Break it out into two steps… 1) search to find out where your target audience is hanging out online (i.e. blogs, forums and other popular industry web sites), and 2) contribute useful information in any way you can, so that your name and web site appear in front of this audience. One method of contributing useful information is by offering to write articles, like you said. But it will take time and consistent effort pitching your article ideas. So while you’re pitching article ideas, you can also contribute comments to blogs and forums. Show up regularly and offer helpful advice, and you’ll start to make a name for yourself.

Enjoy the site, Pete! Thanks for sharing that. Just hooked on today!

-Ed

Sounds like a good topic for a new blog post. I know I could use a little help in this area.

Ed wrote: “You should NOT promote yourself as the guy or gal who can do it all.”

Agreed 100%. Go back to my business vision post on this blog and you will see that is where I think all marketing starts – with knowing what you do and who you do it for.

But here’s where I see folks stumble: when it comes to qualifying these prospective clients. Your site should do a very good job of helping these visitors qualify themselves. It should communicate clearly what you do, why you do it well, and whom you do it for. You should NOT promote yourself as the guy or gal who can do it all.

But don’t stop there. Don’t think that everyone will carefully self-qualify. You should also have a solid system for qualifying inquiries as they come in. Otherwise, you could end up with a bunch of inquiries who are simply shopping the market and aren’t ready to make a commitment or just looking for the lowest-cost provider.

I think Pete’s message is that direct mail enables you to temper some of this incoming (dare I say “reactive”) flow of inquiries with some carefully selected “suspects” (your direct mail list). In other words, a more proactive approach.

Most freelancers could use a good mix of both. The real question is, for you, what’s the ideal mix. I know that in my case, I like to see about 80% proactive measures (direct mail, networking, referrals, etc.) and 20% reactive (e.g., SEO) tactics.

And again, the more you depend on SEO and other reactive tactics, the better you have to become at qualifying inquiries.

No silver bullet here. Each tactic has its “costs.”

When I think about the power of direct mail, I’m reminded of an old saying from the office equipment industry (I used to sell copiers for Pitney Bowes in a past life). In that industry, the adage was, “When a customer needs a new copier, he or she will usually call two sales reps: one from Xerox (the market leader at the time) and whoever else showed up on their doorstep last!”

In other words, if you keep showing up, you’ll make good things happen. For any freelancer who may not be the Xerox of his or her industry, it’s sound advice!

As a co-contributor to this blog, and as someone who generates about 50% of his new writing business and 75% of his training business through his website, I must object.

If you have a website you might as well take a few more hours and optimize it. The thing about optimization is this: it can be broadly based or targeted. Go to http://www.google.ca and type in these search terms: “paul lima” (you’d expect me to be number one, but wait – there are other paul limas online), “freelance writer toronto”, “copywriter toronto”, “media interview trainer”. There are other terms that I could give you, but I’ll keep them to myself (and the prospects who find me when they use them).

I am not #1 based on each term. To be #1 bases on each term would, as Pete says, take many hours — more than I prepared to put into SEO. However, I am high enough that I generate solid RFQs and business (you don’t have to be #1 to generate a click to your site) and yes, a few crank requests; welcome to the fringe side of the web.

Ironically, a couple of people who rank higher than I do either paid me to optimize their sites (not a plug; I don’t do this any more) or used my SEO book!

I really don’t mean to go so long on this, but if you have a website, optimize it. Otherwise, you are tossing away a great deal of potential value. You can find everything you need to know online at no cost. You can also find dissenting views – Google my name and you will see a link to “Roland Tanglao’s Weblog”. He says I don’t know what I am talking about. You should also be able to read my reply. And, bottom line, Google some of the other terms to find out if I know what I am talking about.