www.inkthinkerblog.com — WIW President Michael Causey introduced the last session of the day, Tools and Tactics for Pulling It All Together, at the March 10 marketing seminar. He had some great words of wisdom, including suggestions for increasing business within your existing client base. “Expand existing clients while seeking new clients,” he suggested, “and always keep growing and acting as a resource.” One way to do this, he said, was by suggesting a newsletter. It benefits them, and it nets you a pretty penny. The trick is to balance lead generation with client expansion.

Three important tricks for succeeding as a freelancer, according to Michael:

• Be open to change.
• Know when to upsell.
• Be willing to reinvent yourself.

The end of the calendar year is when clients reassess projects and their budget, he said, so keep in mind that you may experience a slow-down then. “It’s hard to look for work when you already have work, but you gotta do it,” Michael said, or you’ll be up the creek.

Next up was Ken Norkin, whom I’ve heard speak several times before but hadn’t actually met in more than a passing way until this seminar. Ken said that his freelance story should be called something along the lines of “How to Launch a Successful Freelance Career…and Then Watch It Evaporate.” His business got off to a great start, in 1991 and was going strong for a while. Then, zilch. The solution? “There are two good times to market yourself,” Ken said. “When you’re slow and when you’re busy.”

Ken described a “risky income situation” as one in which 20% or more of your income comes from only one client, or 50% or more comes from only two clients. In either of these cases, it’s time to diversity. That way, you won’t be in trouble if one client vanishes, which is what happened to him. He bounced back by launching a hardcore marketing campaign, but has barely marketed since the late ’90s. (Must be nice to have that many clients just coming to you!)

Gene Meyer,* a former Washington Post reporter who’s not related to those Meyers, followed Ken with a very pro-marketing presentation. He recommended that you use your appearance in a publication to promote yourself, and said that freelancing is a long-term investment, in terms of both time and money. Balance is important, he said, both between marketing and production and between work and life.

And when it comes to being successful in your business, remember that “it takes 5 years to really develop a freelance business, or so they say.” Gene said that pitching ideas is more than just a matter of finding the right editor. “Get familiar with the publication and invest time in the proposal,” he said. “Even if you get a negative response, that’s okay. Don’t take “no” or no response personally — just move on to the next one.”

Gene had these general suggestions for freelancers:

• “Self-employment is isolating. Make contact.” And this applies to both personal and professional contacts.
• Find new markets.
• Know the product, know the point of contact, and know the pay.
• Be collaborative, easy to work with, a problem solver, reliable, clean (copywise), and accurate.
• Start out proposing ideas, and assignments will eventually follow.
• Do your homework and your research.
• Be organized. Time management is really important.
• Be marketable.

He also recommended MediaBistro.com‘s resources for freelancers as a great source of information.

And that concluded the day’s brilliance!

Did you miss highlights from the other three presentations? Get caught up!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
__________________________________________
www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest

Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King. All rights reserved.

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King

www.inkthinkerblog.com

Presenting Yourself in Person and on the Web was the session I spoke in, along with amazing journalist Christina Breda Antoniades* (whom you DC folk probably know as the writer for The Washington Post’s Date Lab) and brilliant writer Ellen Stuhlmann, who’s a WIW board member.

Ellen was up first, and she gave a great overview of marketing and branding for freelancers. “It’s about their need, not your talent,” she said, encouraging freelancers to focus on what the client can accomplish by hiring you, not what you’ve done in the past. Another piece of advice she offered is to “know your headline.” Even shorter than an elevator speech, your headline is just a single line that says who you are and what you do.

She also shared a tip that’s worked well for her: Network with new businesses build the relationship from the ground up. If you’re with them from the beginning, your relationship will grow as they do.

Christina took the mic next, and talked about how she’s branded herself by establishing her specialty (Baltimore, in case you were wondering) and becoming the go-to writer editors can rely on. “Writing is based on trust,” she said. “Editors trust you to get the job done.” Christina prides herself on never missing a deadline, always aims to hand in her assignments 24 hours early — or at least to have them waiting in her editor’s inbox when work starts on the due date.

Other great tips from Christina:

• Return calls and e-mails, and do it promptly (this may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised!)
• Pitch stories to your editor even if you can’t write them yourself. Helping him or her out with tips will make you stand out.
• Position yourself to be a part of the team. Do your homework, be excited, behave as though you have a stake in it — because you do.
• Help other writers and editors. You never know when they may be in a position to help you.

Said Christina, “You don’t have to be the best writer, but do the other things, and you’ll be ahead of the game.”

I, Kristen King, was up next, and Ellen embarrassed me roundly by getting the crowd pumped up (well, as pumped up as 30 writers can be in a warm room right after lunch, anyway) by making them all kinds of promises about how great I’d be. She may have oversold me a little, but I got my important points across, and it was a good time.

I shared my Ivan story as an example of how NOT to network and promote yourself, and emphasized the importance of knowing your audience and your mission; having a good, professional business card; and leveraging a website and other online resources to promote yourself. I also cautioned them against Vaseline lenses, costume jewelry, and cleavage in professional photos. (One gentleman in the back was dismayed that his cleavage was off limits, but the rest of the group seemed to take it pretty well).

All in all, it was a super-fun session with excellent advice all around.

__________________________________________
www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest

Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King. All rights reserved.

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King

www.inkthinkerblog.com

If you’re serious about blogging, you’ll definitely want to check out two 2007 blogging conferences. Here’s the rundown:

SOBCon is organized by none other than Liz Strauss of Successful Blog. The Virtual Conference will have a series of 12 speakers all day long on Monday. There’ll be one speaker per hour presenting a topic for discussion which will take place in the comment section of that post. Space is limited.

When: Monday, May 12th, 2007

Where: Successful Blog

What: New Post and Speaker Every Hour 9a.m.-8p.m. CST (GMT -5hrs)

Who:
8:00 – Robyn McMaster on Laughter and Mistakes

9:00 – Sandra Renshaw on Graphics

10:00 – Mark McGuinness on Creativity

11:00 – Joe Hauckes on Navigation

12:00 – Rodney Rumford on Videoblogging

1:00 – Chris Garrett on Blogger Blunders

2:00 – Ellen Weber on Sleep and Music

3:00 – Wendy Piersall on Blogging Beyond the Blogosphere

4:00 – Mike Wagner on Branding

5:00 – Terry Starbucker on What to Look for

6:00 – Chris Cree on Business Blogging

7:00 – Phil Gerbyshak on Being a Relationship Geek

8:00 – David Armano on the 4 Cs of Blogging

BlogHer ’07: A World of Difference
July 27-28 in Chicago
Get More Info

Six programming tracks and then some for women bloggers!

Art of Life Track (2-day)
Co-chairs: Kalyn Denny and Jenny Lauck
This track will be devoted to the passions about which so many of us blog…food, art, photography, crafts, knitting, writing, poetry, music and more.

Business of You Track (2-day)
Co-chairs: Jan Kabili and Lena West
This track will be devoted to personal and business advancement. We expect to discuss speaker and media training, self-branding and promotion, mentoring, turning your blog into a book or a business, and perhaps even managing your time, your finances, your blogging policies and practices…the business of you.

Community Track (1-day)
Co-chair: Nancy White
This track will explore the care and feeding of communities. Possible topics include building bridges between local for-profit and non-profit companies, continuing the discussion of community assistance and relief programs that was kicked off at BlogHer ’06, how to galvanize social change with your blogs, and wherever else the BlogHer community leads us!

Identity Track (2-day)
Co-chairs: Jory Des Jardins and Liz Henry
This track is about both the immutable and the dynamic aspects of our lives. Race, gender, age, sexuality, parenting, singledom, faith…many of us blog about who we are, not what we do, and this track will explore your many facets.

Politics Track (1-day)
Co-chair: Lisa Stone
While Election ’08 coverage and the drive to register women voters would be enough ground to cover, we’re also looking to expand the Politics track beyond the U.S…should we be talking about the politics of war, about gender equity worldwide, about how different regions of the world are drawing women into the political process? You tell us.

Technical Track (2-day)
Co-chairs: Barb Dybwad and Nelly Yusupova
We’re calling in some gurus to help us build two days of Deeply Geeky content. Last year we covered audio, video, photography, tagging, HTML & CSS, SEO and more acronyms galore. What should we focus on this year?

In addition to the tracks above we will have some general sessions, plus some alternative spaces, like an Internet Cafe and a Collaborative Workspace. We are also considering adding an optional Sunday half-day unconference, sort of a “BlogHerCamp” and would love your feedback on that. Let us have it!
__________________________________________
www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest

Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King. All rights reserved.

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King

www.inkthinkerblog.com — The second session of the day at the March 10 WIW seminar on Marketing Yourself and Your Writing was Find and Win Freelance Clients. I was busy in the hallway running my mouth with Ann Merchant, so I missed pretty much the whole presentation.

But I did get this gem of wisdom from presenter Nathan Abse at the tail end of the Q&A session:

You get paid less for telling the truth.

So true! Newspapers are the low end of the pay scale, and copywriting and PR writing pay much, much more. I chuckled at that one.

Okay, so this is a short recap. Check out Part 1 for something more substantive.

__________________________________________
www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest

Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King. All rights reserved.

Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King