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Creating your Web writing brand: it’s essential

August 29th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

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You’re a Web writer. You’re also a brand.

If you’re a new Web writer, start thinking of yourself as a brand now - the more you think of what special talents you bring to Web writing, and the more you promote your name, the more successful you will be.

Not sure what branding entails? The best advice I can give you is to do a marketing course. The amount of money you will make in your Web writing career is directly related to what you know, and what you can do.

I did a marketing course many years ago; it took a year. However, the benefits of doing the course included learning to brand myself. The benefits of branding included:

* Requests to write business books - I wrote a business book series for Prentice Hall, and some of the books are still in print

* The ability to extend my copywriting career into PR and marketing areas

* Confidence

It’s not enough to be a “writer” or even a Web writer, you gotta be brand YOU

These days, anyone can call themselves a “writer,” no credits or qualifications are necessary. Hundreds of thousands of people are calling themselves writers. So, in order to stand out from the crowd of wannabes, you must brand yourself.

Branding isn’t a one-time event; it’s a process. You put your name to everything you do online, splash your photo onto your Web sites and blogs, just so that people will be aware of your name. Branding makes you a price maker, rather than a price taker. Over the months and years to come, clients will request your services because they’ve seen your name many times, and feel as if they know you. They will trust you, because they feel they know you.

With the hordes of “writers” online now, you must devote yourself to branding.

Branding and self-promotion builds credibility and trust

Branding is a form of self-promotion. If you’re a typical writer, you’re not much into self-promotion. It shouldn’t be necessary. After all, you have skills and talents, and people should just hire you, right?

In the best of all possible worlds, yes. Unfortunately we live in a crowded and noisy world. Self-promotion is essential. Branding is essential too. (Branding and self-promotion are conjoined twins. )

The benefit of all the branding is: TRUST.

Of course, branding means that you must be professional, reliable, competent and ethical in your dealings. That goes without saying.

When people know your name and what you do, they trust you. In a global marketplace, your Web sites and blogs mean that the search engines trust you too. So your name will come up in Web searches when prospective clients search for “Web writer” or “Web content” or whatever.

Branding equals trust, and when your new clients trust you, everything flows more smoothly.

Develop your marketing and branding skills: it’s vital to your success as a Web writer.

My ebook “You CAN Sell Your Writing Now: Marketing Skills For Writers” will help you to develop your branding skills.

How to beat your Web writing competition - your portfolio

August 1st, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

This past week, I’ve received several emails, all on the question of low-paid Web writing and “$2″ writers. Nowadays it seems, anyone and everyone’s calling themselves a “writer” and is drag-netting the bottom of the writing pool, scooping up low-paid work.

That’s fine. If you have writing credits, you don’t want low-paid work - you’re NOT competing with low-paid writers, unless you want to.

I covered getting freelance writing gigs on the out-sourcing sites in a recent issue of Fab Freelance Writing Ezine, and made this point:

The Two Ways You Can Get Freelance Gigs Online - Branding, And Applying (AKA getting the customer to come to you, versus going to the customer)

The first way, branding, means that you get your name out there online. It’s the easiest way to get people to come to you and offer you work. This is why I hammer the promotions/ blogging/ get famous theme in ezine issues, and on my blogs and sites. It’s because it’s easy, and the effect is cumulative - it starts with a trickle and before you know it, you turn away much more work than you accept. You cherry-pick the best offers people make, because you can. You’re well paid for writing.

Branding is a MUST if you want to be paid well. The more people who know you as a Web writer, the more writing work you will get, and the more you can charge.

You must have a Web site to display your Web writing portfolio

BRANDING includes displaying your writing expertise to potential clients. YOU MUST HAVE A WEB SITE AND PORTFOLIO OF WRITING. I don’t know how to say it more plainly than that. If you want lucrative Web writing gigs, you must show clients samples of your work: how else do you establish credibility and trust?

Each and every one of the writers who complained about low-paid writing work and $2 writers etc was making no effort at all to differentiate themselves by showing what they’d accomplished. Not one had a Web site or blog. Not one had compiled a portfolio. To their clients, they seemed exactly the same as the $2 writers.

Perception is everything: USE your past writing to get new gigs

Take a moment or two to think about how you appear to your clients. Do you appear professional? Do you seem as if you know what you’re doing?

It’s show and tell when it comes to getting hired: show what you can do. Create a Web site and blog.

Yes, there’s low paid Web writing out there, but so what? Who cares? The level at which you choose to get writing gigs is up to you.

Display your portfolio, and charge appropriate rates for your level of expertise.

Copyright © 2007 Fab Web Writer: Join The Instant Publishing Revolution

Credits: Angela Booth's Web writing manual, "Writing For The Web" | Fab Digital Photography Blog - Digital Photography Tips And Inspiration - If you write for the Web, you need to take photos for the Web too.