One of the best things about social media is that businesses can interact with consumers where they play.  You have seen this in traditional means of advertising, too.  You see billboard ads at events.  You see advertising at the Winnipeg Goldeyes Games.  You see advertisements on the LED screens at the MTS Center when you go to see a concert.  You can do the same thing on social media but it is less obvious.

When you see a billboard or a big ad at a concert you know it is advertising.  But when you are using a site like Pinterest, it is not so blatant, which makes it even more effective.
Read more….

Reach People Where They Play – on Pinterest is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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If you are a fiction writer, online writer, or magazine writer, you need to be able to promote yourself.  Unless of course you’re big enough to have an agent that does all of that for you.  But the majority of us are web writers and the only people we can depend on to promote us are ourselves!  It is a vital element to any web writer that wants to be successful.

Thanks to the Internet, there are many ways that we can promote ourselves.  You can get your name out there and share samples of your work at the same time.  Choose a good mixture of promotional techniques to get the best results and reach the widest audience possible.  Many of them are no cost options so take advantage of them.

Social Media

Obviously, I put a lot of emphasis on social media.  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+ and bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon can help you reach a wide audience.  I know some of you like to keep your Facebook profile private.  That’s fine.  You can still create a Facebook Page.  You can share articles you’ve written, blogs you’re writing for, ideas, thoughts, and so much more.

Interaction is always going to be important when it comes to social media promotion.  You can’t just get out there and talk about yourself.  You need to be ready to help people, share information, and develop relationships.  Without the interaction you’re just a big ol’ spammer. J

Here’s a tip for Facebook Page owners. 

You can comment on other pages as YOUR PAGE instead of your profile!  Just go to your page and look to the right.  You’ll see a link that says, “Use Facebook as (your page name)” – click that.  Then find pages that you like and “LIKE” them.  Then participate in the conversation as YOUR PAGE.  You’ll get more likes to your page, which means more exposure!

Your Website

I’ve talked about this before.  You need to have a website that is complete and professional.  Treat it like the reception area of your office.  It should be clean and tidy.  Clients should have access to someone to contact (via your contact form or another means).  You should have basic info that they will be looking for and then you can direct them to your blog, which gives you the opportunity to kind of sit down and have a chat with them.

Blogging

If you don’t have a blog, why not?  If you have a blog that is sitting there growing weeds, why?  A blog is not rocket science.  You’re writing articles for clients every day so why would you not take some time to write for yourself?  Think of it this way, your blog is your office.  It is where you can provide people with information, you can sell your services, and you can demonstrate your knowledge.  Why wouldn’t you take a couple hours a week to develop your business?

And while you’re blogging great stuff, don’t forget to share it on your social networks!

Reviews & Testimonials

When people use the Internet to find a service or a product, they often start by looking for reviews first.  They don’t want to just know what you have to say about you; they want to know what others say about you.  They want to know what you are good at and they want to know what actual clients have to say!  You can start by getting clients to give you a testimonial that you can place on your site or blog.  If you have a Facebook page you can ask clients to come and like the page and leave a comment about your services.  If you have a site or blog there are review sites that special in reviewing.

Forums and Groups

What better way to demonstrate your knowledge and promote yourself than by helping people?  And forums and groups are great for that.  They can especially be helpful if you have a specialty.  Your specialty likely has a Yahoo group, a forum, or a Facebook group connected to it.  Join it and participate.  Look for the chance to answer people’s questions.

And don’t forget that many forums let you attach a bio or a signature.  Make use of this!  If you use a signature, make sure it is something catchy and appealing.  If it is a bio fill it out completely.  If you’re on Google+ (and you should be – it is growing!) make sure your Google profile is completely filled out.  It’s a sales page and people will read it so don’t miss out on this chance to promote yourself!

Article Marketing

Do you think that since Panda came along article marketing is out the window?  It’s not.  There are still sites that are doing well and article marketing gives you a chance to share your knowledge and get valuable links back to your site or blog.  Write great stuff and always make sure that your profile is filled out completely.  People can’t find you if you don’t tell them where you are.

Guest Posting

You can’t get everyone on the Internet to your blog.  But you can go to where other people are.  Guest posting has the advantage of allowing you to reach a targeted audience that is just sitting there and waiting for you to show up.  Well, not necessarily you.  But someone.  And if it isn’t you it will be someone else.

Follow some great blogs and study them.  If you have a specialty, you’ll want to look for blogs in those niches, obviously.  But if you’re not sure yet, follow blogs in a niche that you’re interested in and can write about.  Observe how their blog posts are structured and the tone of the writing.  Then write something great for them and contact the blog owner and offer your guest post.

This Isn’t a Waste of Time

I hear writers say all the time that they don’t want to waste time on social media or don’t have time for guest posting.  All these things are not a waste of time.

They are good business!

Every business needs to promote.  I don’t care if you have an online business or a bricks and mortar business.  You can’t just rely on drive by traffic to keep your business profitable.  You need to promote.

Think about it – if you’re not promoting yourself and using some of these techniques, you are wasting your time being in business for yourself.  You’d be better off to go and get a retail job IMO.

Are You Using These 7 Important Tools to Promote Yourself as a Writer? is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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This is part two of a three part series.  In part one we talked about marketing yourself as a freelance writer and targeting your marketing efforts.

Here are some more mistakes you might be making:

Mistake #3: You’re not getting personal enough.

Copying a pasting the same generic message and sending it to hundreds of companies may be less time consuming than writing personalized messages, but it might come back to bite youlater.

Think about it. When you get an email (or phone call) from someone you don’t know, you probably delete (or ignore) it if it doesn’t immediate grab your attention. Sending a “to whom it may concern” message is not going to win you any brownie points, and it will probably get your message deleted before anyone even has time to read it.

The solution? Do a little digging to find out who is responsible for hiring writers within each company, and then send messages targeted to each person. Read each company website, and become familiar with what they do and how they go about doing it. Position yourself as the perfect writer for their particular needs or industry.

If you can’t find the person in charge of hiring freelancers, send a brief note to customer service or human resources and ask who you should speak with. Often times, they’ll either send you an email address or forward your message to the right people. If you’re cold calling, ask them who would be charge in hiring freelance talent.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Mistake #4: You are pricing your services too low.

You might be tempted to charge rock bottom prices just to make sure you get the gig. Don’t. At least, not unless you want to be earning rock bottom prices months from now.

While it is possible that a low-baller will walk away if you quote professional rates right off the bat, ask yourself: is that really the type of client you want? Plus, once you are locked in at a low rate, it’s very hard to increase your prices later on.

Another pitfall of charging too little is that the good clients, the ones who know the value of quality content, might not take you as seriously. You could be the best writer in the world, but if you’re charging $5 for an article, clients will assume will you don’t have the experience or talent they’re looking for. Know your worth, and don’t be afraid to ask for what you deserve. Don’t price yourself as a bottom basement writer, unless you want to work with bottom basement clients.

If you are a new writer, you’ll stick to the lower end of the pay scale, but don’t price yourself off the scale altogether.

Mistake #5: You don’t have clients sign a contract.

Get everything in writing. For one thing, it ensures that you’ll get paid (or at least provides ammo if you have to dispute an unpaid invoice). Secondly, clients will assume that you’re a real professional if you have a contract. Business owners have contracts. Hobbyists who are trying to make a little extra pocket change, don’t.

Once you have a potential client interested, you want to keep him interested. That means conducting yourself in a professional manner before you ever even get to work.

A contract doesn’t have to be anything fancy. A simple statement of the project and payment arrangements is fine. Make sure it is stated that the client won’t own your writing until payment is received in full. If you want rights to resell the work, make sure you include those terms in writing as well.

Watch for Part 3 tomorrow!

Are These 8 Marketing Mistakes Hurting Your Freelance Writing Career? – Part 2 is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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I’m a big believer in social media marketing.  You all know that.  I think that social media is the new search engine and studies are starting to show that more and more people look to social media for information on topics, rather than the search engines.  Will search engines like Google become obsolete?  Not likely for a long time.  But social media is going to just get bigger.  So it is important to know how to use it.

Facebook is one of the biggest social  media venues that we can use for marketing but many just don’t know how they are supposed to use it.  I get a lot of questions about Facebook and whether we should use a profile or a page.  And if we use a page, what should we put on it?

Well, for those of you who are fairly new to Facebook marketing, I’ve found the perfect resource for you.

Check out FansBridge.com – a blog that is all about Facebook marketing.  It is owned by Faissal Alhaithami, a young blogger who loves Facebook.  He’s actually also a past FamousBloggers/CommentLuv/IBlogZone contest participant and came in 5th in the Traffic Generation Blogging Contest so I have to give him props for that.  His whole blog is pretty awesome though.  There is loads of Facebook info to be found there and you could literally be there all day if you wanted to learn everything there is to learn about Facebook marketing.

But most of us don’t have all day long do we.  We need to learn the most important stuff right away and then move on to the more complicated stuff later.  And Faissal knows that so he put together The Facebook Marketing Secrets Guide for those who need to get going with their Facebook Pages now (there is a sign up form right near the top of the page – get the ebook and the free email newsletter at the same time).  This ebook is long enough to provide some true value but short enough to get through in an hour of concentrated reading.

Some of the things you’ll find in this ebook include:

• Creating a landing page
• Getting fans
• Inspiring conversation in your fans
• Page settings
• Making money
• Facebook advertising

And this isn’t just the same old regurgitated info you’ll find in other place on the net (although getting it in one ebook saves you a lot of time).  You’ll also learn about the double lead strategy, how to SEO your page, and how to use games to get your fans involved.  And perhaps one of the most important aspects that people often forget about – how to track data!

For a free ebook, Facebook Marketing Secrets provides a lot of value.  The ones that will benefit from it the most are new Facebook marketers but those of you who have been around the Facebook block a few times will find some helpful tips in here, too.  I did.

Facebook Marketing Secrets: A Great Start for New Facebook Marketers is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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Twitter is a very useful resource for aspiring writers as it helps them to work on their narrative voice, to reach a new audience, and to develop creative ways of expressing themselves due to the 140 character limit on each tweet. However, many writers misunderstand the purpose of Twitter, and make a variety of common errors that have a detrimental effect on their reputation, which could negatively impact their chances of future employment as freelance writers, blogger, or copywriters.

Image via CrunchBase

There are three major mistakes that are all too prevalent on Twitter and that every writer should try and avoid – obscurity, irrelevance, and grandiose thinking. The article below discusses these problems, and how they may be avoided.

Obscurity

Writing is a creative art and social media sites are a novel way in which to express your creativity, but too many writers forget that Twitter is an opinion platform and they express bizarre, fragmented ideas. While a haiku might fit into the word limit as a creative tweet, random extracts from your work will not create the interest that you think. Rather, people will most likely be confused, and you will not generate a following.

Unless you are a more established writer who uses Twitter to provide sneak peeks of your next work, try to write something creative, but isolated. Developing an overall tone and character is recommended, but remember that not all of your followers will be following you on a daily basis, and new followers will not have the entire back story of what you are saying. Try to impress with every tweet, and not an overall thread.

Irrelevance

This follows from the problem discussed above. Twitter is a social media site, and it is important for writers to keep this in mind when posting tweets. The fact that Twitter works in real time should be used to your advantage – make reference to world events, or major news stories. This will allow you to show that you have a flexible narrative structure, and that you keep an ear to the ground. Outdated, boring tweets will not have the effect that you are hoping for, so keep things interesting, creative and relevant.

Grandiose Thinking

Overconfidence is as unattractive on Twitter as it is in real life. Too many new writers get arrogant, and tweet as if the world is hanging on their words. Twitter is a global platform, but until you have amassed an absolutely huge following, it is best to keep your tweets humble. This is also far more attractive to potential employers. Work diligently, and the amount of followers interested in your work will grow.

The Top 3 Mistakes Writers Make On Twitter is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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It’s another Sunday and there have been some great blog posts out there worth reading.  Do you do your blog reading on a particular day or do you read throughout the week?  One of the reasons I like to try to do my blog reading on Sunday (sometimes on the weekend in general) is because then I don’t worry too much about what I’m missing throughout the week.  When I see something I want to read I just bookmark it (or star it in my Google RSS Reader) and go back to it on Sunday.

Here are some great posts from this week:

Freelance Writing

• 5 Tips for Handling Client Complaints Gracefully – It’s always hard to deal with complaints but it can be done gracefully.
• Writing for Residual Income Tomorrow: What are You Writing Today? – If you’re not writing for residual income yet start planning today!
• Do You Find it a Struggle to Secure Writing Jobs In Your Specialty Areas? – It isn’t always easy to find jobs in the niche we want to write in and Dan has some thoughts.
• Six Common Writing Excuses (and How to Overcome Them) – Keep making these excuses?  I know #2 is a big one for me!

Social Media

• Getting Back To Basics with Social Media – whether you’ve been doing social media marketing or are brand new to it, this post will get you on the right track.
• How to Charge for Social Media Services – if you’re a freelance writer and you want to add value to your services, offering social media services can be a great way to do that.  You can upsell when the opportunity is there, too!
• 10 Productive Tasks You Should Be Doing on Google+ Right Now – If you’re still not sure what the heck you’re supposed to be doing on Google+ this should help.
• 25 Google Tips and Tricks – And if the one before didn’t help this one should!

Other Stuff

• 7 Morning Hacks to Start Your Day – I don’t know about you but getting started is usually the hardest part of the day and these tips should help.  I will start implementing these tomorrow!

Sunday Reading #16 is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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People always tell you how to succeed at things but I think that if you really want to be a freelance writers you should know about the things that will ensure complete and utter failure.  That way you can make sure that you are not doing them!

So what should  you avoid?

1. Never use a routine and if you do waver from it often.
2. Fit your writing time in around the kids, the house, the dog, your friends, family dropping by for coffee, shopping dates, groceries, and everything else.  If you feel like doing something besides your writing, just do it.  You can always write later!
3. Take up invitations for coffee whenever they are put out there.  After all, you need to take breaks, right?
4. Keep the phone close by and answer every call.  If someone comes to your door run for it – it could be that big check you’ve been waiting for!
5. Guilt yourself when you get some writing done.  After all, others need you and aren’t you neglecting them?
6. Don’t bother reading articles, magazines, or blogs about writing.  It will just confuse you.  You can put a sentence together – you must know enough by now!
7. Don’t listen to the people who tell you that there are easier and better ways to profit from your writing.  Stick to what you know.
8. Don’t take steps to improve your writing.  Courses are just a waste of time.
9. Don’t subscribe to newsletters or the RSS feeds of writing sites on line.  What do they know?
10. Stay away from writers forums.  Those people know nothing.  They have nothing valuable to share.  And you wouldn’t want to become friends with anyone that writes!
11. 

    Image via Wikipedia

    Don’t bother with your own site to show off things like the services you have to offer or the articles you have written.  No one will see it anyway.  Just keep applying to those jobs.

12. Avoid using your name online.  You wouldn’t want people to get to know you or to start associate your name with professional writing.
13. Keep your writing on the downlow.  Don’t show anyone – especially an editor or publisher that might have valuable feedback to give you!  Or other writers that might have some tips.
14. Don’t submit your work to web sites that offer high pay.
15. Don’t enter contests.  They are a waste of time and if you don’t get first place you’ll just be embarrassed.
16. Forget about doing any writing for yourself.  Ebooks, writing for your own site, writing reports that you could sell – that’s for other people.
17. Keep that list of great ideas but never develop them.
18. And certainly don’t ever show them to anyone.
19. And don’t even consider sending them to a publisher or a site that might publish your idea.
20. If you do decide to send an article or piece of writing to a publisher or online site, don’t follow the guidelines for submissions.  They are just suggestions anyway.
21. If by chance you do get published, don’t follow up with new ideas.  You just got lucky.
22. And if you have submitted something but haven’t heard back from the editor yet, email them and phone them at least several times a day and don’t stop until they give you a hardcore yes or no.
23. If you manage to send something to a site or magazine for consideration and it is not accepted just throw it out – it must be a pile of crap.
24. Rejection letters should be taken personally so take offense and bad mouth the publication all over the net.
25. Never rework anything from a different angle to be submitted somewhere else – it was perfect the first time and there is no way that it could be used in any other manner.

And of course, if you’re still bordering on success, you can just quit while your ahead!

The Top 25 Ways To Ensure That Your Freelance Writing Career is a Flop is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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It’s been ages since I’ve had Sunday Reading here on the blog and I was inspired to get started with this again when I found out that the Beginner Weblog Reference mentioned me in their post about getting inbound links.  The post they wrote is about various ways you can get natural in-content and editorial links and one of the things they mentioned was writing roundup posts.

Roundup posts are great for getting inbound links but when you write them you also get the chance to connect with other bloggers.  Connecting with other bloggers can open up all sorts of opportunities for you – guest blogging, joint ventures, new readers, and more.  I encourage you to try it.  Plus, it is just a nice way to introduce your readers to more valuable information.

So, without out further adieu, here are some of the great posts that I’ve been reading this week:

Financial Tips for the New Freelancer  - This is a post that every freelance writer should read.  If you are new to freelance writing you need to learn to handle your finances properly.  If you’re not new but you are struggling, these financial tips can really help you get ahead.

Working with Kids: Boosting ProductivityAll Freelance Writing - Many freelance writers get into the business because they want to be able to stay at home with their kids instead of sending them off to daycare.  And that is a darned good reason as far as I’m concerned.  I wish I’d started writing online when my kids were young so that I could have been there for them more often.  But even with teenagers they have needs and I’m glad that they know I am here, even if I am in the office a good part of the time.  The trouble is that you still need to be productive.  This blog post should help you see ways that you can increase your productivity and still be there when your kids need you.

10 Brand New Productivity Tools You Probably Missed - Of course, there’s more to productivity than just keeping your kids under control and sometimes we need a little help there.  Personally, I’m a big fan of productivity tools and I was surprised to find out that these 10 tools were all new to me!   Chances are, they are likely new to you, too, so check them out and see if there are a couple that could help you be more productive.

Social Media Fail: 5 Reasons I Will Unfollow You | Cat’s Eye Writer Blog - I encourage freelance writers to get involved with social media all the time.  But sometimes you get unfollowed or unfriended.  If you’re not sure why, you should read this post.  Judy has some very valid points.  Of course, you can’t please everyone all of the time but you can be aware of some of the reasons that people might unfollow or unfriend you and decide whether that is something you need to take into account or not.

The Power of a Small Website - John has put together a web site for his house-sitting service.  I know, it’s not freelance writing.  But when you read this post you will understand why I think you should read it.  If you want to get some local clients, John’s small website marketing plan can help you become more findable in the search engines.

5 Reasons Part-Time Freelancers Shouldn’t Quit Their Day Jobs - Now that’s a different one isn’t it?  Usually you hear the opposite!  This is a guest post by James Patterson who also writes at The Part Time Freelancer.   He has some very good reasons for you to NOT quit your day job and I think that you should read it if you are at that point.  I think that quitting your job is a big thing and unless you really hate what you do, you should give it careful consideration.

And that is it for today!  If you have a great blog post that you have written I might not have read it – there are a lot of blogs out there you know!  But, I’d encourage you to use the Contact form on my blog (go to the top of the page) and send me a message.  I will for sure read it and I might feature it if I like it.  And did you know that this – contacting people about a blog post you’ve written – is actually day 3 in the 31DBBB book?  It is!  And it is something I’ve yet to do myself but I have a few people in mind so I plan to!

Sunday Reading #15 is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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I’ve done two days of the 31DBBB book so far.

The first day was about elevator pitches.  This one wasn’t too hard for me because I’ve done it before.

My short elevator speech:

I help freelance writers find their way in a social media world.

My long elevator speech:

Many of the freelance writers that I talk with want to find more private client and the best way to get in touch with private clients is through your networks – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. I help people utilize their networks in social media so they can expand their business.

I think these things accurately describe what I do here a The Social Freelance  Writer.

The second part was to write a list post.  I’ve done several of those in the past and I actually really like list posts.  My favorite list post that I have written is 50 Reasons Freelance Writers Should Be Using Social Media – I think that this is a post all freelance writers should read if they aren’t already using social media. I also really enjoyed writing 20 Ways to Promote Your Professional Freelance Writer site.

But I didn’t think it was fair to skip  out on this lesson just because I’ve done them before so yesterday I wrote 5 Ways Freelance Writers Can Use Social Media to Increase Their Web Presence.  And that post is a good lesson in how you can use list posts in the future.  Increasing your web presence is one of the points that i mentioned in 50 Reasons Freelance Writers Should Be Using Social Media.

Tomorrow and maybe the day after that I’ll be working on promoting a blog post!

31DBBB – Elevator Pitches and List Posts is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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Image via CrunchBase

I have talked to many freelance writers who want to grow.  They want to build on their business, get better private clients, and ultimately, be able to increase their prices to increase their earnings.

I have found that having a web presence can significantly increase your chances of connecting with people that are looking for writers.  And social media is a great way to do that.  Twitter and Facebook are my two favorite forms of social media but LinkedIn, YouTube, and increasing, Google+ are also an effective way of connecting with people.

Image via CrunchBase

Here are ways that social media can help you connect with more people and increase your web presence:

1. When you use social media platforms and talk about what you do people begin to identify you as “the writer”.
2. When you connect with a variety of people – not just other writers! – you can see when they are in need and be available to offer your services.  One of the best gigs I have gotten so far was from a Facebook connection with someone that has a HUGE web presence.  I saw that he was in need of a writer and contacted  him.  When I finished the job, he mentioned me on his blog and since then I have not had to look for work.  People generally come to me because of him and I even had to increase my rates!
3. If you see that someone just needs advice on something that you are knowledgable you can offer it and if they need a writer in the future they will be more likely to contact you.
4. When people connect with you through social media they feel like they know you more.  When they feel like they know you they are more likely to recommend you to those they know who are looking for writers.
5. People tend to outsource to people that are already within their circles if they know of someone.  If you are interacting with people, sharing information, having conversations, you will be more recognizable.  People will think of you first when they need your services.

Image via CrunchBase

If you want to increase your web presence get out there and be visible.  When you are on Twitter, don’t just tweet links to your work.  Tweet about your work.  When you tweet something like, “I’m so excited about the writing I will be doing with my new client!” or “I love writing about real estate for my new client”, the people who follow you will see two things: 1) that you are a writer and 2) that you love your job.  That can say a lot about you.

Join groups on Facebook or LinkedIn.  Show enthusiasm and be ready to help.  And when the opportunity arises, don’t be afraid to contact people directly and let them know that you are avaialble!

Ask questions, show interest, get involved in a community. The more involved you ae the more people will recognize your name!

Now, I know, you are thinking that this takes so much time!  But really, it doesn’t have to.  Concentrate on one social media venue at a time.  Schedule time to be avaialble and visible.  This isn’t optional if you want to grow as a freelance writer.  Marketing is part of your job.  This is the same thing as  a business man taking time to go to public speaking events and share information on what his business is doing in their area of expertise.  This is the same thing as going to a workshop or a networking event in real life.

Can you skip out on the whole social media thing?  Sure, but if you do you’re missing out on a great opportunity to connect with people.  I don’t want to miss out on that – do you?

5 Ways Freelance Writers Can Use Social Media to Increase Their Web Presence is a post from: The Social Freelance Writer.

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