5 Ways to Write Content on a Shoe-String Budget

My Web Writers 

As a business owner you are faced with challenging decisions every day, if not several times throughout the day. Everything from your focus and vision to your marketing plan, each requires significant attention to detail and countless hours of envisioning, business mapping, and collecting data to support the strategic planning that you put into place to live out your company goals and mission.

One of the most challenging decisions that you, as a business owner, might make is how to effectively develop your company’s web site content to increase your business presence, reach your target audience, and boost your business’ performance while maintaining your “shoestring budget.” You know, it comes as no surprise, neither marketing nor advertising come without cost. Lucky for you, however, we’ve come up with five ways to help you write content on a shoe-string budget.

In-house writers: If your company is fortunate to have a marketing department, albeit large or small, using in-house writers can provide you with good, quality content. As a department, your company should identify the goals it would like to accomplish through the use of its content. Will your content be used primarily online, in print, through various direct mail, email or telemarketing campaigns? Once you’ve hit on the logistics, get your team involved. Creating unique and interesting content doesn’t come easier than to involve a lot of different people. Help your team to understand the company’s vision and then let them be the voice of the company. Each person will come with several different and unique approaches to your company’s marketing strategy.  Whichever strategy your team is tackling, monitor and track how successful your company’s outreach is and develop your future plans accordingly. It will help you to respond to the strengths and weaknesses of the department and meet the needs of your company’s target audience.

Contracted writers: In some cases, companies don’t have the staffing to maintain the necessary presence on the web to satisfy their marketing team’s departmental goals or in-house writers don’t quite have a full understanding of SEO.  If that sounds like your company, consider partnering with a content writing agency to supplement or manage your online presence.  Think about your overall space, administrative, and time costs saved when putting together your budget.  You will get what you pay for, so be realistic.  Look for content quotes that are reasonable to the parameters and demands of the project.

For a smaller budget, your in-house writers can begin their script and merely use contracted writers to edit or spruce up content. However, for slightly larger budgets or needs, freelance writers can take the joys of a blank page, use the mastery of their word-smithing capabilities, and turn your would-be dreams into a reality. And all the better, hiring contracted writers frees you and your staff of their highly valued time (especially if you’re likely to struggle at the stroke of the keys).

Content Management Software and Systems: Allow your company to tap into the ready-waiting success of content management software and systems just waiting to be utilized. If you’re not familiar with Hootsuite, let me give you the quickest, easiest one-two facts about it: It’s an A-MAZING must have. Hootsuite allows you the ability to manage and measure your social media networks all in one suite location. You can monitor and schedule social media messages, posts, and tweets for multiple accounts, while tracking any of your company mentions, all with the luxury of analyzing social media traffic. Sticking to your online schedule is simple when you schedule posts through Hootsuite. In fact, when the thought strikes you, schedule your post to appear in days, weeks, or months from the date you actually jot down your noteworthy thought. It’s a business-saver. And while you’re at it, sign up for an easy-to-use, online visibility account that keeps you in the news with PRWeb. Yep, it’s simple. Your writers can produce press releases about newsworthy happenings within your company and then share them with the rest of the world. Anything from a new employee, event, or product can now make headlines with the ease of online viewership. If you haven’t tried them, you should. Content management software and systems make distributing content affordable and easy, and they will make you seem like a genius!

High School and College Intern: Networking with local high schools, colleges and universities can be one of the most advantageous methods for developing content on a shoe-string budget. At most schools and colleges, student interns are nearing graduation and are experienced junior or senior level undergraduate students. In addition to having the benefit of hardworking students, desiring a position to give them hands-on, transferrable skills to carry over into the workforce upon graduation, employers can work closely with student interns to mentor them and provide them with the skills they desire in an employee on a trial-run basis, so to speak. It’s a win-win; students earn college credit and employers have good quality content written typically at no – or a low – cost.

Social Media: It should come without saying, plugging into social media is one of the wisest moves a company can make. Millions of individuals, nationally and internationally, visit social media sites daily. By maximizing your presence in various social media platforms, your company will successfully share your message, content, and company mission with the online world. And while you are building your platform, network, network, network. The more contact you make with the online world, the better you will be at getting your brand out to the world.

Marketing can be a tough hill to climb, but it doesn’t have to be. Utilizing the various marketing measures available to your company can help you take your business to the next level. ~Leah

How Do I Become a Writer?

By My Web Writers

Photo by Virginia Hammer

Ernest Hemingway allegedly quipped, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Writing is a hard, often frustrating processes. Nonetheless, for those with the talent and the desire to write, there isn’t much more rewarding. To become a writer, you’ll need more than talent and practice, you’ll also need to find your niche, join a community of writers, and train yourself in the craft of selling your writing to editors, publishers, and readers.

Finding Your Voice

If you study the lives of great writers, you’ll find that they all practiced their writing. A lot. Work on your writing every day, even if it’s only for a half an hour. As you produce more work, even if it’s not good, you’ll begin to notice the techniques you’re really good at and those that still need more practice. More importantly, you’ll begin to learn what your voice sounds like as a writer.

What type of writer you want to be will determine how you practice your writing. Different types of writing careers demand different conventions and styles. For example, if you want to write essays and articles for magazines, read the best magazines out there (The New Yorker, TIME, or major titles in your fields of interest) and study what makes a great article. Then practice. Do research, conduct interviews, and commit yourself to writing an article a week. That way you’ll train your voice and produce a solid portfolio of pieces to pitch to possible employers and editors.

If you want to write poems, books, or other literature, keep up with new titles and trends in contemporary publishing. Learn what is selling currently and consider how your unique voice fits in or fills a gap. Produce a poem, short story, or chapter a week and continue to revise.

Blogging can function as a way to practice and train these skills, too. Post new work to your blog at least on a weekly basis (the more frequently the better), network with other bloggers, and get feedback on your work. (Check out our tips about making your blog a brand.) Focus your blog on demonstrating your particular genre or style of writing. That way you can both work on your craft and on making a name for yourself.

Writers’ Communities

An essential part of developing a writing career is an active writers’ community. One of your most valuable resources is the feedback of other people. Other writers will be able to give you better insights than someone who isn’t thinking critically about writing (or someone who loves you, like your mom). Search your area for local workshop groups or find an online writing buddy. For those striving for a literary career, one of the best ways to really develop your writing is to enroll in an M.A. or M.F.A program in creative writing. These days many successful journalists also have a Master’s degree. Whether you’re already in school, or thinking about enrollment, the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) conference is an excellent resource. Their annual conference draws thousands of writers from across the country to network, workshop, and have fun.

Find Your Audience: Writing is a Business Too

Though a lot about writing has changed since Hemingway sat down at his typewriter, the basic skills for turning your creative passion into a publication or a career continue to hinge on your ability to sell your writing. Writing is an art, but it’s also a business. In addition to daily practice of your writing, you’ll need to learn how to write a query letter in order to find an agent or a job. If your aim is a literary career, practice writing queries, synopsis, and sample chapters. Hand them out to writers in your workshop group and ask them if they’d buy the project you’re pitching. The Literary Marketplace is your guide to finding agents and places to publish. If your goal is a freelance or marketing career, check out our list of  Job Sites for Copy Writers. In the meantime, keep up with that blog to maintain your online presence.

To become a writer you’ll need to figure out how your voice contributes to the existing marketplace or field. What makes your writing worth reading? Continue to practice what makes your work unique as well as strengthening the areas where your writing is weak. Developing an awareness of what your writing offers is a key way to selling your writing in query letters and manuscripts. ~Kasey

Good luck!

Stay Positive. How to Manage Great Writers with no Respect for Deadlines

by My Web Writers

Their work is incredible. It’s accurate and interesting. It’s engaging and heartfelt. The problem is, it’s rarely ever in by deadline. It can be super frustrating to manage writers with no respect for deadlines, especially when they are talented content writers. You don’t want to lose the talent, but you do want them to turn assignments in on time.

Find out What the Problem Is
Get to know your writers. Why are they missing deadlines? Are there things going on in their lives that you aren’t aware of? Sit down with a writer who is having trouble meeting deadlines and flat out ask them why they aren’t turning in assignments on time. Perhaps their workload is too heavy, or maybe they aren’t being given sufficient information for their writing assignments. Bring to light exactly what is keeping the writer from getting things accomplished on time, and then offer them some suggestions on how to manage stress and thus get better at meeting deadlines.

Give Consequences for Missed Deadlines
For writers under contract, build it into their contract that a percentage of their pay will be deducted for each day past deadline their assignment is turned in. Or, consider having a “three strikes you’re out” policy- too many missed deadlines and the writer is terminated. This can be a tough to do with a talented writer, but if they aren’t turning their great writing in on time, it might not be worth giving them the work. Assigning a consequence to missed deadlines will probably have a big impact on whether or not the writer makes future deadlines.

Make a Plan
Some writers, especially rookies, might not have any clue how to manage their time. Freelance writers typically have other jobs that take up the majority of their time throughout any given week. Help your writers set a schedule for writing. Just because it’s freelance work doesn’t mean it’s blow-off work. Tell your writers they should set time aside in their week when they will work on assignments and to write down that schedule. Scheduled activities that are written down are more likely to get accomplished. Time management is a skill that will benefit them in all areas of life.

Check up on Writers
If a writing deadline is in a week, contact your writer mid-week to see how things are progressing. Build it into their contract that they will respond to any inquiries with an honest response. This isn’t necessary for all writers, just the ones who have trouble with deadlines. You may feel like you are nagging, but that’s kind of the point. If the writer is tired of hearing from you so often, maybe they’ll start making deadlines.

Consider Changing Your Approach to Deadlines
Are the missed deadlines messing up your business, or are you simply aggravated that the writer doesn’t respect deadlines? If the writer turns things in late but you still have sufficient time to edit and get it to a client, don’t sweat it. If it’s ruining relationships with clients, move up deadlines. See if the writer will work better on a tighter deadline. Many writers like the thrill of a tight deadline and actually produce better work that way. If there’s really a sense of urgency for the written work, make it known to the writer. If there’s not, don’t stress about it, especially if you know that the writer will give you quality work only a day or two late.

If you don’t want to lose a great writer who can’t make deadlines, work something out. There’s got to be some sort of agreement the two of you can reach to address the issue. ~Natalie

How Do You Find Good Content Writers and How Much Do These Writers Cost?

by My Web Writers

Finding knowledgeable writers who are versed in your subject matter, the craft of writing, and search engine optimization is not as simple as it would seem.  Schools produce excellent writers, but many lack foundations in marketing or search engine optimization.  Copy can completely miss the mark when there’s a lack of marketing finesse.  Conversely, salesmen rarely have time to write and might lack spelling, grammar, and punctuation skills. Many writers burn out writing about the same topic over and over again.  So where do you find great writers and how much should you pay them?

Hire Content Production Companies

There are several benefits of working with content production companies.  You’ll often receive quotes in advance for your projects.  You don’t have to waste hours and dollars finding and screening writers.  Content creation companies choose skilled writers and edit their work before sending it to you.  You don’t have to juggle and manage a variety of writers and their idiosyncrasies.  The company makes sure that your project is received on time and without hassles.  Content production companies often cost more, but then the savings in your management time and editing can be well worth what seems like a greater expense.  Content companies usually charge between $50 – $150 per 500-word article (or an average of 25 cents per word).   You’ll find companies that charge as low as 5 cents per word, but often their writers don’t have college educations, content writing experience, or native, English skills.

Find Writers on Social Media

Turn to social media to find excellent writers.  You can perform a Twitter search to find writers in your topic area.  Type in the hash tag #engineering and you’ll eventually find an engineer who might know a colleague who can write.  Place a Facebook ad for writers with an interest in your industry and you’ll soon receive resumes that specifically fit your needs.   There are several hash tags that writers use including #writers. You might find decent writers for $15 – $30 per 500-word article this way, but plan to offer several projects before you understand each writer’s intellectual capacity, writing depth, work ethic, need for editing, and pay requirements.  You’ll also want to make sure that you secure rights to the work each writer produces for you.  Also, use a service like Copyscape, after you receive content, to double-check that it’s all original.

Find Writers at Universities and Community Colleges

Partner with a college internship coordinator to discover budding talent.  You’ll find a variety of writers at universities for the price of your time to train them.  You’ll need to fill out paperwork and meet with the interns to orient them and to provide feedback.  This assumes, of course, that you know something about writing.  If you don’t, you might want to hire an editor to review each intern’s articles.  Working with college students could eventually lead to a well-trained staff of homegrown writers at each semester’s end.

Introduce Yourself to Writer Groups

You can find writers in your community through your local library, church, or even PTA.  Plug in to find the writer who is at home with children, but would like to work part-time.  You’ll find many professionals in these places who appreciate stimulating challenges, but need flexibility.  Writer groups often meet in libraries to discuss the books and articles they are writing.  Some may be willing to take on side projects, too.  Plan to pay wages ranging from $10 – $50 per hour, depending on the complexity of your topic and the writer’s ability.  You’ll also want to clarify in your contract if revisions are included and the maximum amount of hours you’re willing to pay for each project.

Some companies develop lists of part-time writers and ask them to pitch topics or to write their articles in advance for consideration of purchase.  Your top talent won’t have time to waste on these types of activities, so pay fair wages if you need a job done yesterday.

Inquire with SEO Companies about their Content Services

Most SEO companies offer content creation in addition to SEO software, design, or consulting services.  If you need an entire website package in a one-stop shop, working with an SEO company is the way to go.  They’ll manage the writers and the site navigation for you, as well as link-building, and other needs.  Expect to pay $100 – $300 per hour for services with the average 500-word web page billed at 3 hours to write.  SEO companies may seem expensive, but then you’re paying for the search engine optimization expertise that reputable, SEO companies offer.  We recently profiled some of the best SEO companies in the Midwest.

Place an Ad for Writers

You can always place an ad, looking for writers, in your local paper.  There are many online, job sites for copywriters that will bring resumes your way, as well.

Writer Salaries

Since content was declared “king” by Google via the first Panda update February 23, 2011, the need for web writers has dramatically increased.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2010, the median pay for writers was $55,420 per year or $26.64 per hour.

In 2012, Writers USA 2012 published the results of 371 respondents to a global survey. These readers range from staff writers to documentation specialists to technical writing managers and branch heads.  The results indicate significant jumps in pay.  The median content-oriented salary in 2012 is $78,614 with salaries ranging from $15,000 to $170,000.  These ranges do not include benefits. The overall average hourly wage is $41.

Choose Your Writer

Don’t overlook writing the content yourself.  If you can present a solid draft, an editor should be able to groom the typical 500-word blog post in an hour or less and that could save money.  Then, again, how much is your time worth?  If you have too many plates spinning that only you can spin, then outsource.

If you find skilled writers that you enjoy working with, then keep them and pay them well.  If you don’t want to manage the variance of personalities and skills, hire content companies, advertising firms, or SEO firms to complete your projects.  A good content writer or company can be your best asset.

~Jean

Party Crashers App Embraces Digital Marketing and the American Dream

By My Web Writers

The Great Gatsby was always one of my favorite novels.  Do you remember the theme – about the disillusionment of the American Dream? Gatsby had such a sensational, idealistic heart, but he loved the girl who was married to old money.  He hosted party after party hoping that one day she’d happen upon his scene and be impressed with his self-made fortune.  Maybe, just maybe, his fortune would buy her love.

If only Gatsby had an iPhone with the Party Crashers app.  The rewrite would give F. Scott Fitzgerald goose bumps.  Modern day Gatsby wants to meet the girl, but how?  He downloads the Party Crashers app and connects with facebook friends.  He knows the girl hangs out with some of his friends, so he indicates that he’s hosting a party at his West Egg mansion and – it’s crashable.  Daisy sees that Tom, Jordan, and her other friends are going and bringing bathing suits, so she requests to “crash the party”.  Gatsby accepts and asks for her drink and music preferences.

Besides creating amazing story lines, the Party Crashers app hopes to stand out among the 696,054 other active Apple apps available for download today.  My Web Writers caught up with Keith Bansemer, who helped to manage Party Crashers’ development, and asked him to answer a few questions about the app’s purpose, development, and marketing:

1. What is the Party Crashers App?

Party Crashers gives party hosts the option of creating events that are either private or public.  Those invited to attend are asked to hype the party in advance by sharing a rating about their excitement for the party to start.  Party goers flip through party details to see which of their friends are attending, what their favorite drinks are, what to wear, what kind of music will be played, activities at the party, and more. Party hosts are able to manage their RSVPs and review the party profiles of their guests.

For those not invited to a party listed as crashable, a Party Crasher app user can send a personal message to the party host and request an invite to crash the party.  If the crash request is accepted, directions and a map to the party will be made available.  A positive response is an open invitation to join the fun as a party crasher and meet new friends.

By applying gold “Celebrity Spotting” stars in the app, attendees alert others when celebrities make appearances at parties.

Details of what is happening at a party can be shared on other social platforms including Facebook and Twitter.

Party Crashers displays five main menu options including My Parties, Plan Party, Find Party, Account, and fellow Party Crashers’ Alerts.  When the party is over, attendees rate each party and provide feedback through the Morning After Report noting what happened at the party.

2. Who came up with Party Crashers and why do you think it’ll be successful?

Shep Moyle, who owns the party supplies store, Shindigz, is Party Crashers’ idea guy.  He co-founded Party Crashers with his children – Madison, Chase, Max, (who are all under 21 years old) and his wife, Wendy Moyle.  Shep’s driven to make life more fun for others.  He loves the concept of friends moving beyond texting into actual, face-to-face interactions.

Party Crashers will be successful because it provides a way for people to discover, interact during, and rate parties in real time.

3.  Tell us about the process involved in developing an app. 

The app took almost a year to plan.  The concept moved from an outline of app actions, wireframes, design mockups, navigation flowcharts, to FINALLY coding.  After coding for Apple iOS, we move to Android, which uses different code.  In the end, both platforms perform like twins.

4.  How is Party Crashers using digital marketing?

Parties are social and the spreading the word about this app will be largely grassroots – just like Facebook started at one college and spread rapidly.  We have college teams in place to spread the word about the app.  Our enthusiastic twenty-something’s are planted on many US college campuses, right now.

Everyone in business holds a personal computer – their mobile device – with access to all the data in the world.  Today, we live two lives, the one with the people we are physically with and the virtual life with people we are connected to anywhere on the planet.  Party Crashers helps to take information about parties, including which ones are best, seeking Crashers, and have celebs, and invites people to gather.  In the end, digital brings us back together to find good times, meet new people, celebrate, and create lasting memories.

We’ve done it with company meetings already.  The employees have gathered at a “work party” like a training meeting and used the app to rate that gathering.

 5.  What makes content successful when marketing an app?

What’s nice about this app is that the users generate the content.  They load the parties, spot the celebs, spread the news, and rate the parties. This content is valuable in real time for all looking for a party to crash.

6.  Is Party Crashers marketing through other media?

We are using all social media channels.  We’re also utilizing flyers, t-shirts, newspaper articles, interviews, and soon – some radio.

7.  When will you know the app is successful?

When it becomes a “New & Noteworthy” app listed by Apple or a household name – the next Pinterest!

8.  What advice would you give to those in charge of promoting an app?

Social media is key.  Add links to your apps via all of the social media channels.  Spread the word one-by-one.  Seek the exponential tipping point where the number of app downloads hit the top of “trending” charts.

Party Crashers Lives the Dream

Somewhere there’s a rewrite of the American Dream or at least, the way the world parties, waiting to happen.  The Moyle family is patiently waiting for Party Crashers to be discovered.  Will the public love their app?  Party Crashers could build a few, white picket fences.

Coincidentally, a new version of The Great Gatsby movie does come out May 2013, however if you have an iPhone, you can download the Party Crashers app today to create your own Gatsby/ Party Crashers moment this weekend.

~Jean