The TecBlast Blog

If you’re selling your writing services, you need clients. One of the easiest ways to attract clients is with a Web site. Once you’ve taken the plunge, and have created your site, the fun begins.

Your site will grow with your business; it’s organic. Think of it as an online journal, rather than as a brochure, portfolio or business card. Like a journal, your site benefits from frequent updating. The more often your site is updated, the higher your site will rise in the search engine rankings, and the more likely it is you will attract visitors by chance. And the more visitors you attract, the more prospective clients know about you and your services.

You should also think of your Web site as a long-term project. It may not provide you with all the clients you need this year, or next year, but your ultimate goal should be that your Web site brings in all the clients you need within three to five years.

In the beginning, you don’t even need to create a fully-fledged site. A blog (Web log) makes a fine starter Web site. You can get a free blog at Blogger.com:

http://www.blogger.com

Here are some ideas of what to include in your site:

=> Information is king online

Your site needs to have enough information to encourage your visitors to return. The more often they visit your site, the more likely it is that they will hire you when they need a copywriter, or whatever other writing services you provide.

Everyone’s looking for information online. Therefore, your Web site needs to provide information for your visitors. This doesn’t necessarily mean information on copywriting. Your site is a showcase for your abilities, so you can put almost anything on your site.

Who are your clients? Are they small business people? If so, provide articles and other information relevant to small business. If your prospects are real estate agents, then provide information which will help them.

What are you interested in? If your hobby is dog breeding, put information for dog breeders online. Dog breeders need copywriters too. If you enjoy traveling, then write about the places you’ve visited in your travels — travelers and travel agents also need copywriters.

Are you getting the idea? Almost any type of content will work for your site, because all businesses need copywriters.

=> Sell the benefits of your services

Somewhere on your site, perhaps on your home page, or on your “About Me” page, you’ll need to advertise your services. Remember that just as you focus on the benefits of any product you’re writing copy for, you also focus on the benefits your copywriting services provide to clients.

Make a list of the benefits your services provide to businesses, and emphasize them.

=> Make it easy for your prospects to contact you

Include a “Contact me” link on every page of your site. You should also include a mailing address, and a fax number. The easier you make it for people to contact you, the more likely it is that they will.

=> Freebies sell

Everyone loves to get something for nothing. The most valuable freebie you can provide on your site is information. Many copywriters focus their site around copywriting information. This is natural, it’s what copywriters know best, but it’s short-sighted. As I said above in “Information is king online” it’s not necessary to stick to copywriting information on your site. In fact, can be a real mistake. You don’t want your visitors to do their copywriting themselves, you want them to hire you.

So what freebies can you offer?

Think in terms of the businesses which will hire you, and also think in terms of your local area. I love doing copywriting for local businesses. As far as I know, I’m the only copywriter in our locality, so there’s no competition.

If you’re aiming to generate work locally, you could write about your local area on your site. What tourist attractions do you have in the area? Once you’ve added a few locally-focused pages to your site, you can also offer free advertising on your site to local businesses.

Some hints when offering free ads on your site:

* pick large companies like real estate agents or other reasonably affluent businesses which may need your services on an on-going basis;

* don’t forget manufacturing companies, heavy equipment hire companies, or similar companies which conduct businesses which are out of the range of your experience. If you can write, you can write copy for anyone. They’ll tell you what they want to communicate, it’s your job to make the communication compelling;

* remember government agencies, and political figures. Government agencies and politicians need ongoing copywriting services like press releases and newsletters.

If you haven’t yet created a Web site, do it today. It’s easy — a blog takes minutes to set up — and in the months and years to come it’ll provide you with easy, cheap, and ever more effective marketing as it attracts more and more clients.

Stuck in your writing career? Get a coach! Angela Booth coaches writers in copywriting (writing for business), nonfiction, and fiction. A veteran writer, published by major publishers worldwide, Angela is also an experienced writing teacher, who knows how to inspire and motivate. You CAN make a success of your writing career. Free daily info for writers at her blog: http://copywriter.typepad.com/ Start your writing coaching today by contacting Angela at her site http://angelabooth.com/ Angela offers personal one-on-one e-courses and mentoring for all forms of writing. Ask for a low-cost initial phone or email consultation.

Reality Check

In my sixty years I have read and known many poets. Many love to give that aura of an otherworldly soul, above the mundane, jaunty beret, scribbling in dark coffee bars. They need the mystique of the tortured soul and the holy grail of their words.

At my house the old poet sits at a computer, wearing mismatched pajamas and pillow hair. If you want to have a serious gig as a writer, get your head out of the clouds and tend to the realities.

A working writer spends serious hours and effort in perfecting their craft. Then comes the business of business. . . submitting work to whatever publications you have chosen. Editors received mass amounts of over the transom submissions (just means unasked for snail mail). Even those who accept e-submissions, and God ‘em, every one, receive more submissions than they can process quickly.

Okay, here comes the reality check. It may be very romantic to envision a writer hunched over a little bound book, scribbling the next great piece of literature, but that’s in the world of fairy tales. A serious writer who wants to published has a hard job ahead of them. Just because you see yourself as the next Koontz or Plath, regardless of genre or literary quality, does not mean you are welcome to submit within your own little jumble of rules.

Take your angst, your cute beret and that “nobody understands me” long face, put them in a box labeled, “Won’t cut it, Jack” and store them away. You are but one of millions of writers/poets - all of whom are in competition for that golden prize, Publication, and it’s serious business. Face it, editors have thousands of manuscripts waiting at the tip of their fingers, all they have to do is pull one out like a plum out of a bushel basket.

These are Rules of Writing by someone who has been rejected, subjected to an editor’s vain condescension, been promised things that never happen and a realm of other ego-crushing sports.

1. Be professional - always. The editor is not your friend. You have friends, he has friends and what he wants from you is to do business with a writer who has some semblance of brain.

2. Keep records. This is a hard one for me, but necessary because an editor will blackball you until Satan shaves with an electric razor if you send simultaneous submissions, and forget where and he sees your work in another publication after he has just put yours to press.

3. BE HUMBLE. Ego is a very unattractive thing when carried to extremes. Don’t start off your cover letter with how lucky he is to have been blessed by receiving your “Pulitzer” winner. Neither should you start with saying you are sure you have no talent, but you felt compelled to send him your work. Be forthright, let him decide for himself (oh, or herself) what merit your work has. Head games are a waste of time. Put your work out there and let it stand as is. You are not a child whose Mommy praises everything he does.

4. Proofread, spell check, use decent paper if snail mailing. Your article, poem or story is going to be scrutinized by more than one person. Don’t let dumb mistakes catch you up. No writer ever catches every boo boo, but do your best to prevent them.

5. MIND YOUR MANNERS. This editor you have sent your work to is being gracious enough to look at your work. Treat him/her with the respect they deserve. Address editors by their surname until they ask you to do otherwise. In your cover letter - either snail mail or email, thank them in advance for their time in seeing your work. If you are accepted and published, send them a note of thanks. Just save the gushing and keep it short.

6. Do not contact editors every two days to ask if they have seen your work yet. That is totally unprofessional. Respect the time they say is what they need. You may be pacing and anxious, but you do not want to look like a novice or a nut case. He/she will get to it when they can. That’s the rules of the game.

If you receive a rejection, no whining and whimpering. It comes with the territory, and can be a learning tool for writers. I can now judge how my work stacked up by the way the rejection is presented. But, there are publishing houses who simply send out a copied slip with no info. If an editor gives comments or tips, send them a thank you for their help. It is better to be remembered as that kooky writer who sends thank you notes for rejections, than as that creep who cussed you out.

So get out those cute little bound notebooks if you must, or join me in my jamas bent over a hot keyboard. Either way, as they say, writers write!

Sherry Asbury is a freelance write with close to sixty years under her belt. She is a poet/writer with many publications to her credit. Sherry lives in Portland OR with her rescue-ferrets, Amber and Rascal.

From our deconstruction of hundreds of Hollywood blockbusters….

The Hero’s Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the Hollywood movies we have deconstructed are based on this template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.

The Hero’s Journey:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Interpreted metaphorically, laterally and symbolically, allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.

and more…

Sample Movie Deconstructed: Get Carter (1971)

• Introduce hero, his character, inner challenge [escape his mob boss - his Ordinary World], the outer challenge / antagonism [find his brother’s murderer] and romantic challenge [Britt Ekland]. Warned not to embark on the adventure ( interdiction ). Context introduction (they’re watching porn movies). Status of the hero [”they’re killers, just like you.”]

• Journey to the Mentor . We get to know the hero’s character through his actions.

• Strange creatures in the World of the Mentor [the people in the pub].

• Meeting with the Supernatural Aid / Mentor [Margaret lets him down].

• Hero seizes a magical gift [the gun at his brother’s flat]. Reminder of the outer challenge [Carter’s brother in the funeral casket]. Hero being pursued [the jeep is watching].

• Hero journeys to the First Threshold [the guesthouse]. Loyal allies encountered [Edna, his daughter et al] Hero searches for an antagonist [asks the funeral director and friends about his brother’s death]. References to the antagonism.

• Appearance of the (supposed) mentor. Hero searches for guidance from the mentor. It is refused.

• Hero searches for an alternative mentor.

• Through chance, the hero meets the antagonist’s lieutenant - but is unsure of his role and the lead antagonist.

• Hero pursues the antagonist’s lieutenant - to discover the identity of the antagonist.

• Hero enters the antagonist’s lair (evades the threshold guardians guarding the lair).

• Meeting with the antagonist. Mutual respect between the antagonist and hero. Hero meets a shape shifter here. Link between the hero’s Ordinary World and the antagonist. Hero unsure of the antagonist’s role.

• Hero further investigates the antagonism.

• Warning before entering the Ordeal [the cat-fight in the pub].

• Hero about to return to his Ordinary World. Farewells to the Allies.

• Reward for returning to the Ordinary World [Britt Ekland]. Reminder of the inner challenge [Carter’s boss].

• Hero pulled into the Ordeal [Thorpe warns Carter to leave].

• Belly of the Whale - physical separation [Carter catches Thorpe in the toilets].

• Road of Trials . Threshold Guardian resists the Adventure [landlady conflicts with Carter].

• Road of Trials [Carter questions Thorpe].

• Road of Trials. Hero diverted to the antagonist’s rival. Meeting the antagonist’s rival. Conflict with the antagonist’s rival. Hero realizes he has been diverted.

• Reward for venturing into the Ordeal [sex with Edna]. Hero’s true nature revealed.

• Hero forced into the Ordeal [attacked by the antagonist’s lieutenants - whom he defeats] Assisted by the magical aid.

• Conflict with the allies. Back-story. Significance of the journey.

• [Pursued by the antagonist’s lieutenants] to the Oracle. Led to the Oracle by the Shape Shifter.

• Meeting with the Oracle [Brumby].

• Meeting with the Goddess [Carter learns that his daughter was raped in the porn film].

• Journey to the Sword [Carter puts the girl in the trunk].

• Hero seizes the Sword [Carter kills Albert].

• Woman as Temptress [girl puts Eric onto Carter].

• Night Sea Journey [Carter on the boat; Eric et al wait for Carter to get off the boat].

• Near death experience [the shoot out with Eric et al]. Death of the Shape Shifter [in the trunk]. Rebirth.

• Atonement with the Father [Carter confronts Brumby]

• Apotheosis [Brumby showed the porn film to Frank which led to his brother’s death; Brumby dies].

• Ultimate Boon [Carter knows what to do; sends the film to the Vice Squad]. Buys the heroine.

• Refusal of the Return [Carter pretends that he won’t harm Kinnear].

• Rescue from Without [Margaret’s death will help trap Kinnear; the Police arrive].

• Antagonist sets up the hero [Kinnear arranges for Carter’s assassination].

• Magic Flight . Eric journeys to the place of the Final Conflict. It is a dangerous place.

• Crossing the Return Threshold [Carter confronts Eric].

• Master of the Two Worlds [Kinnear arrested, Eric killed].

• Freedom to Live [Carter physically enjoys the win].

• Carter assassinated.

Learn more…

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at http://www.clickok.co.uk/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at http://www.clickok.co.uk/