Business & Marketing

Winning Business As a Freelance Writer

Plain Business Etiquette

I’ve mentioned previously that I have been spreading my wings and venturing into new areas looking for business. Primarily this has been based around the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) knowledge I’ve been accumulating, but it has brought home to me a reminder of my very first weeks writing for pay. Making initial approaches for work and how to handle queries and the assignment itself are probably more important than what you actually produce at this stage.

When making an initial approach for an assignment don’t pussy foot around. Ask for the work; spell out your idea, or how you will deal with the subject matter and most importantly how you will manage the work and what can be expected.

Below is a real bid I made for ten articles recently:

Hi – this supplements my bid of $60 for 10 x 400 word (min) articles. The articles will be delivered within 24 hours of receipt of instruction. They will:

1. be 100% original and Copyscape tested prior to submission;
2. in US English or British English as you specify;
3. grammatically correct and free of typos;
4. optimized with the keyword/phrase to your specification;
5. written by me – a native English speaker who splits his time between the US and UK.
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Going Off At a Tangent

Twisting ideas to promote your client

By now, if you have been reading my posts, you will have gathered that I am not a so-called “creative writer”. I do not produce literature. I have no burning desire to write a novel, unless it’s guaranteed to be a bestseller ,which will keep me in the style to which I sincerely wish to become accustomed. I am a commercial animal, I write for pay and I look at writing as a means to earn my living and to form the bedrock of a business I am building.

That said, it does not mean that I am not imaginative nor creative with the ideas that flow and am used to delivering work products for my clients. It certainly does not follow that I am in any way less passionate about what I am doing, while I also have a fierce pride in my work, and delivering the very best I can provide for clients. Some of my work is “mindless pap” as I often say to enquiring friends and family and in my honest opinion it is just that – advertising and promotional rubbish. Nevertheless, it is good advertising rubbish and I can say that because it performs the task that my clients wish to achieve and I get paid for producing it.

Today, my work for the most part is not “mindless pap” as my clients and the projects have become more interesting. Writing assignments has started to exercise my mind and imagination to a greater extent, than figuring out how to get 800 words on a paper dealing with Japanese “Geta” shoes, or producing a dumbed down series of articles on alternatives to Viagra. Even when you are confronted with a topic that readily lends itself to a simple churning out of some more advertising rubbish you can exercise your imagination and tackle the subject from a different perspective. I firmly believe that the confidence I have acquired in two years of commercial writing has encouraged me to take alternative approaches to handling a client topic.

Earlier this week I had to write a series of blog posts for a site called Your Health Reporter which promotes alternative therapies, amongst which is the use of a slimming pill derived from a cactus in the Kalahari Desert, Hoodia Gordonii. Your Health Reporter, is a relatively new client for me and initially I started off with the “Lose the keg and get a 6 pack” style of posts for the slimming and fitness products that are being promoted. Last week I altered the style and that produced some incredible results.

Blogging Tips That Work

Writing Blog Posts is Short and Sweet

I think I mentioned in one of my previous posts that a writer needs to be opinionated and forceful if they are to be successful. When it comes to writing blog posts you really must be awake to the audience you are writing for and this writers maxim definitely applies. A web surfer will spend seconds on your page if you are lucky, so what you post there needs to hit the mark fast – here are some tips from the bowels of my experience.

Tip 1: Be Opinionated

The more opinionated the better, as opinions are what readers are looking for. Do you think Ford is better than Vauxhall, Liverpool better than Manchester United, should homosexuals be allowed in the armed forces, is Gordon Brown the right man to fill Tony Blair’s shoes?

Remember a blog is accessible, so be prepared to have your opinions challenged and there is also a difference between being opinionated and posting inflammatory comments.

Tip 2. Less is More

Keep it Simple Stupid.

Tip 3. Use Lists

Like this one.

Manage Your Time, Your Writing Environment and Yourself

Writing for profit is a serious business

I’ve learned by experience that when I’m in writing mode there are certain things that have to be done.

Go to my quiet room;
Turn off the TV and music so there are no distractions;
Have a cup of Earl Grey;
Take a cigarette break every hour for a few minutes and rest my eyes; and
Write for no more than 8 hours a day unless there is an urgent deadline to be met.