As a freelance writing professional you are always looking for new ways to promote your business. The good thing is that the web gives us quite a few places for us to post our content for others to read. The not so good thing is that, those websites are full of other people just like us, which makes it difficult to stand out as someone who should command a premium rate.
As we publish our content in these places, we don’t want to make all of our writing sound like an advertisement of services. Instead, we should post everywhere possible in places where we can demonstrate our level of expertise.
What we are doing with content strategies like this, is positioning ourselves as experts in specialized subject areas. Therefore, what follows may be counter-intuitive to things that are commonly said about promoting ourselves as freelancers. We are taking the standard content marketing strategy and applying it directly to our freelance writing business.
The difference between this and other promotional strategies is that we are demonstrating our ability to produce content in our niche subject area, rather than relying on our mention of it in our bio. Being able to point to content already published will place you head and shoulder above writers who can only point to their own personal blog or website.
One of the dilemmas of our profession is that we are ghostwriting our expert content. In other words, we typically do have an area of expertise, but once we turn over our content to our clients, we are unable to refer to it in any way. Additionally, our clients are unlikely to state openly that we created the expert content on their site, nor are they incentivized to tell others in their industry. That means that we are somewhat limited in what our track record can truly say about us. Generic writing samples are sufficient but do not prove that we are worth an investment of premium compensation, as specific expert content created for our chosen niche would prove.
An area that we can look to have our work and or research published is any grouping of international trade journals. Editors of most trade journals are always looking for interesting content to publish. And if you have knowledge and expertise in a niche, this is an excellent place to explore new relationships. To find the names of trade journals that will fit your niche, you can visit www.tradepub.com.
Once you have found suitable candidates to submit your writing to, you will need to find the name of the editor using a simple internet search. Once you have found their name, you should contact that editor by phone. Tell them that you are a writer and what your specialty is. But please note that the point of your call is to find out what the editor’s needs are. What kind of content are they looking for?
The key in being able to get your content published is to be able to produce what is needed, not what you think your expertise is. You will use your skills of research and expression to craft the piece that they are looking for. This will help you to establish their trust.
This series of steps is likely to set off alarm bells in your mind, because it is a lot of work as well as not being very straightforward. That is exactly why the strategy is so effective. First, other writers are unlikely to duplicate it or even attempt it. Second, you will be noticed by some of those within your niche who will need your services for press releases, blogs, company websites and whitepapers.
Having a journal article published also transmits that you understand the unique issues of the industry and that your services are worth a premium rate. In most cases, it is more valuable than your blog content because an industry editor will have found it worth to send to his or her readers.
To master this kind of promotion, you should not stop at one article or one trade journal. Continue to publish and make it part of your arsenal of content strategies, knowing that doing so speaks volumes about you as a writer.