How to Sell Yourself Without Selling Out

Throughout history, artists have always had a special place in society. It was recognised that their contribution to society went beyond the financial and people were willing to support them so that they would have the space to create their masterpieces. Let’s face it, it made the rich patrons feel good to have an artist around, so they could show all their friends they weren’t just about the money. And if an artist was dirt poor and had no financial support, it didn’t matter – they were an artist.

Unfortunately, or so it seems to me at least, that mentality is now gone. Artists are expected to fit in with society. That means they usually have to do another job with their art to make ends meet. Grants are getting scarcer and scarcer. When an artist finishes a piece of art, they’re is expected to treat their work as a product and promote it. In other words, they have to sell themselves, a concept that fills many of them with curdling resentment.

Shouldn’t an artist’s work speak for itself? Well yes, but only if there are people to listen. The world is increasingly fragmented and people’s attention is getting harder and harder to hold. If you want them to know about your work, you have to tell them about it. That’s the secret to selling work as an artist – selling by telling.

You don’t need a fancy campaign. You don’t need to spend a lot of money. You don’t need to be in people’s faces. You just tell them about your work, the thing you are most passionate about.

When you’re finished your work, the ink or paint is dry, the last note written, the last line learned, have a brainstorm with yourself. Think about what inspired you to create the work, what process you went through to finish it, what message you wanted it to portray. In other words, tell the story of your work.

When you’ve done that, there are some wonderful free tools you can use to tell your story. You’ll be familiar with these already. The social media tools: Facebook, Twitter, blogs. Then the good old traditional media. Your local newspaper or radio station will be your greatest champion. Make sure you accompany your words with good pictures. That’s what’ll really speak to people.

You’ve worked hard to get to this point.  Wouldn’t it be a shame if that work went unrecognised. This is where artists have lessons to learn from the business community. Business people aren’t afraid to put a value on their work. If artists do the same, their status will rise and they will get the following they deserve.

 

Telling the Story, Selling the Story

I’ve been to lots of networking events in the three years since I set up WriteWords, my copywriting service. And I’ve come to identify an unspoken question in the minds of the people I meet. What can a writer do for me? Don’t they sit in ivory towers, churning out masterpieces?

Here’s my answer. I can help you find the right words to achieve your goals.

Here’s how it breaks down. Whether we realise it or not, everyone has a story. And I help people tap into the power of their story. Our stories make us who we are. Because they come straight from our hearts, they have great emotional resonance. And because they’re our own stories, they help us to stand out in an increasingly noisy world.

The trouble is, you’re too close to your own story to see that power. So I help people to figure out what their story is?  Why would you want or need to do this? After all, everyone pays more attention to pictures than words? But you still need to know what to say.

If you know what to say, you can say it consistently, in all your communications. This will help the people you want to reach get the message. And because not many people take the time to do this, you’ll have the edge when you’re persuading other people to buy your book, use your services or donate to your charity.

We’re living in an increasingly noisy world, with a lot of different media clamouring for our attention. Whether we like it or not, if we want to be heard, we have to sell ourselves. And telling your story is a great way to sell yourself. Because you’re sharing your experience, your passion and your knowledge, you don’t feel like you’re selling at all. And because you’re making a real emotional connection with the person you’re talking to, they don’t feel like they’re being sold to.

There are three groups of people who would particularly benefit from defining and refining their story.

Small and medium enterprises: As a business owner, your first priority is to grow your business. And words can help you achieve that goal. Words are your secret weapon in marketing your business. If you take the time to define your message, you’ll have the edge over your competitors. This isn’t just pie-in-the-sky stuff. You can actually measure the impact of your words using Google Analytics and other analytics tools supplied by WordPress, Facebook etc.

Writers and Artists: Artistic people struggle with the concept of selling themselves. But how are people going to know about the wonderful work you’re doing unless you tell them? All you have to do is let them know about what you do, through tools like social media, blogs and traditional media. If you’re a writer looking to be published, it helps to be able to get to the heart of your story, so you can persuade publishers of its merits.

Charities and Community Groups: These groups are lucky. They have a treasure trove of powerful stories at their disposal. They can tap into the life changing experiences of their members and beneficiaries to get their message across. People will be drawn by these uplifting stories and be encouraged to dip into their pockets, or to avail of the services the offer.

Next week, I’ll be outlining the services I use to help you tell your story. If you’d like to find out how I can help you, drop me a mail, derbhile@writewordseditorial.ie.

Roll Up, Roll Up – It’s The Pink Cage Blog Tour

Once upon a time, authors went on book tours. Now they go on blog tours. Blog tours take reviews into the 21st century. The writer or publisher chooses a number of bloggers and asks them if they are willing to do author interviews or book reviews. They then agree to post them up on a specific date. Each blog will appear in sequence, so that, for example, 10 blogs will appear over 10 days.

The goal is to create greater visibility for the book and its author on the Internet, which can be a vast place. Blog tours are particularly useful for encouraging people to buy ebooks, as people make the transition to Kindle and other e-readers.

My blog tour is a mini-tour really, with five bloggers putting up posts over five days. Here’s an itinerary of my whistle stop blog tour.

Monday, September 19th. Writer Orla Shanaghy poses some gritty questions about the realities of the publishing world in her blog, Wait Till I Tell You.

Tuesday, September 20th. Sian Phillips, another keen writer disguised as an accountant, who is one of the queens of the Twitterverse, talks to me about the inspiration for the book and does a reader review on her eponymous blog.

Wednesday, September 21st. Writer Louise Phillips (no relation), is doing a book review and dreaming up some tough questions for her blog, the wonderfully-named 120 Socks. She claims the book helped her through woman flu, so I’m sure she’ll be gentle.

Thursday, September 22nd. Creative writing tutor Michelle Moloney King reviews the book for her blog, Teacher King. She too is a queen in the Twitterverse.

Friday, September 23rd. Last, but not least, writer and musician Derek Flynn is dreaming up some even tougher questions for his blog. Though we live in the same county, we have only met in the Twitterverse, but I’m sure that’ll be amended soon.

I know it’s a lot to take in, but I’ll be posting up every day on my social media pages when the entries are ready, so you’ll be able to follow the blog tour as it unfolds. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all the bloggers for agreeing to take part and for their support through social media channels and in person. It can be as hard now to be reviewed on a blog as it is to be reviewed in a newspaper, so I feel very privileged that they’ve taken such an interest.

See you on tour.

 

 

 

 

My Top 10 Websites

The Internet is like a teenage boy. It’s noisy and it’s growing so fast it doesn’t know what to do with itself. Which makes sense given that the World Wide Web is in its teens. Though it is slowly becoming more organised, it’s still easy to feel like you’re drowning in information.

After years of wading through this information, I’ve finally settled on 10 websites that give me the information I need to do my work. And I’m going to share them with you in the hope that it’ll save you from wasting years of your life!

For your news needs

www.thejournal.ie. From the people who brought you daft.ie. Strong interactive elements.

www.breakingnews.ie. Headlines as they happen.

Social Media and Web Content

www.mashable.com. Best practises in social media

www.copyblogger.com. The bible for online content and copywriting.

Writing resources

www.askaboutwriting.net. All the latest writing developments and competitions.

www.writing.ie. New site full of articles about writing, forums and comprehensive listings.

Business Resources

www.irishbusinesswomen.com. An excellent forum for giving and receiving advice.

www.bloggertone.com. A collective business blog that gathers the thoughts of top business minds.

For reference

www.eircomphonebook.ie. Just type in the name and the location and you’ll get your number.

www.xe.com. Quick currency converter.

Feel free to share your top sites and help other people sort the wheat from the chaff.

 

 

 

 

How to Shape Your Blog

It’s notoriously difficult to hold the attention of Internet audiences. There’s so much competing for their attention and it’s also harder to read off a screen.  To hold the attention of this fickle audience, your blog needs to have an appealing shape. Here’s how to fit your thoughts to the Internet medium.

Title

Your title needs to hit them straight away, so that they’ll click on the link. Aim for a title that does exactly what it says on the tin, or that plays cleverly with words.

Lead-in

Though you’re aiming to be as brief as possible, it’s still nice to lead your reader gently by the hand, with an amusing story, or a question that sparks their interest.

Headings and Bullets

Breaking up your text makes it easier for readers to absorb. If you have an advice-style blog, bullet points are ideal. But even if your blog is more opinion-based, you can break it up with headings. Changes to font and colour will enhance it further.

Visuals

I may be shooting myself in the foot here but the blogs that have the biggest impact are image-based. People love to look at pictures and videos, enhanced with a clever caption.

End

Give people something to take away, whether it’s a call to action, a rousing quote or a link where they can get further information.

How to Write a Press Release When There’s No News

At this time of year, a lot of businesses make a new start. A move to a new premises. A new product range. Or a new business, full stop. Plenty of fodder for media outlets. But what if nothing new is happening? You may feel nothing is happening in your business that is worthy of a press release. Finding newsworthy angles is a particular problem for service businesses, who don’t have anything tangible to show for your efforts.

But the good news for those in service businesses is that you do have a source of news – yourself. Your opinions. Your insights. And your expertise. You can’t have new things happening all the time, so media outlets frequently fill their slots with opinions from experts. And you can take advantage of that trend.

Here’s How

Be Upbeat About the Economy: That’s what Positive Economist Susan Hayes is doing. She’s been featured on the Sunday Business Post and on RTE’s The Business, because she wants to turn the tide of doom and gloom pouring out of the media. If you genuinely feel there’s a glimmer of hope for us, don’t be afraid to light the way with a press release outlining your views.

Awareness of Trends: If you know what makes people buy certain products, or developments are happening in your industry which will have a broader ripple effect, you can put yourself forward as an expert. You can show how customers can benefit from these trends and achieve real value for money.

Offer Business Advice: The world of business can be a minefield, so you could put together an article or blog post that guides people through the minefield. This is what John Jordan of Next Chapter Marketing Consultancy does. His blogs on low-cost marketing solutions for small businesses have featured on www.bizstartup.ie.

So where can you go with your ideas.

Radio Business Programmes: The bulk of business and current affairs programmes on radio are now taken up with opinion, with people sharing their expertise and predicting trends. You can avail of these trends by contacting the producers of programmes like The Business and Newstalk Breakfast with your ideas. Ringing them ensures a prompter answer, but be sure not to do it too close to programme time, as you want to ensure they’re receptive. Be chatty and enthusiastic when you’re talking to them and they’ll see you as radio-friendly.

Newspaper Articles: Slots like Business Brain in the Irish Independent offer a platform for business people to share their expertise. If you send in press releases to newspapers, they’ll see you as a good candidate for a quote in an article about business practise. If you want to write an article, don’t send in the whole article. Send a summary instead, highlighting what you think is newsworthy about your idea.

Online Outlets: If you’re not sure where your press release, you could find an online press outlet. www.irishpressreleases.ie, www.bizstartup.ie and www.irishmediastore.com are all free. Bizstartup is read by business people, while Irish Press Releases and Mediastore are used by journalists to source news.

Feel free to share your own stories of getting press coverage as a service business with me and my readers.

 

 

 

 

A Writerly Year

As this will be my last post for 2010, I thought I would share my year’s highlights, lessons learned and hopes for the future. This is a time of year when people reflect on where they are, so I think this post is timely.

So here are my writerly highlights

Creative Writing

• Finishing my novel and being in a position to send it out to agents
• Delivering creative writing classes in schools
• Delivering my first-ever creative writing workshops for adults.

WriteWords

• Fruitful collaborations with Samantha Clooney of The Virtual Office and John Jordan of Next Chapter.
• Proofreading the bestselling book Blow it Up Ref! for Brian Kennedy
• Helping Vince Doherty of Adikat, a mobile-phone marketing company, to secure media coverage twice in the Sunday Business Post, in the Irish Examiner and on 4FM.
• Securing local media coverage for Karen Frampton of Frampton Career Solutions, Peter Jones of Foot Solutions and Claudio Cavaliere of Espresso.
• Helping John O’Connor of Red Oak Tax Refunds get a 25% increase in the hit rate to his landing page.
• A successful marketing campaign targeting wedding businesses.

Journalism

• Continued articles in Irish Medical Times and Irish Skipper
• A new column with the Munster Express, in association with Home Instead Senior Care.

Lessons Learned

• There is no substitute for hard work
• My work for businesses is at its most effective when combined with the work of other professionals who have similar skills.
• Other people have different ways of learning, so it is important to be flexible to accommodate those
• To take a more methodical approach to my work and pay more attention to detail.
• Persist, persist, persist in securing media coverage.
• It’s okay sometimes to fake it until you make it.

Hopes for 2011

• To expand the number of creative writing classes I offer, in schools and to adults.
• To find a publisher for my novel.
• To further my existing collaborations and to build new ones, particularly with Bryan Corden of Hedgehog Video Productions, who plan to launch in January.
• Conrad Howard of Market Lane Restaurant in Cork has approached me to write a blog for his restaurant. When his new website has been fully revamped, I will ensure that his blog will win many followers.
• To continue delivering service in style to my WriteWords customers, my editors and my creative writing students.

Feel free to share your own highlights for 2010 and hopes for 2011.

Despite the downturn, this has been a year of growth for me. For those of you who found 2010 tough, you have my deepest sympathy and here’s hoping 2011 is a better year for all of us. Meantime, I would like to thank all my customers and students for their custom throughout the year and to wish them a Merry Christmas.

 

Why Copywriters Make Typos

I have a confession to make. Copywriters make typos. Or should that be tpyos? No matter how carefully we check, little errors slip through the net. With the advent of the Typo Eradication Advancement League in the US, it’s clear that many people still care about maintaining high standards of English. And they’re quick to hold people to account if they spot an error in an article or in web content.

Some copywriters try to shrug it off if they get caught out. They figure that their eagle-eyed critics have nothing better to worry about. Yet those same copywriters wouldn’t give a presentation with a stain on their shirt. A typo has the same effect as a stain. It’s all the audience can see. And even when a copywriter tries to bluster their way out of it, if they care about their jobs at all, they’ll still blush.

Copywriters care about the English language even more than most. They can spot errors in other people’s content a mile away. So how come their own copy becomes blotted? It’s quite simple. Copywriters are too close to their own work. They are so immersed in it that they can’t see the errors staring them in the face. If it’s a pet project, they may be so excited by it that they can’t be objective. Sometimes, deadlines can be so tight that they may not have the luxury of checking their work as thoroughly as they’d like. Other times, they may have slotted every apostrophe in the right place, only to find that a printer has inputted the copy incorrectly.

These are good reasons, but in the end, they are excuses. Copywriters put a lot of effort into their content. It’s a shame to have its impact lessened by a careless error. There are tricks copywriters can use which help them achieve the necessary distance from their copy to weed out those pesky typos.

• Read it out loud: This gets rid of most clunky sentence structures.
• Read it twice: Even if you think you’ve spotted all the typos, go again. There are always a few that get away.
• Read it backwards: This is best if you’ve working on a big project that you have a lot invested in. It lets you see each word clearly and errors soon come to light.
• Get someone else to read it: If you have a friend, colleague or family member with a good command of English, they can act as your eyes, because they’re coming to your content with a fresh perspective.
• Good old spellcheck: Still useful for spotting superficial errors.

What do you think of typos? Do they set your teeth on edge? Or is it a case of ‘let he who is without sin cast the first stone?’

How to Create Effective Website Content

Recently, a client phoned me to tell me that I had increased his website hit rate by 25%. You might imagine I applied a complex formula to his content – SEO + Adwords = Megahits. But I didn’t. Good website content is simply about communicating your message in a way that makes customers want to buy from you.

How Do I Do This?

Invite them in: Put a welcome message on your homepage which explains what your company does and what your goals are. Embed links to your other pages into your message, which will entice them to explore further. Ideally, there will be very little else on your homepage, so your potential customer’s eye will immediately be drawn to your message.

Tell Them Who You Are. It’s amazing how few business websites name the owners. You are your business. In your About Us page, give customers a brief introduction to you and your business. You want to communicate with your customers, so make sure your contact details are displayed clearly throughout your website.

Tell Them What You Can Do. In your services section, give a brief outline of each of your services (or products for a retail website) and be very specific about what each one does. This is your chance to tell your customers what you can do for them. If you have a slightly bigger website, you may choose to devote a couple of pages to giving tips on how to use your services more effectively. This builds trust among customers.

Putting It All Together

Layout and Language. Reading online is more stressful on the eyes. Make it easier for your customers by breaking your content up into snappy headings, short paragraphs and bullet points. Use short words and sentences – aim to write as you would talk.

You and We. Create a dialogue with your customers. Even if it’s just you in the business, refer to your company using ‘we,’ ‘our’ and ‘us.’ Address your customers as ‘you.’ This makes your customers feel you are talking to them.

SEO. The big one. Making your content SEO-friendly will help you rise above the crowd. The best way to ensure that your content is picked up by search engines is through Google Analytics. This shows you what words people are using to search for your site. You will see patterns emerging and you can weave those keywords into your content.

Website Content on a Budget: Even if you have only have funds for a one-page website, you can still create dynamic website content. Get to the heart of the matter with a killer homepage message that tells your customers everything they need to know.

Web content and web design go hand in hand. That’s why I’ve teamed up with web designer Samantha Clooney of The Virtual Office to offer web design and content as a complete package. A lot of thought goes into the look of a website. Our service will ensure that your words work just as well as your images. You’ll find information about our offer on http://bit.ly/bevPPf. Samantha’s own website is www.virtualoffices.ie

The LinkedIn Reading List: Connecting Bookworms

What does your LinkedIn reading list say about you? That question prompted lively discussion among members of the Writing Mafia Group on LinkedIn. The general feeling was that books were a statement of personality and that people looked to a connection’s reading list as a yardstick for the value of a connection.

However, a surprising number of posters were unaware of the existence of the LinkedIn reading list. Which is a shame, because it’s an invaluable way of boosting your profile on LinkedIn. Quite simply, the reading list is an app that lets you tell your contacts what you’re reading at the moment, what you have read, or what you plan to read.

Accessing the Reading List

• It’s easy to use. Just go to the More tab, which is the last tab on the menu bar at the top of the page.
• When you click on the word ‘more’, you will see Reading List by Amazon. Click on it, then search for the title of a book you want to select.
• Amazon generates a list of titles with book covers above them. Pick the one that matches your choice.
• The book you choose will appear on your profile and your contacts will see a message telling them what you are reading at present.

What Books to Pick

Because LinkedIn is a formal business-oriented site, many people choose titles that relate to their business and professional lives. Inspirational business books, books on business best practise and books related to their field of business. However, people may also pick books that have inspired them throughout their lives, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction. You can choose a book you have read, a current choice or one you plan to read.

Using the Reading List to Network

When you’ve chosen your book, LinkedIn will invite you to add a comment telling people why you’ve chosen to read this book and if you’ve finished it, what you’ve thought of it. You are also asked if you would recommend it to others. When you click on the title of your book, you can find out what other people on LinkedIn thought of it, which is sure to spark lively debate and gather new connections that you mightn’t have encountered otherwise.

To see the reading list in action, feel free to visit my profile, http://bit.ly/90yeUQ. As a bookworm, I love to hear what others are reading, so feel free to comment on my book choices, or share your own.