In working on a project for a client, I'm reading through reams of material on staffing and discovering something that comes as no surprise to me: with the increased need for flexibility and agility to compete worldwide, "the smartest companies are taking bold approaches to staffing. ... They are moving away from hiring processes that can take weeks or months .... They no longer see the wisdom in filling every position with a permanent employee [and] rely more heavily on temporary and contract employees." (StaffingSmarts)
Given the many costs to a permanent employee, including payroll taxes, paid vacation and sick days, health benefits, the paperwork, and so on ... and given the challenges of letting them go if they're not needed ... and given the challenge of changing the hours they work or having them ideally fit each new project that comes along ... it just seems completely natural in a virtually connected world that many of our projects would be handled by contract experts that best fit. They may charge a up front higher salary, but may also provide better results (due to specialization) at a lower total cost to the business. I remember working for a monthly newspaper in 2000 and having the publisher talk about the possibility of having us work remotely -- at least some days of the week -- as technology continued to advance. I moved the next year and began freelancing; and he sold the business not long afterward. But that idea was fixed in my mind at the time, and I'm convinced that this is a strong model for the future. This is precisely why I offer my part-time services as a Marketing Director and a Writer on Retainer. The idea is to allow any business to have these critical services as if on staff, because the regular work means getting to know that individual business and how best to serve it without becoming a high monthly cost or coming with other employee complications. Of course there may be several areas where your business can benefit from this kind of arrangement. But if you need any help with writing and marketing in your business ... pick up the phone or write me. I love answering discovering new businesses and people and figuring out how I can help to improve a bottom line. So you're excited to get a book written either to promote your business or your ideas, or to introduce the next great novel to the world. Only ... you're not a writer and you know it. Or you just don't have the time. You know what you want to say, at least on some level, and you want someone helping you to get it down on paper.
You're looking for a ghostwriter. But how, oh how, do you get the right person on the job? Here are my tips for finding the right ghostwriter for your next book project: 1) Determine the purpose and value of your project. Doing this first helps you determine what kind of writer you really need. The purpose tells you what kind of knowledge the writer needs to have, or at least what he'll need to wrap his brain around. Hopefully he's even passionate about the topic and/or has experience with it. For instance, if you're promoting your business with a book, is he experienced with business? More specifically, with your FIELD of business? If you're promoting an idea, does he agree with that idea? Does he know about it already? Does he have a background so he knows the language that's typically used? Does he know the arguments for and against it? If you're writing a novel, has he written any in that genre? Once you know the value, then you know what you can afford to spend. If you're just hoping it will help to land another project or two over time and it's only worth a couple thousand dollars at most to you, set your budget. If you can't get it done for what it's worth to you, don't do it. Or look for alternatives. A short e-book is far more affordable than a full-length book. You can also consider an autoresponder series (e-mails that get sent automatically to prospects, offering them valuable content as well as some level of promotion), a video, etc. 2) Determine your other needs. You may only need someone who can put your information or story together because you already have a handle on publishing the book (physically and/or electronically), marketing it, or pitching it to agents. On the other hand, maybe you need someone who can guide you on all these extra points so he really becomes a publishing partner. If you want your writer to have these extra skills, make sure to include these points in your search. 3) Google "ghostwriters," go to freelance bidding sites, or check me out. Then start the real work of matching people people based on the purpose and value of your project, as well as your additional needs. Outline your project along with your budget (so you're not wasting your time or theirs) and ask prospective writers to give you a sense of their experience with its topic. Remember that most CANNOT list the projects they've worked on. Obviously some may lie about it. But if it's a non-fiction topic you know well, you'll probably be able to see the ones who really understand. If it's fiction ... well, you might want a good liar. But really, you want good writing. If you don't know how to assess good writing from bad, get someone YOU trust to look over writing samples. (If you're not looking to me as one of your writers, I will also assess writing samples for a nominal fee. Just contact me to discuss.) Once you narrow the field down to 2-3 writers, check out their writing online where you can verify that they have done the writing ... just to make sure they write well and appear professional at every turn. When you feel good about them, spend a little time talking by phone or at least e-mail. Get a sense of personality. This is someone who will be putting YOUR ideas to paper. You'll want to enjoy the process as much as possible. 4) Remember what rates really mean. A rate is someone's salary, and if you're not paying someone well enough to make a living, she'll have to be doing other things as well ... and your project may linger. The ghostwriter might not be as responsive as you like in this case, and might even resent the project once she has landed it. So make sure you recognize and pay for the value you expect to receive. Still, a high rate doesn't mean a better writer. It just means one that costs more. It's possible for an experienced pro to cost and lot and not be that good; or for a rookie to work for very little to build up credentials even though he has a natural talent for writing. This is why, in step #3, you've assessed the person's knowledge, skills, and personality as well as you can. If more than one ghostwriter is qualified for your project and they're all within your budget, THEN AND ONLY THEN should you decide based on price (if your intuition isn't pulling you to either one). One small tip, and this is an opinion: someone who's more philosophical will probably be able to make your writing more interesting, because he can connect the dots between concepts, drawing analogies and telling stories in a way that a literalist cannot. He will be able to bring wisdom into a topic that resonates better with the humanity that's at least in most of us. 5) Make sure you both sign a ghostwriting contract. Don't skip this step, as it protects both parties. It lets everyone know what's expected of them, from timelines for drafts to timelines for YOUR feedback (so revisions can be made and the work can continue). It spells out payments, when they're made, and it provides penalties for work not done on time. Importantly, it lets everyone know how they can back out if needed, as well as what happens if someone becomes unable to continue the project (you ran out of money, they got sick, etc.). At the end of the day, all of these tips really aim at one thing: to know the needs of both parties and to make sure they can both fulfill those needs. This is the key to everyone being happy and successful with the ghostwriting arrangement, and is key to you now heading out and finding the ghostwriter that's right for you. Ever wish your business had the expertise on staff to really do a lot with marketing? To figure out the best "low cost" marketing options; options that can be tracked; options that are run professionally?
If you're like a lot of business owners with a passion for other areas of the business but you know how important marketing is to driving business through the door, I'd like to introduce you to my new service. You can get a Director of Marketing that becomes familiar with your business, plans strategy (with you), and executes everything ... all on a freelance basis and for just $1000/month. Now your press releases are handled. Your website is developed. Your social media stays current. You have someone developing written copy, direct mail, YouTube videos ... etc. Things that most businesses never end up doing, or doing well. Click here to learn more. Businesses use writing, and how well that writing is used -- from its reach to the response it receives -- determines much of a company's bottom line. While some businesses have people on staff to develop their content, others (especially smaller businesses) rely on freelance writers to do the job.
This minimizes pay roll and benefits, reduces the commitment to written content, and so on. But you still have to find someone with the right kind of skill set for your needs. For instance:
Importantly, I don't mean any of these as rhetorical questions. You really do need to decide, as a business owner, what kind of person you're after. I've built my business around quality because it's something I've always believed in. I'm a pretty efficient writer as well, but quality always comes before quantity because I believe it yields the long-term results that I think are best for the health of a business. I'm also someone who freely adds his 2 cents, because I believe my years of experience give my clients exceptional value. But if someone doesn't want that input, they needn't hire someone with my background. In my opinion, though, it's best to think through what you really want from a freelance writer before hiring him/her, and then laying out your questions or expectations. And whether or not you do, you'll get a clue about the quality of the writer by the questions s/he asks of you. If you don't get questions, someone who wants to know your goals and has ideas that might help you to reach those ... if you simply get someone ready to take your money to produce something, ask yourself if that's what is best for your business. It might be -- but know, going in, that this particular person probably isn't someone who has your back. They're just getting a job done and moving on. So what questions would you ask a freelance writer when hiring one? Or what questions do you think they should be asking you? Or ... do you have questions about how to hire a freelance writer? If so, ask in the comments here and I'll make sure to offer my thoughts. It's affecting your bottom line, you know. Your writing, I mean. It's making you money ... or it's not. How does that make you feel?
It might be what's written on your site. It might even be the scripts for audios or videos on your site. Could be that postcard you're sending out or the larger direct mail package. Your communication with prospects and customers is failing, getting by, or hitting home runs. And if it's not doing everything you think it could ... or you doing something about it? Would you like to? Would you like to see what could be done ... at NO cost or obligation? That's where my new copywriting challenge comes in. As long as I keep the offer posted on my copywriting page, I'm extending FREE custom samples on any one copywriting project you may have. You simply discuss your project with me, get a quote, and if my rates fit your needs, I'm off an running on a custom sample with no obligation on your quote. Of course there's nothing quite like testing results of a finished project against what you have today. Testing is at the heart of true business copywriting. But until you see what can be done, you may not have a sense of its value. And that's what I'd love to introduce to you. Something that have a better impact on your bottom line. There are a number of free SEO software options out there to help you understand your website's relationship with the search engines. And whether you're a local small business or someone providing services online like I am, this kind of software can have a big impact on your bottom line. Today I'm going to give you a quick look at how I use Traffic Travis to help in my online marketing efforts. Keep in mind, this barely scratches the surface of what the software does, but it's a specific example of how you can use it in a very real way to gain more traffic to your site. For this example, I've taken my speech writing website. The site is listed in the top 10 for a bunch of keywords related to speech writing, but when I entered several related keywords into the software to get a sense of my positions, I discovered a couple of things: First, "speech writing" is very close to the top 10, which means page 1 of Google results. And that's a term with around 27,000 monthly searches (per Google's AdWords tool). But I'm nowhere in the top 20 results for "speech writing help." Even though there are only around 390 searches for that per month (in the U.S. -- and actually, I get jobs from around the world), think about the difference: "speech writing" can be searched by people trying to learn about speech writing, and that may account for a lot of the traffic. "speech writing help," however, is a term searched specifically by someone likely to hire a speech writer. (Of course sometimes still by students, who I don't help.) So that's a more valuable term in one sense for me. And if I do some things to help my site on the term "speech writing help," the similarity of term probably can't hurt my rankings for "speech writing" as well. Could push it onto page 1. In any case, once I saw that I was not ranking in the top 20 for "speech writing help," I checked Google's keyword tool to know what kind of demand was there. I don't want to get a great rank for a term no one's searching for. But as I said, it had meaningful traffic: Keep in mind that "meaningful" traffic has its context -- if I got only 1% of that traffic as new clients each month, that's worth hundreds if not thousands of dollars, depending on the speech they needed. And I only have so much capacity in writing speeches. If, on the other hand, I were running a big agency of writers (which I prefer not to do), this might not be as meaningful. And if I were selling widgets and making $1 profit on each, I would need to get a great deal more traffic to make a keyword worthwhile.
In any case, now you can see how Traffic Travis was able to help me look at a search area I could improve on my website, and now I'll likely put together a page on the site related to "speech writing help" -- answering the question of when people really need to hire someone vs. just writing from their own heart. It's actually already part of my FAQs, but now maybe it becomes a page. And when I check results later, I may follow up with another blog entry on this topic. We always like the word "FREE," especially when it means growing our business. But you know something else too: there's no such thing as a free lunch.
So are we really going to spend a couple hours writing your press, providing revisions until you're happy, and then including PAID online distribution for you ... all for FREE? Nope. But you won't pay us a dime. Confused yet? Let me make it simple: we're continuing to share an unlimited talk, text, and data plan on T-Mobile's network. This includes 4 gigs of full-speed data -- way more than other prepaid networks offer, making it that much better for business. It costs just $49/month. And it works with any GSM phone compatible with T-Mobile. The only other cost is $9 for the SIM card. (That's a one-time fee.) If you'd like unlimited talk, text, and data for your business for just $49/month (plus the usual taxes and fees) and you switch through my link (then activate your phone once the SIM card arrives), I will write and distribute a press release for your business ABSOLUTELY FREE. This is a $200 value! HURRY -- this offer is good through May 2013 only! Questions? Just contact me and I'll be happy to answer anything on the topic. A recent article touts 2013 as the year of the writer, and the reasons they give are the same reasons why it's time for your business to take advantage of truly good writing if you want to grow online.
The bottom line is that both traffic and conversions happen because of quality content. The links people have been buying up over the last many years for their websites, while probably still of some value, are becoming superseded by something I've talked about for years: the need for quality over quantity. Content includes writing as well as audio / video. But even the latter typically involve words, and those words are often best thought out (written down) ahead of time. Some people are very comfortable getting on camera and getting their message across, or doing an audio this way; but often it leads to babbling and going down the wrong road. My suspicion is that search engines will start having success indexing both audio and video based on the clearly spoken words in them; so scripts will matter the way all SEO writing has in the past! Of course content also involves presentation. A well written but ugly website will lose more sales than a gorgeous site with good content. It's all part of the user experience. And I would guess well over half the businesses in America either still need a website or need a more professional one ... even though they're very affordable! (Our packages even include professionally written content.) This rise of the power of writing is one reason why we've launched a new business specifically to partner with those who have exclusive rights to great products and need someone to help with branding and marketing. We ONLY make money in that business when we make sales. Why would be do that? Because WE believe in the power of writing and other content we create. If you're looking for success online in 2013, I'd urge you to have some faith too, and to reach out with your questions about how we can help move your business forward. Service is part of every business, including those that only sell products. And this is true whether we like it or not. However, if we like it, business will go a whole lot better.
Not long ago, I was at a toy store with my kids in a busy vacation town. Plenty of kids were in the place, and the fellow at the counter was of such low energy that it made me cautious in how I let my boys explore the toys ... which of course is part of the buying process. So his apparent aggravation with all the people and noise kept us from really exploring and wanting to buy. He was serving because he had to. On another trip, we of course found ourselves in a toy store once more. Mainly because I love toy stores about as much as my kids do. Not only was this store cool because it had a ton of retro toys and even modern toys that you just haven't seen before, but also because of the woman at the counter. This was a quiet place in a town without many visitors. The store was pretty much all to us, so I didn't want the kids making much racket while they explored. But the woman insisted they try things out. When one son found some chattering teeth, she made sure he put them onto the counter because they would be the loudest that way. She obviously loved having people there and chatting with us without getting in the way. She wanted us to enjoy ourselves. She was serving because she wanted to serve. And I was all too glad to see my kids get some toys there. So how are you serving your customers? Not "how" as in "how are you doing it," but "what's the why behind it?" Because that will make all the difference in the "how." Just for fun ... one of the toys we discovered there? A paper airplane motor. Who knew? It's kind of funny the way adults melt down and start to goo goo when talking with babies, but the fact is, this seems to be an intuitive or instinctual way of relating to the baby. It's not that our natural way of speaking is "goo goo," but we're thinking of the audience. And this is so built-in that it would be strange to see an adult approach a baby and not change his tone or language at all.
We tend to do the same thing with kids too. Even if we speak to them respectfully and honestly, there are some things we talk with them about and some we perhaps do not; and we adapt how we tell them based on their use of language, their understanding of the world, etc. So what about your business? Are you thinking about your audience when you choose your words, when you think about how to explain things, share things, sell things? Do you want to exude a corporate facade or a personal touch? Are you trying to convey fun, sensitivity, seriousness? Why? And how? Why is your first question. It asks who your audience is and what you offer them. How asks how you share that with them. |
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