Whenever you’re promoting a business, with a flyer campaign or otherwise, it always pays to articulate carefully what you can offer your potential customers. Writing is no different, but this is one niche where your flyer needs to be particularly carefully tailored.

Any promotional flyer should communicate that the purpose of your business is to do something for your customers that they cannot or do not want to do for themselves, and consequently will pay you to do instead. Whether it’s a cleaning service or specialist financial advice, you are offering the client something that makes their life easier in some way. Perhaps you’re providing expertise, perhaps you’re simply saving them time. Either way, a well-written flyer will clearly answer the reader’s implicit question: what can you do for me?

The purpose of your flyer

Writing for a living can encompass a broad range of jobs. You might focus on writing internet content, for example, in order to drive traffic to your website or others. You might write marketing copy, or magazine articles, or fiction… the list is almost endless, and in practice your day-to-day work may encompass a number of these. No matter how versatile your skills, though, your flyer is unlikely to succeed if its remit is this broad. Flyers are an excellent way to reach a specific readership – whether the subscribers of a particular publication or households in a given zip code. The trick is to tailor your message to that demographic to ensure the time and money you invest in your flyer campaign results in maximum pay-off.

Pick your speciality

This means that you should create a flyer that targets a specific niche. Perhaps you want to advertise your services for creating websites for individuals, groups or businesses. A flyer with a very general ‘Pen for hire’ advertisement isn’t going to resonate with your readers. You will have to send out thousands of flyers to gain a handful of clients. But if your flyer is designed with a specific audience in mind, you have a far better chance of attracting new customers.

With this in mind, your flyer should demonstrate that you are capable of delivering a service that your reader needs. Look at the problem from the customer’s point of view: what is the problem that they have that you can solve? Is it a lack of time, or expertise? Your flyer needs to show them that you can deliver something worth paying for.

Testimonials and writing samples will be useful, but don’t go overboard: people don’t want to plough through reams of dense text. Your flyer should point people in the right direction, not tell them absolutely everything they need to know. Contact details and a link to your own website achieve that better than a crammed page of words.

Flyer presentation

Any business flyer should be well-presented, but in this case the effort you put into it is absolutely critical. It’s one thing if a dry cleaning or gardening service hasn’t mastered punctuation and grammar, since it’s hardly going to affect the quality of the job they do – and even then, minor mistakes can be quite off-putting. Readers start to wonder whether you will show a similar level of carelessness in other areas of your work. When you are offering a writing service and the writing on the advert itself is flawed, you might as well have burned the flyer as paid to have it distributed. This has to be your very best writing: beautifully honed, convincing, and immaculate.

One problem of presentation is that flyers will often incorporate images for greater visual effect – something that can be distracting if done badly, but that can add a great deal to their impact. In the case of writing professionals, this is harder – appropriate images are not immediately obvious. It’s best not to use a picture on your flyer just for the sake of it – it needs to be something relevant, not just pretty. Instead, you may like to use different typefaces, layouts, pull-out quotes, text boxes, bullets and so on to break the text up and make it more attractive and readable.

Where to send your flyer

You will need to target your flyer’s audience carefully, but with a little research you can make a strong impact and a high ROI. You might distribute them to local businesses, or in specific publications. Similarly there are courses at which displaying your flyers could be very beneficial, as well as libraries and other locations.

This article was supplied by Printed.com, suppliers of unbeatable quality digital flyer printing, and a shortlisted company for this year’s industry leading Print Week Environmental Company of the Year 2011 award.

Image: jennafa

Ready for another blogging linkfest? Here’s a long list of posts I’ve bookmarked and shared in the last couple of months, along with a short excerpt from each:

Writing Business

• 5 Rarely Remembered Rules for Building Your Freelance Brand - Good brands command respect and establish a reputation. They establish your presence in the marketplace.
• Top 3 Symptoms Your Business Blog Reeks - Any size company can have a case of blogitis If you are phoning in your business blog, hang up on that practice.
• Features of the Freelance Economy - Government policy makers are devising all sorts of programs that will put people back to work.
• Building New Income Streams When Client Work is Slow - We’ve already looked at why freelance job boards aren’t the best places to find gigs and how you can make it easier for clients to find you through your writer platform. But what can you do in between client projects?
• How to Build a Writer Platform and Make Jobs Come to You - Our last post looked at reasons freelance writers should stop spending too much time trolling job boards looking for new gigs.
• 7 Signs That It’s Time to Simplify Your Freelancing Business - If your freelancing life has become too much for you, it may be time to simplify your life and your freelancing business as well. Do you think this is you?
• Back to basics: A 10-step freelance story workflow guide - Writers use various methods to stay on top of queries, stories in progress, rewrites, collections and the like.

Writing Skills

• 7 Cs of Effective Web Writing–a Checklist for Freelance Writers - A relatively small percentage of these freelancers really understand their job and responsibilities. If truth be told, it may seem that anybody can write.
• Should You Do Ghostwriting? - Exactly what is ghostwriting? And, what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of doing this type of writing? Is it ethical? Are such jobs available?
• If English Isn’t Your First Language – An Open Letter To Writers - I only speak and read one language, and that’s American English. It’s my native language. I grew up with it. While I have a smattering of Spanish and a few words of French, I’m a typical American, with only one language.
• One Tool that Really Sharpens Your Writer’s – or Blogger’s – Voice - A writer’s voice – a blogger’s voice. All aspiring writers search for it. All authors define it, explain it, and scare the hell out of those who have yet to discover it. Over and over again. And we never get tired of talking about it.
• The 5 Steps To Actually Starting A Freelance Writing Career - If you want to be a freelance writer you’ve simply got to write. There’s just no getting around it. And you’ve got to write regularly.
• Finding a Mentor–A Freelancer’s Simple Success Secret - A mentor is a more experienced freelancer or other professional who you can turn to for guidance and who can answer your questions about freelancing.
• 5 ways to protect your work online - Anyone who shares their work online knows there’s a risk they’re taking… Despite those risks, there is something to be said for having an instant audience online.
• When Words Are Not Enough - Since I use words for a living I love the fact that they can be so powerful. But, my profession is also why it’s all too easy for me to get too caught up in the power of words–too easy for me to forget that words are sometimes not enough.

Marketing and Promotion

• 5 Ways to Build a Better Website - Your business website positions you as an authoritative and skilled freelancer in your field. It captures leads into an automated email service or customer relations management software.
• Freelance Marketing – Market Research and Planning - If you’re considering a change to grow your business, you should start there and narrow down your specialty area.
• Building Your Web Presence for Authors: Don’t Let Google Do Your Talking - I pulled out my iPhone and googled the business name and the city. What showed up as the site description? “Joomla! – the dynamic portal engine and content management system.” Wow. Whoever made their website didn’t bother to change that default description.

Getting Paid to Write/Getting Writing Gigs

• 8 Must Haves Before You Apply For A Freelance Writing Job - There are eight things you need to get in order before you can be sure you’re looking good and likely to land the freelance writing job you want.
• 8 Steps For Landing That Freelance Writing Job - For the better writing jobs there are tons of applicants which means your goal is really to get an email response.
• Numbers Are Our Friend–Writers and the Wild World of Metrics - The idea of numbers should not scare you. Numbers can be a writer’s best friend.
• How Long Does It Take PayPal to Transfer to Your Bank Account? - Setting up PayPal for your work at home jobs is smart. It’s an almost universal way to get paid online because most people already use it.
• Full-Time Income in Part-Time Hours? Sure Thing! - I was definitely intrigued by Gretchen Roberts’ new ebook, Full-time Income in Part-time Hours. Gretchen, a food and wine writer, has been freelancing since May, 2003.
• Search & Networking Tips For Finding Freelance Writing Jobs - As more and more people in the world become Internet savvy, the world of online freelancing gets more and more competitive. This can make it harder to find good paying gigs

Client Relations

• Insulate Yourself From Bad Freelance Clients - Here are three simple ways you can better insulate yourself from bad writing clients.
• 8 Tips About How To Respond When A Potential Writing Client Calls - You are sitting at your desk writing away and the phone rings and it’s someone who needs a writer. They’ve found out about your writing through your website or have one of your business cards or something. These calls are potentially pure gold.
• 10 Ways to Win Back a Former Client - Assuming you’ve done your work well, your former clients already know and trust you. They no longer need to be convinced that you’re a good freelancer. Unfortunately, clients don’t always come back to us with more projects.

Blogging

• 5 Popular WordPress Plugins You Need to Ditch Now! - We all want to speed up our blogs and one of the easiest ways to do that is by removing WordPress Plugins that impact load speed, and provide little value for our readers.
• Is Impartiality in Media or Blogging Even Possible? - Every time I read a post bemoaning the idea that copywriters and bloggers deserve to be compensated for their time because journalism should be impartial, I wonder whether people truly believe that the major media does not primarily benefit the wealthy who control it.
• How Do QR Codes Work and What Do You Need? - Before we put the cart before the horse, we should know what we need to make these square soundbites work.

Inspiration

• Why Success Should Not be Measured in Money - Some complain about those whose English is not perfect and many bloggers delete their comments and do not publish their posts.
• Ready to Give Up? 50 Things You SHOULD Give Up… Starting Today.  – 2. Give up comparing yourself to others. – The only person you are competing against is yourself. 3. Give up dwelling on the past or worrying too much about the future. – Right now is the only moment guaranteed to you.
• Why Can’t a Freelancer Be a Millionaire? - There’s a big difference between earning six figures and hitting that seventh figure, but is it enough of a difference to keep freelancers out?
• 3 Things Freelance Writing Has Allowed Me To Do - Being a freelance writer can be a considerably varied career. If you’re a banker, you work in finance. If you’re an IT executive, you work in IT. If you’re a doctor, you work in medicine. If you’re a freelance writer, however, you get to sample numerous different careers
• So You Think You Can ePublish?- Self-publishing is EXPLODING and there are more opportunities than ever before.

Featured

To end the round-up, I’d like to draw your attention to two more posts, one which I’ve written (Why I’m Betting on Kindle for Self Publishing) and one where I was featured (She loves to write: An interview with Sharon Hurley Hall.)

Happy reading! (Image:  jjpacres)

Want to put bread on the table? Market your writing services efficiently with these productivity tips.

It’s that time again – another of my monthly posts for the Word Chef blog carnival. This month we’re talking about productivity, something that the writers on this blog have written about many, many times. Originally, I was going to write about writing productivity, but been there, done that, so I’ve included a list of some of our best posts on productivity at the end. So, to the issue of the day: marketing and promoting your writing business.

My Marketing Mantra

We already know some of the tasks we need to do (check out my Promotion is Free series for a heads-up) but what about making the time to do it? I know from my own experience that in the past at busy times I made less time for marketing and at quiet times I marketed like crazy because I had more time on my hands. That’s bass-ackwards, if you’ll pardon the expression. When you’re busy you need to market so you are never quiet. When you are quiet, it’s already too late.

So what do you do? The answer is really simple: make the time. When something is really important to you, you usually make the time to do it. The health of your writing business should be important to you, so make the time to keep it healthy by injecting regular doses of new business. In other words, market and promote.

Set aside a chunk of time each week, either a big block once a week or a shorter time daily that’s dedicated to marketing your services. Then market and promote.

Methods of Marketing

There are all kinds of ways to do this.

Taking part in a blog carnival like the one I’m in today is one way because lots of new people will see what you write. Making connections with new people can extend your reach. It puts your name out there without too much effort on your part. Write a post, tweet about it, comment on a few other posts. Time required – maybe 1 hour which adds up to about 12 minutes a week per post.

Showcase your expertise on high traffic sites such as LinkedIn Answers, Quora and more – see what’s being asked in your niche and respond. I have to admit that I don’t use this as much as I might, but when I do, it pays off. Someone saw one of my answers on Quora and approached me about a writing job. Although it didn’t work out in the end, it showed that I was visible. You only have to spend a few minutes a day doing this, especially if you are selective about what you respond to. Pick the questions that you are already an expert in and you won’t have to think too hard. Rinse and repeat for other social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Time required: no more than 30 minutes a time, and you could get away with 15.

Tweak and optimize your professional website. This can be a timesink – don’t ask me how I know {groan} but it’s well worth doing. Make sure that it shows your skills and abilities to best advantage and makes it easy for people to contact you. One of my new clients was browsing around my site and found a testimonial for some site content I’d written for a cake decorator. On the strength of that she got in touch and asked me to rewrite hers. Testimonials sell your services without too much work and I’ve got a video explaining how I use a simple questionnaire to get a good testimonial. It’s also useful to update your site with new stuff you have done. Time required: 30 minutes every couple of weeks or 15 minutes a week (it should be more, but that’s about what I do.)

Guest blog. I’m a big fan of guest blogging for promotion (as well as having fun with writing). Not only is it an easy way to showcase your ability to write about a wide range of topics – or to showcase your expertise in your niche, take your pick – but if you’re smart you can also market yourself subtly. It’s all in the way you respond to comments. I write a lot about writing and blogging (as well as a whole lot of other things), so when I respond to comments I include something that shows I know what I’m talking about. I might refer to the length of my writing career or a relevant experience I had. I’m providing value to the commenter and the blog host, but other people who read my comments will also get a taste of what I can do. Time required: 1-2 hours depending on writing time and number of comments. That means about 12 minutes a week per post.

So what does that add up to? If you’re only doing each of these once each week, you would spend just under an hour a week on marketing. And you could do more and get even more benefit, because isn’t it worth it to spend a couple of hours of your time each week on marketing your services?

Productivity Tips

And just in case you’re having trouble making the time because you are too busy writing, here’s a list of some of our previous tips on writing productivity:

• Are You A Productive Writer?
• Are You Writing In The Most Efficient Way Possible?
• Be More Productive with Office Time
• Stop Multitasking from Killing Your Productivity
• Personal Productivity: An Interim Report
• Declutter To Improve Writing Productivity

What do you find most effective in marketing your business services? (Image:  chotda)

Today, I’m happy to be reviewing SEO Marketing by Brian Belfitt of BlogEngage. This free ebook (which you get when you sign up for BlogEngage)  has just 27 pages and covers:

1. Introduction to starting your very own blog
2. Hosting and set up
3. Selecting the right theme
4. Setting up your wordpress blog
5. SEO, Marketing and Promotion
6. Making money online with your blog

The ebook is a compilation of the best articles from Brian’s SEO Marketing blog and gives some useful tips.

What I Disagreed With

There was only one thing I disagreed with in the book – Brian’s advice at the start that  you should buy domain name and hosting from the same provider. In fact, I do the opposite and for almost all my domains, have them from separate providers. That means that if I ever fall out with one, I’ve still got the option of getting my site up quickly. (And I do that because I’ve been burned in the past.)

Next, Brian moves onto themes and he lists some of my favorite providers there. He discusses the importance of researching your posts and keeping them consistent and relevant for your readers. He also includes the importance of keeping your blog maintained – not only by checking and removing out-dated links, but updating tags if relevant.

Best Feature

One of the things I like best about Brian’s book is his blog marketing plan – what you need to do to market your blog. However, you might find you need more info to implement it if you are new to blogging.

His checklist of factors to look for in deciding where to market and promote your blog (by interacting and commenting on other blogs) is useful, as is the section on how you can use forums for promotion. There’s also a section on seeking advertisers and affiliate marketing, with links to some key ad networks.

The Verdict

Overall, I think this book gives a good snapshot of where to start and since it’s free, it’s hard to complain about the lack of detail in some areas. If you want an overview of the things you need to think about then you can read this book in a few minutes and have a pretty good idea. But if you want more in-depth information, you will have to check out the articles on Brian’s site and elsewhere.

Well, I finally did it! Making a video has been on my list of things to do for a very long time, but I’ve always procrastinated – something I never do with the written word. Somehow sticking my face up there always seemed a bit scary. During the year, I’ve been inspired by people like Kim Castleberry, Ileane Smith and Ivin Vijoen, who regularly do video posts – and I had decided that I had to make my first video before the end of the year. Finally, yesterday, I did it, prompted by a deadline from a member of the mastermind group I recently joined.

I spent a lot of time trying to do it with my phone, because I knew I’d be able to upload it easily. But then I gave up and used my webcam. To edit, I used Windows Movie Maker (after a recommendation from someone I trust). It’s not a full featured video edit suite, but it works for a novice like me. And what’s good about it is that you can upload straight to YouTube, Facebook or Flickr.

So here’s the first video.

The only thing I like about it is that I speak clearly, but the rest is a lesson in how not to do it, which I’m sharing with you in case you’re thinking of doing your first one. I’ve added some captions to illustrate the mistakes I made, but here they are in a nutshell:

1. I didn’t look at the camera. That’s because, in true writer style, I had written out a script and I kept having to refer to it. So I’m looking down and across.

2. I didn’t smile, so I didn’t really look like myself. I usually smile a lot and in this video I look like something terrible is about to happen to me – I was nervous!

Another friend pointed out that I could have branded the background (though how many people have a business poster in their home office?) Still, point taken, and I have a couple of ideas for how to address that issue in the future. Since I can’t let things lie, I did another video for my mastermind group. Here it is:

This time I didn’t use a script (I knew what I wanted to say after a couple of readthroughs), kept it very simple and smiled a bit. There’s still room for improvement (like figuring out how to fade out the video instead of cutting it off abruptly), but I’m pleased to have got that milestone behind me.

I would welcome your comments, tips, links to good tutorials on video – anything that will help me improve, because I’d like to do more videos on this blog and elsewhere, in the future. If you want to be alerted of any new videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel.

by Hayden Jackson

What does success as a writer look like on Elance? For me, it means working with great clients from all over the world, including worthy non-profit organizations, innovative tech startups, and interesting small businesses. It means only accepting work that pays professional fees. And it means working on projects that I’m proud to add to my growing portfolio.

And where does that kind of success begin? Not with delivering great work. Not with crafting a stand-out proposal. Before anything else can happen, successful Elance writers need a great profile.

Your profile is often your first point of contact with a potential buyer, and as a writer, it’s your chance to showcase your persuasive way with words. Yet many writers don’t make the most of their profiles on Elance, and it’s preventing them from making the most of this profitable freelance marketplace.

Don’t underestimate the power of your profile

If you have been putting all your efforts into crafting superstar proposals on Elance, pull back and take a closer look at your profile. Although proposals are important, a great profile can attract just as much business.

In two years, I have probably gained a dozen great, long-term clients who have contacted me directly after browsing my profile. The great thing about attracting clients in this way is that you don’t have to compete with other contractors to win their work. You’re pre-selected. You’ve pre-sold them on the value of your work, and you can confidently state your higher-than-average fee without worrying about being underbid by competitors.

Even in cases where you are one of many contractors bidding on a job, serious buyers WILL visit your profile, and if it stands out, it will win you the job.

So don’t neglect your profile and assume a great proposal is all you need to nose ahead of the competition.

Pump up the volume: Add creds, visuals, and substance to your profile

As a copywriter who specializes in writing for the web, I’m a big believer in saying things in as few words as possible. But when it comes to your Elance profile, less is NOT more. A sparse profile may be easy to scan, but it will look bare and underdeveloped next to a profile with lots of test scores, work samples, service descriptions, and so on. Fill your profile page with as much information as you can to make it look full, lively, and interesting:

Overview. Craft an overview that describes your best selling points and, if possible, put a testimonial from a previous client front and center. A third-party endorsement is far more powerful and convincing than anything you could say about yourself. If you can, include a link to the client’s website or LinkedIn.com profile so that readers can see that this is a legitimate testimonial from a real person.

Portfolio. Fill the portfolio section with your best work samples, and make sure the full range of your writing talents are represented: creative writing, marketing copy, reports, etc. Make sure they’re your most visually appealing pieces as well as your best written. Clients will respond more favourably to writing that is attractively laid out on a web page or print brochure than they will to an ordinary Word document.

Skills. Take some Elance tested skills. Although most Elance buyers won’t make a decision to hire you based on your tested skill scores, they do form part of the overall impression, and offer proven verification of you skill in specific areas such as business writing, creative writing, editing, and so on. They also fill out the page, making it look more populated and authoritative.

Service Description. Use this section to provide some details on the specific services you offer. It’s also a good idea to list every type of writing product you’re comfortable creating: brochures, newsletters, taglines, B2B letters, etc. Don’t be afraid to build a long list: buyers will appreciate knowing exactly what you can do for them, and they might see something on the list that they hadn’t even thought of: “Hayden ghost-writes blog posts? Our company blog is looking a little neglected these days—maybe we should ask about that service…”

Employment. If you have held jobs unrelated to writing, leave these off your employment list. Even if you were the CEO of PepsiCo, it’s not going to be of interest to prospective purchasers of your writing services. The only exception is when a job helps you write in a particular niche: for instance, your work as an RN will give you credibility if you plan to focus on health writing. Other than that, focus on writing jobs, and feel free to include freelance work here as well.

Here’s an extra tip: to pack an extra punch, you can include a short employer or client testimonial in the job description field. A testimonial straight from the employer or client will be much more compelling than a dry description of your specific duties.

Education. As with your employment, omit anything that’s not directly related to your writing career unless (as an example) you have a degree in biology and you specialize in science writing. If your education section is looking a little thin, there are a number of inexpensive writing and editing courses you can take online or through local continuing education. Your education list doesn’t have to be limited to degrees: you can include non-certification courses and workshops as well.

Get verified. Choose one or two of your most relevant and impressive credentials and get them verified. For US-based credentials, the fee to have them third-party verified is $15—for non-US-based credentials, it’s $25 per verification. Verifying your credentials provides an added layer of reassurance for your buyers, and it also improves your ranking on Elance, so you’ll be more visible in search results.

Make your Elance profile letter-perfect

One final tip—and it’s the most important of all. As a writer, your Elance profile should be proofed and proofed again until it’s letter-perfect. A single error will destroy your credibility among discerning buyers. Don’t just review it yourself—even if you’re an experienced writer, you’re sure to miss something. Make sure another writer or editor you trust looks it over carefully.

Hayden Jackson is a freelance writer and successful Elancer. She is also the author of “72 Insider Tips for Elance Writers,” a comprehensive guide to earning money and building a freelance writing career on Elance.com. Find more Elance tips and tricks on her blog at http://www.72tips.com.

It’s no secret that I’ve been a long time advocate of promoting yourself through your writing. In other words, you should use some of those writing chops for you and not just for your clients. When I started blogging, I advocated article marketing as a promotional strategy, and while that still has its place, an even better way to showcase your writing talent is by guest blogging. I’ve been doing a lot more of it for two reasons.

1. Guest Blogging is Fun

I am interested in all kinds of things and sometimes I want to write about more than just writing or promotion or blogging. Sometimes I want to release my inner geek in my writing or explore an aspect of parenting. Or try to write about something I’m familiar with for a new audience. Guest blogging allows me to do that. Some of my recent guest posts and articles include:

• Getting Paid to Write – It’s More Than Just Writing
• Five Ways To Go Green In Everyday Life
• How to Plan A Green Vacation
• Twylah – Fan Pages For Your Twitter Stream
• How to Use Speech Recognition Software – 5 Tips for Writers
• 5 Things About Managing Money I Learned From My Mom

As you can see, I’ve written about a few topics I wouldn’t normally cover here.

2. Guest Blogging Enhances My Professional Reputation

I’m a professional writer and blogger. When my clients see my byline attached to posts on well respected blogs, that makes me look good. (And that’s part of the reason I put in my best effort to anything I write. Whether I get paid or not, I still have professional standards and the only person I hurt if I don’t live up to them is myself.) What’s more, there’s a bit of a numbers game, too. When I first got online, I got very excited the first time I did a vanity search in Google and got 100+ results; now those results are in the tens of thousands. If you’re hiring someone, won’t the person who seems to be everywhere at least make you take a second look? So even when I post good quality posts on sites that are still up and coming, I’m still getting some benefit.

3. More Guest Blogging Benefits

And there’s more. The more places I blog, the more I connect with other bloggers – and I have met some wonderful people through blogging. I love connecting with like minded people and get a lot of intellectual satisfaction and mental stimulation from the process (which is a boon for any writer.) Past experience also shows that just as I recommend the people I connect with to others who need professional writing, blogging and social media services, they also recommend me, so everybody wins.

Do you guest blog? If you do, and want to publish posts on writing, then check out our guest posting guidelines and send me your ideas.

Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

by Danielle McGaw

It seems like every site you join these days has a profile section that they want you to fill in.  And it can be tempting to skip it and just get down to business but your profile is the place that people go when they want to know more about you.  And if you are a freelance writer that wants people to contact you for work, you need to have that profile filled out!

It is easy to forget that clients often use search engines to find out more about you.  If you would like to have more private clients it can be helpful to have your name easily found on the search engines.  If they find nothing about you, they might assume that you have little to no experience and choose someone else for the job.  If you have control of the information about you that is available online, you can influence their opinion.

Where Should I Fill Out Profiles?

I’m sure you already belong to sites that ask you to fill out a profile so some of these should seem familiar to you:

• Twitter: Twitter doesn’t leave you a lot of room to fill out a profile but it allows you to do two things that you should be concentrating on. You should remember to fill in the url to the main site that you want to refer potential clients to and you should make use of the 160 characters that they provide you to tell people about yourself.  I can tell you that I rarely follow back if the profile is not filled out.  And if you are a writer that wants work, how will people know that unless you say so?
• Facebook:   Facebook allows you to choose what is public and not public.  You may choose to keep your profile private but you can include your website on your public profile.
• LinkedIn:  LinkedIn is very public so treat it as it is intended – a professional profile!  One of the best things you can do is completely fill out your Summary with a well thought out description of who you are and what you do.  Use keywords that you would like people to find you with.  And don’t forget to include specialties – these are like tags.
• YouTube:  Even if you don’t make videos yourself you can have a YouTube Channel to display your favourite videos.  On your YouTube Channel you can include a website, an About Me section, and a title.
• Google Profile: Google profiles leave you a lot of room to share information about yourself – perhaps more information than any of the other social networks.  You can have a long Introduction that includes clickable and dofollow links; you can also include a Link List (that is also dofollow).
• Forums:  Forums are a great place to leave a profile so be sure to fill it out.  You can also create a signature that is included in each post and will also be featured on your profile.   If you participate in niche specific forums that are about the type of writing you specialize in, your profile is especially important.
• Blogger Profile: On the Blogger blogging platform you can fill out your profile with all sorts of details, including links.  If you have Blogger blogs you can include this profile on each one.
• Article marketing sites like InfoBarrel and Bukisa: If you are a freelance writer you probably do at least some article marketing or you might write for residual income on sites; make the most of your profile.  Most sites will allow you to leave links, too, and some of them are dofollow links.
• Profile pages like About.me and MyOnePage.com: These pages are specifically for creating a profile page online.  You have space to write about yourself and space to leave links.

What Should I Avoid Putting on My Profile?

The key thing to remember about profiles is that they should always be professional.  They are not a place to rant and rave about your personal pet peeves or people you don`t like – unless that is a niche that you want to establish yourself as an expert in.  Ask yourself if you would provide the information on your profile in an interview.  If the answer is no, then don’t share it.

The other thing you should remember is that you need to be safe so don’t include the following:

• Phone numbers
• Address of your home
• Addresses of places you work
• Social insurance number/social security number

What Should I Include on My Profile?

Profiles are a great place to sell yourself and your services but you shouldn’t sound like you’re selling yourself.

“I’m the best writer and you’ll never be unsatisfied with my services!  Order today while I still have time!” – this sounds very sales pitchy.

Work on producing tight, focused text that is revealing, attractive, and gives the reader the impression that your goal is purely to help them.  Make them believe that it is to their benefit to hire you over someone else because of the special skills you offer or the in depth client service that they will receive from you.  After reading your profile they should believe that you are the only person that they could hire for the job because there is something special about you.

If you have a small profile space to utilize make sure that you use specific wording that is descriptive enough to pack a punch in the word/character constraints.  You need to get their attention fast and then have a place for them to go.

For example, on my Twitter profile it says, “My words are for hire but the attention to detail and my excellent communication skills are FREE with every order! ” and the link directly under that goes to my professional freelance writer site where they can view samples, see my resume, read testimonials, and contact me, of course.

When you have more room, like on LinkedIn or Google Profiles, it doesn’t give you free reign to babble on randomly about whatever you want.  You should still keep your focus and bring the client’s attention to the things that are most important – in other words, how they can benefit from using your services.

Start filling out your profiles more thoroughly and with more thought and you are likely to experience better results from your activities online.  Social media is only useful for helping you get more writing work if people are aware of the fact that you are a writer and can see the benefits of hiring you.  Other web presences, like forums and profile page, increase your credibility and give you the opportunity to control what people find when they search for you online.

So what are you waiting for!  Get those profiles filled out, writers!

Danielle McGaw is a freelance writer that has been obsessed with writing since she learned how to hold a pen.  She lives in a small town in Canada where she writes daily and goes for coffee a lot.  You can visit her on her blog, The Social Media Freelancer or visit her professional freelance writer site if you would like to contact her.

It’s time for another writing and blogging linkfest, just over four months after the last one (see, I’m getting better). Here are some of the posts I’ve saved and shared in the last few months.

Writing Business

• Are Your Friends Sabotaging Your Business? – Men with Pens
• Why I’ve Never Missed a Deadline–and How You Can do the Same – Dollars and Deadlines
• 8 things you should know when starting your freelance business – Guerilla Freelancing
• 15 Questions to Ask Before Collaborating – Freelance Folder
• How to Avoid Bullet-Hard Emails – Men with Pens
• RSI Injuries: What They Are and How to Avoid Them – Freelance Folder
• Ghostwriting vs. Byline: Pros and Cons – Beyond the Rhetoric
• 5 Common Ways Freelance Writers Get Scammed – Freelance Writing Jobs
• Am I Too Young To Get Published? – About Freelance Writing

Getting Paid

• Why Free Ultimately Pays Off – Freelance Folder
• How To Tell When Your Rates Are Too Low- Freelance Switch
• Writing for Peanuts Can Lead to Writing for Macadamia Nuts – The Freelance Writer’s Blog

Client Relations

• You Probably Already Do Know Your Very Next Client – Freelance Switch
• What to Do When Your Client Doesn’t Believe Michael Jackson is Dead – All Freelance Writing
• 7 Essential Red Flags to Watch Out for in New Clients – Web Designer Depot
• 5 Things You Never Want to Hear Your Client Say – FreelanceSwitch

Blogging

• 4 Ways to Find Good Writers for Your Blog – Tumblemoose
• Teach, or Your Blog Will Die – Problogger
• 5 Things Keeping Blog Readers Away – Kommein
• Everything You’ve Been Force-fed About Blogging Is Wrong – Ridiculously Extraordinary
• Why Bloggers Should Get Paid – Writing Thoughts

Social Media

• 7 Tips for Using Your LinkedIn Profile to Land Great Projects – Freelance Folder
• 7 LinkedIn Rules You May Not Know – Simply Stated Business

Promotion

• 6 Great Ways to Use Email Marketing to Find More Work – Freelance Folder
• Article Marketing for Authors: Gaining Exposure Without Losing Value – All Indie Publishing
• 7 Ways to Use Amazon to Create Online Visibility – Denise Wakeman
• There Are No Rules – Everyone Wants to “Help” Writers. But Whose Help Do You Really Need? – Writer’s Digest

Earlier this year, I changed the theme on my freelance writing portfolio site. It was part of giving the site – and my writing services – a more professional image. This week, I made another improvement, by hiring someone to upgrade my about page.

Sure, I could have written it myself. In fact, I have – several times – and it’s brought in some clients. But I wanted a completely new approach – and felt that I was too close to my own material to do it justice.  When I write for clients, I’m able to take a disinterested (in the original sense of the word) look at what they want to achieve, without getting bogged down in the emotional aspect of their business. That’s what helps me advise them on strategy and write great content. I wanted someone to do that for sharonhh.com – look at it with fresh eyes and give it some added pizzazz.

Of course, I didn’t choose just anyone. I picked Lea Woodward. Why?

• because she specializes in writing about pages. I’ve seen lots of examples of her work and thought they were excellent.
• because I’ve worked with Lea before on her Location Independent group of sites, so she knows my approach to work and the value that I offer from personal experience.

The process was simple. After completing the payment formalities, I filled out a form on Lea’s site, giving some basic info (there were a couple of unusual questions, but I won’t spoil the surprise). Lea had a look around my site, added the info from the form and provided a completely new about page in less than a week.

The Dot Net Connector Difference

So what’s different about it? The new about page:

• presents the basic information on my original about page in a new way, making it even more positive.
• adds some context to the things I do (like explaining ghostwriting and my interest in most topics).
• incorporates lots of testimonials – they have their own page, but they look great on the new page too.
• answers clients’ questions before they ask them (especially ‘how can I help you?’

A lot of that information is on the site already, but it wasn’t presented in this way – and the information from the form I filled in brought the page to life.  The beauty of this about page is that clients will find out all about me in a single place – they don’t even have to go to the testimonials or FAQ unless they really want to (though these are linked from the page, too).

Here’s part of the testimonial I gave Lea:

The final version melded it all together seamlessly, creating a compelling narrative of my professional life (with a couple of personal touches) that’s sure to appeal to my clients.

Colour me thrilled! What does your about page look like? Does it do you and your writing services justice?