OK, I've had my own website (see sig) for a couple of months now but I haven't spent a dime on marketing it yet. The primary reason for this is that I've had enough repeat clients to keep me busy and I haven't thought about finding new ones. However, I'm beginning to feel that I need to reach out and get myself more exposure. I get about 50 uniques a day from my sig links but I feel like I could do with more. Considering that there are a lot of very experienced writers here, I thought I'd ask this... how do you market yourself as a writer? Do you submit your website to directories? Do you invest in PPC; is it any worth for a site that advertises writing services? Does your business rely on word-of-mouth alone? Or, do you just rely on SEO? Ahhh, I'm so confused!
It depends on your service and your target. My marketing plan won't be great for you and vise versa. You should always be marketing. A lot of writers tend to market less when there's plenty of business and market more when there isn't. Some general strategies that may or may not be suited for you are: 1. Submit your web site to directories. 2. Utilize article marketing. 3. Utilize AdWords for pinpoint marketing. 4. Advertise offline. 5. Work to establish yourself as an expert in a specific field. 6. Go to conferences and network. 7. Network online. 8. Revisit your Web site and make sure it's functional and built to help you land SE traffic. And the big one that I can guarantee most writers don't do: market to your past customers. You've already built a relationship, so market to them. Many writers take a "wait and see" approach.
How do you get a good target market with adwords? I type freelance writing in google and get thousands of sites that want me to freelance for them. What do people looking for writers type to find writers? It seems like you would have to exclude so many negative keywords.
You can target specific phrases that relate to what you actually do. For instance, if you're a medical writer, you could play around with phrases around that. Use the Ad Words tool to locate stuff people are searching for and be a little creative. Understanding your target audience will also help you better formulate a solid marketing plan. Perhaps they never type "freelance writer" into a search engine when they need to outsource.
Thanks for the great replies, marketjunction. As you've said, people probably don't search for "freelancer writers" as that's a pretty broad search term. I've had some success with adwords on keywords like "sales copy expert," "entertainment writer" etc... Of course, I'm not going to reveal my entire keyword list but being more specific definitely helps. So, anyone have ideas on marketing yourself as a writer WITHOUT a website? There's a lot of us here without sites of our own, you know.
I just sent out a newsletter. I got two responses out of the first batch of 8. (working on second batch of 8) But I have a lot of local business and through ad agencies. You can tell I'm not going to qualify for the bulk mail rate. You could write for a particular website like printnpost.com or something like it.
Without a website....hmmm....I guess I don't technically have a website yet. I have a Squidoo lens, does that count? Looking on freelance writing job boards and contacting people who post that they need writing work done sound like the best options if you're committed to not having a website (which I know you personally are not...I love your site! very creative!)
You could sign up at Elance.com, add your profile and some relevant stuff you've done. You can also bid on projects that are posted.
You might try "freelance writer your city" as a keyword. Also there are free listing services and I've shown up many times from that directory. marketingtool.com. You pick your city. And wordworker.com, too. Below are some examples. There are over 50 keywords from january alone. Even "caveman comics"? What is that one. I'm on pg one in the east coast for these (As of today. Who knows about tomorrow) copywriting richmond va web copywriter virginia freelance copywriter web richmond I'm about page 2 for this one. copywriter richmond And way up there for this all-important keyword. (That one made me laugh. Near the bottom.) bull's eye copywriting There are others and it takes a while. But remember that the hot key phrases are not how most people find you. I can look at this january list alone and tell you that.
That is pretty funny! My blog repeatedly gets "weird writing tips"....I wonder if I use the word weird too much?