The EDGE
Success Strategies
for People Who Work With Words
11 March 2009
In This Issue
Director's Spotlight
Featured Success Strategy: "How to Strategically Use Writing Contests to Build Your Business"
Announcements: Link to Words Matter 2009 Yearbook
Subscription Management (If you need to change your e-mail preferences, here are instructions.)
Director's Spotlight
To your growing success,
Janice Campbell
Director, NAIWE
Featured Success Strategy
How to Strategically Use Writing Contests to Build Your BusinessJanice Campbell
Everybody loves a winner.
No matter what type of writing or editing you do, you may be able to advance your career by strategically entering writing contests. It's important to have a plan, and to enter only contests that will move you toward your goals.
How can a writing contest move an editor or copywriter forward in his or her career? Let's count the ways. As an example, we'll look at the currently running Knol for Dummies.com contest . Everyone who receives this article should be able to profit from entering, even if you don't win. The contest offers the opportunity to establish yourself (or reinforce your reputation) as a competent practitioner in your field and to create high-quality incoming links to your business website.
In this contest, sponsored by Google and the Dummies.com website, you are invited to create a knol-- a page that imparts knowledge through text, audio, or video. According to the instructions, you are to write a "how-to knol about whatever subject you know best." The site provides a template, and while you can fill in the blanks, you may also just paste in an article formatted as you prefer. There will be five finalists, plus a grand prize winner of $1000.
Here are just a few ways this contest could help you advance your business:Writers and Editors
These articles allow you to offer potential readers or clients a taste of your expertise in your niche. You could write articles such as:
- How to Avoid an Apostrophe Catastrophe
- How to Create Compelling Dialogue
- How to Set Rates for Freelance Copywriting
- How to Organize Client Records in a Freelance Editing Business
Because Knol is a Google enterprise, knols are likely to show up high in search engine results.
You may include links to your business website, so the knols create a quality inbound links to your business site, elevating it in search engine results.
Knols provide another platform for repurposing your articles and bringing potential readers or clients to your site.
Bonus Benefits for Writers
- If you have a winning entry, it will make a good item for your clip file.
- The collaboration with Dummies.com could provide you with a useful publishing contact if your information fits the company's needs.
How to Gain Maximum Benefit from this Contest
Provide good content, but don't give away the store. Leave the reader wanting a little more information, and provide links to your site so they can learn more. The knol will serve as a feeder site, funneling traffic to your own site where most of your content will be located. Remember, the more inbound links to your site, the more easily potential readers or clients will be able to find you and your books or services.
(c) 2009 Janice Campbell is the Director of the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors .
Announcements
The Words Matter 2009 Yearbook and its cover (separate files for easy handling) are ready for download! Copyright 2009 by Everyday Education, LLC.
