Natalia M. Sylvester

Here’s a great, quick exercise in evaluating your marketing efforts to make sure they’re paying off. At a networking event I recently attended, Michelle Villalobos of Mivista Consulting asked everyone to write down their Top 5 Clients. Then write down how you got those clients.

Was it through a networking event? A simple Google search leading to your website? Maybe it was through social media or a client referral? Chances are, it’s a mixture of all these things, but if there’s a pattern, that’s something to think about.

For me, two of my biggest clients I met at networking events, two I got through word of mouth, and another I got through my Freelance Marketplace listing on Mediabistro.

Which reinforces two things: networking pays off, and so does nurturing the business relationships you’ve already got. Now I know that when it’s time to ramp up my marketing efforts (and when isn’t it?), I can focus on the things that have worked best for me.

It’s not a bad idea to do this exercise every couple of months, to stay on top of what strategy is most effective, and let go of ones that just aren’t working. You might be surprised what you learn.

It’s funny the random things we learn from. Last night, while watching supplements for the first Harry Potter movie (I think I’m one of the few who watch supplements, thanks to my film-loving husband), one of the writers said something that got me thinking. While adapting the book to a screenplay, he was impressed by the wealth of information J.K. Rowlings had about the world she’d created. He said that the book was like a tree that only those above the ground got to see, while Rowlings knew every detail of every root.

What a great way to describe the relationship between research and writing of any capacity. After all, you’ll never get a tree without the roots. And, even though they’re essential to a tree’s growth, the majority of roots stay underground, where no one would ever suspect how far down they reach, or how much they ground the tree. My first thought was that this is how crafting a character works in fiction—authors should know details about their lives that readers might not ever learn, but they’re the details that shape them.

But then I realized everything we ever write starts with a seed (an idea) before it spreads its roots (the research) and then branches out into a tree (the writing). Read the rest of this entry »

There’s been quite a discussion over at FreelanceFolder about vampire clients who suck the life out of a freelancer’s business. It’s a subject that touched a lot of nerves because most freelancers have dealt with clients like these before–they may be extremely demanding, not at all sure of what they want, or they’re constantly changing the direction of the project.

The truth is that I’ve been there before. I can understand the need to vent (and I vented myself, because it’s a very real problem in our line of work). But then I realized on the flip side of things, I’ve been lucky enough to work with some really amazing clients who are a freelancer’s dream. I think they deserve a little recognition in the blogosphere, too, and maybe in the process it’ll help some potential vampire clients out there get a better idea of what to expect when they work with a freelancer. Because more often than not, vamp clients are usually those that have never worked with a freelancer before. They might be used to micromanaging, or they’re unfamiliar with the idea that a freelancer is an independent worker who isn’t working exclusively for them.

But then there are those clients who just get it. They’re the ones you want to hold on to, the ones you want to work with over and over again. When I think of my favorite clients, they all have these qualities in common: Read the rest of this entry »