Tips for Promoting Your Home Based Writing Business Online

If you’re considering a home based writing business, or if you’ve already started one, you know that advertising can be an enormous expense. Print ads are costly, and they don’t always reach clients effectively. Fortunately, in the age of the Internet, a home based writing business need not rely on print ads alone.

Whether you’re searching locally or globally for clients, consider the Internet a partner in your home based writing business. There are many free or low-cost methods of promoting your services online. Here are the ones which have worked best for me:

First things first: Get a website. You may reflect, “No kidding!” but I’m continually surprised by the number of home based writing business owners who don’t seem to mediate that having a website is necessary. Actually, I managed – just barely — to operate my home based writing business without one for the first three years. It wasn’t because I didn’t think a website was a good idea. I believed I couldn’t afford one, and I had no clue about how to design one myself.

I was probably one of the last people on the planet to learn of the do-it-yourself website. (Compare website builders by reading reviews on http://www.websitebuildermagazine.com.) By the time I discovered an affordable website builder, I was eager to expand my home based writing business beyond my local plot.

Having a website has made a large difference in the volume and diversity of the projects I get to work on. My design isn’t fancy, and that’s fine. When you’re promoting a home based writing business, putting a lot of bells and whistles on your website is probably not the best option. Mainly, you need a clean design, clear descriptions of your services and your background, contact info, and examples of your best work.

Once your home based writing business gets rolling, client testimonials are also important. When someone tells you, “I love the work you’ve been doing for me,” don’t be shy about asking them for a testimonial. Ask a grasp few if they’d also be willing to provide references. Usually, good testimonials and the offer of “references available upon request” are convincing enough for prospective clients. However, it’s a good idea to line up references just in case you need them.

When you collect your website up and running, the next task is getting people to find it. Refer to your website builder’s instructions for advice on optimizing your website for search engines. Also, check out “Search Engine Optimization (SEO): What it Can Do for Your Website,” by AC say producer Laura Quintile. But keep in mind that your home based writing business is going to have a ton of online competition. You’ll need to list your URL in as many places as you can think of. Here are just a few:

Free:

http://www.craigslist.org

It’s easy to use, popular, and free. What more could you ask for? Regardless of the specialty you’ve chosen for your home based writing business, you can place an ad in the Creative category, under Services. You’ll need to re-submit your ad every 45 days.

Take the time to compose a positive, compelling description of the services your home based writing business offers. Be sure to include a link to your website! Once you have an ad that works, you can employ it for other listings.

http://www.freelancewriting.com

FreelanceWriting.com offers a number of free ways to promote your home based writing business. You can post an ad on their Job Bank, under the “Freelancers Seeking Work” category. Yours will stand out from the crowd if you sound professional, and if you provide a link to your website instead of just listing an e-mail address.

You can also submit a freelance “virtual portfolio” to a related site, http://www.freelanceportfolios.com, which gives you ample space to describe your services in detail, list your credentials, and situation links to your website and work samples. Potential employers and clients can search portfolios by discipline (writer, editor, etc.) and specialty (magazine writing, business writing, research, etc.) and contact you through the e-mail address and/or phone number you provide. Whatever the specialty of your home based writing business, you should be able to find an appropriate category.

Low-cost:

http://www.writerswrite.com

Writers Write, the largest writing website on the Internet, is a great resource for writers of all stripes. It offers a number of advertising options for your home based writing business, including banner ads and e-newsletter listings. Some of these ads can be quite costly. An effective and relatively inexpensive option is a simple, no-frills classified ad: $55 for 5 weeks.

When I place classified ads on Writers Write, they always pay for themselves many times over – not something I can say for other ads I’ve placed online. Depending on the focus of your home based writing business, you can choose from a number of different categories, including Writers on Call, Technical Writing, and Editorial Services.