Saturday, July 30, 2005
Presence and Procrastination
The Power of Presence
I don't do any marketing anymore. I market all the time. Huh? A little contradictory.
The second statement reveals a basic truth about the freelance life. You are marketing all the time whether you intend to or not. If you choose to answer the phone and talk to a potential client you are marketing. If you let the answering machine pick it up, you are still marketing your message - such as you can in a short annoying machine message. And if unplug your phone entirely, you are still marketing, albeit in a very negative way by your silence.
When I say I don't do any marketing anymore, I mean in the traditional sense. I don't make cold calls (via the phone or email). I don't go to networking events. I don't belong to any associations. Let me very quickly emphasize that if you are starting out in your writing career these techniques remain a very important part of your marketing arsenal. VERY IMPORTANT. Next issue I will review some of those key techniques for getting a foothold in the freelance writing market.
But once you have established a substantial presence in the marketplace you reach a relatively joyful place where clients chase you rather than you chase them. And when they are chasing you, you have incredible leverage when it comes to negotiating price.
So how do you gain presence?
Certainly by the above noted traditional methods. They are tried and true.
But now, the power of the Internet has changed everything. You can have a Blog up and running in five minutes flat and at no financial cost. You can have a web site up almost as quickly and at reasonable cost. You can write your own newsletter and have it automatically distributed by an internet- based distribution company for incredibly inexpensive rates.
You can cross-affiliate with other newsletters. Or you simply contribute to someone else's newsletter.
Now I can hear your skepticism already? In this day and age, where there are more web pages than there are people in the world - how can you joining the electronic fray make any difference anymore?
What can I tell you? I am now getting clients and referrals directly and indirectly through establishing an electronic presence. They are coming to me. With two newsletters and two Blogs of my own, plus making contributions to two other newsletters - this does take a commitment of time and writing. But let's just say that the effort has more than paid for itself.
More on this next issue.
In Praise of Procrastination ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ask any writer how their writing is going and they will usually mumble something non-committal. Most of us sweat blood when it comes getting words from keyboard to monitor, and many love "having written" - but the actual writing part "not so much." For my part I love the re-writes, but hate getting that first draft - the puke draft - up on the computer screen. Until I get to that "aha, I think I've got it", I am in a very bad place. I pace the floor, do some administrative work, go online to see how meagerly my meager stocks are doing- anything to avoid that blasted keyboard. Like all writers, I am a procrastinator.
The fact is most of us can't physically write for eight hours a day. Our brain cells won't stand for it. Mores the pity. I find I get my best work done if I am working on three or four speeches at the same time. Well not exactly the same time, but having various projects in various stages of completion can help prevent getting hopelessly bogged down on a single project. It's hard to get writer's block when you have multiple projects on the go.
A writing colleague of mine has quite a tranquil view of the matter. She believes that most of the writing goes on during all that stuff you do before you actually put pen to paper so to speak. She says "give yourself permission to procrastinate." So luxuriate in your down time, rejoice in your relaxation knowing that you are in fact "pre-writing". Now if you can just figure out a way to your pre-writing hours billable hours. Or maybe you do?
At what stage does the billing clock turn on for you? And when do you turn it off?
