An electronic signature can do a lot for the personal branding of a writer. It can help you gain recognition and you can use it to promote your services and your books. Using an electronic signature can help you get found online, and help you promote your various projects in a unique and recognizable way that ties together everything you post online, whether it’s your article or a piece of marketing copy. Read on for some ways to use an electronic signature as well as some practical advice on creating your own.

Electronic signatures for different purposes

When adding your electronic signature to your emails, articles, guest posts, and social media profiles you may want to slightly modify it for each purpose. Depending on your audience consider adding a little more or less information, link to a different page on your website, or change the visual appearance slightly. It’s important though to make sure that each version of your signature unmistakably looks like it’s coming from the same person. You may think about this in the way a company uses different versions of their logo for different applications.

Add your link

Links in your signature can help you get found in search engines and increases exposure of your work. Every link that’s out there pointing to your website and your work increases the popularity of your website as well as your work’s exposure on the internet.

Forums and social media tools are a great place to showcase an electronic signature that links back to your website, blog post, author’s page on another larger site, etc. These signatures can draw search engines to your website, book listing, or blog post and get new visitors to your linked pages.

Signature Tips

Following are some tips for creating a great writer’s signature, depending on the type of promotion you’re after:

• -Include your book’s title and a link to where people can find out where to buy it.
• -Include a link to a website where people can learn more about you and / or your writing work. This can be your own website, or another site where your work can be viewed.
• -Be sure your link directs people to a place where they can contact you (if not using an email signature)
• -Don’t make it too long. Keep your signatures under five lines.
• -Use a bit of color in your email signature, to help it stand out, or break up the lines visually, but don’t go overboard.
• -Find prominent places to post a signature where you’ll get links related to your niche and visitors that could become customers, such as in reading groups if you’re a fiction writer, or a forum for creative writers.
• -Rotate signatures once in a while to keep them noticeable to people who regularly look at them.

Get started creating your writer’s signature

Start with your name, then add your latest or most important project or work and go from there. Don’t forget to add at least one link to your work:

Jane Smith
Author of “Best Non-Fiction Book Ever” [link book title to where it can be bought]
Winner of the “Best Ever Award”
Visit my website [link] for more on “Best Non-Fiction Book Ever”
Available for speaking engagements

John Smith, Freelance Writer
Available for website copy and ghostwriting
View my work at helium.com, akgmag.com, hubpages.com [link to your profile or articles]
For more information, visit [link to your blog]

Depending on how much space you’re able to use, your signature may be shorter or longer. Over time you’ll probably use several different electronic signatures for different purposes. Make sure you keep a record of all your different signatures, so when you’re creating a new one you can assure that the info will correlate and match up with what you already have used previously.

To increase traffic to your website even more, use slightly varying signatures over time and use keywords in your electronic signatures that line up with the content of the page you’re linking to.

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Self-publishing with Lulu:

1. You’ll have to share profits. They’ll take a portion of your profits directly from the sale as they will facilitate it on their site and pay you, rather than you collecting from readers. Many writers feel this is better for them as it minimizes their risk of loss in case they don’t sell too many copies of their work.
2. You need to do almost everything yourself. Lulu does offer various services for a fee as well as connects writers to vendors who could help you with the process but it could take a bit of an investment to accomplish what you need to.
3. You get to decide what to write when you self-publish with Lulu. No one is going to censor you. A lot of writers like this aspect of self-publishing. But that said, you also need to take responsibility for what you publish.
4. Lulu offers support. Most people find their tools very easy to use. If you do have problems, they have a support team who can help you utilize their website.
5. You can utilize .pdf, .doc, and several other file formats as well as their templates.
6. Promotion is important. You can benefit from being listed on their website as it’s well indexed in search engines and you will have your own page and category listings, but you’ll still want and need to promote your work in order to sell your books. Unlike traditional book publishers, you won’t have a staff of people helping you get attention, arrange book signings, etc.
7. The Lulu community and groups can be very helpful in helping you navigate it as well as learn to maximize the potential of the site.

Even if you choose to self-publish with a site such as Lulu, you still have the options to publish elsewhere as well. Whether you choose to do it as a start in getting something of yours into print or choose to publish there exclusively, there are plenty of choices and resources that can help you. Self-publishing doesn’t have to be the only way you’ll get published but can help you get published quickly and help you achieve your goal of seeing your name in print and getting your words out to others to read.

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Here are some suggestions for finding your creativity when it’s in short supply:

• Look for writing prompts. You’ll find books and websites dedicated to getting you started. Many prompts will give you an assignment or a topic starter. Sometimes this can help you get creative juices really flowing. Here’s a website that can help: creativewritingprompts.com.
• Try a new source of information. Are you doing research? Instead of looking at Wikipedia or Google, look some place else. How about dogpile.com? This site blends results from several search engines so could give you a fresh take on your topic.
• Write a poem. Even if you’ve never tried your hand at one, writing a few lines that rhyme will make you focus on exactly what you want to say. If you’re looking for a better way to say something, write a poem about exactly that topic. This will force you to think of using exact words and to apply “word economy” to your writing. If you simply need to clear your head, write a poem about a different subject altogether, like a beautiful or painful past experience for example.
• Go to the library. When was the last time you went to the library? This could be a great change of pace for finding some creativity. If available, look at old copies (like 100 years old) of newspaper and other writings about similar topics to find different angles on your topic. Look at media you normally wouldn’t seek out, like books written for children, or books written in a different language if you happen to know another one. The smell and feel of books alone can conjure up new inspiration in writers.
• Read. Reading can be a great way to inspire creativity. Read a passage from a book you already know to transport you into that writer’s world. Or pick up a magazine and read about a topic you’ve never read about and that takes you out of your comfort zone. For example, if you’re in the process of writing a romance novel, pick up a magazine on tattoos or read about how to build a garden shed.
• Take a walk. Watch television, do the dishes, walk the dog or take some pictures. Get lost in something for a while and this could spark some new ideas.
• Do some competitive analysis. Are you writing copy for a website? Check out their competitor’s site. This could help you see what’s missing from your client’s site and could help you see what you could position better than your client’s competitor.
• Sift through the thesaurus. Pick five new words to use in the next page you write. Pick words you don’t normally use.
• Edit an old piece of writing of yours or even a piece of writing from a newspaper, a book, or a magazine. Make it more creative.
• Pay attention to your word count. Twitter is an excellent tool for helping writers be more succinct. Because you can only say what you need to say in 140 characters or less, you do as William Strunk Jr. suggests and you avoid needless words.
• When creativity strikes hard, write down as many ideas as you can. Then, you have a list of things to come back to when you’re struggling. Keep paper and pen with you at all times if possible!

If you’re craving some human interaction, get on the phone and call a friend you haven’t talked to in a long time. And when is the last time you’ve seen your aunt Betty anyway? The idea is the same: feed your brain some new impressions.

Getting your creative juices flowing isn’t that hard. Maybe you can make it a habit to take yourself out of your routine at least once a week and transport yourself mentally or physically to a different place, away from your project. Most writers find that the creative well dries up once in a while and learning how to start up your creativity instead of staring at a blank page is simply a part of learning to become a good writer.

(Image credit: iStockphoto – adventtr)

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How do you write an e-book?

The great thing about creating an e-book is that there isn’t a set of standard rules to follow for length, style, format, or for getting published and so even a novice can quickly publish one and start earning from it. You can publish an e-book in any format you desire. It can be a robust and full-color book or can be a simple text-only Microsoft Word document. It can be in any genre and it can be written in first, second, or third person. It can also be pretty much any length you like. There are many e-books available that are a mere 30 pages long (or less) and you can set any price you like.

While there are no hard and fast rules, here are some things to keep in mind when writing an e-book:

Format

Consistency in your format lends itself to readability. Carefully plan your format so you can be consistent throughout. You may even consider printing out your final version to see what it would look like if it were in hard copy. Seeing it in a different format will help you discover errors and emissions. And if you sell your e-book through a website as a PDF file, some of your customers may prefer to print their e-book once they buy it.

Different venues for publishing your e-book (like Amazon’s Kindle) allow you to submit it in various different formats. Be sure to read the rules before deciding on a format for your e-book. Amazon and Barnes and Noble are currently accepting submissions in several or all of the following formats and also offer a converter to turn your files into a file usable on their devices:

Word (.doc, or .docx)
ePub (.epub)
Plain Text (.txt)
MobiPocket (.mobi, or .prc)
Zipped HTML (.zip)
Adobe PDF (.pdf,)
RTF (.rtf)

Image: iStockPhoto – Franck Boston

Readability

Something you’ll want to consider when e-book writing is the fact that because people tend to read them on electronic devices, ease of readability is important. A long single block of text in a tiny font will be hard on the eyes whereas shorter paragraphs, plenty of white space, a larger font and a simple font will make your e-book’s content easier to read (and therefore more enjoyable) for the reader. A clickable table of contents is also something you should consider so the book can be easily referenced for those who buy it.

Quality

Quality is job one in any piece of written work – particularly if you expect people to pay to read it. Not only do you want to carefully proofread the book before you sell it but you’ll want to look at it from the perspective of the potential buyer. Truthfully ask yourself, “What’s in this for your reader?” Not only will answering that question help you ensure you complete a high-quality electronic book but knowing the answers to that question can help you market and promote the book as well.

Pricing

Browse Amazon and Barnes and Noble to see what prices books similar to yours are currently selling for. Don’t be discouraged by 99 cent per book pricing: there are many out there that have sold thousands of copies that way.

If you’re planning on selling your e-book as a PDF file through your website for example, do a few online searches first for books with the same or similar topics to see how your book compares and what your competition is selling their books for.

How to get started

Consider buying a few e-books yourself to help you figure out how others have written about your topic or similar topics and how they’ve formatted their e-book and how many pages they’re including in their books. You may be surprised at what you find.

Related posts:

1. Promoting Your Book – Tips for Doing Your Own PR

It’s these people who worry about competing with a younger, skilled group that need the services of a resume writer. If you’ve been freelance writing for a few years, you’ve gained the experience needed to impress job seekers looking for a resume writer, but you also need to work on building your credibility as a resume writer. With a few classes, some general practice, and a well-marketed website, you can begin earning a decent wage from resume and career writing.

Building Your Experience and Credibility

Every prospective client wants to see that you have freelance writing experience, but they’ll also want reassurance that you know how to write a resume that will help land them a job. Here are some things you can do to build up your credibility and impress potential clients with your experience and education:

• Take an online course in resume writing, preferably from a recognizable and reputable writing company.

• Offer to write complimentary resumes for at least three friends or family members. This gives you references and samples to showcase on your website.

• Create your own resume and cover letter to showcase on your website, possibly showing a before and after version of each one.

• Ask former clients (including the ones you’ve written complimentary resumes for) for testimonials and publish them on a separate page on your website. Make sure they emphasize that your resume writing skills helped them land a new job.

• Expand your business by offering a resume evaluation service, too. This service allows you to view a client’s resume and make recommendations for changes. While you can charge for the evaluation, your main goal should still be to get the client to hire you to write their resume.

• Have a separate business phone line and email address to handle all inquiries so potential clients know they’re dealing with a professional writer.

Setting Up So You Can Accept Clients

Before you start marketing your services, you need to set up your office and website. You will need a business phone line, a word processing program, a laser printer, and a comfortable work space. While many clients will be willing to have you email the resume for them to print out, some will want you to mail a hard copy to them, which is why you need a good printer.

Once you’re set up, all that’s left is finding clients. To do this, you will need to become an expert at selling yourself by convincing clients that you can sell their skills and experience to potential employers. Market yourself on online forums, by writing articles and back linking to your website, and visiting job boards looking for posters who need resume writing services. Charge according to the going rate, basing each charge on the amount of work needed.  Once you start marketing your services, it’s just a matter of time before you start building a client list.

Related posts:

1. Writer’s Resume Tips – Presenting Yourself for Freelance Gigs
2. 5 Traditional Marketing Techniques You Can Implement In Your Writing Business

Remember all your deadlines:

• Create reminders on your calendar. Gmail and other calendar software have built-in task lists and calendars you can use to track your projects and deadlines.
• Create a spreadsheet to track all of your projects. That way you can also track payments received, revision requests, and so on.
• Make a daily to do list. Match your list of to-do items against your master list of projects daily so you can stay on track to deliver projects on time.
• Software is also available to automate your projects and your billing once your volumes are high enough to justify the expense. (Search for ‘client management software‘.

Know Your Capacity:

Many writers enjoy their new-found success so much that they start to bite off more than they can chew. Here are some tips for carefully managing your capacity.

• Come up with a number that represents a comfortable volume for you for the day. Consider measuring your workload for a few days and gauging your stress level as well. Some writers can easily crank out 15+ articles and others feel frazzled when they exceed 5. Analyze your work patterns so you can set some limits.
• Make sure you’re setting adequate expectations with customers so that you’re not constantly overdoing it and juggling.
• Break down tasks. Instead of cramming to do a 15-20 article project in 2 days, break it out over 5 days.
• Set appropriate expectations. Many writers set their internal plans to deliver projects 2-3 days before deadline. This will impress the client and give you a buffer if something unexpected comes up.
• If you have several clients with daily or monthly work, break your day down with an editorial calendar of sorts. Perhaps you’ll take care of client A first thing in the morning, client B first thing after lunch, your own business activities (such as billing, bidding, and so on) at another time in the day. Maybe client C will be done on Mondays and client D will be done by the 10^th of each month, and so on.

It can take time to navigate new clients, new expectations, and new volumes. Many freelance writers experience periods of intense volumes and then other periods of drought and this can create a scenario where you’re afraid to turn down work.

Don’t be afraid to say “No” once in a while or, at the very least, to set appropriate expectations, such as notifying a client who throws “rush” work your way that you can’t deliver for several days. Many writers add premiums to rush orders as well, reducing the instances of rushes from repeat offenders.

If you have any advice or know of any great productivity tools for managing multiple clients, managing deadlines, and so on, feel free to share in comments!

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Here are some tips to help you improve your writing skills:

• Enhance your vocabulary. Subscribe to dictionary.com and they’ll send you a “word of the day”. This is a great way to prevent becoming stale.
• Write something new. Learn to write press releases or e-book. Step outside of your comfort zone.
• Get technical. Write a structured poem, for instance. Put yourself in a frame of mind where you need to follow directions with your work.
• Check your work for instances of repeated word use. Textalyser.net is a great tool as you can analyze a piece of writing and look at your readability level, look for instances of overuse of words and phrases, and so on.
• Edit your old work. Pull out a piece you wrote a year ago and see how it looks to you today. Try polishing it.
• Edit someone else’s work. Pull out a newspaper, magazine, or a book. Rewrite an article so it reads better.
• Take a class. You’ll find creative writing classes or business writing / copywriting classes locally and online. It’s not just about being taught new skills, it can also be about sharing with others and be about getting inspired.
• Read. Read any good books lately? Writers who read tend to feel more inspired to write.
• Follow some writing coaches online. You’ll find plenty of online newsletters, blogs, and article sites that are dedicated to sharing information to help writers with their careers. Subscribe subscribe to this blog for example (sign up box in right sidebar) and you’ll get a regular stream of info sent your way that can help you with skills and inspiration.
• Limit your word count. By limiting how many words you can use you force yourself to be succinct. If you’ve ever used Twitter, you’ll know that you only have 140 characters to say what you need to say. It forces you to come up with ways of saying more with less. This is a great exercise!
• Read writing books. There are some great books out there that are designed to help you help yourself with writing skills. (Search ‘improve your writing skills’.)
• Write. Don’t just write for clients, write for yourself. Write a journal, work on a novel, do writing prompts. Continually writing creatively will help you develop your skills. Consider joining writing contests, taking part in a writing circle where writers share their creative writing, doing writing prompts, and so on.

Writing professionally can be exhausting at times and you might fall into a rut and not realize it.  Just like athletes continually need to train in order to improve their skills, you as a writer should do the same. Not only will you get better at writing on a constant basis but you’ll probably enjoy it more as well.

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How Freelance Writers Build Residual Income

There are a number of websites, like eHow, hubpages or Helium, that exist solely to provide informative content to its users. Freelance writers contribute articles to these sites for free, but often earn residual income from ad clicks and visits. Sites vary with the percentage of income they’ll share with the writer. Some sites offer writers 25%, while others give up to a 50% share. The larger the percentage, the more a writer can make off of one article for years to come. (Search for make money writing.)

In order to build residual income, you must submit a large amount of articles to each website. This allows Internet users to find your articles and click on your links and ads. Over time, you may begin to obtain a following of dedicated readers and find that your income grows more each month. The longer an article exists online, the easier it is for the search engines to index it. The best part of building up residual income this way is that the website does all of the work marketing the site and investing the money needed to draw in traffic.

Blogging for Residual Income

Another way to earn passive income is to start your own blog. Unlike freelance writing for article websites, you will need to make an initial investment in order to get your blog up and running. You will also be responsible for all marketing and choosing the right ads for residual income. The positives are that you have complete creative control over your blog posts and can use your blog and article writing websites to complement each other for even higher earnings.

To build income with a blog you should research the niche you want to write about and see how much competition you have from other writers. This lets you know how aggressive you need to be at marketing your blog. You then need to conduct keyword research and plan at least 10 blog posts to get you started. Once your blog has a few posts, the keywords you use will help align the advertisements that show up on your blog. Visitors will start clicking on the ads and you’ll start accruing money for each post.

Adding Up Your Earnings

As stated before, passive income takes time to build up to an impressive amount. You will need to give your efforts a few months to start seeing results. When you notice that certain articles, posts or topics are earning more than others, you can start tweaking your future writings so that most of your freelance articles earn you enough to make the effort worthwhile.

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Some writers find it very easy to switch styles and take on the voice of different clients. Others find that their writing tends to sound the same across various topics. Ghostwriting isn’t right for everyone. Consider trying a few small projects so you can determine where you fit. Perhaps you’ll limit ghostwriting to specific topics, such as business topics, rather than helping someone write their autobiography.

In some cases it’s easy to figure out what your client wants.  Sometimes your work is the first for your client, so there isn’t a standard in place that you have to meet and your writing voice becomes their voice. Other times you’re taking over for the client who has been doing their own writing or you are replacing another ghostwriter and you have to pick up where someone else left off.  It can take time and effort to hit the right note with your clients so here are some tips to help.

Read

If you are ghostwriting website content or articles for a business, read as much literature as you can regarding that company and their industry. If the client already has a lot of written material, you can analyze their existing content so that you can come up with a style guide to follow.

Reading what they’ve already published will help you take on their voice and the content you produce will sound like it comes from someone who is an expert on that topic. Read their “company history” and job postings on the career section of their website, for instance. These areas can help you determine their core values and help you pick up a few of the company’s common buzzwords and vernacular.

Tip: Before taking on a ghostwriting gig you might want to first look at what the company has published so that you can determine whether or not their writing style is something you’re capable of taking on.

Ask questions

Ask your client what they want. Many writers listen to what a client tells them but doesn’t ask enough questions.  A writer’s questionnaire can help you determine exactly what your client’s expectations are and it can help you uncover a lot about their business and their goals. This info will help you boost your effectiveness in writing for that client’s audience. If there isn’t a lot of written content available for that client already, ask for examples of writing styles that they like.

Ask for an outline

Ask your client for an outline of what they want to say. By getting them to start the piece, you can then take their words and expand on them. Having the client’s outline as a starting point can help you bring out what they want to say.

Be open to feedback

It’s not always easy to get it right the first time. Make sure your client knows that you’re open to feedback and that it could take time for you to be able to take on their writing voice. Be receptive to feedback so that you can hone your ghostwriting skills. This may mean that you’ll have to rewrite some of your work, especially in the beginning, but over time your client will find that your writing voice is the voice of their company.

Even though it seems like a lot of work in the beginning, all the analyzing and rewriting will eventually help you become a better ghostwriter who can easily switch gears when you need to write for different clients.

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Follow Others

This seems like a no-brainer, but some people don’t seem to understand this: when you follow others, you also get noticed by the people who follow the people you follow. Also, don’t let vanity get in the way and try to keep the number of people you follow lower than the number of people you’re following. By simply following people who have related interests – don’t waste your time following just anyone – your tweets’ potential to reach a large amount of people grows.

Tweet

Twitter can be used to gather information, but it’s a great way to get your message out through your tweets. In fact, the top 10% of Twitter users create 90% of all tweets, which makes Twitter more of a broadcasting tool than a two-way communication tool.

A great feature of Twitter is that your tweets will be seen on the public timeline, are indexed in search engines, and of course are seen by those that follow you. On top of that your tweet will end up on the myriad of Twitter analytics and aggregator sites that have sprung up since Twitter was started in 2006.

Plan to tweet on a regular basis, but make sure your tweets are of value. It isn’t necessary to tweet every day, but if you have something interesting to post every day, by all means do! You also don’t want to over-tweet and turn off your potential customers and peers with information overload. If you’d like to space out your tweets, consider using a Twitter posting service like socialoomph.com. It will let you schedule future posts so you can tweet when you have time and then have the tweets published automatically as you specify.

Tweet Some Writing Samples

Have you written a new piece you’re proud of? Tweet about it. Use your Twitter account to link to your blog posts, and to posts you’ve written off site. Not only can people following you see these posts but you it may also help get your posts found by others outside of Twitter.

The easiest way to hook up your blog to your Twitter account and have a link to your latest post (and writing sample) automatically tweeted is with Twitterfeed. Set up a free account, add your blog’s feed and have it posted automatically on Twitter and Facebook as soon as you publish a new post. You can use Twitterfeed for any content that is published through a feed, including article syndication accounts like ezinearticles.com

You can also link your Twitter account to update your other accounts, like LinkedIn.com.

Talk About What You’re Working On

Twitter is a great tool for sharing. Sharing information about what you’re working on could even result in new work inquiries. Talking about the fact that you’re wrapping up a press release or got great feedback on a ghost blogging project you just completed could result in someone who needs a press release reading that update and contacting you through Twitter for a quote.

Complete Your Profile

Twitter tweets will direct traffic to your profile page. You could pique interest that drives someone to your profile so that they can learn more about you. Fill out your profile and link to a place where people could learn more about you and your writing skills, such as a professional business site, online profile, or blog.

Twitter can be a great place to interact with other writers. You could follow mentors and pick up great advice as well as learn their marketing techniques.  You could follow job board Twitter accounts so that you can see alerts for new postings. You could also follow authorities in niche topics you’re focusing on so that you can stay abreast of news and information as well as source information to help you with projects.  Twitter is an excellent social media tool that could definitely benefit your writing career.

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