Get Started Writing: More Than a Dozen Ways to Build, Maintain, and Even Increase Your Momentum as a Freelance Writer

by Suzanne Lieurance, the Working Writer's Coach

Whether you’re just starting your freelance writing career or you’re wanting to take it to new levels, you need to create momentum and maintain that momentum if you hope to build your business. Here are more than a dozen ways for doing that.

1. Write no more than 3 major long term writing goals on a sheet of paper, and put that paper somewhere where you will see it every day. Read your goals every morning before you start work for the day.

2. Develop your weekly action plan (also called a marketing plan) every Sunday night. Don’t give up on this. Make sure you create your action plan every week and stick to the plan as well as you can each week.

3. Expand your network - think of ways to help promote others as you continue to promote yourself.

4. When you face an obstacle or challenge, think “outside the box” to come up with a way around this obstacle or a way to meet this challenge. Don’t be stopped by the first little obstacle or problem that crops up.

5. Start every day with positive thoughts and maintain these thoughts. Let go of any self-limiting thoughts, feelings, or actions. Just BELIEVE that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to doing even if you aren’t sure HOW you will do that. You’ll figure out HOW as you go along.

6. Be confident when you tell people you are a writer. Create a tagline that tells them exactly what you do. For example, your tagline say, “Freelance Writer, Author, and Speaker.”

7. Attend at least one writers’ conference, course, or workshop every year - more often if you can afford it. Get to know the people in charge. Volunteer to help out at the event.

8. Get business cards made, then pass out your business card everywhere you go. Leave cards on the bulletin boards in coffee shops, book stores, grocery stories. Leave your card in the bowls at restaurants to win a free meal. Make sure you have plenty of cards with you at all times. Give your card to friends and tell them to give the cards to people they may know who need a writer.

9. Create your own e-books, special reports, workshops and teleclasses to sell, then work with other writers who can help you promote them.

10. Write articles for article directories on a regular basis - at least one article written and submitted every week.

11. Write a press release about some new aspect of your business every 6 weeks and send it to local publications and have it distributed online. There are many free online distribution services available.

12. Continue to grow your mailing list any way you can. Read articles about growing your mailing list at ezinearticles.com. You’ll get plenty of suggestions in these articles. Get creative and think of new ways to add to your mailing list.

13. Visit blogs of other well-known writers in your field and leave a meaningful comment, along with your name and URL. Develop an online relationship with these people. It will help you acquire more readers.

14. Be sure you belong to at least a few listservs for writers. Then stop lurking! Become active! Get to know the other writers on these listservs by leaving comments, asking and answering questions, and by providing information about jobs, publishers, editors, etc. whenever you can.

15. Join at least one or two professional organizations for writers. Take part in their events. Volunteer to be a group leader or organizer.

Follow some or all of these 15 suggestions and you're sure to keep moving forward with your freelance writing career!

Suzanne Lieurance is an author, freelance writer, writing coach, speaker and workshop presenter. She is a former classroom teacher and was an instructor for the Institute of Children's Literature for over 8 years.

Lieurance now lives and writes by the sea in Jensen Beach, Florida. She offers The Morning Nudge free every weekday morning to writers who need a little inspiration and motivation to get their writing done.

What Is An Author Platform and How Do You Create It?

Building a writing career can be a long, and at times, difficult road. And, many new authors think writing itself is the tough part, but that’s not really the case.

Writing a story that you intend to publish traditionally or self-publish has a beginning, a middle, and an end. You can create an outline as kind of a GPS to get you from point A to point B. There are steadfast rules and tricks to help you complete your writing journey.

There is an end to that particular writing journey.

With marketing, that’s not the way it works. Marketing your book is the roll-up-your-sleeves part of a writing career. It’s the ongoing job of creating and building your online presence, your author platform. And, the rules and tricks of the game are in constant motion, always changing.

While many of the rules may change, there is one constant in your author platform, and that’s visibility.

It should be noted that the definition of an author platform encompasses multiple genres and freelance writers, and even marketers who create and sell information products, so it may vary, depending on who is providing the definition. But, in regard to your author platform, web editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review Jane Friedman notes that editors and agents are “looking for someone with visibility and authority who has proven reach to a target audience.”

So, the bare-bottom basics of an author platform are: visibility, authority, and proven reach.

Breaking Down the Three Basic Elements of an Author Platform

1. Visibility

This is the promotional aspect of marketing. It’s the element of becoming known in your particular niche and building on that presence.

With online marketing strategies and Google’s updates always on the move, the face of creating visibility has changed. Today, visibility is created through ongoing connections and relationships with your target market, your audience.

2. Authority

Authority is built through ongoing communication. As an author you need to provide valuable information to your readers. Providing this information on a regular basis establishes you as an authority in your niche.

3. Your Reach

Elements one and two of your author platform help take care of number three, your reach. By using effective marketing strategies to create an online presence, such as building a website and creating your authority through ongoing information/article marketing, your reach is automatically broadened.

Other strategies you can use to further broaden your reach include:

•    Guest blogging
•    Article marketing
•    Joint ventures
•    Presenting webinars
•    Presenting workshops
•    Offering ecourses

Today, your author platform is about what you can offer your audience. It’s not about what you’re selling.

Providing ongoing ‘wanted or needed’ information builds a relationship. In the marketing arena a general rule of thumb was to offer 75 percent free, valuable information and 25 percent promotion. Now, it's recommended offering 90 percent free, valuable information and 10 percent promotion.

It’s this ongoing author/reader relationship that will build your author platform and help sell your books, other products, and services.

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning author, ghostwriter, and online marketing instructor for authors and writers. You can check out her e-class through WOW! Women on Writing at:
Build Your Author-Writer Platform

MORE ON BOOK MARKETING

Being Social can Bring Extra Promotion
Guest Blogging – Advantages for the Hosting Site
Book Marketing – To Niche or Not to Niche

Creating, Promoting, and Selling in the Writing World

I recently attended a teleconference presented by David Riklan, a well-known marketing expert and the founder of SelfGrowth.com. The focus of the topic was creating a successful online business from scratch.

According to Riklan, the first two ‘core’ ways to establish a successful online business, one that generates income is to:

1.Create your own product to sell.
2.Create a service to sell.

Please understand that when you create a product or service, it should be a quality product or service. It needs to address the potential customer’s problem, need, or want.

What are some of the products and services you can create and sell online?

1. Books
2. eBooks
3. Podcasts
4. Workshops
5. Teleclasses
6. Webinars
7. White papers
8. Your writing skills as a ghostwriter, freelance writer, or copywriter
9. Speaking engagements
10. Coaching

You can see there are a number of things you can create and sell. And, when you create one product, you can always turn it into a number of others.

For example, if you present a live chat workshop be sure to have it copied. You can later create a report from the transcript and/or create a podcast. You can also create an e-book from the content you prepared for the workshop.

The same can be done for any of the products or services mentioned above. Rework the original content into as many other products you want.

But, take note that just having a business or a product to sell won’t necessarily generate an income. You need to attract potential clients and/or customers to your website and opt-in box, kind of like a magnet.

Why is it so important to attract visitors/potential clients to your site?

The answer is simple: Attracting visitors to your site gives you the opportunity to turn that visitor into a subscriber on your mailing list. This in turn helps you develop a relationship with the individual.

Statistics show that a first time visitor will not buy what you’re offering. But, if you have that person on your mailing list, you will be able to try again, and to promote other products or services you have for sale.

Along with your products and services, you can become an affiliate marketer to other products and/or services you feel are of value. This creates a win-win-win situation. The product creator gets a sale, you get an affiliate fee, and the customer gets what he wants or needs.

So, the key is to offer something the visitor will feel is worth his valuable email address.

What is the most effective strategy to use to motivate someone to give their email address, thereby increasing your subscriber list?

The number one way to do this is by offering a FREEBIE. The visitor subscribes to your mailing list and then gets the freebie. This is known as an ethical bribe.

Obviously, the freebie must be something people want or need. If you have a health site focused on allergies, visitors will want information on allergies, maybe a report on the latest allergy statistics or alternative strategies for alleviating allergy symptoms will prompt visitors to click on your opt-in.

You need to provide a freebie that is geared toward your target market, something that offers a solution to their problem or need, or provides something they want, and one that will help establish you as an expert in that niche and trustworthy.

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Image courtesy of Free Digital Photos - Photographer: Salvatore Vuono

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Related Articles:

How to Create an Ebook: 5 Simple Steps
How to Drive Traffic With Informational Content
Book Promotion: The Foundation

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Until next time,

Karen Cioffi
Author, Ghostwriter, Freelance Writer

http://KarenCioffi.com
http://DKVWriting4U.com
Karen Cioffi Writing and Marketing

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