Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

Networking basics

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I was speaking with a coach the other day who is just getting started in her new business. When she asked me about my experience with networking, I thought about what’s worked for me in my last 11 years of self-employment. 

  1. Be visible – I strive to stay active in my networking groups and professional associations. To do that, I limit the number of groups I get involved with at any one time. I choose groups that I enjoy being part of and where I meet lots of people I can learn from and who can hopefully refer business to me and/or do business with me.
  2. Be positive – I strive to be a positive presence so that people associate me with positive feelings and feel good about the time we’ve spent together. This goes back to the Maya Angelou quote that I’ve placed at the top of my Business Plan for the last three years in a row: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
  3. Help out – Over the years I’ve volunteered in my various professional associations (right now I maintain the website of the Music Therapy Association of Ontario) and networking groups (I gave a free talk for the NCC). I also share lots of free and hopefully helpful information via email groups, Twitter, Ezine Articles (here and here), this blog and occasionally on LinkedIn. Helping out also achieves my other three goals.
  4. Educate – I listen for opportunities to share more about who I help and what I do. I strive to help my network recognize my ideal clients. Notice this is the LAST step in the process.

This approach applies to online and in-person networking. Using these strategies, I have successfully gained clients, referrals, motivation, inspiration, resources and countless ideas for my business.

So if you’ve given up (or are about to) on your networking activities because they “don’t work,” ask yourself if you’re using all of these proven strategies.

Better business relationships

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As you may remember, I gave a presentation to the Toronto Branch of the Editors Association of Canada back at the end of October. The topic was Business Relationship Management Essentials for Editors: What one freelance editor learned in her first three years.

For a summary of my talk, you can check out Toronto EAC’s Edition newsletter. You can also contact me if you’re interested in seeing the handout.

Sharon Crawford was there, and she also had some nice things to say about the presentation. She sent me a recommendation for my LinkedIn profile.

Stay tuned to see if my proposal is accepted to present this topic at the 30th anniversary EAC conference in June 2009 in Toronto. I will find out in January.

Busting myths about information products

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I’ve heard a lot of reasons (excuses) why people don’t write, give away and sell information products. I’ve used more than a few of them myself. Well, over on the Solo-E blog, Kendall Summerhawk busts two rampant myths and takes away some of our excuses.

Thanks Kendall! As for the rest of us – let’s get cracking!

P.S. I’m working on a post with my Top 10 Article Openers. Please watch for it in the next week or so.

Pink spoon marketing, simplified

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I’ve blogged before about How Big is the Leap from Your Site to Your Sales and pink spoon marketing, but the other day when a client asked me about the best way to use autoresponders, I created a very brief, simple and clear sequence for applying the pink spoon approach – what do you think?

  1. Put together a high-quality written resource (I can help!).
  2. Offer that resource for free from your website in exchange for your visitor’s name/email address and permission to email them again AND as a bonus they also receive your ongoing newsletter with more valuable information.
  3. Place a sign-up form for your pink spoon/mailing list on every single page of your website. Include a one-line privacy policy (e.g., we will never sell, rent or share your contact information) and a link to a more detailed privacy policy.
  4. Create a “sales page” on your website that specifically describes and promotes your pink spoon (this may very well be your Home page). If your pink spoon “sales page” is not your Home page, you can purchase a domain name that is redirected to the sub-page.
  5. Post the URL to that pink spoon “sales page” in your signature line (see mine below, that I use for my book site), and in the author resource box of articles that you publish online (e.g., on Ezine Articles). Include a brief but descriptive invitation to visit your page and claim the free gift.

My signature line:

************************************
Linda Dessau, BFA, MTA, CPCC
www.contentmasteryguide.com
FREE Readability Secrets
Guaranteed to improve your writing
www.forcoacheswhowrite.com

************************************

Autoresponder logistics:

  • An email broadcasting service such as AWeber provides you with HTML code for a form that you can place on the sidebar of every page of your website.
  • On clicking “Submit,” the website visitor is added to your mailing list and automatically receives a download link and/or an attachment of your free resource.
  • Follow up with two or three additional autoresponder messages, promoting the next level of your marketing funnel (a product or service).
  • You can then use the email broadcasting service to mail out newsletters and/or special offers to everyone on the list.

Does that clear things up for anyone?

Don’t be sneaky in your subject line

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In a Constant Contact FAQ post they discussed how the CAN-SPAM (anti-spam) act applies to the claims that we make in our subject lines. [Update December 15, 2012 – The direct link to this article is no longer functioning.] Are we so eager to get the reader's attention and have them click through, that we resort to deception?

There's a fine line between being clever and compelling to being dishonest and deceitful. Following the lead of some of the more aggressive (AND successful) Internet marketers, it's easy to get overly focused on compelling headings and subject lines and not focused enough on the integrity of the message.

I don't ever want to leave a bad taste in someone's mouth after an interaction with me – whether it's direct or indirect. Not everyone is going to like me or what I do, and I can live with that (sigh), but I can certainly avoid misleading someone to have an expectation that I have no intention of delivering on.

Did I cross the line with the post titled, "Win a copy of the Customizable Style Guide for Coaches Who Write"? After all, there was no fine print letting readers know that attendance at the ICF-GTA Conference was a prerequisite. But if I'd said that, then no one outside of Toronto would have clicked through and I would have lost an opportunity to remind my readers about the Style Guide resource and also my Talk-Write article service.

I'm curious to hear from you: Have you ever been duped by a "bait and switch" subject line that didn't deliver? How did you react? How did it affect your relationship with the sender? Comment below and let me know.

Also, how much emphasis do you put on composing your subject lines and titles? Are they as or more important to you than the post/article? What are your tricks for getting people to click through? Post them in a comment below. I'm also curious to know how/if you track your open rates, and which subject lines have been most successful for you. Thanks!