James Doan - Just Minding My Own Business

You understand the importance of having a strong web presence. With it, you can engage and communicate with your prospects and customers. Having an optimized website is an essential element in your online marketing strategy. But the competitive nature of business demands that you go even further. Blogging is one of the most effective ways to build awareness of your business. Position your company as the experts in your marketplace. Increase your credibility with your target audience. Provide useful content through consistent blogging on your website.

Don't have the right experience? That need not be an obstacle when you're trying to launch yourself as a freelancer or consultant.  Use these strategies for gaining those crucial first assignments: Contact friends, relatives or former colleagues. See if they could use your skills in a special deal. They pay little or nothing, then you can use that project or their testimonial about it in your portfolio. Approach local businesses that you patronize or non-profits whose cause you support. Offer them a similar deal. Create a low-cost special offer for a limited-scope, in-demand service. Get that offer in front of ideal prospects through cold calls, ads or direct mail.  Usually you'll get some uptake on the offer.

Did you ever find yourself thinking how stupid one of your customers is? They didn't understand or notice something you feel is ultra-obvious. Take a moment to think it through. Chances are, you weren't clear in your explanation. You could have made an overly optimistic assumption.  It's possuble you buried an important instruction.  For example, you created a one-minute "steps to get started" video for new clients.  But one person missed the link you provided.  Another couldn't get the video to play and never mentioned the problem.  Another watched the video, but misunderstand a key word you used in it.  Someone else understood the video completely. But they didn't get going until a week later, when they had forgotten it all.

Blogs did not exist when I began writing. A recent survey report on blog post pitches lists many complaints of prominent blog editors. They parallel what magazine editors bewailed in the 1980s about queries from freelancers. They also echo what journalists in the 1990s commented about publicity pitches from marketers.   The all-too-similar complaints: