VOLUME 24, ISSUE 5 – May 2025
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. Keep Prospects Coming Back
Go from digital brochure to resource site to land more clients.
II. The Power of “No”
Peter Bowerman: Let self-respect, NOT $ concerns, drive decisions.
III. What Does it Mean to “Know SEO?”
TN FLCW reflects on SEO and imposter syndrome.
IV. “All in. No Fear.” A Marketing Lesson from a Rock Star
CA FLCW shares a lesson learned after ditching Steve Perry.
I. Keep Prospects Coming Back
Go from digital brochure to resource site to land more clients.
You’ve built a professional website. Maybe it brings in search engine traffic. Hopefully it converts those visitors into paying clients.
But could your website work even harder for you?
It can if you turn your professional site into less of a digital brochure and more of a resource.
The Benefit of Building a Resource Site to Promote Your Services
The basic idea of inbound marketing is to attract prospects, then convert them into clients. Sometimes this happens right away. Sometimes it doesn’t.
Not everyone who lands on your professional site is ready to hire at that moment.
So the question becomes…
“Will those prospects come back?”
Making your website a resource gives them a reason to return. It keeps your name (or brand) fresh in their minds. It means when those prospects are ready to hire, they’ll think of you.
How to Make Your Professional Website a Profitable Resource
To turn your professional site into more of a resource, focus on your clients. Don’t solely promote yourself.
Answer common questions on a blog.
Release guides or e-books that teach prospects how to do something related to your work.
Offer professional insights into industry issues affecting your target clients (on the blog or in building an email list).
It all boils down to being a trusted source of information. When you provide resources prospects like and respect without every interaction being a hard sell, they’ll keep coming back.
When those prospects are ready to hire a pro, you’ll be top of mind.
II. The Power of “No”
Peter Bowerman: Let self-respect, NOT $ concerns, drive decisions.
Well-Fed Writer founder, Peter Bowerman, returns with his first guest contribution to the EPUB. He shares a story about identifying red flags in prospect interactions and the importance of knowing when to close a deal vs when to walk away.
Sometime back, a past client approached me about a client of hers who needed my back-cover copywriting service.
Things were a bit slow, so I welcomed the opportunity to make a few bucks doing something I enjoyed and was good at. But red flags abounded…
The title and subtitle were weak and confusing (and he wasn’t open to revising them). And after skimming the short manuscript, I honestly wasn’t really sure what the book was about. Ergo, I wasn’t at all sure I could capture the essence of the book.
Plus, he lived overseas, and wasn’t open to phone calls—only email. Can you say huge time suck?
A younger, hungrier me would have sucked it up and dove in. I truly enjoy book-titling / cover copywriting, and while retired from commercial writing, I welcome this kind of work.
But, I told my contact I had to pass. Her reply: She couldn’t blame me!
AND, a few days later, she pinged me with another potential project: I obviously didn’t ruin my chances with her by saying “no.”
No right or wrong answer in such situations, but learn to develop a sort of future sense—i.e., where you can imagine, given a project’s known circumstances, where it might end up. And if it’s not a very good place, don’t be afraid to say “no.”
III. What Does it Mean to “Know SEO?”
TN FLCW reflects on SEO and imposter syndrome.
After my April EPUB segment on why SEO doesn’t have to be scary for freelance writers, Dava Stewart shared a related story on LinkedIn. A potential client approached her asking if she “knows SEO.”
But what does that even mean?
I asked Dava to share her story with you as an example of why being asked about SEO shouldn’t feel intimidating, even if you’re not an SEO-focused writer.
Learn more about Dava Stewart at Smiling Tree Writing.
Last month’s issue opened with a short section about SEO, and how it’s not so scary. If you think that it is, actually, so scary, it’s possible you have a case of imposter syndrome.
When a client asks if I “know SEO” I always have a moment of panic. Do I know how to figure out what key words they need to target? Can I “get them on the first page of Google results?” Do they want me to create detailed reports showing how SEO has improved their website traffic?
Almost always, what they want to know is that I can use a list of key words they provide in the text of an assigned piece in a way that makes sense and reads well.
Yes! I can definitely do that, and so can most professional writers.
It’s interesting how often experts hesitate to claim their expertise. After years of earning a living as a content marketing writer, working with all kinds of clients who need to be findable on the internet, I have a massive amount of experience with using key words, and even a little bit with the more technical aspects of SEO.
IV. “All in. No Fear.” A Marketing Lesson from a Rock Star
>CA FLCW shares a lesson learned after ditching Steve Perry.
Before becoming frontman for Journey, Steve Perry was “just Steve” to Katherine Andes. She ditched her brother’s friend long before he was famous.
At a rock show.
After watching him fearlessly swan dive then disappear into the crowd.
She might have ditched Steve at the club (she was his ride). But he left her with an important lesson on putting yourself out there.
“Looking back on that night, I realize that Steve knew where he needed to be to get to the top. He needed to be a part of the rock music scene. He dove in. He was all in. No fear.
“Maybe we business types can learn from that. With respect to our internet marketing efforts, we should try to be a little more swan-divey, all in, with no fear.”
Where do you need to be to take your commercial writing career to the next level? Put yourself in the right places. Surround yourself with the right people. Take chances.
You might just become a rock star in your own right.
Read Kathy’s full post: The Night I Ditched Steve Perry
Do you have a FLCW success story or quick tip you’d like to share in a future newsletter? Email your story to epub@wellfedwriter.com and tell me about it (in fewer than 200 words), and it could be featured in the EPUB.
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