Your Well-Fed E-PUB: March 2019 Issue

Welcome to THE WELL-FED E-PUB!

The companion monthly ezine to the quadruple-award-winning how-to
guide, “The Well-Fed Writer.” Serving up food for thought and tasty tips
for the prospering FLCW*. Come on in, sit down, and bring your appetite!

*FLCW, peppered throughout the ezine, stands for “Freelance Commercial
Writer”—anyone who freelances for businesses (vs. writing magazine
articles, short stories, poetry, etc.), typically earns $50-125+ an
hour, and is the sole focus of this e-newsletter.

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VOLUME 18, ISSUE 3 – MARCH 2019
Publishing the first Tuesday of every month since May 2002
Read it online HERE.

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WANT TO BE IN THE NEXT EDITION OF "THE WELL-FED WRITER"?
I'm working on an update of TWFW, and am seeking some great stories in
a variety of areas. If you'd love your story to be saved for posterity, go HERE!

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“Well-Fed Craft” offers step-by-step guidance on writing the most requested and
high-paying marketing-copywriting projects. Give your copywriting skills a serious
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This TRIPLE award-winner comes in various book AND ebook (multiple
formats!) products/bundles HERE!

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Get the real-world scoop on a low-effort flow of writing jobs HERE! Email me for promo
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NEW 1-ON-1 COACHING PROGRAMS: SAMPLE/SITE REVIEW & “SIDECAR”!
Low-cost peace of mind and guidance. Details HERE.

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THE WELL-FED WRITER BLOG! Weigh in on, “I Want Your Stories of
Social Contacts Leading to Paying Work"; "Good Clients Will Pay
Handsomely for This (Often-Elusive) Outcome”; “Four Client-Repelling
Mistakes, & What I Learned to Do Instead" (Guest Post); and more!

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THIS MONTH’S MENU:

I. APPETIZER: ARE YOU “POSITIONED” FOR GREATER PROFITABILITY?
Commercial Clients Pay More for Projects that Would Earn Less Elsewhere

II. “FIELD” GREENS: HOW MUCH LEARNING IS TOO MUCH?
OH FLCW’s “Instructional Detox” Leads to More Focus, Responsibility AND Earnings!

III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: THE 4 STEPS TO YOUR IDEAL TARGET MARKET
ATL Small Biz Coach Advises: Skip “Hot Sectors”; Instead, Start with YOU!

IV. DESSERT: SWEET SUCCESS STORIES & TIPS
IL FLCW: How a Chat OTHERS Had Led to My Biggest Client
TIP: Is There a Small Pot of Gold Waiting in Your Old Files?

V. COFFEE, MINTS AND TOOTHPICKS
- MORE WORK WITH LESS EFFORT? Ebook Serves Up “How-To”!
- I NEED ALL COURSES FOR THE WELL-FED E-PUB! PLEASE SHARE!
- The WELL-FED WRITER BLOG is Rockin’!
- AWAI Copywriting (& Other) Courses: Register HERE, Get Bonus CD!
- How Can My Mentoring Service Serve You?

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I. APPETIZER: ARE YOU “POSITIONED” FOR GREATER PROFITABILITY?
Commercial Clients Pay More for Projects that Would Earn Less Elsewhere

Say a newly-minted CPA sets up shop in the rougher part of town. Heck,
rents are cheaper, right? But, if he or she plans on drawing business
largely from the immediate area, they’ll likely struggle. Not many
“locals” could afford their services.

But, if that same CPA with the exact same skills simply moves to an
upscale neighborhood, assuming a similar level of marketing, their
business will likely thrive. Pretty logical, no? File that away.

So, a few weeks back, I finished up a project for a Georgia-based
charity. It was an article that appeared in the organization’s annual
report. Pretty straightforward.

They gave me 3-4 links to pieces written about an interesting and
colorful tangent to an annual event this group co-sponsors. I was
tasked with creating an 800-word article on both the event and the
tangent. Plus, some minor editing on the annual report’s content.

As I worked on it, it struck me that my assignment was something that
most any decent writer could handle: a feature story and a bit of
copyediting. And the relative ease of the project underscored the fact
that half the battle in this business of ours is positioning.

Meaning, when you’re operating within the context of a commercial-
writing framework, in addition to tougher writing tasks that DO
require more honed marketing-writing chops, you’ll also end up
landing jobs that just aren’t that difficult.

But, again, because they fall within the context of our higher-paying
field, you’ll end up earning far more for that assignment than you
would if you were being hired by someone to “write an article and
do a little copyediting”—skills possessed by countless similarly-skilled
(and hence, lower-priced) practitioners.

Now, for the record, I do think the article I crafted for the annual
report was of higher quality than one most garden-variety
“freelancers” would write, but that’s a different issue. Even if it
were the same caliber, I’d still have earned more because those
clients expected to pay more.

So, the challenge in our field is not just to become a good writer—
someone able to execute a broader array of projects than just
articles and blog posts.

Just as importantly, it’s about getting to that work through “roads
less traveled”—i.e., not just bidding on projects with hordes of
others, and thereby consigning yourself to a far lower wage. On
that “go-where-the-money-is” note, let’s eat!

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II. “FIELD” GREENS: HOW MUCH LEARNING IS TOO MUCH?
OH FLCW’s “Instructional Detox” Leads to More Focus, Responsibility AND Earnings!

Cincinnati, OH FLCW Holly Helscher’s piece below will no doubt
resonate with many of you. It IS easy to fall into “analysis paralysis”
based on too much data, and even have you throw in the towel
(as she almost did!). Great stuff!

Holly sent me this piece in mid-2018, and when I asked her for an
update, she wrote: "I'm even more successful now!"

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Ever had someone try to “fix” your golf swing, batting stance, or
tennis technique? I have. And when each well-meaning helper was
finished touting, “I guarantee this will work,” I was worse off, not
better. The same is true with business advice.

When I first started out copywriting, I signed up for everything.
Everyone had good, sensible advice. I tried incorporating everything
into my business. After all, these were all successful people—they
must be right!

After a year of absorbing what felt like decades of information, I was
drowning in advice. Plus, nothing worked consistently. I decided I
wasn’t cut out for freelancing. Then I remembered a piece of advice
I’d always given my sales staff in the corporate world:

“Lots of systems and methods work. Ours does, too. What doesn’t
work is to pick a piece from this method, another from that one, and
a third from the other. They won’t work together because they’re not
designed to. So, use the one you’re learning here. If you do, you’ll
be successful here.”

While the advice worked for that business, I learned it works for
freelancing, too. I wasn’t successful because I was trying to
incorporate too many suggestions from too many teachers.

So, I detoxed my learning. I picked three mentors whose methods
worked for me, and whose styles most closely suited my value system,
ethics and personality.

This accomplished three things. I had more time to implement business
strategies because I ended up with a manageable series of steps; I
started thinking clearly because I was no longer overwhelmed; and my
cash flow improved because I wasn’t constantly buying courses!

By the way, when I was continually in "learning mode," I was also
continually putting off doing the hard stuff—like approaching people,
sending out warm emails, etc. Sound familiar?

The detox shifted my strategy from hope to action. I was in charge,
even of my mistakes. My confidence rose. My risk-taking improved.
Most importantly, I started making money. Less than two years after
starting my freelancing venture, I was working full-time, writing what I
enjoyed writing.

Try an instructional detox. No guarantees, but it sure worked for me.

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III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: THE 4 STEPS TO YOUR IDEAL TARGET MARKET
ATL Small Biz Coach Advises: Skip “Hot Sectors”; Instead, Start with YOU!

Solid, sensible piece from friend, colleague, ex-FLCW and small-business
coach, Ed Gandia (look for regular pieces from Ed here) on the best
way to zero in on the appropriate target market for you—one that will
make you valuable to prospects while reducing your own personal
learning curve (always a plus to clients!).

So many want to chase the “trends,” which may work with fashion or food,
but not so much with a professional career direction. So what if a particular
market is “hot”? If you know little about it, why pursue it? Thanks, Ed!

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Selecting a target market is one of the most important things you’ll
do as a freelance writer. But where do you even start?

Many novice freelancers start this process by researching the hottest
markets and then trying to shoehorn themselves into those markets.

But that approach is backward.

Instead, why not start with a self-inventory, and then move on to
evaluate industries and markets that might be aligned with the results
of that self-assessment: your background, experiences, skills and
strengths?

1) Take a Self-Inventory: Start by evaluating your experience,
background and skills. See what you already have. After all, there’s
no point in targeting, say, the construction industry, if you have
zero experience and contacts in that industry.

A clarification: You don’t need to have 10-20 years experience and
have achieved “master” status in your chosen arena, but you do need to
have knowledge in that domain that can’t be acquired in an overnight
cram session.

2) Evaluate the Industry: Once you’ve completed your self-inventory,
look for markets that fall within your realm of those identified
skills, background and experience.

Specifically, and ideally, look for markets that sell products and
services that need to be explained. These tend to be ones that are
new, expensive and/or complex. And when those three factors are in
play, it’s only logical that those clients will need to produce a lot
of written marketing materials.

3) Choose a Target Market and Then Test: Putting a lot of pressure
on yourself to get your target market right the first time, can effectively
keep you from making any decision.

Remember: you can always change direction later. Far better to make
some decision, and try it out, than to wait till you’ve “got it all figured
out” (never?) and can nail it right out of the gate.

Life only opens up when you’re in motion. As you test your target
market, you’ll learn a lot about it. As a result, you may need to
refine your approach or find new opportunities. Whatever happens,
you’ll be getting closer to where you want to be.

4) Start With YOU: When you start your search for a target market by
looking at “hot” industries, you’ll quickly go down a rabbit hole. AND,
you’ll struggle to link your experience to that industry or market. It’s far
more efficient to start with YOU — your experience, background and
skills—and work from there.

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IV. DESSERT: SWEET SUCCESS STORIES & TIPS
IL FLCW: How a Chat OTHERS Had Led to My Biggest Client
TIP: Is There a Small Pot of Gold Waiting in Your Old Files?

As the following story—from Woodbridge, IL FLCW Rachel McHardy
(check out her cool niche)—shows, it’s nice to have others looking out
for you and your business, even when you’re not around! So make sure
you let others know what you do!

After that, a tip that's borne writing-income fruit for me more than once.

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We had just moved across the country that summer. In our new
congregation at church, we got to know a family who was about to move
as well, and went to their going-away party. I wasn’t around when my
husband was talking to the husband, about the new online education
company he was starting after he moved.

My husband thought it sounded really interesting and said, “Well, if
you need a writer, be sure to talk to Rachel.” He replied, “Writers
are EXACTLY what I need right now.” We later talked and he thought my
experience (both my background as a former language arts teacher and
the writing projects I’d done) was a great fit.

I was the first writer he started working with over a year ago and I’m
still getting great work from a casual conversation I wasn’t even
there for!

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In several recent past issues of this ezine, we’ve heard from several
folks (including me) about the gold waiting to be mined from
contacting old clients.

In addition to going through your list of prospects/clients (however you
keep them), another simple way to unearth folks like this, about whom
you may have forgotten, is to browse through your old documents.

I’ll typically save documents for a new client in a “Misc” sub-folder
in my Work folder. If that client turns into a "regular," I’ll give them their
own folder. It’s often while browsing in that “Misc” folder that I have
a few “I-forgot-all-about-them!” moments.

Easy to do if you’d done 1-2 projects with them a long time ago, and
then perhaps landed some new clients that pulled you in new
directions. Or, maybe you discussed some projects during an initial
contact, but they never pulled the trigger.

A quick follow-up email only takes a minute. Maybe it dead-ends,
maybe not. Years of experience has taught me, again and again, that
clients often get pulled back to front-burner tasks, and abandon new
directions. But, sometimes a little outreach can get them back on track.

Also, with new outreach, someone who’d kept you on their radar for writing
work, but stopped doing so when you stopped contacting them, now puts you
“top of mind” again. So, take a stroll down document- memory lane from time
to time. Who knows where it might lead?

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MORE WORK WITH LESS EFFORT? Ebook Serves Up “How-To”!
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I’M STILL SERIOUSLY LOW ON ALL WELL-FED E-PUB COURSES!
Got a great strategy, approach or specific expertise you’re willing to
share? Turn it into a Feature (MAIN COURSE; 500-600 words; query first).
ALSO, send your “GREENS” (300-400 words), TIPS (100-300) and
SUCCESS STORIES (200-400) to ME. Archived issues HERE.

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AWAI COPYWRITING (& OTHER) COURSES: Register HERE, Get Your
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For details and testimonials, visit HERE.

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