May 21, 2012

Posts Comments

Top 11 Blog Posts from 2011

By 4 Comments

New YearThe end of the year is a good time to reflect over the past 12 months and think about where you want to go in the coming year.

I’m still mulling over my goals for 2012 and how to achieve them, but in the meantime, here’s a look at my 11 most interesting (in my opinion and also judged by the number of comments) blog posts from 2011.

    1. 30 Writing Quotes to Kick Off 2011
      Blogger readers seem to love quotes, whether funny, inspirational, or both. I get a lot of retweets when I tweet quotes, but I recently saw a tweet that discouraged this practice, because “I want to know what you think, not what Ghandi or JFK thought.” I can see that point of view, but I also think quotes have their place … in moderation, of course.
    2. The Ultimate Money Guide for Freelance Writers
      Money (or the lack thereof) is a frequent source of stress for freelancers and other indie professionals, so I compiled a list of resources on paying taxes, setting fees, and managing irregular cash flow.
    3. 5 Lame Excuses from Late-Paying Clients–And How to Respond
      Few things rile freelancers more than late-paying clients. This post includes some of the sarcastic retorts I’ve been tempted to say, along with more mild-mannered responses.
    4. Looking for Freelance Gigs? 5 Groups to Tap Into
      This year I tested the waters of video blogging and this video about where to find decent-paying freelance clients was one of my early attempts.
    5. How Do You Know if a Website Pays? 
      It’s a valid question, especially when you’re looking at websites or other publications that use a lot of user-generated content. This post offers strategies to ensure that you aren’t wasting your time on non-paying markets.
    6. No Writing Clips? Here’s How to Land an Assignment Without Them
      Newbie writers offer agonize over their lack of clips, but it’s not as much of a road block as many of them think. In this post, I revealed some workarounds for this problem.
    7. The Freelance Writer’s Interview Checklist
      Whether you’re interviewing professors or “real people” sources, this checklist should help you remember to ask key questions like the spelling of the source’s name and whether it’s OK to record the interview.
    8. The Pros and Cons of Freelance Copywriting
      For readers curious about the freelance copywriting world, this post covers the highs (no more query letters!) and the lows (can you say scope creep?).
    9. In Defense of Passive Verbs
      English teachers hate passive verbs, but in this contrarian post, I explain why they have their place in many types of writing.
    10. 12 Places to Find Freelance Writing Gigs
      For those who are still trying to build their freelance networks and their portfolio, this post lists several websites offering freelance writing opportunities (and notice there’s not a content mill to be found!).
    11. 8 Ways Freelancers Can Show Gratitude
      Although this post was written in anticipation of Thanksgiving, it has relevance to other times of the year, too. After all, gratitude should be an ongoing (not a once year) thing, as one sage commenter points out.

Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed Under: freelance writing Tagged With: ,

Freelancers: 5 Ways to Generate Client Leads and Increase Web Traffic

By 1 Comment

By Mike Law

You love your freelance website. It’s visually striking and easy to navigate. The content is fresh and informative. You’ve got the latest search engine optimization techniques working for you night and day. So why isn’t the site generating the return traffic or client leads that you’d hoped for?

Assuming your site is truly as rocking as you believe it to be, it may just need a good jumpstart. For sure, it takes time to attract attention, build an audience and convert customers. But nothing says you can’t help speed the process along. In fact, it’d be foolhardy not to. Check out these five great ways to kick-start a steady flow of traffic to your site and solicit more leads for your freelance business.

  1. Offer a Free Special Report
    These days you can hardly visit a website without some pop-up appearing, urging you to download a free special report stuffed with juicy tips and information. The pop-ups may be irritating, but the concept behind them is smart. Offering visitors free, valuable information in a 5-10 page report is an effective way of attracting potential clients to your site. Why? A couple of reasons. A free report gives prospective clients a reason to visit your site. Use the special report as a lure at networking events, during cold calls, or in direct and email marketing campaigns. Even if your target isn’t in the market for your services at the time, the information the report offers could be tempting enough to persuade prospectives to come to your site to download it. While they’re there, just maybe they’ll take a closer look at your portfolio and services – and remember you the next time they need someone with your expertise.Special reports can also establish you as an expert in a particular field. Let’s say you’re a web designer specializing in building sites for personal injury lawyers. If you produce a report highly targeted to your audience (e.g., “10 Web Designs Personal Injury Lawyers Should Avoid at All Costs,”) you can come to be known as the web designer for personal injury lawyers. Prospective clients will begin to seek you out on the basis of your expertise.
  2. Add an E-Course to Your Site
    With the advent of autoresponder services such as MailChimp and KickStartCart, e-courses have become increasingly popular. An e-course is an online learning course in which you’d share tips and techniques on a particular topic with your target audience. Most courses are conducted via email. Interested persons could sign up for the course on your site by entering their email address into a form, and the autoresponder service would begin to send them a sequence of emails (your lessons) for a predetermined length of time.Like a special report, an e-course serves as an excellent reason for prospective clients to visit your site and can solidify your position as an expert in your field. But it has one major additional advantage. Because an e-course can extend over a long period of time –anywhere from several days to several months – you have a great opportunity to build a relationship with the participants of the course. Familiarity breeds business, goes the old marketing saw, and your former students may become your future clients. Moreover, if you encourage interaction and feedback from the participants, you’ll get a clearer understanding of the topics your general audience would like to learn about and discuss.
  3. Conduct a Survey
    Another way to encourage readers to visit your website is by conducting a survey or taking a poll. Surveys and polls are an outstanding way to discover the content that interests your audience, the effectiveness of your site, or gain insights into an issue that affects your audience. For example, if you’re a freelance photographer who covers weddings, you might conduct a survey of engaged couples or newlyweds on big turnoffs when it comes to a wedding photographer. You could score a few clients from conducting the survey alone. However, the real potential to pull in client leads lies in publishing the survey results. You could publish the results on your blog, sure. But you could also provide the results in a short special report, which would be available for download on your site or via email. This, of course, would allow you to reap the benefits that come with offering a free report.Moreover, if the sample size is large enough and the findings sufficiently intriguing, you could even write an press release highlighting your conclusions. Send your press release to relevant magazine editors, journalists and bloggers, and just maybe the survey results – and your site – will receive a mention in a widely-read publication. You’d be golden.Check out sites such as SurveyMonkey or PollDaddy for learning more about how to set up an online or email poll.
  4. Host a Webinar
    Not big on writing content to give away? No problem. Consider hosting a webinar to attract readers and share your knowledge. A webinar is a web-based seminar or conference. Participants from anywhere in the world can dial into the call, listen to your presentation, watch visuals you’ve prepared, and even ask questions. Think of it as a live version of a special report or e-course.The advantage of a webinar is that it provides a great opportunity to be interactive with your audience in real-time. Keep this in mind when you structure the presentation. Don’t just be a talking head: pick a web conferencing platform that includes “chat” or “show of hands” features so that you can effect a true exchange with your audience. You’ll want to start a lively conversation that participants will continue thinking about (and tweeting about) after the webinar ends. Popular webinar hosting systems include GotoWebinar, ReadyTalk and WebEx.To get a good turnout for your webinar, begin promoting it about a month in advance. Start a countdown on your blog, use social media, write a guest post, and issue a press release. After the webinar is over, use your web hosting platform to distribute a feedback form to participants. This will not only help you assess the success of the webinar, it’ll keep people thinking about you.
  5. Offer a Discount
    Dare I even suggest this? I do. Whether or not to offer a discount is a very controversial topic among freelancers. On the plus side, it’s a fail-safe way of drawing prospective clients to your site. Everyone wants a good deal. On the negative side, it can devalue the service you provide, causing prospective clients to believe that your work is worth less than actually it is. It can also transmit a vibe of desperation, which can cause low-balling types to come crawling out of the woodwork.In the end, I believe little harm can arise from extending a “limited-time only” discount to jumpstart your business and increase site traffic. But be careful: you don’t want to become the freelance version of Rugs-O-Rama. Make sure your clients understand your regular price and the unique opportunity of the discount offer. And don’t worry about losing clients when you return to your regular price. If you produce consistent, high-quality work, a good client will understand your true value.

Headshot of Mike LawMichael Law has extensive experience as a freelance journalist and online marketer, and has worked with a number of leading Sydney companies ranging from online marketing agencies to compensation lawyers. If you’d like to get in touch, you can send Mike an email.

Interested in contributing a guest blog post of your own? Check out the guest blogger guidelines.

Image courtesy of arztsamui / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Filed Under: guest post Tagged With: ,

Guest Post: 3 Ways to Get Out of a Blogging Slump

By 3 Comments

By Maria Rainier

As with any career or hobby, there are going to be times as a blogger that you hit a wall and just can’t seem to come up with something new to write about. Creative slumps happen to the best of us. One of the most difficult aspects of blogging is coming up with something new, interesting, and creative to write about each day.

Creativity can be a very difficult thing to cultivate from thin air (particularly when it is our job to do so). While creative slumps are a common occurrence among bloggers, it is nonetheless a hindrance to our blogging success. There are many tricks and tips of the trade that can help bloggers find new motivation and enthusiasm for their writing. Rather than sitting and staring at a blank word document on your computer screen, hoping that inspiration will strike, try these three tips to get out of that writing slump.

Revisit Old Topics

One of the best ways to discover something new to write about for your blog is by revisiting your old posts. Sift through your blog and find a few entries that were particularly popular among your readers or held particular interest for you and re-read them. By revisiting these old posts a new spark may ignite for something along the same topic. If you are not immediately inspired by reading over your old posts, you can consider doing a revisit post. If your views on the topic have changed, you can write on that same topic from your new point of view. This is a great way to get your readers more involved with your blog. If you pick an old post that got a lot of attention initially, you can invite those same readers to discuss your new point of view on the subject this time around.

Take a Break

Everyone needs a break every now and then. If you find yourself in a serious creative slump, it may be that you are just a little burnt out. Try taking a break. Take a few hours to go do something new. Go for a walk, a bike ride, a short day trip to a new place, or even write for something new other than your blog. All of these things can help rejuvenate your interest in your own writing and lead you to new and exciting ideas. Obviously, one of the best ways to find new inspiration is by going and doing or seeing something completely new. Take a yoga class at your local gym or go for a hike in the mountains. Something new may be just the thing you need to find that energy for your blogging again.

Check Out Your Competition

Keeping up with your competition is essential for any type of business. When you find yourself in an inspiration slump, go to your competitor’s blogs. Find out what the latest trend is in your blogging niche and see if it is something that you would wish to contribute to. Of course, you don’t want to directly take your competitors’ ideas, but referencing their articles and then adding your own voice to the conversation is a great way to attract new readers. You can attract the readers of your competitor’s blog to your site just by discussing the competitor’s blog post. Getting ideas and inspiration from your competition is usually very successful. However, even if nothing exciting comes to you after glancing through other blogs on the web, staying in tune with your niche is very important in general.
Author Bio:

Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education where she writes about education, online colleges, online degrees etc. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Interested in contributing a guest blog post of your own? Check out the guest blogger guidelines.

Filed Under: guest post Tagged With: