The Experimental Lab

I’ve been thinking about my experiences as a content professional over the past 11 years and what I wish I could tell past, current, and future clients about how to have a successful engagement with a writer, strategist, or consultant. And then I saw that Melissa Malec, a UK-based B2B content writer and strategist, came up with this nifty carousel on LinkedIn, which was based on her expertise and the expertise of six other freelance content folks. Definitely worth reading. There may be some overlap, but these are some things I’ve found have made consulting engagements more productive and enjoyable. Have a marketing plan. Remember: even if they have extensive experience in marketing, a copywriter or a content strategist is not a marketing CEO or marketing manager. Copywriting and content strategy should be parts of a larger marketing strategy. If you don’t have a strategy or plan, you’re basically flinging spaghetti on the wall and hoping it sticks. And that won’t get you visibility, clients, or revenue. If you’re just starting out, check out SCORE’s marketing plan guide. Do your homework. When you hire a content professional, you hopefully scoped them out. You looked at their testimonials. You looked at their portfolio. You had a good conversation with them where you learn how they work and if they’re a good fit within your organization. You paid for a trial post or article. But you should know what this consultant will be doing and why and how that drives your bottom line. Be […]

Just wanted to share some insights into how I work and what you can possibly learn from it, especially if you’re a business owner. “Take what you need and leave the rest.” I love this idea from the recovery community because sometimes, we can get hung up on doing things by the letter of someone else’s idea of what works. And it’s something I’ve been thinking about lately in terms of my own business. For example, today I decided to take down my content creation packages. If you go to my services page now, there are no submenus. I have always sold based on what my clients need — and that is always bespoke and customized solutions. Conventional Advice May Not Work I had one (former) toxic mentor and one (current) supportive mentor suggest that I create these packages. And, it made sense at the time. I was excited to create services that I know people need. But none of them sold. OK — technically, one package did sell in an exchange for other mentoring services. But it was still customized! It can be really easy to blame myself, and sure. Maybe the value wasn’t clear enough. Maybe I wasn’t fully tuned into my ideal audience. And it’s true — I wasn’t tuned in enough because they typically don’t purchase this way. What Are Other People Doing? If I look at other colleagues and see how they sell their services, I typically do not see any packages. They sell services […]

This a post I have avoided writing for years, because I just didn’t want to deal with the possible blowback of white denialism. But it’s on the 4th anniversary of the last day (September 30th) I worked for an employer in a 9-to-5 capacity. Hooray for self-employment and biz ownership! The Concrete Ceilings of Patriarchy and White Supremacy So it seems like a good time to reflect back on how patriarchy and white supremacy have been barriers in my career as an employee — by white women in particular, and how they uphold patriarchy and white supremacy explicitly and implicitly. And they don’t have to go full-on ballistic Karen to do that. These concrete ceilings I believe are the main reasons Black women end up being the fastest demographic of people who end up creating businesses and start-ups, but are still less likely to obtain funding (CNBC talks about it here). Simply put: Black women like me go into business for themselves because of the barriers of advancement in traditional employment. Aggressions, microaggressions, being consistently paid less than their white counterparts, being consistently passed up for promotion, full-on racist and sexist behaviors from fellow employees and managers…it all pushes Black women out the door. Black women create businesses mainly out of sheer necessity. And other marginalized groups, such as disabled folks and LGBT folks (and you can imagine the intersections if you’re queer, disabled, and Black), probably have to do the same thing because of the lack of work protections […]

The Worth of a Writer’s Labor Setting a rate as a freelance writer is something that can cause many to have some heart palpitations and dalliances with imposter syndrome. Questions that can plague one’s mind: Am I really worth this much? Will anyone really pay me this rate? Writing, and the arts in general, has been consistently undervalued because it looks rather easy to do. And it’s a frustrating mentality to battle. It’s seemingly easy to just throw up a website or to create a blog post or to design a logo. If you’re in the creative arts, you know that this is not the case. You’ve put in hours of time, effort, and education into your work. Spaces like content mills tend to propagate the undervaluing of quality writing. Is She “Worth” It? What writers get paid and when sometimes can be a bit nebulous, which is why there’s a website called Who Pays Writers, which freelancers can contribute to, detailing the per word rate and how quickly writers get paid. For copywriting and content writing, AWAI’s pricing guide is a great place to start. When it comes to how much writers are paid, there’s been some recent buzz on Twitter about this quote from a Cosmopolitan profile on writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner, who has a debut novel coming out soon: “When I started doing the ‘I don’t get out of bed for less than $4 a word’ thing, people started paying me $4 a word.” The reaction has been […]

We all want quality work done when we hire someone. And we all know the adage above, and yet we’ve all worked with clients who want the mythical unicorn of all three. I love this website: http://fastgood.cheap/ because it shows you that this unicorn really does not and will never exist. Try and see if you can get all three switches to be on at once. But out of the three pairs of service types, I argue that most folks really do want fast and good work. Yet we all know where the rub is — the cost. Cheap & Fast or Good & Cheap? There are times you may want good and cheap work, primarily when you’re not in a hurry. But how often are business owners willing to wait on work? There may also be times that you want work done cheap and fast. Maybe you just need some prototype or a mock-up of a product. Quality may not be important in this case, but maybe it should be. So back to the cost. Sure, it’s great to get a deal–and who doesn’t love a deal? But you have to decide what’s important to you and whether you’re willing to save the time and effort it would take to skimp on quality. Are You Willing to Invest for Quality Work? It’s an investment to upgrade a website, to start having consistent, well-written blog posts, to create an email campaign. And the people who create this content are typically professionals. […]