photo credit: prw_silvan

I ran into a problem where one of my clients was having difficulty seeing updates I was making to a site design because her browser (Safari on a Mac) was caching an old stylesheet. Most browsers these days make it (relatively) easy to clear the cache, but I can’t keep the instructions for each brower and version straight in my head. Fortunately, my alma mater has a page with incredibly easy instructions for the usual suspects (IE, Netscape, Firefox, and Safari). Opera? Konquerer? Sadly nothing for those, although I imagine the people using some of the more obscure browsers are likely to know how to clear the browser cache on their own.

How do I clear my web browser’s cache? [ http://kb.iu.edu/data/ahic.html ]

Dean Rieck, president of Direct Creative, was kind enough to answer a few of my questions about how he broke into copywriting and running his own business. One of Dean’s strengths is direct mail, and he has an email newsletter for anyone interested in tips on improving the response rate of their direct marketing campaign.

How did you end up in copywriting?
I was working as a writer / producer at an NBC affiliate. I created TV commercials and promotions for shows like the Dukes of Hazzard and The Muppet Show, which were popular at the time. The work was fun, but the money was lousy. So I left and tried various things before landing in Columbus, Ohio working for a “book packager” writing and editing school textbooks. The money was better, but the hours were killer. I’d work around the clock some days just to meet a deadline. I had heard of “copywriting” as a career and started looking for local clients. After I got a few, I cast my net farther to begin working regionally then nationally. Really, I had no plan. I did it because I was desperate and job prospects were bad at the time. Since I wasn’t making good money, any freelance work seemed to pay well. And the hours were pleasant and not at all stressful. I had nowhere to go but up, so freelancing worked for me. If I had a good job with high pay, I probably would never have taken the plunge.

How is freelance copywriting different than “corporate” copywriting? Or is freelance the only kind?
I assume you want to know the difference between being an employed copywriter working for a large corporation and doing copywriting on the outside as a freelancer. Actually, it can be the same in many respects. Many of the jobs, such as writing direct mail or brochures, are identical. The difference is that one is on a salary and the other takes a per project fee. From the corporate point of view, an employee is a known cost and can do more work for less money. But an outside freelancer, while usually charging more, can often offer higher quality and broader experience. Not every corporation hires freelancers. Some use only freelancers. And others use a mix. Ad agencies, for example, generally have writers on staff, but use freelancers to quickly scale up on a project when there is no time to hire a full time employee or when special expertise is needed for one project.

What’s the biggest challenge of running your own operation?
Scheduling is my biggest challenge. It may seem like you could just do projects in the order you get them, but that’s not the case. You have to look at specific deadlines for each project. You have to consider your level of expertise and how much time it will take to prepare for a job. You must also consider how a client works — do they like to make lots of changes or do they have a rigid review process? Size of projects factors in too. A project you can complete in an afternoon can be moved around to fill almost any time slot. But a big project needs a set block of time. In the end, you want to handle as many projects as you can while maintaining quality and sanity. And you don’t want to turn away too many clients or prospects. Often if you tell someone you’re too busy, they’ll never call you again. Clients sometimes don’t understand the scheduling challenges and expect you to drop everything and work for them exclusively whenever they call.

What would you have done differently if you were starting out today?
I wouldn’t have waited so long to start freelancing. It’s a wonderful way of life that fits my personality perfectly. I also would have specialized in a particular industry or area so that marketing my services would be easier. With my background I can handle a wide variety of projects, but I can’t market myself as a generalist. So I tend to focus on direct mail, which is what I’m now known for. But everyone from the local pizza shop to Microsoft uses direct mail, and that’s a lot of territory to cover.

Where do you see your freelance business 10 years from now?
Sheesh. That’s a job interview question! You’re giving me flashbacks to a time when I worked for a living.

I like what I’m doing, so I don’t see any radical changes. This is the sort of work I can do forever and have no plans to retire. I suppose I’ll just keep doing what I do and when I’m ancient I’ll just scale back a little. That’s the beauty of this sort of work. I can be totally lazy and still pull down a healthy six figures. Or I can get energetic and bring in more work if that’s what I feel like doing. One of the big benefits of freelancing is the control over your time and work environment. It’s not for everyone, since I think most people work better in a standard job setting. But if you have the right mindset, you can work for yourself and make up your own rules. It’s not something anyone can teach you.

Guest author Noah Coffey shares some of his insights below on occasionally walking away from paying work. Like me, Noah is a developer in the Indianapolis area. Unlike most of the people I end up rubbing elbows with in the blogosphere, I’ve actually been in the same room with and shook hands with this guy.

Those of you new to freelancing may find the topic of this post foreign territory. Similarly, in my recent past, the idea of telling a client “no” was not something I was keen on doing. After all, I’m doing all this freelance work to make money, right? Why on Earth would I want to turn down more money and business? As I have learned in the past year, there can sometimes be several compelling reasons to just say no.

“How hard would it be to…”
These words still send shivers down my spine. The question itself, when asked by a current or potential client, is already stacked against you. Typically, the client either has a preconceived notion that what he is asking is not very difficult and/or they want to try and squeeze the addition in at little or no extra cost. If your entire project starts with these words, it is an automatic red flag.

Know Your Limits
I will be the first to tell you that sometimes in order to catch a break and land a large, lucrative job, you need to stretch your abilities a little. Most successful entrepreneurs are where they are today because they charged head-first into a big, risky project only having about half the ability they needed. There is nothing wrong with this, so long as you are prepared to fail. Failing is not bad. Failing builds character and teaches you things you would never learn otherwise. I am a far better designer/developer/entrepreneur/person with each failure.

There are two important things you need to do before charging in to that next big project. First, do the math–especially if you are a part-time freelancer. How much extra time/money/resources/stress is it going to take to finish the job? Do you have enough of each of those to make it to the end? If not, perhaps you should rethink your options.

The second, should you decide to go forward, is to hedge your bets. Reduce your risk. Get in touch with your contacts/peers that are strong in the areas you are weak. Tell them what you are doing. Ask them if you can lean on them in a crunch. And, most importantly, pay them well for their help. Not only will you improve your chances of getting your big job completed, but you’ll strengthen your contacts and probably drum up future business through those relationships.

Wrong Client
Often times, projects can turn into nightmares because the client is just wrong for you. Often times, extended family can make for some of the worst clients to deal with. Anytime you involve money and family, disaster is usually right around the corner. You will end up spending more time, making less money, and dealing with more stress than any other client you have. Unfortunately, this is one lesson most will just have to learn the hard way as it is sometimes impossible to avoid.

Sometimes you and your business are much better off turning a client or project down. What may seem like a wasted opportunity in the short run often times will work to your advantage in reduced stress, better projects, and a sense of control in your freelancing life. If you find yourself in a situation where you simply can’t afford to turn down a project, keeping these points in mind may help you better prepare for potential problems.

Noah Coffey is a part-time freelancer specializing in web design and development for small to medium size projects and organizations. He is also actively organizing Indiana’s first blogging conference in August called blogINDIANA 2008. You can read more about Noah and his life as a part-time freelancer at NoahCoffey.com.

Did the client decide to leave the dummy text that I thoughtlessly spit out during the design process as a placeholder? Did the client rewrite everything? Do I even care? Maybe it’s an ego thing, but I want the sites I create to be useful and effective for my clients. Since content plays such a big role in determining that sucess, I do care.

With that in mind, I asked Theresia Whitfield of Fletcher Communications what words of wisdom she would share with web designers on the idea of web content. The rest of this post is her response:

I must admit that I was tickled to be invited to share some thoughts with you on this blog. Just to show you that I’m well-suited to provide you with this insight, I thought I’d review a bit of my background.

I have worked as a journalist for 10 years; four of which were spent as a freelance producer/correspondent in Washington, DC at such news organizations as CNN, Reuters Television, CBN News, among others. After witnessing the attacks on our nation of 9/11 from up-close and personal (it’s a long story!), I decided a different kind of writing was in order, and it no longer involved TV news.

I relocated to Indianapolis nearly five years ago to cover the auto racing circuit and then started my own business in January 2006. I continue to write about my favorite sport but, along the way, I began to understand that what we say – and the way we say it – can make a tremendous impact no matter where we’re writing or for whom.

Writing for television news is completely different than writing for a magazine. The same is true when writing content for a web site. There are so many intricate details to consider. There’s an old childhood adage that says, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”

Of course, as adults, we know that isn’t true. Words do hurt. They can hurt us emotionally and psychologically. In the business world, words can hurt our reputation, our financial stability, and our ability to retain or attract employees.

Designing a web site that is captivating takes a special talent. Anyone can build an average looking web site now-a-days. But you’ve taken on the huge responsibility of providing the very best in your design and in getting your customers noticed on the World Wide Web. I take my hat off to those of you who can do this successfully.

I, however, am not creative in the same way. I have recognized my limitation in the area of design and readily acknowledge that I can’t draw, paint or design my way out of a paper bag. With that understanding, I leave that work to the experts – you.

As web designers, you must not only ensure the face of the site is satisfactory to your customer, but somehow, the content needs to be just as exhilarating. So, you might consider writing the content yourself. This is where you need to recognize your limitation, if there is one. (Be honest!!) Or perhaps you can allow your customer to provide the words. After all, they know their business best, don’t they?

We know that as entrepreneurs, we’re self-sufficient people. But these positive qualities can also lead to our downfall. Forward thinking entrepreneurs understand that, in order to find success for themselves and their customers, they must use the knowledge, experience and expertise of outside sources; outside sources such as copywriters.

Every piece of correspondence your clients have – including and not limited to a web site – should be the focal point, the heart of their corporate marketing. Professional copywriters write all the time (at least the good ones do) so they have a rich depth of experience in a variety of industries. Professional copywriters are skilled at managing the elements that make copy easy and enjoyable to read – things like tone, clarity, rhythm, cadence, and sentence length. They also bring a creative point of view to the project. In other words, they provide a fresh voice for a corporation.

Many clients argue that they know their own business better than anyone else, so why hire an outside copywriter. Because outside writers are not caught up in the details of the company, they can sometimes do a better job of communicating the big picture and strategic direction of a company in a clear and simple manner.

But what if your client already has a corporate communications or marketing person? It’s the same scenario. One national brand expert explains: “One can’t work inside a corporate communications department day in and day out and remain objective.”

Ok, so maybe I’ve convinced you that working with an outside copywriter is a good thing for you. After all, it frees you up to do what you do best – design web sites. But how do you convince your clients that it’s an investment well worth it?

This is where you take on the role of a consultant. Help your clients:

• Understand what hasn’t been working in their current correspondence or web content in order to make a change.
• Know what they want from a copywriter. (Do they want the writer to simply proof read, edit or write from scratch?)
• Know their target – is the correspondence focused around vendors, suppliers, clients, referral sources, employees?
• Consider industry experience, writing style and compatibility not only with their company but also with their staff and you, the design firm.

It isn’t easy guiding and advising your clients in the direction you know is best when they want to go elsewhere. But hopefully this will give you a few of the tools you’ll need to remind your clients that you can help them take their web site – and ultimately their business – to the next level. Much of that will depend on what you do while the rest of it may depend on what I say.

And remind them… it’s not just what you say, it’s the way you say it!

I was first exposed to Daniel Swiecki when I came across his blog. Several months had passed before I noticed that he is still in high school. Someone barely half my age was making intelligent, well-constructed points about technology. Yet, the Internet’s role as an equalizer is one of its greatest strengths. Everyone’s voice is (in theory at least) equal, and the merit of your ideas will make or break you. With that in mind, I asked Daniel if he wouldn’t mind answering a few questions about his thoughts on “version control” for the web.

Daniel, if you don’t mind, start by telling us a little about yourself and your presence on the Internet.

Well, I started blogging when I was 13, with a Blogger blog (which is still up by the way). It wasn’t a tech blog; it was just random events in my life that only my friends read to bring back memories. Then I started going towards a technology/web blog when I launched my Xbox 360 blog. It was also a Blogger, but around this time, I had started web design, so I was editing the templates and studying how the Blogger CMS worked. I moved my blog to Wordpress when I got a free account via Flock. Since then, I’ve moved to my own Host and Domain, and have blogged about Technology and Web news and events.

As a high school student you have a different perspective on industry trends than older bloggers and designers. What do you think you notice that the rest of us might not?

As a teenager, I always have the drive to stay–or at least try to– on the bleeding edge of new web technologies. I also notice that I like to blog about Gaming, because that’s something that all teenage guys are in to (especially me (: ). Of course I get an edge, being a teen, because I can figure out what teens currently want on the web, provide it, and make lots of money. Or even if I currently don’t posses the skills necessary to do whatever it is I want to, I’ll hold on to the idea until a later time.

For any readers who might not be familiar with it, what are the defining elements of Web 2.0?

I see Web 2.0 in two categories: Design/Visual and Technical. The Design bits that define Web 2.0 include lots of whitespace, stars and badges that usually say “Beta!”, rounded corners, and generally intuitive interfaces like Flickr’s. Technical elements include use of XHTML (with separate Javascript and CSS files) and AJAX to use “the web as a platform” to develop applications. Web 2.0 is also about providing free, useful services to people.

You could say that Web 1.0 was the dot-com bubble that saw a lot of Internet companies quickly rise and fall. If Web 2.0 companies are giving away services for free, how are they going to generate revenue and avoid the fate of their predecessors?

When you have a service at your website that is in demand but nobody else has, your website becomes a great advertising space. Advertisers will be dying to get those thousands and thousands of people looking at their ads daily. And many ad services DO go with the sites Web 2.0 look, because they are customizable. Take a look at Adsense for instance. You can make it match your site, as well as give some of your viewers what they may find cool or an interesting product. Many Web 2.0 sites also accept donations. If you like what they’re doing or see that they’re on the verge of going, you can give them a good donation.

What do you think will be the defining elements of Web 3.0?

I think Web 3.0 will be a more professional version of Web 2.0. If you look at many Web 2.0 sites, they look “childish”. For example, take a look at the ZOHO logo. It’s a bunch of blocks with letters on them. I think Web 3.0 is going to be about big companies (Amazon, Google, etc.) switching their websites to AJAX applications in a professional, intuitive, clean way.

What do you see as the catalyst for Web 3.0 becoming popular, and when do you think that will happen?

Web 3.0 is going to take off when:
1.) Easier AJAX tools become available to all web designers [that] are easy AND powerful.
2.) When a major company (Ebay, Amazon, Google) takes it site completely to AJAX.

Any predictions for Web 4.0?

Truth be told, anything could happen. I, for one, like the no click interface.