Hello! Here’s an update on the content writing, website writing and copywriting I’ve been providing clients over the past month, to give examples of how I help people with their written needs.
Mostly my clients have been in Whangarei and Northland, although some are a bit further south – Auckland and wider New Zealand.
- I’ve been helping a number of clients with one-off blogs. Sometimes I’ll be unfamiliar with an industry but the rule is ‘If unsure of something, just ask.’ So I have had two clients who have required content written about accounting and chartered accountants in Northland and Auckland.
- A client in the agriculture industry needed blogs written for an audience in the ‘field’ of tractors / harvesters / farming equipment. That certainly required some careful research so the client could be, er, “out standing in their field.”
- I’m semi-regularly asked to write blogs for a client who wants to be distinctive in the market of shipping maintenance and heavy engineering, so that’s come up in the past month. That job requires handling galleries of images and getting some of the lingo right. Precise language is an issue for a lot of clients; terms which might sound interchangeable for outsiders may have a significant legal distinction, and getting it wrong can lead to accusations of false advertising. For example, I’m required to be careful when writing about accountants versus chartered accountants, and marine survey preparation versus marine surveying.
- I always have clients who ask me to write in their voice. That’s not as simple as signing the piece off with a byline by the client. Taking on a client’s voice is about writing verbatim what they are dictating, providing a veneer of professionalism to that voice, and then getting the client’s sign-off.
- Recently I wrote pieces celebrating the lives of people who have passed away or been close to passing away. That required delicately working with individuals experiencing grief.
- I spent some time mocking up advertisements letting the creative writing community know that I can help with getting the author profiled online on a range of mediums: Smashwords, Kindle, Eventfinda, Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, Bookfunnel, you name it. These ads should go out soon 1) in the fortnightly NZ Society of Authors newsletter and 2) in the Northland Authors newsletter.
- Free columns for NZME / NZ Herald / Northern Advocate. Why do I tolerate not being paid? For self-promotion purposes… and because I like to make readers and editors smile, and it is a privilege to be invited to write for the publication.
- I’ve been handling ‘overflow’ for other content writers. Overflow is the term freelancers like me use to describe when we have too much work on and need to hand it to somebody reliable.
- I’ve had a few expenses, too! To sell copies of my young adult novel Moneyland I had to invest in getting some promotional bookmarks printed, get a better logo for this very website and also create some posters for the creative writing workshops I’ve been offering around Northland.
- Marketing and self-promotion – I gave a well-attended seminar at The Orchard work hub on the topic of how blogging about your business can be achieved, best practice and realistic advice.
- Media my clients have been asking me to publish on for them include: Facebook; LinkedIn articles; WordPress; Microsoft Word.
- Lastly, some great creative writing news: I completed Draft 2 of my first (to be) published literary fiction novel, Crimechurch. I’ve written three other literary fiction novels but this is the first which is guaranteed to be published this year (because I will be self-publishing it if VUP, RandomPenguin etc don’t pick it up).