Darren Rowse recently asked bloggers if they sell text links on their blogs. The conversation that ensued is pretty interesting in my opinion, and for those Web writers who are trying to earn through blogging, I’d like to share a few thoughts - namely, that Google is not (or should not be) the be all and end all for your blog!

The Text Link Issue

If you’re not familiar with the supposed problem of selling text links on your blog, I’ll super-summarize for you:

Google doesn’t like it - nope - uh uh - if you do it, you might get a Google slap (they’ll remove your pagerank, which may also lead to lower rankings in Google’s engine for your key search terms).  In essense, Big G says if you sell text links, you’re gaming their system (because everything we do is solely about them, right?). Even if your own links are completely valid and natural, and even if your blog is filled with high quality, original, authority content (the stuff Google’s supposed to love and want to show up high in their search engine), they’ll bitch slap your blog into oblivion if you use this advertising method without including the no-follow attribute or using javascript to serve the links (so they won’t influence pagerank).

As far as I’m concerned, Google can bite me, and more bloggers need to be prepared to say the same thing. Why?

First of all, you have the right to earn from your work. You also have the right to maximize your earnings. No one, including Google (who’s pissed because their own algorithm is faulty and they didn’t have the foresight to envision this problem back when they created the boom in this ad market themselves) should tell you how to run your business (which is what your blog is if you’re using it as an income stream). And if you’re serious about your business, you won’t allow someone on the outside to do that.

On top of it, by penalizing sites, they’re making what amounts to a quality judgment call on your site - their pagerank is supposed to be related to the value they place on the site (meaning what it’s offering to visitors). Many folks are naive enough to trust that. To place a quality score against high quality content because they disagree with an advertising model amounts to (in my eyes) misleading their userbase. They also don’t account for a difference between those true spam blogs who will publish any link paid for and those who follow strict guidelines in reviewing, accepting, and rejecting advertisers based on their target audience.

And that’s who you need to please - your audience; not Google.

Google Slave Syndrome

There are other ways your blog can become a slave to Google.

1. You can rely on them for most of your traffic.
2. You can rely on them for most of your income (such as through Adsense).
3. You can rely on them to dictate what you can and cannot do in building your site / blog / community.

I’m of the mind that you shouldn’t allow yourself to fall victim to any of these situations. Am I saying you shouldn’t care at all about getting traffic via search. Of course not. But you should diversify where that traffic is coming from, and you shouldn’t build a blog or other business model solely or primarily around one source like Google.

Am I saying you shouldn’t use Adsense? No to that as well. While I don’t use Adsense on this blog, I do use it on others. However, I’m smart enough not to make it a majority of my income source. You should work it into your mix; not make it your bread and butter.

So let’s get into what’s really important. How can you diversify your income streams and traffic?

Diversifying Income Streams on Your Blog

• Join affiliate networks such as Clickbank or Commission Junction - Promote products or sites that you can honestly feel good about recommending to your visitors.
• Sell private advertising - this may be text links, banner ads, video ads, sponsored posts, audio ads if you also run a podcast, or any type of private ad sales relevant to your site or blog.
• Create your own products - Write and sell an e-book or report, and sell it on your blog (like you see me doing on this blog). You could also sell scripts, software, forms, graphics, Web templates - anything at all that’s (again) relevant to your audience.
• Contextual advertising - Adsense is an example of this, but there are other ad networks. If you opt to steer clear of Google altogether, get turned down for Adsense, or their ads just don’t work in your case, try another until you find a good fit.
• Membership sections - If you run an extremely high quality blog with a lot of content, you may want to add a paid members-only area where people can read premium content.

The most important thing you can do in diversify those income streams, and keep testing different mixes and placements until you learn how to maximize your revenue on your particular blog.

Diversifying Traffic Sources

• Create authority content - this is the most important thing you can do to bring in traffic beyond that from search engines (and it actually increases SE traffic in most cases anyway). Why? Because top notch content is easy for other people to link to, talk about, comment on, share via social bookmarking sites, etc. In other words, the most valuable thing you can do to increase your own traffic is to get other people to spread the word for you. It’s simply a case of good PR (sometimes called word-of-mouth marketing or viral marketing, depending on the method).
• Give something away - this is in line with creating authority content. Put together something more than your typical blog posts. Offer a free short report or something. Not only does this give people an additional reason to spread the word and stop by the blog, but you can use it to build your list if you have one and increase visitors on a more regular basis through that newsletter or email feed subscription.
• Make news - you want other people talking about you, and press releases can help you do that (download my free report on press release writing if you’re new to it - I’m originally a PR pro if you didn’t know that). The key is to truly do something newsworthy before sending them - that’s the only way to get high quality traffic out of them (and increased conversions, depending on what you want that traffic to do).

Those are just three things you can do which are relatively easy, and which can bring in a large amount of traffic. Don’t just choose one - do them all, and then some. Participate in social media tools or social networks, comment on other blogs, write guest posts for authority sites in your niche, do a virtual blog tour, etc.

Look beyond Google in all respects now, and you’ll build yourself a far more stable audience and income source for your blog in the long run.

Chris Bibey wrote an interesting post over at ChrisBlogging.com on selling your writing services, and how marketing / selling makes some freelance writers uncomfortable. His post got me thinking about hard-sell versus soft-sell and why, when it comes to “selling yourself” to clients, people seem to automatically picture hard-sell tactics.

First things first - what’s the difference?

When you hard-sell, you essentially scream “buy from me!” This would be something like cold calling, cold email pitches, advertising, etc.

The soft sell is much more subtle - this is where networking fits into the marketing mix, among other tactics. Today I’d like to talk about one soft sell tactic, which happens to be my favorite - content.

Why Content Works as a Soft Sell Tactic

I know it’s cliche, but content really is king. Quality content educates, informs, or entertains. It attracts repeat visitors. It leads to natural referrals. It helps to build an image or reputation. And from the freelance writing perspective, content sells!

What do I Mean by “Content?”

Content can take many forms. Here are a few types of content you can create that can help you soft-sell your writing services:

• E-books
• Reports
• Blog Posts (your own or guest posts)
• Articles / Features
• Forum Posts
• White Papers
• Answers (on LinkedIn, Yahoo! Answers, etc.)

How Does Content Help You Sell Web Writing Services?

When you help people solve a problem, or answer their questions, you build a reputation as an authority in the subject matter. That’s attractive to prospective clients, who very often prefer hiring specialists if they can afford to. I’ll give you an example.

I do a lot of soft-selling through content for my press release writing service, and I have for years. It brings in a lot of business. I offer content in a variety of outlets - I post on forums about press releases (where my target market hangs out). I write blog posts about it. I even wrote an e-book about it. That information is “out there” for prospective clients to find when they’re looking for information. The idea is simple - you educate a potential client. By doing that, you have visibility with them that your competitors don’t have. If, or when, they’re ready to hire someone, you have a leg up - you’re already in their mind.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many new clients I’ve gotten where they come to me saying something like “I saw your post on X blog or forum, and I can tell you really know what you’re talking about. I’d like to hire you.”

What’s particularly interesting is the fact that clients who find me this way are often the least likely to complain about my rates being higher than other writers’. When you establish a certain amount of authority with that client, they’re able to hire you more on value than price - what you bring to the table in terms of your expertise.

Does Content Have to be Free to Bring in Sales?

There are obvious benefits to offering free content like blog or forum posts - that content naturally reaches more eyes. That said, paid content can be equally effective, giving you a combination of a marketing tactic and an additional income stream (one of many reasons I suggest freelance writers create e-books and reports).

Start looking for places where you can share quality information with your potential client base / target market. Share. You don’t have to blatantly pitch yourself to bring in sales. The soft sell can do that, and more, without making you uncomfortable the way hard sell tactics sometimes can.

One of the biggest benefits of writing for the Web is the ease of publishing - you can write and publish almost instantaneously. Unfortunately, this instant gratification can lead to publishing in haste, errors unchecked.

Therefore, when writing for the Web, it’s essential that you pay a bit of extra attention to proofreading - especially with client projects. Here are a few tips that won’t take terribly long, but will help you catch errors that you might otherwise miss:

1. Read it aloud. - Whether writing an SEO article, a sales page, or a blog post, try reading it aloud before either delivering it to your client or publishing the piece to your site or blog. When you read it to yourself silently, you’ll see what you expect to be there rather than what’s actually been typed (because you know what you meant to say). This is especially true when the piece is fresh in your mind. Reading aloud can help you catch subtle errors or things that simply don’t sound right (like a run-on sentence).
2. Take a break. - Don’t publish or deliver the writing until you’ve waited at least a few hours after its completion. This helps to counteract what I just mentioned - you won’t have what you were trying to say fresh on your mind, so you may catch errors you would miss if proofing it directly after writing.
3. Get a second opinion. - While this is extremely important if you’re not writing in your native language, getting another opinion from an unbiased source can be beneficial to any Web writer. Another reader can be especially helpful by letting you know whether or not you’re conveying your points (you may know what you’re talking about, but does your writing really help the reader understand it?).

These tips may be simple, but they go a long way towards improving your writing for the Web.

We’ve discussed the benefits of specialization and how that can lead to higher earnings as a freelance Web writer. However, the real key to earning a decent income freelance writing online is proving your value to your clients. Specialization plays a major role (if you’re offering a certain amount of depth or understanding others can’t, you’re providing more value).

Today let’s talk about other things you can do to prove your value to prospective writing clients - things you can do to justify your fees and not get paid bottom-of-the-barrel rates:

1. 

   Case Studies - If you specialize in writing marketing copy for websites, you can demonstrate your value by publishing case studies of work with past clients (for example, show how much conversions increased with the use of your copy). If you specialize in SEO content you may want to offer a case study on how successful your articles were in attracting search engine traffic for a client, in comparison to other content on their site. Obviously, you’ll need permission (and information) from past clients to use this approach, but it does work.

2. Testimonials - Even if clients don’t want you publishing traffic stats, conversion rates, etc., you can ask them if they’d offer a testimonial for your website. New clients will very likely factor that feedback into their decision to hire you, especially if they’re familiar with any of your past clients whose testimonials you’ve published.
3. Pricing - Like it or not, even your rates give a potential client some idea of the value you provide. Remember, value does not equal price / cost. Pricing is just one component of overall value (what they’re ultimately getting when they hire you - ex. they’re not just getting articles; they’re getting authority content that will build or improve their own reputation, attract organic traffic, and bring in natural backlinks). If you undervalue your own work, or constantly let yourself get “talked down” to much lower rates, the client isn’t going to value your work as much as they would if you know your own worth, understand what you’re really offering, and stick by your rates (which reflect what you’re offering).
4. Demand - Here’s another “like it or not” for you: clients tend to see more value in a writer whose services are in constant demand. If you keep your schedule full and the client comes to you, you have a better chance of getting paid higher rates than if you run to the client begging for work constantly. That’s not to say you should never approach the client. For example you can followup with previous clients to mention a special offer, check in with past clients who may have pre-paid for something but never completed the order (I have a few clients who regularly do this, so I touch base periodically to see if they’re ready to finish up their prepaid articles, press releases, etc.), or you can solicit work by advertising your services somewhere. Look at it this way though - if a prospective client sees that others value your work enough to keep you pretty busy, there’s a better chance they’ll do the same (and if they don’t, you can always move on because you’re not desperate for the gig).
5. A Little Something Extra - One thing you can do no matter what phase of your career you’re in is to offer something extra - an add-on or “bonus” if you will. You can do this in a lot of ways. For example, you might say “order four articles and get the fifth one free.” Obviously you would have already accounted for this in your overall rate structure, but to the prospective client what they see is that they’re getting more for their money. Another approach would be to offer a free consultation (a marketing copywriter might consult for 30-60 minutes with the client on ideas to further market their website beyond the copy they were hired to write). The great thing about this is that you get to learn more about the client’s needs (which means you may be able to pitch them on additional services to help them meet those needs).

What other ideas do you have when it comes to demonstrating value to clients? How do you get them to pay you more than the highly-talked about $5 per article types of rates? Perhaps more importantly, how do you realize your value yourself?

One thing you’ll learn in The Web Writer’s Guide to Launching a Successful Freelance Web Writing Career is that being a Web writer can be about much more than taking on articles, copywriting, or other writing projects from clients.

Something I like to talk about when I’m chatting with new writers is moving beyond that client work and writing “for yourself.”

What is “Writing for Yourself?”

When you write for yourself, you’re not being contracted to create something based on the needs of a client. You become the client! You have absolute control and complete freedom, and rather than a one-time payment, in many cases you’ll earn recurring income over time.

E-books as a Form of “Writing for Yourself”

E-books are one of my favorite things to work on as far as my “me” projects go. As you know, I’m soon launching the first e-book in the Web Writer’s Guide series. I also previously wrote and sold a short e-book called Press Releases Made Easy (which is now available for free through ProBusinessWriter.com).

Both of these projects have been completely different for me. My press release e-book was created at the demand of my clients - some simply wanted to better understand press releases. I spent a “whopping” 5 hours writing it - yep, that’s it! At that point it was just 18 pages (the updated version available on the site listed above is now 20 pages). It earned me far more during the time it was being sold than I would have earned by billing out those 5 hours to clients - and the income kept coming in. When you aren’t expecting it, it’s like a pleasant little surprise every time you see a new payment rolling in (you’ll learn to love that feeling).

The new e-book is over 80 pages (it will likely be closer to 90-100 pages when the edits are complete). It took me months to put together (a big difference from the first e-book). I ran a 14 Day E-book Writing Challenge at my freelance writing blog a while back. At the end, I felt my work was too general, and that it would be better served as an e-book series. So I spent further weeks separating that information, expanding upon parts of it, and weeding things out to target the more narrow niche of freelance Web writing. That’s how the Web Writer’s Guide series and this blog were born.

My point is this - when you write for you, you get to decide how much time you want to put into a project, what you want that product to “look like” after the fact, and how much you want to earn from it (you’ll get there with a combination of the right pricing strategy and the right marketing plan). The only deadlines you’ll face are the ones you choose to set for yourself, and a little bit of discipline will go a long way in letting you work your own writing projects around client work that pays the bulk of the bills in the meantime.

Pick up a copy of Launching a Successful Freelance Web Writing Career after the e-book launches to learn more about residual income streams available to Web writers. Keep your eyes peeled for updates on its pending launch (hint: in less than 2 weeks)!