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Think Long Term About Your Writing Career - Give Value, Get Value

November 21st, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

In this issue, we discuss topics vital to your success as a freelance writer, including value and branding.

If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between writers who charge $25 an hour for their services, and writers who charge $250 an hour, the answer is value.

Fab Freelance Writing Ezine is a free ezine; subscribe so you don’t miss each issue. Subscribers also get exclusive bonus issues which are never archived.

Includes:

* Editorial: Give Value, Get Value

* Article: Think Long Term About Your Writing Career - Give Value, Get Value

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=> Writers’ Holiday Gift Pack: Make 2008 Your Best Writing Year Ever

Here comes Santa, and his sleigh is packed with gifts for all good writers. This holiday season, until January 1, 2008, all FIVE of my current Special Reports For Writers are available in one pack at a very special price - it’s my season’s gift to you, dear writer.

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[Editorial] Give Value, Get Value

“Giving” as a writer is a complex concept.

Let’s see how giving works. In this scenario, you’re a new writer, and you want to break into magazine/ newspaper writing. Specifically, you want to get a column in your local newspaper, which you want to syndicate - just like Dave Barry.

There are many ways you could go about this. Since you want to write a column rather than just a single article, you need to show a newspaper that you can write a column which gains a readership. So you need to write at least ten to 20 columns as a sample. You could give five columns away, and let a newspaper run them as a trial, to see what reaction the columns received. You’re giving, in order to receive.

Here’s another scenario. Most professional writers have gone through a variation of this one. You want to write for a particular magazine. You read every issue, cover to cover. You write trial headlines. You write decks. You write at least one proposal a month offering a particular story idea. You keep this up for as long as it takes. You’re giving, in order to get.

Sooner or later an editor gets in touch with you and asks you to write an article. See? All that giving paid off. BTW - this is one strategy which ALWAYS works; I’ve never known it to fail. Try it.

Here’s a fascinating article which explains how Paris Hilton built her career on giving to get: “Why Paris Hilton Is Famous (Or Understanding Value In A Post-Madonna World)”:

snipurl.com/1tsqn

Affectionately,

Angela

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** You Can Become A Web Publisher Too: Become A Web Mogul **

For the past year, I’ve been receiving messages from writers who want to create their own Web sites. They’ve heard how much money there is in Web publishing, and want a piece of the action.

So, I’ve written a new ebook, “Super-Fast Money-Making Web Sites For Writers: Join The Web-Publishing Bonanza” -
www.abwebconsulting.com/web_sites/

The ebook (and its fabulous bonus ebook) outlines step by step, with images, how to create Web MONEY-MAKING sites fast. What could YOU do with an extra $300 a day?

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=> NEW - Your EveryDay Write: free writing prompts and tips

By popular request, Your EveryDay Write (YEW) delivers writing prompts and writing tips to your email Inbox twice a week.

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* Article: Think Long Term About Your Writing Career - Give Value, Get Value

The challenge for new writers (and many established writers) is thinking strategically about their writing business. They’re too busy writing. However, taking a long term strategic approach to your writing career and business is essential.

No matter what type of writing you’re doing now, the only constant is change. Like every other writer who’s been writing for more than a couple of years, I’ve been bitten in the butt by change.

My latest “bite in the butt” moment occurred with the tech wreck in 2000. Unprepared for change, I had tunnel vision because I’d been focusing on tech writing for several years. My excuse for this? Tech was hot, I’d written a tech book that did well, and I was too busy to look up and smell the coffee.

Silly, very silly. After the tech wreck, it took my writing business several months to regain momentum. Luckily I still had copywriting clients; I just devoted more time to getting more of them. Problem solved, but it made for a very sticky period.

With luck, the information in this article will stop this happening to you.

=> Give to get

Would you rather be paid $25 an hour or $250 an hour?

Yep, me too.

So how do you get to $250 an hour status? You make yourself so valuable that people are happy to pay you those rates because they get a hundred times the value from using you that they do from using another writer.

=> All the writing you do is useful - diversify

Write more, sell more. That’s the mantra which pays off for every writer. Just write more, so you can sell more. It never fails.

Here’s my ebook on the topic:

abmagic.com/Write-More/write-more.html

Your aim as a writer should always be to diversify. The more strings you have to your bow, the more productive you’ll be, and the faster your income will grow.

You never know when something you wrote a year or more ago will pay off big.

Case in point: a writing friend we’ll call Alex wrote a book proposal in 2004 and sent it to his literary agency. A couple of months later, his personal agent at the literary agency left the company. Then Alex took on a contract writing job overseas. What with all the changes in his life, he forgot the proposal until he received a call from the agency two years later: they’d sold the book for a very nice sum in the high six figures… and by the way, the publisher wanted another book on the same topic, so was Alex interested in a multi-book deal?

Another case of giving to get: Alex just wrote, trusting that his writing would find a home, sooner or later.

=> Pay attention to the Web NOW

The Web is the future of writing. Get familiar with the opportunities online, and start creating your own Web sites and blogs. I know several writers who’ve given up writing for others; creating and selling sites and blogs is much more profitable.

Giving to get again. When you create a Web site on children’s toys, parenting, or patio furniture you’re giving to get. When you create your writer’s site, you’re building your brand: giving to get.

=> You’re a BRAND, so use/ build your own name

Just like Pizza Hut and Nike, you’re a brand. Get your name known. The more visibility your name has, the more great writing gigs you’ll be offered.

I’ve written about building your brand many times, because it’s important. If you’re not devoting time to build your brand, you’re derailing your writing career.

Businesses spend a lot of money on branding promotions, which are not designed to sell as much as they’re designed to get visibility - giving to get.

Your takeaway points from this article:

* Be prepared to give value;

* Change is constant, so diversify;

* Focus on the Web - currently there’s a window of opportunity for writers on the Web. Get up to speed on Web writing now to take advantage of it;

* Build your name as a BRAND;

* Finally: think strategically about your writing and give a little. You may be surprised at how much you get.

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=> Unsure Whether You Can Become a Freelance Copywriter and Earn a Six-Figure Income?

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** Discover Private Label Rights (PLR) , a sizzling HOT new way to make money as a writer **

What PLR means, and why it’s your ticket to BIG money as a writer

The basic idea of PLR content is that it’s content which is sold to people to edit, mash up, or use directly on their Web sites. PLR content may be articles, ebooks, reports, or even audio. It’s CONTENT - stuff for Web sites - in its generic form.

If you can write ten PLR articles in a week, you can make $4000 a week

Sounds weird, but it’s true. Many writers are already cashing in on PLR, and you can too.

“Instant PLR Author: Make Money Writing Private Label Rights Products” at www.abwebconsulting.com/ebooks/ebooks/instant-PLR-author.html shows you how.

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** The Unlimited Writing Market, The Web **

When you write for the Web, you’re never out of writing work. All Web sites need writers, and as the competition online grows, site owners hire writers to improve their sites.

The writing world in general hasn’t caught up with the Web. Now, YOU can — and you can cash in. Freelance writers just don’t realize how much money there is to be made by writing for the Web: many writers use the Web as a research tool, they don’t see the Web as a mass of millions of markets. They don’t realize that Web sites are STARVED for good writers.

Want to get paid REAL money to write? How does $150 to $250 an hour sound to you? Discover how to write for the Web today:

www.abmagic.com/Web_Write/Web_write.html

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** ANGELA’S BLOGS **

Fab Freelance Writing Blog: fabfreelancewriting.com/blog/

Fab Web Writer: www.fabwebwriter.com/

Top Ebook Writer: www.topebookwriter.com/

Angela Booth’s Writing Blog: copywriter.typepad.com/

The Creativity Factory (copywriting and search marketing): www.angelabooth.com/wp/

Seven Days Copywriting: sevendayscopywriting.com/

Just Write A Book Blog: www.justwriteabook.com/blog/
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