Marketing.Branding. – Freelance Writing Guide
In this instance of my Freelance Writing Guide For New Freelancers I will talk about how you can promote yourself free of charge. When I say free, it means free of cost, but you will spend considerable time to make up for the lack of monetary investment. Some say that time is money and I have to agree that they are correct. In the end, we can promote our business without spending money for advertising even as a freelance writer.
While you can market yourself spending money on various advertising platforms, my personal choice has been to take the free, albeit more time consuming route. These are my personal reasons and you are free to do whatever is best for your own freelance writing business.
It all starts with your brand
I believe that branding is one of the most important things you can do as a freelancer. One thing is for sure. You need to start branding early in business as this can save you a lot of time later on. Whether you brand your business name, or your personal name doesn’t matter. What matters however is that your brand is painting a full picture. This can include:
- a name
- an image
- a logo
- a voice
- a service
- a product
Think of the picture you want to paint for your potential client. Is it a predominantly professional one or do you prefer to mix your professionalism with a pinch of your personality which I personally find very important and I tell you why.
Since we are in the business of writing, I believe that adding our own unique voice to our brand is important because we need to show that we can evoke emotions and feeling with our readers. How else will a potential client see that he/she can trust us to bring their message across?
Marketing/Promotion
If you are a new freelance writer you probably wonder how you can promote yourself effectively. I think the key is to be ever present in your industry. When you form networks and relationships with other bloggers within your niche, it can become the groundwork for your freelance business.
It was for me. The following promotions are the very same that helped me to build my freelance writing business from zero to full time in seven months.Commenting on other blogs:
When I first started out back in May/June last year, I spent hours every day commenting on other blogs. I did that for many months until the practice was no longer feasible time wise. By then however I had managed to build a good solid base of recognition and branding within the niche and this formed the basis of my business as it stands today.
The bulk of my clients are repeat clients and they all know me from this very blog. As you can see, starting my own blog right from the beginning and taking it serious was a smart move and that is why I’m so strong in advocating that freelance writers use a blog as their branding voice.
Forums:
Another thing I did to promote myself and my business was forum marketing. I can safely say that I probably spent around 6 months in forums every single day. I was a member in about three forums in which I was active pretty much daily and maybe in another three I stopped by infrequently.
Forum marketing never brought me any direct clients, but it went a long way to build my brand.
Social Networking:
I have a love/hate relationship with social networks. One one side they are great to meet other like minded people and on the other they are often a waste of time.
Seriously, unless you narrow your active membership to a couple of them you will only waste your time and believe me, I have done enough of that myself. The secret with these is in the measured control in which you apply yourself to them.
Since it is so easy to waste a lot of time with social networks it can quickly become over powering.
Is there more?
Hell yes there is. I know pretty much all of the promotions known to man. No kidding. When I was in MLM I spent $1,500/month for the length of my business. Promoting offline as well as online. I know how to work all those platforms but I swore never to spend a penny on advertising my business again. (All that money built me a list of over 5,000 and when I quit the business I lost them all. Talk about dumb.)
So why do I refuse to spend a dime to advertise my business now? Because it works without. It takes more time, but in the end is way cheaper than spending yourself out of business. I also wanted to show you that you don’t need to part with your money to promote your freelancing business. Except perhaps some cool business cards for when you are on the road.
Again, this is my choice. I got burned and made choices learning from that experience. Also, this is related directly to freelance writing and not any other business. I know that some writers will disagree with me here and that is fine. I always based this freelance writing guide on what worked for me and that is what I base this information on.
Experience.
If you want to part with money to promote your brand, then feel free to do so. There are dozens of ways you can advertise your business by spending money, but I won’t discuss them here because I never needed to for my freelance writing business.
Monika
About the Author: I'm a passionate freelance writer and problogger. To further build my business I'm also in the process of building my own niche empire which pays me residual income.
Rebecca Leigh | May 22, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for the post Monika,
I guess some people may say ‘you have to spend money to make money’, but a lot of people starting freelancing careers would not have spare cash.
It is heartening to know that if we have the desire and will we can grow our brand – by investing our time and effort.
Brett Legree | May 22, 2008 | Reply
Monika,
This is a great post and spot on, especially about the social networks as I ironically tweeted to you
I guess it’s all about balance, you push hard in certain areas at different parts of your business “lifecycle”. I think I’m ready to shift focus in certain areas myself.
Thanks for the words today!
-Brett
Monika | May 22, 2008 | Reply
@ Rebecca: you know, I’m not against spending money to make money at all as I do too, but in other areas such as web hosting and paying for education.
I guess I wanted to show that one can build their brand with nothing else but time and yes, passion. Sometimes we seem to throw money at the wall, hoping that it will stick and this just proves that you don’t always need to.
Glad it helped you though.
Monika | May 22, 2008 | Reply
@ Brett: cool. You are welcome. Balance is certainly the key as I’ve talked about a lot recently.
Another one is focus and I found that by worrying too much about social networks I lost my focus in the process for the time being. By cutting back I might not be in the midst of all the action, but I’m still paddling along with the flow of the river (and sometimes against it too).
Brett Legree | May 22, 2008 | Reply
@Monika,
Exactly, about balance, and while useful tools, the social networks tend to be addictive by nature – they are made to be that way.
We are in the business of creating unique material, so sometimes unplugging is the best way to do that.
The action will be there, if we want it to be there. Our friends will still be our friends.
(I try to spend Friday evenings unplugged – of late, it hasn’t worked but tomorrow night I will.)
Monika | May 23, 2008 | Reply
@ Brett: good on you for trying to do that. You will see it does help. It did to me when I implemented cutting back from those networks about 5 months ago.
Brett Legree | May 23, 2008 | Reply
@Monika,
I also tend to have a glass or three of nice Chianti with it
it helps with the inspiration, honest…
But sometimes you just have to get back to basics. Pen or pencil & paper, your thoughts, and goals.
With some luck, it will not rain tomorrow night. Then I’ll also throw in a fire outside. I really get to think then.
Ellen Wilson | May 23, 2008 | Reply
@Monika – I’m curious. Did you find that clients actually came to your blog to find you? I’m always wondering if that will happen. Right now I think it is a social network more than anything, but that is fine because you can meet like minded people and learn from others.
I’m also beginning to feel that “social media” is a waste of time. Like Twitter. But like you guys said, everything in moderation.
Maybe you’re waking up now?
costa | May 23, 2008 | Reply
Think these should work when it comes to promoting my blog too eh? Not that I have ambitions to be a full time freelane writer, but to be recognized is one good feeling. LMAO.
Monika, I haven’t had the chance to congratulate you on being roped in by Court to his stable of writers. That is recognition if you ask me! So congratulations!
And since we are into promotion, I will do some back promotion here myself. I’ve just revived Blog Gigs after lifting off the sale of that Blog a couple of weeks ago. I need people to give it a push re-start since it has been idle for so long. Mind lending me a hand?
Monika | May 23, 2008 | Reply
@ Brett: aah, the red wine. And Chianti to boost.
What can I say? We have some great wines here in Oz and you will be pleased with the NZ ones too.
So what, do you absolve a fire dance when you think or is this common practice in the deep woods of Canada?
Monika | May 23, 2008 | Reply
@ Ellen: yes, I got all my first clients from my blog and my latest ones too. I haven’t had to seek for work much since I’m in business (seriously). Most of my work is through my center of influence.
Social media isn’t a waste of time, but we need to treat it with caution and balance and then it can become a powerful ally. (Does this make sense?)
Monika | May 23, 2008 | Reply
@ Costa: will put my mind to it when I get back from my weekend. I’ll be out of the pic for a couple of days, so please bear with me while I’m gone.
Congrats to you then too and thank you for your nice words.
I sure as hell am very excited to be writing for Court now.
zania | May 23, 2008 | Reply
Hi Monica,
It’s good to see someone who thinks like me when it comes to spending money to make money.
I didn’t have a bean when I started blogging, so I had no choice but to go the ‘free but hard work’ way and it has paid off. Okay, I make money mainly from adult blogging but, if done correctly, it is very similar to mainstream blogging in many ways, including the sharks who will burn you for all they can get.
I know you build niche sites and blogs and make a fair bit of money that way too, but I love the fact that you have this particular blog as your main ‘home on the net’ where you develop your brand as a freelance writer and show your personality. And that’s so important I think to being a successful mainstream blogger. I admire the way you have been able to set this up so well and as someone who is a little unfocused at times, I really envy the focus you have had to do this with all the hard slog I know that entails.
Being a true cynic, there are not many people on the net I consider as inspirational. Vic and Griz I definitely see this way, and now I am thinking you are too,
Brett Legree | May 23, 2008 | Reply
@Monika,
Oh, I agree with you! I love Wolf Blass, and I have a bottle of Roy’s Hill also waiting for me (it’s a Hawkes Bay red, nice NZ wine).
We had lunch at Mudbrick on Waiheke when we were in NZ and the wine was incredible. I wish we had more selection here…
Hmm. A lot of folks have fires, but I’m not sure that all of them are deep thinkers
Ellen Wilson | May 23, 2008 | Reply
Have you got any off line work from your blog? I think blogs work best for clients searching for online writers. What do you think?
I haven’t put together a query for a written mag proposal yet. When I do I’ll pass it off to you and see what you think. I haven’t forgotten!
Yeah, like you and Brett were mentioning above, it’s all about balance. I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire right now: fiction, articles, photography, blogs. Everything requires attention, and obviously there is only so much of it.
No, I guess I don’t understand what you mean that you have to treat social media with caution and then it becomes a powerful ally. What do you mean?
Rebecca Leigh | May 24, 2008 | Reply
@Monika: with regard to clients finding you through your blog…
I have wondered about the pros/cons of blogging in the area of direct interest to the kind of business you want to attract (eg. a travel blog if you want to attract clients looking for travel writing) VERSUS blogging on writing/marketing which I guess is more likely to get you a readership of fellow writers/marketers.
Is a writing blog still better for attracting clients simply because it raises your SEO for ‘freelance writer’ etc, and I guess because when clients find you they see you as a writing expert?
Monika | May 26, 2008 | Reply
@ Brett: this fire thing sounds so cool and romantic.
When I grew up we used to light fire’s on certain days of the year to grill sausages over the open fire. That was so cool and yummy.
Hawkes Bay. Yes, that evokes memories for me as well. I can see you will be feeling like Alice in Wonderland once you have made the jump.
Monika | May 26, 2008 | Reply
@ Rebecca: that is a good question and one that I can only answer from my own perspective.
I guess that the industry in which you blog in does help top get some exposure for you in certain ways but to me is much more important is to interact with others (network) in the industry in which you want to blog in predominantly.
It’s all good and right to want to blog in the travel industry but that won’t be enough I think. You will still need to paint your picture and that means letting your readers know that you are a freelance writer for hire.
Plus, if you were to blog in that one industry alone it would limit the potential variety of clients you can attract as a freelance writer.
Does this make sense?
To me, the best way is to blog as a freelance writer and then use this portal to attract work.
Plus it certainly does help with the SEO part of it all too.
Brett Legree | May 26, 2008 | Reply
@Monika,
Oh, it is very nice… the sound of the breeze in the leaves adds to it as well. The red wine is the icing on the cake
You are so right, when we finally step through the looking glass, it will be more wonderful than we could ever imagine.
(We won’t have to travel far for good wine then.)
Monika | May 26, 2008 | Reply
@ Zania: thank you for your inspirational words. One of the major aspects of me has always been to help inspire others and if I was able to do that with you, that makes me very happy indeed.
As you pointed out my focus is the key to getting things done and moving ahead in my business. To be mentioned in the same instance as Griz and Vic is a huge compliment for me since both of them are people I look to for guidance in parts of my business. So thank you very much.
It’s great to hear that you are doing well too. In the end, it really doesn’t matter if your topic is adult blogging since you do serve a
need in the market and if you didn’t do+ it, somebody else would. Thanks for sharing this. It is so important to hear success stories from a variety of people, since it helps us to stay inspired along the way.
Monika | May 26, 2008 | Reply
@ Ellen: I got a few offline jobs mainly to do with setting up blogs for other people. As far as writing is concerned, no I haven’t had any offers so far.
But then, I also don’t publicize my blog in the offline world. I think there needs to be some kind of connection for that to work. Either getting mentioned in a local paper, or placing an ad, or having a huge support group of family and friends to help spread the word.
Sorry about confusing you with the social media bit. Oops. I guess what I meant was that you have to be cautious in terms of wasting too much time with it by trying every platform under the sun.
On the other hand it can be a powerful ally if used in limited measures if that makes sense. First, limit yourself to one or two platforms and stick with them and then second try to find new connections through them with other people that can help you build your brand by knowing who you are.
I like to treat SM like something useful taken with a grain of salt.
Let me know if I still speak in “tongues”.
Great to see that you have variety in your business too. Like you said, it does take different aspects of focus but personally the variety is what i love most about my freelance writing business.
Rebecca Leigh | May 26, 2008 | Reply
@Monika
Thanks – what you are saying makes sense. Build your business identity by blogging about your business – writing.
This way you build a network with others in your industry through that portal and also make contact with clients who are searching for ‘writers’.
But, I’ve also heard that it’s not a good idea to try to blog in a crowded subject area – and there are so many great writing blogs like yours, Men with Pens, copyblogger etc.
But maybe that advice is more about blog you want to monetize as opposed to a branding sort of blog…
You can see I have been thinking about this a bit – any further words of wisdom to clear my confusion?
Monika | May 27, 2008 | Reply
@ Rebecca: You certainly have been thinking.
Personally I do not worry about competition since most people who blog have no idea about SEO and how to rank their blogs on Google.
In the end, if you are blogging to monetize your site, then you need to rank high on Google to make money in your niche. The same appears to getting noticed too.
This is how I’m thinking anyway. Others might disagree. I also don’t see others as competition in the sense of having to beat them with readership, etc.
More so to learn from them by studying aspects of their business that I could incorporate into mine which will make me better.
Rebecca Leigh | May 27, 2008 | Reply
@ Monika
Thanks for your patient and thoughtful responses to the persistent questions of a new freelancer like me
I realised, after reading your reply, that my original question was based on a ’scarcity’ mentality – that there was only room for a certain number of blogs on writing.
Thinking like this can keep us from trying so many things – believing that there is no point in trying when there are already lots of other people doing it ‘better’ than we could.
Of course you quite rightly set me straight: it’s not about competition. It’s about expressing your passion for writing, and there are as many different ways to do that successfully as there are passionate writers in the the world.
Thanks!
Ellen Wilson | May 28, 2008 | Reply
I understand, Monika. I didn’t know you also do web consulting. I thought you were mainly a writer. Sorry, I haven’t read your side bar! Well, I guess I did, but I thought you do webcopy, not blog analysis. Which could be both.
Anyway, have a great day. You’re probably sleeping now.
Monika | May 28, 2008 | Reply
@ Rebecca: you are most welcome. I love a healthy discussion since it engages my brain cells some more. I understand where you came from and am glad you see the light now.
You know, the ocean is big enough for all the fish that swim in it, so whether you are a whale or a sardine there is room for you and everyone will get to eat as well.
I subscribed to your blog about a week ago and have to tell you that you are a very gifted writer indeed. I actually feel that I can learn heaps from you and there is no reason why you should be “afraid”.
Roll with your passion as you already do. It will lead you to greatness!
Monika | May 28, 2008 | Reply
@ Ellen: Not to worry.
Yes I do consulting work and have set up various blogs for friends and clients, but my writing is the major part of my business.
The consulting has just evolved from teaching myself and learning more and more about coding and setting up blogs. I just love all that tech stuff – until something doesn’t work. LOL. Then it’s downhill for the time it takes to figure that out.
Rebecca Leigh | May 28, 2008 | Reply
@ Monika
Gosh! You made me blush
Thanks for the vote of confidence and your generous advice. I’d be happy to return the favour (so far as I can) anytime.
Ellen Wilson | May 29, 2008 | Reply
Monika,
That’s great you can figure it our yourself! I had quite a time setting up WordPress without coding or html knowledge, basically plugging it into the database.
That is a great skill to know along with your online writing. E
Monika | May 29, 2008 | Reply
@ Ellen: Yes it is, but there are still things I will never figure out. At least not for now. It just takes so much time to learn coding and while I really love all those aspects (I guess I just love learning) I should really do a webmaster course one day.
That would be ueber cool.
Ricardo Bueno | Dec 10, 2008 | Reply
Well Monika, I have to agree with you when it comes to Social Networks…you don’t need all the tools, you just need to find the right ones! You need to find what networks are actually going to be effective and deliver something worth-while for you. LinkedIn for example has done a lot for me and so has Twitter (despite the fact that it is in most cases a large time-suck).
See, the more networks you become a part of, the less effective you become at marketing yourself across various networks. But it’s almost like the more we do it, the less it works. The less it works, the more we do it.
Anyway, here’s what I say: you need to limit your approach with respect to the social networks that you join and market across in order to be effective.