way.
I’m with Erika on writing a few posts at a time; this *greatly* helps me as I usually have at least 3 posts ready to go up ahead of time clearing out my week for real work (I have ads on my blog so I do make some money from it as well).
Oh and also on the Google Alerts–invaluable!
@ Robin Marie, I use SiteGround as my host, and I really like them; prices seem pretty comparable no matter who you use these days–do a search on webhosting services and you’ll come up with side-by-side comparisons.
Also, I have 10-12 potential posts with either just a title or the title and one resource. I have another handful with more resources, but that’s my base. It doesn’t feel so much like I’m starting from scratch when I at least have that to pull from.
I did Google alerts for a while to see about news on a fairly obscure topic – looking for links and thigns I could comment on.
Well, eventually each post I made also made it to myself on the Google alert. You know your topic is obscure when *you* are the one making the most news on it!!
How much do website ads generally pay? And is it per click only?
I have one question what’s the point of being “Internet” famous if all people do is appropriate
your work and give nothing back return. My name generates 400 thousand plus hits and counting on any given day. I can see a record of stories going back several years. Not once has someone called me out of the blue and said here’s an paying assignment. So how am I benefiting?
Thanks for all the great blogging tips and encouragement — I’ll start putting down some ideas while I work on the technology …
Any tips about that? Free options would be good, but I could put a little into it if there’s a good reason.
Hi everyone,
There appears to be some problem with the link to my website in my byline. If you want to learn more about me and my work, please visit my site at http://www.mariecbaca.com/. Thanks so much!
Best,
Marie
@ Hazel: I use blogger and have no complaints. It’s free.
Added bonus: it’s owned by Google, which means your blog shows up higher in their rankings when someone does a Google search.
I use almost everything listed here. I tried the social bookmark sites, but didn’t do too well with them. I think my problem is that, other than blogging, I don’t utilize the options the way I should.
Perhaps I’ll give the social bookmarks another go.
Hi all,
Have been considering getting involved in blogging for a while and after reading the helpful advice above thought it would be rude not to leave a comment – my first ever.
Thanks for the tips
Belly
Good site I “Stumbledupon” it today and gave it a stumble for you.. looking forward to seeing what else you have..later
I would just like to say that I have been reading this site. It has great tips and valuable info. I would also like to say that both Angela Booth and Jeff Herring inspired me into freelance writing. I wrote articles for Helium. Jeff Herring is “The Internet Article Guy.” He signed up for a social network site. This social network site is called “Ning – Create Your Own Social Network!” It is for “Authors, Speakers, Coaches, and Podcasters.” A freelance writer could open their own network there and promote their work, etc. The URL to Ning is http://unlimitedspeaking.ning.com/ Just thought I’d share that with you for people who have not heard about it. Personally I have not signed up yet but am looking into it.
I only blog on Tuesday and Friday so blogging does not take up valuable job hunting and article writing time. Recently I signed up for MyBlog Log, Blog Catalog, Technorati, and Twitter so far. I will be looking into the others also.
Thanks for all the great info. and promo tips.
Fantastic article.I found the article very interesting.
Excellent article. I have long been searching to network with other freelancers on several of the more popular social bookmarking sites to market my own content, and in turn help other freelancers do the same.
This is an area where networking for self-marketing really works. I do, however, find establishing freelancer friends and contacts on those sites to network with a difficult task.
(Possibly because everyone uses a pseudo name because they don’t want to constantly “digg” their own work?)