VOLUME 15, ISSUE 3 – MARCH 2016
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. APPETIZER: PROMO FOR WRITING WORKSHOP NEEDS WRITING WORKSHOP!
Another Confusing, Ineffective Promotion (& “The Curse of Knowledge” in Action!)
II. “FIELD” GREENS: SMART TIME-TRACKING MATTERS
MA Freelancer Recommends Getting Serious About Budgets and Invoicing
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: SEO—THE POINT OF THE WEB COPY SWORD
DC FLCW Uses SEO to Top Media Giant in Search Rankings for Football Team Blog!
IV. DESSERT: SWEET SUCCESS STORIES & TIPS
SC FLCW: “My first quote sucked. Here’s how I got more money anyway.”
TIP: GA FLCW Shares the Next Generation in Thesauri!
I. APPETIZER: PROMO FOR WRITING WORKSHOP NEEDS WRITING WORKSHOP!
Another Confusing, Ineffective Promotion (& “The Curse of Knowledge” in Action!)
Recently got an email promoting a live event that’s a good example, amongst other things, of “The Curse of Knowledge” in action (i.e., when YOU know what you mean, and assume others do as well, when there’s no logical reason for thinking that).
The email blast body copy read (in part):
Join (group name) for the first workshop of 2016, presented by (speaker name): Time to Work on Your Now and Write a Non-Fiction Book!
Then, below that was a “Get More Information” link.
I read the title twice, then emailed the sender, letting her know there was a problem with it. She thanked me, and, three days later, sent out the same blast with the same error. I sent another email, and she wrote back, letting me know that that was the title. I’d wondered if that might be the case (i.e., using “Now” as a noun), and if so, that’s, arguably, even worse. I wrote:
If you’re going to use some VERY non-traditional form of a word, you’d better set it off somehow (Working on your “Now”), so people know what you’re doing. I’d wager than 99% of people who read this will say, “Huh?” or think (as I did) that it was a typo. More importantly, what does that even mean? You don’t want to make people figure it out!
Acknowledging that she was no doubt tired of hearing from me, I also pointed out that at the “Get More Information” link, was this huge, solid block of copy that was ALL speaker bio, and zero additional information about the program itself!
How is anyone supposed to decide they want to attend, when they don’t know what IT is? When not only is the title confusing, but there’s no information on what it covers, who would benefit from it, or what they’ll get out of doing it?
Granted, the event’s publicity person is probably wearing a lot of hats. But still… Just know that there’s plenty of poor copywriting going on in the business world, too. Our skills are SO needed out there. On that upbeat note, let’s eat!
II. “FIELD” GREENS: SMART TIME-TRACKING MATTERS
MA Freelancer Recommends Getting Serious About Budgets and Invoicing
Strong project and business management skills may not be exactly sexy, but Ipswich, MA-based freelance writer Jamie Wallace knows they’re critical to a successful and sustainable freelance career. How well you manage budgets and time tracking makes a big difference when it comes to how much you’re actually earning per hour. Thanks, Jamie!
When I launched my freelance writing career, my time-tracking and invoicing “system” was an Excel spreadsheet and a sprawling collection of Word docs that lived in project and client folders all over my hard drive. Invoicing was a nightmare, and, worse, I had no way to reliably figure out how I was actually spending my time.
Sound familiar?
It took me a couple of years, but I finally got serious about these important business management tasks. I tried a bunch of software options, but eventually went with Harvest because it does everything I want it to without making me bust a brain cell. Harvest makes it easy to:
- Maintain a centralized, up-to-date client contact list
- Set up project budgets on a task-by-task basis
- Track your time by client, project, and task
- Generate, send, and manage invoice
- Run reports on invoices, revenue, and project burn rates
Now I easily stay on top of budgets, stop “scope-creep” before it starts (Harvest emails me budget alerts), and estimate new projects more accurately using my archive of project data.
And invoicing? It’s a snap. When it’s time to send a bill, the software creates a PDF and attaches it to the email. Done. I can also filter invoices in seconds to see what’s coming in, what’s been paid, and who needs to be sent a friendly reminder. It’s beautiful.
Harvest is not a free service, but it saves me lots of time, makes me look more professional, and gives me a critical reality check. I’m kind of in love with it.
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: SEO—THE POINT OF THE WEB COPY SWORD
DC FLCW Uses SEO to Top Media Giant in Search Rankings for Football Team Blog!
Fun, informative and instructive piece from Washington, D.C.-based FLCW Evan Redmon about the power and process of SEO. No question that SEO is a moving target these days, as the rules of the game (as dictated by Google!) can change quickly, but what isn’t in doubt is that, if done, well, can make a big difference.
In 2012, I became co-owner of a sports website. I’d create editorial content while Tony the tech guy, my business partner for two years until I left, handled the code. It turned out to be a good partnership.
When I first heard the term SEO, it sounded like an executive acronym—“Strategic Engineering Officer,” perhaps. That soon changed. During one of our many late night brainstorming sessions, Tony explained that if we wanted to increase our website hits, I had to “SEO the living crap out of my posts.”
He had a way with words, Tony did. So off into the deep end of the SEO waters I went. One problem: The website in question is dedicated to an immensely popular NFL franchise. It’s one of the league’s flagship organizations, and it utterly dominates a large market. The fan base is disturbingly passionate and located in one of the most educated areas in the entire country.
Every other fan had seemingly decided to write a blog about their beloved football team. The competition was fierce. The Internet was saturated with fan sites all vying for their share of an increasingly divided pie.
However, nearly all these sites shared two common vulnerabilities: the editorial content was mediocre and SEO seemed as foreign to them as it did to me. I decided I was going to become an SEO expert and use it to pound them into submission like an unblocked blitzer on the quarterback’s blind side.
Two things became immediately clear during my SEO research:
1) SEO is all about Google’s “search engine results page” (SERP). Bing and Yahoo’s SERP’s simply do not matter; and…
2) Google loves original, daily content. Skipping a day was done at significant peril.
I soon developed a complex yet potent SEO formula. The main thrust was simple: Write one piece of original content every day. Pick a keyword or key phrase that is either trending at the time, or relates to a popular player. Place that keyword early and often in every post; in the body, in headings, in ALT-tag descriptions for images.
Wherever that keyword could be placed without going overboard, that keyword found purchase in my writing.
Next step? Own our desired target search term. We wanted our website to have a page one Google SERP for “[TEAM NAME] blog.” When I took the site over, it had a page six SERP—a.k.a. The Dead Zone—for “[TEAM NAME] blog.” Nobody who’s searching makes it to page six.
Among other things, every single Meta description on every single post was stamped with “[TEAM NAME] blog” at the end.
In two months, our site had a page two SERP for “[TEAM NAME] blog.” In six months, we had surpassed ESPN’s blog about the team, as well as every single local media outlet. Only the two longest-existing blogs and the official team blog lay ahead of us.
ESPN and the biggest local paper noticed. They hired SEO specialists specifically to nudge us down, a fact I confirmed after speaking with beat reporters in those respective organizations. We had their undivided attention.
Eventually the site settled into sixth place overall. Victory: From page six to number six! We parlayed our SEO success into a sponsorship package with one of the primary sponsors of the team itself. We didn’t contact them, they contacted us.
Lesson? Content is king, and SEO is the king’s army.
IV. DESSERT: SWEET SUCCESS STORIES & TIPS
SC FLCW: “My first quote sucked. Here’s how I got more money anyway.”
TIP: GA FLCW Shares the Next Generation in Thesauri!
Cool success story from Charleston, SC-based Brittany Taylor— content creator and strategist at SeeBrittWrite. After that, Atlanta-based Montyne Morris shares the skinny on a thesaurus that does things a paper one can only dream of.
As contractors, we tend to bite the bullet when we under-charge. I always do, but this time, when a book I was editing for a content writing client turned out to be a way bigger project than I’d anticipated, I decided to see if I couldn’t get more (a LOT more— five times my original bid).
The revised proposal went like this: After reviewing the project in question, I could complete the quick proofread for the agreed-upon price in the next week or so. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t suggest a deeper edit that would result in a higher-quality product.
I went on to point out a few specific areas of the book that could benefit from a rewrite rather than just a proofread, proving that I’d given the topic some thought and demonstrating that there was, indeed, value to be gained by spending more. Then, I named my price and a suggested completion date.
And guess what? I got the bigger fee—and the project work that I really wanted to complete—no questions asked.
What would I do differently next time? Certainly, I’d be more thorough in my original pre-proposal groundwork and provide a better quote. But I’ll also be carrying this with me as a lesson: Even though a first quote seems final, it isn’t always.
Visual Thesaurus is one of my favorite tools. When the right word just won’t come, or I’ve used a word too often, or even when I’m not quite sure how to use it, it’s my first stop.
Instead of a static list of synonyms, my search results are displayed in an interactive word map. I can see the relationships between words, which terms have a similar meaning and can instantly choose words according to their functions (i.e., Do I need book the noun or book the verb?)
As I hover over the terms, I get meanings and usage tips, and when I click on a new word, the map reorients itself. So I can explore the nuances of each term and move closer to (or farther from) the word I started with. The word map also offers a pronunciation link and, when warranted, the antonym.
To the right of the color-coded, interactive map is a scrollable list of definitions, again by function, that often leads to the precise word I need. Several settings in the navigation bar let me customize my experience.
The Visual Thesaurus is subscription based (~$20/year), but I’ve bookmarked the link and typically use it multiple times a day. Like so many things—our brains, our cell phones, and Microsoft Word—I use only a sliver what’s available, mostly the word maps, word-of-the-day emails, and occasionally, the spelling bee. There’s a lot here!
If you love working and playing with words, grab the 14-day free trial.