Hey hey everyone!
I know, I know. I have been MIA for some time now.
You know, they are not lying when they say your own blog is the first to go down when it comes getting work done as a freelance writer. My blog is a prime example of that. However, I have some great news!
What is New With Me
As you know from my awesome About Me page I am aspiring to become a full time writer. I dream of being able to stay home with my son everyday while also working and providing for him. And don’t worry, my husband and cat are included as well!
Well, I am not quite there yet but I have made the switch from full time paralegal to part time paralegal because my freelance work has boomed!
I now have more time home with my son (the best part is taking him to school each morning) and more time for my clients (whoo hoo!). The problem is, getting organized is no easy task. As my workload increases I find myself pushing my personal stuff to the side in order to meet deadlines. While this is great for my bank account, this is no good for my loyal readers. So, I have decided to take action!
I once wrote a post about managing your time and how important it is for any website owner. So, I am going to start taking my own advice, researching what others have to say about time management and success, and really crack down on getting my work done in time without sacrificing my own blog.
Since this is a large task to take on, and one that is seemingly never-ending, I have decided to take baby steps and concentrate on my marketing efforts first. There is so much to do when running your own business, especially if that business included the time consuming task of writing well-researched, high quality content for others. It is easy to forget all the things you should do to make a successful business a reality and it is easy to become overwhelmed and give up as well.
So, I have comprised a list of quick marketing goals that I will try to implement into my writing business on a regular basis. Let’s check it out together and see what we can be doing with our businesses to make them more lucrative than ever!
Marketing Goals for 2016
Publish a blog post weekly. People visit my site for a variety of reasons; they may have clicked my byline on other websites I write for, saw me on social media, or maybe even just happened across my site in a search engine result. Regardless of how they get here, it is my job to make it worth it.
The one thing I have struggled with is keeping a regular blog posting schedule. I always start with good intentions and then once I fall behind on other things I neglect to post here. I want to strive to post at least once a week so that my readers have fresh things to read and I have fresh content to show future clients. After all, this is where I send my clients when advertising my writing skills. The better job I do blogging, the better exposure I will get. That is the point right?
Keep a list of creative ideas. This is something I do on a semi-regular basis but would love to come up with a better system. Right now I just have a long excel spreadsheet where I add ideas, designate who I have pitched the idea to or whether I would like it for my own blog, and mark ‘Accepted’, ‘Rejected’, ‘Working’, or ‘Written’ next to it. The problem is, the longer the list the more confusing everything looks. I hope to come across some ingenious solution to my long list of ideas but for now, I will happily say I am doing an okay job at this.
Send a newsletter. This is a goal that I would really love to see become a reality. I would love to be able to send out a newsletter of all my latest tips, tricks, and news so that my readers can access it right from their inbox. But, before I go doing that, I need to up my email list. Newsletters take a lot of time if done correctly and I just need more people to want to read my stuff. I attribute this to the growing pains of building a successful blog.
Use Social Media. Again, I do have a profile on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, but my efforts could be much better. Before I got a ton of work I would religiously post my published article on all of the social media platforms instantly. I also shared articles I liked and tried to network with people in the WordPress industry. But, being busy takes away from all of that. I am determined to set aside a small amount of time each ‘writing’ working day (remember, I also work in an office part time) to post my newest work and make new friends. This will be very helpful in the future for sure!
Get those testimonials. As of now I do have some really great testimonials on my website. However, I have been working with some very reputable people lately and with testimonials from them as well I just know my WordPress reputation would jump at least a little bit higher. I plan to ask both of my clients for testimonials in the near future to pad that social proof my readers and potential clients love to see.
Join affiliate programs. Something that is rather foreign to me is affiliate marketing. Since my blog is a source of indirect income I figure it cannot hurt to try affiliate marketing and make some direct income as well. I plan on finding quality products that I endorse anyways in the WordPress world that offer affiliate programs and see what I can make of them.
I understand my traffic is lower than most websites who garner a lot of affiliate income from their websites, but my hope is to become reputable enough in the future that my readers can trust my product endorsements. I put a lot into every review I do and am 100% honest. My readers will come to know that about me as time goes on.
Get more guest posts. Even though I have a set clientele that pay me to write for them right now, getting guest blogs will spread my name (and services) more and allow me to network with those that may not hire me initially. Guest posting is something many let go once they start getting paid to write. I am guilty of that for sure. However, someone close to me that I trust said it is a great marketing tool to guest post on highly trafficked, authoritative websites. So, I am going to try and pitch at least 1 website owner a week.
Final Thoughts
So, there you have it. There are so many other marketing goals I could say are important but the key here is to not get overwhelmed. I am going to try my best to really focus on the ones I have mentioned above and take note as time goes by which ones work and which ones need more work. I will make sure to share with my readers my continuing journey into full time writing wonderland. But for now, I am in the trenches with you all just trying to be successful and free to enjoy life as I think we all deserve to.
What marketing goals have you set for yourself this year? I would love to hear how your efforts are going thus far in the comments below!
Images Courtesy of Freepik (1, 2, 3, 4)
The post Marketing Goals – Looking Ahead as I Get Closer to My Dream! appeared first on Lindsay Liedke.