Marketing | Words on the Page

5 Freelance Marketing Fixes That Boost Your Results

Posted on August 12, 2020August 10, 2020 by lwidmer

On a LinkedIn forum recently, a friend of mine who moderates the forum posted the reason why the group is moderated. It was just mid-month, and she’d already filtered out nearly a dozen posts that were self-promotional. Some of them weren’t even related to writing, while others were offering work for “exposure” to professional writers….

Freelance Marketing Mistakes You Need to Drop NOW

Posted on July 24, 2020July 24, 2020 by lwidmer

Recently, a friend of mine received a LinkedIn connection request. She did what anyone might do — she visited the woman’s profile to see who she was and to see if it was a connection worth having. As she was looking, she received a message from the same woman. “Hi, (NAME)! I’m an editor and…

5 Mistakes that are Killing Your Freelance Writing Biz

Posted on July 10, 2020July 9, 2020 by lwidmer

When it’s July, my calendar is pretty light. I get to concentrate on marketing, networking, and improving my business. I get to see a lot when I’m out there on social media. Plenty of it is good. Plenty of it sucks, too. I’m not necessarily a judgmental person. I screw up just as much as…

Freelance Guide to Building a Client List

Posted on July 1, 2020July 27, 2020 by lwidmer

I don’t know what your writing focus is. I don’t have to. When it comes to finding freelance writing clients, there are quite a few similarities in how most writers market. No matter what marketing mix you use. But first, you have to know who you’ll market to, don’t you? I can’t help you too…

Turning Bread-and-butter Freelance Gigs into Caviar Clients

Posted on June 3, 2020June 2, 2020 by lwidmer

I was hungry when I wrote this post. And I was thinking about how I was going to approach today’s marketing. The plan is to reach out to existing clients and do a little upselling. Because nothing is more important than keeping current clients in front of you, buying. And if they’re buying those services…

The Freelancer Guide to Inbound Marketing

Posted on May 20, 2020May 19, 2020 by lwidmer

About four years ago, I did something nuts. Well, I do a lot of things that could fall under that category. But this had to do with my freelance writing business. I admitted something right here on the blog that, well, kind of freaked me out a little. I wrote a post admitting that for…

Is Your Freelance Cold Pitch Working? How to tell, and what to do if it isn’t

Posted on May 5, 2020May 5, 2020 by lwidmer

Everyone and his uncle is in hoarding mode, and things are getting weird. So far, I’ve seen the following shortages: Toilet paper Tofu Live magnolias in pots taller than 2 feet Plain white t-shirts in my size (and under $85) While the tofu was a bit of a surprise, the white t-shirt was just madness….

3 Ideas for Successful Freelance Marketing (Yes, even now)

Posted on April 3, 2020April 13, 2020 by lwidmer

There’s an entire country of people who are about to do — or are already doing — what we do every day: Work from home. You already know the impact that’s having on businesses, particularly small businesses and those that were struggling before the pandemic. Some companies are scaling back drastically (Macy’s, Lush, Sephora, and…

What Every Freelancer Should Know About Relationship Marketing

Posted on March 30, 2020January 28, 2023 by lwidmer

Remember that saying “We’re going to hell in a hand basket.” Welcome to hell. Not so comfy in that basket, is it? The world is upside down and contorted in ways we never thought could happen. That includes the working world. Companies everywhere are seeing unprecedented losses thanks to statewide orders to shut down. I…

The Freelance Guide to Pandemic Marketing

Posted on March 17, 2020April 13, 2020 by lwidmer

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! And happy Blog-iversary to Words on the Page — for 14 years, we’ve been together. I thank all of you for helping make this a great place to share ideas and friendship. As much as I love a good St. Patrick’s Day celebration, that’s not happening. There’s this pandemic thing… So…

Paula Hendrickson

March 17, 2020

As an introvert who works at home, I don’t find the prospect of staying how for two weeks to be that bad. I should have enough groceries to last most of that time, and have plenty of work (or knitting!) to keep me occupied.

After a great start to the year, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. I started to think this was it. Then I got a new assignment, one editor said they’ll have plenty to assign in the next few months, and another editor sent a group email to some freelancer saying she knows it’s a crazy time, but they still have a couple months worth of for-your-consideration awards coverage to plan—and invited us to pitch ideas. Phew.

Meanwhile, I just spoke with my sister. She’s a graphic designer who creates invitations and other materials for the client’s big, schmoozy, events. She’s hoping they might try webinars for some of them.

1. lwidmer
  
  March 17, 2020
  
  Oh my gawd, staying home for me is what? Tuesday? Every day? I get out when I can’t stand the sight of my four walls again, so the only thing that will change is that I’ll go for a drive and not leave the car. Or I’ll escape to the back deck. Or the chair on the front porch. Or the garden. Or a walk in Valley Forge Park. As long as I’m not near others, it’s all cool.
  
  I just got two more projects, and a new client reaching out. I think this is our time to shine. 🙂
2. Paula Hendrickson
  
  March 18, 2020
  
  A fellow freelancer who specialized in HR topics said she’s been slammed with assignments — all about how the virus is impacting businesses.
Devon Ellington

March 17, 2020

What I’m tired of is this attitude going around that some people “deserve” to get paid and some don’t, according to too many of these “experts.” Yes, we’re remote, but we, too, have bills to pay. So this, “don’t market yourself, work for free” I’m seeing around pisses me off. The non-clients who say, “I don’t pay for this” on a regular week, or telling me I should be “grateful” to write for “exposure” are now saying we “owe” it to them to write for free. to “help out the community.” They’re not going to give us paid work later on. It’s going to be “well, I didn’t pay when you did it before, so why should I pay now?” even if it stipulates this is temporary in the contract.

Nor am I going to stop marketing my books, and I’m sick of people demanding that I put them all up as giveaways. I was considering doing a few of them (first book in series) as temporary freebies, but the yelling and demands mean I’m not.

I’ll do odd jobs, I’ll negotiate rates or temporarily give people a break, because we’re all under pressure. But, again, too many people are using this as a reason not to pay freelancers. They should be glad we have the skills and experience and can keep their businesses running remotely and keep money coming in.

And then they’re those who’ve always refused remote work, who are going around saying, “oh, it’s just like the flu. Everyone is making too big a deal.”

Or people laid off in other industries who are saying, “Share your client list. I want to make some easy money working from home.”

Over it. All of it.

1. lwidmer
  
  March 18, 2020
  
  Oh, absolutely. I have no idea why the people in your area, who could well afford to pay you, think it’s such a privilege for you to slave for free for them. Entitled a-holes.
  
  Your idea of giving people a temporary price break is a good one. That pays back, and it’s a nice way to build goodwill with the clients you’d enjoy working with steadily.
  
  I have a high school friend who has COVID-19, and has had for two weeks. Her description of her symptoms and her experience — as she put it, “this is NOT LIKE THE FLU. It sounds like a horrible combination of whooping cough (which I’ve had), high and unrelenting fever, and strep throat. And hers is a MILD case.
  
  People who say it’s nothing are idiots. Sorry, I will not sugar-coat it. Idiots who won’t educate themselves.
  
  And would you believe people said, “Well, were you tested to be sure?”
  As she said, testing is not available to everyone. And she, despite all her symptoms, was not allowed a test kit because she hadn’t met one of the criteria — she hadn’t traveled overseas. That’s Florida for you. But that people are even remotely doubting what she has when her doctor and her own symptoms say what it is, well again, they’re idiots.
2. Paula Hendrickson
  
  March 18, 2020
  
  Maybe, just maybe, this will be a learning experience for some of idiot clients who think they have to observe freelancers’ work to make sure they’re doing it.