Shawn J. Taylor is an expert when it comes to internet marketing strategies. To learn how you can generate 50 or more leads a day, visit this website.
Do You Want The Top Google Rankings For Networking Business? Learn The Top 5 Internet Marketing Strategies
December 6, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
We didn’t have the internet years ago. Network Marketers used the dreaded friends and family list. After exhausting our warm market, we had no choice but to purchase advertising materials like postcards, mailing lists, and classified ads. I spent over $10,000 on advertising. Not everyone could afford doing that With a click of a mouse you can connect with thousands of people. The internet has changed our behavior on how we access information and advertise.After careful research and due diligence, I was able to learn internet marketing strategies that allowed me to generate my own leads online for little or no money.What I’m going to reveal to you is the top 5 marketing strategies that has really propelled momentum in my business. Don’t be fooled, there is a learning curve to these strategies. Don’t expect receiving thousand of leads overnight. However, after applying these strategies on a consistent basis, I have generated a consistent lead flow of hungry prospects that are ready and willing to join my business.The search engines and social networking sites are effective ways to reach huge amount of people. Go to Alexa.com to learn the top internet traffic sites.1. The fastest way to reach potential prospects is Google and Yahoo Pay-Per-Click. You will find Pay-Per-Click Ads listed on the right-hand side of Google searches. Pay-Per-Click can range anywhere from $0.05 to $10.00 per click. The cost depends on the competition for the keywords you want to target. A personal friend of mine generates 90 to 100 leads a day using Pay-Per-Click. Unless you can cover your costs, I wouldn’t spend more than an average of $0.30 per click. You can really lose your shirt fast if you do not know what your doing.2. Twitter, Facebook, Linkin, and Myspace has really helped people all over the world build relationships and make friends. What I like about Facebook in that you can enter someone’s email to see if this person is listed. I use Facebook to connect with my Google Pay-Per-Click leads. How cool is that? All these social networking sites are free. Become a member with one or two of these sites is easy. You need to take advantage of them.3. Article Marketing is my recent adventure into online marketing. Article marketing will allow you to reach the top of search engines. What I really like about article marketing is that it’s free and you articles stay on the internet forever. I’m still getting leads from old published articles.4. Have you heard of Youtube? Video marketing has really taken over the internet now that we can upload large amounts of data in a short period of time. I remember when I had dial-up internet access. Talk about a slow crawling dinosaur! It would take my computer forever to upload pictures. Video marketing will really help your article standout. People like to information that they can read and watch. A perfect marketing marriage!5. After your prospects find your articles, videos, and Pay-Per-Click ads, they will want to find out who you are. Remember, people join network marketing companies based on who sponsors them. Blogging is the best form of You Marketing. Let people find you. You really can load a person up with information using a blog. For the cost of a cup of coffee, you can have a Wordpress blog up today.If money is an issue, start with the free stuff like social networking sites, videos, etc. The fastest way to gain internet exposure is to use all five strategies. Focus on the free sites while learning Pay-Per-Click.Find you niche! Some people love blogging while other like article marketing. Use your niche to your marketing advantage.One last thought about internet marketing etiquette: please use judgment, common sense, and above all, be honest. Here’s a hint: would you want your mother to see or read what you posted? Also do not trick people into clicking onto site by advertising something else. This form of advertising is unethical and should never be practiced. Job posting are a perfect example. People on the Job Posting sites are looking for a job; not your network marketing business.These 5 marketing strategies will really create the exposure you need to set yourself up for network marketing success. I wish you the best on your internet marketing endeavors.
Money From Home How To Find A Good Copywriter For Your Articles
November 21, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
There are many different job sites, chat rooms, and websites that many great writers and others frequent who are looking for freelance work. With the current economic downturn and literally everyone scraping around for work wherever they can, many individual home based business owners are faced with the problem of where and how to find a good copywriter for your articles?
The Basics: Home based business is nothing new but copywriting for the World Wide Web is something of a recent phenomenon. Many people are plucking their way to a steady paycheck by working for a number of different websites and such. So how do you make your site seem attractive enough to allure these copywriters away from whatever other task they’ve been doing to join you? While it may sound simple enough, getting the right copywriter for your articles can be more challenging than it looks.
Make Yourself Known: One of the first things you need to do to attract top talent is make yourself known to the world at large. If the best people are out of work and are looking for work but they don’t know who you are, then that’s a problem! However if you are doing an effective job advertising yourself and your business, then the copywriters should be knocking on your door, seeking you out to get the work for themselves!
Network: One other way you can find a good copywriter for your articles is by networking with copywriters whose work you admire. If you are trolling about the internet and you discover writing on a website that speaks to you, the text had to come from somewhere. Almost every website has “contact” information for the end creator or host or what have you. In this way it’s very easy for you to make your case known and see if you can get contact info for the copywriter. Every writer likes to believe that someone, somewhere is reading their work; networking with a website whose copy you admire can only endear yourself to the writer that much more.
Advertise: Most important is for you to know where the copywriters linger looking for work. This integrates both of the other categories in that you need to make yourself known and you need to seek out the good writers you’d like to be copywriters for your articles. Once you have done this you can make money from home and keep copywriters employed and happy and loving you because your work will remain quality and constant. Two things for the online copywriter which are illusive and strange and ethereal. However once you have endeared yourself to an online copywriter who is good with a regular paycheck and consistent work, they will seek you out on into the future. Learn Affiliate Marketing for Free! Sign Up Here for FREE at Duttmarketing.
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Perks And Drawbacks Of Becoming A Freelance Copywriter
November 21, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Every action has a corresponding reaction, as they say. The end result may be dependent on how you acted on a particular situation. Although, there are situations where end results are uncontrollable due to some factors.
The perks and drawbacks of working as a freelance copywriter will most likely depend on how you manage every situation. Some can well be managed within your reach while there will always be situations wherein you will have no control over.
1. It’s all about time.
Most copywriters tend to go freelance because of the issue about time. Freelancers are their own time-keepers, the best advantage they have over the ones tied inside a cubicle working eight hours a day or doing overtime even during weekends or holidays. Freelance copywriters can accept or reject work based on their availability.
Time, can also be a disadvantage for freelance copywriters. Although they work on their own pace, in their own working environment, deadlines are still deadlines. Your clients will be strict with cut-off date for the materials you need to submit.
2. Projects are low-profile.
Advertising is a tough business. Competition is rough. Due to this notion, most well-known companies go for an established ad agency to do copywriting work for them. Some have their own advertising department in their company.
Commonly, freelance copywriters are hired by budding companies or novice entrepreneurs to promote their products. This is done since most freelance copywriters have fees which is likely affordable especially to those that are just starting business.
Another factor which contributes to freelance copywriters who have low-profile projects are having less contacts to the “right people” which can give them the good break they deserve. Hence, networking is very essential if you wish to go freelance. The “right” kind of people will bring you to the ladder of success you dream of stepping into.
Begin networking with your friends, your friends’ friends and so on. It would be best if you could distribute calling cards, leaflets or brochures letting people know that you exist and that you are good. It will be better to show them what you got after you grabbed their attention. You need to sell yourself first, before writing to sell.
3. Pay can be good or bad.
It can be an advantage to you if you are receiving a fair pay as a freelance copywriter. You will most likely receive good pay if you have good projects and worked well on those projects and if you have more projects coming.
You may find yourself in debt if projects just come every full moon. A copywriting expert once advised that for you to have a smooth-flowing income, you need to obtain projects when you are busy. From those prospective projects, select a project which you can finish on the set deadline so that after you are done with the present project you are working then you have another one to work into.
Time, the type of project and pay can have its perks and disadvantages if you choose to become a freelance copywriter. Benefits will flow to your side if you know how to deal with every situation that you may be faced in. You will encounter drawbacks if you have gone astray with your work and your attitude.
Being a freelance copywriter is not an easy job, it requires more of you. You need to give not only your ideas but your heart as well.
Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information on copywriting or becoming a copywriter checkout his recommended websites.
How to Sell More Affiliate Products by Using Social Networking Sites for your Home Based Affiliate Marketing Business
November 20, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Now, I am going to give you one of the most significant affiliate marketing strategies to help you sell more affiliate products online. You’ll discover one of the best affiliate marketing strategies you must consider if you are truly serious about selling more affiliate products.
The home based affiliate marketing business is a very wide term which can be used to encompass a variety of best affiliate marketing strategies which are used online. Banner advertisements, website promotion, search engine optimization, email marketing and affiliate marketing all fall under the umbrella of the term home based affiliate marketing business but there is even more to home based affiliate marketing business than those concepts. Promoting your website or business on social networking sites can also be considered to be home based affiliate marketing business. In fact this is one of the simplest and least expensive home based affiliate marketing business options available. Also, advertising your home based affiliate marketing business is one of the best affiliate marketing strategies on the internet right now.
This article will examine how savvy business owners can use Internet social networking sites – one of the best affiliate marketing strategies and fastest growing on the internet right now – wisely. It will also explain how social networking sites can be misused and rendered ineffective as well.
Social networking sites are essentially online meeting places. In general most social networking sites are focused on a particular niche subject and encourage those who share an interest in this particular subject to get together to discuss relevant issues, ask questions, provide advice and even just socialize. Social networking sites can focus on any subject imaginable they may focus on a particular baseball team or just the sport of baseball in general. Social networking sites can focus on subjects such as politics, television shows, bands, current events, jobs, hobbies or any subject imaginable. Savvy Affiliate marketers can take advantage of these social networking sites to reach a target audience without investing a great deal of money.
Consider a home based affiliate marketing business in which the focus of the home based affiliate marketing business is to assist people in finding jobs which offer telecommute options. The concept of working from home is becoming increasingly popular and there are many websites which focus on this subject. Likewise there are also many social networking sites devoted to the topic of working from home. Here those with an interest in the subject meet to discuss issues such as finding employment where working from home is an option, working around the schedule of your children, setting up a home office, dealing with friends or family members who don’t respect your working hours and paying taxes on freelance assignments. A home based affiliate marketing business owner who actively participates in this social networking site can take the home based affiliate marketing business opportunity to post a link to his website when it is relevant and offers something of value to the conversation. This is worthwhile because the social networking site features a high concentration of your target audience members.
When using social networking sites to promote your home based affiliate marketing business, it is important to ensure you are following the rules associated with the social networking sites. Social networking sites may have restrictions regarding the posting of links and failure to abide by these restrictions may result in you being banned from the social networking site. For this reason it is important for anyone who is interested in using social networking sites for promotion of their home based affiliate marketing business to carefully read the user agreement to ensure they are not violating any of the rules. It is also important to simply use common sense when promoting your business on a social networking site. Just because the rules do not restrict posting links, does not mean you should spam the board with your link. Take care to only include y our link when it is relevant. This will prevent social networking site users from assuming your link is just worthless spam.
My investigations show that social networking sites are the most popular and hottest issues on the internet right now. Most of affiliate entrepreneurs try to advertise their home based affiliate marketing business on Web2.0, social networking sites and other well-known forums. I highly encourage you to start advertising your home based affiliate marketing business today.
Final thoughts, when you are using social networking sites to promote your business, it is important to be courteous to other social networking site users and to keep all posts professional. This is important because you and your business are much more likely to be taken seriously if you act professionally and responsibly. You should maintain this degree of professionalism even in posts, which do not include your home based affiliate marketing business link. This is important because other social networking site participants will remember you by your user name and will not be likely to take you seriously if you have previously made posts which were offensive, mean spirited or inaccurate. For this reason it is important to act as a representative from your company at all times. Learn More about Affiliate Marketing to run your own million home based affiliate business with brand new affiliate marketing ebook named “Who Loves Money”. This ebook can be top affiliate marketing ebook in 2007. You’ll discover brand new tips, techniques and secrets of how to run a million home based affiliate business and earn top affiliate commission. You can’t find those zero & low investment tips anywhere else on the internet right now! I strongly believe that “Who Loves Money” ebook will be beneficial to you and your home based affiliate business. It will explode your home based affiliate business by zero & low investment internet marketing techniques within the first six month!Watch Ewen Chia’s new brand video sets to discover top inside tips, techniques and secrets of how to make money over $100,000 within 7 days through your home base internet business affiliate marketing. You’ll learn top inside secrets and techniques step-by-step to achieve your goals in affiliate marketing business. Also, you’ll save your time & money for your home base internet business affiliate marketing! Get free report now to learn more about how to maximize your profits online through Pay-Per-Click online advertising and affiliate marketing. You’ll discover great tips, workable strategies, and inside secrets of how to drive more traffic and turn the visitor into the customer. Also, you’ll save your time for learning how to build highly profitable pay-per-click advertising online campaigns.
*Reprint Policy: Reprint in full with writer’s name, contact information, active links and brief bio.
Siripong R. or zMillionDollars is a recognized authority on the subject of making money online from home through highly profitable & successful home based business. His websites, www.iPayByClick.com and www.zMillionDollars.com, provide a wealth of informative articles and resources on everything you’ll ever need to know about earning money online.
Social Media Optimization- Primary Strategy for Online Marketing
November 20, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
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Now-a-days Social Media Optimization is becoming a primary strategy for online marketing to promote websites. The increased involvement of Social Network sites, social forums, Social Book-marking sites and blogs in the last few years had increased the need of SMO. The main idea behind SMO is to optimize a site in a way that it will easily be connected and become visible to online websites and social communities.
Through the networking among the social sites will give your website great publicity. Social Media Optimization should be started with the correct analysis of the targeted viewers, plan for the whole SMO process and keyword study. SMO helps in increasing the traffic as people share their opinions and experiences with each other in the form of Blogs, images, audio and video and text links. The customer interacts with the content of your site through blogs, RSS feeds, tagging and Video or images.
Digg, twitter, Stumbleupon are some sites which can be proven as good way to start up with your social media optimization. Online group discussions, blogs and forums, and open chats can also make your site famous among social media. Social Media Optimization includes different techniques like:
- Submitting videos, photos and PPT to different social media sites. This will help in increasing traffic to your site. Flickr.com is the best way to add images from your websites and then linking them to other pages.
- Create RSS feeds and then submit them. It is another easy yet important way. Feedburner.com gives a way to RSS feed to your blog as Google Blog search use RSS feeds to index blogs.
- Create a blog that will simply display the content of your site. This will help the customer to easily understanding the services provided by you. It is a easy way to handle daily record.
- Forums should me made as the visitors can discuss and leave their comments on the product and services provided by you. It will help in getting traffic and by the time understanding the customer’s need.
Christina George is a successful search engine optimizer and internet marketer in Seo expertz. seoexpertz is an India based Online Marketing Company. Visit us at http://www.seoexpertz.com/smo_services.html for creative and effective business solutions in search engine marketing and search engine optimization to businesses looking for a way to improve business efforts on the Web.
Blogs and Social Media: Moving From Monitoring to Networking
November 19, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
In recent years, blogs and social media monitoring have become a fundamental part of the press office operation and many PR agencies’ bread and butter services. As social networking has matured, companies need to engage proactively to ensure their brands are effectively supported.Traditional media such as magazines, newspapers and TV channels have increasing numbers of journalist-written blogs as part of their online presence, meaning a top tier of blogs are seen as being just as influential in the media landscape as their e-zines and print media counterparts. There has also been an increase in the number of business-led social networks, business users of blogs and micro-blogging tools such as Twitter and Google-owned Jaiku, and multimedia social sites like Flickr. However, a huge portion of the blogosphere and social media landscape is not professionally produced and individually these sites do not have huge audiences. Collectively though, these smaller outlets comprise as much as 99 per cent of the social media landscape and together form a powerful force that the PR industry is looking to harness. As the majority of blogs and social media sites contain personal content written in the first person, viral issues and stories can spread quickly. The sites connect people and when issues spread virally across social networks, they become big news for organisations that they affect. This is why tracking blog buzz across the whole of the web is critical for reporting on brand image, online coverage, and building a picture of customer perceptions.An example of how effective a viral campaign can be, was when an online grass-roots campaign was formed on the social network Facebook. Protesting against an overdraft charge that the bank HSBC was imposing on recent graduate accounts, thousands of students joined forces online through a viral Facebook group which generated massive media attention, and forced a u-turn at HSBC. Within just a few weeks of the group launching, the bank scrapped the overdraft charges. Over the last year, the fact that blogs impact a company’s brand image online has become more established. Marketing, PR and communications departments are increasingly exposed to the impact blogs have on a brand’s reputation, whether that’s negative coverage of a product or an online petition or a campaign across social networks. As this issue has gathered momentum, companies have realised that blogs and social media need to be actively managed not just monitored. Some progressive brands are already doing this successfully. US retail bank Wells Fargo for example has a team dedicated to responding online to bloggers’ issues and complaints in order to increase positive sentiment around the brand online and reduce the amount of negativity that might emerge.What caused the need to move from monitoring to engagement? Early adopters have led the charge. And the masses have followed. We are seeing social media’s evolution in the business ecosystem move from early adopter to mass market status and web tactics are rapidly becoming better understood tactically and strategically as part of the PR mix. The challenge is to turn the opportunity into action.
Brendon Craigie works for Hotwire, an international public relations consultancy specialized in technology PR.
Their digital media practice specializes in counselling companies in the Web 2.0 sector, such as web site infrastructure tools and services, digital and internet marketing services and information providers.
Influencing Powerful Social Media Users to Generate Massive Traffic to Your Website
November 19, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Generating a buzz to get massive amounts of traffic to your website is best done using social media websites?
The easiest way to accomplish this is to leverage the clout of influencers within the social media community.
Influencers are people within a social network that are respected and liked by others in that community and are able to popularize discussions on topics of interst in that community.
Influencers stimulate the conversations, connect people to ideas and can capture the mindshare or opinion of an audience within a social sphere. All social media websites have a few select individuals who stand out for their activity within the community and their expertise has gained the trust and support of the social media users.
These are the people you are are looking for and the ones you want to influence.
There are so many social media sites and the points we make in this article can be applied to any of them. We’ll be studying how to develope your own strategy for targeting the influencers of these sites to engage their social network with your content.
Let’s look at a social news site like Digg for example. Digg and other sites like it allow the audience to vote on the value of content with a simple thumbs up and thumbs down vote. By actively participating in the community you can develope a following and become and authority and with that comes influence.
Over time supporters will share your content with friends or add it to their websites and blogs. Social media users can be pitched just like a blogger or writer can be pitched with a simple introduction at first gradually building a relationship that’s mutually benefitial. The goal is to leverage their brand of influence by influencing them to promote your website content within their community.
The main steps are Targeting, Networking and then Pitching the influencer in question.
1.TargetingFinding a social media influencer that shares your point of view about your content and is relevent to their website or sphere of influence is most important. Making your content in-line or coherent with the influencers interests makes it much easier to get them to promote or agree with your content.
Go to the public user ranking list of the social media site in question, in this case Digg, and visit each profile on the listed looking for who has influence and also who resonates with what you’re promoting. Get a feel for what interests them. You can also do a keyword search on the social media site looking for content based on your keywords and find the users that rank high within the site on those keywords. If they have consistently submitted content around those keywords they are likely to be open to suggestions of simular content. You can also do a URL search of your keywords to find people that may be open to more content of that type.
Using the site yourself will help you discover little details about the user you’re targeting that can help you reach them and develope rapport. For example, while top Digg user MrBabyMan submits a great amount of stories, most active Diggers are familiar with his avid interest in Cracked.com, a popular pop culture/men’s portal/magazine.
2. NetworkingAfter you’re done targeting a specific social media website you need to contact them and develpoe a relationship. You can get in touch with them from their contact info in their user profile and join the site as a registered user. If contact info is not available Google them by their name and user name to see if you can find it elsewhere. Look for their blog or other profiles they may have listed on other sites.
Once you have their contact details initiate a conversation by just send them a note and thank them for their contributions. Trying to pitch to promote your content right away is very bad etiquette and annoying. You can stand out from the crowd of self-interested crowd by genuinely showing your appreciation for their contributions.
Take a genuine interest in them and engage them in a dialog of common interests and do so continuously until you have a good idea what material they would support and do favors for the user by giving them publicity or links to free resources and interesting content (not your own).
Real social media users are always interested in buzz-worthy news or opinions that can boost their own authority within the social media community. Your content or anything else you offer should not only meet the integrity of their personal brand, but it should improve it and the reputation of the user within the community.
Offer them free invites to unrelated websites, give away exclusive information on certain topics. Share some links to excellent websites. Do little favors without asking for anything in return at all. Give them a reason to be interested in you.
Networking is really just about making friends. It’s that simple. This will gradually lead you into the third and final stage: Pitching the influencer.
3.PitchingSo now that you’ve built a rapport with this person what next?
A. Ask Casually. Do your pitching in a light hearted and casual manner and do not aggressively push the user to promote your content. This is a huge turnoff and you should understand that the user has a perfect right to refuse you.
B. Disclose Your affiliation. I would recommend letting the user know that you are affiliated with the specific website, particularly if you plan to have a long working relationship with the user. He or she will appreciate your honesty and it will also make it easier for you to ask the second time round.
C. Space out your pitches. The biggest mistake you can make is to ask the influencer to promote every single piece of content that comes out on your site. This is a major irritant so only offer the user your best work, while pitching your material only once per week or every two weeks.
Continue to keep aclose contact after they are promoting your site. Building a long-term relationship will have longterm results and targeted in-bound links to your website for years to come.
Good Luck!
Talk soon,
Frank Tocco–Marketing Mentor
Frank Tocco Teaches People How to Get Paid To Generate Responsive Leads.
His Free Videos Course shows you Step-By-Step How You Can Make Money Online Selling Anything You Can Imagine.
Social Media and Networking: a Glimpse to High-tech World
November 19, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Social networking sites are the most preferred segments on the internet. It is considered as the next major opportunity for massively growing business. These sites help the users to communicate with others in order to survive in this high-tech world. Social gathering is an important part in everyone’s life, as it enables the users to speak with others when they find something common or similar between each other to start up a conversation or a small talk. Social media and networking allows the users to move beyond their reach. With the help of passive ads, forums, communities, chat rooms and online games, the users can actively engage within social networks.To be more specific, these networking sites are defined as the grouping of several people together into to specific groups. It is just like small communities that are based on particular topic. It is a form of internet marketing that seeks to achieve branding and marketing communication goals through the participation in various social media networks. The goal of each site varies from business to business, but it usually involves building of brand awareness, increasing visibility and sells a product or service. These networking communities offer the users to join the social media channels and helps the users to integrate and avail social experience. Social network or social gathering has created new ways to communicate and share information with others across the world.Social media and networking is becoming an essential marketing tool for connecting with people and optimising online presence. It is a platform that people use to publish, converse and share content via Internet. Video, pod cast, blogs, discussion boards and social media and networking sites are some of the highly used tools, which online businessmen use to build relationship with their customers and keep them on websites for longer period. Such sites provides more opportunities for organisations to present optimised content that can be indexed easily by search engines and ultimately improves site rating. Before implementing social media elements, it is important to evaluate customers to create an effective strategy. If customers are professionals who commute then pod cast can be easily downloaded which can be very effective.Social sites focus on building online communities of people who share same interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most online social network services provide a variety of ways for users to interact including e-mail and instant messaging services. Social networking websites are used by millions of people everyday.The social networking sites have a number of characteristics that make them different from traditional media such as newspapers, television, books and radio. The social media for instance, depends on interactions between people as the discussion and integration of words build shared-meaning using technology. These online networking websites allow the people to stay in touch with others with whom it might not be possible to speak frequently. Moreover, people can make contacts which may be helpful in the business. People can also create an impact on others perspective, as online social networking is the best thing that could ever happen.Social media is infinite, as there are not set number of pages or hours. The users can participate in social media by adding comments or stories. Content in social media plays an important play. As a matter of fact, it can take the form of text, graphics, audio or videos. These formats can be intermingled to get something relevant. Online social media is available through feeds, which enable users to subscribe via feed readers and allow other publishers to create mash ups.
Gather your own network of friends. Create your own social network for free.
Ten Reasons to Consider Copywriting
November 18, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Looking to chuck that full-time job for a life of full-time writing? Or maybe you’ve already dumped the day job but aren’t quite as busy as you’d like to be. Why not take a closer look at copywriting?
Copywriting, also known as business or promotional writing, can do more than put a few extra bucks in your wallet — it can also help you develop as a writer. Here are ten reasons why:
1. Copywriting pays well. Actually it can pay very well. I know copywriters who easily make six figures in a year. That’s because copywriters charge by the hour rather than the by the word or page. Beginning copywriters usually start at $25 or $30 an hour, but if they’re good (or good at asking for what they’re worth — a rare trait in writers but one definitely worth developing) they can quickly move to $45 to $75 an hour. Senior copywriters charge well over $100 an hour.
Now you probably won’t start at $100 an hour, but even a few small jobs at $30 an hour can really boost your bottom line.
2. Copywriting pays you before begin working. Yes, you heard right. You can actually ask for a deposit before you start writing. (What other kind of writing allows you to do that?) Moreover, your clients will EXPECT this.
Deposits range from one-third to one-half of your estimated fee. You can also arrange it where you get paid throughout the process — i.e. one-third in the beginning, one-third with the first draft and one-third when you deliver the final product.
3. Copywriting fits into your schedule. Don’t want to do it full-time? Just take on jobs when your other writing work is slow or you need the extra cash. Now to land those jobs you’ll have to do some networking, but believe me, that’s a good thing. As a full-time freelance writer, finding ways to connect with the rest of the human race is a constant challenge. Going out and networking can be the answer to the secluded, sometimes-cut-off life of a writer.
4. Copywriting helps your other writing. Writing good copy means writing clean, crisp and powerfully. It means explaining products and services clearly. It means organizing ideas to make the biggest impact. It means knowing how to edit your own work — including being able to recognize your writing flaws and fix them.
Sound familiar?
As you can see, the same rules to good copywriting also apply to other kinds of writing. But with copywriting, those rules are even more exaggerated. Your writing has to be lean and mean — there’s absolutely no room for extra words. You need to get in, make your point, and get out. No matter what kind of writing you do, learning to write this tight will help you.
I’ve discovered that copywriting has strengthened my fiction and other writing. It’s forced me to trim out the fat, leaving only the powerful words that pull their own weight. In fact, trying a variety of writing styles has helped me discover and intensify my writing voice.
5. Copywriting helps you learn about marketing. What’s the essence of copywriting? Using words to sell. You also have to learn about the different marketing vehicles and how to write for each of them (i.e. writing for the Web is very different than writing a 30-second radio spot). You learn about target markets, goals and marketing plans. This will all help you market yourself and your other writing.
6. Copywriting helps you develop regular writing habits. Clients give you deadlines. Deadlines mean you have to produce regardless of what your muse decides to do or even where your muse is. You want to get paid? You get the work done.
Also, just by picking up a few extra copywriting jobs means you’re writing more. The more you write, the better you’ll get at writing AND the better you’ll get at just sitting down and putting words on paper no matter what your mood is.
7. Copywriting helps you develop a professional attitude about writing. There’s nothing that makes you feel more like a professional writer than having people pay you to write. It’s a great boost to your ego (to say nothing for your bank account). Also, as a professional copywriter, you’ll need business cards, a Web site, a desk, office supplies, etc. Plus you’ll have to start introducing yourself as a professional writer. All these things will help you cultivate an image of a serious writer.
8. Copywriting can boost your ego. Unlike other forms of writing where kudos are few and far between, copywriting clients are usually pretty good about telling you how much they like what you wrote and how much they enjoy working with you. Many times you’ll even get thanked (I know, amazing concept). Best yet, you can take advantage of all that goodwill and ask for testimonials, which you then put on your marketing materials for other people to see. (You can even read them on those really bad days when you wonder why it ever occurred to you that you could write).
9. Copywriting can help you learn how to handle criticism. Okay — I know I just got finished telling you about all the compliments you’ll receive, which you will if you do a good job, but at the same time you will be asked to make changes. It’s a fact of life. Sometimes those changes are very minor, but you almost always go through a second or third draft (and sometimes even a tenth draft, but we won’t talk about those right now). However, and this is important to remember, your clients can and will still love your writing and still ask you to make changes. After all, you don’t know their business or their customers the way they do, and there will be things you just won’t know.
Because these changes are usually completely separate from your writing style, they’re a lot easier to hear and a lot easier to make then, say, someone hates one of your novel’s subplots. And if clients do want to make a change you don’t agree with, feel free to discuss it with them. You are the expert here. Clients are hiring you because you know how to write and they don’t. They’ll listen to you, and even if you end up making that change, at least you’ve discussed it.
All of this is good practice. After awhile, you’ll learn to separate constructive criticism from nasty criticism, and eventually learn not to take even the nasty criticism personally. I’m not saying criticism won’t still hurt, I’m just saying all of this will help you develop a professional attitude about it.
10. Copywriting can increase your knowledge. Not only will you learn about different businesses, but different industries and different niches. You’ll learn about problems, challenges and successes. All stuff you can use in future articles and novels.
There’s actually more than just ten ways copywriting can help you as a writer — it can sharpen your interviewing skills and beef up your contact list. But ten ways sounded good, so I thought I would stick with that. Regardless, the skills and information you learn as a copywriter can also help you become a better writer in general.
Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) is your Ka-Ching! marketing strategist and owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC, a copywriting and marketing agency. She helps entrepreneurs become more successful at attracting more clients, selling more products and services and boosting their business. To find out how she can help you take your business to the next level, visit her site at http://www.MichelePW.com. Copyright 2008 Michele Pariza Wacek.
Is Business Blogging Right For Your Company?
November 18, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Company blogs are often referred to as a must-have item but the truth is that not all companies benefit from having one. The benefits of business blogging include exposure and visibility within your industry and a higher rate of conversions but there are also some risks to consider. Here is a breakdown of the benefits and risks of business blogging that you can use to determine whether or not it is right for your company.
The Benefits
The benefits of business blogging are numerous. For example, you can increase revenues from sales, build an audience among your target market, grow your company, and much more. Specifically, you can keep customers and prospects up-to-date by offering company news. You can also connect directly with your customers and provide them with support via your blog. Networking with your customers, prospects, colleagues, and others in your niche also becomes a lot easier when you have a blog.
Blogs are a powerful way for businesses to receive feedback from their customers. This means you can do market research for free just by asking your customers for their opinions and reading your customers’ blog comments. You can also use your blog to sell your products/services and increase sales revenue as a result. In fact, you could even make money from blogging alone if you allow PPC and other forms of advertising on your blog.
Furthermore, blogging builds brand awareness. People will start to recognize who you are from seeing your blog around. If you consistently publish excellent blog posts, you are bound to build an audience. This will help to position you as an authority in your market and build your reputation.
The Risks
Although business blogging has several benefits as you have seen, there is also a downside to it. In fact, if you aren’t careful, you can even lose business and damage your reputation with a business blog. For example, if you publish a blog post in a rush and then have it pointed out to you by a reader after the fact that there was false or misleading information in it, your company’s reputation and credibility will be damaged. If your posts are libelous, you may even be threatened with legal action.
Comment moderation is a touchy subject in business blogging. For example, you can sour relations with your customers if you delete comments that give even the slightest amount of criticism or get sassy with commentators.
The ultimate goal of business blogging or blogging in general is to educate, entertain, and inform. It’s also important to interact with your audience and encourage them to comment. Your company will lose credibility and the trust of customers if all you do is blog for the sake of improving your site’s SEO or to sell your products and services.
Last but not least, you can affect the productivity of your company if you dedicate too much time to blogging and using social media. While blogging and social media are often an important component of marketing your business, you can’t lose sight of the bigger picture. The fact is that blogging and using social media can be very time-consuming and your labor will bear little fruit unless you utilize both properly.
How to Decide Whether Business Blogging is Right for You
Many companies choose to blog because they feel that the benefits outweigh the risks. Nonetheless, each company is unique and must devise a marketing/PR plan that fits their needs. Weigh the benefits and risks to decide whether business blogging is right for you. Blogging is a huge commitment and responsibility. You or someone else in your company has to be willing to keep the blog updated on a regular basis and respond to comments in a thoughtful way. Otherwise, your blog will only end up affecting your business negatively. If your company is ready to commit to blogging and you feel that the benefits are not worth passing up, decide what your blogging goals are and get started creating an engaging and successful blog!
We are an SEO Company. We offer several SEO services and SEO consulting. Read this and other original articles at http://www.seosapien.com/blog/
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