When it comes to promoting yourself as a freelance writer, it’s important to remember that almost everything related to freelance copywriting is live!
Any copywriter who has worked for more than five years or so knows that the new copywriting business used to be born of mailings, small advertisements and the dreaded “cold calls.” Today, the only realistic way to improve your copywriting archive is through the Internet.
Freelance copywriting
Most contributors fully agree with this. The question is, have they done anything about it? The same question applies to new and seeking freelance writers…
Write that website!
So what can you do about it? When the phone stops ringing and all you have left is unopened spam in your email inbox, it’s time to take stock. The first question is (which seems odd in 2006): do you have a website?
If not, you need one. Not just because every other marketing element in this series of “how to” articles assumes you have a website to promote; it’s also because your website is you, your business, your lifeline and your “copy” DNA” all rolled into one. !
Without a website you are dead flesh. As a copywriter, your first step is to write your own website. Make it as comprehensive as possible. Become a website copywriter!
If you are a relative newcomer, read the topic carefully, check out other copywriting sites and create the best site content that will reflect well on you as a professional freelance writer ready to take on the world’s people.
There are endless articles on the web about website content. That’s for later. First you have to look at the work you do as a copywriter and try to categorize it. This is a personal matter and will be made public soon – so make sure what you say is credible.
Make sure you find a good designer – and build some kind of professional-looking visual concept at the beginning that won’t get in the way of your copywriting message.
Make your website visible…
Your website must be “visible” to search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. This means that the content of your website must have content. Pages should be long enough to contain your business keywords in an amount and density enough to make the search engine ‘bots’ salivate.
You should also look at the so-called “meta tags” that are applied to every page on your site. In addition to keywords, you’ll want the title and brief description of each page, both of which should contain keywords relevant to that page.
For example, your page’s “title tag” might be:
Freelance copywriting, website copywriting and PR
Your “Description Tag” could be:
(your name), freelance writer, provides ad copy, online copy, SEO – SEO, media relations and PR
In the process of putting everything together to create your website, don’t rush it. Websites need planning; they need attention to detail; they need constant revision. All of these are essential before your project goes “live”.
This will undoubtedly be your big day to launch your freelance copywriting website! All plans have come true – your hopes and fears are about to be revealed.
This is the first step in marketing yourself as a freelance writer in the 21st century. Your next step is to market the website that will market you!
This will be the subject of this “how to” article series: “Freelance Copywriting – Marketing Yourself and Your Website”. For maximum benefit, make sure you read the articles in the correct order – and save them for future reference to measure your long-term marketing performance.
good luck!