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10 Feb 10 Freelance writing – Have You Read Your Job Description?

If you thought by choosing freelance writing as a career you will just write, write, and do nothing else then let me prick the balloon. Your client wants many more things from you. Do not get scared, you will not be asked to do any fancy stuff like coding, scripting, PPC campaigns, and all.

Then what other works a client will demand?

Basically, you will be asked to do stuffs related to writing only. And in my career, primarily I have been asked to do following types of work (other than writing):

  • Many clients have asked me to do like keyword research, for writing purpose only. This actually is not all that bad. It helped me conceptualize the article or press release while researching.
  • At times, clients also asked me to submit articles to various social bookmarking sites. I helped my clients with 2-3 submissions, at max. I do not think I would have agreed to submit an article to 100 or so social bookmarking sites. It would have been waste of time for me, but for 3-4, I never said no.
  • Clients may also ask for content suggestions, and about other things he can do to meet his goal. This in fact is an opportunity in disguise to cross sell other services that you offer. If you are writing only articles for your client then you may suggest him to use press release to get some link juice, or may be forum posting and all.
  • I have also given some marketing and SEO suggestions to my clients. Depending upon your background (I have my background in marketing), you can either say yes or politely say no.

Word of caution

Do not say no to your clients’ request, at least not directly, if you can help him. And also do not ask for money for every suggestion that you offer—I know people who do so—because it looks cheap. For that work you may get paid, but it will reflect badly on your professionalism. You may lose the client.

If the work is going to take hours of your work then say this to client, and if it is going to take hardly 10-15 minutes then do not bother. It also depends upon your relationship with your client.

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03 Jan 10 How to Use Twitter to Get Clients

Twitter is an amazing tool. It can be put to any number of uses. People use it to make friends, to know about the topics they care, to get job alerts, to stay on top of any topic, to get recommendation, to read funny jokes, and to get influenced by memorable quotations, etc. This 140-character wonder can even be used to get clients for your business, regardless of your size, be it for your one-person startup, or for a 1000-people big company.

In this article, we will see what you need to do to get clients from twitter.

Step 1: Use real name

Will you like to do business with sexykitten, or hotrode? I am sure you won’t, regardless of how smart hotrode or sexykitten is. This is the power of name. A good name creates a positive image, whereas, a bad name ruins the party. Use your real name or business name for the twitter profile. If your name or business name is already taken then use something close to that, but spare yourself the horror of bad names.

Step 2: Use real picture

Like a real name, a real picture helps create a positive image in the mind of onlookers. Do not go for cool looking cartoons, or any other thing. Let your prospect know that you are a real person behind the twitter profile by giving a real picture.

Step 3: Brand your background

If you do not know this then let me break the good news that you can brand your twitter profile the way you want. I will suggest you customize the background of your twitter profile with your corporate brand identity.

Step 4: Use compelling bio

Your one-line twitter bio says a lot about you. People get influenced reading that, so it better be good. Make your twitter bio forceful and SEO-friendly.

Step 5: Add URL

Many people leave URL field empty. Do not commit this mistake. Use a proper working URL in your profile. This will work as a door to your website.

Step 6: Create a list

Create a list of the tweets from your industry and make it publicly available. This will give your prospect an idea about how closely you follow the changes in your industry. He may regard you as a leader of the pack, which will mean more business for you.

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24 Oct 09 Structure of a Press Release

Over the years, press release has become a significant part of marketing mix. Now, the company strategically crafts press releases to establish its brand in the market. Hence, writing a proper press release is imperative. One needs to know the proper format in which a press release should be written. The goal of this post is to educate its reader about the proper press release format.

A press release follows an inverted pyramid format (see fig.). The most important part of the news goes in the first paragraph followed by the information that is less important than the one preceding it. Include quotation and further explanation in the third paragraph, followed by background of the news. And the last paragraph of a press release contains history and other information about the company.

Press release format

The image below contains a standard format used to write a press release. Every element mentioned in it is important, and always write a press release on a company’s letter head.

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