Category Archives: Personal Growth

Why it doesn’t make sense to charge less

These days I’m constantly trying to draw strategies for better targeting for my website. I get all sorts of queries from my online writing services; some have no problem with what I quote, some expect more than what I’ve quoted, and some are looking for writers that will simply provide them $2 or $3 per article service. I’m trying to target clients that are looking for good content at decent rates, not very low rates.

Although I operate from India, I never try to attract clients who are looking for cheap writing services. It doesn’t mean I’m an expensive writer — I simply charge what I think I should get, according to the quality of writing I provide, and according to the prevalent rates in different countries. Some clients think that just because I am from India I’m going to provide my writing services dirt cheap. It is not their fault actually because that’s what they are looking for in the first place and they know that they can get good writers at extremely low rates in Third World countries. Even clients from India think that I have no business charging them the amount I quote.

I consider writing to be just like any other service that you can use to enhance your business prospects. When I am writing for you I am helping you communicate effectively so that you can get more business. Isn’t it a service worth paying for? Fine, you can say that you can find writers who charge a lot less then what I normally do, but then you can say this for every service. You can hire a web design company that charges $50,000 for your website and you can hire a web design company that will charge $50 for the same website. The difference will manifest in the way your business grows or doesn’t grow.

So why doesn’t it make sense to charge less than what you can charge just for the sake of getting work?

When you start charging less both you and your client get trapped in a vicious circle. You never earn enough and your client never gets the quality that he or she needs to do decent business. Since you are working for pittance, you want to do more and more projects in the limited time you have; you can only work for so many hours. You are always in a hurry to finish your project because you simply cannot afford to spend 2-3 hours writing a document that’s going to get you $5. Consequently, the quality suffers. Some writers don’t even write, they simply plagiarize and their clients either never realize it or they simply ignore it because anyway they are not looking for high-quality content when they are paying $2 for an article. These types of clients rarely succeed in their ventures and they have a similar attitude towards your service.

Similarly, since you are always working for less money you never have time to grow and evolve. You are always busy doing the patchwork and trying to get new, low-paying assignments. You never become an expert people won’t mind paying a higher fee. You will always be writing low quality stuff. You will never be taken seriously for your service. Okay, there will be a few people who will admire your rates and the amount of work you can churn out but it won’t fetch you a stable livelihood. You will soon burnout and you quit as a failure.

Again, I am not saying you charge more than you are worth for. Just don’t under charge. Charge a justified amount and keep improving yourself so that you can deliver value and then charge for that value. There is a reason why some companies bill so much. Using their services clients can make a lot more than what they are investing and this is how the true worth of a professional service is gauged. So instead of providing a cheap service, provide a better service and then charge what you truly deserve.

My experience with Linux, especially Ubuntu

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I have a geekish streak that is perpetually lurking in my subconscious and comes to the surface twice or thrice a year. This is a time when I normally, completely destroy my system and almost lose my computer files (fortunately I have always been able to save them eventually for I have some files as old as 1999). For a few months I have been playing around with Ubuntu, perhaps the most advanced version of the Linux operating system in terms of user interface. As it normally happens, I ended up obliterating my hard disk partitions. Being an experienced computer user (yeah, of course!), I took full backups before starting to install Ubuntu.

After wasting a few days and spending some money somehow I managed to install both Windows XP and Ubuntu on my laptop. Every week I spend a couple of hours working in Ubuntu, especially when my wireless connection conks under Windows XP. In Ubuntu, I can easily check my e-mails, send replies, work on my documents and occasionally write blog posts. For instance, I am writing this blog post in Ubuntu.

Why did I want to switch to Ubuntu when everything was working perfectly fine in Windows XP? In fact some of the software that they use in Windows XP is far superior than the Ubuntu alternatives both in terms of graphical user interface and functionality. My first reason was that Windows XP is quite slow and it crashes often. On top of this I had been reading for months what a great time Ubuntu users are having with no crashes reported for months, no need to reboot the system, stability and reliability, and a great interface. Anyway, here are a few observations of mine regarding Ubuntu:

Great interface of course and I love the way Ubuntu renders fonts. For many weeks I have been trying to make Windows XP render fonts the way Ubuntu does but haven’t succeeded yet.
Ubuntu recognized all my hardware on its own and my wireless networking connection never stops the way it does in Windows XP.
I haven’t used it much, but Ubuntu has never crashed. Of course there are many programs that have crashed, but Ubuntu is not affected by that.
Ubuntu is definitely not as easy to set up as many people on the Internet claim. Be prepared to have nightmares. It is not for the fainthearted, at least not yet.
Windows programs, as claimed, can work if you install Wine on Ubuntu, but my experience has been horrible.
Not everything is graphical user interface. If you are a power user then you will have to resort to some command line operations and this may involve lots of research on the Internet.
Don’t switch to Ubuntu if you are a busy person, at least not yet (I am a busy person but my geekish doppelganger sometimes overtakes my judgment and it always culminates into a disaster).
Windows XP doesn’t seem all that bad once you have spent a few days banging your head against the wall and trying to make Ubuntu perform even the simplest of tasks such as recognizing and mounting another partition.

A new version of Ubuntu is going to be released next month and I hope things will improve. I am very much open to switching to Ubuntu but there are many crucial applications that I use under Windows XP that simply refuse to work in Ubuntu.

I wrote this blog post after reading 25 Reasons to convert to Linux.

Creating content strategy for Internet marketing and SEO

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What do you have in your mind when you are creating content for your website or for your client? Today a client wrote me that he had created more than 100 articles on his website for SEO. To be frank even I have created lots of pages to draw targeted traffic from search engines. It doesn’t mean I have created those pages to misguide the search engines and human visitors — I’m trying to kill two birds (actually I would hate to kill birds) with one stone. I am creating useful and informative content for my visitors and I am giving a valid reason to search engines to send traffic to my website.

This can sometimes be counter-productive. Having lots of information can send all the wrong people to your website. For instance my target market is America and Europe, despite the fact that I operate from India. No, I am not biased against my countrymen and women, it’s just that there is hardly a demand for the service I provide because most people here in India think there is no need to pay a writer, and especially a writer who writes for websites and most of the stuff on the Internet is free.

On the other hand, in the western countries they fully recognize the importance of an experienced and well-trained writer and hence have no qualms about paying him or her.

Having lots of informative and educative content on the website can be counter-productive if your website is not as famous as, let us say, 37signals.com. Since I have many articles and pages dedicated to the art of writing content and doing copywriting jobs, more than 70% of my traffic constitutes of people from India who want to become online content writers either because they have got nothing better to do or they think it is a very easy way to make lots of money (poor, misguided souls). All the time I am telling them it is not as easy as it seems because lots of networking, promotion and maintenance is involved in the process of getting routine work from the Internet.

Fortunately, as many people comment, my pitching is so convincing that the remaining 30% traffic gives me ample business to earn a decent living. Of course I’m trying to change this; I’m trying to bring more people who would like to do business with me rather than simply trying to piggy-back on my hard work of 5 years.

It shows that randomly creating content works sometimes but most of the time it doesn’t. You got to have a clearly defined content marketing and SEO strategy. Toprankblog has a comprehensive and informative compilation of content marketing and SEO interviews with top ranking professionals. The moot point present in all the opinions is strategizing your content marketing strategy always pays in both long and short term.

Personally, right now, more than strategy I’m focusing upon quality and consistency. What is your content strategy?

What’s all with elevator speech or pitch?

Why do you need an elevator speech?

To impress people in the elevator, for starters. But more importantly, you need an elevator speech if you need to sell your service or idea immediately and you don’t want people to wander in the alleys of their pre-conceived notions. Pre-conceived notions put you at a disadvantage and afterwards whatever they view, it is viewed with colored glasses. So better start with a bang, with a clarity that kills obscurity.

Your elevator speech must also help you make your listener interested in what you have to offer. There should be a sense of curiosity, but your speech should be clear enough, compelling enough, to make that person want to meet you again to explore business opportunities.

You elevator speech defines your current standing, and it defines your future goals.

How do you prepare your elevator speech

For instance, if someone asks you, what do you do for a living? In my case I would say, through my writing services I help businesses and individuals convey their written messages effectively in order to improve their conversion rate and search engine rankings, and I mostly write for websites, blogs and online marketing collateral. Or something to this tune.

What if I simply say that I’m a writer?

Mostly everybody thinks that a writer is someone who writes stories and novels, and if you are not a known writer, then you must be a struggling writer, and if you are a struggling writer, you don’t do much for a living. By saying something vague and generic you initiate a stereotype that you don’t have much time to dispel. With a single sentence, albeit a bit longer sentence, I am able to tell that I am a writer, what benefits my writing service provides and for what medium I primarily write.

What sort of elevator speech do you have?

This reminds me, I must properly prepare one for myself.

Things I want to accomplish this year

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I’m never very good at making New Year resolutions because frankly, I don’t believe in making New Year resolutions simply because I think whenever you want to do something, you want to bring about some change, you should simply do it and shouldn’t wait for a new year to come by. But anyway, I think the beginning of a new year is a good time to move on and make some plans — planning always helps.

There are many things I wanted to accomplish last year and they remained neglected due to lack of time (okay, you can say, commitment).

Develop a system to keep in touch with existing clients: Recently I was going through my old folders. In the past 4 years I have worked/interacted with more than 500 clients. Among these, I think there have been just 20-30 clients who gave me repeat work. They remembered me, they tracked me down on their own when they required my content writing services. There must be many more clients who may often need my services but hire other content writers simply because they have forgotten about my services or they can’t recall whom they hired last time. This is a big waste especially if they liked my services. I have already signed up for a mailing service and I’m definitely going to use it regularly to keep in touch with my clients.
Increase my traffic: The traffic on my website is appallingly low. It is only a miracle I get enough work and I know miracles just can’t keep on happening all the time. Sooner or later I will run out of work due to lack of traffic. The traffic on my website is so low that I need to increase it to more than 500% in order to ensure continuous supply of work. I have been neglecting this aspect simply because the current amount of traffic keeps me financially comfortable.
Expand my network: Very few people know me on the Internet despite the fact that I have been active here since 1999. People came a year ago and became celebrities. No, I’m not crazy about becoming an Internet celebrity (I would rather become a singing sensation) but knowing more people is not only rewarding intellectually it also helps you generate more work.
Set up a dependable team of writers: Although I love writing and till now I have had practically no problem delivering assignments to my clients I won’t be able to grow much if I keep on writing on my own. I will have to take up bigger assignments in order to grow my business and this can only happen if I work with multiple writers and outsource work to them.
Start singing professionally: My singing teacher thinks I’m ready to perform but I am going to wait and practice more for the next 5-6 months because I think I need a more powerful and expressive voice. So far I’m quite happy with the progress.

There are many things on the personal level that I would like to achieve/change by the time 2009 ends but professionally I think these are the fundamental things I need to achieve in order to solidify my financial stability.