Why am I Developing a Brand?

It’s been a whirlwind of a week. In this series on personal branding lessons, I covered twenty tips. (Links at the bottom of this post). On the last day of this series, I’d like to talk about my own thoughts on branding so you can help yourself decide what you want to do. (I’d like to mention that this post is dedicated to one of my Twitter followers @strangeshe.)

Developing a personal brand isn’t something that really came to my mind until fairly recently. The reason for this is because my focus has been on getting contracts and building my portfolio. My publications have included: corporate blogging, articles, short stories, games, novellas, business plans, technical documentation, etc. Although I enjoy different writing styles, I am in love with writing fiction.

As a very goal-oriented person, I’ve always known what I wanted to be when I grew up — I just didn’t know how I was going to get there. When you’re a professional writer, it’s very easy to over-commit to assignments. Getting paid to write is a wonderful feeling, sure… but building a strong portfolio has been equally important to me and that has been my focus for a number of years.

In today’s market, it’s even more challenging to make a living as a novelist or a fiction writer than when I first started to write. (First-time novelists typically make $5K on their debut book.) Fortunately, I have a “day job”TM that I love and a great team of people to work with, some of whom are writers like myself. Now that I have the experiences and portfolio that I’ve personally needed to move forward, I felt that I could take the lessons that I’ve learned and apply them to my “brand” as an author. No, I’m not as well known as Steven King. No, I’m not a top-of-mind name like Ann Rice or Neil Gaiman or any popular author that you might know — but one day I could be. So could you.

Developing a personal brand for me simply means I’m helping establish guidelines and a professional reputation for myself as a writer.

Whatever you decide your path is as a writer (freelancer, copywriter, etc.), I feel that branding is a long-term strategy that involves both personal and business-related decisions.

February 28, 2009
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Guest Post about Goal Setting Success: Magic Checkmarks on Your Goal List

Today’s guest post about is brought to you by Elliott Kosmicki, the founder of Good Plum. Today, Elliott sits down and talks with us about how we can achieve the goals that we set down in writing.

Setting goals has been widely promoted for centuries as one of the most powerful methods to become successful. You’ve probably heard it, you probably have even tried it, and if you’re like most others, you’ve probably “failed” trying.

That’s a good thing.

Setting goals does not alone bring success, even though that’s the primary way it’s taught. The idea that simply writing a goal down will somehow make it come true later on sounds like wishful thinking. Impossible, right?

The question we need to ask ourselves then is “Why do some people think goal setting works at all?”

The answer lies in the examination of two separate groups of people. In one group, there are the self-help “gurus” who believe everything they’re taught and then simply pass that information along to you – with no real knowledge of WHY it works or doesn’t work. The other group consists of people who have found that setting goals DOES work for them. They know it, too, but very few of them actually know WHY it works for them. Even if they do know, they can’t figure out how to teach it because they don’t really know how to translate that mysterious process into something that works for you! Follow me so far?
Read More…

January 21, 2009
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My Predictions for the Economy and Freelancing in 2009

Every day we read more and more headlines. Layoffs. Record numbers of foreclosures. Bailout. Inflation. While many of these headlines come as no surprise to us, when the word “recession” turns into something that affects our shopping habits, we tend to feel the pinch on a more personal level. Economic recovery is not a “switch” that can be flipped, however. It could take months, maybe even a few years before we see true, steady growth. The idea that the economy takes a long time to develop is something we all know, but sometimes forget — especially since the way we communicate is so rapid and instantaneous.

Regardless of your opinions about how long the economic recovery might take are, we can all agree that it will affect us in different ways. (Like my April post where I described ways freelancers can navigate a recession.) Already we’re seeing activities that directly affect freelancers, so without further ado here are my predictions how the economy will affect freelancers in 2009.

Top 15 Ways the Economy will Affect Freelancers in 2009

1. When Jobs Get Cut, Outsourcing Goes Up – The biggest expense any employer has is payroll, which is one of the reasons why there have been so many layoffs as of late. Unfortunately, when workers are cut the business may experience a different kind of cost — the cost of smart, intelligent, capable people that know their business and can get the job done. Watch for more businesses hiring and outsourcing contractors in 2009 as a way to cut costs and prolong hiring full-time employees.

2. More People will try to Break Into Freelancing – The flip side to layoffs, is that there are a lot of unemployed people out there. Qualified, skilled workers who may (or may not) have freelanced before will ply their hand at it. Already you can see this might be the case based on natural search trends for the term “freelancing jobs.” (I used Google Trends and tailored my results to the US.) Additionally, more people will be attracted to freelancing as a way to cut down on their cost-of-living (i.e. car, clothing, etc.).

3. Freelancing Rates Will Drop – Content networks are offering pennies on the dollar now for posts that either require research, as a result of a bidding service or a large social network to be able to monetize your writing. Associated Content, eLance, Demand Studios and oDesk are just a few of those places. With more competition, expect a lack of clarity as to what clients will expect to pay. This is especially true for writing; I can’t speak for the other fields.

4. Clients Will Want More “Value-Add” Service Than What They’re Paying You For – A flood of available contract positions in the market, coupled with more competition and a larger disparity in pricing will push clients in the direction of asking more for their money. Whether this be an additional layer of edits or consulting time, freelancers will not only have to prove why they charger higher rates, but negotiate more.

5. Clients Will Look for “Proof” of Delivery and Work – Based on how freelance writers charge, clients will be watching more closely what is delivered (and when). I predict that this will be especially true of any project where the budget is based on how many hours that are billed. Clients will want to know a) how long does a project take and b) what did you do during that hour.

6. Clients Will Learn about Quality – The flip side to hiring a writer on the “cheap” side is that the quality can suffer. I feel that eventually clients will come to understand this after going through the painful cycle of hire-and-fire a few times before understanding that hiring the right writer for the right job may mean looking for an experienced freelancer.

7. More Freelance Writers Will Become Web 2.0 Savvy – In order to become more competitive, existing freelancers will research ways to enhance their writing skills and learn more about search engine optimization, social media and other “value-adds” to integrate into their work and find better positions.

8. New Freelance Writers Will Work More for Less – The natural tendency when freelance writers just start out, is to undercut their profit by charging less to get more work. If new freelance writers are in dire financial straits, they will take whatever they can get.

9. Good Freelance Jobs Will be Harder to Find – Because there will be a flood of new freelance jobs on the market, coupled with the assumption that companies will ask their existing employees to do more than they have in the past, good freelance jobs will be harder to find. The time that it will take to find a freelance job does have an impact on the overall profit margin of a project, and seasoned freelancers may find they have to look longer than they have in the past for work.

10. Clients Will Initially Hire Based on Specialization – If a financial business lays off two dozen people in their business publications divison, they will probably look for someone with a background in writing for financial publications. To that business, they want someone who understands the industry and its language — even if it’s not expressly written in the communication a freelancer is delivering — because they want to save time “educating” someone new. To them, a financial background might also ensure “quality.” This may change, however, when companies realize that their demands are too specific. A writer who only writes about junk bonds, for example, may not exist.

11. Expect a High Turnover Rate for Freelancers – Burn out, job placement, life… Even though there will be a flood of freelancers in 2009, don’t expect every one of them to stick around. Much of this activity is directly related to economic conditions, and will continue to be in flux until the full-time job market improves.

12. Seasoned Freelance Writers Will Work Smarter, Not Harder – From asking for referrals to making smarter decisions about what they’ll work on, seasoned freelance writers will use their experience to their advantage. In other words, the economy will have less of an impact on seasoned freelance writers than on those who are new to the fold.

13. Freelancing Projects Will Be Shorter – Depending upon how challenging things get for some clients, you may see shorter freelance assignments. Word conservation will be increasingly important this year, depending upon whether or not the project is for online work (i.e. related to natural search) or offline. To a client, a shorter project equates to less money they have to pay a freelancer.

14. Freelancers Will Be More Competitive Amongst Ourselves – Unfortunately, I think that if things get really desperate, there will be more competition between freelancers than teamwork. Healthy competition is a part of freelancing, but it can also turn ugly when inexperienced writers come into the fray, undercutting prices and services. I would like to think that there won’t be more competition among freelancers, but when quality jobs are harder to find I do think you’ll see more, not less.

15. More Freelancers Will Pursue Start-up Websites and eBooks to Make $$$ – On the flip side, I think that experienced freelance writers will move beyond “just” freelance writing this year, offering more additional services including niche websites, non-fiction eBooks and How-Tos. You’ll probably see even more eBooks from savvy professionals geared toward “how-to-break-into-freelancing” as a result.

Agree? Disagree? How do you think the economy will affect the freelancing business in 2009?

December 17, 2008
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Who Do You Write For?

As a follow-up to a few conversations I’ve had with other folk this week, I wanted to broach the question of “Who do you write for?” In an ideal world, where money grows on trees and coins spew from an eternal fountain, we would write for ourselves. When money is involved, however, this question gets more complicated because we have to manage our wants and needs with our clients. In my case, I started out solely as a post-modernist writer. Well, what the heck does that mean?

The term Postmodern literature is used to describe certain tendencies in post-World War II literature. It is both a continuation of the experimentation championed by writers of the modernist period (relying heavily, for example, on fragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators, etc.) and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature.–SOURCE: Wikipedia

Basically, I enjoy playing around with language and format to create and allude to different types of character developments, while not revealing everything about the plot. It’s a classification that others tagged my work with in college, but the experimental part of writing is what drew me to it in the first place.

In addition to that sort of writing, I focused on other more business-focused avenues that other writers often do. Do I enjoy writing a press release? Well, it’s not as enjoyable as writing a song lyric, but it’s not something I hate doing because now I appreciate its function. Still, I’ve moved past the point of writing what I want to write all the time (and being okay with it) because what I want and what words or projects will sell are two, very different things.

It comes back to that old argument put forth years ago about author’s intent. Should I writer write for the audience or what they want to write? My argument used to be that a writer can’t possibly know what that audience is without trying something first. But the problem with that philosophy, is that time and cost have to both factor into your decision whether or not you can afford to experiment. Some clients pay for writer’s works based on what their expectations are of what you’re working on. Others pay for the writer’s expertise, trusting them to put strategy and other elements into their writing to make that project sparkle.

Say that someone hired me to write a romantic short story similar to a Harlequin novel. If I delivered anything other than a Harlequin-esque short story, would the client be happy? Probably not, because my client is modeling their sales and marketing off of their expectations about what that story should be. The same can be true in business, depending upon what any given company’s expectations are. If someone hires me to write a grant, then my finished project should look, smell and read like a grant.

In order to write what I want, I have to find time to have my own project that I can experiment with. This project should cost me next-to-nothing but my own time, and it should be something that I can afford to play around with. This “experiment” for me has been Argentum: Book One of the Violet War Fantasy Series. The project allows me to write what I want to write, experiment with new trends in internet technology, stretch my marketing skills a bit, and forces me to do the thing I hate more than anything else in this world — promote myself.

Of course, the flip side to writing for myself is to find projects that I want to write for. I’ve only started to do this, because in the past I relied on what was available to write for (and get paid for) rather than looking at it from a “fun” perspective. In my opinion, people who rely on freelance writing for full-time income have less freedom to pick and choose what they want to do than people who have a steady stream of income flowing in. One writer’s path may differ from another writer’s, but in the end — I’ve found that asking yourself who you’re writing for, can help put things into perspective for yourself and your longer-term goals.

When was the last time you asked yourself who you are writing for? What do you want to write versus what are you getting paid to?

December 4, 2008
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Setting More Achievable Writing Goals

If you’re anything like me, you enjoy setting goals for what you want to get out of your career. From writing short stories to novels or non-fiction articles, if you’re passionate about freelancing you’re pretty aware of what you enjoy writing and what market you may have the best chance of breaking into.

Like a lot of different mediums, writing really has an ebb and flow to it. Some months you’ll write a slew of words – others you’ll barely get one page written. Every time you put down your pen or close your laptop, you’ll have to reassess your goals at some point, which can be pretty daunting if you feel you haven’t measured up to your own expectations.

When you’re setting goals, the sky is usually the limit because you’re not necessarily thinking about the time required to complete said goal, you’re simply excited about the possibility for your future success.

So set them. Write down everything you want to accomplish, from hitting the best-seller’s list to working for a top ad agency. Then, calculate the time required to achieve your overall goal. Can’t fathom it? Here’s where the goal-setting gets really interesting. Now, you can take your major goal (aka writing a best-selling novel) and break it out into what I call “mini-goals” or “mini-tasks.” Calculate the time required for these smaller steps by setting limits for your networking and being realistic about how fast your write and when.

Next, you’ll want to have your planner handy. Mentally schedule the hours for your tasks by week and by month. Make sure you leave yourself some wiggle room (i.e. “worse-case scenario” show-stoppers) so you can be more flexible. If you find you can’t achieve every goal, prioritize them in order of importance and map out how long it will take you to get there.

Remember, if you do one thing for yourself or your career every day (email counts!) you can achieve your goals!

December 27, 2007
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