Write for the Web: Earn While You Learn

Posted on March 7, 2011 by angela

One of the big benefits of writing for the Web is that you can earn while you learn.

In this post, Writing for Fun and Money: Make Your Creativity Pay | Writing Hacker by Angela Booth I said:

“Instant Money? Earn While You Learn

Because the web is so new, and the demand for content is so great, even new writers can make a great income. This means that you’re earning while you’re learning.

However do realize that you need to continue to learn — the more you know, the more money you can make. Constant learning will enhance your creativity.”

There’s a huge demand for writers on the Web. All you need to do is show up. Remember however, that learning is essential. Things change quickly on the Web. For example, if you’ve been writing for content farms, you know that the rules have recently changed, and this places your income in danger.

Keep learning.

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Copywriting Power: Say It in a Sentence

Posted on December 2, 2010 by angela

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Writing a sales letter? Great. Before you start however, write your sales message in one sentence. That single act will results in more sales for your client, or for you, if you’re writing your own copy.

Over the years, I’ve coached many business people and writers in copywriting. Here’s my best advice to them, and to you: “You don’t have to write amazing copy. You just need to be clear.” If you confuse the reader (or listener or viewer), you’re done. Confused customers don’t buy.

Of course, it’s a challenge to write your message in a sentence. You’ll need to think about exactly what you’re offering, exactly who it’s for, and exactly what the product will do for them… AND you need to address their primary concerns.

Here’s the payoff if you take ten minutes to do this: your sales copy will be clear, logical, and easily understood.

Using this simple technique, you can double the results you get from any copy.

Here’s how to do it.

Start by asking yourself these questions.

WHO? Who Does the Product You’re Selling Help?

The more narrowly you can define your audience, the more effective your copy will be.

Here are a couple of examples to start you thinking.

* “This product helps home owners in ________ (area) to avoid foreclosure.”

* “This product helps women 50 and over to prevent osteoporosis.”

HOW? How Does Your Product Help Them?

Again, ask yourself some questions. Express the primary benefit as clearly as you can.

Finally, you need to address the prospective buyer’s worst-case scenario.

In the case of our foreclosure example, the worst-case scenario might be that your prospect has tried everything he and his advisers can think of, and nothing has worked.

In the osteoporosis example, perhaps the prospect already has the early warning signs of osteoporosis.

Now that you understand exactly what you’re offering, put it into a sentence.

Don’t stop there. Try out the sentence on others. If they can understand what you’re selling, your buyers will too — and you’ll make sales.

By the way, this simple process will help you in all forms of copywriting, even if you’ve never tried to write copy before.

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I’ve just updated this blog to use the awesome TwentyTen theme. After wrestling with some commercial themes, it’s a breath of fresh air. I like the Asides too… now I’m going to relax and read Insurrection for half an hour… I’ve earned it :-) .

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Posted on November 29, 2010 by angela | Leave a comment

Copywriting Productivity – Get More Done, Make Money

Posted on September 9, 2010 by angela

If you’re a freelance copywriter, your income depends on your productivity. Over the past few years, David Allen’s “getting things done” strategy has become highly popular, and I commend it to you. But whether you follow that methodology or not, here are three tips which will help you to get more done, and make more money.

I’ve been a copywriter for some 30 years, and I’ve found that when I’m paying attention to productivity strategies I get much more done, and my income goes up.

Here are some tips to help you to increase your productivity and make more money from your copywriting.

1. Your Values Provide Motivational Fuel for Your Life

What are your values? If you’ve never thought about your values, take the time to think about them for a moment.

Common values include: freedom, compassion, kindness, generosity, responsibility, and self-awareness. There’s no right or wrong involved with your values. They are what they are.

Make a list of three of your values. For example, my own values include industry, kindness, and patience. I may not always live up to those values, but I try to.

So how do your values help you to become a more productive copywriter? My values help me to be industrious so that I don’t waste time, and I aim to be gentle both with myself and with others. Having patience as a value is very useful too, because I don’t get upset if my first drafts are less than perfect.

2. First Come, First Done: Your Clients Come First Each Day

You’ll get more done and you’ll make more money if you put your clients first each day. TThis means that you do your clients’ work before you do anything else.

If you’re not yet a full-time copywriter, you’ll do your clients’ work before you leave to go to your day job. If you’re working at copywriting full-time, you do your clients work immediately you turn on your computer in the morning, and you focus on that first.

3. Base Your Marketing on Your Values and Get It Done

Many copywriters dislike and avoid marketing chores because they don’t see the results immediately. Marketing usually takes time to become effective, especially if you’re a new copywriter and you’re starting from zero. This lack of immediate gratification convinces some writers that marketing is a distasteful chore.

There’s a simple way around this. Base your marketing on your values. Since your marketing must get done, when you base it on your values and connect it to what’s most important to you in your life, you’ll be much more motivated to do it.

For example, my values of industry, kindness, and patience help me to be a more effective marketer, both for myself, and for my clients.

So there you have three tips which will help you to become a more productive copywriter. Apply them, and they’ll increase your profits.

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As a copywriter, you write sales material for all forms of media – print, the Web, TV, radio and video scripts… It’s a highly lucrative form of writing and it’s FUN. I’ve been writing copy for almost 30 years, and for me, it’s a form of relaxation.

If you’ve thought about copywriting and didn’t know where to start, my new package “Copywriting Supremo: A Complete Copywriting Package – Write for All Forms of Media, and Make Money Fast” shows you how.

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Ebook Formats – More Value Leads to Bigger Profits

Posted on September 9, 2010 by angela

Want to sell more copies of your ebook? Of course you do. You can sell more when you add value by offering your information products in additional formats, like audio and video.

Few people enjoy reading on their computer screen, so while ebooks in PDF format sell well, and will continue to do so, more people are reading PDFs on their mobile devices. My computer’s packed with PDFs, and I get much more value from them now that I can read them on my iPad.

Here are some format ideas.

1. Offer Your Ebook in Audio Format

Most computers these days are equipped with microphones. All you need to record audio is a software program like Audacity, which is free, and cross-platform. Just read your ebook aloud and convert the resulting audio file to MP3 format.

2. Create Your Information Product in Video Format

Video is a powerful format which buyers love. For example, if you’re offering an information product with recipes, you can offer videos of someone cooking those recipes. This adds to the perceived value of the product and also makes it more useful to your buyers.

Of course, you can also offer a simpler form of video like a screencast presentation. You can go through exactly the same material which you cover in the PDF version of your ebook during your presentation.

3. Consider Kindle Format

Amazon’s Kindle e-reader is becoming hugely popular on mobile devices. Not only can you read an ebook in Kindle format on the Kindle itself, you can also read it on other mobile devices like the iPhone and the iPad.

Amazon makes it very easy to create products for the Kindle. Just follow the instructions on the site.

So there you have it. You can add value to your ebooks, and increase your profits, when you offer your buyers additional formats.

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Are you make as much money as you could be making? Chances are that you’re not. There’s no shame in this. Writers often struggle to find their own special niche.

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Enjoy. :-)

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Writing for the Web: Be Creative With Useful and Unique Content

Posted on June 30, 2010 by angela

If you’re writing for the web, you’ve got lots of competition. It’s a challenge to stand out. However, if you ensure that your content is both useful and unique, you will stand out, and the content you write will get traffic.

Content is king. Good content is what makes or breaks your blog or website. Good content will get visitors and subscribers, bad content or content that is exactly the same as everyone else’s will drive people away. What people want to see is that your content is useful and unique.

Ensure That Your Content Is Useful

Ask yourself what would be useful for the reader.

Let’s say you have been assigned to write about home automation for a home improvement store. Ask yourself what the store’s customers want to know. Do they want to know what types of home automation there are? Do they want to know how to install it? Do they want to know how to upgrade it? Do they want to know how home automation can cut their utility bills? Answer questions like these for your particular audience.

Depending on the assignment useful content can also mean that it is newsworthy, informative or just plain entertaining. How often do you click on a link or continue reading beyond a headline just because it sounds like it goes someplace fun or because it promises to tell you an interesting fact?

Promise to entertain and/ or be useful and your readers will follow you anywhere. Just be sure to leave out the flowery language and run-on sentences. When writing for the web to be useful is to be short and sweet.

Ensure That Your Content Is Unique

Your content is unique because YOU wrote it. No two people will write the same thing the same way.

For example, if you are young housewife assigned to write those home automation articles above, why not write the articles from your own experience. Write as if you are a young housewife who has managed to cut her utilities by having that home automation gizmo installed.

Pretend you are telling a friend about it and write it in the same conversational way. Of course, you’ll use all the technical specifications the client wants (perhaps in a sidebar article or chart) but you can present it in a way that will entertain the reader and keep him or her coming back to the site.

Being unique — in other words, being yourself — is critically important.

Most writers know that it is vital that your work is original and not copied from anyone else. Plagiarism is unethical and when it is discovered, it tends to cast a long shadow over the writer’s entire work. You may well get sued.

By using your own experiences, you can present useful information in an entirely new way.

Keep this in mind when writing for the web or anywhere else. Your clients will love how you keep their visitors coming back for more, thus improving their bottom line, and yours.

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SYWON190x85

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* and much, much more.

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Professional Writing Style Tips

Posted on June 27, 2010 by angela

A professional writing style requires language skills, and these will develop as you write more. Eventually you’ll be able to write in many different styles and tones, choosing the right combination for your audience.

Here are some useful tips.

1. Use active voice rather than passive in business and other writing. For example: “Pete wrote the memo”, rather than “The memo was written by Pete”.

Active voice is preferred in business writing because it is more direct. However, there will be times you’ll use passive voice, especially in more formal writing: just be aware of your reasons for doing so.

2. Use nouns as nouns. Do not turn them into verbs. For example, don’t say, Our policies “incent” our staff to work harder. There are many online examples that use such made-up verbs, but don’t do it. Your work will stand out for its clarity.

3. Cut extra words. For example: “The human resources staff affected the implementation of the new procedures at this point in time”. Trim: “The human resources staff implemented the new procedures.”

4. Eliminate the buzzwords and jargon if you’re writing for a general audience.

5. Ensure that you use unfamiliar words correctly. I once had a manager who said, “We must address this with some prevalence”.

6. Check your facts and figures. If you use someone’s name and title, be sure it is spelled and used correctly throughout. Double-check your facts throughout the work. Even one small error creates doubt about the quality of the rest of your work.

7. Use the right tone for a specific piece. Your tone will depend on your audience, and the results you want.

8. Use lists and bullets points. They’re especially effective in Web writing.

9. Make sure everything matches: If you have graphics that are designated Fig. A, and Fig. B, don’t refer to them in the text as Picture 1, and Picture 2.

10. Clearly identify your sources. No matter how trivial you think the information is, cite the source.

11. Write to the project’s specification. When you get a writing assignment, be sure the details of the project are clearly spelled out. Write exactly to those details. If you have a question, ask the client by all means, but don’t make an assumption. By writing to specification, your professional writing clients will be happy to refer you to others.

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Writing Services Key: Offer the Services Desperate Buyers Want Now

Posted on June 25, 2010 by angela

If you are starting a web writing career, you’re bewildered by all the writing services you could offer. How do you choose the right ones so you’re flooded with eager clients?

Many writers don’t choose their writing services at all: They simply fall into a writing job and take on similar jobs as they come their way. While this isn’t bad, you may soon find yourself caught in a trap: You may become so entrenched in one form of writing or one subject that you don’t have the time or energy to consider better paying markets.

For example, you might take one of those $1-per-article gigs just to get your feet wet and build your portfolio. You decide you enjoy writing articles but get so wrapped up trying crank them out that you don’t get a chance to look for better paying work.

There is a better way: Before you plunge into your next assignment, stop. Take a day to explore other opportunities. Type “writing services” into your favorite search engine and see what comes up. There’s a whole world of opportunity for you.

It’s perfectly OK to look at other writers’ web sites to see what services they offer. Consider whether you could do what they do.

In addition to articles (you can — and should — look for better paying article writing gigs), you can write ebooks (which can simply be a series of articles compiled into book form), newsletters, academic papers, grant proposals, resumes, product descriptions and reviews etc. Which of these most appeal to you? Which do you think you could do without too much of a learning curve?

Look for the websites of those who offer these writing services. Do they post their rates? Read their samples. Could you do the same type of work (or even better work)? Does there seem to be a need for the service they offer — a need you could help fill?

Be sure to also consider your expertise. If you’ve been involved in the real estate market, for example, perhaps you can specialize in writing services for that market. By setting yourself up as a real estate expert, you can command higher rates. Don’t worry, you don’t have to have a real estate license (though it would help), just be able to show a potential client that you understand the industry.

If you don’t have the experience, don’t despair: With a little study you can still find an area in which to specialize.

Think of subjects that interest you and search online for opportunities. For example, if you happen to love weddings, search for “wedding writer” online. You may be surprised to find there are plenty of writing services you can offer: from customized vows to descriptions of wedding products to blogging about all things bridal.

One article is not enough to completely detail all the writing services you can offer. And there is no one right answer for everyone. But by taking the time to do some research, you will be able to determine which opportunities best meet your skills and interests.

Become a Copywriting Master Fast

Copywriting is writing for business: promotional writing. Copywriters write material like advertisements and compared to most writers, they’re VERY highly paid.

The explosion of the influence of the Web means that copywriters are flooded with offers of work. Even new copywriters find it easy to get copywriting gigs and to build their copywriting services business.

If copywriting intrigues you, join me in my Copywriting Master Class. I’ll take you from copywriting novice to pro.

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Writers’ Websites: How to Find Your Way Through the Writing Maze

Posted on June 24, 2010 by angela

If you’re a writer, it’s a given that there are several things you need. One important thing is a writers’ Web site. There are many different types, however, so here’s a guide to help you to find your way through the maze.

1. Your own writers’ Web site

Your own site is a major priority. It’s your home on the Web, and it establishes your credibility in the online world. How can you claim to write effectively for the Web if you don’t have your own online presence? It’s fairly easy to create your own Web site but be sure to include the essential information: Sample content, testimonials, a page about your background and, of course, how to contact you.

There is some debate about whether your writing fees should be listed at a writer’s own Web site. Including them makes it easier for the client to decide whether he or she can afford your services. Not including them gives you more wiggle room when seeking clients — theoretically. It’s only a theory, because you can always negotiate.

2. Writing job boards

This type of writers’ Web site allows you to bid on jobs posted by others. These job boards are great for breaking into Web writing, or for trying something new. For instance if you’ve been writing articles but want to try writing ebooks or sales letters, bid on a job and see what happens. However, the best advice is to move away from these boards once you get some experience because bidding tends to keep the pay low.

3. Content mills

While a rather unsavory term, content mills are another easy way to break into Web writing. There are many of these writers Web sites which collect articles to be used on other Web sites. Writers approved to write for the particular mill simply claim the title, write the article to meet the specifications and turn it in. These sites are great for those writers who have weaker marketing skills. The pay may be a little bit higher than those found on the job bidding sites but still on the low side. It pays to compare the content mills, however, they are similar but each one has its own little quirks.

4. Web sites by and for writers

Face it, most of us Web writers do so from the comfort of our own home. While it is nice to work while wearing bunny slippers, it can be a little lonely. Plus Web writing is still in its infancy, comparatively speaking, so it can be difficult to build a career without some guidance. Look for writers’ Web sites that offer guidance as to legal and financial matters, problem clients and writing help. Some of the best writers’ Web sites regularly compile job postings, too.

5. Internet marketing sites

A large part of Web writing is geared toward article marketing. There are many forums which allow writers to post classified ads promoting their services.

Visit several forums and take a look at what other writers are charging for their work. Are your rates within the same ball park? Try posting your own ad and see what happens. The beauty of posting your own ad on one of these message boards is that you can specifically request testimonials in exchange for a lower-than-usual price. Those testimonials are gold in terms of getting referrals for future jobs.

Bet you just thought about a writers’ Web site in reference to your own page, didn’t you? Use each of these types regularly and often and watch your career blossom.

Develop a great income writing for the Web – start by writing simple articles

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After several years of trial and error, these days I create blogs which I know will make money: I’ve cracked the code. Not only do my blogs make money almost immediately, they’ll also keep on making money for years to come.

If you wish, you can join me on the blogging journey. I hope you do. As the Internet grows ever larger, there are endless opportunities which can turn you into a lazy, rich blogger.

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Writing for the Web: the 3-Minute Guide to Effective Web Writing

Posted on June 23, 2010 by angela

Many people talk about web writing as if it is a mysterious skill that only a select few can master. Actually if you can write a basic sentence, you can master web writing. Keep reading to find out more.

The main thing to remember with web writing is that people use the web to find information. They do not generally use it to read an intricate mystery novel. They want to find readily understandable information quickly and move on. Your job is to get and keep their attention by providing that information.
When you are web writing keep these principles in mind.

1. Remember keywords. Keywords are important so that readers and search engines can determine exactly what your web content is about. When writing for the web determine your subject matter and then use a keyword tool to determine which keywords would gain the most attention for it.

2. Always use active voice that is noun followed by verb. Sue answered the phone. Not, the phone was answered by Sue. Active voice is much clearer.

3. Use short, clear headings. Headings get the reader’s attention and show them exactly what information you will provide in the following section.

4. Use lists whenever you can. Lists are easy to read and provide a lot of information quickly.

5. Use links. The beauty of the web the ability to quickly link to other information. So be sure to provide links to other pages on the website.

6. Write the way you speak: Skip the $10 words and convoluted sentence structure. This isn’t Mrs. Grundy’s English class in which you have to worry about gerunds and present participles. When you write something, read it over. Does it sound like the way you speak?

7. Always proofread your work and have someone else proofread it too. You will likely be able to correct a lot of mistakes yourself but a second set of eyes is essential. A writer is blinded by his or her own copy because he or she knows what he or she meant to say. He or she may not be able to tell if he or she actually said it.

8. Be accurate. Don’t leave out essential information in your web writing copy. Don’t falsify information and give appropriate credit for information you quoted from another source.

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There’s great money in Web writing. Some Web writers are making $20,000 a month by blogging for a stable of sites. Others are writing articles or ebooks.

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