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How to Build a Wildly Profitable Conversion Funnel On Autopilot

By on May 24, 2012. Leave a Comment
conversion_funnel

In an interview with Bryan Eisenberg, leading conversion specialist, he noted businesses spend up to $92 to get someone to their site… and less than one dollar to convert them. Another shocking statistic: 76% of companies do *not* have any form of conversion optimization… and 48% believe they have zero control over conversion. I think that is ridiculous. Conversions are one of the few things you do control. Unlike most marketing efforts – which require third-party sites like Google or Twitter – conversion exists on your site, which puts you in 100% control of your destiny. But can you improve [Read more…]

Categories: Freelance Business Tips, Monetizing Blogs, Money Matters Tags: , ,

Being a 21st Century Writer

Three crucial, additional skill sets you must have to be a good writer in the 21st Century.

By on January 10, 2011. 2 Comments
hats

If there’s one thing lacking in the publishing and journalism industries these days, it’s certainty. The world of writing and publishing is changing day-by-day, and no longer can you be a successful writer — whether your craft is journalism or novel writing, whether you’re writing for print or digital — merely by virtue of being talented. There are entirely new skill sets required for the modern successful writer, and whatever kind of writer you are, you’re going to find that these skills are a must. You want to be a 21st Century writer? Here are three hats you must wear [Read more…]

Categories: 21st Century Publishing Tags: , ,

Getting More Work from Your Existing Clients

Beyond Reminders

By on October 7, 2010. 2 Comments

I don’t think it’s enough. Getting work is wonderful, making it is even better. Writers need to put their creative thinking, experience and skills to work to create new projects.

Categories: Best of FWJ, Customer Service, Freelance Business Tips, Freelance Writing Business, Freelance Writing Clients, Just Good Business, Marketing, Productivity Tips Tags: , , , , ,

Social Networking for Writers

How to Network Like a Pro -- and Why Every Writer Should

By on August 20, 2010. 8 Comments
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Time was, all writers had to do was write. We did the cool creative end of things and left the business and marketing to other, more qualified souls. Today, writers can no longer afford to leave their fan base out in the cold. Thanks to the Internet, there are more words than ever competing for readers, so breaking through the clutter requires more than eye-catching marketing. It requires interaction. I know “marketing” is a scary word for some, but I promise the kind of marketing I’m talking about is nothing to be afraid of. You don’t have to come up [Read more…]

Categories: 21st Century Publishing Tags: , , ,

Set Your Work Hours in Stone

By on May 17, 2010. 12 Comments

Officially, one of the benefits of working as a freelance writer is that you have a more flexible schedule. It’s true, to an extent: if you need to drop everything and go deal with an emergency, there’s certainly no boss to tell you otherwise. On the other side of the coin, though, you have to be the inflexible one when it comes to your schedule — without a boss to tell you to focus on your work, it can be very tempting to slack off. Setting office hours and sticking to them is necessary if you want to keep moving [Read more…]

Categories: Productivity Tips Tags: , ,

Eight Ways for Freelance Writers to Become Famous on the Web

By on April 28, 2010. 8 Comments

You want a presence. Gravitas. Authority. Whatever. You want people to find you. You want them to know who you are. You have your reasons. They’re probably related to maintaining a sufficient balance in your checking account.

So, how are you going to do it? How are you going to go from being just another of 13,397,988 freelance writers to Famous You?

Here are a few models to consider.

Categories: Freelance Writing, Freelance Writing Clients, Marketing, Networking, Reputation and Credibility Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

How Valuable Is Your Service? Will It Make You Famous?

By on April 17, 2010. 2 Comments

I’m sorry to mislead you with this blog post title. You’re not going to find business tips and marketing advice here. (If you’re truly disappointed, check out the invaluable Business Tips for Writers section, but make sure you come back soon!) “What’s the difference between ‘valuable’ and ‘invaluable,’ one of our loyal readers asks. How do you know which one to use?” Good question. In marketing-speak, anything can be over-hyped. Why should something be merely “valuable” when it can be “invaluable?” Why should something be a rerun when it can be “a classic,” or, even better, “a timeless classic” or [Read more…]

Categories: Grammar Guide Tags: , , , , ,

You're Reading an Instant Classic!

By on April 15, 2010. Leave a Comment
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How old does something have to be before it can be described as a classic? The marketing world has its own language. Only in business and marketing do you hear terms like “ROI” and “conversions” bandied about as commonly as pronouns in everyday speech. Only when you’re speaking to a marketing director will you hear a five-year-old video described as a “classic.” Even cars need to be 20 years old before they can earn that designation. (It’s 45 years for an antique — a fact anyone approaching the half-century mark in age will be overjoyed to hear.) One of the [Read more…]

Categories: Grammar Guide Tags: , , ,

Rethinking Your Freelance Writing Job Strategy

By on March 25, 2010. 6 Comments
Laptop3

So you’ve been searching for freelance writing jobs for several months or more and so far haven’t yet landed a gig.  Though it’s a competitive market, good writers should still not have too many problems finding work within a couple of months. There are so many opportunities available during this time, it shouldn’t be too difficult for someone with talent and good writing samples to earn a living. Still many aspiring freelance writers are frustrated because they’re not landing any lucrative gigs, or even gigs at all. If you’ve been job seeking for some time and you’re still not finding [Read more…]

Categories: Freelance Writing Tags: , , , , , ,

3 Ways to Use Social Media to Boost Your Client Base

By on March 24, 2010. 3 Comments
social media

If you’ve been following me for a while you know I believe there are no right or wrong ways to use social media, and often complain of “social media police” telling us how we should Tweet or use Facebook, However, that doesn’t mean I don’t believe we shouldn’t use social media to give our careers a boost. There may be no exact rules, but there are certainly tried and true methods for using the social networks and other social media tools to achieve success. What I like about using online tools for networking and landing clients is how they’re so [Read more…]

Categories: Networking Tags: , , , , , ,

Freelance Writing Jobs: Frequently Asked Questions

By on March 21, 2010. 8 Comments

At Freelance Writing Jobs we strive to provide you with the best information possible about starting your freelance writing career. With so many posts offering tips and advice, it can be hard to find useful information that’s not on the front page of this blog. Since we receive a lot of email asking for tips on getting started as a freelance writer, how to set rates and more, I thought it was time for a static “Frequently Asked Questions” page. If you’re starting out as a writer, or just want a refresher course, use this handy list as a one [Read more…]

Categories: Announcements, Best of FWJ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Freelance Writing Marketing & Promotion: How Much Is Too Much?

By on March 10, 2010. 8 Comments

I’ve been working on redesigning my workflow lately in an effort to improve my efficiency, boost my bottom line, maintain something approximating sanity and to provide ample opportunity to catch a number of weekday afternoon Royals games this summer. Following some good advice, I’ve been more conscious of what I do every day and I’ve made a discovery: I spend too much time on the marketing and promotion side of things.

Categories: Freelance Writing Business, Freelance Writing Clients Tags: , , , , ,

Rewarding Your Long Term Freelance Writing Clients for Customer Loyalty

By on February 18, 2010. 2 Comments
Customer Service

I just got off the phone with my Mom. We had a very interesting discussion about customer loyalty, which provides the inspiration for this post. You see, my mom’s contract with her calling plan is ending and she doesn’t want to pay the astronomical new rate. I suggested she contact the company and ask what plans they have in place to reward existing customers for their customer loyalty.  She wasn’t aware she could do this, checked it out, and indeed received  a discounted rate for the new package. It occurs to me we should also be rewarding long term freelance [Read more…]

Categories: Freelance Writing Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Do You Know What You’re Selling? Successfully Marketing Your Online Freelance Writing

By on February 17, 2010. 10 Comments

You can’t hope to successfully pitch your work at a higher rate if you can’t tell a compelling story about what it’s going to do for the client. Sure, some of the folks looking for writers already have a clear understanding of your words’ tremendous value, but most of the people out there in Buyerland aren’t necessarily at that point. They need a little education to go along with that negotiation and you should be providing it by pitching the benefits of your work.

Categories: Freelance Writing Business Tags: , , ,

Where Do You Spend Your Marketing Dollar?

By on October 20, 2009. 5 Comments

What you’ve heard is true: you have to spend money to make money. Yes, you can get your freelance writing business started without really putting up much cash. You can do like I did, and start writing for a friend, or you can hire on to one of the larger content creation shops like Demand Studios. Both are viable, free ways to get into the freelance writing business. However, if you want to grow your business and move into new and different types of opportunities, you need to spend some cash. Specifically, you need to spend some money on marketing. [Read more…]

Categories: Money Matters Tags: , ,

10 Necessary Freelance Writing Multi-Tasks

By on November 18, 2008. 6 Comments

I write a lot of posts on things freelance writers need to do besides writing.  When you think about it, we wear many different hats. Writing is a small part of what we have to do on a regular basis if we want to be successful at our jobs. Here are some of the jobs we need to do well if we hope to make it as a 1. Job Hunt Freelance writers have to take some time out each day or several times a week to hunt for new opportunities. You might do this by querying magazines or reading [Read more…]

Categories: Writing Tips Tags: , , ,
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