Content Writing & Copywriting Blog

My Favorite Authors

Nov 28, 2004 No Comments »

Below is the list of authors I cannot resist if their books are nearby. Actually, as I mentioned in my previous post at WritingCave, I got three books as my birthday present. For at least two months I hadn’t picked a single book to read due to “work pressure”. I write “work pressure” in quotes because this is a very lame excuse for not reading. One of the books is Garcia’s autobiography: Living To Tell The Tale. It seemed horrendous not to read Garcia’s book while having it. I decided to keep an hour every morning just for reading, before starting my work. Actually it makes sense. The work for time can be stretched infinitely, but once I start working, it becomes virtually impossible to extricate myself and read for a while.
Top:
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Charles Dickens
Dostoyevsky
Kafka
Milan Kundera
A Bit Below Top:
Salman Rushdie
Thomas Hardy
Bernard Shaw
Vladimir Nobokov

Working As A Freelancer

Nov 24, 2004 No Comments »

Is it easy to work as a freelancer or difficult? I contemplate this as a writer, or rather, a content writer. Why do I not work in a company? As a matter of fact, I had a somewhat “nice” job some time back but couldn’t stay there for more than three months.
Freelancing has its challenges, has its drawbacks, its pitfalls, but it also has rewards that you cannot get anywhere. Getting a job, going to an office and working under a bloated project manager gives me the creeps. Life becomes an inexorable litany of schedules and routines. There are lots of “gives” and very few “takes”. You are always working for the organization like a zombie. You always need to be an asset, constantly pushing yourself to the limits so that you company can earn profits whereas your own efforts do not commensurate with the compensation.
On the other hand, as a freelancer you control your life. Yes, you are not assigned a project — you have to find it, you have to convince the client to give it to you. No big name is there to render you credibility. All you have at hand are your experience, your portfolio and above all, your communication skills. You have to be self-disciplined. It’s very difficult to wade through the household distractions and focus on your work. You need to convince your family that the bread and butter depends on this. Friends and relatives think you don’t work. They can visit you, they can call you any time they like. They cannot imagine in their wildest dreams that you might too have a busy schedule.
Despite all these roadblocks, more and more people are opting for working on their own. They want to control their lives. They don’t just want to spend their lives, they want to live their lives and this is a motivating force for me. Since you have just one life why waste it for someone else? There is so much more you can do if you do not have to dance on someone’s cacophonic tunes. I know many people who have left their so-called “cushioned jobs” and have tried to get connected with their real self. Money and high-profile job is not everything in life. Life lives in its own nuances and you have to live near the ground, near the soil to be able to revere it.
I cannot ever imagine myself sitting in a cubicle, far away from home, slogging over a presentation, some writing assignment, occasionally greeted by the cloying smiles of my colleagues. I prefer my cluttered room where all the doors are open and all sorts of smells (ok, odours too) waft in the air. I can hear the sounds of birds, dogs and the occasional mooing of a stray cow. My wife doesn’t have to call me whenever she wants to share something with me. If I don’t want to work on a particular day, I can always do more work on the previous day or the next day. If we want to spend an hour or two extra in bed on some lazy morning, there is no clock scrutinizing our every morning move.
Another factor I value a lot is my rapport with my clients. There are very few clients who are not in touch with me after having had happily paid me for a job well done. They know I’m not working for a company — I can either work for my own interest, or for their interest. They know that if I don’t work, I’m the one who loses along with them, not my organization. So it’s easier for them to believe that I’ll give my best.
For instance, recently I’ve been working on a client’s sales copy for his website. It’s not working…1000s of clicks, but no sales. When he read one of my articles on a website, he had a feeling I could help him sell from his website. I have tried. I haven’t succeeded. He has only paid for the effort. I told him to pay me the rest when I have really performed. We are both trying hard because we both want his website to sell for our own personal reasons. Because of this he believes I’m leaving no stones unturned and I believe after this assignment I’ll be more competent for my next assignment. My increasing experience helps me gradually increase my rates. So I not only control my work environment, I also control how much I can earn every month.
The road to freelancing is replete with obstacles, but the rewards that await you are exceptional too. You have to work hard, no doubt. Lots of networking, lots of learning, de-learning and relearning, immense ability to persevere, long hours of isolation sometimes, lack of resources, infrastructure and tools, overwhelming distractions and mood-swings, they are all a part-and-parcel of a freelancers life. Once you get over these blocks, you won’t give it up for any other job in the world.

These e-books that make you millions

Nov 21, 2004 No Comments »

I often come across these websites that sell e-books that reveal “absolutely amazing” secrets that make you $1000 dollars here $2000 there and in a week you can rake in 1000s of dollars while working in your paijamas. If they are to be believed, once you follow all the steps listed in the e-book, you can even, maybe retire in a year or so.
I really don’t know if things about these “spilling the beans” e-books are true or not. But one thing intrigues me. If these authors are raking in 1000s of dollars using methods in the e-books, why are they selling these $17, $25, $46 e-books? They setup websites, write long copies, invest in promotions, talk like “experts”, publish grueling testimonials, and build entire businesses selling the e-books. Why don’t they just implement these methods, make millions, buy carribian islands and retire?

Surge in Online Web Content

Nov 20, 2004 No Comments »

Content quantifiably registered as the leading U.S. online activity in October, according to the latest monthly report by the Online Publisher’s Association.
“The study is based on the hypothesis that the use of the Internet is increasingly changing from one of utility to one of a medium, said Michael Zimbalist, president of the New York-based organization. “People are treating the Internet more and more like traditional media, through which they consume movies, music, and news. Long-term trends continue to indicate that content will be the dominant source of people’s time online.”
Read the whole article at ClickZ

How I Promote My Business

Nov 20, 2004 No Comments »

A big challenge when you work on your own is, you constantly have to promote yourself until you have become so famous that you have to hide somewhere to escape from your chasing customers :-). I wonder if this is ideal or not — you have so much work that you don’t have time to do it. I have enough work at hand. I always have work to do. I don’t promote myself the way I should so there is rarely “too much” work. But right now I’m happy the way things are going…I want to grow gradually…but not grow so much that I don’t have time to do things that I value in my life:
[o] Spending time with my wife, Alka
[o] Reading literature
[o] Creative writing
[o] Learning vocal classical music
Still, there are few things I do on the Internet that constantly make sure I have enough work at hand. They are:
Read the whole article