Free Ezine For Your Site

I've previously discussed the benefits of writing for ezines in order to build site traffic. One of the other recommendations I've come across is to give something away for free on your site, like a newsletter or ezine. This is going to be the next phase of developing my site, so I've been looking around for resources to help me do it. One of the places I publish my articles is Idea Marketers and they recently launched a new tool automating the process of creating an ezine. It's called (drumroll, please) Ezinebuilder. Using syndicated columnists from the site, you can create an ezine that you can send out by email. It's as simple as filling in the boxes on the page (including site address, header, footer and side notes) and choosing the columnist you want to feature. As far as I can see, that's all there is to it.

Crafting The Hard Sell

One of my most recent writing jobs was to co-author an ebook based on the content of two websites I had helped to develop. No problem. Then I was asked to write the sales letter to go with it. Panic! I'd never written a sales letter before. Feature articles, yes. News articles, yes. Copy for print ads, yes. But never a sales letter. As usual, I said yes and then began to think about how I could do it. I did a web search and came up with an immensely helpful article by David Frey. Frey, author of the Small Business Marketing Bible describes seven 'the hurdles which lead to buying resistance'.

He then sets out a 12-step plan for overcoming these hurdles and crafting a foolproof sales letter. The 12 steps are:

1. Get attention
2. Identify the problem
3. Provide the solution
4. Present your credentials
5. Show the benefits
6. Give social proof
7. Make your offer
8. Inject scarcity
9. Give a guarantee
10. Call to action
11. Give a warning
12. Close with a reminder

He then goes into more detail on how to carry out each of the steps. The full article is worth a read. It is clearly set out and anyone can follow it. At the very least, following the plan will allow you to produce something credible to present to your clients. At best, you'll have done the job perfectly and impressed the heck out of them. What have you got to lose?

PS. In case you're interested, here's the sales letter I wrote after reading Frey's advice. I'm sure it's not perfect, but I was pretty pleased with it, considering I'd never written one before. If you think of any improvements, be sure to let me know. Thanks for reading.

Doing The Maths

Now, you're probably wondering why the word maths is cropping up in my blog? After all, I usually write about writing, don't I? Well, you're right. Numbers are not my strongest point. I'm OK with the basics - I can add and subtract (and occasionally multiply and divide) but that's as far as it goes. As a freelance writer, you often find yourself having to deal with numbers. And if you want to be known for accurate copy, you'll need to have a grasp of more than just the basics. That's why I was so pleased to find this guide to Statistics Every Writer Should Know by Robert Niles. Robert is a writer of long standing, who describes himself as having been caught up in the collision between computers and journalism in the 1980s (check out his home page for the full description). In Statistics Every Writer Should Know he gives a guide to the basics (mean, median and percent) as well as some more complex figures, tests and analyses. Read his guide and you should avoid being taken for a ride. It's easy to read and very useful. Why not take a look?

Keep In Touch - Freelance Writing Tip #15

If you're a freelance writer, then you need contacts. Contacts are either people who can give you stories or people who can give you work. Let's have a look at these in more detail.

Contacts who can give you stories

Many of the stories in magazines are spin-offs of events that have made the news. For example, when deep-veined thrombosis hit the news a few years ago, the magazines were full of tales of sufferers, investigations into legroom on airlines and a few stories of those who had actually died after a long-haul flight. My point is that the people that you would get in touch with for news stories will also be able to give you good leads for writing feature articles. So, who are these people, anyway?

Media research shows that most reporting is based on a limited range of sources. The main ones include politicians and government officials, the courts, the emergency services (police, ambulance, fire) and hospitals, the representatives of local businesses and industries and the unions. Other good places to look for information are schools and universities, churches, local clubs and societies, the military and national pressure groups and charities.

Much of the information that will spark a feature idea comes in the form of a press release, saying what that organisation or individual is planning. These days, most press releases are available on the internet (often on the organisation's or individual's own website), and are therefore relatively easy to find. Press releases usually have a name, number or email of someone you can contact for further information. Once you've actually got past the PR person to the person who has the information you want, try to get their direct number and email and make a note of it. The next time you've got a similar subject to cover, you've got a ready-made, friendly source.

As a writer, your contacts book is one of your most valuable resources. Be obsessive about collecting contact details for people you meet or speak to, even if you can't see how they will be useful. You never know when a chance encounter will lead to something useful. A former colleague of mine overheard a conversation and was able to break a story about a company that was up for sale. So make sure you get email addresses, web addresses and phone numbers (as well as physical addresses and fax numbers, just in case). Keep in touch with your contacts (a friendly email every so often) so that your name stays in their mind.

Contacts who can give you work

You should collect the same details for people who might be able to hire you. If you belong to writer's forums or if you blog, then you'll probably get lots of leads from other writers who have found places that are hiring. Even if they don't want what you're looking for right now, keep the details so that you can query about other writing. Again, you never know where the next commission is going to come from. My most recent paying gig came from one of my ex-students who wanted me to review a charity concert he'd organised. A few hours listening to music, food laid on and I got paid fairly for my 500-word review. Now, that can't be bad, can it?

I write for Constant Content

Don’t Do It! How To Improve Your News Writing

My first news story came back with red pen scribbled all over it. The editor told me to go away and start again. I blinked back the tears, held my tongue and rewrote the story. Over next few months of my career in journalism, my work was red-penned again and again, though slightly less each time. It wasn’t that I couldn’t write, but I hadn’t yet learned to write a news story. About six months in, I handed a story to the editor and waited for the inevitable rewriting advice. To my surprise, it came back to me with a grunt, but with no red marks on it. I’d finally learned how I should craft a news story. Here are 12 points which may improve your news writing.

Headline

1 The headline should say what the story is about and should be short. It usually encapsulates the information in the lead. If it doesn’t, start again.

Intro and structure

2 Remember the 6Ws.
3 Lead with the most important information.
4 Pay attention to structure. Make it logical, so that readers can follow events easily.

Style, tone and content

5 Make sure the style and content are appropriate for your target publication.
6 Keep sentences short, clear and simple wherever possible.
7 Avoid passive constructions – active sentences bring the news to life.
8 Check spelling of names you’re not sure about
9 Don’t editorialize – news should be about facts, not opinion.
10 Try to avoid repetition – one mention is usually enough for each fact.

General

11 Don’t believe the hype – are you being sceptical enough?
12 Proofread your work for inconsistencies in spelling, grammar and tenses

Getting On The Net

I've previously outlined four reasons why freelance writers need a website, including the crucial aspect of branding. Here are some of the aspects you need to consider if you decide to get one.

1. First of all, you need to choose a domain name. This should reflect the product or service you're going to offer. When I chose my doublehdesign.com domain name, I was planning to capitalize on my experience in doing desktop publishing and a few small business websites, so it seemed to make sense to have design in the domain name. The 'doubleh' was for the initials of my surname. On reflection, that was a poor choice. I didn't think about it enough. The reasons it's a poor choice are:

• I always have to spell it out
• I've decided I don't want to focus on design work but on writing

That’s why two months ago, I also purchased sharonhurleyhall.com (my name is my brand, remember) which at the moment redirects to doublehdesign.com. At some point, I plan to switch them round so that sharonhurleyhall becomes the main one, but at the moment I don't want to waste all the traffic I've generated.

2. Once you've decided on the perfect domain name, you'll need to register it. You can do this through your hosting provider. Nominet provides a good guide to some of the issues to consider. Rosalind Gardner recommends GoDaddy for cheap domain registration. You don't have to have registration and hosting from the same provider, but if you don't you need to make sure that you can transfer the domain name cheaply or free.

3. For the professional look, pay for hosting. Although there are lots of companies that offer 'free' hosting, you'll still end up paying. Either they'll use your space to advertise their products, add their name to yours or you'll pay an invisible price through loss of features. (One of the hosting providers used by one of the business sites I manage only allows dialup access, so uploading is slow and painful).

I use Dataflame, but there are thousands of providers out there. The main feature to look for is 99.9% uptime; that means your site will almost always be available. Mine hasn't gone down since I've had the domain name. You'll need to look for easy web-based management (including webmail), good statistics (for tracking who your visitors are, where they're coming from, what they're looking at and how long they're staying), large bandwidth limit (especially if you're going to have large media files on your site), and unlimited email addresses. The single most useful feature I've found with my hosting provider is a catchall email address. That allows me to create an email address on the fly and to block it later if it starts being spammed. This works well with Mozilla Thunderbird’s Virtual Identity extension.

Thanks for reading.

Keeping Track Of Your Writing

As a freelance writer, you should be writing regularly and submitting your work to as many places as will take it. If you're doing that, you'll need to keep track of what you've submitted, when and to whom.

Now, I didn't have a huge software budget when I started submitting my work, so I did some research and found a submissions tracker you can get for free. It's called WriteAgain from Asmoday Enterprises.

WriteAgain manages projects, markets and contacts, submissions and deadlines. I've been using it for about seven months and haven't used all the features yet, but here's what I've done with it:

• I have started a project file for an article series. Each time I complete an article I add it to the series
• I have input the titles and genres of all my articles, stories and other writing (adding genres as needed)
  
• I have put contact details for all the publishers to whom I have submitted work
  
• I have made a note of the date of submission, whether it was email or snail mail and how long it should take for publishers to get back to me.
  
• I have viewed submission status reports, which allow me to keep track of all my work (and to decide whether it's time to chase for a response)

The software also includes a time planner, finance manager and market viability reports. A full list of features can be found here.

The software comes in three editions: Professional, Standard and Light. The Light edition will be enough for most people and is free. Why not give WriteAgain a try?