Learn to Use Online Marketing for Your Freelance Business

PhotoShelter E-Book Cover Freelancer's Online Marketing BlueprintThe Freelancer’s Online Marketing Blueprint.” is the newest e-book from PhotoShelter, a leading provider of portfolio websites and sales and marketing tools for photographers. The free 53-page guide explains how creative freelancers can use online marketing to generate more clients and increase revenue. It can be downloaded from the PhotoShelter website.

“When you’re a freelancer, it can be a real challenge to balance self-promotion with client demands,” says Allen Murabayashi, CEO of PhotoShelter. “This e-book is meant to coach freelancers on effective marketing strategies that will help optimize their online exposure and reach a larger pool of prospective clients.”

The Freelancer’s Online Marketing Blueprint includes practical, step-by-step tips on how to generate inbound website traffic, build a successful leads list for email marketing, and optimize your website to increase the conversion of visitors to paying clients.

For example, the guide includes a checklist of 23 ways to grow your online footprint. In addition to increasing the likelihood that prospects can find you, creating multiple online destinations also helps you manage your brand by suppressing any negative commentary that might show up about you on the first page of a Google search.

The guide also discusses how to efficiently manage your time, allocate scarce marketing budgets, and benefit from pay-per-click advertising. Also included are contributions from internet marketing and creative business-management experts at companies such as Conversion Rate Experts, SEO software developer SEOmoz, Marketing Mentor, and email-marketing service Emma.

PhotoShelterLogoThe Freelancer’s Online Marketing Blueprint complements PhotoShelter’s ongoing series of free business and marketing e-books for photographers. Other e-books in the PhotoShelter library provide detailed advice on email marketing, Facebook pages, search engine optimization, and starting a photography business.

LINKS

PhotoShelter

E-Book: The Freelancer’s Online Marketing Blueprint

 

The Creative Group Publishes 2011 Salary Guide

DESIGNERS. WRITERS. The Creative Group, the staffing organization that places creative, advertising, marketing, web, and public relations professionals with a variety of firms, has published its 2011 Salary Guide. Designed to guide companies that plan to hire creative professionals this year, the guide features projected starting salaries for the more than 100 creative, interactive, marketing, and PR positions that The Creative Group recruits.

The Creative Group 2011 Salary GuideSome of the titles for which high and low projected starting salaries are listed include: creative director, interactive creative director, senior graphic designer, mobile apps designer, illustrator, technical illustrator, video producer, blogger, podcaster, online editor, web content writer, copywriter, proofreader, social media designer, SEO/SEM specialist, event/trade-show manager, marketing director, and PR agency account executive.

The content of the 2011 Salary Guide is based on thousands of freelance and full-time placements that The Creative Group makes each year. It includes local-market insights from staffing and recruiting teams in different cities, data from surveys of advertising and marketing executives, and an analysis of the 2011 hiring environment and trends.

For example, the report observes that “Although companies are gradually getting the green light to hire, they are still looking to maximize their budget dollars.” So, when hiring for full-time positions, they tend to seek candidates who have a range of skills and experience and can offer expertise outside their specialties.

The guide lists the nine most in-demand positions, average starting salaries nationwide, and methods for calculating and adjusting local salary ranges.

Not surprisingly, salaries have to be adjusted upward in cities such as San Francisco, Boston, San Jose, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. Salaries tend to be lower than the national averages in cities such as: El Paso, Texas; Sioux City, Iowa; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Youngstown, Ohio. Cities with salaries right around the national average include: Salt Lake City, Utah; Milwaukee, WI; Cincinnati, OH; and St. Louis, MO.

The 2011 Salary Guide also explains “how to turn freelancers into rock stars.” The report notes that “Firms are finding that augmenting full-time staff with freelancers provides protection from staffing mistakes, whether the economy is contracting or expanding.”

The Creative Group is a division of Robert Half International, Inc., the world’s first and largest specialized staffing firm.

The Creative Group’s 2011 Salary Guide is just one of several resources available through the Salary Center on The Creative Group’s website. A salary calculator and list of job descriptions are also available.

The resource center of the Robert Half International is another good source of career-development, staffing, and job-search advices. White papers include “Conducting an Online Job Search” and “The 30 Most Common Mistakes Managers Make in an Uncertain Economy.”

 

 

Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Chief Content Officer?

Photo of journalist at typewriterWRITERS. As a trained journalist who currently provides freelance content-marketing support, I was pleased to see that “Training as a print or broadcast journalist” topped the list of the 11 key traits Ann Handley listed in her Marketing Profs article on “How to Hire a Chief Content Officer.” She notes that journalists are trained to tell a story, and their innate understanding of audiences gives them a more nuanced, outside perspective that marketers can sometimes lack.

Ann, who is chief content officer of Marketing Profs and co-author of the book “Content Rules,” says that finding a Chief Content Officer with the right combination of skills is important because “The person in charge of your content sets the tone for your site.”

If you think you might be interested in becoming a chief content officer, here are the 11 key traits Ann listed and described in her article:

1. Training as print or broadcast journalist

2. Nose for a story

3. Digital intuition (an understanding of how the Web works)

4. Business acumen

5. An amateur passion (e.g. you already produce content just for fun)

6. A community leader (connections with potential contributors)

7. Social DNA

8. An open mind

9. Knowledge of the industry (or not)

10. A winning personality

11. Editorial skills

Ann advises employers that “The key is to find people who understand and embrace the fundamental thesis of Content as Opportunity. Businesses now have both an imperative and the incentive to produce top-shelf content.”

A Wish List, Not a Checklist

In my opinion, the 11 traits Ann Handley describes in her article are right on the money. But these traits probably represent more of a wish list than a checklist. Realistically, it may be very difficult to find a single individual who excels in all 11 areas.

Ann acknowledges that some journalists aren’t interested in content-development work because they fear “selling out” or crossing over to the “dark side” (even if they might earn more money).

Frankly, I think there valid reasons why some journalists don’t regard content development as a viable choice, and I’ll explain why in a minute.

I have worked in a variety of settings: academia, non-profits, a NASA research center, an ad agency, an association, a publishing company, and privately held companies.

In terms of “content development,” working for a NASA Public Affairs Office was ideal. My mission was to find and write stories that would help assure taxpayers and Congressional budget-committee members that government funds were being used productively by the research center’s rocket scientists, aircraft-engine developers, and energy-technology engineers. I particularly loved writing stories about entrepreneurs who were using NASA technology to develop new products or start new businesses. (In fact, a NASA researcher first told me about an advanced networked-communications research project that has since evolved into the Internet.)

But truthfully, my most enjoyable jobs were at the ad agency and publishing company. That’s because in these jobs 1) I was working side-by-side with like-minded writers and creative pros; and 2) writing was part of the core business. The quality of the writing was part of what the publishing firm and ad agency were selling. Content development was never viewed as a questionable overhead expense that might easily get slashed whenever marketing gurus starting promoting the next big thing in marketing.

Why Journalists Might Not Jump at Content Jobs

In addition to feeling undervalued in a marketing-driven work culture, I can think of three other reasons journalists might shy away from seeking full-time content-development jobs:

Fear of repetitive work. In some companies, content development might simply involve writing and editing variations of the same story day after day. Journalists thrive on seeking stories that are fresh, unusual, or important.

Clashing motivations. Most writers don’t go into journalism for the money. In contrast to marketers who seek to make a difference on the company’s bottom line, journalists want to make a difference to our democracy, society, and understanding of a changing world. Working in a newsroom is comfortable because a journalist’s co-workers tend to share the same values and sense of purpose.

Bad experiences with marketers. In the pressroom at trade shows, journalists routinely share horror stories about less-than-positive experiences with marketers and PR representatives. While journalists were striving to earn credibility and the trust of their readers, some marketers have arrogantly tried to dictate how certain stories should be told. Threats to pull advertising from the journalist’s publication always made matters worse.

So, here’s my advice to journalists who might be considering a full-time career as a content developer:

Be selective about the opportunity. It won’t feel like you’re selling out if you genuinely believe in the company’s products, services, and core values. Plus, the company can’t benefit from your skills unless you are genuinely enthusiastic. Authenticity matters.

Understand how your content-development work will be reviewed, evaluated and measured. This will reveal a lot about the culture in which you will work.

Find out how your potential employer defines “quality content.” Ask for examples of the type of work they admire. This can tell you whether you would be a good fit for their organization and whether they are likely to be receptive to your ideas and recommendations.

So, yes, I agree with Ann Handley that corporate content-development positions can provide some terrific opportunities for trained journalists. And, I agree that the employer won’t get the full benefits of having a chief content officer unless they hire a person with the right traits and attitude.

In certain circumstances, an experienced journalist would make an excellent chief content officer. But it’s also important to understand why some journalists may choose not to embrace the thesis of Content as Opportunity.

In my opinion, it can be beneficial to hire journalists to consult with and train marketing staff and then balance content-development projects with other types of work. Some marketing departments get so wrapped up in meeting month-to-month goals they lose sight of other trends occurring in the world around them. So, a good journalist could not only develop content, but also report on emerging trends that might require a company to adjust future goals. Journalists are not only good at content development; some also excel at market research and analysis.

So, what do you think? Agree? Disagree? If you are a journalist who has had experience working on both sides of the fence, I would love to hear from you!

LINKS

Marketing Profs Article:
How to Hire a Chief Content Officer: 11 Key Traits by Ann Handley

Book:
Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks and Webinars that
Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman

Content Marketing Institute:
Chief Content Officer Job Description Sample Template: by Joe Pulizzi

RELATED POSTS

Editorial Excellence Can Help Marketers Escape Content Chaos

 

Campaign Promotes Bill of Rights for Creatives

Logo for Bill of Rights for Creative PeopleEleven professional photography associations have launched a worldwide campaign to help promote the intellectual property rights of creative people in all disciplines—photography, video, film, fine arts, music, writing, design, etc.

The campaign centers around an Artist’s Bill of Rights that outlines a set of ethical principles that enable individuals to control how their creative works are used. It updates a document that the international Pro-Imaging Organization initiated in 2008 to protect the rights of individuals who enter photography competitions.

The Bill of Rights is helping to raise awareness of the practice of “rights-grabbing” in which some competitions harvest unlimited usage rights, or even the copyright, of the works submitted by contest entrants.

According to campaign manager Gordon C. Harrison, “The worst type of rights grabbing is where the terms and conditions for a contest require the entrant to assign the entire copyright and other rights for any works submitted to the competition, and to waive their moral rights. These practices are not uncommon. We have documented 35 cases of  copyright grabbing, 26 cases where moral rights have to be waived, and 7 cases where both occurred.”

If the practice of rights-grabbing continues to spread,  it will devalue photography, art, music, and creativity as a whole by reducing the need for organizations to commission or purchase creative works.

A key aim of the Artist’s Bill of Rights campaign is to educate the public about the importance and potential value of their intellectual property rights. The campaign can also help educate contest organizers who might unknowingly be asking for more usage rights than they actually needed to conduct and promote the contest.

The Artist’s Bill of Rights campaign is presented through a website that is now available in over 40 languages.

Campaign Aims

The campaign has the following aims:

  • To provide a means whereby all artists’ associations can unite around a common set of standards for preservation of their rights.
  • To promote the Bill of Rights’ standards for the preservation of artists’ rights in competitions and appeals seeking creative works.
  • To promote organisations who support the Artists’ Bill of Rights and to promote their competitions and appeals.
  • To educate the public about the purpose and value of their intellectual property rights and to enable them to recognise when they are being exploited.
  • To publish reports about the extent of rights grabbing and to analyse and quantify the rights grabbed by the private, public, charitable, and non-profit sectors.
  • To press for legislative changes that would protect the public from unfair and unethical terms and conditions that seek to exploit their intellectual property rights.

Campaign Supporters

The eleven associations currently supporting the campaign include:

  • Advertising & Illustrative Photographers Association (New Zealand)
  • Association of Professional Photographers (Iceland)
  • Association of Photographers (United Kingdom)
  • Australian Commercial & Media Photographers
  • Australian Institute of Professional Photography
  • British Institute of Professional Photography (United Kingdom)
  • British Photographic Council (United Kingdom)
  • DJ:Fotograferne, photographers within the Union of Journalists (Denmark)
  • Editorial Photographers of United Kingdom and Ireland
  • Pro-Imaging Organisation (United Kingdom)
  • The National Press Photographers Association (US)

In addition to these associations, many private and public sector organizations have proclaimed their support for the principles, including the Society of Authors. All of the supporters are listed on the campaign website. All artists organizations are invited to participate, and contact the campaign organizers through the website.

The website also lists photography competitions that comply with the principles in The Artist’s Bill of Rights and those that don’t.

If you or your studio or organization want to show support for the principles in the Artist’s Bill of Rights, you can grab the appropriate logo below, and link it to: http://artists-bill-of-rights.org

Logo for Organizations to Support Artist's Bill of Rights

Logo for individual support of Artist's Bill of Rights

LINKS

Website: Artist’s Bill of Rights

Resources on the Artist’s Bill of Rights Website

Guide to Rights & Licensing
An overview of copyright, types of licenses, moral rights, and the consequences of rights grabbing. As the authors of the website point out: “Rights grabbing devalues creativity by acquiring creativity for nothing.” Rights grabbing can also damage your reputation if your work is used to promote products, services, or campaigns of which you don’t approve.

Organiser’s Guide to The Artist’s Bill of Rights
This section of The Artist’s Bill of Right website explains how contest organizers can write competition terms and conditions that will give them the rights they need for their own publicity and promotion requirements while respecting the rights of the entrants.

Rights-Grabbing Statistics
Spreadsheets on this page attempt to calculate the extent of the problem and pinpoint the sectors in which rights-grabbing occurs most frequently. An analysis of current statistics estimates that more than 6,000 images are being grabbed each day.

Self-Publishing Firm Website Features Author’s Bill of Rights

WRITERS. If you’re a first-time author, or new to self-publishing, comparing self-publishing companies can be tough. For one thing, each company offers a different mix of services and pricing packages. Plus, it’s hard to predict exactly which services you may need as your project progresses.

Self-Publishing Press Authors Bill of RightsThat’s why the newly redesigned website of the Self Publishing Press includes a variety of educational features, including an Author’s Bill of Rights. The “bill of rights” includes the right to full disclosure of all publishing-agreement details and the right to simplified pricing with all charges clearly identified.

Other features on the site include tips on book marketing, a glossary of terms, and an Editor’s Notebook blog guiding authors through all steps in the self-publishing process.

Self Publishing Press is a New Hampshire-based company led by Kevin E. Pirkey, who has spent the last 25 years in the printing and publishing industry. His goal is to give authors a cost-effective way to self-publish their books without waiting months or years to try to get the attention of a large publisher.

“With the support of Self Publishing Press, authors can match the services of large commercial publishers and publish their books the way they want, with the quality and
professionalism their creative works deserve,” Pirkey says. “Just because an
author has never written a book before or doesn’t have the name recognition of Stephen
King doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get the same access to readers and all over
the country.”

Pirkey was motivated to start Self Publishing Press by his love of books and publishing: “I love to share in and encourage the passion of a new author for their work. There is great satisfaction in seeing an author receive the first copy of their newly published work.”

The Self Publishing Press offers four packages. Most authors will choose either the Bronze, Silver Premier, or Gold Deluxe package because these include editorial and marketing support services. The Family Memories package is for authors who want to self-publish works with limited distribution, such as family genealogies or cookbooks.

The packages include an author website through which reprints can be ordered as needed. A variety of a la carte services is available, including cover design, page layout, website development, e-book formatting, and press release writing.

LINKS

Website: Self Publishing Press

Facebook Page: Self Publishing Press

 

Useful Stats:Trends in E-Reading

Two separate reports from InfoTrends and the Association of American Publishers indicate that people are quickly adapting to new ways of reading.  Although the market for reading books and publications on screen is still small, it’s expected to grow rapidly as better devices and content continue to be introduced.

Paying attention to trends in e-reading and e-book-publishing can help you determine whether it makes more sense for you to self-publish and promote your own works or continue to seek a traditional publisher for your work.

InfoTrends E-Media Report

InfoTrends recently captured survey responses from 700 users of e-reading devices, including dedicated devices (such as the Kindle and Nook) and multi-purposes devices such as iPads, laptops, notebooks, and smartphones. The results from this survey suggest that e-reading is here to stay and poised for growth. InfoTrends analysts believe that within five years, one-third to one-half of all readers will be using electronic devices.

According to the study, the amount each survey participant spends on e-media is growing at 4.3% a year among those who use dedicated e-readers and 6.9% among those who use multi-purpose devices.

The report was conducted to help technology providers and publishers understand some of challenges and opportunities related to e-media hardware and content. For example, while there will be an expanding base of customers for companies that want to publish electronically, one of the challenges will be to determine which formats will most likely to be favored by the largest groups of readers.

Data and analysis in the report can help publishers understand how the rise of e-media will affect the purchase of hard-copy publications, what types of media are read most frequently on e-readers, the perceived shortcomings of the e-reading devices, and plans for new purchases of e-readers and multi-purpose devices.

Press Release: Reading E-Media: The End-User Perspective

Association of American Publishers

In the February 2011 sales report issued by The Association of American Publishers (AAP), e-books ranked as the number-one format among all categories of trade publishing (adult hardcover, adult paperback, adult mass market, children’s/young adult hardcover, children’s/young adult paperback).

Sales of e-books in February 2011 were $90.3 million, which is 202% higher than in Febuary 2010. The association attributes this surge primarily to a high level of buying by consumers who had received e-readers as gifts. Other factors contributing to the growth include the expanded selection of e-readers introduced for the holidays and the availability of more titles as e-books.

Some publishers who contributed to the study said e-books are generating fresh consumer interest in “backlist” titles (e.g. books that have been in print for at least a year).  Many publishers noted that e-book readers who enjoy a newly released book will frequently buy an author’s full backlist.

According to Tom Allen, president and CEO of AAP, “The February results reflect two core facts: People love books and publishers actively serve readers wherever they are. The public is embracing the breadth and variety of reading choices available to them. They have made e-books permanent additions to their lifestyle while maintaining interest in print-format books.”

The AAP monthly sales data represents data provided by 84 U.S. publishing houses representing major commercial, education, professional, scholarly, and independents. Data on e-books comes from 16 houses.

For the months of January and February, 2011, the sales of print books fell to $441.7 million, down 24.8% from the amount of print books sold in January and February, 2010. By comparison, the sale of e-books for January and February 2011 totaled $164.1 million, up 169% over the same two-month period in 2010.

Press Release:  E-Books Ranks as No. 1 Format Among All Trade Categories for February 2011

Book Explores iPhone Photography and Interactive Publishing

iPad Companion Edition of iPhone ObsessedA new book by photographer/designer Dan Marcolina demonstrates the creative possibilities of both the iPhone camera and interactive books.

Entitled “iPhone Obsessed: Photo-Editing Experiments with Apps,” the book published by Peachpit shows how you can use  47 of the best low-cost apps with the iPhone camera and create artistic photographic effects such as blurs and vignettes, high dynamic range, traditional film effects, and black and white images. The “image recipes” in the book are the result of a year-long series of mobile-imaging experiments Dan conducted with his iPhone and various apps.

Marcolina explains how to combine apps to construct images, talking about which apps he used and why. He also includes some advanced tips for integrating Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.  If you want to use your iPhone to create images that are good enough to hang on your wall, you’ll learn which apps to use and where to get them.

Marcolina has been practicing photography for more than 30 years, and his images have appeared in juried shows and dozens of publications worldwide. But he says his obsession with iPhone imagery has reinvigorated his love for both photography and visual experimentation.

What Makes the Book Interactive
To extend your reading pleasure, the print version of the book integrates 75 Microsoft tags that take you beyond the surface of the printed page. After downloading a free Tag Reader (http://gettag.mobi), you can use your iPhone to scan the tags printed in the book. When you scan each tag, you can watch full-screen video clips on your iPhone of Dan Marcolina giving app overviews and step-by-step tutorial of how he created a particular image.

The tags let you uncover more than four hours of bonus video tutorials, app developer websites, and linkes to the iTunes Store for app purchase. You’ll also view inspirational image galleries and free downloadable resource images.

“Microsoft Tag makes the world around you clickable, and now with the scan of Tag, readers will get a richer, more enhanced experience from the pages of the book,” explains Bill McQuain, Microsoft’s director of Tag Product Management.

The iPad Companion Edition
The book “iPhone Obsessed” is one of the first printed books to be released with an iPad Companion Edition authored with Adobe’s new Digital Publishing Suite. The suite enables publishers to create, distribute, monetize, and optimize publications on a variety of mobile devices including iPad and Android media tablets.

When the iPad companion edition of the  “iPhone Obsessed” book is released later this month, Dan will supplement the book’s core content with 25 brand-new image recipes and 35 app reviews, along with expanded video tutorials on some of the images from the book.

About Marcolina Design and Marcolina Slate LLC
Portrait of Dan MarcolinaDan Marcolina’s Philadelphia-based firm Marcolina Design is well-known for their expertise in integrating print, web, and video work. Dan recently launched Marcolina Slate LLC to produce “touchable design for mobile devices.” Applying lessons learned from designing print, interactive, and video, Marcolina Slate LLC will produce unique publication solutions for iPad and Android Slate devices, immersive books, engaging advertising, memorable advertising, and living catalogs.

About Peachpit
Peachpit has been publishing books on the latest in photography, graphic design, web development, digital video, and Mac computing since 1986. Many photographers and designers know Peachpit as the publishing partner for Kelby Training and the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.

VIDEO LINKS

iPhoneObsessed Book Overview

Microsoft Tag Reader Demo Video