Welcome to THE WELL-FED E-PUB!
Serving up food for thought and tasty tips for the prospering writer. Come
on in, sit anywhere and bring your appetite!
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VOLUME 6, ISSUE 6 – JUNE 2007
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NEW: WHITE PAPER INDUSTRY SURVEY (50% OFF FOR EPUB SUBSCRIBERS!)
Details in Dessert and at http://www.whitepapersource.com/cmd.php?af=348539.
MASTER WHITE PAPER WRITING FROM YOUR HOME: There's big money in white papers. You've heard me talk about WP guru Michael Stelzner. He's starting a new three-part summer series on writing white papers. Be sure to grab a seat before it fills up. Details: http://www.whitepapersource.com/cmd.php?Clk=1974651
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“WELL-FED SELF-PUBLISHER” WINS “IPPY”! (http://independentpublisher.com, then first awards link, Category #63). Check out book at www.wellfedsp.com
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MISSED JANUARY’S TELECLASS? “Thriving as a Freelance Commercial Writer”
38-PAGE instant download just $12! www.wellfedwriter.com/jan07tstranscript.shtml.
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I. APPETIZER: More “Clueless Marketing” Scenarios
Think Clients Are All-Knowing, All-Seeing? Don’t Believe It.
II. CRISP “FIELD” GREENS: FIVE TIME TIPS TO BOOST PRODUCTIVITY!
WA FLCW Serves Up Strategies For Squeezing More Productive Juice From Your Day
III. MAIN COURSE: ATTN, JOURNOS, LOOKING TO BOOST $, MINUS ANGST!
WA Journalist/FLCW Lands Commercial Clients, Shares Thoughts on “Boundaries”
IV. DESSERT: Sweet Success Stories and Tips
Frisco FLCW Makes the “Solo” Jump and Crosses Her Own Golden Gate!
TIP: May the Force Be With You When Cold Calling!
V. COFFEE, MINTS AND TOOTHPICKS
- ATTN: DC! Upcoming Appearances at WIW Annual Conference!
- NEW: White Paper Industry Survey (Half-Price for EPUB Subscribers!)
- Master White Paper Writing Class Starting Up with THE WP Guru!
- MISSED JANUARY’S TELECLASS? Full 38-PAGE e-Transcript – Just $12!
- AWAI Copywriting (& Other) Courses: Register Here, Get 2 Bonuses (no charge!)
- Well-Fed E-Pub Needs All Courses!
- How Can My Mentoring Service Serve You?
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APPETIZER: More “Clueless Marketing” Scenarios
Think Clients Are All-Knowing, All-Seeing? Don’t Believe It.
Another installment of stories, which underscore how clients DON’T have it all together. You CAN make a difference for these folks. I’ll be oblique about the details in this first example to stay out of hot water. I was asked recently to edit some copy for a new company’s web site. They were in a competitive field, and their offering was priced higher than the competition, but when I looked at the copy, all it told me was what their product did, NOT what their product did Better Than the Other Guy.
Sure, savvy consumers in that arena might recognize advantages over the competition in their copy, but they’d also typically be heavily invested in a particular company and less likely to jump ship; their best bet was to snag newbies needing educating. And they knew that. WHICH would require a lot of statements beginning with “Unlike most XYZ programs, the ABC system ____,” or “Most XYZ programs do ____, which only allows you to ____,” etc. None in sight. When I brought it up, they said, “Hmmmm. Really good points. Never considered that.” Is it just me or does this sound awfully basic?
A few months back, around Valentine’s Day, saw a few quarter-page ads running on the back page of my local alternative paper for a restaurant and an upscale chocolate store. The first was advertising a five-course prix fixe dinner, and had three pix of boxes of chocolates (yes, the restaurant, NOT the chocolate store) taking up approximately two-thirds of the space. No images of the place (very sharp and inviting; I’ve been there). Nothing about the menu, nothing about the location (very convenient), no map, just a phone number. Let’s just flush $1000+ right down the john, okay?
The chocolate store ad? Even worse. You could tell it was for high-end chocolate, but you had to hunt for the name of the place (too small letters) and its location (WAAAAY too small letters). And the long list of things they make in chocolate? Virtually
unreadable mice type. I’m guessing it was an ad that had originally been created for a full-page venue, but they just went ahead and crammed it into a quarter-page hole. No time on the to-do list for a redo. But plenty of time to fwoosh away another grand. Amazing. AND, who’s going to most likely buy a pricey swan made of chocolate? An older demographic. As in, reading glasses. As in, if they can’t read it, they’ll ignore it.
I want to start a recurring feature on Clueless Client Copy, so when you run across really good (bad) examples like these, whether from your own business or just what you see out and about, send it on to me. Obviously, if it IS your own client, use discretion in providing names and identifying details. Let’s eat!
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II. CRISP “FIELD” GREENS: FIVE TIME TIPS TO BOOST PRODUCTIVITY!
WA FLCW Serves Up Strategies For Squeezing More Productive Juice From Your Day
Got this cool set of time management tips from Puyallup, WA professional Internet copywriter Joseph Ratliff (http://www.dynamicwebcopy.com). Joe’s also the author of “The Profitable Business Edge” (blog at http://profitablebusinessedge.blogspot.com, home of “thousands of dollars of free information geared toward business improvement.”) And Joseph’s offering a free copy of his ebook report, "How To Generate Thousands Of Dollars In Profit For Your Business" to anyone that sends an email to joe@dynamicwebcopy.com.
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Five Proven Tips For Getting More Hours (For Marketing?) Out Of Your Day!
You want to
market your copywriting business, but do you have the time? Here are five
nuggets of time
management wisdom I personally use in my direct response copywriting business.
AND, I “work” no more than four hours a day!
1) THE FOUNDATION IS
YOUR DESK. How clean and organized is your desk? Do you live by “use it, file
it, or throw it away” with every single item (paper, email, etc.) that comes
across your desk? You either use information, file it (only if you have TIME
STAMPED when you are going to use it), or toss it!
2) MAGAZINES, DO YOU
READ THEM? Or let them stack up, hoping to get to them someday. The
secret: Use tables of contents to find articles you like right away, and rip
them out! Then, read now, or file the article in a folder for that magazine
subject or title.
3) DO YOU LISTEN TO
AUDIO RECORDINGS? If so, try listening at double speed (2x). In 99% of
the cases, you can still understand what is being said, it doubles your
efficiency in getting information, and cuts your listening time in half!
4) HOW ORGANIZED IS
YOUR OFFICE? Is your chair in easy reach of filing cabinets, supplies, and
other necessary items without getting up? Getting up and down for a few seconds
each time adds up quickly; this technique alone can save you an hour a day!
5) HOW DO
YOU PROCESS INTERRUPTIONS? Do you check email 20 times daily, or, at
just three specific times of the day? Do you schedule phone calls, or do you
pick up the phone and answer it every time Aunt Mabel calls? How you handle
“attention-grabbers” can seriously chew up time. Remember: NOBODY AND NOTHING
controls your time except YOU! Don’t take it out on others when “you don’t have
enough time.”
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III. MAIN COURSE: ATTN, JOURNOS, LOOKING TO BOOST $, MINUS ANGST!
WA Journalist/FLCW Lands Commercial Clients, Shares Thoughts on “Boundaries”
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Got this cool story from Bainbridge Island, WA FLCW Carol Tice (c.tice2@comcast.net, www.zoominfo.com, search for Carol Tice). Interesting angle for all those journalists looking to either transition from journalism to commercial writing, or craft a healthy mix of the two (Carol’s choice). And take special note of Carol’s successful balancing act on dealing with the ethics of the mixed job bag.
I’m an established business journalist who’s been freelancing about 18 months now (and living on an island off Seattle). I was writing for a nice selection of regional and national magazines, including Entrepreneur, when a friend turned me on to your site and your philosophy of earning more money by adding commercial accounts. I had a smattering of commercial work but vowed to add at least one lucrative commercial client in 2007.
It took one month! I’m just finishing up a $10,000+ assignment writing 35 web pages for an insurance-consulting firm (who’s now talking to me about ghosting articles for their experts!). I finished the work in about three weeks flat, and with the nice paycheck, I’m taking my husband on an Alaska cruise (our first decent vacation in 10 years!).
How did I land this job? I had done some ghostwriting of Web-site blogs and wrote a few articles for a company online magazine in 2005-6 because I wanted to up my cred for writing online copy. A company I’d written about in my previous job at a local business journal called me when they heard I was available. They paid okay ($40 an hour for blogs and $1 a word for articles), but eventually I got too busy to work with them.
But this experience paid off when I sent my résumé to my new client, who was looking for Web copy! I saw their job listing on a local writers' enewsletter list. Don’t think you don’t have the experience for something. I had no insurance-industry background, but the client felt my general-business experience would allow me to grasp their topics.
As for the
ethics involved in working between two worlds? We journalists all have our
comfort zones as to what doesn’t feel right. For me, that line is doing PR:
calling up journalists to hock them about some client. Other ex-journo friends
do it, and I’ve been asked, but I won’t. I’ve also been asked to pose as a
reporter: pitch a story about a company acting like a journalist, when really
working for the company, and then write an “unbiased” reporting piece on them
for a trade publication, which I also won’t do.
The corporate work I’ve
done is basically business writing. In this web project, I’m simply reporting
on what this firm does. I don’t have a problem with that, especially since it’s
no-byline and none of my magazine people will ever know! I don’t see how
writing a white paper or case study compromises my journalistic integrity, as
long as I don’t turn around and pitch the company to a magazine, which I don’t.
Thanks to the better-paying corporate work, I’ve been able to write about older foster kids and how badly they need adoptive homes; about our state’s weak DUI homicide laws which will hopefully get strengthened this year; and currently, about high-school dropouts and ways to help them stay in school. Which incidentally, pays, like, $1500 for a story that takes me more than a month to research and write. Obviously can’t live on that, so this other work allows me to make money writing, and ultimately try to make a real difference in the world.
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IV. DESSERT: Sweet Success Stories and Tips
Frisco FLCW Makes the “Solo” Jump and Crosses Her Own Golden Gate!
TIP: May the Force Be With You When Cold Calling!
Some months back, I mentored a cool young woman in the Bay Area, Kelly Parkinson (kp@copylicious.com, www.copylicious.com) who was working full-time for The Man, but aching to go solo. I liked working with her because she was REALLY talented but hadn’t realized it yet. Check out this woman’s site and tell me she doesn’t have a wonderful “voice” – engaging, fun, and irreverent (and I told her that her marketing needed to lead with that voice). Early on, I suggested she ask a long-time pro bono client who loved her work to start paying her. She did. They did. Way I figured it, they were just happy to have gotten her for free for so long. Don’t ask, you won’t get. This was a happy update (still self-deprecating to the end) I received from her a few months back. Note how she won a contract over no-doubt far cheaper writers on a few online job boards. Remember: the good clients (i.e., the ones who understand the value of good writing) won’t play the price game, so don’t you. And after that, check out a cool stress-reducing tip from FLCW Mark Peterson about cold calling.
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Hi Peter: I had to let you know that I got my first two clients this week just four weeks after quitting my full-time job! Amazingly, both are Fortune 500 companies! Part of me had been harboring the belief that you and all other freelance copywriters were engaged in a vast conspiracy and there was actually no such thing as getting paid $75/hour to write. Now, of course, I'm thinking I've tricked them into hiring me.
And yesterday I found out that my proposal had been selected to rewrite a healthcare technology company's website and brochure. I had contacted them through a referral, and they had told me they were looking at several other writers through Elance and Guru, so I was worried I'd get dinged on price. But I kept following up with them and being professional, and they ended up choosing me! This means that in my 2nd month in business I will be officially self-sufficient: making enough to cover all of my expenses, with room left over! And more projects in the pipeline.
I am so excited! And enormously grateful. Thank you so much for helping me figure out my brand and embrace that thing I kept trying to shove under the rug. A managing director of a media agency called me out of the blue last week after she saw my website, asking me out on a dog-walking-meeting. I'm networking up a storm and following up and the hard work is finally starting to pay off. This is all your fault!
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Peter: As I see it, cold calling is a game of six inches (between the ears). One Jedi mind trick I learned at New York Life was thinking in reverse. Instead of calling to set appointments, I would call to hear, “No!” from the other end. I had to get a certain number of “no’s” to hit my quota. If I got an appointment that was cool, too, but it didn't effect the number of calls I made. It was a fun way to go about it.
PB Note: Makes sense. In my mind, if your goal is to find No’s, you lose any desperate or anxious edge in your voice that might be there if you were looking for Yes’s, and that’s ALWAYS a stronger position to come from. More than half this battle is attitude.
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V. COFFEE, MINTS AND TOOTHPICKS
- ATTN: DC! Upcoming Appearances at WIW Annual Conference!
- NEW: White Paper Industry Survey (Half-Price for EPUB Subscribers!)
- Master White Paper Writing Class Starting Up with THE WP Guru!
- MISSED JANUARY’S TELECLASS? Full 38-PAGE e-Transcript – Just $12!
- AWAI Copywriting (& Other) Courses: Register Here, Get 2 Bonuses (no charge)!
- Well-Fed E-Pub Needs All Courses!
- How Can My Mentoring Service Serve You?
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ATTN: DC! Upcoming Appearance at WIW Annual Conference on June 9th!
Details at: http://www.washwriter.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=96.
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NEW! White Paper Industry Survey (HALF-PRICE FOR EPUB SUBSCRIBERS!)
There’s BIG money in white papers! Check out the latest industry survey from WP guru Michael Stelzner. And at 50% off to WFW readers! (Plus a great bundle on all his stuff!) http://www.whitepapersource.com/cmd.php?af=348539.
MASTER WHITE PAPER WRITING FROM YOUR HOME: Also, Michael's starting a new three-part summer series on writing white papers. Be sure to grab a seat before it fills up. Details: http://www.whitepapersource.com/cmd.php?Clk=1974651
*****************************************
MISSED JANUARY’S TELECLASS? “Thriving as a Freelance Commercial Writer”
38-PAGE e-Transcript! $12: www.wellfedwriter.com/jan07tstranscript.shtml.
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AWAI COPYWRITING (& OTHER) COURSES: Register Here, Get 2 Extra Bonuses!
Six-Figure Copywriting, Graphic Design, Internet Writing, Fundraising, Health Market and more! TWO Bonus CDs: http://www.wellfedwriter.com/awai.shtml.
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WELL-FED E-PUB Needs ALL COURSES!
“GREENS” (200-300 words), MAIN COURSES (400-500; query first), TIPS (150-200) and SUCCESS STORIES (200-300) to peter@wellfedwriter.com.
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HOW CAN MY MENTORING SERVICE SERVE YOU?
For details and testimonials, visit www.wellfedwriter.com/Mentoring.shtml.
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BIG THANKS!
THANKS again to Susan Cochran in Atlanta for her great editing/proofing prowess on the E-Pub. Need a good editor/proofreader? susan_cochran@mindspring.com, www.cochrancompany.com.