Entries from November 2012 ↓

Time Management When You’re Your Own Boss

Working for yourself is the ultimate for many people.time management for copywriters

No moaning boss, no more clock-watching and all the profits are yours. But before you can achieve this utopia there are a few things you have to get to grips with, not least time management.

Back in May we published a post called Time Management for Copywriters, feel free to take a look at the whole post, but just to recap, the main elements you have to master are:

1. Remove distractions

If you work from a home office, it’s very easy to get distracted. Whether it’s by visitors, home phones ringing,  that book you’re desperate to finish  or the temptation to pop out of the office to take care of a household chore or two, they must be ignored.

Having a dedicated office, is a must. You can organise it in a way to suit you without having to clear your things away every evening.

If you work from the kitchen table, just think how much time you waste every week setting your bits and bobs up to start work and then clearing them away again so you can use the table to eat with the family.

2. No Facebook or YouTube

Even though you’re sat in front of a computer most of the day, it doesn’t mean you can idly search the web for your entertainment.

And just in case you were thinking that if no one sees you it doesn’t matter – it does.

Make a rule for yourself that you only ‘play’ online once your working day is over. That way, you can remain focused on the projects you’re working on during the day.

3. Learn to say ‘no’

Unless you want to be working silly hours to try and get your work done and deadlines met, you’ve got to learn to say ‘no’ to those clients who just want one more thing (and usually don’t want to pay for it), to colleagues who just call for a chat, to family who make demands on your time (especially during school holidays) and to projects you know you really can’t squeeze in.

That might sound harsh, but when working from a home office it has to be done now and then.

Make sure your family understand that, even though you work from home, you are still working and they have to respect your work time. And, if you’ve decided you only want to work a certain number of hours a week, stick to it and don’t take on that extra project that’s going to eat into your weekend.

It’s all too easy to end up taking on so much work you’re at your desk 24/7. So be sensible, decide on the number of hours you’re going to work and stick to it.

4. Calendar

Keeping a calendar is a simple but effective way of making sure you hit all your deadlines.

When you’re working on several projects simultaneously, it’s all too easy to lose sight of when each section of work has to be completed.

It will also give you an overview of your capacity for future projects to help prevent you from over committing yourself.

5. Daily to-do list

Don’t laugh, it really does help.

At the beginning of each week I make a plan of what I need to do and when. That way, I make sure my blogging fits in with my client work and meetings. And of course, it also helps to make sure nothing slips through the next.

Yes, it does have to be flexible because you never know what might come in, but at least it’s a way to plan your week effectively.

6. Email watching

OK, hands up if you have that little annoying pop up thingy that appears on your screen every time an email comes in.

It’s so distracting I want you to turn it off immediately.

Limit yourself to checking your emails once, twice or even three times a day. That way, you can get on with the task in hand without being distracted by an intriguing subject line.

7. Timed work slots

This is a great way to make sure you don’t run out of steam during the day.

From your to-do list, you’ll know what you need to do each day. So, allocate a time slot for each task. Once that time is up, have a break – leave the office, make a coffee, wander round the garden or even take the dogs for a walk.

Then, you will return to your desk refreshed and ready to tackle the next task.

 

But if all else fails you can always resort to drastic measures.

On Mashable there is a fantastic post that tells the story of Maneesh the blogger from San Francisco who realised he was wasting time on sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Reddit when he should have been working. To address this he took the unusual step of advertising on Craigs List and offered to pay someone $8 an hour to slap him when he appeared to be wasting time on a social network.

Did it work?

Well, during the ‘slapping period’ his average productivity level shot through the roof from 38%, on average, to 98%.

Not bad – although a little extreme.

Over to you

What do you do to make sure you stay productive whilst working for yourself?

Who can beat Maneesh for originality?

Go on, leave a comment below.

Are You Asking Too Much of Your Website Visitors?

Audience engagement is the name of the game.

Everyone is trying to attract as much traffic as possible and then capture as much information about them as possible.

I don’t know about you, but I get a little bit hacked off at the number of sites these days that want you to set an account to access information. In fact, it’s pretty much at the point now that I won’t enter my details and come up with yet another password, instead I’ll move along and see if I can source the information I need another way.

I understand why marketers want to capture my information, but I often wonder whether they’ve actually thought about their web visitors much and the impact it has on them.

To show what I mean, here is an infographic that those lovely people at Convince and Convert have allowed me to reproduce (created by Janrain), which shows why 86% of users may leave a website when asked to open an account.

how-to-solve-the-online-registration-challenge

The 3 Most Important Things You Need to Know About Content Marketing

What is content marketing?

It’s the production and publication of relevant, valuable and interesting content that is aimed at a specific audience.

Why bother with it?

Because once you’ve engaged with your audience, the content is then designed to get them to take a specific action (visit your website, sign up for newsletters etc.)

Who should be doing it?

Everyone.

But they are not the 3 most important things you need to know about content marketing.

What really matters is how you put your content together.

Content marketing 

Make sure you write in the second person and use lots of ‘you’ – this will have the effect of creating a conversational style of writing, which is the best way to get your ideas across.

Then make sure you tell them what they want to know. If you’re writing about marketing, give them something valuable to take away with them. In fact, whatever the subject matter, make sure you give them something that’s valuable to them.

Finally, write it in a way that’s easy to understand. Forget jargon, multisyllabic (big) words and other techno mumbo-jumbo. By keeping your language simple and clear, you’ll enhance your audience’s understanding and come across as an approachable person.

That’s all you need to know about content marketing – so what are you waiting for, crack on.

 

Sally Ormond is MD of Briar Copywriting and provides copywriting services for clients around the world.