I’m your Roving Reporter Susanna Perkins, here to tell you all about Nick’s webinar on Finding the Niche That’s Right for You. To listen to the entire presentation, just click the link.

Over and over again, Nick stressed the need to treat your freelance copywriting efforts like a real business.

With any business start-up, you put in the time and do your due diligence before you launch. You need to analyze whether the demand for your service exists, whether you can reach the right people, whether there is too much competition, and other relevant questions.

As a freelancer, you have to go through the same process.

If you skip the analysis, you can create problems where you might find yourself just going around in circles.

Nick even admitted to us that, if he had defined his own niche earlier, he could have made a lot more money over the years.

In order to succeed as a freelancer, you have to work hard — there’s no magic involved. The single most important element in achieving success? Defining your niche in advance.

Why Should You Define Your Niche?

When you position yourself as the authority, you automatically become the “go-to” copywriter for that particular topic. Ideally, your name will be the first — and only — name that comes to mind when someone in your niche needs to have copy written.

You Won’t Succeed as a Generalist

Confining your work within a specific niche sets you apart as a specialist. The alternative is to be a generalist, competing with all the thousands of other people who call themselves copywriters on guru.com, freelance.com, and similar sites.

Nick assured us, “You don’t want to be a generalist, bidding for work on guru.com.”

On the bidding-type freelance websites like guru, there’s a huge amount of competition. And that competition isn’t necessarily qualified. Many of them call themselves copywriters after spending $9.95 for a ClickBank product — and never taking a professional-grade course. Their only means to compete is based on price.

You can’t make a living if you join them, because you’re competing against these hundreds of thousands of people on price alone. Of course, this creates a massive downward pressure on fees.

The only way to make money is to set yourself up as a specialist. This is true of any profession — doctors, lawyers, accountants — the specialists always make 2, 3, 5, or 10 times more than the generalists.

For the past 12 years, Nick has written only online copy. If someone asks him to create a brochure, he tells them, “That’s not what I do.” Nick admits it takes some courage to turn down a nice fee — but the rewards for specializing come quickly. Nick explained:

“Once you specialize, your product list becomes stronger and stronger. If somebody in a trade magazine or a radio show needs a speaker, they call you. The only way you can make that happen is by saying, ‘This is what I do’ and not do anything else.”

As a Specialist, it’s Easier to Market Your Services

Success has everything to do with your marketing, Nick reminded us. He told us he’s known some terrific copywriters who earn a pittance because they don’t know how to market themselves. On the flip side, he knows some mediocre copywriters who make a fortune because they are good marketers.

As with any business, you have to market well to achieve success and a large income.

Since marketing begins with your USP (Unique Selling Proposition), you can’t define yourself by saying, “Hello, my name is ___ and I’ll write anything.” You must say, “I’m a specialist, I do this, and I’m an authority in this area.”

Nick told us about one of his coaching clients, who took a long time to define his niche. Finally, he figured out that he would write any kind of promotional material for software companies that sell applications to small banks and insurance companies.

This is a very tightly-defined niche, but was a very smart choice. Why? Because, once he defined the niche, marketing himself was a breeze. He knew exactly who to contact, what to say, and how to frame it.

Being a Specialist Helps Maximize Your Income

If you’re a generalist, you run the risk of having to invest time learning about each new industry or area that you’re writing for. These are working hours, but you cannot get paid for them.

As a freelancer, you want to maximize your billable hours. If you’re a specialist, the learning curve is less and may disappear altogether, allowing you to spend more time doing the work you get paid for.

Every job that builds on your knowledge and expertise increases your value to clients, giving you an opportunity to increase your income.

It also simplifies your marketing because you know who you need to approach.

So How Do You Choose the Niche that is Right for You?

Get Away From the Crowd

Don’t go for the “hot” niches — by the time everyone’s talking about them, they are not niches any longer. For example, 12 years ago Nick established a niche for himself as an online copywriter. Today, that covers a huge amount of territory and is much too broad to be a real niche. You need to define something narrower.

You can define your niche in these ways:

• By industry
• By skill set
• By medium or expertise (white papers, case studies, direct mail, etc.)
• A hybrid, such as writing white papers for the aviation industry
• By geography

Nick told us about a copywriter in South Florida who specializes in writing copy for small businesses in that area. He markets himself at meetings, small local conferences, and trade shows.

If you’re not yet comfortable marketing yourself to big companies, you might start with smaller businesses in your local area. Once you’ve built a portfolio, the big companies may be coming to you!

Your specialty needs to be in an area that pulls you away from the crowd, and where you know who to speak to in order to get work.

Go Where the Money Is

This might seem obvious, but it needs to be stated. If you go to a local business that doesn’t understand outsourcing or working with freelancers, and doesn’t get the value you can add to their business, they might try to obtain your services by bartering. However, if you’re working with a company that understands the value of copywriting and is used to outsourcing, they’ll pay you a good fee.

You should look for companies that are fairly sophisticated in their marketing efforts, and try to get as close to the point of sale as possible.

When you’re writing a landing page or other point of sale copy, it’s easy for the client to measure the results you’re generating for them.

Know Where to Find Prospects

If you have a broad category like alternative health, it’s overwhelming to try to figure out where to start pitching for new clients. However, if your niche is tightly defined, you’ll have an accessible list of prospects to contact.

When deciding on a niche, check to see if it meets these criteria:

1. Can I reach them?
2. Is the money there?
3. Is marketing to this niche efficient?

If you’re using your time wisely, you’ll be able to create a list and just start at the top.

Make Sure You Enjoy Your Niche

When you enjoy what you’re doing, the quality of your work improves!

If you try to get into a niche because there’s a ton of money in it, but you don’t enjoy it, you’ll be miserable. On top of that, you’ll be overtaken by others in niches with less profit potential because they enjoy what they’re doing.

When a copywriter is excited about a topic, it shows through.

Look for Work that Repeats

It’s much easier and more profitable to do multiple assignments for the same client than one-time jobs for many different clients. (Remember, looking for clients is time you spend working that you can’t bill for!)

Newsletters and email are naturals for repeat business. A landing page can also turn into repeat business if you get good results with the first one.

If an assignment doesn’t lend itself to repetition, you can still look for repeating work with that client. If you do SEO (Search Engine Optimization), for example, tell the client you’ll be happy to look over each new web page for him. When you do this, you’re essentially creating a repeat engagement for yourself.

How to Leverage the Marketing Advantage of Having a Niche

Once you have a well-defined niche, it’s possible to write a marketing message to which your prospects respond with, “Yes, that’s precisely what I’m looking for right now.”

If you’re a generalist, it’s almost impossible to write a headline for your own website’s home page that will grab anyone’s attention. When you have a tight niche, your marketing message can be specific.

Market Your Business Daily

You should plan some marketing time in your schedule every single day. Doing a little, consistently, will garner better results than making a big marketing splash and then stopping.

Get Your Message Out Across Multiple Channels

Articles, email, social media, newsletters, phone calls, and press releases are all legitimate marketing venues, and you should use them all.

Test, Adjust, and Repeat

Your message will never be perfect, but with testing and adjusting, you can make it more effective.

Nick advised us to be brutally honest with ourselves — don’t just get started and hope for the best or you’ll be disappointed.

Once you find a good, targeted niche, become more proactive and businesslike, the results will astound you. Best of all, you’ll love your work, make more money, and enjoy your clients.

Research can be your golden ticket or the bane of your existence as a web writer.

It all depends on how you look at it.

In her essay today, Heather Robson brings up some excellent points on how to do quality research while avoiding pitfalls.

NOTE: See The Complete Reality Blog Here

The Two Biggest Pitfalls To Research

In my book, research is risky if you don’t know how to find that happy medium.

By that, I mean knowing when you’ve done enough but stopping before you’ve done too much. You’ve got to land somewhere in the middle to make the best use of your time and really put together solid copy.

Here’s why:

When you do too little research, the risks are great. For one, you’re bound to be short on fresh ideas. Worse yet, you could overlook some major development in the industry you’re writing about. This could make your client see you as ill-informed, not to mention result in weak, watered down copy.

When you do too much research, you make your entire project ten times more difficult. Though ideas may be plentiful, it quickly becomes hard to know which ones you should include and which ones to skip. You might end up fattening your copy with too many ideas, which makes it boring to your reader. Plus, it’s very easy to lose hours and hours to research, which lowers your overall productivity and compensation.

Two Research “Gems” I Recommend

After making both of the mistakes I mentioned above, I’ve developed two solutions. Heather also talks about them, though with a slight twist. Which makes a good point: Take these tips as guidelines and adapt them for your own needs.

1.)    Put a time limit on your research. When I’m writing for the alternative health market, I get completely engrossed in the newest studies and supplement revelations. Too many times, I’ve spent all my allotted writing time on research, making for a poorly thrown-together promotion.  Because of that, I’ve learned to set a timer for 2-3 hours of research, depending on the size and scope of the project I’m doing. This ensures I get enough fodder for my copy, but I still quit while I’m ahead.

2.)    Organize your research notes after you’re done researching. Heather mentions using 3×5 cards to record research notes, because afterwards she’s able to move her ideas around in different combinations to come up with the most cohesive argument possible. I do something similar. I cut and paste a lot of my research notes into a single document. Then, I print out my notes and cut up the paper, thus separating the major ideas into skinny strips. From there, I’m able to take my strips of paper and move them around till I have a strong argument to work from.

I highly recommend taking the time to define your own “research system” early on in your career. It’ll make it that much easier to be efficient and profitable later on.

Speaking Of Being Profitable: New Wealthy Web Writer Challenge Announced!

This is huge, and exciting, and packed with momentum — so take note! Here at the Wealthy Web Writer, we’ve enjoyed such a tremendous response to our Reality Blog Challenges that we’re going to ramp them up!

I’ll now be unveiling monthly Wealthy Web Writer Challenges that will involve our entire member community. Let’s just say it’s pretty clear these Challenges have made a difference in jumpstarting the careers of our members, so we want to make sure EVERY member has the opportunity to get on board (and not just you faithful Reality Blog readers, though I’ll be secretly rooting for you each month!).

Better yet, we’re going to revisit last month’s Reality Blog Challenge, which was to get your website up and running. That Challenge definitely struck a nerve in the Wealthy Web Writer community, since so many of us have found self-promotional websites to be our greatest hurdle (me included). Yet, it’s also our greatest tool for client generation.

SO, stay posted for the official guidelines for this newest Challenge. I’ll have them up within the next day or two. What I can tell you now, though, is that the prize for the winner will be worth roughly $500! As my farmer uncle likes to say, “Them’s some big potatoes!”

Holy Cow, It Gets Even Better

Besides winning $500 and having a wealth-generating website working 24/7 for you, there’s another reason you should do this Challenge: AWAI is getting ready to launch the most comprehensive, walks-you-through-from-start-to-finish web-building webinar EVER!

It starts September 27th, and takes place over four, info-packed evenings. I know some of our best and brightest web experts will be shelling out priceless tips on how to quickly launch your website — and believe me when I say NO TECHIE SKILLS are required!

If I were you, I’d opt in to the Challenge and take part in the webinar series. Not only does that virtually guarantee you’ll have a functioning, profit-attracting website by the month’s end, it also makes you eligible for all the prizes — the $500 prize on this end, and the oh-my-goodness-I’ve-never-heard-of-such-mind-blowing-prizes from the webinar.

Seriously. The prizes are that good. I’m not sure Rebecca has officially unveiled them so I can’t spill all the details yet, but I’m just going to say WOW, and WOW again.

Remember, details on the Challenge are coming soon. Stay posted, or contact me if you’re impatient for details. And, in the meantime, sign up for the web-building webinar.

Best,

Mindy

Connect with me to build your support network:

Facebook
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NOTE: See The Complete Reality Blog Here

Your deadline is looming … maybe not right on the horizon, but it’s out there …

Your stomach starts to knot up and you start to panic a little. You know you need to get started, but you just can’t find the words.

Nine times out of ten when this happens, it’s because you haven’t done enough research. Okay, I made that statistic up; but still, slim research does lead to writer’s block. I know this from experience.

As a web writer, research is a critical part of what you do. The good news is if you do enough research, the words flow much easier and have the potential for a much bigger impact. AND with a little practice, you can get your research done pretty darn quickly.

The faster and more thorough you are at research, the quicker and easier you’ll finish your projects, your end results will be stronger, and you’ll get paid more. It’s hard not to think that’s a good idea.

There’s no single right way to do research, so I recommend you experiment a little and come up with a process that works for you. What I’m going to share with you here is the process I use and that works well for me.

So, let’s get started.

The Product

I start with product research. When you’re writing a promotion, a good solid understanding of the product — of its features and the benefits that grow out of them, of its history and development, and of its position within the industry — is going to lay the foundation for all the other research you gather. So, it’s pretty important.

Fortunately, product research is usually easy.

First, request a sample of the product. If it’s a physical product, handle it. Use it. Get a feel for it. Take notes on your impressions. If it’s a service, test it out if at all possible. If you can’t test it, ask for data about its track record.

Next, ask your client for any literature they have on the product. Specify that you don’t just want sales literature. If there’s an instruction manual, you want to see that. If the developer has any notes to share, you want those, too.

Then, if it’s an established product, schedule an interview with a customer service rep and a salesperson. The customer service rep can let you know about the most common reasons why a product is returned — objections for you to overcome. The salesperson can let you know the reasons why people buy the product — priceless information for a copywriter.

If the product is a new launch, talk with someone from the development team and dig for all the product’s features and expected benefits.

Finally, if it’s appropriate, look for studies that are relevant to the product. A study published in a reputable journal or newspaper can make a strong case in just a sentence or two where you might otherwise have to write paragraphs!

As you do this research, either take notes in a document in your computer — I usually write bullets or sentences with a quick attribution and position them in the major area of the document where I think they’ll end up — or use 3×5 cards to capture each point and where you got it from.

I use both methods depending on my mood. If I seem to be having a hard time focusing or organizing, I usually use the old-fashioned card method because it gives me the freedom to quickly, physically reorganize my thoughts and ideas.

After you finish getting to know your product, it’s time to broaden the picture a bit …

The Industry

Next, I move to the industry. Now, if you specialize in an industry, you might be able to skip this step, but I’ve found that even in an industry I write a lot for like alternative health, it’s useful to check in on industry news and trends.

The reason to do this is that when you get a feel for current trends in the industry, you can often find a hook for your Big Idea that will really resonate with your audience because it’s at the fore of their minds.

When you can connect your sales package to what’s happening right now, it’s much easier to get people’s attention and keep it.

When researching an industry, also look for any facts, figures, images, or statistics that relate to your product and that can help you build a strong case for a purchase. These facts and figures, when sprinkled throughout your promotion, build your credibility, and can help to overcome objections.

Again, make sure you write down anything you might use and include where you found it in your notes.

Industry research shouldn’t take you too long — a couple of hours at the outside. Once that’s done, it’s time to get into the really fun stuff … your audience.

The Audience

Your audience is more than just a demographic. It’s important to know that the people who tend to buy your product are in their 30s, affluent, female, and have a college education, but it’s also important not to stop there.

You need to find out your audience’s values. If you understand their values, you can connect with them more easily — very important for a successful promotion — and you can help them see more clearly why it will cost them more not to buy your product than if they do buy it. If you can make your audience see that, then you’ll succeed every time.

So, how do you get inside your audience’s head?

Well, the best way I’ve found is to find someone from your target audience and talk to them. It’s always better to write like you’re talking to an individual than to write like you’re talking to a group. So, find an individual and talk to them.

Ask them about the product, the industry, the benefits they would realize from the product, and why they would value such a thing. Talk to them about the problems they face that the product you’re representing can help to solve. Dig deep here. Don’t just look at the surface symptoms of the problem — look for longer-lasting negative impacts, too. Talk to them about what solutions they’ve tried that haven’t worked and why they didn’t work. Ask them about what it would be like to find a solution that really does work — find out what change they would experience.

And then, ask them about where they go to find more information about these things — you want to find books, forums, chat rooms, websites, newsletters, articles, and magazines. Make a list of the places they say, and then visit those places. Read. Take notes. On websites, follow links to other sites. Read some more. Take more notes.

You do have to be careful in this stage. It’s super-easy to fall down a rabbit hole and not come out again for days. The information you’ll find is just so interesting and there’s so much of it … so set a stopping point. You can do this by setting a time limit or by starting with a list of questions about your audience and concluding your research when those questions are answered. The important thing is to have a clear stopping point.

For more ideas on getting to know your audience, check out Roy Furr’s article Would You Like to Get to Know Me?

The Connections

Once you’ve researched your product, the industry, and your audience, it’s time to start making connections between your audience and the other research you’ve gathered.

Most of these will come pretty naturally from the process you’ve already completed, but this is a good time to look for any you missed. What you’re looking for here is things like product features or benefits that answer a need among your audience, or industry statistics that speak to your audience’s values or worries.

Basically, what you do in this step is review your research and look at how it goes together. Once again, I find 3×5 cards useful for this. Being able to move the ideas around and see how they go together is helpful. You want to find ways your research weaves together to make a strong, cohesive picture that argues for the value of buying the product you’re selling. Remember, you want your audience to come away knowing that if they choose not to buy, it will cost them more than if they choose to buy. Look for connections in your research that will help you make that case.

Research is a critically important step in the success of any promotion that you write. Learn more about doing research with ease — or even becoming a professional researcher who works with copywriters on this important phase of the writing process — by checking out AWAI’s Secrets of Becoming an Internet Research Specialist: How to Surf the Web for Freedom and Profit, which has just been re-released due to overwhelming demand.

“It used to be that people needed products to survive. Now products need people to survive.” – Nicholas Johnson

Welcome back! I hope you had a great week.

Since we are all primarily concerned with web copywriting techniques here, I thought that’s where we should spend some quality time over the next few weeks. As always, if something comes along off the beaten path that piques my interest and that I think would be beneficial to you as an aspiring copywriter, I’ll take a break and insert it. Then I’ll get back to the web copywriting discussion the following week.

But for now, let’s concentrate on the catchphrase of the day, something we all aspire to become … a “Wealthy Web Writer.”

Advertising Then and Now

American advertising has grown massively since the 1920s, and current advertising expenditures are about 100 times greater than in that decade. New media, including radio, television, and the Internet, deliver commercial messages around the clock and around the world in ways our parents and grandparents could not have imagined 60 or 80 years ago. Well, to be honest … even 10 or 15 years ago!

Beneath the obvious changes, however, remains the triad of advertiser, agency, and medium as the foundation of the business relations of advertising. But, that’s where the similarities end.

Today’s advertising challenges make the “come one, come all” type of ad obselete, and instead involve an uphill battle to position a product or service in front of a targeted audience with purchase intent. Why the change in philosophy?

Because the rules of the game have changed.

It is no longer feasible to market mass-produced items to an undifferentiated consuming public. Now, in a striking contrast to traditional mass-market advertising styles, the shift has gravitated toward ever-more-subtle efforts to segment and target particular groups for specific products.

And, what do these particular groups turn to first when they need something? Where is the first place they look?

The Internet, of course.

And who’s going to be there to introduce them to what they’re looking for?

You!

You see, even with the proliferation of the Internet (now over 1 trillion URLs, says Google), and all the talk about Internet sales and advertising, very few people truly understand the complexities of the Internet sales funnel. But those that do will be able to use their specialized knowledge in the field of web copywriting and have the chance to parlay it into a solid, six-figure income. (If you’re reading articles like this, then you’re well on your way.)

Web copywriting and advertising is a huge topic that has volumes written about it every day. There are those “super gurus” out there that are far more prolific than me, although I think I’ve done okay in my small neck of the woods. Over the last 10 years or so, I’ve written copy for nearly 100 websites. In almost every case, there’s been a significant spike in online traffic and conversions — some to the tune of a 30% increase. I’ve written for some pretty good companies, too, like Mercedes Benz and Audi dealers, Purolator Courier, a Philadelphia Phillies minor league ball club, a rehab facility, high-end custom home theater companies, and many more.

But no one knows it all, and I — like you — am still learning. Over the years, I’ve gathered bits and pieces and filled marble notebooks with information that I felt was relevant to writing for the Internet (and writing in general). And it’s from my experience and notes that we’ll focus our discussion today.

Taking it Step by Step

We, as web marketers, should not think of ourselves as “traffic drivers” as much as “customer acquisition managers.” Because that’s really what it’s all about. It is our job to manage the sales process from the point where a prospect first enters the conversion funnel to the point where they exit (hopefully having purchased something).

Trying to increase sales simply by driving more traffic to a website is like trying to keep a leaky bucket full by dumping more water in it rather than plugging the holes. What we should be doing instead is trying to keep more of the site’s visitors from falling out of the funnel on the way to the close.

The dividends this pays are enormous, including:

• More sales from existing traffic
• Reduced customer acquisition costs
• Increased customer retention rates
• Increased lifetime value of a customer

So with that in mind, let’s take a broad look at five areas where improvements can be made that will result in increased closing and conversions rates:

Planning

Planning involves everything that happens before your prospect reaches your (or your customer’s) website. It’s about understanding the company’s UVP (Unique Value Proposition), and mapping out the site’s storyboard. It’s about understanding the marketplace for the product or service and knowing the prospect’s reasons for seeking it out. Michael Masterson talks about entering the “running conversation” in a prospect’s mind. And, that’s really the point you should be striving for. What is it that keeps them up at night? What is it that keeps them from having a good day, or threatens the security of their family? Answer those questions and you’ll be looked upon as a trusted source.

Structure

You need to be able to accurately analyze the structure of a website. This includes the effectiveness of the navigation, information architecture, the overall design and style, layout, technology used, and the speed (or perception thereof) of the site. How hard does the site’s design make it for a prospect to drill down to the information he or she came there for? Could a simple shortcut increase conversions? That’s exactly what happened to one company that eliminated one step in the process and delivered traffic right to the product page. They ended up increasing sales by a whopping 39%.

Momentum

Momentum largely involves taking a site’s visitors by the hand and showing them what it is you want them to do next. Don’t leave it to chance. Part of this is creating the desire that drives action. Another part goes back to layout and design by having clear CTA (Call-To-Action) buttons up front and conspicuously located. Remember we talked about “analysis paralysis” a couple of weeks ago? The same principle could apply here and it’s your job to guard against it. Give your prospect a clear roadmap to the final destination and take all the momentum decisions out of his or her hands and put them in yours!

Communication

Remember that communication isn’t necessarily what you intend, it’s what your customers perceive. It will be up to you to decide how much copy is just the right amount. A lot of this depends on the product itself, and a lot depends on whom you’re talking to. Remember the stories about website visitors only spending 10 seconds on a site before moving on if they find nothing of value? Personally, I don’t think that’s true — you’re lucky if you get three-to-five seconds. You need to succinctly tap the customer’s pain point, set the mood, and demonstrate that you have something of value that will take that pain away. And, you need to do it in the span of a glance.

Value

Customers search for products, but they buy “value.” Consequently, you need to be effectively selling the product’s benefits, rather than merely its features. And a customer’s value-added experience goes beyond the product, too. Are they comfortable spending time on the website? Does the overall layout and design of the site reflect the company’s UVP? Is the order fulfillment a swift and easy process? Value is demonstrated in every step the customer takes, and everything the customer sees on the site. Don’t make them have to guess at it.

We’ll leave it at that for this week. I’d really love to hear your experiences — both good and bad — in writing web copy and developing an online sales funnel. I think this really epitomizes the essence of why a lot of us are here, so let’s start picking it apart!

I’ll talk to you again next week. Until then, and as always …

Good health and good writing!

Date: September 7, 2010

Time: 3PM ET

Topic: Working with Clients

Speaker: Rebecca Matter

When you’re trying to get the attention of a potential client, you call, you email, you follow-up… you go above and beyond the call of duty just to get them to notice you.

But it’s what happens after they hire you that really moves your web-writing career forward.

Rebecca Matter was asked to put this session together for International Freelancers Day, and wanted to make sure you had access to this important event too.

During her presentation you’ll discover five things you can do with every client to make sure you remain competitive, while at the same time ensure your clients…

• Properly value you and your work
• Are willing to pay you what you’re worth (and then some!)
• Will continue to give you assignments

Don’t miss this event! This could be your secret weapon to creating a long lasting relationship with your next client that can provide endless opportunities.

Rebecca’s presentation will be posted here on September 7th.

Time: TBD

Topic: SEO

Speaker: Heather Lloyd-Martin

SEO copywriting (search engine optimization) is a web-writing skill that everyone needs to learn. It involves re-working the copy on a web page so that the link to that website appears near the top of the search results when a person uses a search engine (like Google or Yahoo) to find what they’re looking for.

The ideal end result is to drive more visitors to your website (or your client’s website), without paying a dime in advertising campaigns to get them there.

During this teleconference SEO copywriting pioneer, Heather Lloyd-Martin will give you an overview of this web writing niche including:

• What SEO copywriting is and how it’s changed;
• What the top opportunities are for SEO copywriters;
• The best way to break into the SEO copywriting market today;
• How much you can earn as an SEO copywriter;
• How to learn SEO copywriting;
• And much more!

Even if you’re a brand-new copywriter, you can jump in right away and start making solid money from day one as an SEO copywriter.

Date: TBD

Time: 3PM ET

Topic: Wealthy Web Writer Membership

Speakers: Rebecca Matter, Jaclyn Mehler & Heather Robson

Team Wealthy Web Writer is gathering together to welcome you to the site and to make sure you’re getting the most out of your membership.

Meet the team, Rebecca Matter, Jaclyn Mehler, Heather Robson and discover:

• Everything you’re entitled to with your membership;
• How to find what you need on the site;
• Where to start if you’re new to web writing;
• How to get more involved with the Wealthy Web Writer community;
• And much more!

We hope you can join us!

Webinar Instructions will be posted here before the event.

Note: If you can’t make the live event don’t worry! The playback will automatically be added to the site after the event.

That’s the tagline I use for my own web writing business. I know exactly how to help my clients make more sales, more often. There are three keys—staying in touch, being useful, and asking for sales.

I know this. I know how to structure the process, how to implement it, and how to maintain it. I know how to test it, track it, tweak it and improve it. It’s what I help my clients do. And yet, I’m like the cobbler with a bunch of shoeless children following in my wake because I don’t do this for my own business.

Ridiculous, really. And I’d hesitate to even mention the failing here except that I know—or at least I’m willing bet—that you don’t do these things either even though you know how and you know you should. If you do, congratulations! Pat yourself on the back. You’re doing the easiest, most effective, smartest thing you can to boost your profits.

But if you’re not—like I’m not—then let’s get cracking and get this broken aspect of our businesses fixed. By making this one change you can put an end to the feast or famine cycle that most freelancers contend without throughout their careers.

Ready…

To get you thinking about these three things you need to do—connect, give, ask—our Wealthy Web Writers and members provided some excellent advice this last week.

First check out member Christine Gillick’s article, 5 Worthwhile Ways to Practice Writing Daily. Inside you’ll find ideas for both connecting with your target audience and ways to provide them with something of value. All the while, you’ll be honing your writing skills. It’s an all around win.

Then, don’t miss out on Roy Furr’s article on why connecting with your prospects, giving away value, and asking for sales will always increase your sales and how you can use that knowledge to quickly and easily land more projects, which increases your own personal sales.

Finally, get inspired with Mindy’s blog post on how learning to ask for more sales without feeling like you’re asking for a favor has opened the spigot on her own project load and shifted her web writing career into high gear.

Set…

Time for this week’s plan to keep you moving forward. This is really one of the most important things you can do for your business, so make a pact with yourself right now that you’ll follow through on this plan.

Monday: Put a writing-time block on your daily calendar. During this time focus on writing things that will either land you new clients or help you stay connected with existing clients. Promise yourself to keep that daily appointment.

Tuesday: Make a list of your existing clients. Brainstorm at least one idea for each that could help them build on past work you’ve done for them and realize more sales.

Wednesday: Send each of your clients an email with the suggestions you came up with yesterday.

Thursday: If you don’t have an email list, start building one. Begin by selecting an email list manager. There are a ton good, easy-to-use, online solutions. Two I recommend are MailChimp and Aweber.

Friday: Spend 15 minutes setting up your email list account and getting familiar with the interface.

Now you’re ready to add anyone you come in contact with to your email list—as long as you have their permission, of course. Once you do that, you can stay connected with them by giving them useful information and you can build your sales by occasionally asking them for their business. Now…

Go!

Description
Wunderman, a New York agency, is seeking an online copywriter with interactive and business-to-consumer writing experience. You’ll work on everything from long form web pages to short form ads to headlines. You must have a solid understanding of branding and experience working in a variety of web media.

Requirements
The ideal online copywriter has four years professional experience with direct marketing knowledge, cross channel knowledge and online marketing knowledge. You should have excellent writing and communication skills along with the ability to work on multiple projects at the same time.

Apply Now