Notes in the Margin

by Erin Blakemore

Let’s face it - with the expenses of a home office, time spent trying to find well-paying markets, and the million and one other speed bumps on the road to a professional writing career, it’s hard to justify much time and expense for marketing your writing business. Luckily, low-key marketing doesn’t take big bucks or huge time commitments. In fact, sometimes marketing on a nonexistent budget is as easy as A to Z:

Always give contacts two business cards – one to keep and one to pass along to a friend.

Blog your way to exposure and new clients – with free and cheap online options, there’s no excuse not to learn more about blogging.

Charity can work two ways – what else allows you to get karma points while flexing your marketing muscle? Try allying with a local charity for effective cross-promotional opportunities.

Distribute your press release online – there are several free options and you’ll get search engine exposure.  (more…)

by Kristen King

It sounds counterintuitive. Giving away free content that just anyone can use? How could that possibly help anyone? Two words for you, my friend: viral marketing.

In the article “Building Traffic with Article Marketing,” Brian Clark of Copyblogger describes article marketing as

submitting short articles to directories such as Ezine Articles, with permission for others to republish your work on their blog, website or in their email newsletter. In return, you get one or more links back to the site of your choice.

Over at Associated Content, Michael Brito takes the definition to the next level when he says,

By distributing articles to various article directories on the Internet, your business can reap the benefits ranging from an increase in web traffic, lead generation, new customers and a solid reputation. It’s a simple concept that has the potential to take your business to the next level and higher.

Article marketing is not writing content for article mills (which I fondly think of a plagiarism factories) for $.00002/word. Article marketing is a targeted, planned business technique that’s specifically geared to bring more people to your website/newsletter/whatever, increase your search engine ranking, and give you and your business more exposure. (more…)

by Nancy Callahan

Goals can compel you to write faster, write better, and submit more often — but they need to be specific, quantitative and not overbearing if they’re going to work. So what sort of writing goals are best for you?

If you’ve always aspired to write, but have never been able to squeeze time for writing into your busy schedule, Time-Based Goals will assist you in establishing a fixed writing routine. With time-based goals, the emphasis isn’t necessarily on the quality of your writing but on simply making writing a priority in your life. Here are a few examples: “I aim to write for a total of 5 hours per week.” “I am going to write for at least 30 minutes right after I wake up every morning.” “I will write for three hours straight every Sunday afternoon.” (more…)

by Joe Giunta

Great Sales Letters Focus on Readers Not Sales

How many times have you opened a direct mail letter and thrown it out after reading the first sentence? If you have discarded enough paper to recycle the Rainforest, you may feel that sales letters are a waste of time, money, and trees. Well, think again.

Good sales letters can generate leads, sell products and services, and increase charitable donations. They do it by focusing on the needs of readers rather than the needs of sellers. Here is how to write a sales letter that will get the results you want. (more…)

by N. Powell

One of the key elements in maintaining and growing a business is attracting good clientele. Businesses design and coordinate their efforts to project a professional image that defines their services to the client. Businesses are under tight deadlines and every minute is critical to a company’s earning power. While emphasizing “time is money,” businesses can sometimes ignore the time-honored adage “the customer knows best.”

In the rush to make sure a project meets deadlines, businesses forget that what is said in print reflects a client’s belief of the values the company possesses. Taking the time to make customers happy is time well spent in maintaining customer loyalty.

In the rush to get a message out, executives often rely on subordinates to draft and release memos they have produced. Common sense dictates that the articles be proofread and checked prior to release; however, these items are released without a second glance. Sometimes, this can lead to embarrassing situations.

To avoid any embarrassing or comprising situations, read and edit the works before any public display. Does the correspondence reflect the company’s mission statement? Do the words sound appropriate and understandable to the customer base?

Below are some writing tips to enhance a company’s writing style. (more…)

by Sarah E. White

Freelance writers can operate from anywhere in the world, and because of the Internet, we can work with editors and write for publications that might not be in the same country, or even on the same continent, as we are. But when you send that perfect story idea overseas, how do you find sources in another part of the world on deadline? Head for the ’Net, of course.

If you have time to spare, you can go to any of a number of Web sites for writers from all over the world that offer “reader request” sections, where a writer can explain his story and request people who would like to be interviewed to contact him. These “interviews” can be conducted entirely online; you hardly have to make contact with the respondents (you should thank everyone who responds, however, even if you don’t use their response).

But if you’re looking for sources on the fly with a deadline looming, you need to look a little more broadly. The Internet can help with that, too. There are numerous Web sites full of sources for writers, such as http://www.sources.com, which lists Canadian experts, and http://www.experts.com, which offers keyword-searchable databases of sources from around the world. Other sites for sources include http://www.researchconnect.com, http://www.expertsearch.co.uk (especially for expert witnesses in the UK, analogous to http://www.expertwitnesses.com.au/ in Australia), and http://www.journalismnet.com/experts. You can find an expert on one of these sites and contact him or her directly to see if they would like to be a source for your story.

The most popular and one of the biggest of these sites is ProfNet, which claims to allow writers access to 11,000 sources from government, small business, public relations firms, and other institutions around the world.

Registration for ProfNet is quick, simple, and free. Almost immediately after signing up, you can post a request, which requires contact information, publication name, a description of the type of information you need, and what your deadline is.

I tried the system recently when I was working on a story about reducing meat in people’s diets. I had written the shell of the story, but it needed some expert sources to jazz it up. So on a Friday morning I signed up on ProfNet and posted my query. In a matter of hours, I had three sources contact me. I “talked to” a dietician, an expert in internal medicine and a health researcher who had just published a book on the topic.

The best part was, I never had to pick up the phone. This type of interviewing is great for those of us who are shy because only those people who are interested in talking are on these types of lists, and you can conduct all your interviews by e-mail if you like.

Although not every interview can or should be conducted by e-mail, if you’re working with sources on the other side of the planet it is much easier to use e-mail because you don’t have to worry about time zones or international phone rates. You can get great quotes quickly, easily, and inexpensively any time of the day or night to make your story perfect.

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Sarah E. White is a freelance writer and editor living in Arkansas. Her home on the Web is http://www.sarahewhite.com.