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I’m a freelance writer. I’m a business owner. I set my rates, I decide what services to offer, and I decide which clients to work with and what projects to take on. I’m not an employee. Neither are you if you freelance — in writing, design, consulting, or any other area. Yet I see freelancer after freelancer still using resumes to try to land gigs. What’s worse is that I see clients occasionally demand them in job ads, making it clear they don’t quite grasp the difference between working with employees and contractors.

My advice for freelancers is to bury that resume. Stop sending it out and start acting like the business owner you are. You can land better gigs and get more respect as an independent professional when you stop starting business relationships giving people the impression that they can treat you like a traditional employee. Why are resumes a potential problem? Let’s talk about it.

Why Resumes Aren’t the Best Option for Freelance Professionals

As a freelancer, you are not an employee. You should not be treated like one. You’re a business owner. You have freedom and flexibility employees don’t have. And in exchange for that you take on added responsibilities like paying more taxes and business expenses which saves clients money. Clients also can’t treat you the same way they treat employees. For example (in the U.S. specifically) clients of freelancers generally can’t determine basic things like when or how you’ll work or what tools you’ll use. You’re the business owner. Those things are up to you.

When you start that relationship with something like a resume, you put yourself in line with employees. That’s not the image you should start out with. All a client needs to know to make a hiring decision is that you’re qualified to do the job and what you plan to charge for it. They can get that information in other places without insisting on kicking off the relationship in employer-employee style.

Benefits of Focusing on Portfolios Instead of Resumes

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Your professional website and portfolio are pretty typical ways to handle things as a freelancer. Your portfolio can be either online or offline. Here are some of the main benefits of focusing on portfolios instead of resumes:

• You focus on what matters — samples of past work or case studies for those offering consulting services — rather than often-irrelevant things like where you worked as an employee ten years ago or what your GPA was in school. Resumes are more for people and jobs where real results aren’t easily shared and where it’s more about long-term commitment to an employer than specific projects and results. As a freelancer, you’re generally being hired for the latter and samples in a portfolio establish more credibility than a resume ever could.
• You present yourself as a business owner up front rather than an employee-like worker, which can make negotiations on rates and other contract terms easier. When you hire an accountant or plumber they don’t give you a resume. As a freelance professional, you’re just as much a business owner. Businesses don’t send resumes. Their websites, case studies, past work examples, and testimonials do the talking for them.
• You put the emphasis on your best work and don’t have to worry about gaps in your employment history or other negatives often highlighted by resumes which are often irrelevant in freelancing. When timing is relevant (such as showing you’re up to date on the latest technical trends if you’re a freelance programmer or designer), you still have the option to highlight that.
• No emphasis is put on how long you stayed with each previous client or employer in a portfolio. In freelancing it’s very common to take on one-off projects and very short contracts. Resumes traditionally focus on longer-term employment. Hiring parties who are used to those traditional resumes and the implications of leaving a company after a brief period could paint you in a negative light, even if only subconsciously. That’s just one more risk you have to take.

If you’re prepared to treat your freelance career as a business in other ways — paying extra taxes, marketing your services, dealing with negotiations and collections, etc. — there’s no good reason not to do the same when trying to land gigs. Resumes are for employees. Build a solid portfolio instead and start your next professional relationship off on a higher level as the business owner you are and not as if you’re some temporary employee stand-in. And remember that if a resume is requested, it’s okay to say “no” (tactfully) and offer a portfolio. I’ve been taking on independent gigs for over a decade now, and rarely have I refused to provide a resume and had a prospect balk (and if they do, these days I walk rather than letting clients start things off by treating me as an employee, and sometimes they still come back) . Most have been perfectly happy with a portfolio instead. But when you’re dealing with new business owners or people used to traditional HR practices, often they just don’t know to ask for it.

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Maybe you’ve just launched a new online business. Perhaps you’ve released a new, heavily-updated version of your commercial software package. Or maybe you’re ready to release the results of an industry survey conducted by your company. When your business is faced with potentially-newsworthy information to share, you might decide to use a press release (or news release) and online press release distribution sites to get the word out.

Online press release distribution is a great tool for small businesses without big budgets for major newswire distribution. While the primary purpose of a news release is still to get exposure (which happens most effectively when members of the media, authority bloggers, and others in your industry put out a story on you), they can do more thanks to the Web.

Press releases can also help you build links from authority and relevant sites (through their coverage), direct traffic from some members of your target market, and ultimately better search engine rankings as a result. To get these benefits though, you have to use online press release distribution in the “right” ways.

Where Some People Go Wrong

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Because online press release distribution can lead to SEO benefits, those distribution sites are often abused by spammers. Press release spam can mean a few different things, but when it comes to newswire services and distribution sites it basically refers to non-newsworthy press releases distributed solely for links.

This is a problem. If you have a generic article with no timely aspect or news value, it shouldn’t be put out over press release distribution sites. It would be better suited for article marketing. If it reads more like an advertorial, you’ll be better off seeking paid placement on the end sites you want to reach.

Remember that press releases are first and foremost public relations tools–not marketing. They’re not about pushing hard sales or advertising. They’re not about getting a lot of quick (but irrelevant) links from free press release distribution sites. They’re about sharing news and creating an authority image for the company releasing them. The quality links, traffic, and rankings are simply an added reward of a job well done.

5 Ways to Get it Right

We’ve talked about how people go wrong with online press release distribution. Now let’s talk about how you can get it right with a few dos and don’ts of distributing your news releases on the Web:

1. DO have your press release written by a pro (or learn how to do it yourself).

Not all press releases will look alike, but they all should cover the same basic elements. That includes press releases distributed online. Most will follow Associated Press (AP) style guidelines for example. You should also never intentionally misspell anything (even if you’re targeting typos for SEO–SEO is a side benefit, not a primary purpose of a press release).

You must include contact information. Remember the goal is to have people do a story on you or your company–they need to be able to contact you if they have questions. Your headline should be catchy, but more importantly it should convey the essence of the news story (don’t shoot for “cute”). Your release should be written in the third person (lose the sales speak approach of talking to “you”).

Most importantly, make sure your release is timely and talking about something newsworthy. Cover the who, what, when, where, and why of your angle as early in the release as possible.

2. DON’T overlook paid press release distribution sites.


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You might think the real perk of online press release distribution is that you can put your news (and links) out there for free. For the most part though, free press release sites simply won’t get the job done alone.

Ideally, you’ll want to manually distribute your press release to your own media contact list (journalists and bloggers in your niche or industry). If you can do that, then by all means a free distribution site can be a nice supplement to hit smaller sites, blogs, and news engines. But if you can’t devote the time or budget to getting that done, your best bet is to stick with paid press release distribution sites (such as PRWeb.com or WebWire.com).

3. DON’T submit to dozens of free press release distribution sites.

If you really insist on using free press release distribution sites, don’t be one of those people who feels a need to submit their release to dozens of sites at once. It’s completely unnecessary, and you won’t see a much bigger return for the effort (or the money spent if you’re hiring someone to handle submissions for you). Choose the best 3 – 5 free sites, and spend the additional time you would have spent submitting to more contacting specific outlets instead.

4. DO take advantage of social media tools.

If your press release distribution site allows you to tag your release with related keywords, do it. Opt for services that include social bookmarking buttons on your release page. Some will allow comments directly on the release page and others won’t–choose what makes sense for your company (one school of thought is that your release should be interactive while another is that companies should allow comments on the news on their own sites rather than through a third party service). Making these tools and features available can influence how well (or how poorly) your news actually spreads.

5. DO publish your press release on your own website!


A lot of online business owners neglect this simple step. When you release news, add your press release to your business website. Some people worry about duplicate content. That’s what happens when you forget the real purpose of the document while thinking only of SEO. If you’re really worried about it, make sure it’s indexed on your own site before putting it on distribution sites or rewrite the release or change the format before putting it on your site (it’s not necessary though). Or you could always just block search engines from crawling the release pages.

By putting your press releases on your site, you’re able to create a timeline through archives. If a member of the media visits your site for more information, they’ll be able to browse your archives to see how your company, site, or product line has progressed over time (which can play a role in whether or not they’ll consider your story ultimately worth covering).

On top of the above tips for better online press release distribution, remember this: a single press release is not going to make you rich and famous. It won’t help you sell massive numbers of your new product. It won’t have your phone ringing off the hook with media enquiries. That is, for most people it won’t (there are always exceptions of course). Press releases are just a single tool in larger PR or publicity campaigns, and the more often the use them, the more visibility you’ll get out of them. Don’t just get your name in front of influential people in your niche. You have to keep it there. Regular press release distribution (because you’re repeatedly doing something newsworthy) is a great way to do just that.

Internet marketing is a beautiful thing, isn’t it? There are countless marketing tools available on the Web, and many carry little to no barriers to entry (in other words, they’re free or very inexpensive, so anyone can use them). That ease of use can cause some problems though. What do you do when you have an overwhelming number of options available, and only a limited budget or limited time to implement your Internet marketing campaign?

Turn to Market Research

Traditional business owners know that market research plays a vital role in the success of any marketing campaign. That doesn’t change on the Web. Still, it’s all too common to see online entrepreneurs, webmasters, or traditional businesses making the leap to the Web taking a very untargeted approach (we recently talked about the consequences of untargeted social media marketing specifically).

When you jump into using a tool because someone says you should try it, without doing any planning or market research first, you run the risk of wasting both time and money in a failed attempt to reach your target market. Market research lets you compare different marketing tools and tactics to figure out which will best reach and influence your intended audience before you commit to them.

What You Want to Know About Your Market

There are several general areas of marketing research you should be familiar with. The first part of your market is your customer base (or subscribers or readership as the case may be). Consumer market research helps you decide who to target and how to influence them.

Don’t stop there though. You also need to think about your competition (by researching what they’re doing and what’s worked well for them, you can make better market planning decisions).

Here are some of the things you’ll want to find out about your market before engaging in any particular marketing tactics:

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• Who is your marketing really reaching? – You probably have a vague idea of who your target audience is the moment you create a website, product, or service. But do you know them well enough to know exactly who your marketing message is going to reach? Think about the demographics and psychographics of the people who are your potential buyers or visitors

  Are they mostly male or female? What age group? What income level? Where do they live? What level of education do they have? What are their interests? How will whatever you’re offering relate to their values?

• What influences your audience? – It’s not enough to know who your audience is. Marketing is about influencing a group of people–convincing them to visit your website, sign up for your newsletter subscription, buy your product, etc.

  If you target an audience consisting of mostly mothers in their 20s and 30s, for example, their motivating factors to make a purchase are going to be very different than those of a single teenage male.

• How can you compete? – In any industry you have to know who your competition actually is if you want to successfully compete with them. More importantly, you should look at their past marketing campaigns to keep their successes in mind and to learn from their potential mistakes.

  Even more vital than that, you have to know how you measure up against them if you’re going to craft effective marketing messages that set you apart. You can do this through a basic SWOT analysis (where you detail your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in comparison to your biggest competitors).

How to Find the Market Information You Need

One of the reasons business owners sometimes neglect market research on the Web is the misconception that it has to be expensive, difficult, or very time consuming. That may be true of some types of market research. But just as the Web offers simplified marketing tactics, it offers more accessible global market research as well.

Here are several ways you can gather market research information online quickly, inexpensively, and very easily:

• Visit competitor websites – There you may be able to find out how long they’ve been in business, how qualified their staff and management team are, or even see some of their marketing in action.

  Remember that their website, email newsletter, and even logo or other branding material are all a part of their overall marketing effort.



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• Google it (or Bing it, or whatever strikes your fancy) – Search engines are your friend when it comes to Web-based market research. Not only can they help you discover competitors and how your competitors are marketing their businesses on the Web, but they can give you insight into your target market.

  A news engine, for example, might turn up press releases detailing survey results and other market research reports. Even if the full reports cost hundreds of dollars, key statistics about the markets / audiences surveyed are often released for free in those press releases.

• Conduct keyword research – If your Internet marketing plan involves search engine optimization (SEO) or search engine marketing (SEM) tactics such as pay-per-click (PPC) ads, keyword research is a given. But even if you’re not planning those things, do it anyway.

  Tools like the Adwords keyword tool will show you what phrases your target market is interested in (what they’re searching for). In the example below, you can see keyword phrases related to market research, and how they fare against each other in popularity.

  Why does this matter? Because it tells you what your audience is specifically interested in. If you know what they’re interested in, you can better appeal to them in your marketing copy and collateral, influencing them and increasing conversions.

Those examples are some of the most basic online market research tools available. There are an abundance of tools and tactics available to you in consumer market research online. Let these serve as a starting point rather than your comprehensive plan.

Depending on your audience and what you’re trying to promote, you might also turn to market research surveys, focus groups, conversion tracking (after implementing a tactic such as an ad campaign), or other marketing research methods available.

The next time you’re wondering how you should expand your Internet marketing plan, don’t simply ask others for tactical suggestions. Invest some time into online market research and find out how your market likes to be reached (or what they respond to best) instead. What works for others won’t necessarily work for you.

Social bookmarking. Social networking. Blogging. Microblogging. Are you using them all in your social media marketing efforts? What about online video, content aggregators, podcasts, social media news releases, forums, and photo sharing? Some people would have you believe that you should be engaged in all, or most, of these social media tools and tactics to promote your business. Those people are wrong.

Why it Doesn’t Pay to be an Early Adopter

It’s a common marketing misconception that businesses should take advantage of every tool available to them if using that tool could potentially attract new visitors, readers, or customers. While there’s nothing wrong with testing new tools, attempting to try everything may cost more than you’d think (in wasted time), especially if you insist on being one of the first.

When a new social media tool is released, early adopters rush in. From a marketing perspective, being an early adopter is not a smart business move for most businesses. Why? Unless large numbers of your particular target market are also early adopters already using the tool, you’re not going to reach your market by jumping on board. Your marketing message has to reach your actual market. If they’re not there yet, there are more productive ways to spend your (or your employees’) time.

The All-Important ROI

Return on investment (ROI) is one of the most important business concepts out there. In essence, when you maximize your ROI you’re getting as much as you can out of as little as possible.

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Let’s say you have $5000 to invest in a social media marketing campaign for the next quarter. You naturally want to get the biggest return possible on that investment (let’s say your goal is to attract more visitors to your website).

You could invest a little bit of that budget into every social media tool you can think of. For example, you might produce a very low-budget video to release on YouTube, hire a part-time blogger to update your company blog and respond to comments, put out one or two social media news releases, hire a forum poster to visit communities to link to your website, and hire someone to help you setup social media and microblogging accounts (such as with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter).

When you try to do too much, your budget is stretched. That video may be much poorer quality than you would have liked. You may get a handful of blog posts for the month instead of a blogger who can post daily and build a real community around your blog. You may have social networking profiles and a Twitter account, but you may not have anyone to constantly update them.

It’s far better to strike a balance. Let’s say you still have a $5000 budget. In this case you choose a more limited campaign plan–a blogger to post several times a week, a piece of linkbait (like a free tool for download from that blog), and one social media press release (which includes social bookmarking options) to announce the release of that new tool.

You may not get as much “stuff” for your $5000, but the targeted approach very often leads to greater returns for the same investment. In this case, you’ll have a populated blog attracting links and readers naturally, a free download which will attract even more links and visitors naturally, and a news release helping to give that tool’s launch an edge by promoting it to other bloggers and members of your target market. The key is the cohesiveness–finding tools and tactics that work well collectively to reach your marketing goals.

Knowing When Enough is Enough

Sometimes trying to get more, or do more, will actually give you less. That’s very true in social media marketing and jumping on the hype of new tools (many of which are fads that die down significantly in just a few months to a few years).

Target your social media marketing campaign not only to tools that actually reach your audience right now, but also to tools that will give you the best return on the time or money you sink in. Your social media marketing plan won’t necessarily look like anyone else’s. Even the most talked-about tool may not be right for your company, your budget, or your potential visitors and customers.

Remember that tried and true marketing strategies have earned that reputation for a reason. Don’t sacrifice promotional efforts that are already successful for your company to pursue new tools that may have a heavy learning curve (meaning more time invested) unless your market research tells you that tool or tactic can work even better than what you’re already doing.

It’s okay to try social media tools as they’re released. Just never forget to find out how your customers are using those tools before you invest in them solely for fear of being left behind.

A business is all about marketing. Even the best products and services fail if they are not promoted in a proper manner by reaching the customers. Social media helps build businesses gain responsive and highly targeted customers, while building rock solid relationships with potential customers and other entrepreneurs. A company’s brand through social media reputation is beginning to have more weight in the current day.

For many businesses, social media still remains a big question mark. Many are not sure if social media constitutes a medium that is largely untested. They wonder how a good brand can survive in the unpredictable environment of the online communities.

This is the reason why many companies are still not capitalizing on the huge opportunities those social media offers, such as connecting with high-quality business consumers. The advantages of social media far outweigh any disadvantages companies may be worried about.

Social media marketing is considered to be the future of online businesses. There are several social media available today for business people, such as blogs, audio, video and social networking sites.

Companies can leverage the power of social media by becoming a part of the online communities.

Social Media Participation

Becoming a part of the online communities involves participating in discussions. However, companies must first understand what people are talking about and determine how best to contribute. Since social media platforms are used to facilitate conversations between people and not companies; once it is clear as to what people are talking about, companies can identify employees within the organization to participate in these conversations. People usually prefer talking to company representatives that are experts in their field. Companies should give these selected employees the power to implement any good ideas they obtain from the community. This holds true in every social media platform. Employees should also be trained on social media participation.

Creating Guidelines and Strategy

Companies should have a social media policy with clear guidelines on how the employees should engage in these community discussions. The do’s and the don’ts become important as employees are brand ambassadors, projecting the image of their company.

Since there is a lot to social media and it has numerous platforms, it is important to identify the ones that are relevant and worthwhile for the company. Participating in a few of them by following a planned strategy for participation, will give a clear picture to the employees, as to how much time they will need to spend in social media communication and what the actual aim of participation is.

Increasing Social Media Participation

After the initial getting-used-to period, companies usually start furthering their social media participation by leaving comments on blogs; uploading videos of and about their company to the relevant social networking sites, such as YouTube and Flickr; participating actively on either Twitter or elsewhere, to further the discussions and gain people’s trust and belief in the company’s commitment in wanting to provide good services or products, and developing relationships in the community.

• Blogging – The blogosphere is an excellent place to start. It is for a reason that there are millions of blogs out there. Posting on the blogs about the business and being a source of information in the way of sharing knowledge and answering questions demonstrates immense value for potential clients. A good example is Matt Cutts of Google, who supposedly blogs as the GoogleGuy, where he discusses about Google and gives tips to visitors on SEO and other things.

• Videos – While blogs are just text, there are other forms of social media, such as videos. They are very easy to create and upload, and it does not have to be a large video, just a quick few seconds video of the office should do. Even a simple video on YouTube under the company name can prove to be extremely useful. The video brings people to the company website and is a wonderful social media tool to getting great results.

• Social Networking Sites – Companies should ensure that their marketing messages are highly relevant and appear at moments when community members are considering buying a product or service. LinkedIn and iTtoolbox are more business oriented and professional when compared to MySpace, and they provide companies the opportunity to reach consumers at workplace. Several businesses report good results, in terms of getting high quality business leads by making connections and being findable.

Taking the online relationships offline

Although, social media is a wonderful tool, it still cannot replace face-to-face meetings. Combining online with offline could work wonders for a company. They can arrange events such as trade shows to build stronger relationships with the members of the online community. It could be in any form, such as an informal get-together for a breakfast or even a semi-formal discussion group.

The success of a company lies in learning more about their customers and making the customers understand the company better and this can be achieved by utilizing the power of social media. It may sound like a time consuming and difficult task, but the payoff for companies is huge, as long as the company approaches social media with a well-planned strategy in place.