Have you ever wondered why people talk so much about branding yourself and your business?
I used to wonder this a lot.
Maybe you’ve heard it in terms of choosing your niche (or “niching down”) or becoming an expert in a certain area or industry.
Or maybe you’ve been told to choose one thing and go all-in on it rather than being a generalist writer.
If you’re like most people, you resist the idea of branding yourself because you don’t want to miss out on paying work.
And I get it! However, today I’m going to tell you my story and why I took the advice to brand myself.
For my freelance business, focusing both brought in more paying work and the kind of writing I love to do. Amazing. Want to know more? Read on.
I got into freelance writing in a roundabout way.
Sort of.
When I was finishing my journalism degree I pitched stories all over the place, trying to get enough legitimate and varying clippings to be considered employable post graduation.
But once my portfolio was in good shape I stopped pitching articles and settled into blogging on my personal site instead.
After blogging for a while I began receiving emails requesting collaborations or offering sponsored post opportunities. How flattering! Also surprising.
I didn’t have any reason not to work with these people, companies, and brands so I did a variety of guest posts, sponsored posts, media events and promotional activities.
Lots of them over the years. And I enjoyed doing them, they gave me interesting experiences, allowed me to try new products, and I was able to meet a lot of interesting people.
For the most part, I was happy with my site. I wasn’t trying to make money so anything that came in was a plus.
Do you want the worksheet that goes with this training?
I’ve created a worksheet to complement this training, available for download. This is a free resource but it’s part of my resource library and you’ll need a password. You can get access by popping your email address into the form below.
Then once you’re in the library, navigate to the blogging section and look for the worksheet called “Brand Elements.”
And then everything changed
I would look at my blog from time to time and wonder what it was all about. Since it was always a general “lifestyle” blog (a word here, which is an umbrella term for personal website consisting of whatever I felt like writing about) I didn’t have much direction so I meandered about over the years.
A little writing about my journalism career, a little writing about my random jobs, a little writing about my travel adventures…whatever! And some promotional brand candy sprinkled in as it came up.
But then one day all the traffic stopped. Comments stopped. The money stopped. In stunned silence I looked around trying to figure out what had happened.
I realized my site had been punished for a search engine infraction. In fallout from one of the Google search updates, my site was no longer considered a positive contributor to the Internet.
From one day to the next I fell off the face of the blogosphere faster than…well, fast.
Now, this was a few years ago.
And once I figured out what was going on and why I had a difficult decision to make. Do I start from scratch and rebuild everything or do I give up on my blog and try something else?
I knew it was time to start working on my freelance writing career and getting more clients but I wasn’t sure what to do.
Up until now clients had come to me and I was happy to write for whoever would pay me.
But now I had to put myself out there and try.
What kind of writer was I? What kind of clients did I want? And what kind of work did I need?
To be frank, it took me a while to decide what to do. I felt lost and ashamed.
Starting over seemed so difficult and I was afraid to go through all the work of building a website only to see nothing from it. But could I give it up? I loved blogging. Or did I? Was it just something I did because it was easy?
I had some soul searching to do.
And soul searching I did. For a couple years. I studied blogging, I took branding and social media courses, I learned about marketing and business, and I wrote down my writing and career goals.
And from all of this came a new direction. A clearer direction.
Towards a destination.
Even when I started down the path I had plotted out, I still wasn’t certain I had decided right, if that makes sense. I had a sense of direction and purpose but the view was still foggy. Also I was embarrassed. It was awkward to admit I was struggling.
When you’re feeling vulnerable it’s easy to compare yourself with others and allow that to hold you back and not get the help you need. But somehow I managed to push through it and kept asking questions and moving forward, step by step.
When you’re desperate for work and a potential client approaches you waving wads of cash it is so easy to grab the money and take the gig so you can meet your immediate needs. And sometimes that’s just the way it is.
But if you want your freelance business to grow and mature then you need to work on branding yourself and that means figuring out what you want to write and for who.
Before you can figure out your brand you have to know a few things
- Your ideal client
- What problem you’re solving for your ideal client
- Your focus/niche (what type of writing do you do? And what do you write about?)
When you know what you write and who you want to write for, it makes it a lot easier to attract those types of clients.
It also makes it easy for you to turn away work that doesn’t fit your brand. I know that sounds counter-intuitive but here’s the rationale: if you become an expert at one type of writing (aka really really good at it) then you become FAST at it.
And you don’t have to do as much prep work, pre-work, or research before you can dive into a job. When you’re writing about anything and everything you have to learn all about it before you can get to work. And while that’s fun sometimes, it’s not super efficient.
An online friend was telling me about how she does one kind of writing work: email sequences and sales pages for entrepreneurs. Now, that is quite specific.
However, she’s specialized in this type of writing and she knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s quick, she’s confident, and she has many, many happy clients.
By zooming in on this particular type of writing she’s able to maximize her writing time doing what she loves and what she’s good at. And she’s able to say no to the writing jobs that she’s not specialized at without feeling like she’s leaving money on the table.
I admire my friend because this is where I want to go. She’s a little further down the road from me and this helps me see the value in branding yourself, in choosing a niche, and in sticking with what you’re good at.
So, today I’m pitching you this idea of choosing a niche and branding yourself. And trust me, I know how much you might be resisting this idea. Because I did too
But here I am a couple years into my new and improved writing journey and I’m telling you, it’s amazing what a bit of clarity and direction can do for your writing business. And I’m only getting started.
Other posts related to branding yourself
- Brand Your Blog: A Step-by-Step Guide
- How to Choose Fonts for Your Website
- Four Decisions Every Writer Needs to Make
One more thing. I think you’ll enjoy my free resource library. This is where I keep my files, downloads, ebooks, worksheets and whatever else I manage to create. I love sharing what I learn and want to keep adding to this library so it becomes a wealth of helpful goodness.
This is a free resource but I do require a password to access the library itself. You can get access by popping your email address into the form below.
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