Six Figure Writing

Hi from SueC here at Six Figure Writing! As a new reader, be sure to subscribe to my email list, and my RSS feed to get the most out of SFW. Thanks for stopping by!

Despite the radio silence here on SFW of the past few months, I’ve been busily working on new writing gigs and projects.  The reason I’ve been cranking up the output is that as the economy slows (and according to the “experts” I’m listening to, that’s a given) I believe freelancers are possibly in the best position to make something of the situation.

How?  By doing what we do as freelancers: Get creative.

My projects right now include some writing for other folks - blogs, articles - but also writing a lot of web content for my own web sites and publications.  In other words, I don’t just think of myself as a writer, but as the owner of publishing business.  Blogs, websites, ebooks, and also providing writing “services” for clients; these and many other products are my company’s business. (If you haven’t seen the interviews and resoruces on my Freebies page, check out the Tiffany Dow interview to see how someone can take action to build a business as a writer.)

Writers who think of themselves only as “writers”, who look for freelance “jobs” and “clients” all day, and work primarily on stuff other people will own, could be missing out big opportunities.  As a publisher, I write all I want, on anything I want, whenever I want - but I also hire other writers and designers, to build my own assets including Web “real estate” and other intellectual property.  Writers who work as publishers controlling their own content stand to weather the storm over the next few years, by opening up their options to sell not just to clients, but also directly to readers and consumers.

To light your creative fire, here are posts with ideas you can use to leverage your biggest asset - your creativity - in a financially-tightening marketplace.  One of my favorites is Pamela Slim’s post in June about what to do if the economy’s got your down.

Here’s another post from Seth Godin’s blog, about how to maintain your competitive advantage.  If you don’t read his blog on a regular basis, start now, if you want to not only keep your head above water, but thrive, no matter the economy.

What are you doing now to grow and build your business?

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• Where Have All the Freelance Writing Jobs Gone?

Tags: content writing, freelance, Freelance Jobs, freelance promotion, freelance writing, freelance writing jobs, make money in a down economy, make money writing, Marketing, writing for money

written by SueC \\ tags: content writing, freelance, Freelance Jobs, freelance promotion, freelance writing, freelance writing jobs, make money in a down economy, make money writing, Marketing, writing for money

A couple weeks ago I asked readers to submit their sites if they’d like a review of their sites for user-friendliness, along with suggestions about how to optimize to attract visitors and start getting the traffic that leads directly to more revenue.  (Heading toward those six figures, right?!)

So - here’s the video of the reviews of three sites I selected from a few dozen submitted by readers.  I noticed a few themes that ran through nearly all sites I saw: writers are too busy writing to learn about basic SEO-friendly site design, and are taking baby steps when it comes to social networking and Web 2.0.  Yet these are seriously important lessons to learn if you want to bring readers right to your virtual doorstep.

Without considering basic Web design issues, your site comes off like an old-fashioned brochure or resume website. Plus, you want your site positioned and designed to keep visitors engaged once you start using all that traffic generation to bring them there!  (That is, you want them to stay and READ, right? You are a writer right?!

So, with this review I’m providing a starting point for writers to consider when they build or tweak a site.  Warning:  this may be too basic for some writers who are already well-versed in online promotion, but judging by those who sent me sites to take a look at, many more know they need to do something, they just aren’t sure exactly what. Hopefully this will give everyone some ideas.

After your take a look at the video walk-through of my three winners’ sites right here.  then we can have a good long discussion of how writers can use (1) and (2) to build income.   

What would you do to enhance these sites?

Tags: basic web design, freelance promotion, promotion, SEO-friendly, social networking, traffic generation, web design issues

written by SueC \\ tags: basic web design, freelance promotion, promotion, SEO-friendly, social networking, traffic generation, web design issues