Welcome to THE WELL-FED
E-PUB!
The companion monthly
ezine to the quadruple-award-winning how-to
guide, ÒThe Well-Fed
WriterÓ (http://www.wellfedwriter.com). Serving
up food for thought and
tasty tips for the prospering FLCW*. Come on
in, sit anywhere and
bring your appetite!
*FLCW, peppered
throughout the ezine, stands for ÒFreelance Commercial
WriterÓ—anyone who
freelances for businesses (vs. writing magazine
articles, short stories,
poetry, etc.), typically earns $50-125+ an
hour, and is the sole
focus of this e-newsletter.
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VOLUME 12, ISSUE 4
– APRIL 2013
Publishing the first
Tuesday of every month since May 2002
Read it online at: http://www.wellfedwriter.com/ezine/april2013.html
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PARTNER WITH DESIGNERS
FOR A LOW-EFFORT FLOW OF WRITING JOBS!
Details here: http://www.wellfedwriter.com/partnerwithdesignersebook.shtml.
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NEW 1-ON-1 COACHING
PROGRAMS: SAMPLE/SITE REVIEW & ÒSIDECARÓ!
Low-cost peace of mind
and guidance: http://wellfedwriter.com/mentoring.shtml.
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Check out The WELL-FED
WRITER BLOG! Weigh in on ÒCommercial Writing
Has Many Faces (as These
Unusual Projects ProveÉ)Ó; ÒTrying to Make
the Transition from
Employee to Full-Time Commercial Writer?Ó & more!
http://www.wellfedwriter.com/blog.
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THIS MONTHÕS MENU:
I. APPETIZER: THE
ÒSERIOUSÓ BENEFITS OF THE FREELANCE LIFE
Being There for a Loved
One in Crisis Is the Biggest Gift this Path Offers
II. ÒFIELDÓ GREENS: DO
YOUR PROPOSALS HAVE EXPIRATION DATES?
WA FLCWÕs Firm Stance on
Proposals Conveys Respect-Worthy Professionalism
III. MAIN ÒMEATÓ COURSE:
ÒWELL-FEDÓ BODY = WELL-FED CAREER
CA FLCW Sings Praises of
Simple Diet/Exercise Changes to Boost Earning Power
IV. DESSERT: Sweet
Success Stories and Tips
Bay Area FLCW Touches
Past Clients with Òa Little LoveÓ, Gets 35% Response!
TIP: NY FLCW Shares His
Cool ÒStaying-in-TouchÓ Email Approach!
V. COFFEE, MINTS AND
TOOTHPICKS
- MORE WORK WITH LESS
EFFORT? New Ebook Serves Up the ÒHow-ToÓ!
- The WELL-FED WRITER
BLOG is RockinÕ! http://www.wellfedwriter.com/blog
- AWAI Copywriting
(& Other) Courses: Register Here, Get Bonus CD!
- How Can My Mentoring
Service Serve You?
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I. APPETIZER: THE
ÒSERIOUSÓ BENEFITS OF THE FREELANCE LIFE
Being There for a Loved
One in Crisis Is the Biggest Gift this Path Offers
The call came in on
March 12th: My mother (84) had fallen and
sustained a serious,
multiple fracture of her pelvis. A few days
later, I flew to Boston
from Atlanta to be with her. Then reality set
in. Due to the severity
of the break, her age, the unbearable pain
every time she was
moved, and most importantly, her clearly worded
living will AND stated
desire to not fight it, she made the decision
to enter hospice on the
22nd.
A week later, this past
Friday, sitting by her bedside, holding her
hand (sheÕd been
unresponsive due to medication for five days), she
took her last breath.
While sad beyond words, to be with her like that
when she passed was a
gift IÕll cherish forever.
The backdrop to all this
was the freedom I enjoy as a freelancer. In a
situation like this, the
ability to pick up and go without a momentÕs
hesitation and minus the
necessity of asking permission of a boss, was
truly priceless. Yes, I
had to shuffle things around with clients, but
needless to say, all
said, ÒTake as much time as you need.Ó
We full-time freelancers
each have our special reasons for loving this
life weÕve chosen and
crafted. Maybe itÕs the freedom of our schedule,
being there for kids,
the ability to live life on our own terms, or
some combination. In
this case, when lifeÕs serious crises arise, you
can move, unimpeded,
toward the place you need to be right then.
ThatÕs a gift whose
value canÕt be measured. If your parents are still
alive, call them today
and tell them you love them and youÕll always
be there for them.
Truly. LetÕs eatÉ
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II. ÒFIELDÓ GREENS: DO
YOUR PROPOSALS HAVE EXPIRATION DATES?
WA FLCWÕs Firm Stance on
Proposals Conveys Respect-Worthy Professionalism
Got this great multi-layered
piece from the ever-wise Ferndale, WA
designer (ex-writer)
Mike Klassen (http://www.mikeklassen.com). Not
only a clever suggestion
from a procedural standpoint, but has the
added benefit of
conveying (subtly) that youÕre a confident, in-demand
copywriter who has to
draw their line in the sand. Read and heed.
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With almost 10 years of
freelancing under my belt, IÕm still
incorporating new ideas
that I probably should have had in place from
the start. Just last
year I started including an expiration date on my
proposals.
If the proposal isnÕt
signed and returned within a given time
frame—normally two
weeks—itÕs no longer valid. Assuming the desired
timeframe is still
available, IÕd need an updated proposal. There are
a few things a proposal
expiration date does for you:
1. Prospects/clients
wonÕt be able, intentionally or unintentionally,
to take seemingly
forever to make a decision.
2. You avoid the
prospect/client who comes to you months down the
road, waving your old
proposal, expecting you to honor the price and
turnaround time you
outlined earlier.
3. You show the
confidence of a businessperson who takes your time
seriously and, thus, so
should any business that wants to work with you.
To avoid wasting
anyoneÕs time before contacting me, I include the
following bit of text on
my site:
ÒAll of my
projects—magalogs, books, training material, etc.—take
time. So I only accept a
small number of jobs at one time. In my
project proposals, I
include a proposal expiration date of about two
weeks. ThatÕs not to
pressure anyone into signing quickly. Because my
project calendar can
fill quickly and months in advance, I canÕt leave
proposals open-ended and
still be fair to those who are ready to move
forward. From time to
time, this doesnÕt sit well with someone
thinking of hiring me.
ThatÕs OKÉ I completely respect that. It just
means weÕre not a good
fit for each other.Ó
Again, itÕs not about
pushing people faster than they want to go or
Òshowing them whoÕs
boss.Ó ItÕs about respect for your time, and
acknowledgment that your
schedule is just as important as theirs. As
Peter has said, we
should be peers with our clients, not in a
lord/servant
relationship, which many newbie freelancers suffer from.
Adding a proposal
expiration date, and explaining why, is one of the
smartest things IÕve
done as part of my sales process. It weeds out
the tire kickers and
procrastinators, it establishes respect for my
time, and it shows IÕm
confident in how I run my business.
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III. MAIN ÒMEATÓ COURSE:
ÒWELL-FEDÓ BODY = WELL-FED CAREER
CA FLCW Sings Praises of
Simple Diet/Exercise Changes to Boost Earning Power
Palmdale, CA FLCW
Pauline Magnusson (http://www.paulinemagnusson.com)
shares an important
piece here covering a subject absolutely crucial
to success, but one that
often gets short shrift in ÒbusinessÓ
discussions. But, as
someone whoÕs wrestled with back issues most of
my life, I can
personally attest to the power of exercise and diet to
make you more productive
and successful as a copywriter. Your health
and how you feel is
truly the engine of your business, and never forget it.
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One of the routines
thatÕs made a huge difference in my productivity
and income as a FLCW has
little to do with writing or marketing. ItÕs
not the first thing most
people think of when they search for Òmaking
more money from home
with words.Ó But itÕs critical.
IÕm talking about
self-care—specifically paying attention to diet and exercise.
When I began my writing
business a month before my fourth child was
born in May 2012,
exercise was the last thing on my mind. Since I felt
a bit like a beached
whale, it was challenging. Plus, there didnÕt
seem to be enough time
to fit it in with marketing, writing and other
necessary business
activities. AND being a wife and mom, of course.
But as weeks and months
of sedentary work wore on, I felt increasingly
sluggish. While it was
easy to blame it on not having lost the baby
weight, I knew that the
grazing on poor quality snacks and long hours
of sitting were taking
their toll.
I began to examine the
words ÒWell-FedÓ around the same time I
accepted an assignment
as a blogger for a natural health website.
Instead of thinking of
them in terms of quantity of food, I started to
research ideas related
to quality of diet and began making changes
toward a blend of the
Paleo and Nourishing Traditions styles of eating.
Without making any other
changes, the weight started to come off.
With that change in
place, I looked at finding ways to keep active
during my day. Research
IÕd done for a series of articles for a
chiropractor revealed
alarming stats about the effects of sitting all
day. Apparently itÕs
associated with a shortened lifespan, and there
are stats to back it up.
I started setting a
timer at the top of the hour for 45 minutes. When
it beeped, IÕd take a
break, stretch, grab a glass of water, and do a
few sets of exercises
with dumbbells.
As I began to research
short exercise routines, I came across Tabata—a
4-minute, high-intensity
exercise routine that packs some serious
cardio and
muscle-building benefits. You can find variations that use
a lot of equipment,
little equipment, or—if finances are tight because
youÕre in start-up
mode—nothing more than your own body weight.
No, I havenÕt suddenly
become rich and supermodel-thin with little
effort. But, as IÕve
tweaked my diet and committed to exercise during
my day, carving out that
time to take care of myself has made an
enormous difference in
my productivity—and my earning power—each day.
IÕll take being that
kind of ÒWell-Fed WriterÓ any day.
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Pauline Magnusson is a
work-at-home content marketer and blogger who
enjoys helping small
business owners harness the power of words to
provide value for their
audiences. When sheÕs not writing for clients,
you can find her
harassing her own tribe to become better writers as a
homeschooling mom of
four.
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IV. DESSERT: Sweet
Success Stories and Tips
Bay Area FLCW Touches
Past Clients with Òa Little LoveÓ, Gets 35% Response!
TIP: NY FLCW Shares His
Cool ÒStaying-in-TouchÓ Email Approach!
Got this fun success
story/marketing idea from Bay Area FLCW Angie
Colee
(http://coleecreative.com). On a whim, she decided that people
get too many cards at
Christmas, so she was going to send out
ValentineÕs Day cards to
ÒtouchÓ past and present clients. CanÕt argue
with her results!
After that, in a similar
vein, comes a great tip from Wesley Hills, NY
FLCW Alan Zoldan (www.a2zmicromarketing.com) about a
classy,
low-pressure way to
check in with a prospect youÕd been in touch with earlier.
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I knew that reaching out
to past clients is much easier than
continuing to prospect,
but IÕve always been hesitant to do so. Since
I donÕt have a
newsletter, I always feel that a random call or email
would come across as
pushing for business (I think I think too much).
IÕd want to reach out
but stopped short whenever too much time had
passed. Surely that
client had forgotten all about me and will wonder
who this email is from.
Or theyÕll see it for a marketing attempt and
sneer at my efforts.
Despite the fears, I
finally decided to do a re-engagement campaign of
sortsÉwith ValentineÕs
Day cards. I figured hey, who couldnÕt use a
little love on this
contentious holiday? I wrote cards to each and
every one of my past and
present clients. It took me a few days and a
lot of cramped hands. A
few people I debated including, but, in the
end, everyone on my list
got a card, no matter how long it had been
since we spoke.
Well, turns out people
love hand-written ValentineÕs Day cards! I got
a whopping 35% response
rate from my mailing, and I am still getting
random emails here and
there from recipients who have been busy but
remembered my card and
really enjoyed it. And three weeks after the
mailing, a client I
hadnÕt interacted with in more than a year called
me with a project that
paid for the mailing more than 10 times over!
The verdict? ItÕs never
too late to get back in touch, especially if you
send a hand-written
card. If you have fallen out of touch, nowÕs the
time to reach
out—no excuses! You could be leaving money on the table.
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LetÕs say a prospect has
responded to one of your promotions or
perhaps was referred to
you. YouÕve had a nice discussion, perhaps
youÕve sent a few
samples, and the upshot is, ÒWe have no immediate
project, but we
definitely want to work with you.Ó
And then, a resounding
nothing. I put all of those leads in my ÒWarm
ProspectÓ file and
Ògently simmerÓ them every few months, by keeping
in touch. I might either
call or send an email, but the gist of my
message is:
ÒWe touched base a few
months (or weeks) ago, but we havenÕt yet had
the pleasure of working
together (I donÕt know about you, but working with
me is inevitably a pleasure), and I was wondering if now
might be a better
time to knock on your
in-box. I thought we had a good
discussion a
few months ago and you
said that my samples were excellent, so I was
hoping that now might be
a good time to break the ice.Ó
If it is, your client
will probably remark on the amazing coincidence
of your call. And if
not, at least youÕve created a fresh impression in a
positive and professional
way. You might want to inform said prospect
about some of your
recent achievements, but be brief about it.
By getting to the point
and keeping your tone upbeat and professional,
you will have made yet
another positive impression. A few more of
those, and you might even
walk away with that ever-challenging first project.
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V. COFFEE, MINTS AND
TOOTHPICKS
- MORE WORK WITH LESS
EFFORT? New Ebook Serves Up the ÒHow-ToÓ!
- The WELL-FED WRITER
BLOG is RockinÕ! http://www.wellfedwriter.com/blog
- AWAI Copywriting
(& Other) Courses: Register Here, Get Bonus CD!
- How Can My Mentoring
Service Serve You?
****************************************
MORE WORK WITH LESS
EFFORT? New Ebook Serves Up the ÒHow-ToÓ!
ThatÕs not hype. ItÕs
how my business has worked for the better part
of 18 years, thanks to
some juicy partnerships with graphic designers.
The result? 1-2 jobs
virtually every month with little or no effort on
my part. And I put all
the how-to details down on paper. Check it out
at
http://www.wellfedwriter.com/partnerwithdesignersebook.shtml.
*****************************************
The WELL-FED WRITER BLOG
is RockinÕ! http://www.wellfedwriter.com/blog
*****************************************
AWAI COPYWRITING (&
OTHER) COURSES: Register Here, Get Your Choice of
Bonus CD Program! Six-Figure
Copywriting, Graphic Design, Internet
Writing, Fundraising,
Health Market and more! http://www.wellfedwriter.com/awai.shtml.
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HOW CAN MY MULTIPLE
MENTORING PROGRAMS SERVE YOU?
For details and
testimonials, visit http://www.wellfedwriter.com/mentoring.shtml.
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