One sure way to get repeat work from a client is to him/her feel good.  With most clients who are hiring freelance writers to provide web content, making them feel good means making them some cash.

That IS the reason they hired us in the first place, is it not?

Let’s face it, whatever we write for the Internet is sales copy, because sales copy is not just about selling a product; no we are trying to motivate readers’ emotions towards a positive movement in one direction. Whenever content attempts to be authoritative,  it is pitching.

As  hired guns, the freelancers’ job sometimes means that we are to provide content that will not only draw potential buyers into the marketing vehicle, but we need to direct them to the checkout lane. We could create a title that is just the right hook and content that builds an emotional crescendo in the reader, but we could still fail by blowing the trigger, or  Call To Action (CTA).

We’ve all seen those big neon yellow and/or orange banners that scream  words such as ‘Buy Now!‘ or ‘Don’t Miss Out!‘, those are CTA’s. In web content a CTA is most often ‘click here‘. But after writing content that is loaded with emotional benefit that greaes the potential buyer up so they can slide into the cart easier, why do we blow it with a typical ‘click here‘ or ‘act now‘?

We can increase the conversion rate of our content if we put just a wee bit of thought into our CTA. Think about this; content is typically talked about as having three distinct sections, Title, Content, and Call To Action. We are always trying to target a particular audience with the bait of the title, reel them in with content, and net them with the CTA. But, we often think that if the content is solid, the net is a mere after thought and we settle for any conversion rate.

We need to target the prospects with our CTA as well.

I own and operate an ecommerce retail store that sells biker leather apparel and accessories. My helmet pages were getting a lot of looks that were delivered from one of the store’s blogs, but the conversion rate was dismal.

To change this, I rewrote product reviews so that instead of the CTA being ‘Check out our fine selection of helmets here‘ to ‘Be legal and be free ~  strap on one of our radical DOT  half-helmets‘.  Knowing that most bikers have a thing about being free and rebellious towards helmets. So, half helmets are huge in states that require helmets, and all helt states require the lids to be DOT approved.

The conversion rate from those articles climbed 5 points. Huge! Especially when you consider that the effort spent was less than thirty minutes.

Imagine if we can make something like that happen for our clients. What would happen if we sold them content that out of the box outperformed what they already had published?

Open your mind and the possibilities will glow like fireflies in a jar.

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

Work is work, right? Especially if your a freelance writer and need five dollars for gas money so can get to Wally World and buy some Ramen noodles. Well, it’s either that, or the dog. But, five dollars for 300 words? Can crack whores do better than that for an hour?

Let’s work this one out. If you write 300 words at 60 words a minute, that’s a dollar a minute. Not too shabby. On the other hand,Crack whores might have to work for as long as twenty minutes to get that five bucks, which comes to .40 a minute. Pretty lousy for the mess and short high.

I hope the urge to mock me is setting in right now, because if it isn’t, I can point you to all the five dollars for 300 word jobs you want.

If you ARE mocking me, you know it takes a solid hour to get 300 words researched, drafted, finalized, and approved. No, that hour doesn’t happen all at once, but it does happen.

The question remains, What should we expect to get paid for 300 words? Ooooops. Trick question. The real question should be, what do we think our 300 words is worth?

The answer is all up to the freelancer. There is damn good money being paid to writers who deliver quality with every word. There is just good money passing hands to good writers, and there are the five dollar jobs. It all depends on what you think your work is worth.

I know it takes time to gain a reputation, but to take those cheap jobs, one after another, after another, and so on will dilute your reputation and self esteem. You are providing a solution to a problem, and that problem shouldn’t be the client’s cheap needs. Your solution should be to provide the client with the best work you can, and you’ll soon find that your work is worth more than five dollars an hour.

If you don’t think it is, you’ll be on the streets, turnin’ tricks and smoking the glass god before you know it.

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

All righty now. That last list, Ten Things A Freelance Writer Doesn’t Need, was so much fun, I thought I’d come back with another. Only this time, I am r-e-a-l-l-l-l-l-y gonna try your sense of humor.

Freelance writers live an pathetic existence in that we really don’t get much free time. Myself, I find the biggest diversion of the day by going around the island in the kitchen to get to the coffee pot, as opposed to making that straight path. Why just the other day, I found a missing poker chip, or I thought it was until I bit into it pretending it was a cucumber slice. It may as well have been that poker chip; it tasted like it had been AWOL as long as the poker chip, which was about four months.

Where was I? Oh yeah….diversions. What is it we freelancers do with all of our free time? I know you’re dieing to find out, so without further delay, I give you the top ten things writers do in the spare time:

We DO party hard, don’t we?

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

Seems that Top Ten Lists are all the rage now, and I may be late getting in the game. But, I’m going to jump right in and muck the whole thing up with a few Top Ten lists of my own, starting with my take on the Top 10 Things Freelance Writers Don’t Need.

It’s a fact that we Freelance writers are consumed by all sorts of things. The potential for a fat ass, irritability, the penchant for no sleep, and the lack of real food are just a few that come to mind. Taking all this into my tequila tainted mind, I came up with the following list:

See anything on the list you think you disagree with? What item do you think should be number 11?

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

Carry me away

I recently completed a draft for a freelancing job and sent it along to a client for approval. This is a client that usually responds quickly to my e-mail, and after ten minutes of no response, I began to worry that she was composing a scathing critique. Two hours later and I was believing that she was taking the work elsewhere. After six hours, I began to doubt my skill as a writer, and twelve hours after I submitted the piece, the cops were talking me off the ledge to the window in my first story office.

After a week of intense therapy, and a number of raised eyebrows accompanied by “Oh, really” at my mention of being a writer, I sat down at my computer with a handful of Prozac and opened my mailbox. There it was; the mail I was waiting for. Dare I open the note from my client and send my freelance career into another tailspin?

After downing a half a dozen pills, I semi-covered my eyes with one hand as I clicked “open”. Relief flooded me as I read that my client had experienced major computer problems over the last few weeks and was sorry for being AWOL. She went on to say the piece was great and she wanted me to go ahead with another project.

Was all the fretting and worrying I did over the non-response necessary? Maybe not all of it, but I believe that some was warranted, because I write to serve my clients. In the long run, the payoff is greater because empathy plays on even the coldest of hearts.

I also believe that when a client takes me on, I have a responsibility to more than just the writing I am commissioned for. I am representative of my client’s efforts. By thinking like that, I have been able to scare up more work without having to look far and wide. Offering SEO work and additional promotion are only two ways I have helped clients and put a little more cash in my pocket. Think how beautiful that is. The number of drafts and research becomes minimized due to the fact I am already familiar with my client and their needs.

I am a lazy man.

It is no wonder that I worried a bit when I received no immediate response from my client. But, maybe there are ways I can ease my worries in the future. A telephone number for one (gasp), or maybe bury my head in some other project and try to work the worry away. The reality is, I will never put clients too far out of mind; it is how I am wired.

What do you think? Am I too “into” my clients and should only be concerned with the work I’m doing for them? What other avenues can I offer for alternative communication?

© 2009, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

Bustin' out!

WordPress Jail. That’s what brings me to Extreme Writing Now, a suspension over some unnamed TOS violation. I have written support and have seen not a peep, in fact I found out about the suspension through a friend who trying to read one of my blogs there. Honestly, I can’t fathom what it is I did, but I’m not overly upset about it. The life sentence just forced my hand in starting the “stand alone” blog I’ve been wanting to start for sometime anyway.

The one thing I am a little pissed about is all the time I am having to spend setting this up. A lot of work is getting suspended until I fire this beast up. I have projects just starting, projects I’m in the middle of, and Squidoo lenses to build. I am attempting to get to the Giant 100 club by the September 30 deadline, and this move is putting a crunch on it. But, I’ll be on track in no time, and those of you that know me understand I won’t quit until it’s done.

Just like the now defunct, Extreme Writing blog, I’ll be writing about writing here. Freelance, article, content and more. I’ll also be blogging about Squidoo here, just because I’m lazy. Well, that and I am a typical male who will chase a shiny piece of foil if it floats past.

© 2009 – 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.