Avsnitt
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In this episode, I talk about four things that I believe every freelance editor needs to think about if they want to create a thriving business but aren't quite there yet. Two of them might surprise you!
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I have a new offer to help freelance editors create, and actually implement, a marketing strategy. And if you sign up before 30 June 2023, you can save $500. Contact me through editboost.com or simply message me through any social media platform and let's see if I'm the best person to help you. If you're tired of not earning enough money and if you're ready and willing to do something about it, this is a great opportunity to get the support you need.
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Today's episode continues on the theme of 'do what's best for your business'. Is a website essential for your business today? Tune in and find out what I think!
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Today I talk about practice, and why marketing is like any other skill: the more you do it, the better you get at it.
In this day and age, it's easy to consume content about marketing. But if you don't actually do it, you'll never improve. And so most editors stay stuck in the 'too scared to get started' phase.
I have been there!
But if you don't have enough enquiries coming in each month, then marketing is the best way to fix that problem.
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If you want support with your freelance editing business, contact me at www.editboost.com
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I often think about why freelance editors don't do marketing. In today's episode, I talk about two reasons for not taking marketing action and why you might need to change your mindset. I also share a little about how my business has been going this year.
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If you want help with your marketing mindset or strategy, contact me through my website and let's have a chat: www.editboost.com
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If you don't have enough clients then what should you do? Today I talk about three marketing strategies and how to assess whether you need to change what you're doing.
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If you want help with your marketing mindset or strategy, contact me through my website and let's have a chat: www.editboost.com
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I'm back! After 21 months, I have decided to bring back the podcast. Today I'm talking about why I stopped, why I've come back to it and what you can expect from now on.
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065:
I’ve had a lot of fun so far talking to editors and guest experts and creating solo shows for the Edit Boost Podcast. Receiving so many wonderful messages from people who’ve been inspired to do more marketing and get more clients has been really rewarding.
But I’ve decided I need a bit of a break; I’ve created a lot of podcast content and it’s time to step back. And just in case you need to hear it from me, it’s ok to stop doing something or hit pause on something, even if others are enjoying it.
The point of content marketing is to grow your audience. Of course, the free content can help people. But I think it’s disingenuous to think that our main focus should be on creating free resources, even though it’s easy to get stuck in that thought pattern. After all, it feels safe (and can be fun) to keep creating forever, without sharing it.
There’s more I can do to share my work with more editors who need my help, but that takes time and energy, and it’s hard to do that while also recording more episodes. So I’m hitting ‘pause’ and I look forward to talking to you again in the future!
Before you go, a quick question: Are you making the best use of the content you’ve created?
…………………………….If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.
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064:
Featured editor: Michelle Bourbonniere, Edited by Michelle
Feeling daunted by the thought of SEO? ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ for your website can sound complicated and like it’s only for technical types. There are several things you can do to help your website to appear near the top of online search results (that’s the point of SEO) but, actually, is SEO the most important thing you need to be doing right now?
Many editors tell me they have to get their websites ‘right’ before they launch their services — so much so that they spend their time on creating content and fiddling with their site, hiding away from the outreach needed to find clients quickly.
My guest is a freelance editor who specialises in SEO and does keyword research and content planning for her clients. But Michelle also maintains a great perspective on what place SEO has in your marketing mix.
In this episode we discuss how SEO is a long-term strategy, and how having the best optimised site isn’t going to get you clients overnight. It’s important to connect with people beyond the website.
Until your website brings in results from your work on SEO, being active on social media and via email with your audience gets your website out there and builds that ‘know, like and trust’ factor.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Take a look back at our episode with Yael Keon, email marketing expert
Ep039: How can email marketing benefit my editing business?
Michelle’s training on keywords and Google Search Console
Training videos https://editedbymichelle.com/editboost…………………………….
If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program. -
063:
Featured editor: Elen Turner, Elen Turner Editorial Services
Given the challenging times we’re in, it’s understandable we can feel afraid of not having enough work. This worry can lead us to taking all the work we can, even if it leaves us stressed out and overwhelmed. And the recommendation is always to continue marketing, even in good times, so we continue to have clients ‘in the pipeline’, opportunities lined up at the end of each project.
After bouncing back from an unfortunate loss of work during 2020, Elen is now in the position of being overwhelmed with jobs and yet worrying about continuing to attract new clients.
With barely any time to do marketing for her business, she’s afraid to slow down while also trying to carve out time to create the breaks and the lifestyle she wants, with part-time business hours.
We look at how to say no to work that doesn’t serve you, and how keeping metrics on your business activities can help you to gain perspective on your ability to gain and retain clients even during the tough times.
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If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.
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062: Featured editor: Andrew Pelechaty
When you’re changing careers into the field of editing, it’s challenging to make a start and find paying clients. You can feel unsure of yourself and completely ‘green’, a newbie. But rarely do we start with a blank slate. We can make use of all of our professional experience and current contacts.
Today we’re talking about the situation my guest editor, Andrew, is experiencing. He’s done significant voluntary work as an editor and proofreader immersed in his sporting passion of rugby league. He’s also helped on projects with a basketball-journalist friend. In his league side-gig he’s managed a team of 20 writers, revealing project management as another hidden talent.
Despite the feeling that he’s starting from scratch with finding paid editing work, Andrew has plenty to offer. It’s all about positioning himself in the right way to attract his ideal clients. And also gathering social proof through testimonials from his pro bono work will help to demonstrate his value to potential clients.
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If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.
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061:
As editors, we like to learn, read and look at things from all angles. If we’re not feeling ready and confident in our business, we can focus too much on consuming more content. We convince ourselves we need to know more to do more; we need to learn more before we can take action.
But most people know what they need to do. The problem is that they are not being the person they need or want to be.
Becoming a confident business owner means taking action before you’re ready. Which means believing that you are, in fact, a confident business owner.
Not a fan of ‘fake it till you make it’? Try ‘act it till you become it’.
And if you’re not feeling it, dig deep to find out why. What are those fears that are holding you back from being the confident business owner you want to be?
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If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program. -
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As editors, when we’re putting our content out into the world to attract more clients, being scared of rejection and fearing criticism can be seriously debilitating to business. When you’re assuming the worst and not wanting to deal with negative feedback, it’s safer and easier to just not put things out there. But it’s not a useful approach when you’re trying to get clients
I know it’s hard. We’re the face of our business. Any comments and feedback on the work we put out in the world is something we’re prone to take personally. But growing in business starts with embracing rejection rather than avoiding it.
If you’re feeling like the fear is holding you back from sharing a blog post, promoting your services, increasing your prices or asking for feedback, think about what meaning you’re assigning to the possible outcome of your marketing efforts.
In this episode I encourage you to undertake a practical activity to examine what you’re telling yourself in those moments. It’s an important exercise to pushing past the fear and embracing the opportunity to grow.
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If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program. -
059:
Often it seems that, in our minds, we’ve equated helping people with giving things for free. And at the same time, we believe that making money is somehow a bad thing. But in the end, we’re running a business, and the purpose of a business is to make money. In this episode, I explain how we can think differently about the action of helping people with our editing services.
We post information and editing tips online to be helpful. Being helpful online is great and it builds our brand and positions us as an authority. But the free content isn’t going to make an author qualified to do their own editing, based on just reading a series of blog posts. The best practical help we can give an author is to provide our editing services.
Are you taking the next step to invite potential clients to work with you?…………………………….
If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program. -
058:
When it comes to running a business, it’s really important to acknowledge our emotions. Our actions come from how we feel. So while most of us want to be given a to-do list, most of the time that isn’t enough. We have to change the way we think and feel in order to do the things we need to do to find more clients and earn more money.
However, when it comes to some business decisions, we need to look at the numbers and NOT rely on our emotions.
For example, when you’re spending time and energy on creating content to promote your business, but not getting any enquiries, it can be tempting to say ‘it’s not working’ and then stop doing what could be valuable marketing (if directed to the right place). Or alternatively, you could try to do more of it, hoping that will work. But more of the same won’t necessarily help you get results.
You’re much better off examining the data, then making evidence-based decisions to know where to put your effort.
People might not be seeing your great content, so it could be just a matter of actively sharing what you have more widely, rather than writing more blog posts. Or people could be seeing your content but not staying or engaging with it. So you could put more work into your copywriting to make it more compelling or make the call to action clearer.
Using online tools to analyse what your problem is, rather than jumping to conclusions with only the feeling that it’s ‘not working’, can help you use your precious time and effort most effectively to boost your business.
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If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program. -
057: This is the first of a series where I’ll be talking about the most common mistakes I see freelance editors making when trying to promote their businesses.
In this episode I’ll be talking about the problem of not understanding what your clients want. I see this mistake when editors are posting online about what’s involved in editing. Most likely it’s only editors who are interested in editing. Authors have different concerns -- maybe they don’t understand the publishing process or they are scared their writing isn’t good enough.
To attract your ideal clients, you need to understand what your clients’ thoughts are. Find out what worries them and what they want help with. Then talk about how you can help them solve that problem.
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If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program. -
056: Featured editor: Jen Tolnay, Jen Tolnay Editorial and Writing Services
Jen has plenty of corporate editing experience and wants to move toward her ideal work in fiction book editing. She’s almost finished a course and has gained a bit of experience from pro bono projects. So what’s stopping her from pitching to clients who could benefit from her skills?
Feeling hesitant at switching to a new field of editing is entirely normal. We’re confident in our own skills in the work we’ve done already. We feel like we need to get qualifications and more jobs under our belts in order to show credibility. But Jen has dragged out the completion of her editing course. She’s wondering where this resistance is coming from.
If this is happening to you too, think about how this behaviour serves you. By not finishing the course, Jen doesn’t feel like she’s qualified to pitch for new work in fiction editing. So she can stay in her safe, familiar territory. But that’s not what she wants for her future. So it leads to her feeling stuck and frustrated about how to carve out this new niche for herself.
We discuss this and other aspects to establishing a new niche, or even more than one. Niching in one area makes it easier to talk about in your marketing, but if you’ve got other things going on in your business where you can get work in a variety of areas, there’s nothing stopping you from doing that. Pursuing a niche you love doesn’t mean you have to drop all the other work you’re good at and that has brought you income through industry connections. Believing that you’ll lose work if you establish a niche can hold you back through fear.
If you’ve got a feeling that you know your way forward but there’s something holding you back you just can’t put your finger on, consider where you might be self-sabotaging your own progress.
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If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program. -
55:
Building an email list of people who are interested in your business, so you can contact them directly, is a great idea. We’ve talked about email marketing on the show before, when I spoke to email expert Yael Keon (Ep039 ‘How can email marketing benefit my editing business?’). It’s recommended to have an email list for your business, rather than relying on people randomly seeing the content you post to your social media pages. But clients often ask me how to go about getting people to sign up to an email list.
We do this using an ‘opt-in’ or ‘lead magnet’ and this is something I took a while to get around to doing. If you’re not familiar with opt-ins, they just mean a piece of valuable ‘content’, like a pdf document, a checklist, or a webinar, for example. You offer this for free so that people will join to your mailing list, giving you their email address in exchange for this thing that they’d find useful.
There’s no need to go all out with a 100-page e-book. There was a time when this was a trend but, more often than not, people just downloaded the e-book and left it unopened! The best lead magnet is something actionable that your ideal audience wants and will use.
I’ve taken ages to get started on creating a lead magnet I’d be comfortable using. I had made various excuses around why I hadn’t put my opt-in out there. Whenever I feel resistance to doing something, I know I need to look deeper and find out what’s blocking me. I had to coach myself through the process.
Are you also thinking about growing your email list? I thought that sharing my process for developing my email list and how I’ve started to create an opt-in for my own business might help you.
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If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program. -
54:
Today I want to talk to you about what coaching is, as well as what it isn’t.
The term ‘coaching’ is used widely today, and conjures up different meanings for different people. Some people turn to a coach when they seek to be held accountable to their goals. Others want someone to give them advice (which I think of as mentoring) as to which direction they should go with their business.
Regular listeners to the Edit Boost Podcast will have heard me coaching editors to help them identify their desired goals and decide the first steps to get there. But I’ve also given advice from time to time. My approach, as reflected in the coaching calls on this show, is a mix of coaching and mentoring that my clients have found effective for getting them unstuck in business. It’s been so rewarding to see my clients’ businesses take off after I’ve helped them uncover their own potential, step into their confidence and take action to achieve the goals that are important to them (as opposed to other people’s expectations).
Today I’ll share with you my thoughts about what coaching is and what it isn’t; hopefully this will give you a better understanding of what I mean when I talk about ‘coaching’.
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If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program. -
53: Featured editor: Sue Toth, Sue Toth Writing and Editing Services
Today’s episode talks about the fear many of us experience when quoting for editing jobs. Even if we’ve had a consistent run of incoming leads and enquiries, something makes us worry about never getting another client.
The fear of not having enough work actually kept Sue overloaded with work she didn’t really love. Taking on as many projects as she could that came her way didn’t leave her with any capacity to find the work she was really looking for.
The fears really play out when evaluating whether to take on a new project. It helps to take the emotion out of the quoting process and there are a few ways we can tackle this.
I suggest starting by reflecting on what goes on in your mind when you’re about to quote on a job. What are you telling yourself? Are these thoughts and assumptions serving you?
I discuss with Sue, step by step, how to address the worries that crop up for her when deciding whether to quote for editing work.
It’s important to know your numbers – your track record and your income needs – and develop a decision-making flow for handling quotes that relies on facts rather than your thoughts. Having a sound process will guide you through sensible quoting that will serve your business, not your fears.
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If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.
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Featured editor: Michelle Waitzman, http://michellewaitzman.com
It’s fairly common for editors to pick up whatever work is going, even if it’s not their ideal type of editing, type of project or type of industry. We think, ‘we’ll do this for a while until that ‘thing’ comes along...’, the ideal project that will set us on the path to the work we most enjoy. But after a while it’s become a habit to do the same work, and we’re stuck, getting known for doing work that we’re not keen to continue doing.
Today’s guest, Michelle, wonders if it’s the right thing to change the pattern of work she’s been doing and seek out the work she’d enjoy more, even if it doesn’t pay well.
So, I challenged that assumption. How do you know you won’t find clients who will pay you well for doing the work you love?
But be mindful of what messages you keep telling yourself about the thing you really want to do.
In today’s episode I discuss with Michelle how she could change her positioning to attract the work she most wants to do. We discover, as we’re near the end of our chat, that zeroing in on what it is that we love can mean peeling back the layers of habit we’ve built up over the years of striving for a successful editing business.
Is it time you stepped back to consider whether you’re fulfilling your life and business goals?
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If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program. - Visa fler
