Writing With Purpose

Wow! I have been so busy! Yet, I can’t believe I have neglected the blog for a week! I was so faithful about adding something every day. I must apologize. I need to get a calendar set up, so I don’t forget what is important.

But, during the past week, I have been working in the back end of freelance writing and learning how to change and add to a WordPress blog. It is something different. I think the knowledge will help me in the future. I’m even thinking about taking some programming classes.

Can you imagine being able to tell future clients: I can build your website; then, I can populate it with good, solid content, before I use my marketing skills to advertise it all over the Web?

Seriously, if you really want to make it in this business, you will need to diversify. I have said it before, and I will say it again: the competition is getting tougher out there, because more people are turning to the Internet as a source of income-you and me included!

So, now you know what has been keeping me busy. But you need to know about the great new advertising tools I have found. Of course, as usual, I am looking for the freebies.

I found a site that will help you create banners for FREE. In addition, it will give you the html code to plug it into your site, or wherever, so you can benefit from it immediately. http://www.snacktools.com/ It is great fun!

I made this banner for advertising on another site in just a matter of minutes. As you can see, you can also create banners for your own site, to make a point or catch the readers eye. Although the full size will not embed into this post, check out the right side of my blog and you will see a simple flash banner that will lead you to Living with Cerebral Palsy.

You can also make banners to insert into emails, to send a personalized greeting card to someone. You don’t necessarily need a website of your own.

So, forgive me for neglecting my blog, and have fun with this new tool I have found to ramp up your advertising campaign.

Do you have any cool advertising tools that you prefer?

Popularity: 79% [?]

For those of you that have used the Internet a lot, you have probably already figured out the value of social networking sites. It is a great way to get your name out there and provide links to your work blog-like this one-or your online portfolio.

Unfortunately, some of them are starting to get greedy. It is not enough for advertisers to purchase ads and place them

Hang on to your Wallet!

Today, I found out that Facebook is going to start charging $4 a month, in order to use Facebook. Personally, I think it is a great venue for meeting up with friends and promoting my blogs. But, why pay when there are other sites that will let you sell yourself and your freelancing experience for free?

The cost of living is going up, and it is hard enough to make a full-time living at freelancing, without adding unnecessary expenses. I say, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! I will continue to use Facebook and other social networking sites. But, unless I can see how it really pays me back in clients and readers, I am going to keep the money in my wallet-Thank you!

What about you? Are you going to pay? I am going to check out the other social networking and business sites that I know about, and make sure they are still free. I will let you know!

Popularity: 100% [?]

My goodness! How time flies, even if you aren’t exactly having fun! I can’t believe I have neglected my blog for a week! But, during my regular freelancing work-the kind the pays-I came across blogs that looked exactly like mine. Darn! I want something that is new and fresh and doesn’t look like the same old thing. Unfortunately, I spent an hour I didn’t have time for looking at hundreds, if not thousands of themes. Which begs the question: how do you choose the best theme for your copywriting/freelance writing business?

It may seem like an inconsequential question. But, think about it. First impressions mean a lot. If you are going to help your fellow freelancers with your blog information, or if you are going to use the blog to represent your business and garner new clients, you need to have a professional look. You need to look as good as you write.

Therefore, it is probably not good to have a site that is too:

Well, I think you get my drift. You want something that is clean and clear. Unfortunately, as I was looking for a change in my blog design, I must admit I am sorely disappointed in the fact that 90% of everything is gray. Now, professional is one thing. Downright Drab is another. You also want something that catches the eye of the reader, so they will want to stay and see what you have to say.

Those are my thoughts on the subject. How about you? When you read someone’s blog, and you expect them to be knowledgeable in their field, what do you look for in an attractive website?

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Every time I sit down to write a post, I try to think of something helpful, a current issue, or a topic that simply might be of interest. As you can tell, I have dropped the ball in the last couple of weeks. I got busy and the blog took the back burner. I need to be better about that. Once I get a few readers that are brave enough to make comments or ask questions, then I can write about exactly what you want to know.

For those of you that don’t know, the terms freelance writing and copywriting are basically the same thing. In most cases, you and I will be writing copy that it meant to sell someone a product, an idea, or a passion.

Today, I was reading an article by another copywriter, and the last sentence is what intrigued me the most: “Now, go sell ice cream to Eskimos”. How cool is that! (pun intended).

She had some really good advice for people that want to become better freelance writers/copywriters. I want to share parts of it with you:

Now in the 5 years I’ve been in this business I’ve read a LOT of copy and written quite a bit as well. Most of it sucks. Certain things sell plain and simple and it’s aparent a lot of people don’t know what they are. . . So how do we get that emotion and feelings involved in our copy?

To effectively bring emotion into our copy we’re typically going to lean towards using a lot more words that involve the senses. Do you know what the primary senses that most people operate by? Did you know if you speak to these senses, all of them, you’re going to connect with most people better? Here is a list of the big 3 senses that most people run through the world with:

Feeling
Audio
Visual
Take a look at those and digest them for a minute. Sure there is more senses then that but most people use these to reference the world. You’ll find certain people stronger towards one then the other. Listen to the language people use when you’re talking with them. I bet after a bit once you get and accute ear you’ll be able to pickup what someones dominant sense is. And get this did you know that men and women are different? Hhahahah of course. Here’s a short cut to get you started with what to focus one depending on what sex you’re writing for.

Most men are strong on the Visual sense. They’re going to say things like: I see what you’re talking about. I can definately picture what you’re saying. When you’re selling to men the more visual you can make your pitch in your copy the more you’re going to connect and the more emotion you’re going to bring out. On an interesting topic when it comes to something that sexually arouses someone guess what men go for? Is it the penthouse forum magazine with the emotional stories? Now of course not it’s the visual picture stimulus.

So have you guessed what drives most women? If you haven’t it’s pretty easy “Feeling”. Think heartfelt stories on lifetime movie network.

So lets take a couple of these ideas and put them into play on some short snippets of copy. We’ll start with a statement like:

“I was in so much debt I didn’t know what to do.”

This sounds pretty bland right but it’s not really touching on any sense or emotions. There’s honestly nothing to pull anyone in. But lets take this and write it for a strong visual sensing person:

“Every day I closed my eyes as I opened the door beacuse i knew I’d see the stacks of bills sitting there piling up to the ceiling.”

How about one for a strong audio sensing person:

“everytime the heard the mail slot open all i could say to myself was, I don’t want to look, because I knew exactly what was there.”

And one last one for for the feeling people:

“I used to cringe every day stewing over all those bills piling up and weighing on me.”

Pretty cool huh. Which one did you connect with the most?

The ideal copy weaves between all these senses almost like a web. The more you can hit on each of the sense types the more you’re going to connect with each type of person. If you’re going to be targeting one sex more specifically I’d highly suggest going about double on the keywords tha appeal to them.

As a teacher, I always told students to be as descriptive as possible. Do not say empty words like “things”, when you can describe what those are, with the power of your words. The same can be said for freelance writers/copywriters. You have great power in your words. Use them! Who knows who you can sell ice cream to, or anything else for that matter?

You can even sell yourself and what you do for your clients on a daily basis.

Popularity: 85% [?]