FreelanceSwitch

7 Ways to Monetize Your Speaking, Beyond Selling Your Services

FreelanceSwitch.com — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:00:16 +0000

There are far more unpaid speaking gigs in the world than there are paid opportunities. Even major events like TED don’t pay their speakers. Yet taking an unpaid speaking gig isn’t necessarily a bad idea. The reason that there are hordes of people clamoring for TED talk slots, as well as less prestigious unpaid speaking opportunities, is that there are other ways to make money once you’ve managed to get on a stage in front of an audience.

The obvious option is to pitch those audiences on your services: just by talking about how awesome you are and how you’ve helped your other clients, you can often convince people to hire you on the spot. But there are other effective options to monetize your speaking, as well.

1. Sell a Recording of Your Talk

Not everyone obsessively takes notes at each event they attend. If they want to go back over what you said, they may wind up trying to piece it together from tweets, other people’s notes and whatever they can scrounge together.

Such people are often willing to buy a recording to avoid the hassle. Another market for recordings are people who couldn’t make it to your live presentation. Particularly if you knocked the socks off of your audience, the folks who missed out will love a second chance.

The cost of offering your past talks as products doesn’t have to be high. A freelance videographer can tape and edit a talk, often fairly quickly. Then it’s just a matter of making the recording available. You do need to make sure that any event you’re speaking at approves of your offering such recordings; some don’t, and some offer their own. Double-check to avoid trouble.

2. Write a Book for Your Audience

Often, when you’re speaking, you’re only able to cover a fraction of the information associated with your topic. The common cure for this situation is to use your speaking opportunities to build up interest in your topic or idea as a whole, which you then offer in a book or another format that your audience can purchase after your talk.

You’ll see many speakers offering books: it’s a reliable way to increase your income as an expert.

You’ll see many speakers offering books: it’s a reliable way to increase your income as an expert. It’s crucial that you speak to the correct audiences to promote your book.

It may also be worth exploring other formats for the information you want to sell, depending on your audience. A series of videos, a workbook or another format may prove more useful for some people. It’s even possible to line up a whole series of information products to offer after you’ve been in the business for a while.

There’s often a question of whether you should go through a traditional publisher or self-publish your book. As long as you’ve already established a following as a speaker, you’re able to do either fairly easily. Generally speaking, self-publishing is harder because marketing such a book is difficult, but with an established speaking platform, that concern disappears. It’s really just a question of how much you’re prepared to invest in creating your information products: traditional publishers handle most of the work, so that you can focus on writing and marketing, but they also take a bigger cut of the proceeds.

3. Create the Tools Your Audience Needs

If you dedicate yourself to speaking in a niche on a regular basis, you’ll have on-going access to people who are in the same industry and demographic on a regular basis. That access is invaluable for creating new tools or software for that industry. Take advantage of the reach you have to figure out what tools are most needed and then build them. Your reach can be valuable in other ways, too: you can find people to test out your new tools at the next talk you give. You can even turn your speaking career into the main way you market such a tool.

Even if you can’t personally create the necessary tool, there are numerous firms out there who are always willing to work with an expert who already has reach into the appropriate industry. To look for such partnerships, focus on companies that are already targeting the same niches you speak to. Your audiences will hopefully trust your opinion on what can help them improve their businesses or lives, so why not reward that trust with a truly useful tool?

4. Train Your Audience

Giving a talk to a large group of people can often serve as an introduction to your work. You may get a few audience members who want an easy way to bring that knowledge back to their businesses or another group. By offering follow up training or workshops for those small groups, you can build on the connection you’ve already established with a few audience members.

Training can require different skills than public speaking, despite the fact that both involve talking in front of a group of people. You’ll likely want to structure your training sessions for smaller groups, as well as focus on doing activities together that your audience can learn from.

It’s worth building a training program that you can test out before agreeing to offer that training to paying customers: there will be bugs in the program the first few times you give it. Just as you may take unpaid speaking gigs to build up your skills before looking for paid speaking opportunities, you can offer to give your training program a few times for free to make sure it’s top of the line.

5. Promote an Affiliate Product

It’s possible to promote affiliate products in several ways as a speaker: you might point your audience to a certain link to make their purchase through or give them a coupon code that gets them some benefit when they buy.

An affiliate product is something that you did not create, nor that you sell directly. But any time someone purchases that product as a result of your recommendation, the company that does offer that product gives you a small commission. It’s possible to promote affiliate products in several ways as a speaker: you might point your audience to a certain link to make their purchase through or give them a coupon code that gets them some benefit when they buy. Either way, the company you’re marketing for will know how many sales you’re responsible for.

However, it is important to make it clear to your audience that you are benefiting if they make a purchase. Trying to hide your association with an affiliate product that you’re promoting is rarely successful and your audience may feel betrayed if you attempt to do so. It doesn’t take much to relieve such concerns, though: by announcing your association and moving on, you can be transparent without making a big deal of the whole thing.

There are a variety of different types of affiliate programs. You may even be able to find a program that allows you to earn a commission from products you’d like to promote even if you weren’t earning money.

6. Use Your Expertise to Land Other Gigs

Once you’ve successfully given a few talks, you’ve got a seal of approval from the organizations you’ve worked with: you’re officially an expert on your chosen topic. In addition to using that expertise as leverage to sell any services or products you currently offer, you can also use it to land new gigs.

The opportunities available to experts vary widely: you can be paid for writing articles about your area of expertise or for testifying in court trials that require an expert witness. It’s all a question of what opportunities appeal to you and how hard you’re willing to chase them. It’s important to market yourself as an expert, as well as a speaker. Make it clear that you’re open to other opportunities, even ones that you can’t yet predict, both in your marketing materials and when you network.

7. Organize Your Own Events

After you’ve been speaking a while, you may have picked up a solid understanding of how an event is organized. That can allow you to set up a small conference, a workshop series or another event that requires speakers. While you may still not get paid for speaking, you can earn money through ticket sales, sponsorships and other financial support for the event.

It can require a lot of work to put on events, but if you work in a niche where attendees expect to have to pay for the pleasure, you can get an excellent return on the work you invest. Make full use of your opportunities to speak ahead of time if you’re considering using your knowledge to set up your own events. Shadow the event organizer as much as she will allow and see how much you can pick up on just from being in the area. You can also sit in on talks given by other speakers and decide who you might like to have at your own events. Consider every speaking invitation an opportunity to scout out the competition.

How Nathan Barry Made $12,000 in eBook Income in 24 Hours

FreelanceSwitch.com — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:00:41 +0000

Nathan Barry is a web designer who quit his job at a software company in October 2011 in order to work for himself.

In 2012, his first year of being self-employed, Nathan managed to make $145,471 USD, which is more than double of what he used to make in his last job. Interesting thing here is that over $85,000 out of that was income from his two e-books, “App Design Handbook” and “Designing Web Applications”. Want to know how it all started and how you can have similar success?

Let’s take a look at the launch of Nathan’s first e-book, “App Design Handbook”, with which he made over $12,000 in the first 24 hours, and uncover what he did right.

Starting Point

It’s easy to look at Nathan now and say “Oh, he has a popular blog and a decent audience, no wonder he’s doing well with his e-books.

An important thing to understand here is that although Nathan is quite well-known now, that definitely wasn’t the case when he started working on his first e-book.

In fact, in June 2012, only 3 months before his “App Design Handbook” launch, his blog was only getting around 100 visitors per day and he only had 100 RSS subscribers.

That’s why this particular launch is a great lesson for those who don’t have a massive online following yet. Before you jump in, consider these points, which will help get your mindset on track:

You don’t need a popular blog in order to make money with your product. Many people think that they need to build a high-traffic website first before they can sell anything. However, this can take years, and is a very inefficient way to go about it if your goal is to make money. What you really need is an email list.

When you consider the option of failing from the very beginning, and make your decisions accordingly, you prevent yourself from being disappointed later on.

You don’t have to spend a lot of time in order to build a product that makes money. That is another mindset that holds people back from making money online: they think that it will take years before they can earn their first dollar this way.

Nathan’s story is a proof that you can go from an idea to thousands of dollars in profit in 3 months provided that you do things the right way.
Pick an amount of time that you can afford to waste on a product that ends up being a complete failure. Nathan mentioned in one of his interviews that the reason why he chose 3 months as a time frame for this project was because this was the amount of time that he was willing to spend on a personal project without guaranteed return on investment.

When you consider the option of failing from the very beginning, and make your decisions accordingly, you prevent yourself from being disappointed later on.

Picking an eBook Idea

Nathan knows a lot about creating iPhone apps: he has three apps of his own in the App Store and has created quite a few apps for other people as well. It wasn’t difficult for him to come up with an idea for an ebook about app design.

However, before investing time and energy into creating a product, Nathan wanted to make sure that there was an actual demand for it. He created a landing page that described the upcoming e-book and asked people who were interested in it to subscribe to his email list. Then, he drove some traffic to it, and got around 100 subscribers in a few weeks.

That success was enough to convince Nathan that it’s time to start writing the e-book. Keep in mind:

Always validate your ideas. Most people are so convinced that their business idea is amazing that they don’t bother to do a reality check. This often leads to wasting a lot of time, energy, and money on building something that nobody wants.

You have to find ways to check whether there’s enough demand for your product before creating it, even when the idea seems like an obvious winner.
You can’t sell free, you can’t sell paid. Squeeze pages are a cheap and effective way to validate your ideas. Put up a squeeze page in which you describe your product, offer a freebie, and ask people to subscribe to your email list. Then, drive some targeted traffic to it via guest posting, and see what happens.

Getting 100-200 subscribers in a few weeks is a good indication that there’s enough interest to justify creating that product. Keep in mind that if you can’t convince people to give you their email addresses, you won’t be able to convince them to give you their hard-earned money.

Writing the “App Design Handbook”

The “App Design Handbook” is 125 pages + bonus material. Nathan made a comittment to write 1000 words everyday. He took it seriously, kept writing every single day, and after just a bit over three months from the day he started, the e-book was finished.

It’s important to set a daily writing quota for yourself. You won’t get far if you only write when you are in the mood to write. One of the simplest ways to complete a big writing project is to commit to writing a set amount of words everyday (even 250 or 500 will do). This way, no matter how much you struggle with writing, you will have publishable material in your hands in due time.

Building a Pre-launch Email List

Nathan made sure to build an email list prior to the launch. He collected 100+ e-mail addresses just by creating a previously mentioned squeeze page and tweeting about it. Nathan also added an opt-in box under each of his blog posts. Then, he focused on writing valuable content, with hopes that people will like it, and sign up to his e-mail list. This way, he got around 800 subscribers prior to the book launch. Put these proven practices to good use:

Build an e-mail list prior to the launch of the product. Your launch will be much easier this way: you will be able to simply shoot an e-mail to hundreds or even thousands of people who already expressed an interest in whatever it is that you are selling. Keep in mind that the hardest part is not building a product, it is selling it.
Guest post on popular blogs in your niche. Nathan mainly promoted his upcoming ebook on his blog. This might work well if you already have a huge audience. However, that wasn’t the case with Nathan, and he could have built a much bigger list if he would have focused on guest posting on popular blogs in his niche and driving that traffic to his squeeze page. Guest posting is the most effective way to build your pre-launch list fast.

Choosing the Right Price

Nathan knew a bit about pricing, therefore he decided to offer the buyers three options: base package for 29$, middle package for 59$, and the highest package for 129$ (current prices are 39$, 79$, and 169$).

He did all he could to push the buyers to the middle option, which in his opinion, provided the best value for it’s price. He put these practices to good use:

There’s no such thing as an inherent value, there’s only the perceived value.

Price based on value. Many people who sell ebooks feel uncomfortable pricing them high because it doesn’t cost anything to distribute ebooks (as opposed to paper books). This mindset is flawed, though: as long as your product provides value to people, and they are willing to pay the price that you are asking, it doesn’t matter how much it cost you to produce it. Charge a fair price for the value that you provide.
Offer several packages with different prices. There’s no such thing as an inherent value, there’s only the perceived value. The price that people are willing to pay will largely depend on what they are comparing the product with: 59$ for an e-book seems outrageous when you compare the price with Kindle store prices, but it seems reasonable when you compare the price with the 129$ version of the same product.

You want to have several different prices points in order to “anchor” people to the price range that you want. Otherwise, you might end up competing with Amazon’s 0.99$ e-books, and that’s not a race you want to be in.

Creating the Sales Page

Nathan made several interesting choices with his sales page:

He asks people to opt-in to his e-mail list to get a sample chapter (although you can get it without opting-in as well).
He nudges people towards the middle package with subtle design elements such as an orange “Buy it” button.
He uses a quote from Mark Kwano, who is UX evangelist at Apple, as social proof (instead of an actual testimonial about his book).

Take a look at the App Design Handbook sales page to see how Nathan put these principles into action:

Good design makes you look more credible. You can see that Nathan’s sales page looks much better than most sales pages out there. This makes people more likely to trust him and buy from him (especially considering that the product itself is about design).
You should explain both features and benefits, but focus more on benefits. Features are qualities of a product (e.g. these shoes are waterproof) and benefits are the advantage that someone will get from using that product (e.g. your feet will stay dry).

In general, people buy because of the benefits, and then rationalize the purchase to themselves and others using features, therefore copywriting experts advise to always focus on benefits in your copy. Nathan’s sales page is focused almost entirely on features and would probably convert better if he would talk more about the benefits.
Add social proof even if you have to get creative about it. In general, having testimonials on your sales page increases the conversion rate, but if you don’t have any testimonials yet, you can always add a quote about the topic by a well-known person. Surprisingly, it will still serve as social proof, even if it’s a general quote.

The Launch of “App Design Handbook”

Nathan had an an email list of around 800 subcribers at the day of the launch (he originally planned to get 1000 subscribers, but didn’t make it on time).

He sent out a free sample chapter to his email list a week before launch which led to a few unsubscribes, but overall made his subscribers more excited about the upcoming book.

Nathan also made sure that there was some buzz about the ebook on the launch day itself. He had 5 guest posts of his go live on the September 4th which drove a lot of traffic to his sales page and helped him get noticed by the web design and web development community.

Nathan ended up making over $1,000 USD within the first 10 minutes and over $12,000 withing the first 24 hours after the launch. Apply these pre-launch strategies to maximize success:

It’s extremely important to build an email list prior to the launch. I know that I’m repeating myself, but I can’t stress it enough. Nathan’s launch was so successful because he already had 800 people who had expressed interest in his ebook and wanted to be notified when it came out. It’s very hard to have a successful launch without an email list.

Too many people obsess about the launch day itself. That’s a mistake: you should obsess about what you do prior to the launch.

It’s good to create some buzz on the launch day, but it shouldn’t be your main focus. Having several guest posts of yours go live on popular blogs in your niche in the same day will make sure get you some attention. However, most of your sales on the launch day will come from your email list, not from the people who heard about you five minutes ago.
It’s what you do prior to the launch that matters. Too many people obsess about the launch day itself. That’s a mistake: you should obsess about what you do prior to the launch. That is what will make it or break it, not how many retweets you will get on the big day. Nathan managed to make over $12,000 in 24 hours because he focused on doing the right things for the entire summer, not because he did someting magical on September 4th.
Expect sales to decline very quick after the first 24 hours. Keep in mind that you will probably make your biggest lump of money on the launch day. Don’t expect to keep making thousands of dollars a day after that: sales will decline drastically in the coming week or two and then stabilize at some point.

What Happened Next?

Nathan has three e-books for sale at the moment:

“App Design Handbook” with which he made over $12,000 USD in 24 hours on the launch day.
“Designing Web Applications” with which he made over $26,000 in 24 hours on the launch day.
“Authority” with which he also made over $26,000 in 24 hours on the launch day

Nathan has made well over $100,000 selling these ebooks in only 9 months from the day that he launched his “App Design Handbook”. Read more about these three ebook launches.

It’s possible, you can make a living online. Nathan is a good example that if you do things right it’s very realistic to make a decent amount of money selling info products. Keep in mind that he went from no experience with ebooks to making over $100 000 in e-book sales in only 9 months. It’s amazing how much one’s life can change in less than a year.

What are You Waiting For?

At the moment, there’s a golden opportunity available for those who want to write and sell their own ebooks: there is a big demand due to Kindle and iPad sales, but the supply hasn’t caught up with the demand yet. With the right topic it’s not difficult to promote your ebook and get noticed.

You are probably an expert at something. Why not find a problem that people are struggling with and write an ebook that offers a solution to that problem?

Sure, there’s a real chance that your first ebook won’t be as successful as you would like it to be, but you will at least learn valuable business lessons, which will help you in your later endeavors. And, you just might hit the points we’ve discussed just right and land some reliable income out of the gate.

How to Write a Facebook Ad That Works

FreelanceSwitch.com — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:00:24 +0000

Facebook, the world’s favorite social networking platform, is the ideal place to connect with potential clients. Having a Facebook page for your freelance business gives you the opportunity to engage with prospects, developing a relationship so that when they need help, you’re the freelancer they turn to first.

However, many new freelancers face the problem of how to grow their Facebook fan base. Just like getting your first client is the biggest and often the most difficult step in a freelancer’s career, getting your first Facebook fans is the biggest and often the most difficult step in growing your Facebook Page.

Having a few hundred fans gets the ball rolling, and helps you grow in two ways. First, you have the social proof of a dedicated fan base. Second, those fans help you spread the word about your business to their friends.

What can you do to get your first few hundred Facebook fans?

There are ways you can grow your Facebook page organically for free. However, if you’ve got a few dollars to spare, going for an ad campaign can give your Page the boost it needs quickly. I’ve known freelancers who’ve picked up 100′s of fans overnight from a simple, low-cost ad campaign.

Done right, ads can help you grow and reach your business goals. Get it wrong, and you could end up pouring your hard earned dollars into a white elephant.

How can you write a Facebook ad that works?

Tutorial Assets

To complete this tutorial you will need:

A Facebook Page for your freelance business.
Images (or access to images. Stock photography is fine).
Image editing software.
A text editor.

1. Prepare for Success

The success of your Facebook ad isn’t only in the copy. It’s also in the work you do before you even start writing.

Step 1: Check Facebook’s Ad Guidelines

Facebook has a strict set of rules on what you can and can’t include in your ad.

Most of the rules are obvious (be a decent human being!), but it’s worth taking five minutes to make sure you don’t shoot yourself in the foot with an ad that flouts Facebook’s rules.

Step 2: Decide Who to Target

When you write an ad for Google, you target people with keywords. That way, you know your ad shows up for people searching for the service or product you provide. In that respect, Google ads are about what people want.

Facebook’s different. People don’t use Facebook to find solutions to problems. They go there to catch up with friends. Facebook is about people, and as such, Facebook ads target particular groups of people. Facebook ads are about who you want to engage with.

If you haven’t done so before, it’s time to think about the type of people you want to work with, and the type of people who need your services. Sit down and ask yourself:

Where do they live?
How old are they?
What do they do in their free time?
What business are they in?
What’s their family status?

Facebook lets you target all of these aspects in ads. You can select everything from activities your target audience is interested in (from food to gardening to literature) to their interests (from beer to politics), to the films, movies and sports they like. You can check out the full range of categories at Facebook’s Create an Ad page.

For some freelancers, the interests of their clients will be obvious. If you’re a landscape gardener, or an interior designer, you can target those with a “Home and Garden” interest. If you provide web design services to restaurants, then aiming your ads at dedicated foodies is a safe bet. However, other freelancers may have to dig a little deeper.

Consider sending out a survey to find out the demographics and interests of your current client base, so you know who to target. As a bonus, a survey where you allow respondents to craft their own answers will help you write your ad copy in a way that directly engages your target audience.

Step 3: Sharpen Your Focus

The tighter the focus of your ad, the better it will perform.

You may discover your clients’ interests and demographics fall into several distinct groups. If this is the case, consider running a separate ad campaign for each group.

Step 4: Set a Budget

Advertising can be expensive, and during a campaign it’s easy to get carried away by the thrill of the chase. As such, it’s a good idea to set a budget for your campaign so you can hold yourself to that when you’re tempted to splash out “just five bucks more”.

Even a small budget can return significant results for a well-written ad.

2. Write Your Ad

As Facebook ads have been around for a few years, marketers have uncovered the types of ads that perform best. Even Facebook have chipped in with what works when writing an ad. Here are the steps to give your ad the best chance of success.

Step 1: Write Some Ads

It sounds obvious, but the best way to write ads is to write ads. With Facebook ads, the more ideas you can put together the better, as if you’re running an extended campaign you’ll want to try several different ads.

If you can, come up with at least 20 ad ideas. Each one can be up to 90 characters long. However, shorter can be better, so don’t feel obliged to fill your character allocation.

Once you’re done, use the following steps to tweak your best ideas.

Step 2: Pick Your Focus

Give your ad a specific focus. People want to know exactly what they’ll get out of liking your ad or engaging with your company.

Give your ad a specific focus. People want to know exactly what they’ll get out of liking your ad or engaging with your company. For example, promoting your ebook will draw more engagement than promoting your business in general.

You can focus on a specific service or product. To make your ad even more powerful, also focus on the benefits of working with you.

“Try our Twitter audit to generate 10% more leads from your tweets” will perform better than “Check out our website to find out how to do better on Twitter.”

Step 3: Be Proud of Who You Are

According to Facebook’s research time, ads that include the name of the company they’re promoting perform better. Tweak your copy to include the name of your business.

Say who the advertiser is. In other words, include the name of your business in your advert.

Step 4: Inject Personality

Do the tone of your ads reflect your brand image and personality? Are they written in a way you’d speak to a friend? Ads that attract clicks give a strong sense of your company just from their tone.

If you feel stuck with this, just have fun! Write as many wild and wacky ad ideas as you can think of. You don’t have to use them, but by letting rip, you’re opening the flow of your creativity.

On top of having personality, your ads should be upbeat. The best performing ads make people smile, share interesting information, or leave viewers with a positive feeling.

Step 5: Ask For What You Want

It’s a simple fact of marketing (and life in general) that if you ask for what you want, you’re more likely to get it.

Conclude your ad with a call to action. Use a phrase such as “Click to like”.

Step 6: Rinse and Repeat

Once you’ve run through these steps with one of your ad ideas, go back and do it again with another.

There’s three reasons for this. First, ideas spark ideas, so the more you work on your ads, the more ideas you’ll come up with.

Second, Facebook ads have a short shelf life. If you’re targeting your ad well, the same people will keep seeing your ad over and over again, so it will get old fast.

Typically, interest in ads drops off after 3-5 days. If you’re planning a campaign longer than this, you’ll need to mix things up to maintain interest, so it’s a good idea to have a series of ads up your sleeve.

Third (I know I’m repeating myself here, but this is vital), ads work best if they’re targeted. By writing more ads, you can target different ads at different groups.

Step 7: Add Images

While this tutorial is primarily about the copy of your ad, the images you choose are also key to success. The most effective images:

Stand out from the crowd. Bright colors and an attention grabbing image are key here.
Use smiling faces – as long as they’re relevant to your ad. Don’t be shy if that means using an image of yourself. Facebook is a social network, and people relate to people.
Colored borders grab attention, especially if the color contrasts with Facebook’s blues and whites.
Make sure your image reinforces the message and your brand’s personality.

3. Run Your Campaign

With your ad copy written and your image prepared, you can launch your campaign on Facebook.

No ad is perfect, so it’s okay to feel nervous at this stage. Besides, as you run your ad, you can use the stats from the campaign as feedback to improve your future ads.

Step 1: Launch Your Campaign

Head over to Facebook’s Create an Ad page. You’ll be asked to input everything you’ve prepared, including your budget, who you want to target, your ad copy and image.

Step 2: Monitor and Tweak

Check in daily to see how your campaign is going. The more you’re willing to tweak, and try out different ideas for your copy and images, the better your results will be.

In simple terms, see what works, and do more of it!

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by deberarr.

Freelance Freedom 315: Reply To All – Part 2

FreelanceSwitch.com — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:34:46 +0000

Once a week, we feature a fantastic freelance-themed comic from the talented N.C. Winters. Why not also take a look at our comic archive?

What It Takes to Drive Home a Paid Speaking Gig

FreelanceSwitch.com — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:00:51 +0000

It’s easy enough to land a speaking gig: every organization in your city wants a speaker to come in every once in a while. But that’s not the same as driving home a paid speaking gig.

To actually receive payment, beyond travel expenses or an event ticket, requires a different approach. You need to be more targeted, at the very least, in order to get paid for your talks.

There Has to Be a Budget

The biggest mistake new speakers make when trying to land a paid speaking gig is to approach organizations or events that just don’t have a budget for paid speakers. If there isn’t money, it’s rare that they can magically come up with some just to bring on a new speaker.

Before you even think of approaching an organization with a proposal, you need to do some digging. Have they paid speakers in the past? Is there a budget available for upcoming events? Like any other business, success lies in knowing who has the money and what they’re prepared to spend it on.

If you’re having a hard time finding out if there’s a budget, take a look at the level of event being put on: a small, organizational meeting is far less likely to have a budget than a large corporation putting on an annual event. There aren’t any strict rules; some events (like conferences) will include a mix of paid and unpaid speakers). But making an educated guess can at least reduce the time you might otherwise waste on pitching event planners who can’t afford you.

Knowing who has the money, however, isn’t enough to guarantee you a gig. It’s just the start.

You Have to Be Worth Paying For

If an event planner visits your website, can she immediately tell that you’re an excellent speaker and that everyone who hears you talk loves you? Can she tell that you have something new and interesting to say? Can she tell you’re available for speaking gigs, at a price, and willing to travel? The answer to all of these questions has to be yes. Furthermore, your website is just the starting point of your marketing efforts.

The people who hire paid speakers for conferences and other events base their decisions on past performance.

Until the right people can clearly tell that you’re available, it’s a lot harder to land a paid speaking gig, or even an unpaid opportunity. If you’re relying on your professional site for another career to get you speaking opportunities, make sure that you at least have a page devoted to speaking. List your availability for paid work, as well — otherwise, an event planner may contact you assuming that they can get you to speak for free.

You also need to make your niche clear. There is likely a specific type of audiences who you best connect with and who you have something crucial to tell. It’s practically impossible to land a speaking gig if you’re trying to be an expert in a wide variety of fields at once, so narrow things down. Be obvious about telling event planners your niche, so there can’t be any mistakes.

The people who hire paid speakers for conferences and other events base their decisions on past performance. That’s why you may see the same speakers over and over again in certain circles. You need to be able to show these people a professional speaker’s reel, with examples of past talks you’ve given. That can require investing time in some unpaid speaking gigs and some money in developing a professional reel.

It can take some time to build a reputation as a great speaker. It’s like every other profession in that regard. If you need to sink some resources into building up your appeal as a speaker, do so before spending any resources on trying to land paid speaking gigs.

It’s All About the Network

Like landing any other type of work, having the right network is crucial to a speaker. You need to invest time in networking with the right people: event planners, conference organizers and the like are usually the decision makers when it comes to lining up speakers. However, if you’re looking to offer a very specialized type of public speaking, like motivational talks at colleges, you might be looking at a different group of people to network with. Either way, you need to identify the people who can offer you speaking opportunities.

You’ll want to build as much of a relationship as possible before you send in a proposal for a particular event.

On a broad level, you need to have a long list of connections in the industry who will actively recommend you, as well as call you up with a paid gig every so often. That means attending their meetings and events, as well as plugging into their communities online. Treat event planners and other decision makers like clients — that’s what they really are. You need to reach out to them to build the right connections to land work.

If you take that logic down to a narrower view, you’ll need to make a point to connect with the right individuals. You’ll want to build as much of a relationship as possible before you send in a proposal for a particular event. Provided you can focus your energies on the right people (the ones with budgets, remember?), there’s no reason not to reach out to them directly. Attend the same events, read their blogs, connect on social media: you can often build a solid relationship without ever sending a cold call or email.

You can even prove to an event planner that you’re an amazing speaker before ever asking her about a specific opportunity. Since you should only be approaching those people who are likely to want speakers in your specific niche, you’re in a position to offer anyone local a taste of your work ahead of time. Since you’ll likely wind up taking some unpaid speaking gigs in order to establish yourself, why not invite an event planner or two to each talk you give? They’ll be able to see you in action and you may have done them a favor if it’s an event they wouldn’t have gone to otherwise.

Play the Speaker’s Game

There are directories of speakers, as well as bureaus that help line up speakers for particular types of events. There’s a fair amount of debate about how effective these platforms are for actually landing paid speaking opportunities. But even if someone hiring speakers doesn’t actually find you through such platforms, they may use such tools to gather more information. Essentially, making use of such tools can help establish you as a professional. Since it’s possible that someone can find you online and won’t have a clear idea of your reliability, your inclusion in the proper directories or organizations can make you more trustworthy.

While you don’t need to be a member of every website out there that promises to help you land speaking gigs, it’s worth picking a few to help cement your status as a top-notch speaker. Do the research to find out what sources are considered reliable in your niche and sign up with those sites.

Make a point of asking anyone who hires you about what convinced them to do so, as well as for any other feedback you can. That information can be invaluable at the end of the year when you’re deciding whether to renew your listing in a particular directory or your membership in an organization.

Never Stop Marketing

Speaking is one of those professions that requires you to regularly fill the marketing tank; otherwise, people can forget about you. Appearing as a speaker isn’t enough to guarantee that you can keep landing more paying gigs. Event planners want to make sure that every event they organize is unique. That doesn’t mean they can’t have the same speakers over and over again, but those speakers need to be saying new things.

It’s common for speakers to pair their work with writing: articles, books and anything else that can get your name out there will do double-duty. It can convince the people you’ve worked with in the past that you have something new to share, as well as get your name in front of people. To be an effective speaker, you have to be an expert, so make use of that fact.

Keep a close eye on the rest of your marketing, as well. Keep updating your website and your speaking reel on a fairly regular basis. Maintain your relationships with your network and build new ones. Keep pushing to make sure that you know who needs a speaker and how much they can pay. The time that you can invest in your speaking career will pay off.

How To Clean Up Data in a CSV File

FreelanceSwitch.com — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:00:06 +0000

Regardless of the size of your business, there are growing expectations that you will be data proficient. While big data gets hyped at an enterprise level, the reality for freelancers and micro businesses owners is that you will need to get your hands dirty playing with data at some stage of your client work.

Whether it be from transferring keywords into a spreadsheet, scheduling tweets, syncing data between business apps, managing contact lists, or importing data into an infographic, you will need to know how to clean data from a spreadsheet and organize it into a format that any online app or software can read.

The good news is that being able to manage data and move it between apps is a marketable skill in itself and with a few tricks up your sleeve, you can also save a lot of time: time that you could be spending on more profitable work.

Tutorial Assets

To complete this tutorial, you will need:

an internet connection
an email account
a Google account (free)
Microsoft Excel (optional)
data that you want to clean up (see below for more examples)

What is a CSV File?

A CSV file is a “Comma Separated Value” file. This sort of file takes all your data and puts the headers of each column in the first row, then lists all your data in subsequent rows, with all non-numerical data enclosed in inverted commas (“like this”), followed by a comma.

A CSV file can be read in many types of apps and software programs. At its most basic it is a text file. It takes all your data and parses it (i.e. breaks it down into its units of data), so that you can then feed the data back into another app.

For example, here’s the data from Google’s Keyword tool for the keyword “CSV file”:

And here’s a sample of how it looks in a CSV format:

Why Clean Up Your Data?

Increasingly, clients are expecting you to be able to manage data when you work with them. For example, a freelancer working on writing SEO content for a client may be expected to show a list of which long-tail keywords are being used in each blog article scheduled for production, and to have these keywords added to a spreadsheet or content calendar. As a freelance content producer, you will be expected to produce compelling visuals to go with your articles. You can add simple infographics to your content by cleaning up a CSV file of your research statistics and then import this into a diagram or infographic tool.

As big data and opendata continue to become more commonplace, you can quickly increase the value of your business service offerings and reduce your workload by knowing how to move data around.

If you run a micro business that provides social media services, you may be expected to show your client a week’s worth of tweets in advance, and then be able to schedule these to be tweeted at regular intervals throughout the week. Or you may be able to develop a business service where you help a client keep their contact data in sync between their email, marketing campaigns and customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Maybe your business has grown big enough that you want to start using an invoicing and accounting app rather than a spreadsheet. You can clean up a CSV file of all your old financial data so it is imported easily into your invoicing app without having a heap of data re-entry to do.

As big data and opendata continue to become more commonplace, you can quickly increase the value of your business service offerings and reduce your workload by knowing how to move data around. Being data proficient is a skill in great demand and can help you carve out a unique value proposition. Cleaning up CSV files is central to making the most of all of these opportunities.

1. Creating a CSV File From a Spreadsheet

Step 1: Open Your Spreadsheet File

A CSV file is simply a spreadsheet file saved in a text format so it can be moved to another software program or cloud-based app or tool. So first, you will need to open it in your spreadsheet software.

If you are using Excel, open the file of data you want to move around (File > Open…). If you do not have Excel, you can signup to Google Drive with your Google account details. Google Drive offers an online cloud-based toolset which includes a spreadsheet tool. After you have signed up, open your spreadsheet in Google Drive.

The same spreadsheet in Excel (left) and Google Drive (right).

Step 2: Check Your File Basics

In Excel, make sure you only have one worksheet in your spreadsheet. Worksheets are shown at the bottom of Excel. They are normally named Sheet1, Sheet2, etc. Make sure there is only one sheet. If there is more than one sheet in the Workbook, click on the tab for each additional sheet and make sure there is no data on these pages. Then right-click on the tabs for Sheet 2 and so on and delete each additional sheet.

Step 3: Save as a CSV File

In Excel, now select File > Save As…. Choose a name for your file and select Comma Separated Values under the Format drop-down menu.

In Google Drive, select File > Download as…. Select Comma Separated Values from the second menu box and save to your hard drive.

2. Creating a CSV File From Data in an Online App or Webtool

When data is stored in an online app (such as FreshBooks, the invoicing and book-keeping app for small businesses) or website tool (such as the Google AdWords Keyword tool), it is necessary to use the app or tool’s import functions to save the data in a CSV file format.

Step 1: In Your Online App, Look for a Data Export Option

If you are wanting to create a CSV file using data in an online app, look for a menu option that lets you export the data from the app.

In FreshBooks, for example, this is located under the My Account menu. After you click on My Account a second level menu appears, where you can select Import & Export.

Now select Comma Separated File (CSV) next to Export Clients, Invoices, Staff and Timesheets.

Other cloud-based apps may arrange their options differently. If there is not an option under “Account”, look for a “Settings” menu, or a “Data” menu option. You should be able to locate a similar menu option that allows you to save the data stored online into a CSV file.

Step 2: In a Web-Based Tool, Look For a “Save as CSV” Menu Option

For a webtool, look for a “save” menu option. For example, in the Google Adwords Keyword tool, there is a Save All button above the list of keyword ideas. Click on Save All to save a copy of all keywords from your search.

Now click the Download button. Select All search results. A dialog box will pop up, offering you the choice to save in CSV format. Click Download to confirm. Depending on the size of the file, it may take a little time for this to be prepared.

Finally, you will be offered a dialog box to indicate where you would like to save the file.

Other online tools work in a similar fashion.

3. Cleaning a CSV File

Now that you have a CSV file, you will need to clean it up and make sure it is readable to wherever you want to send it. In some cases, you may just be wanting to use it in a spreadsheet.

In other cases, you may need to clean up the CSV file so that you can then import it into another cloud-based app or online tool.

Step 1. Excel: Import Your CSV file into a Spreadsheet

In Excel, create a new workbook. Then select the Import option from the File menu.

A dialog box will pop up. Make sure CSV file is selected and click the Import button.

You can now select your CSV file from where you have saved it.

Step 2. Excel: Confirm Your Data is ‘Delimited’

In Excel, you will now be asked to confirm that your data is delimited. That is, your CSV file is filled with data separated only by a comma. Excel should be able to automatically tell that this is correct. Now click the Next button.

Step 3. Excel: Confirm Your Data Columns

In Excel, you will now be shown a preview of how your data will be sorted into columns, based on the fact that your data is separated by commas, and text items may be enclosed in “inverted commas”. Check the data preview, and select or deselect delimiter options and text qualifier options until the preview reflects how you expect the data to look. In most of these cases, this will be chosen for you automatically. For example, Excel will know that all text data has a text qualifier of inverted commas, so it will let you know it plans to remove the inverted commas when it imports the data. When you are happy with how the data will be imported, click the Next button.

Step 4. Excel: Confirm Data Types

In Excel, you will now be asked to select what type of data is in each row. Select General for all columns now (we will customize each column of data after it is imported). Double-check the advanced setting to ensure your data reflects standard conventions for numbers in their thousands and for decimal places.

For example, if you are using a US data source, a comma is generally used to separate thousands,(e.g. “1,000”) and a full stop represents decimal points. It’s the other way around in Europe! So depending on your original data source, you may need to change these settings.

Now click the Finish button to import the CSV data into your Excel spreadsheet.

Step 5. Excel: Choose Where to Import Your Data

Finally in Excel, you will be asked where you want to import the data. If you opened a new workbook at Step 1 above, select the Existing sheet already chosen for you, then click OK.

Step 6. Google Drive: Import Your CSV File into a New Spreadsheet

In Google Drive, you can do the above steps 1 – 5 in the one dialog box. First, create a new spreadsheet from the File menu. Now choose Import from the File menu.

A dialog box will appear. Select your CSV file from your hard drive.

Now select Replace spreadsheet, as we have already opened a new spreadsheet.

Check that the preview shows how you want your data distributed in columns. In most cases, this will automatically be set up correctly. If not, change the “separator character” to “tab” or “comma” to see if the data is now shown correctly in columns.

Click the Import button to proceed.

Step 7. Tidy Up Columns

As we will be cleaning your data spreadsheets, it will be easier to do so if you can see all your data in neat columns. Adjust the width of columns to better show the data. Move your cursor between the column letters at the top of either Excel or Google Drive until the cursor turns into a width movement symbol and stretch the column width so that your data is easier to read.

Step 8. Check Your Header Row

Now check that your first row has the correct column headings. When you import some data from some sources, you may have the dates down the left column (the y-axis) and the values along the rest of the row, starting from the second column (the x-axis). So the very first column on the x-axis will be left blank.

For example:

If that’s the case, enter a description (for now) for the first column, for example “Date” or “Month”.

If you are using your CSV data in a spreadsheet, you can also set the first row as your column headings. This is useful if you are working with large sets of data where you may scroll down and not be able to see the headings row.

In Excel, click on Page Layout under the File menu. Choose Sheet from the menu in the popup dialog box and click on the row in your spreadsheet for the column headings. It should now be indicated in the box rows to repeat at top usually as $1:$1.

In Google Drive, select Freeze row from the View menu and select Freeze 1 row to indicate the header row.

Step 9. Confirm What Data You Need

If you are cleaning up this data because you will be moving it into another online tool or app, check the requirements for importing data into your destination app (see the Use Case examples under Section 3. Moving Data, below).

If you are cleaning your CSV file to share it in a spreadsheet, confirm with your client what data they want you to be able to show.

Step 10. Delete Unnecessary Data

Note: You may want to save a copy of your spreadsheet before you start deleting any data, just in case you change your mind or need it later on.

Now remove any columns you will not need. For example, if you want to import your keyword research into a content calendar, you may only be interested in the keyword and local monthly search volume columns.

You can delete the columns you don’t need by clicking on the column header letter until the whole column is shaded. Now choose Delete from the Edit menu (in Excel) or Delete column from the Edit menu (in Google Drive).

Step 11. Make Sure Date Columns are in the Right Date Format

Again, check where you will be importing the data for any requirements (see section 3 user cases below).

If your CSV file data includes dates, select the column with the dates.

In Excel, select Cells… from the Format menu. Now select Number from the top row menu, and Date from the lefthand side menu. Choose the date menu that corresponds with the import requirements, or select the most readable version for you and your client, if you are just importing the data into your own spreadsheets.

In Google Drive, select the column and the click on the button that reads 123 in the toolbar. Choose a date format from the list, or select more formats to see an additional menu of date format options.

If your CSV file requires times to be included with the dates, make sure they are in the right format (hh:mm or hh:mm:ss).

If your CSV file requires dates and times to be in separate columns, copy the whole column, then format the first column to be in date only format, and the second column to be in time only format. The rest of the data will be automatically removed.

Step 12. Make Sure All Numbers are Uniform

Any columns with numerical data are best formatted by removing the thousand separators so numbers appear as 23000 for example and not 23,000.

In Excel, select the column, and again choose Cells… from the Format menu. Choose Number from the horizontal menu, and Number from the lefthand menu. Make sure Use 1000 separator is unchecked.

Google Drive insists on using thousand separators. This will not affect your CSV imports, but may be confusing if your clients are European. Click on the column to select it, select the Format menu option and click on Number, then select Normal.

Step 13. Add Columns You Do Need

Check the list of data you need that you created at Step 9. Add columns to your spreadsheet for each of these. Some online tools also require that data be ordered in a particular way (for example, scheduling tweets may require a specific order for your CSV file data). If that’s the case, move the columns now to match the preferred import order where you will be sending the data.

Now make sure the column headings are an exact match for what your importing destination is expecting. Do not use inverted commas at this stage for headings or any text data in your columns.

Step 14. Incorporate Cleaned Data into Your Working Spreadsheets

In some cases, such as cleaning your keyword data, you may not be looking to add it to any destination source, other than a content calendar. Save a copy of your spreadsheet as a backup file, and then select the columns you want to move into your content calendar. Copy these columns now and paste them into their destination spreadsheet.

Step 15. Save Cleaned Data as a CSV File Ready to Import into an Online Tool

If the final destination for your cleaned data is to add it to another program, you are now ready to save this spreadsheet as a CSV file so you can import it into an online app or webtool.

Repeat Section 1 Creating a CSV file from a spreadsheet again.

4. Moving Data from a CSV File into an Online App or Web Tool

In many cases, you will need to move your data into another online app or webtool to complete your work.

To make sure your data will be able to be read by the app you are adding it to, check any requirements for what columns and data need to be included.

Look for a menu option like “Account”, “Settings”, or “Data” and review the import data information. Alternatively, check the help section of the app/web tool. Look for what column headings you need to use and the required format for each column of data. For example, if you are adding data to a Google Calendar, you would need columns for Start Date, Start Time, End Date, End Time, Subject and (as an option) Venue.

On the other hand, if you were importing data on your project work into a time tracking app like Toggl, they want a column for Start Time, but instead of End Time, you need to have a column for Task Duration, in which you indicate how much time was spent on the task rather than it’s end time.

Each online app and webtool may be slightly different, so being able to clean data in CSV files means getting acquainted with user documentation and online guides to importing data.

What are Your Data Needs?

What are your current data needs? Have you used CSV formatted files to move important data for your business from one application to another? Let us know about your data projects in the comments below.

Freelance Freedom 314: Reply To All – Part 1

FreelanceSwitch.com — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:00:08 +0000

Once a week, we feature a fantastic freelance-themed comic from the talented N.C. Winters. Why not also take a look at our comic archive?

Top Freelance Jobs from Job Board – Week 1, June

FreelanceSwitch.com — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 15:20:48 +0000

Looking for a new client? The FreelanceSwitch job board is a great resource of freelance gigs and opportunities. These opportunities are in various fields, from development to writing to design, and come from a wide range of potential clients. The job board is hand-moderated by dedicated staff and volunteers from the freelance community.

Each week, we’ll feature a selection of the best job opportunities posted for the week. This week, we’re featuring jobs in Mobile Phone App Development, Web Design, Web Development and more!

To apply for any of these jobs, simply pick up a FreelanceSwitch membership for an affordable $7 a month. See something you like? Join now!

Freelance Phonegap App Builder – WordPress

Budget: $1,000 to $2,500

We are looking for a freelancer with Phonegap and WordPress experience to design a mobile application that will link to properties listed on a WordPress website to display within native iOS and Android applications.

Learn more & apply!

Talented and Creative Web Designer

Budget: $100 to $500

Looking for a Talented and Creative web designer for a long term work and able to create a clean and modern looks.

It is very important to bring some idea, with someone who is familiar with HTML or WordPress is a plus.

We’re a theme club which we’ll code the design to a CMS theme and resell them.

Project Description:

We need 5pages standard website in Business category like company profile, education, insurance company, travel, etc.(with Dummy images included for display purpose).
Since we need to fill up our category, we will need few designers working on different category at the same time.
It’s going to be a long term work for someone who is qualified in working on this project.

Learn more & apply!

Bachelorette Business: Talented designer and developer required

Budget: $10,000+

We are a team of four women who are dedicated to revolutionizing bachelorette party planning. Incubated at Harvard Business School, our company, Project Bachelorette, is working to become the premier online destination for women planning and attending bachelorette parties. We offer integrated planning tools that make party coordination easy and enjoyable, fun and spunky content to inspire and assist, and irresistible travel packages that simplify the party planning process.

Our initial prototype received strong interest from users and investors and we are now looking to take our product to the next level with the help of a dedicated web designer and developer. You can watch a video about the first version of our product here. The ideal candidate will be excited about our mission and have a strong background in both design and development. Compensation may include equity.

Learn more & apply!

iOS developer

Budget: $2,500 to $5,000

We’re looking for an experienced iOS developer that is highly skilled in writing native iOS apps.
Must be available in US timezone and be able to follow instructions. Delivery of work is expected on time without excuses. No chance takers.

Learn more & apply!

eCommerce with custom data (PHP)

Budget: $1,000 to $2,500

I’m looking for a PHP developer to build a custom e-commerce. The data comes in flat text files and needs to be imported on demand to the store using a script. The clients then can login, browse the categories. The item display contains unique set of data. Client can print out the display and add to cart and continue shopping. The cart execution will not charge the client but rather send the information back to request the quote. Client can see what quotes iit has requested and we can see that quotes has been requested. Historical data.

This can be possible be done in CakePHP, Lvarel, CodeIngiter, and maybe even Foxycart. Layout design to the bear minimum bootstrap should be fine and enough for this.

Learn more & apply!

How to Create an Email Newsletter with MailChimp for Free

FreelanceSwitch.com — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 12:00:32 +0000

MailChimp offers a high quality email service, and you don’t pay a cent until you hit more than 2,000 subscribers. MailChimp calls it “Forever Free”.

If you’re planning to sell products online, other email newsletter providers, such as Aweber, offer more options for segmenting your lists and targeting particular subscribers.

MailChimp, however, is charming, quirky, and perfect for freelancers looking to stay in touch with clients and prospects once or twice a month. In fact, it powers our FreelanceSwitch newsletter and is a quality service we highly recommend. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to get started with MailChimp for $0.00.

Tutorial Assets

For this tutorial, you will need:

A website or blog
An email address

The Power of Email Marketing

Email became part of our world in the early 90′s. This was a time when kids played SuperMario on the SNES, when if you wanted to “download” a music track your only option was to record it off the radio (or buy the CD or cassette), and when Bill Clinton had just been sworn in as President.

Email has stood by and watched the rise and fall of numerous web technologies and empires – from MySpace to Napster to AOL.

If you’ve got a website or blog, setting up an email list should be the next step in your marketing strategy.

Email is here to stay. If you want to build long-term relationships with your clients and prospects, email should be your tool of choice.

Still not convinced? The stats should win you over.

Back in 2010, research by Exact Target found 62% of internet users start their online day with email. With the rise of smartphones, email has become an even more intimate part of our lives, carried with us everywhere in our pockets.

According to research published this year, 93% of consumers subscribe to at least one brand’s email, and 49% of consumers have made a purchase as a direct result of an email marketing message.

If you’ve got a website or blog, setting up an email list should be the next step in your marketing strategy.

Creating a list doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. In fact, with MailChimp, you can start your email list for free.

1. Sign Up For MailChimp

Step 1: Visit the Chimp

Head over to MailChimp.com and click Sign Up Free.

Step 2: Create Your Account

Enter your email address, and choose a username and password.

When you click Create My Account, you agree to MailChimp’s terms. The main things to note are that MailChimp reserve the right to view and review your emails. You’re also not allowed to send out spam. (Find out what spam really means here) .

Step 3: Welcome to the Party

Once you’ve signed up you’ll be sent an email filled with typical MailChimp charm.

Click the red button to get things going! You’ll be asked to enter a reCAPTCHA phrase to prove you’re human and not a spammer.

Step 4: Fill Out Your Details

Now, go to the login page and enter your username and password.

You’ll be asked for your name and physical address. You must enter these before you can continue.

You’ll also be asked for your website address and industry. MailChimp visits your website and uses it to automagically create a color palette for your newsletter. Entering your industry allows you to see how your newsletter performs compared to others in your sector. Professional Services or Creative Services are good choices for most web-based freelancers.

When you’re done, click Save And Get Started.

Step 5: Understand The Lingo

Next, MailChimp introduces you to its jargon. In short:

A form is where people sign up to your email list on your website. If you’ve ever signed up to receive an email newsletter by entering your name and email address, you used a form.
A list is the group of people who’ve filled in your form to receive emails from you. You can have more than one list.
Templates are the design of your emails. Once you’ve created a template, you can use it for as many emails as you like.
Every time you send out an email to your list it’s called a campaign.

Click Let’s Go to move on.

2. Get Subscribers

Step 1: Create a List

Before you can create a form to put on your website, you first need to create a list.

In the MailChimp dashboard, click Create a List.

You’ll be asked for several details about your list.

The List Name is what you’ll use in MailChimp when you’re deciding who to send your emails to. If you’re only collecting one list of emails, the name doesn’t matter too much. “Client Newsletter” would be a good choice.
Default From Name is the name that will show up in the inbox of everyone on the list who receives your email.
Default Reply-To Email is where emails will be sent if anyone hits reply when you send out an email.
Remind People How They Got On Your List. This will show up in the footer of every email you send to the list. For example, “You are receiving this email because you signed up at our website.”

After filling out these details, check that your company address is correct.

Under Notifications, you can opt to receive updates whenever your list has a new subscriber.

Finally, you choose whether subscribers can pick between HTML and Plain Text emails. I recommend not selecting this option, as it can confuse potential subscribers who don’t understand what it means and put them off from subscribing.

When you’re done, click Save.

Step 2: Create a Sign Up Form

Go back to the MailChimp Dashboard, and head to the Lists – it’s the third option in the top menu.

Next, click Design Signup Forms – it’s the green button in the right hand column.

As you only have one list, MailChimp will assume the form you’re creating is for that list.

Creating a sign up form has two stages.

In the Build It stage, you choose which components to include in your form, for example email address, first name, phone number, address, zip code. Drag and drop the components you need on the form.

Hint: The fewer components you choose, the more people will sign up for your list. Unless you’ve got a good reason to ask for lots of details, I recommend just asking for an email address and first name.

In the Design It stage, you choose the colors for your form. Make sure the background color is a good fit for your website.

Step 3: Share Your Sign Up Form

Once your form is designed, you’re ready to share it with the world. In MailChimp’s “Create Forms” page, click the Share It tab.

On the right hand side, you’ll see a Subscribe Form URL. You can share this URL on your social media accounts. Anyone who clicks the URL will be taken to your sign up form.

One the left hand side, you’re given the option to Create Form HTML. This lets you create a sign up form on the sidebar of your website. Click the grey button Create HTML Code For a Small Subscribe Form.

On the next page, you can choose your form type (Super Slim, Classic or Naked).

Click the Options button beside the form type to change the title of the form. The default title is “Subscribe to our mailing list”.

When you’re done, click Create Embed Code. You can copy and paste the code that appears into a sidebar widget on your blog.

Now anyone who visits your blog can sign up to your email newsletter. Once you’ve got a few subscribers, you’re ready to send your first email.

3. Send Out Your First Email

Step 1: Create Campaign

On the MailChimp Dashboard head to the Campaigns Page – it’s the second option in the top menu.

Then click the red button Create Campaign. Select “Regular Ol’ Campaign”.

On the next page, you’ll be asked to choose which list to send the campaign to. Select your list, then click Next Step.

Step 2: Name Your Campaign

Give your campaign a name. If you’re sending out a monthly newsletter, you might simply call it “June 2013 Newsletter”. Your subscribers don’t see the name of the campaign.

You’re also asked for an email subject. Your subscribers do see this. Write a subject that will entice them to open the email.

Leave all the other options selected. You want to personalize the To: field, Track Opens and Track Clicks.

Click Next Step.

Step 3: Choose Your Template

You’re now given a range of options for designing your email template. You can create your own if you like using the drag and drop editor.

For this tutorial, we’ll choose a basic template.

Step 4: Write Your Newsletter

MailChimp’s editor is simple to use. To edit a section, simply double click it.

After you’ve written your newsletter, you’re given the option to edit the plain text version. If you’ve given subscribers the option to receive plain text emails, check that everything looks okay, then click next.

Step 5: Send!

You can send your email immediately, or schedule when you’d like to send it. Now sit back and relax. If you want to see how your Campaign is doing, you can go to the Reports Page on the MailChimp dashboard.

Using Speaking to Market the Products and Services You Sell

FreelanceSwitch.com — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:00:16 +0000

While many speakers earn money for each speaking engagement they land, the real money is often in using your speaking engagements to sell the products and services you offer. That’s because you have attendees who already know on some level that you’re an expert — otherwise they wouldn’t be coming to hear you.

You don’t have to be overtly ‘salesy’ either — if you’re offering a product or a service that is a logical extension of your topic as a speaker, a brief mention can be enough to land you a sale.

1. Examine the Audience You’re Trying to Reach

Step 1

Look at the audience who is most likely to buy your products or services. Hopefully, you’ve considered potential customers as you’ve developed your offerings, in order to plan out your marketing. Those same potential customers are who you want to make sure you’re speaking to, so that you can effectively sell to them.

Plan to talk about topics that make the benefits of your product or service clear — even if you never mention your company’s name.

Step 2

Choose speaking gigs where you’ll get to address your ideal audience. Whether you’re pitching proposals to conference organizers or you’re being sought out to speak, make sure that you’re getting in front of the right people. Of course, if you really want to speak to a group of folks who aren’t likely to purchase anything from you, that’s your perogative — but categorize the work that goes into such presentations as something other than marketing.

Ask for extra information about the type of people attending an event if you need to. While not all event organizers can give you lots of details, many will be happy to help you make sure that your talk is spot on for their audience.

Step 3

Plan to talk about topics that make the benefits of your product or service clear — even if you never mention your company’s name. Focus on the problems you can solve for your audience, as well as for your customers.

2. Plan an Offer Just for the Event

Step 1

Look over the products or services that you offer to find one that fits particularly well not only with the audience who you’re speaking to, but also fits with the topic you are talking about.

Step 2

Create an offer specifically for the event. Your offer doesn’t actually have to be all that unique: unless you’re seeing the same audience over and over again, no one is really going to know. It can even be something that you normally offer to customers, but put into the context of the talk you’re going to give.

Step 3

Develop a physical manifestation of your product, if it’s not something that you can just take with you to the event. Even if you have the most amazing ebook or website theme in the world, very few people will remember to look you up after the fact, just based on notes they may have taken as you talk.

If they have a postcard, perhaps with a coupon code, there’s a physical reminder that they plan to take action. Having a piece that audience members can take away is doubly important if you’re asking them to make a big commitment — the sort that they’re going to go away and think about before committing to.

Step 4

Plan how to measure your sales resulting from your speech. Especially if what you’re offering is the sort of thing that a potential customer won’t immediately act on, making sure that you’re correctly attributing your sales to the marketing work you’ve done is necessary. Otherwise, it’s hard to tweak your marketing to sell more in the long run.

Step 5

Line up a way to get your marketing materials, or even a sample of your product, into the hands of attendees. Preferably, you can find an option beyond handing it out yourself, although that’s also a necessary part of marketing your products or services. If you can arrange to have your materials included in a swag bag or available on a table for attendees, you can make sure that more people have access to what you’re offering.

3. Arrange to Sell Your Products at the Event

Step 1

Check what sales are permitted at the event. Not all conferences or other events allow speakers to set up a table for their products or to offer a service to attendees. The logic behind that requirement is that if a speaker is good enough that an audience member wants to make a purchase, she can find the speaker after the event.

Even if the event doesn’t allow direct sales, check what other options you have: if you are creating a special deal just for attendees, many event organizers are willing to be a little more flexible.

Step 2

Even if the event doesn’t allow direct sales, check what other options you have: if you are creating a special deal just for attendees, many event organizers are willing to be a little more flexible. You may need to pay for an exhibit hall table or for a sponsorship to be able to sell your product or services.

Step 3

Prepare your presentation based on the guidelines of the event organizer. If you are not allowed to pitch your product or service during your talk, don’t. Make sure you’re giving your all at such events, though, to ensure that people come up to speak to you afterwards.

Step 4

Prepare statements that you can use in conversation after your talk or at your booth. While you can’t script out a conversation in advance, you can make sure that you have facts and numbers at hand and you’re prepared to talk about them. These conversations are often when you can close a deal that you started on stage.

4. Make Your Offer

Step 1

Share your background during your talk. You need to win over your audience from the very beginning of any talk you give. Doing so is actually part of your sales pitch, albeit a very subtle part. But by talking about the experiences your clients and customers have had, particularly in addressing a problem that members of your audience face, you’re establishing yourself as the person with the solution.

Step 2

Show — don’t tell — what you can do. You can’t get up on stage and tell everyone you know what you’re doing. Rather, you need to be two steps ahead of your audience: you might tell them about a problem that they don’t even know they have, a trend that’s coming soon or another factor that they can’t easily deal with, unless they have your help.

Step 3

Mention any special offer that you’ve brought for your audience — but just mention it. Repeating what a great deal it is or trying to make a hard sell is rarely appealing to an audience, so keep your pitch brief.

Step 4

Make yourself available after your talk to address questions and concerns from the audience. Even if you’ve added your information to a swag bag or you’ve got a table where you’re handing out information, make sure that you can hand something out — preferably more than just a business card — while you’re talking.

5. Make Yourself Easy to Find After the Event

Step 1

Include all of your relevant contact information in your presentation. It’s often best to have an introductory slide, giving your name and company, and then using the last slide to offer up all of your contact details — that’s the slide that will stay up the longest if you take questions.

By asking your audience to contact you about a specific question, a survey or some other detail, you’re making it more likely that they’ll contact you after the event.

Step 2

Create opportunities for follow up. By asking your audience to contact you about a specific question, a survey or some other detail, you’re making it more likely that they’ll contact you after the event. Integrate such a request into your presentation.

Step 3

Mention your talk on social media, both before and after. Make sure that you use any event hashtag or the specific forums where your audience may be, so that you can remind your audience of what they found valuable about your talk.

Step 4

Post your slides online. It’s so easy to share slides after a presentation, as well as make it clear that those slides are part of a particular event, that you should do so every time, unless there is a very specific reason not to.

Speak, Market, and Repeat

If you’re selling a product or service, marketing is a constant process. Speaking can be a practical strategy for including in your overall marketing plan, because it can be possible to make a sale on the spot — not just once, but to multiple members of your audience.

Provided you’re offering interesting presentations, you’ll be able to use the same strategies for marketing your products or services within your speeches, over and over again.