Wow. August… seriously? In three days? Followed by my older brother’s birthday. It’s a shame that he’s not active in social media or else I’d ask y’all to wish him a happy birthday — especially since his family is out of town. As far as brothers go, he’s a good one even though he fed me popcorn when I was a toddler.

Short ‘n sweet today.

Brain food…

• 5 Ways Crowdsourcing Can Help You Make Some Money. Have you used crowdsourcing? How?
• 5 Reasons Why Your Online Marketing Doesn’t Work. Excellent article at Writer Unboxed by Jane Friedman.
• 3 Reasons People Buy. Make money, save money and lower pain / frustration.
• Promotional Tools for Writers on Google+. Wanna connect there? gplus.to/meryl
• 7 Ways to Structure Your Picture Book. I’d love to write one… but it’ll have to join my growing list of “Somedays…”
• Writer’s Digest Successful Queries Series. Real query letters that landed agents.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 12 Awesome Items Inspired by Darth Vader. That gas mask. Oh, my.
• A Colorful Rubik’s Cube Birthday Cake for Geeks. Saw a similar cake process on Food Network in creating Mondrian Cake at San Francisco MoMa.
• Kia Stop-Motion Ads on Fingernails. Clever and message fits branding to a tee. [Link: Stephen Young]
• Phenomenal Paintings On Marshmallows. Too pretty to eat marshmallows? Nah, bring on the s’mores! Harry Potter edition is my fave.
• The Evolution of the Geek. From Geekus Prime to Gleek.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

Lori Widmer of Words on the Page tells the story of running into a fellow freelancer and playing catch up. The freelancer reported an empty client pot and that “no one’s calling.” I’d love to know how many businesses thrive by sitting back and expecting everyone to come rushing in to hire the business.

Waiting for Clients

If I waited for people to call, I’d be in her situation, too. Marketing isn’t a passive activity or one that we do when we have more time on our hands. Successful freelancers make marketing part of the job. Picturing cold calls? Cold calls work well for many freelancers while others don’t touch that. Networking without Walls or Boundaries lists a few ways to do marketing and they work for me.

Wondering why I have a picture of my son doing archery? Marketing is like archery. If you don’t do it at all, you have no chance of landing anything. If you shoot 10 arrows without aiming, at least one is bound to hit the target. It may not be the bull’s eye, but it’s something. Don’t just sit there, do marketing.

Finding the Right Marketing Activities

Maybe you feel overwhelmed by the many options we have available to us for networking and marketing. Start with one thing. Ignore the rest. Just pick one. Don’t make yourself crazy. Need some ideas? Here are 40+ Easy Marketing Activities for Freelancers.

After you find two or three activities that work for you, then proceed with the next step on How to Manage Your Time with Social Networks.

I’m busier now than two years ago. I used to do book and game reviews all the time. Now, I hardly do them because I have more writing and other work to do. That’s on top of managing my family of five (and doing all the appointments), exercising daily for at least one hour and getting my seven to eight hours of sleep. In spite of this, marketing remains a consistent part of my job.

In writing for several business newsletters, one message keeps repeating itself. When a business needs to cut back on spending, successful ones never cut the budget or time spent on marketing. Those that do eventually lose momentum that by the time things improve, they’re behind their competitors who kept on marketing.

How do you make marketing part of your work? What activities do you do?

Photo by stock.xchng user Maja Lampe

I’ve lost clients over the years. Only one was because she didn’t like my work. However, in defense of my work, she wanted web site content that resembled her business plan — a bad idea that will not go over well with the audience. I tried to explain standard practice and support that with data. It was a relief to get out of that one because it probably would’ve turned into a dreaded project and a bad client.

Anyway, freelancers lose jobs because of budget cuts, changes in a company’s direction, the company going out of business and many other reasons not having to do with you. That’s why it’s important to have balance in your clients. If one dominates, losing the client will be dangerous and it CAN happen.

But that’s not what happened to me. I lost one client due to cutbacks. Another client may not be gone, but I haven’t been able to reach them. Then a games affiliate changed up its program. All this happened within a week or two, so it was a bit much.

I reacted like a human. I reeled and did the whole “Woe is me” thing for a few days, but without it affecting my work. I’m sure my husband was sick of me that week. As soon as I stopped reeling, I started dealing.

I sent emails and tweets to contacts to explore possibilities of replacing one client with a similar type of client. I emailed the non-responding client a couple of times (spread out and to both contacts). I will keep trying to reach them without nagging. I don’t think they have a problem with my work because I’ve checked in with them a few times to ensure I’m more than meeting their needs.

The affiliate thing. That’s one I can’t really fix. I need to write more reviews and articles for The Game Zen, but I’ve been too busy to play games.

Point here. You will lose clients and it will hurt even if it’s not personal. That’s OK. The key is to be proactive before and after it happens.

How to deal with losing clients:

• Ensure you have a variety of clients and projects.
• Make marketing a regular part of your job.
• Check in with your clients to see how you can better serve them.
• Stay in touch with current and past clients. Cheaper than finding new clients.

What other tips do you have for preparing for losing clients and dealing with it?

Image credit: Karl-Erik Bennion

I had a whole box of party favors leftover because I overestimated the number of kids attending. I contacted the company to ask if I could return the unopened party favors for a refund. The company said to keep it, and they’ll issue a refund. Sure, it may cost more for me to send it back and for the company to deal with the return. But to me, the company surprised and delighted me. I have made more purchases after that.

My daughter is a hostess and waitress at a nearby eatery. She had a great day until our family dined there. We were her last customers and she messed up our order. We did not complain. Instead, we told her it was OK and we know mistakes happen. Nonetheless, our drinks were free.

I’ve posted other customer service experiences. In looking at how I land new clients, I find the majority come from word of mouth recommendations. That tells me customer service must play an important role in my career as a writer. I represent me and what you get is me. Customer service is more than just doing great work with a smile. Customer service is also a marketing tool.

I believe the following actions make up the customer service element of a writer’s business:

1. Provide excellent results: You can be the nicest and easiest person in the world, but it won’t save you if you repeatedly submit poor quality work. The client will give up. This isn’t the same thing as perfection. I could keep perfecting this post, but I had to stop and let it go.
2. Meet deadlines: Are you on schedule? Late? Or constantly asking for deadline extensions? Good writers plan ahead so they don’t fall into the last minute trap, which could lead to sacrificing quality.
3. Listen: Let go of what’s on your mind and listen to what the client says so you can understand. Don’t be in a hurry to share your thoughts and experience. It’s easy to miss what the client really wants. Respond by reflecting on what the client said instead of turning it around to make it about you. I received an article request from a client, but the client didn’t like the direction the article took. Several colleagues reviewed the article request and the article. They all agreed I met the request. It doesn’t matter if it was the client’s fault or mine. I collected more information from the client and rewrote it. (See #7.)
4. Make it easy to work with you: Are you easy to work with? Do you fight every edited word? Are you listening to the client’s preferences and styles? Do you follow the client’s process? Are you accessible? Some of the busiest authors are also the most accessible. More accessible than plenty of unknowns.
5. Stay cool: No matter how the client behaves or acts, your attitude and response to the client should never burn bridges. Even if you go separate ways, the client can still talk about you. Sometimes your personalities and styles don’t mesh. It happens. One client wanted web content that didn’t reflect content standards. It was better to separate than to give the client what he wanted. What he wanted wasn’t what I could deliver. Furthermore,  I would not have enjoyed the work, which brings us to…
6. Enjoy the work: Do you hate the work? That will affect your attitude and everything else about the project. Maybe you need to let go. It’s OK to work toward assignments you love and enjoy. Your passion will shine through and make a difference in your outlook, which in turn affects service. I find I procrastinate more on work that I dread. I’m lucky that’s not an issue anymore.
7. Fix mistakes: Problems happen. We all make mistakes. Really. It’s HOW you handle those mistakes that can make the difference between great and lousy customer service.
8. Respond quickly: How quickly do you return calls and emails? Even if you’re swamped, at least acknowledge you received the message and will get back to the person.
9. Solve problems: Do you work to help clients with their problems? Find another or better solution? Some people try to push their solutions on the clients to make it work rather than adapt to clients’ needs.
10. Be honest: A client overpaid me. I emailed the client to let him know and subtracted the overpaid amount in the next invoice. Yes, it’s hard to be truthful in some situations. Telling the truth can do less damage than telling lies and getting found out. Besides, you feel better about yourself. It also creates goodwill.

Regarding perfectionism, Christina Katz said it better than I could. “I’ve given up the tireless quest for perfection for a looser, friendlier style of working with myself and others. I also no longer worry, inordinately, about what other people think of me. I don’t fret about whether they think my service is or isn’t up to snuff. Instead, if my service isn’t momentarily the greatest–because I’m human, so of course this happens from time to time–I apologize and move on,” she says.

How do you provide great customer service?

Winners of Are You Ready to Hire a Virtual Assistant? entry prizes: April wins Five ebooks on writing from Anne Wayman and Tracy Fitzpatrick wins one full copy of Astraware Classic Collection, which includes Astraware Sudoku, Astraware Solitaire, and Astraware Board games. Congratulations!

This entry’s prizes: One copy of Business Daffynitions: Humor from the Workplace from Joe Heuer, the Rock and Roll Guru, one full copy of Orchidia PC game from Joyboost, (See Meryl’s Orchidia review.) and one copy of Andy King’s Website Optimization. As usual, just post a valuable 30+ word comment by July 6.

Either Peter Bowerman‘s name or books came up in the newsletters on writing that I regularly read. Eventually, we exchanged a few emails and I enjoy his knowledge, honesty, and writing. He produces a valuable newsletter and of course, his books are worth every dollar. I’m honored to have him as a guest blogger.

The $75,000 Writer: Follow the Dollars to Freelance Commercial Writing

Imagine This: The editor of a magazine you’ve written several pieces for says yes to a recent query. You outline the parameters of the piece and the conversation turns to money. He says, “Let’s try something a little different this time. Figure out how many hours you think it’ll take to do the piece. Factor in time for research, background reading, travel to and from appointments, brainstorming, interviewing, writing, and editing. Then multiply the hours by $75 and give me a figure.” You return with a number, he says “fine” and you get to work.

Has he lost his mind? Is this a freelancer’s wistful fantasy? In some writing arenas, maybe. But in freelance commercial (corporate) writing, the above-described scenario is pretty much right on the money. And speaking of money, instead of flat fees with potentially vast and open-ended investments of time, here’s a field where fees are based on hourly rates of $50-125 or more, and all time counts.

A Lucrative and Growing Opportunity
In the few decades, prolific downsizing in Corporate America has resulted in the outsourcing of an enormous amount of writing projects to well-paid freelancers. How can you get your share? Who do you contact? Well, for starters, there are two main groups of prospects: End Users (EU) and Middlemen (MM).

End Users (EUs)
EUs are the corporations, large and small (as well as non-profits, universities, and more), that will be the end-users of the writing. With large companies, approach Corporate Communications, also known as “MarCom” (marketing communications). With smaller ones, try marketing, sales, or finally, HR.

A manager with a huge telecommunications firm in Atlanta noted, “Most people would assume that a company of our size would do the bulk of our writing in-house, and they’d be wrong. It’s amazing how much writing we outsource. My writing needs these days are pretty steady, and I pay anywhere from $65-85/hour, depending on the writer’s experience.”

Middlemen (MMs)
MMs – companies often hired by EUs to execute these projects – include advertising agencies, graphic design firms, marketing companies, PR firms, and event production companies – to name the key ones. Few of these entities staff writing talent, preferring instead to hire the right talent for a specific job, and only when needed.

• Ad Agencies/PR Firms: These entities, which can be huge, do staff copywriters for high-profile ad campaigns but will often bring in freelancers to handle “collateral” (marketing brochures, newsletters, sales sheets, etc.). Small agencies offer better opportunities for freelancers.
• Graphic Design Firms: This group tends toward the smaller end and rarely have on-staff writers. They include many “lone rangers” (one-person shops), several of whom have put many thousands of dollars in my pocket over time. Cultivate relationships with the most talented designers at the larger firms. The good ones all eventually go freelance and if they like you and your work, you’ll be on their “A-list.”
• Event Production Companies: These firms handle all aspects of huge corporate conventions, conferences, product launches, etc. That may include show literature, videos, speeches, web content, signage, and more. Contact major convention facilities to get the names of the big players.

Who to Contact?
For all the above MM clients, contact CDs (Creative Directors: often hard to reach), ACDs (Assistant CDs: easier), AEs (Account Executives), PMs (Project Managers). Find them through the actual category listing in the Yellow Pages or through an annual business listing publication.

Beyond the Yellow Pages…
Where else can you find your prospects? Most good-sized metropolitan areas have a weekly business publication ending in “… Business Journal (i.e. Los Angeles Business Journal, Philadelphia Business Journal, etc.) Check www.amcity.com for the full nationwide listing. Get their Book of Lists, an invaluable annual resource listing of the top businesses in dozens of categories.

Whatever your goals or circumstances, the commercial writing field offers a lucrative and growing opportunity for those with good writing skills. Isn’t it time for a raise?

About the author: Peter Bowerman, a freelance copywriter, speaker and business coach, is the author of the award winning Well-Fed Writer titles – how-to “standards” on lucrative freelancing for businesses (www.wellfedwriter.com). In 2007, leveraging the successful self-publishing of his first two books (52,000 copies in print, and a full-time living for five-plus years), he released The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into a Full-Time Living. (www.wellfedsp.com).

We haven’t forgotten to announce the winner for the prize with Do You Own Your Web Site? entry. One commenter is on vacation and we’re waiting for him to let us know what computer he has.

This entry’s prize is a full copy of First Class Flurry PC game from Chanon Sajjamanochai of Viquagames. Meryl’s First Class Fury review. This only comes for Windows PCs, not Macs. You have until June 14 to contribute a valuable 30+ word comment.

I met Janet Lee Johnson in 2004 under unusual circumstances as she’ll explain here. Though the reason for our initial meeting is long past, we stay in touch. I enjoy having discussions with her and exchanging ideas. It’s not often you meet someone who puts fun in work and marketing. Most companies still do thing traditionally… read: boring. Not Janet.

Assorted Blogging History Lessons

… History is a fun subject, now that I no longer have to pass any tests. I couldn’t think of a better subject for my guest post for her blog’s 8th birthday celebration (congratulations meryl.net!) than to relate a little of the history that Meryl and I share from what some might call the ugly teenage years of blogging.

In fact, this post might be called “Sordid History Lessons,” had Meryl not been quite so sweet about our initial meeting.

I met Meryl in late 2004 while serving as VP Marketing for Marqui, a CMS startup out of Vancouver, BC, bent on moving into the US.

I was the lone marketing person there at the time (we were a bootstrapped startup with fewer than 25 employees) and we desperately needed to get into the awareness, minds and (we hoped) hearts of developers.

In August of 2004, a group of Marqui advisors, including Marc Canter, were brainstorming about breaking through the cluttered CMS space and into developer awareness when someone had the auspicious idea of paying developer-centric bloggers to blog about us.

Marc was tasked with coming up with the program and a short-list of bloggers who had the developer community’s ear. He did so, and Meryl was one of the first he identified to be a part of our “paybloggers program.”

My job was to manage the program, give the bloggers something to talk about every week, in case they needed it, and generally provide any support they needed. Oh, and run the rest of Marqui’s marketing at the same time.

Mine was a rough entry into the blogosphere when I started seeing emails pass amongst those chosen to blaze new ground and blog for us – these people were wicked writers! And back then the blogosphere was a lot more like the “wild, wild west” than it is today. These people had opinions, they weren’t afraid to leverage the pulpits they’d spent time nurturing, and I’d just better get used to it.

Our terms?

n exchange for $800/mo., we asked our bloggers to link to our site once a week, to state clearly that they were being paid to write about Marqui (we provided “blogger flags” to select from) and write whatever they wanted to about us.

We’d promised not to censor anything, and we didn’t. We promised to publish everything, and we did. We got trashed, we got praised, we became the poster child (no pun intended) of an ethical debate — should bloggers actually get paid to post?

The jury is still out on that question. In fact, we found that the best way to engage in the discussion was to do it ourselves, and I started blogging immediately as the debate began to rage — to give our perspective, straight from the horse’s mouth.

And while I nursed my initial wounds and bruises from our many detractors, and while my skin became thicker and hair grayer, and while I was finding my voice in my initial, tentative posts I found there were many wonderful, decent people “out there” too.

And Meryl was a pioneer for me in that role. She was not brash. She did not bully. She actually tried to write about the product. She selected the “sensible lady” as her blog flag… I’ve always pictured her that way. Smiling with a confident — yet gentle — look in her eyes.

Hers was a welcome, guiding hand and wisdom from the blogosphere that I will always appreciate, and I will never, ever forget.

About the author
Janet Johnson calls herself a bridge: turns out after 24 years in the business, she is a technologist for marketers, and a marketer for technologists. She is in her bliss when collaborating on projects that bring social media into organizations. She lives in Portland, Oregon, blogs here, and follows Meryl on Twitter from here. Her Facebook page is largely neglected, as she lives in the moment when not tackling strategic issues.

• Stay out of the Recession with Email Marketing
• A New Game! What happens when self-published books skip the editing process. [Link: Lori Cates]
• 70 Million Definitions of “Blog” and Counting: I love an intelligent discussion and this is one.
• Friday Word Fun: Why do we drive on a parkway and …
• Where to Find Quality Web Templates and Blog Themes

And for fun because we’re allowed:

• 89 useless facts [Link: Ritu B Pant]
• 10 real-life superheroes
• Caller complaints: Fight back against telemarketers
• RadioTime: Listen to radio… local, international, and internet. Site relaunched with a new design. Disclaimer: I’m one of the guilty parties behind the site changes. The content, of course. Free service. The only thing that costs anything is RedButton, which is TiVO for radio. You can try it for 14 days.

Remember to join the birthday celebration! Lots of prizes and easy to enter.

With book coverage in print and newspaper sales declining, authors and publishers must extend their reach to the Internet if they want to boost book sales and publicity. Furthermore, authors are more involved in marketing their books than in the past as publishers can’t or won’t do enough.

Print publications still play a valuable role in books’ lives though the Internet offers many other advantages for promoting books:

• No need to rely on battery power, electricity, or a working Internet connection to read print.
• People leave finished copies of printed resources in doctor’s offices, coffee shops, and other public places for others to pick up.
• No shut down needed upon flight take off and landing.
• No taking it out of your carry on or briefcase to get through airport security.
• Fewer distractions and information noise as you don’t have links and animation enticing you away from your reading.
• Knowing where something starts and ends. The Internet consists of connected pages making it easy for someone to jump from page to page endlessly.
• Just open and read. No booting up, waiting for loading applications and pages, signing on…

Authors and publishers need to make the Internet their partner in marketing books. The Internet offers the following benefits:

• Cheap: It costs as little as $5 a month to have a Web site and $0 for a page on sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Bookhitch. Plus, add the book to your e-mail and discussion board signature for noticing when people read your e-mails and posts.
• Search: Search engines and Web sites help people find books on topics of interest.
• Access: Contact reviewers and bloggers who cover your book’s topic offering to send them a review copy. Also contact sites that publish book reviews like BlogCritics. The Internet also provides a great way to connect with reading groups. Many reading groups invite members to submit questions for the author to respond or hold a conversation online through chat or a Web-based application.
• Network: Forums, online groups, and social networks allow you to connect and interact with potential readers and reviewers.
• Link: Contribute articles to article libraries, online magazines, and other online resources where you can have a byline that links to your Web site or book ordering page.

Start or boost online book marketing with help from the following resources:

• Steve Weber, author of Plug Your Book!, walks the talk with his blog and Myspace page on this topic.
• Christopher Diggins’ Marketing Your Book Online guide
• 101 Book Marketing Sites
• BookSistah Blog often covers book marketing. Sophfronia Scott also has book and writing articles in EzineArticles.
• SalesRankExpress has a tool for checking a book’s Amazon sales rank.
• Future Perfect Publishing blog often covers book marketing.
• 27 ways to sell more books doesn’t focus on online book marketing, but authors can integrate its tips with online marketing.

The Pitchers: Sales

Let’s say you have a new baseball team in town and it’s almost time for the first game of the season. Your sales force is ready to sell a variety of package deals for the season. However, there’s a major stumbling block as they prepare to approach potential buyers. No one knows about the package deals or even the date of the first game.

No one tipped the local sports writer or the local TV news of the upcoming grand opening game. What happened to the marketing department? There’s no marketing research, no publicity, and no idea where to begin targeting sales. Sales will flop and will make the sales department look bad, but it’s marketing’s fault since they didn’t do their job.

The Batters: Marketing

Let’s switch and see things from the marketing team’s view. They do a grand job of posting banners of the first game in town. Marketing has pulled together piles of reports with data on the audience, their baseball attending habits, and game spending habits. Many people arrive for the game opener, buy a ticket for the game, and it’s successful.

Or is it really? The sales team is invisible. There is no one to build a relationship with the fans. No one has sold them packages for attending more than just the opener. Sales could go far beyond than one game. They could even help build relationships that go beyond the season. Marketing did a great job, but with poor sales the team may not make it and everyone loses. Where was sales when marketing promoted the event?

Who gets the credit? Who gets the blame? In the war for profitable bottom line, turf issues should be put aside.

Who’s on First?

Marketing and sales play for the same team in different positions. Marketing leads to sales by creating programs focused on direct marketing principles that are tied to the sales team’s success. Marketing puts together a multi-step game plan to ensure each interaction with prospective fans lead to more and deeper interactions. Using shared business goals as a driver, the two work to meet those goals.

Marketing and sales should constantly communicate with each other to ensure effective timing, clear understanding of the company’s message, and smoother handoffs. Sales can determine the target market by evaluating current and past sales. The results help marketing professionals sharpen their pitch so they can hook the right people.

That’s not a typo in this entry’s title. It must be negative week as I came across two compelling entries on using negativity in writing.

Admitting Weaknesses

I took an superb online writing class from Jeff Sexton, the author of the Accentuate the Negative post. He gave great examples of how showing the downside of a product or service could gain more credibility than one that has nothing but raves.

Remember Avis? “We’re number two, we try harder.”

I’ve been fortunate to work with clients who use my services again. However, I had a client that didn’t work out. When I stopped working for the client, I asked for a testimonial and said that I didn’t expect a positive one. The client chose not to do it.

But it’s understandable as few want to go on public record making a negative statement about someone’s work. I don’t think I could do it as I prescribe with Lyndon B. Johnson’s approach — criticize people in private. I read a story about the former U.S. president who asked a staff member who did something embarrassing aside where he lectured him. I couldn’t find the story — if anyone knows the story, please let me know.

Using Negativity to Create More Clicks

The second entry comes from David Meerman Scott. In Do Not Read This Post (yeah, I read it and stole his headline — actually, doesn’t putting “” around it indicate I’m quoting him?), he discusses the use of “not” and the importance of delivering on the headline. Take care and “Don’t let people think that you really are being negative or exclusionary.”

Exclusivity also increases want. Example: Google’s Gmail. To get an account required receiving an invitation. Somehow Google pulled it off without coming across as “exclusionary.” Though plenty of blogs had comments from those who had not received an invitation feeling left out or not “in the in crowd,” the whole campaign didn’t emit a negative tone.

Like Scott says, have fun with using the negative approach.