Sunday, October 29, 2006
Slow month? Hire yourself as a pro
A few days ago, I was explaining to “Linda” why I couldn’t participate in an organizational event. “I’ve just gotten busy and I need to invest time in marketing,” I explained. “People who have regular jobs don’t have to.” Oops. I realized Linda was self-employed too. “Of course you’re probably at a stage where your marketing takes care of itself,” I said, trying to recover. “Actually I’m having a slow month,” she admitted. “So I’m working on my yard instead of hiring a lawn service.” Sound familiar? I believe it was Dan Kennedy who encouraged copywriters to “be your own best client.” Linda had become her own best client...of a lawn service. Not bad, except that she’s a copywriter who specializes in health care marketing. Linda needs to hire herself for her professional skills and leave the lawnmower, rake and pruning shears to someone else. During slow times, I work for myself. I write copy for my ebooks. I polish up the copy I have. After all, I’ve come a long way since I began writing and marketing my own products. And I revise copy for my programs. I create new programs. I write new ebooks and revise those I have. So I wanted to tell Linda, “During slow times, create an information product. Then you can write copy for your product. “The possibilities are infinite. Depending on your talents and interests, you can also design websites for your product, learn google adwords, create teleseminars to promote your product, write a product for an audience that’s easy to reach...” The best resource for writing your own ebooks: http://tinyurl.com/ydfsw7 If she’s not the Internet type, she could begin creating live workshops to present in her own city. She could create booklets to sell in hard copy form. She could even branch (!) into a whole line of business. Some Internet marketers devote their energy to learning how to market on the Internet, rather than develop a product or service. They’ve mastered the fine points of google adwords, adsense, SEO all sorts of other tips and tricks. Google Guru Perry Marshall tells of finding a good product that wasn’t selling well. He joined the affiliate program, wrote a great Google advertisement and earned more as an affiliate than he would by writing his own. If you’re a mathematically oriented person, you might enjoy playing the numbers more than plying your trade with words. Listening to one of Perry Marshall’s seminars, I was reminded of experimental design classes. Test creatively, he says. And test some more. Here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/y5ftug Of course, if you actually own a lawn service, you can still create information products. Being gardening-challenged myself, I would have benefited from “Ten tips to pruning your own roses” when I lived in New Mexico. Definitely I would have attended classes on, “How to plant a new fence-climbing vine after you’ve killed off all the other ones.” But if you’re gifted with roses, you might be wise to hire a copywriter who’s more comfortable with words than weeds. You’ll come out ahead in the long run. And when I apply my professional skills to my own business, I find clients seem to come, almost without effort. There’s something magic about being busy, as long as your action has purpose and direction. Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D. offers strategic copywriting and communications consulting for small biz owners and solo professionals who want to sell themselves without sounding sales-y. Ask about her three-step Strategy-->Message-->Copy system. Begin with a visit to the Copy-Cat website. |
# posted by Cathy Goodwin @ 10:53 PM 
