Free Press Releases – 3 Reasons to Use Them to Market Your Freelance Writing Business (By Luthando)

Free press releases (aka releases, PR pieces) are a great way to market a freelance writing business. As a freelance writer since 1993, following is how and why I use them.

How I Use Free PR to Grow My Freelance Writing Business

Obviously, a press release is designed to capture the attention of the media. But, that’s not the overriding reasons freelance writers should use them. I’ve been a freelance writer since 1993, and think that there are three better reasons to use this form of marketing to land writing jobs.

(i) They’re Search Engine Optimized Content that Drive Traffic: Press releases are just content. And, any type of content written with SEO in mind and published on the web can drive traffic.

You see, when search engines crawl a site, they don’t care if it’s a free PR distribution site, a blog, a news site, etc. They index content – period. So when you write them, write with SEO in mind – which will help to increase traffic to your freelance writing website.

FYI, these are known as “SEO press releases.”

(ii) Use Press Releases as Writing Samples to Attract High-Paying Clients: The PR pieces you write can double as writing samples. With these little buddies in your writing portfolio, you can get higher paying clients, especially if you know how to write – and distribute – them.

For example, my rate for this type of writing is $195. If you know what you’re doing, you can write one in a couple of hours or less. Imagine doing just two of these a day?

Not a shabby living as a freelance writer, right?

(iii) Bring Prestige to Your Writing Business: Being quoted in a press release gives your business prestige. To get the most mileage out of those you write, post them in a “Media” page on your site.

When prospects come, they’ll be impressed by the fact that you even have a “Media” page.

Subconsciously, this ups your value in their eyes because it pegs you as a “Professional writing firm/writer” (if everything else on the site backs this impression up).

Prospective clients also expect to pay “prestigious professionals” more because the value you bring them is ostensibly more (and it should be).

The #1 Press Release Tip to Keep in Mind When Marketing Your Freelance Writing Business

The number one thing to keep in mind when marketing your business via releases is that it’s not about you. The media doesn’t care about you or your writing business.

They care about serving their viewers, their readers, their customers. They want to solve problems for them, and if your business just happens to do that – then they’ll be interested. If it doesn’t – no matter how well written your press release is, they won’t be interested.

Keep this in mind as you write, and you’ll stand a chance of making it newsworthy (always the goal!) and getting the hot light of the media on your freelance writing business. Good luck!

Source: www.askpaccosi.com