Do You Need a Swipe File?

By on September 6, 2013 in Freelancing

I’m not originally a copywriter by trade. That’s a common misconception.

Things have changed in recent years, largely because the consistency and quality of writing needed for even a local website to compete has increased dramatically. Content needs to be clever, witty, convincing, and converting.

So I spent the better part of the years since the first Google Panda update reading up on what drives human behavior, what triggers certain actions, and how I can make my copy not just convincing, but compulsively readable.

One of the most important tips I’ve discovered yet, and one that I WISH I had five years ago, was to create a swipe file.… Read More

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How to Define a “Doable” Task

By on June 12, 2013 in Productivity

One of the biggest general obstacles to productivity is the idea of “doability”. Goals, dreams, and tasks become interchangeable to a point that the average to do list is too vague and extremely hard to take action on.

If you’ve read any books on productivity, you know that this is the underpinning of most systems. Finding a way to generate actionable, “doable” tasks that can be completed in a finite period of time.

“Build a website” is not an actionable task. It is a goal, possibly a milestone. If I were to ask you exactly how long it would take to build a website, or what was involved, you could easily break it down into ten, twenty or thirty more tasks.… Read More

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10 Best SaaS Services for Freelancers

By on June 11, 2013 in Freelancing

When I started freelancing, my sole expenses were Internet access and my Elance Membership. My computer was slow and didn’t hold a charge. My software was outdated and limited the projects I could take. I did accounting and scheduling in Excel and Word.

But I made it work, so if you’re just starting or your budget is extremely tight, what I’m about to show you is not VITAL. No single tool on this list is required to be a successful freelancer. There are free alternatives to every one of them.

However, for those that can afford it or that want to speed up and mobilize their services, these are exceptional SaaS tools that make it possible.… Read More

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How to Write an Engaging, Non-Spam Email Newsletter

By on June 7, 2013 in On Writing

My business partner and I have something of a running disagreement on the efficacy of email marketing as an SEO tool. We wholeheartedly agree on its usefulness as an engagement tool – to capture leads and maintain a connection with them until a sale (or action) is solicited.

But I think the very things that make email marketing effective to capture leads, also makes it effective to reduce bounce rates and improve on-page metrics, which in turn is good for SEO. Micah doesn’t necessarily disagree, but doesn’t think it’s quite as important as some of the other things you can do to drive engagement on a site.… Read More

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How Much Time Do You Need for Your Writing Project?

By on June 5, 2013 in Freelancing

Especially when you start freelancing, one of the hardest things to do is measure your time. How do you know in advance how much time it will take to complete a blog post for example, or 10 articles about a topic you’ve never written about before?

While a good time estimate is important for your schedule, it’s doubly important for your bid – ensuring you get paid enough for your time. Here are some things to consider when plotting out a new project – whether for yourself or a client.

The Raw Writing Time

The first thing most writers do is calculate raw writing time.… Read More

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7 Add-On Services for Your Writing Clients

By on May 29, 2013 in Freelancing

I started my career picking at the scraps of the online writing world. Yes, I willingly submitted articles to micropay sites, and yes I had an account with sites like TextBroker (it didn’t exist yet, but others like it did). I worked for pennies, and while I don’t recommend it to anyone who can avoid it, I learned quite a bit in those early days.

Namely, there are no writing tasks I cannot perform. Today, I still get clients who contact me about website content and then ask if I can write blog posts.

Of course I can, but in the mind of most clients, these services are very different.… Read More

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How GTD Works for Freelancers

By on May 28, 2013 in Productivity

Today’s post is a very special post – #500 on AnthonyChatfield.com. I started this blog nearly 7 years ago on a whim and today it houses hundreds of articles about everything I do and enjoy, and then some. Today’s post is all about Getting Things Done and the systems that make it possible:

One of the best books I’ve read in recent years is Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. This isn’t a review of that book (it’s amazing – read it), but an overview of how I’ve incorporated the concepts from the book into various aspects of my career to make myself more productive.… Read More

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How to Have a Successful Vacation as a Freelancer

By on May 22, 2013 in Free Time, Freelancing

Vacation – it’s a fine dream and one that every freelancer feels like they can make a reality. With all that schedule flexibility, though, come a handful of issues that can make it hard to have a successful vacation without proper planning.

To be fair, I haven’t been on vacation in a couple of years. My son was born the same year my wife went back to school and time has been squeezed to its breaking point ever since. Vacations have been on hold as a result, but before Jack was born (and very soon in the future), vacations worked.

Here are some of the things I did to ensure every vacation was as successful as possible, without an excessive burden being placed on me to maintain income levels.… Read More

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5 Tips for Taking Notes While Researching

By on May 21, 2013 in Entrepreneurship

As a freelance writer, I’ve researched hundreds of books in my career. When I write one eBook, for example, I usually read anywhere between three and ten books just for background research, not to mention the dozens of websites I visit, articles I read and email lists I subscribe to.

This can be very time consuming and can make meeting short deadlines very difficult. So over the years I’ve developed a handful of strategies for streamlining my research processes and extracting only what I need from any one book as fast as possible.

Tip #1 – Use an Organizational Tool with Cloud Backup

I use Evernote for all of my note taking.… Read More

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How to Gain Expertise Fast

By on May 16, 2013 in Sales & Marketing

Micah and I are working on a podcast for Great Leap Studios. In fact, by the time this gets published we will probably have already recorded the first episode and I’ll be knee deep in Audition editing it for upload.

We know nothing about creating podcasts, but we both love listening to them and are eager to not only reach out to our audience, but make podcasting a part of our service portfolio for prospective clients. It’s a great medium with incredible potential for optimization.

More importantly, the presence of a finely crafted, well tuned podcast in iTunes and SoundCloud makes you look like an expert in that field, especially if you sound like one in the recording.… Read More

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