It’s no secret that freelancers face real challenges balancing self-promotion and client demands. That’s why it’s important for you to optimize your time and make smart decisions that produce real results.

Content can be the hook that attracts visitors and engages them.

Using your time to grow your list of potential clients – or “leads” – is crucial to expanding your network and locking down business opportunities. But how does a freelancer squeeze that into their daily workflow? It starts with a smart content marketing strategy.

Content can be the hook that attracts visitors and engages them. If prospects find your content valuable, they are more willing to share their contact information with you, and also share your content with others. And once you have a prospect’s email address, they’re one step closer to becoming your client.

Here are 3 tips to grow your prospect list and get noticed consistently: Continue Reading

If you’re starting a new website, one of your first priorities is to drive traffic to it. Traffic means audience, and content without an audience is like the proverbial tree falling in the woods with no one to hear it.

It’s gratifying to have an audience, but there’s more to building a following than self-validation—and that’s where many bloggers go astray. Their first impulse is to build a following through Facebook, Twitter, or the social network of the week.

Or worse, they feel compelled to attract visitors by blogging daily, or several times a day. If your traffic is based on your audience’s expectation that they’re going to see a new post every time they visit, you’re eventually going to have trouble keeping your head above water, unless you’re an unusually prolific writer. Most bloggers who take this approach burn out within months.

Why Search Engines Give Better Traffic

Visits to your website from social networks and regular readers are examples of social traffic. You get rewarded with social traffic as long as you stay on the hamster wheel of posting on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter, only to see that traffic disappear when you stop posting.

A more sustainable approach to building an audience is to channel your energy into building search traffic.

A more sustainable approach to building an audience is to channel your energy into building search traffic. Instead of increasing your friend count on Facebook, spend your time getting your posts to rank well in Google and other search engines.

Getting content to prominent placement in search engines, a practice known as search engine optimization (SEO), takes more effort up front, but continues to provide traffic day after day—long after you’ve stopped posting. Continue Reading

Freelance writers need to deal with web content all the time, as more and more of publishing goes online.

Although the basic principles of good writing don’t change in the online realm, there are certain differences that writers should be aware of. One of the most important aspects of online content is that it should be easily searchable by search engines, especially Google.

This is what ultimately gives power to online content, because people are able to search and get to the content they are looking for.

Irrespective of what kind of online content you write, it always helps to know about search engine optimization, or SEO. If you are new to SEO, you should look at our SEO guide for deeper information on the subject.

It helps to know that SEO is not about keyword spamming or including some peculiar grammatically incorrect keyword into your writing as many times as possible. This is, in fact, the worst thing you can do from an SEO point of view.

SEO trends change all the time as search engines evolve. It should be noted that the ultimate goal of search engines is to deliver the best quality information on top. The means to this end differ all the time and thus the changing SEO trends. Here are some of the things you need to be aware of in 2012 with respect to what is good SEO and what is not. Continue Reading

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, chances are you’ve heard of it. You keep seeing articles about SEO, have probably even read a few of those articles, and it sure looks like everyone else is doing it.

But why should you care about SEO? Easy: SEO can bring you business.

Better yet, SEO actually makes new clients come to you, instead of you having to do a bunch of sales and marketing. And although we all have to do sales from time to time, chances are that cold-calling, follow-up, and sales calls are your least favorite things to do.

But wait, there’s more. Since SEO can bring you business, it essentially brings you money. That’s right, cash. And everyone cares about cash. I know I do. In fact, some simple SEO helped me gain $80k in sales, and it can for you too.

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Credit: Pressmaster on Photodune

To describe SEO as a simple process would be a lie, but it’s not magic. There are quite a few simple things you can do for yourself that will improve SEO on your website.

Bear in mind that search traffic generally has a higher conversion rate compared with other online sources, so if you are going to invest time and resources in online marketing, SEO is definitely worth considering.

Search engine optimization in its most basic format can be separated into four areas; keyword research, on-page optimization, content development, and link building.

Follow this DIY guide to increase your search engine visibility, get more visitors, and grab more clients.

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Credit: Wasim Raja on Flickr

Throughout my career, I’ve had three freelancing phases interspersed between staff positions. The first time, I edited with a red pencil on hard copy, jotted queries on sticky (Post-it) notes attached to the margins, typed out my style sheets and invoices on a typewriter, and mailed them along with the manuscript via the U.S. Postal Service or delivery truck.

Fifteen years later, I finally bought a computer (after using computers at on-site jobs through most of the intervening period), edited in Microsoft Word using tracked changes and commenting functions, compiled style sheets and created invoices in Word, and returned assignments along with them via email.

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10 Productivity-Enhancing Apps from the Chrome Web Store

Google launched their Chrome Web Store last year to some well-received notice. But in reality, it serves only as a glorified directory for web apps accessible on any standards-compliant browser. And that isn’t necessarily a downer. In fact, with little intervention needed to work on Chrome, many web apps were immediately available via this store — including a bunch of awesome apps that can enhance anyone’s productivity.

Prove It: Handling Tests and Spec Requests from Clients

I was called recently about a freelance job for a local corporate entity and met to speak with the marketing director. After a few days, I received an e-mail informing me I was one of six “finalists” for the assignment. The message contained a list of several advertising campaigns, a rebranding of the logo, signage and billboards. It said all finalists were to do these for a presentation in two weeks. My first thought was…not fit to be printed here.

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The search engine ranking game is full of pirates and marauders; sort of like the high seas of the 18th century. In order to navigate through these treacherous waters (and protect the good name of links to and from your clients’ and your websites), it pays to understand your enemy.

This article provides a short overview of the downside of search engine optimization as well as offers tricks and tips of how to ensure that your websites legally reach the page rank they deserve so you can attract clients.

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