Many companies in marketing, media, or communications rely on freelance contributors, yet brands don’t always know how to effectively integrate these new teammates.

Whether you’re looking to find new freelancers or already have external contributors helping out, you’ll benefit from a freelance onboarding process. Providing freelancers the right resources from the beginning will help them create better work and ultimately make your job easier.

How to ace freelancer onboarding

To help you along the way, we’ve compiled a six-step freelancer onboarding checklist, a cheat sheet of sorts that you can use to onboard freelancers now and into the future.

1. Explain the company and business objectives

Full-time employees have a tendency to take company messaging for granted. They’re around it so often that it becomes second nature. When you work with freelancers, you can’t assume they’ll instantly know the nuances of your business. The first part of your freelancer onboarding process should focus on educating them on these core details.

Marketers typically think about lobbing their pitch at prospective clients, but the same exercise could help you onboard freelancers. To create and maintain a productive relationship, you need to be clear about what the company sells, who it wants to reach, and how it wants to accomplish its business goals.

You can repurpose existing HR content—brand videos, welcome packets, training quizzes, FAQs—to get freelancers thinking the way you do. But keep in mind that you should pay freelancers for this time.

2. Introduce the team

Be thoughtful about how you introduce freelancers to full-timers. Just because they won’t physically be in the office doesn’t mean you should rattle off names of people on a group email. If you anticipate freelancers working repeatedly with full-timers, set up brief one-on-one calls between those individuals as part of the freelancer onboarding process. If you have a content management platform like Contently, make sure they know how to use it.

3. Set rules for communication

Before you hire and onboard freelancers, decide on a system that includes how you’re going to communicate with them.

One option is to divide your freelancer team into tiers. I’m on several editors’ email lists where they blast out editorial calendars, but others message me directly to ask about my availability. A couple simply forward me press releases and offers for interviews, and I can choose whether to bite or not.

Of course, there’s also the question of instant messaging and communicating with your full-time creators. In some cases, brands give full Slack privileges to freelancers. In other cases, the part-time creators are confined to certain channels. Either way, I’ve seen enough evidence to know that it’s helpful when freelancers join company culture. They pick up on brand messaging faster if they can see internal discussions.

4. Style guide and pitch guide

What’s your stance on the Oxford comma? Are there any words or phrases that employees can’t use? Do visual assets need to include certain colors, or are there any off-limits shots a freelance photographer should know about? Sending a style guide to freelancers will give them answers to all the little creative questions that you already know in the back of your head. As your brand evolves, you should also update the style guide occasionally, answering any new inquiries received from freelancers as they go through their onboarding process.

Along with the style guide, you should also send your freelancers a pitch or brief guide, which can live as a PDF, Powerpoint deck, or Google doc. Format doesn’t matter as much as content. A freelancer can’t pitch you ideas effectively without knowing at a high-level what you’re looking for. Do you want to approve their intended sources ahead of time? Should the pitch be in narrative format or are bullet points okay? Do you want pitches delivered to you the same day each week, via email, or do you accept them on a rolling basis?

Tell them exactly how you prefer to be pitched, including the communication channel they should use and the structure their pitches should take.

5. Gather a portfolio of past success

There are a ton of reasons to file your biggest successes together, but onboarding freelancers is one of the biggest. If you tell 10 new freelance hires to “read the archives,” expect maybe two or three to walk away with the same vision you have in your head.

On the other hand, if you have a directory of standout articles, infographics, white papers, and case studies to choose from, they’ll have an easier time seeing things your way. If, for instance, you’re asking them to write a new version of a piece of content that always works for you, show them the original! Tell them why it worked, what you’d like them to repurpose, and where you’d like them to add in new material.

6. Ask for feedback

Routinely interview your freelancers the way you interview your clients and seek feedback from full-timers. If you’ve been working with a freelancer for a few months, ask them to reflect on the freelancer onboarding process. Did they understand the brand when they began? What do they know now that they wish you had told them back then?

Once you have the answers to some of those questions, make sure to update your internal freelancer onboarding checklist to address any adjustments you’ve made to the process. The goal here is to internalize feedback and adjust your system to better serve freelancers who join in the future.

The better you are at freelancer onboarding, the faster your team will benefit from their contributions.

To learn more ways to improve your working relationships with creatives, subscribe to The Content Strategist.

The post How A Checklist Can Improve Your Freelancer Onboarding Process appeared first on Contently.

Many people who have 9-to-5 jobs are puzzled when I say make my own schedule. They aren’t sure how a freelance writer could make a living working for media companies and brands. There are a ton of misconceptions to clear up when it comes to my gig, and while there are plenty of perks to the career path I’ve chosen, there’s also frustration. I’m perpetually hoping each day will bring less of the latter and more of the former.

The day-to-day details for my job may change with every new project, but the core tasks stay the same. Below, I’ve spelled out a typical look at what I do.

9:00 a.m

Most people assume freelancers just roll out of bed whenever they’d like. While that’s an occasional luxury, I learned early on to keep a rigid schedule. I’m diligent about starting work at 9 a.m. and ending at 5 p.m. I work every weekday with few exceptions.

Holding myself to typical work hours gives me the perfect amount of time to get a normal day’s tasks done. Most importantly, it grants me nights and weekends off. Without a schedule, my job would be a stressful free-for-all.

The quest for normalcy is also a reason I enjoy working in coffee shops. Since I’m lucky enough to live in Brooklyn, we have an embarrassment of riches in that department. From my perspective, a good coffeeshop to work in has to have two qualities: ample, comfortable seating and robust WiFi. There’s nothing worse than troubleshooting internet issues when you’re trying to be productive. (A good cup of coffee and tasty snacks aren’t bad either.)

Lately, I’ve been starting most days at two places. There’s Butler, a small, laidback bakery and cafe steps from the Williamsburg Bridge. Other days, my main workspace is Gotan, a bustling European-style eatery full of glowing laptops, which offers great breakfast and lunch.

9:30 a.m.

I’ve found that most people working in media and publishing offices typically start their days around 9:30 or 10:00, so I’ll log on around then and the first thing I’ll do is see what replies came in overnight. Today, an editor wanted me to quickly punch up a piece I wrote a couple of weeks ago. It’s a commentary tinged with humor for a major men’s publication, and we need to get the language just right. I never mind punching up pieces as long as the feedback is specific. Who doesn’t want their writing to be better?

Since I cover many topics, from music to humor to general human interest, my inbox is typically drowning in a deluge of press releases and unsolicited emails from PR firms and companies around the world. Eighty percent of these pitches are useless to me, but those other 20 percent can be valuable when it comes to finding a nugget of a great new idea, a possible future gig, or a new contact.

10:00 a.m.

Depending on the amount of writing I have to do on a given day, I aim to set aside two hours for brainstorming pitches. For better or for worse, it’s entirely up to me to come up with the ideas that would be interesting to work on.Most of the time, I reach out to editors I’ve worked with in the past since I’ll better odds of getting a pitch accepted.

Some of this block goes to connecting with new clients and media outlets. That’s a vital part of sustaining myself as a freelancer. This morning, I received an email about a sustainable winery. I wrote for a spirits-focused blog a couple years ago, so I reached out to the editor there to see if she’d be interested in coverage. I also caught wind of a new play coming to Broadway featuring an actor I want to interview, so I pitched an entertainment publication for a possible Q&A.

Over the last few years, a growing part of my freelance output has been content marketing work. I’m part of Contently’s talent network and write for some of their clients. I saw that a travel brand put out a pitch call, and I sent over a few ideas.

When it comes to content marketing, I don’t see much contrast between that and my journalistic work. Of course, brands may have certain business aspects to accentuate, but the companies I’ve written for prioritize the quality of the content over that. I think readers can sniff out when an article is too self-promotional. As a writer, I can separate the genuine from the salesy myself as soon as a company sends a brief.

Noon

Time to eat and decompress.

1:00 p.m.

After a bite of lunch (and a second coffee), my attention shifts to transcribing an interview I conducted last week for an article about a major record label. This is probably my least favorite part of the job, but a key one. While some writers choose to hire an outside service, I believe transcription is a skill in itself, and it’s a way to save on expenses.

Since it would be impossible to truly write someone’s exact sentences word-for-word (complete with “ums,” “uhs,” and reconsidered thoughts that trail off), it’s up to me to best translate exactly what a subject is trying to say. I record all of my interviews on Apple’s GarageBand, which allows me to easily fast forward, rewind, and pause. Today’s transcribing task is a particularly tricky one, considering I interviewed two executive at the same time concerning the anniversary of a major label. They both have similar voices, so I have to be careful to attribute each quote to a proper person.

3 p.m.

After five hours of staring at a screen, it’s time to leave the coffee shop and finish up the day at my apartment. I’ve found that breaking up my work like this is the perfect way to stay interested and energized. It’s an easy way to diffuse the monotony.

Once I’m back at my apartment, I have a snack and see what else I have on the docket. I have to prep for a phone interview with a country music star. Since I’m not completely familiar with his songs, I spend the intervening time researching him and listening to his popular singles. While I wait, I continue to brainstorm some more travel story ideas. My goal is to strike a balance between what the requirements are an an inspired idea that’s in service of the brand.

4:00 p.m.

The interview is very straightforward. We talk through his career and focus the end on his latest single. After the talk, I can start to piece together what to use and what to cut in my head.

4:30 p.m.

I’ll use the final part of my day to answer any subsequent emails that may have come in. Unfortunately, the editor I emailed from that spirits publication no longer works there, so I’ll have to find another contact. However, a different editor accepted my Q&A with the Broadway actor. Now I’ll have to send a query to the actor’s publicist to try to set up an interview.

As the day winds down, I tie together a few final loose ends. I receive a tip from a publicist about a chatting with a film composer, so I forward his email to an editor that I work with on a regular basis. I’m strict about starting work at the same time every morning and, I’m equally rigid when it comes to finishing at 5 p.m.

As a freelancer, there’s always work to be done. Thankfully, there will always be another day to work on it.

Rob LeDonne is a Brooklyn-based freelance culture and humor writer whose work has appeared in Billboard, Rolling Stone, GQ, and Playboy.

The post A Day in the Life of a Freelance Writer Who Works With Brands appeared first on Contently.

Now, as Contently readies to enter its 10th year, we want to hold ourselves accountable, be transparent, and set a good example for the rest of the industry by doubling down on our core values.

As long as we are leading Contently, we promise to:

1. Never implement any mandatory fee for freelancers.
2. Always pay freelancers fairly and quickly upon completion of their work.
3. Allow contributors to review and discuss major changes to their bylined work before it’s published.
4. Launch a Freelancer Advisory Board, made up of members of the freelance community, to ensure we receive continuous feedback on how we can best serve freelancer.
5. Support The Freelancer, our blog for freelance creatives.
6. Invest in more resources like our portfolio tool and freelance rates database.
7. Set up workshops, meet-ups, and more, based on input from the freelance community.

Thank you,
Joe Coleman, Dave Goldberg, and Shane Snow

The post Our Contract With the Freelance Community appeared first on Contently.

When selecting someone for creative work, it’s rare to find data that helps an employer or buyer know what to expect. Sure, Etsy vendors have star ratings, but those reviews typically capture how someone delivers on a specific product that the consumer sees online beforehand. The world of a creative freelancer is different. Unlike that basket you purchased on Etsy, every project for a freelancer is new. They’re forced to market their skills more than their projects, which means feedback becomes more personal than usual. That gets even trickier when freelancers receive feedback from an editor or client who may never even meet them face to face.

As a guest on AirBnB, I get rated after every stay. I currently hold a 5-star rating (no biggie), but I probably wouldn’t freak out if I got dinged for checking out late or spilling wine on a bathrobe. For professional creatives, though, a few bad ratings impacts their career.

As a member of the team that manages Contently’s global talent network, part of my job is to think about how the creative process affects contributors. Imagine reporting for the Wall Street Journal for 30 years, working with a brand for the first time, and finding out you were removed from the account because a marketing manager wasn’t impressed with your work. You’re probably not going to want to work with brands anymore.

So this puts freelance industries in a pickle. On one hand, any successful marketplace needs data on people and products to ensure quality. But that data has to be gathered and conveyed thoughtfully. Most people can identify a clean apartment, but evaluating an article or infographic is much more complex and subjective.

At Contently, we tried to find a way to make the process more objective. In March, we started asking editors to provide quantitative feedback on each project once it was submitted. Our rubric includes five categories: grammar, structure, sourcing, responsiveness, and etiquette—each with a five-point scale. These ratings influenced our staffing decisions for clients, but we were still weighing whether to notify contributors of their performance on every story. Ideally, such a move would incentivize freelancers to submit better work.

Recently, we’ve decided to move forward with the plan because of one reason: accountability. Contently was built on the trust between clients and freelancers. If we all of a sudden doubt their ability to maintain that relationship, even in the face of candid feedback on their performance, it goes against what has worked so well for us to date. If a contributor receives a 3 out of 5 on responsiveness or etiquette, chances are she will discuss the score with the editor and pay more attention to those areas for the next story.

While we only have a small sample size since we began notifying freelancers, early results are promising. Once a contributors are notified of their ratings, scores on subsequent submissions have improved.

Criteria averages before surfacing scores to contributors:

Criteria averages after surfacing scores to contributors:

Accountability works both ways too. Before we opened up contributor ratings, most of the feedback we received from clients and editors was pretty vague, along the lines of, “Bill isn’t cutting it for us, his last few stories need a bit more editing than others.” We’d press for more information, but by that time, minds were already made up. Instead of working through the disconnect when they start to surface, the client would remove Bill from the team of contributors.

This new system generates instant feedback and a chance for contributors to understand where they can improve. Criticism may disappoint or surprise them at first, but it’s better than finding out you’ve been removed from a team based on vague, anecdotal feedback. In the past, if an editor or marketer didn’t agree with, say, a structure choice, there was no debate or opportunity to compromise. Now, we expect the change to open the door for contributors to explain their decisions and have a productive dialogue.

New freelance marketplaces are emerging for just about every creative field you can think of. And a lot of these places are helping connect freelancers with work they normally wouldn’t be able to find. But to sustain these marketplaces, including Contently, we have to make sure that we’re setting up clients and creatives with an infrastructure that leads to better quality work. Employers review the performance of full-time employees all the time. For freelancers to succeed, they shouldn’t be treated any differently.

The post Candid Feedback and the Future of the Freelance Marketplace appeared first on Contently.

To be clear, I’m not casting a stone. As a fellow editor, I’m often guilty of similar infractions, even if they’re unintentional. Right now, 1,285 unread messages sit in my inbox, including a few pitches from freelancers or marketers looking for a guest byline on The Content Strategist. Ideally, I get back to everyone immediately—and I respond to most pitches within a few days. But a few slip through the Gmail cracks, pushed down below important emails from colleagues and unimportant outreach emails with subject lines like “HUGE WEBSITE PROBLEM – I CAN HELP.” Then I forget about the pitches, until a week or two goes by and I receive a helpful reminder from the writer.

The system needs to be better.

When I launched The Freelancer in 2014, during my rookie year at Contently, I wrote that “becoming a freelancer is like choosing to fight a battle you know you’ll eventually lose.” Since then, the battle has improved. There’s more infrastructure for self-employed creatives and more places willing to pay them good rates. But if there’s one area that’s worsened, it’s the communication between freelancers and the decision-makers who commission work. That’s why Contently’s pitch feature has been such an important part of our platform.

The purpose of the feature is simple: It organizes freelance ideas in one place that’s free of clutter and distraction. Editors evaluating pitches can accept, decline, or start a thread if they have questions and want more information. There’s also a place for pitch requests, which companies can use if they already have a theme in mind and want to put out a call for new ideas.

From a creative perspective, pitches have fueled great content from brands and media companies alike. But a more structured system only helps these companies streamline the editorial process and produce better work. (Editors could always try to hack together a workaround by manually adding pitches to folders in Gmail, but that doesn’t solve the underlying problem in the way that a technology platform can.)

My biggest fear as a freelancer is never hearing back. A rejected pitch hurts, but at least you can move on instead of torturing yourself with the possibility that nobody looked at your idea. My biggest fear as an editor, meanwhile, is not having enough time. Editors handle so many small tasks that add up over the day, and I’m always running through a mental checklist to fill out that spreadsheet, schedule that meeting, and answer that forgotten email. Keeping both sides connected eliminates those fears.

Besides, as everyone in the media world obsesses over data and insights, shouldn’t we analyze pitches the same way we do audience stats? In our platform, I can sort pitches by contributor or category to see if any trends show up. So if John Smith submitted 12 pitches over the last year and I accepted four, then I should be able to give him better (and quicker) feedback. Maybe he succeeds when pitching stories about Facebook. Or maybe feature articles with multiple interviews fare better than proposed Q&As. Either way, looking at all of that information lined up in a central location should make us both better at our jobs.

I don’t expect editors to change their habits overnight. Even some of the best freelance advice out there makes it clear that contributors will have to get comfortable nudging editors about their pitches. But there is a better way that’s helped some brands become incredibly efficient and effective publishers. For everyone else, though, we’ll just have to wait and see … which, unfortunately, is something most freelancers are already used to by now.

The post Attention Editors: We Need to Fix the Pitching Process appeared first on Contently.

While working as an account representative at Contently last year, I often heard this type of request from customers interested in our freelance network. Regardless of the industry, be it finance, insurance, technology, etc., many of our clients came in with a desire for that perfect hybrid of writer-professional. The request may sound smart, but it’s actually a damaging approach that can ruin your efforts to build a team of freelancers.

Unlike editors, marketers are trained to think about professional background when considering candidates. When making a new hire, for example, they’re accustomed to reviewing a resume and gauging someone’s experience. So taking this mindset to content marketing makes sense to them. But rather than reading through a writer’s clips to see if she can spin a compelling narrative, they’re prone to searching for job titles and responsibilities.

Here’s the crucial detail everyone in content marketing needs to understand: Being an expert and communicating expertise are two very different things. Clients that fixate on finding the perfect professional who can also write tend to struggle. Companies that understand the value of quality writing and subject-matter expertise usually execute successfully on their content plans right from the start.

To be fair, there are other factors at play that impact a brand’s readiness to publish (such as understanding how to work with a freelance team or receiving organizational buy-in). But it helps tenfold to understand that a quality writer is more important than a professional with an established background. Freelancers typically write stronger first drafts, track down sources quicker (and are familiar with using sources), and already know how to work with an editorial team.

Besides, if a freelancer has extensively covered an industry for a decade, then she’s already an expert. In fact, with a more widespread and nuanced view on an industry like financial services, a freelancer could arguably bring more expertise than a professional who’s been in the field with only a few companies. In the end, marketers that rely on trained writers avoid creating more work for themselves and publish quicker—two trends they’re very pleased to share with their bosses.

“If you haven’t worked in journalism, you may not recognize that good journalists can write well about practically any topic,” said Philip Garrity, a brand editor who has worked with Contently clients like Google and Citizens Bank. “A writer’s skill is communicating information accurately and effectively. You do that by doing the right reporting, reading the right sources, and interviewing the right people.”

Being an expert and communicating expertise are two very different things.

Last year, I transitioned within Contently from the account management team to the talent team, which vets freelancers in our network and recommends them to clients. A big part of my new role includes developing educational programming for our contributors. As you might expect, those who understand how Contently works turn out to be our strongest contributors.

My job also includes setting the right expectations with our clients so they understand what it’s like to work with a freelance team—often for the first time. (You should’ve seen me trying to explain this to my family during Christmas.) We’re making some substantial progress, like building story rubrics and in-depth training programs to track and improve the quality of the work that contributors submit. But the perception about professional background still remains and inhibits customer success.

The issue gets even more complicated depending on the type of branded content. For example, where does expertise come into play for thought leadership? What about ghostwriting? If brands need a strong opinion on a subject, the same rules apply. Talented contributors in our network pair up with our clients’ marketing executives to bring their perspectives to life. And in-depth whitepapers demanding niche expertise simply require an experienced freelancer who knows how to interview.

“Find experts, and have strong writers bring forth their experiences,” Garrity said. “Your top financial writer doesn’t need to have a CFA. But he or she should probably know how to track one down.”

Industry professionals who are also fantastic writers do exist, but based on my experience, they are rare. So if you’re trying to scale your content program or build a brand newsroom, you should focus on looking for writers who can deliver their own type of expertise. Not cardiologists.

The post Why Marketers Struggle to Hire the Best Freelance Writers appeared first on Contently.

If you’re a freelance writer, the majority of your editors are probably male and the majority of your colleagues are probably female. That’s not just an anecdotal generalization.

The American Society of News Editors (ASNE)’s latest report showed that, on average, women make up only 37 percent of newsroom staffs and hold only 35 percent of supervisor roles. Yet women account for approximately 73 percent of journalism grads and constitute about 70 percent of enrollees in MFA programs in the U.S, according to a report from the Women’s Media Center.

As traditional salaried writing careers become rarer, both former newsroom staffers and journalistic greenhorns alike are diving in to the world of freelancing. For some it’s by choice, but for up to two-thirds, it’s circumstance.

For women, pushed to the margins of the media industry, freelancing is often the only way forward—and, not surprisingly, wages have come to reflect the gender gap.

The ‘pink collar’ sector

Though data is scarce, a 2012 “Freelance Industry Report” of over 50 professions found that 71 percent of freelancers were female. In other words, freelancing flips newsroom demographics on their head.

Despite the gender domination of freelancing, female freelancers working in the media sector may be experiencing a significant pay gap. According to a 2015 survey by the Writer’s Union of Canada, female writers earn only 55 percent of what their male counterparts make. That disparity is much worse than the estimated 77 cents on the dollar women earn in relation to men on the conventional labor market in the U.S (in Canada, the pay gap may be as low as 73 percent). Data about differences in the pay of freelancer writers in the U.S. is lacking, particularly since the Department of Labor hasn’t examined the state of independent contractors since 2005. The 2005 survey did, however, find a 42 percent pay gap between full-time male and female independent contractors, and a 35 percent pay gap among part-time independent contractors (see page 82 in the report).

“It is important to recognize that low-paid freelancing as women’s work is not a new phenomenon, but in fact, it can be traced to the late 19th century when women first entered the journalism workforce,” writes Errol Salamon, a Ph.D. student in communication studies at McGill University who has been exploring this phenomenon in his book Journalism in Crisis and in a series of articles on the Canadian Media Guild website. “The difference is that, today, more and more women have entered the workforce, and the low-paid ‘opportunities’ have expanded due to the explosion of online journalism in the mid-1990s.”

“Freelance writer” as a job title doesn’t just cover hard-hitting journalists. It also includes those who have braved the dreaded “content farm” sites, which often offer as little as $3.50 an article. Sites like Freelance Mom reveal an unsung writing workforce that is, according to journalist Andria Krewson in ReadWrite, “overwhelmingly women, often with children, often English majors or journalism students, looking for a way to do what they love and make a little money at it.”

Whether you call it the “pink collar sector,” “the glass ceiling,” “the wage penalty,” or being “nickel-and-dimed,” women are disproportionately herded into unstable, low-wage occupations. And even when they do break in to a male-dominated profession like professional writing, that profession subsequently becomes devalued.

What makes a wage gap?

Like the conventional wage gap, the cause of the apparent freelance wage gap likely stems from a variety of complex factors: from economics to differences in gender expectations to outright discrimination.

Making matters more difficult is the lack of transparency in the freelance marketplace. Many freelancers living outside of major cities like New York City and San Francisco may not have a lot of face-to-face contact with fellow freelance writers; most publications don’t list their standard article rates up-front; and aside from a few notable exceptions, most freelancers aren’t broadcasting their tax returns.

Jessica Scott-Reid—a globe-trotting freelance writer who has worked for Vice, The Wall Street Journal, and Canada’s National Post—put it succinctly in an email: “I don’t really have any male freelance writer friends, so I am not sure if I am making less than them or not.”

Beyond a lack of financial transparency, part of the issue could be a well-documented “confidence gap.” An oft-quoted statistic from a Hewlett-Packard internal report states that men will apply for a job when they meet 60 percent of the position’s qualifications while women will seldom apply without meeting 100 percent of the criteria. Women are more prone to feeling “imposter syndrome,” a nagging irrational fear of being under-qualified.

This self-perception isn’t just paranoia, either. Novelist Catherine Nichols conducted an experiment in which she sent out book proposals under a male nom de plume, “George.” She sent out 50 queries, and under the name George her manuscript was requested 17 times, compared to two under her actual name. He was, in other words, “eight and a half times better than me at writing the same book.” What’s more, Nichols said publishers were kinder and more helpful to “George.”

Many female writers toy with the idea of a new moniker, depending on where they are pitching: Scott-Reid told me she has contemplated becoming “Scott Reid” when pitching to outdoor lifestyle magazines and sports outlets, wondering if “Scott” would be more likely to get a response and a byline.

Where female freelancers write—and where they don’t

Lifestyle writing is a field where women can perhaps feel more confident getting a paycheck, and a slew of “female-friendly” offshoots of mainstream publications—like the Daily Mail‘s Femail and Gawker’s Jezebel—provide a pink-hued platform for women’s writing.

In the Guardian, Lou Heinrich calls the explosion of news sections and new media publications targeted at women “pink ghettoes,” where topics like parenting, cooking, fashion, celebrity, beauty, body positivity, sex, and feminism dominate.

“By and large, amplifying women’s voices is positive and a step forward for the legitimization of feminine experience,” Heinrich wrote me in an email. “But to denigrate women writers only to women readers reinforces patriarchy: The idea that mainstream society is constructed by and for men.“

Heinrich’s perception of the ghettoization of female writing and opinions matches mastheads. Although the gender split varies widely from publication to publication, editors and top columnists in the “big subjects” are overwhelmingly male, with politics (65 percent male), sports (95 to 99 percent male), literary criticism (53 to 78 percent male), movie reviews (70 to 82 percent male), and op-eds (75 to 85 percent male) being some of the more egregious examples.

As a female freelance writer, I’ll even cop to thinking it was a long shot pitching this very article to the four male editors here at The Freelancer. Though anecdotes are clearly different than established data, this is only the second time I’ve ever been hired by a male editor in a year of freelance writing.

Even with publications that specifically request submissions from women and minorities, men can still dominate. The Awl actively discourages white males from pitching in an effort to level the playing field, but even with the submissions set up as they are, a male editor who requested not to be named noted that “men still slightly outnumber women in pitches, and especially in more ambitious pitches.”

Brooke Binkowski, an editor at Snopes and a veteran freelance reporter on U.S.–Mexico border issues, told me that she often struggles with getting bylines on certain political and social issues.

“It has been really difficult for me to get traction on certain stories, particularly the ones that are ‘gritty,’” she said. “The ones that people are really into from me are stories about child sex trafficking and femicides. They are both worthy things to cover, but I can’t help but notice that they both involve women and children. When I have pitched other things—for example, workers’ uprisings and ensuing violence—I have been really hard-pressed to get responses.”

STEM subjects aren’t much better. The Science Byline Counting Project, an eight-month study from 2014, revealed that while men and women wrote comparable numbers of STEM stories (855 from women to 867 from men), men wrote 81 percent of features in Scientific American and 73 percent of features in Wired.

Even experts in journalism stories are overwhelmingly male.

In The New York Times, men are 3.4 times as likely to be quoted as sources than women are; on the whole, men are 76 percent of people featured in news stories. Whether that’s a result of a pervasive patriarchy where men tend to be in positions of power or from a tendency of male reporters and editors reach out to other male sources (or a combination of the two), the result is an even more skewed presentation of the news.

Paths forward

Despite the many challenges facing female freelancers, many have found that there are some perks to the freelance writing “workplace,” as it were.

“Working almost exclusively online or via phone has often made me feel more secure about pitching, interviewing, and other aspects of my work,” Scott-Reid said. “I worry that being a young-ish female writer with a sort of ‘girl next door’ appearance, if I had to face editors and subjects in person I would have a tougher time being taken seriously than I do when I get to present myself exclusively via my words.”

Her advice to female freelancers trying to get in the game?

“Let your professional manner of communication and high-quality writing do the work for you,” she said. “In other words, do the best job you can, own your work, and don’t give editors any reason to look at you differently than anyone else.”

Binkowski’s advice was much more blunt: “Pretend you’re a white male.”

The post ‘Pretend You’re a White Male’: Freelance Writing’s Gender Problem appeared first on Contently.

Every freelancer has at least one horror story of a crazy, ridiculous, or even illegal client request—one that made them spit out their coffee and stare at their laptop in horror and say, “You want me to do what?!?”

In fact, it was after going through a traumatic freelancing experience of my own that I decided to write this piece.

One of the marketing employees at a virtual-reality startup reached out to ask if I’d be interested in writing blog posts for their brand-new company blog. I said sure. He wanted six pieces, each around 1,500 words, complete with visuals and interviews with experts. After he signed off on the last piece, I sent him an invoice. Next thing I know, he’s saying his boss hasn’t “officially signed off” on the blog as a strategy—would I mind getting on the phone with his boss and selling him on the ROI of blogging?

As politely as I could, I said that wasn’t in our agreement, and I’d like my payment, please. He messaged back saying he wouldn’t have the money until his supervisor agreed on the blog. I kept following up, sending about two emails a week (after all, he owed me around $2,400). Finally, three months later, he sent me a check. Today, there’s still no blog.

Things like this happen all the time when you’re a freelancer, and it can be helpful to know you’re not the only one out there. These five stories, all from sources who requested anonymity lest they anger clients, will make you feel less alone the next time a client does something crazy.

1. WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS

This copywriter applied on Upwork to write copy for Las Vegas: The Game, a business in Las Vegas that plans and executes outrageous pranks on the target of your choice. Things quickly went downhill.

“They wanted me to write five two-sentence descriptions of their ‘attractions,’” she said. “The prank packages included things like staging a hot girl to pee on you and setting up elaborate kidnappings.”

After she sent the copy, “They wrote back asking if I sent the wrong document, because it was completely wrong.”

It took a 30-minute phone call to figure out they wanted a different writing style. To be professional—and get the job over with—this freelancer wrote 10 extra taglines so the clients would have options to choose from.

It still took two more revisions to get their approval.

To add insult to injury, these clients left a public review on her Upwork profile saying she “lacked quality, skills, and cooperation,” even though she gave them 15 descriptions to work with instead of five, and “for less than half their projected budget.”

2. KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY

Here’s a story from a video freelancer who did what many of us do in the beginning stages of our careers: work for free.

“When I first began freelancing, I’d run across more than my fair share of clients who preferred to pay through ‘exposure,’” she explained.

Eventually, she accepted an unpaid gig.

“The client was desperate for a trade show commercial to be completed with a one-month deadline,” she said. “While not impossible, it was extremely demanding. I gathered a group of my peers who agreed to help as a favor to me, and within the first three days we had all of the pre-production work completed.”

So far, so good, right? But this freelancer said the client “grew greedy” and wanted more work done as soon as possible—all for no pay.

“Within just a week, I found myself being called at all hours of the night, his demands incessant and insatiable,” she said. “Distinctly, I can recall my family waiting for over an hour at the Thanksgiving table while this man lectured me about how I wasn’t delivering on all of his spur of the moment ideas.”

The next morning, the freelancer called the client and pulled out of the job. After hearing about his abusiveness, her teammates quit as well.

The story doesn’t end there, however.

“I hadn’t heard anything more from him until about two years later, when my brother mentioned a particularly abusive client he was dealing with,” she said.

It turned out to be the same client.

“I explained my experience, but my brother shrugged it off, saying that he could put up with some annoyance as long as the man paid. But when it came time for the payment, suddenly the client was backpedaling.”

Although her brother kept the final product and refused to release it, he still couldn’t make up for the time and energy he’d wasted.

3. A FEW WHITE LIES

Two freelance résumé consultants recently worked together with a client who “just about pushed us over the edge,” they said.

“Not only did she demand quick turnarounds, but she refused to approve the content until we stretched the truth and elaborated on her experiences.”

For example, the client asked the freelancers to say she was a “skilled, highly experienced manager” despite never having held a management role; use terms like “revolutionary” and “rare” to describe basic skills like using Microsoft Word; and include a degree even though she never graduated from college.

After going back and forth with the client several times, the freelancers gave in.

“After the third draft, she called me and was actually happy with the end product,” one said.

She chalked up the impressive (but fictitious) résumé to “her guidance and pep talks,” then “passed along her email password” because she wanted the résumé consultants to apply to jobs for her.

“She even passed along a specific position that she advised we ‘start with,’” the freelancers said. “We told her applying to jobs for candidates wasn’t included in our services.”

4. “DAZZLE ME”

One freelancer told the story of a 70-page white paper on social networking he wrote for a “particularly eccentric” client.

“After I’d already written about thirty-five pages—with no advance payment—this client asked me to pull in screenshots and examples from my own social media accounts,” the freelancer said. “I had to do mini-experiments, like log into Twitter and post four inspiring quotes, to see how many retweets and likes I got.”

Since he needed the work, the freelancer agreed.

But when he sent the client the completed white paper, “she sent it back to me with a note saying, ‘Great job! I’ve indicated ten places for you to include dazzling graphics,’” he said.

“I had no idea what ‘dazzling graphics’ even meant.”

The freelancer hadn’t included a “scope creep” clause in his contract, so he could either walk away or do what the client asked and hope he’d get paid. He ended up hiring (out of his own pocket) one of his graphic designer friends to create graphics, “like, bar graphs showing how many likes my Facebook posts got.”

The client paid him, and the freelancer learned “never to work without including a provision for scope creep—and a fifty percent advance.”

5. EASY MONEY

When you’re just beginning your freelancing career, figuring out your rights can be tough. That’s what one new writer discovered when he applied for a seemingly straightforward gig on Craigslist.

“The listing said, ‘500-word blog post: $70,’” he said. “I thought that sounded pretty good, so I applied.”

Within a few hours of submitting his writing samples and pitches, he got an email from the poster saying that he’d gotten the gig.

“She said the blog post she was originally planning on publishing tomorrow had been pulled, so she needed another one ASAP,” he explained. “Then, she gave me her PayPal email address, which I thought was a little weird, but [I] thought maybe it was for invoicing purposes.”

Eager to impress the client (and get paid), the freelancer worked overnight so he could send her the finished blog post in the morning.

When he did, “she emailed back, ‘I got the draft, but I didn’t get a notification from PayPal that I’d been paid.”

Turns out, the client wanted the freelancer to pay her for the “promotional privilege” of being published on her blog. He asked how many readers she had—she declined to say.

“In the end, I told her there was no way I’d pay her,” the freelancer said. “She never published the post, and I definitely never got my money.”

If you have any crazy client requests to share, tell us on Twitter.

The post 5 Freelancers Share Their Worst Client Horror Stories appeared first on Contently.

Award-winning investigative journalist, author, and anthropologist Scott Carney thinks that writers are getting paid too little. Way too little. His solution? To make publications compete against one another. And after raising $9,307 from 246 backers (full disclosure: I was one of them) on Kickstarter in May, he’s ready to turn that solution into a reality with a two-tiered project.

WordRates, the first tier of the project, launched on Monday and will aim to provide a Yelp-esque database of user-submitted ratings of editors, publications, and boilerplate contracts, along with contact information for editors. The second part of the project, PitchLab, is modeled after the book publishing industry. It will employ mentors to workshop pitches and help journalists shop them around to multiple publications in order to get the best rate and contract.

For freelancers frustrated with stagnant rates and the lack of transparency in the publishing industry, WordRates and PitchLab are exciting opportunities to level the playing field. To get more detail, we chatted with Carney about the history of the project, freelancers’ bad pitching habits, and how editors are responding to WordRates and PitchLab so far.

What has changed about the project since its initial conception?

The idea is pretty similar to what I’ve always had. We were always going to have Yelp for editors built, and we were always going to pair people up with mentors—people who have been freelancing for a long time, usually very established folks, to sort of become literary agents for magazine writers.

We figured—instead of pitching directly to a magazine—you’d pitch us, and we’d have one of our people pitch it to eight magazines at once, and try to get the best possible deal. It’d likely be someone who writes for The New Yorker or The New York Times Magazine regularly.

The idea is that even if we charge a commission, we’re going to be able to get more money and better terms. It’s the same model that works for book publishing. There’s no real difference to it, except that our mentors are not professional agents—they’re journalists.

Why would a magazine want to get a pitch from a mentor rather than the journalist?

Two reasons. One is that we’re basically going through a slush pile. We’ll have a bunch of pitches that we’ll look over and we’ll be representing the best ones from that. You’ll have a higher quality just because of that process.

But also, if we have a great idea, and the only way for the magazine to get that idea is to go through us, they don’t really have that much of a choice.

And what’s the commission going to be for people who sign up for PitchLab?

Fifteen percent. That’s industry standard.

I recently pitched two different sites the same topic. One of them definitely wanted it, and the other asked for more information. I ended up not giving them more information because I went to the first site. They changed their mind sometime before I submitted it, and by then it was no longer timely and the other site didn’t want it anymore. Is this the type of thing PitchLab could help prevent?

That’s the whole point. I wrote a blog post on market pitching versus silo pitching, and the thing is that our stories go bad. Your pitches can go bad because of timeliness.

If you’re only pitching one person at a time, you’re effectively putting yourself in the worst possible negotiating position. By the time you’ve gotten the green light, your pitch is often eight times more stale than it used to be. Then you’re really stuck if you only have one offer. But if you have two offers on the table, now you have power.

I think editors still think that people pitch one publication or site at a time.

A lot of them even prefer that. They’ll tell you that they only accept ideas that are one at a time. But unless they have a contract with you saying that, then what they’re doing is very anti-competitive. It might even be illegal, because basically what they’re saying is they need exclusivity and you’re not going to get anything back for it. It’s a very bad practice.

Say somebody keeps sending crappy pitches to PitchLab. Are they going to be getting feedback? What is that process going to look like?

I don’t have a direct answer for that, but it’s not a service where anyone can just submit crap and we’re going to edit it and make it awesome.

We’re looking for the diamonds in the rough. I assume that we’re going to be very selective and most people’s pitches that get sent in are going to be rejected, just because there’s a volume of ideas out there and we’re only going to represent the ones that we think we can turn into big money.

So if somebody sends a pitch that isn’t that great, are they going to know that it isn’t getting sent on to editors? Are they going to get any feedback?

Yeah. When someone submits their idea, they’re going to get an automatic message saying that it’s under review. The mentors will have a list of pitches in a database, and they can approve a story and take it on and represent it, they can pass on it, they can delete it in the database. When it gets rejected a writer will get a letter saying, “Sorry, we can’t represent it.” And if it gets accepted then they’ll work with that person.

When you first started sharing rates through a Google Doc there was a big backlash from editors, correct?

There was some sabotage on the Google Doc where people erased things, but then I just locked it.

One editor did contact me and say, “It’s not cool that you’re posting our rate,” but I’ve also had editors write me and say, “We can’t wait for WordRates and PitchLab, particularly PitchLab, to come out.” And I’ve also had magazine editors add their own magazines to the rate list, so it’s sort of a variety of reactions.

So it’s not like you’re pissing off all the editors, just a select few.

The thing is that we’re not against editors at all. Editors are great. They make your work better. But we are very strongly against the business practices that make it impossible for freelancers to make a living, and that ultimately sits with the people who manage those publications.

But I think some people are happy to get paid less than $2 per word, especially for websites.

Could be, but here’s the thing: Writers often think that their work isn’t worth anything—they don’t know how to value their work.

If they’re working for a company that’s valued at $100 million—and they pay their writers less than half a percent of their revenues—you’re getting screwed, even if you feel personally that it’s an okay rate. When I write for Wired and I get $2.50 a word, or whatever my rate is right now, if they sell one single page advertisement to go with the story—one page of advertising is worth $140,000 at Wired. My story may be 10 pages. They do not give me a million dollars.

What about websites?

Websites should be paying a lot more. You have to look at the revenue their web traffic generates and what their actual business model is based on. If you look at the book publishing industry—I’ve written two books, and I just got my third book contract—they give you about 10 percent as a royalty of the book sales, 10 percent of the gross.

If any of these magazines paid you 10 percent percent of their gross, we would be getting a standard rate of $20 per word.[note]You can check out Carney’s calculations here.[/note] Websites I’m sure would be paying at least a dollar a word, more than likely three or four dollars a word if you were making 10 percent of the gross.

The thing is that writers just don’t fight it, and we think we’re valueless.

If someone wasn’t a backer and is just finding out about the project, is there a way they can get involved?

Once the site goes live then people can sign up for a free account and start rating editors and doing all the stuff the site was built for. They can submit pitches, and we’ll review them at our launch.

Is there anything else about this project people should know about?

I think that people really need to understand that writers’ work is valuable, and that fighting for the value of your work is not against your interests.

PitchLab may be the way this will happen, but even if nobody uses PitchLab, I hope people take the message from this project that you’re supposed to argue for every contract that you get—then I’ll have won. Because we need to put pressure on magazines and realize that writing is a business. It’s not some art form where it’s not tied to your own survival.

The post The New Startup That Publishers Will Hate and Freelancers Will Love appeared first on Contently.

Here are the tremendous response we received to the simple question:”What is your content marketing kryptonite?”

Think of this as group therapy.

WHEN WE’RE THE PROBLEM

Mike Devaney, Direct Response Copywriter

I struggle with the desire to be EPIC. I’m laughing about it, but I’m serious. Yes, “epicness” is a good thing if you’re hoping to be the next Axl Rose, but as a direct response copywriter, I should be a lot more comfortable with formulas and checklists.

Too often, I do the research, look at the current promotion, and start piecing together the sales letter before, in a burst of fantasy, I break free and start scribbling furiously. I think I might be on to something by letting my id speak, but then I come around and toss the scribble into the recycling bin. (Ironically, this is the exact opposite of how I bill myself: a “no-frills, just the facts ma’am copywriter.”) Thankfully, none of my clients see me while I work. If they did, they’d probably want to change the terms of service from an hourly rate. That way, they would avoid subsidizing my daydreaming habit.

Dechay Watts, co-founder of SPROUT Content

Personally, my biggest weakness when creating content is not asking enough questions up front. After a short interview, I typically understand a topic conceptually, but later realize that I needed more details to really get a point across from a different perspective. The internet helps spur ideas and can be a great resource for creative examples, but asking the right questions from the start is a much more powerful tool.

I also tend to write short and to the point. To overcome this, I write a quick draft that comes naturally then come back to it later to spruce it up.

I also keep a pack of chocolate Pocket Coffees on my desk. Popping just a couple can bring everything into focus.

Jennifer Riggins, Marketing Director, GetApp

Definitely my number-one self-created problem is that I don’t say no, and that means that I never have time and am always rushing and unsuccessfully multitasking. As a freelancer who has a full-time marketing director role, I get an insane amount of offers, a lot of which come from friends creating their own businesses. How can you ever say no? Plus, even when I am getting paid, when I’m juggling so many freelance jobs … somehow, along the way, I rather often forget to send an invoice to get paid on time.

Jennifer Riggins is a New Jersey girl living in Barcelona, writing about startups and innovation in Spain for CBS SmartPlanet, and is the marketing director at GetApp.

WHEN THE CLIENT IS THE PROBLEM

Sometimes, in all honesty, it’s not us at all, but them. They don’t know what they want, or they’re fickle, or they’re not giving you the space you need to do your job.

Lisa Bamford, Director of Branded Content, Fletcher PR

Brevity has always been a necessity. However, it has taken on a more pivotal role as our vernacular now includes condensed words (and I use the term “words” lightly) such as “LOL,” “TTYL,” “OMG,” “ICYMI,” “adorbs,” “amaze-balls,” “selfie,” “totes,” “cray-cray,” and “obvi.”

My struggle with brevity is that I feel like I’m up against an audience where nearly everyone has “content ADD,” and there’s no Ritalin strong enough to tackle it. Compounding the challenge, content writers are up against celebrities who are marrying their fame with being brand spokespersons. Brevity, pop culture, social networking—can we stay ahead of the content curve? Well, I’m “totes” a “Belieber” that we can, but it means being more malleable, versatile, and creative with brief content. And, as many content writers are “Type A,” that may take some “cray-cray” effort.

Hugh Taylor, Freelance Tech Writer

In my experience, there’s often a disconnect between what the client says he wants and what he really wants. In some cases, the client may not actually know.

For example, a marketing director at a large tech company might be instructed, “Get us some thought leadership on cloud computing.” That’s a perfectly good goal, but the client may need to be guided through a creative thought process that gets into the pros and cons of taking on a massive trend such as cloud computing. The writer has to be available as an extension of the client’s creative brain. Of course, the best writers can tell the client what he really wants without actually saying, “This is what you really want.”

Michelle Friedman, SEO and Marketing, Medical Scrubs; Freelance Marketer/Copywriter

As a content writer, my job is to take an image or idea and put it into words, molding and shaping the flow of language until I am portraying each nuance with a symphony of sound. Details matter in the overall vision. The problem comes when there is no vision. Or when the vision is a kaleidoscope of half-formed thoughts that bear little resemblance to each other.

At the start of a project I grill the business owner, department head, or visionary, whoever he may be, about what he’d like to portray. Sometimes the client will say, “Lowest price. And that applies as well to what we’re willing to pay you.” Yippee. Sometimes he’ll say, “We really offer great customer service, just don’t call right now, our phones are down, but we also have really low pricing—oh, and our quality is superb.” Settle in, folks, this is going to be a long one.

I polish egos, play pick-up-sticks, and try to pinpoint what exactly makes this company stand out that I will be able to market. Sometimes when I drill down to the core of the company I uncover gold. And sometimes I hang up more confused than when I started, trying to convince consumers to try something for reasons still unknown to me. Sometimes when I’m marketing my biggest obstacle is that there’s nothing to market.

Kristy Totin, Content Marketing Manager, Teknicks

One of the biggest roadblocks that I face is having to create content under too many guidelines, and having too many individuals involved in the approval process. Very often I will have to receive approval from clients for every little piece of the content puzzle: the blog topic, the tone, the image, the social posts, the publish date, etc. It’s difficult to be creative and try new things while being given very little creative freedom.

A good content marketer will immerse him- or herself in the buyer persona, and know exactly what kind of information the readers will find valuable, and the tone and language that is most fitting. It should be left to the content creators to execute the content strategy, and clients should give the content creators a little more freedom in order to do so.

WHEN THE WRITING IS THE PROBLEM

Maybe our head’s on straight and we’ve got the perfect client with a clear vision for the project. That still doesn’t save us from blank-page syndrome, or pacing issues, or writing too long or too short every. damn. time!

Liz Carroll, Content Creator, Goedeker’s

My biggest weakness is writing too little about subjects. In college, I was taught to cut, cut, cut. Get straight to the point. Leave out the flowers. However, in blogging and SEO, longer content tends to be more shareable, and you have to be funny while still relating with customers and sounding professional. It can be a difficult juggling act.

I often find myself stuffing my work with flowery language and—gasp—adverbs. We all know the road to hell is paved with adverbs (Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft).

To combat this weakness, I have spent more time reading popular blogs that are a perfect blend of solid writing and length. I try to tailor my own style after those. The more you read, the more you learn.

Collin Jarman, Digital Analyst, COCG

When I’m writing a blog, I often suffer from what I call “tunnel visioned writing.” That is to say, there will be some point that I’m excited to make or some concept that I’m excited to explain, which is a great place to start! But I’ll get so absorbed in my excitement of fully explaining this new concept that I’ll glaze over all the details leading up to it and not cover them nearly well enough. Thank goodness for editors who will be honest with me about my pacing!

Katie Mayberry, Content Marketer and Principal, Spyglass Digial

My kryptonite is my urgency. I can get so anxious to publish ASAP that I publish before I’ve thoroughly reviewed something. My social media fingers move faster than my reason sometimes and can lead to producing less than my best. But on the positive side, I don’t suffer from analysis paralysis. I guess these things have their trade-offs. Some tips for people who are like me to avoid this kind of thing is to have quality proofreaders and a strong editorial calendar. You want to make sure you have time to plan out and review your material as much as possible.

Mo Kopstick, Video Producer and Tech Consultant, Revaya Productions

I can’t stand the blank page. Starting from scratch each time I begin a video project scares the heck out of me and makes me crawl into the fetal position of procrastination for days before I get started. I’ll come up with a fantastic idea, know exactly what should be done, have all the video, picture, and text files ready to attack with, and then open my production software and that empty video canvas will stare at me waiting to be worked on. And so I then hide for a few hours or days. I eventually come back and do my magic, my clients are happy, and I don’t charge for fetal position time, so it all works out nicely.

Mike Juba, Content Strategist, EZ Solution

Probably the hardest part about content writing is coming up with a great, unique, resourceful idea that will teach the reader something and get them to share and talk about it. It is especially difficult when you have clients that build sheds, gazebos, and pole barns, as we have a lot of those, being in Amish land. So thinking outside the box can be difficult and more time consuming in the research stage of an article, but the better the idea and concept, the better chances of acceptance and of it being valuable to your business.

Another big weakness I have is that I sometimes write too long. Most blogs only require 500 words, and some prefer them to be under 1,000 so they are easier to digest by the reader. By the time I put all my thoughts on paper and construct what I perceive to be a well-written article, I realize I’ve written too much, and there really isn’t much fluff in the piece. Sometimes I just find a good divider and turn it into a two-part blog post series.

Hopefully something in here helps and is unique from the others… If not, just say my biggest weakness is writing for Amish businesses because they never answer their phone to answer questions (they can’t).

WHEN LIFE IS THE PROBLEM

As much as we might like to sometimes, writers don’t write in a vacuum. We need to deal with all the little irritations and details that spice up every person’s life, but we have to do it with a deadline hanging over our head!

Anna Morrish, Marketing Executive, DMC Software Solutions

I believe my biggest weakness when it comes to content and writing is noise. This can be anything from too little or too much, or even just a bad song choice. I do, however, have a productive writing frenzy if I listen to the Red Hot Chili Pipers, a band that incorporates bagpipes into their music. The up-tempo beat stimulates my mind. Everyone does have their vices, however unusual.

Susan Payton, President, Egg Marketing & Communications

I’d say my kryptonite is analytics. It’s not often I’m held accountable for how well a blog post does, and so measuring it isn’t something that comes easily to me. Sifting through analytics data? I’d rather pick cat hairs off of the couch. And yet it’s becoming more expected in my field. Guess it’s time to put my prejudice aside and sharpen my skills!

Susan Payton is president of Egg Marketing & Communications, which specializes in creating content for small businesses.

Shelby Ellis, Marketing Specialist, Residential Acoustics

One of my biggest weaknesses is getting lost in the Internet. Before each post, I research the topic I am planning to write about. When searching for keywords on Google, many different phrases pop up in the auto-complete box. Some of the drop-down options intrigue me, while others are humorous! If I happen to stay focused through the search engine step of the process, reading an article could cause me to lose focus by providing a link to a different article I may find interesting. But if you ask me, that’s just good marketing.

Shelby Ellis is a marketing specialist at Residential Acoustics.

Hopefully you’ve seen yourself in this random sampling of weaknesses that make otherwise invincible writers stumble. If you’ve got suggestions for our writers, or your own unique weaknesses we haven’t covered here, tweet us @Contently.

The Content Strategist is our brand’s story. What’s yours? Let us help you find the answer.

More on Common Issues in Content Marketing

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The post Group Therapy: Common Issues in Content Marketing appeared first on Contently.

Paper isn’t about Facebook trying to screw publishers out of ad revenue, like during the 2011 summer of social readers. Nor is it the social kingpin’s midlife crisis, unveiled on the eve of its tenth birthday.

It’s much more than that. Paper is Facebook’s latest (and smartest) move towards controlling the flow of content, and all the native ad dollars that go with it.

In Paper, you consume full-screen, photo-rich articles through an elegant interface, organized by categories like Tech, Headlines, Lol, and Ideas. It uses a combination of algorithm and human curation, while also providing access Facebook’s core social functionality — News Feed, messaging, commenting, status updates and notifications — in a format far superior (and less obtrusive) than before. As many have said, it’s what Facebook would look like if it had been built in 2014.

http://vimeo.com/85421325

Paper is the first of several standalone mobile experiences that are expected to come out of Facebook Creative Labs, the social platform’s ‘intrapreneur’ incubator. And it’s a calculated step in Facebook’s master plan to dominate the native ad landscape.

Want to place a native ad in someone’s social media feed? Facebook’s got you covered. Want to place a sponsored post in their go-to newspaper? If Paper takes off as expected, Facebook will have that covered, too.

Facebook has been moving in this direction for months, juicing their algorithm to favor publishers and creating Godzilla article units that dominate the Newsfeed. It’s easy to see why Facebook is making moves to control the flow of content on the web: social-referral traffic is becoming as important as search-referral traffic was a decade ago. Facebook — already with a Google-sized lead — wanted to cement their first-place standing.

After all, publishers and brands are hungry and willing to pay good money for social traffic, and they’re going to pump money into the platform that drives the most visits and shares. Right now, that’s Facebook, and Paper will only help them grow that lead. “As much of this content is links, Paper will drive traffic to publishers’ sites,” a Facebook rep told Digiday.

If users embrace Paper as a way to consume content, it’ll solve a big problem that Facebook has had with their core product: as they’ve made moves to widen their social traffic lead, articles from positivity farms like UpWorthy and EliteDaily, or gossip news sites like Gawker, have been surfacing at an obscene rate. No one actually wants to read that much EliteDaily (or that many Gawker articles trashing EliteDaily) — it’s just that those sites have temporarily gamed the system with irresistible click-bait headlines. Paper, on the other hand, surfaces the best of the millions of articles shared by publishers on the site each day.

Ultimately, this is good news for brand publishers.

Attracting a large audience for their content is brand publishers’ biggest problem, and “native ads” on Facebook are one of the best solutions, capable of setting off a wildfire of social media traffic. If Paper takes off, Facebook’s referral power will only increase. No one yet knows what native ads will look like on Paper, but they’ll surely come into play. That’ll leave Facebook as a brand-friendly St. Peter, controlling the content consumption gate, happy to give cash-rich brand publishers everything they’ve ever dreamed or wanted.

What’s the deal with the Content Strategist? At Contently, storytelling is the only marketing we do, and it works wonders. It could for you, too. Learn more.

The post Paper: The Latest Step In Facebook’s Native Ad Master Plan appeared first on Contently.

Pixar’s Storytelling Formula

Business2Community posted former Pixar story artist Emma Coats’ tweets revealing Pixar story basics. They include keeping in mind what’s interesting to the audience, not what is fun for the writer to do.

Characters need to get out of their comfort zones and learn to deal with the uncomfortable. The ending should be thought out before the middle, and characters need to have opinions.

Google+’s Importance

Brian Clark of CopyBlogger writes about how important it is to be on Google+. He says that it has more members than Twitter and ranks second to Facebook.

It helps in terms of authorship rank on Google and it is a place that welcomes content. He says, “It’s a topical network, organized around content, not who you went to high school with.”

Zappos’ Highly Effective Facebook Page

According to Mashable, because of the Zappos Facebook page, the site received much more business.

From November of 2012 to January of 2013, there were 85,000 visits to the site thanks to the page. Forty two percent of the status updates led to purchases, while the other 58 percent of updates led to “likes,” shares and comments. Most of these updates included a URL with a link to the retailer’s site.

Self-Published Books Now in iBookstore

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has introduced a new section of iBookstore called Breakout Books that features self-published authors.

There are 60 titles already in the section in the romance, mysteries, and fantasies genres, to name a few. Chief Executive of the Idea Logical Co., publishing consultants Mike Shatzkin said, “This could be Apple wanting to do a good enough job for self-published authors that they won’t go Amazon-only for their titles.”

A Guide to Guest Posting on Blogs

Content Marketing Institute’s Jami Oetting writes about the rules of guest posting on blogs. She says that guest posters should start with one to two posts per month and think about what they want to accomplish by contributing.

They have to consider the audience and determine what value the content will bring to them, and determine at least three business goals to achieve with that content.

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Jamie Oliver Launches Food Tube

Chef Jamie Oliver launched Food Tube on Monday on YouTube.

The channel features half-hour episodes where Oliver will host live, demonstrate recipes, and do foodie Q&As with viewers, according to PaidContent.

The chef also plans to showcase contributions from YouTube cook Barry Lewis of My Virgin Kitchen and “highlight a number of additional YouTube cooks in a special segment called Jamie Presents.”

Diesel’s Time Campaign

ClickZ reports on Diesel’s new campaign called “Days to Live.”

Launched last week, the campaign, which is centered around an iPad app, reminds people how much time they have left to live. There is a video that “shows a montage of stylish people wasting time in a variety of ways,” and at the end, viewers can fill out a survey that will tell them how much longer they (may) have to live.

IPhone owners can download an alarm clock app that wakes them up every day with a reminder of how long they (may) have to live and inspirational messages for the day.

Random House’s BookScout

According to the New York Times, Random House is releasing an app called BookScout that allows users to share their favorite books and find recommendations for books they should read.

he app is going to be available on Facebook and will showcase books from all publishers, not just Random House. Users will see recommended books based on past preferences and the information on their Facebook timelines.

Companies Need to be Newsworthy

Zach Heller of Business2Community writes that brands need to generate news about themselves in order to stay relevant.

He argues, “Companies that don’t generate news tend to disappear, whereas companies that generate a lot of news are always top of mind.”

Being newsworthy will help generate links, which in turn means higher SEO. News can also make a company stand out from the competition and receive free marketing out of it.

Branded Apps Features

Joe Chernov writes on Mashable about features that every brand’s app needs to have. 

The push notifications on an app have to take users’ past preferences into account and shouldn’t be used only when updates are necessary. Locations should be part of the marketing strategy as well. For example, apps should tap into GPS coordinates on a phone and figure out how to market to customers based on location.

Apps should also be integrated with social media sites and figure out a way to easily let customers make purchases.

Freelancing Woes

Freelance Folder highlights some common issues that can cause freelancers to doubt themselves.

Rejection for a project shouldn’t be taken personally. Instead, it’s an opportunity for freelancers to ask themselves how they can do better in the future.

When freelancers face a slow time in their work, they need to work on marketing themselves. And comparing themselves against others is never healthy — other freelancers should be seen as coworkers and resources, not the competition.

Freelancing Lessons

Moorhou.se features lessons that can be learned from a freelancer.

Fear needs to be taken into account — it shouldn’t hold aspiring freelancers back, but motivate them on how to plan. Freelancers need to surround themselves with smart and competent people to so they become better workers themselves.

They also have to buy the proper tools, even if it means spending money before they make money. Freelancers need to have a safety net (which means savings) before just jumping in as well.

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Jimmy Fallon Crowdsourcing for Ad

Ford has set up SteertheScript, a crowdsourcing platform that asks fans to co-author an ad that will feature Jimmy Fallon, Todd Wasserman of Mashable reports.

The ad will be promoting Lincoln cars, which “has lost 63% of its sales since its 1990 peak.”

Making Content Emotional

CopyBlogger’s Demian Farnworth writes that marketers need to master four emotions in their content: love, greed, fear, and duty or honor.

He says, “If you’re a copywriter, then — by default — you should write to the emotions of your readers. You need to know the proper appeals to use in order to gain attention, stoke interest and push for action.”

Marketers should look to relieve their readers/consumers’ anxieties: “Give the reader the sense that you will bring him peace (financial, future, relational, future, security) … that you’ll solve his problems that keep him up at night … that you will give him a good night’s sleep … and you will win his attention.”

Barnes & Noble Focuses on Pinterest Users

A new video from Nook Media, a collaboration between Barnes & Noble and Microsoft, targets Pinterest users and scrapbookers.

The new platform, Nook Scrapbook, “enables users to rip and save pages in a personalized collection along with other chosen pages saved from catalogs and magazines.”

While Nook has been on Pinterest for six months, Barnes & Noble itself doesn’t have a page on the site.

Engaging Content in Every Industry

Sean McVey of Content Marketing Institute says that it doesn’t matter what industry marketers are in — engaging content can be created for anything.

Companies can always seek out issues that pertain to lots of people and write about how to solve them.

They can also ask different people to get involved and offer their own personal points of view. Content should be light, personal, and promoted on social media sites as well.

New York Times Offering Buyouts to Staff

The New York Times reports that 30 people in its newsroom are being offered buyout packages on a volunteer basis.

In a letter to employees, Jill Abramson said that a reduction of the number of people on staff was necessary. These severance packages have been offered before to workers in the advertising department.

Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of the Times Company, said, “These are financially challenging times. … While our digital subscription plan has been highly successful, the advertising climate remains volatile and we don’t see this changing in the near future.”

Establishing a Freelance Writing Career

Miley Linden of The Work at Home Woman writes about what it takes to establish oneself as a freelance writer.

Aspiring freelancers should set up a support system of other freelancers and connect with them on LinkedIn, Media Bistro, and Freelance Writers Den. Basic research should be a part of the job (she suggests reading “The Urban Muse” by Susan Johnston and “The Well-Fed Writer” by Peter Bowerman) and a personal writing website is crucial.

“If you want to be taken seriously as a professional freelance writer, then you need to look the part,” says Linden. “You absolutely must have a website.  Without one, you will look like an amateur – especially if you are searching for online writing gigs.”

When Freelancing Goes Bad

Make a Living Writing reports on what to do if a freelance writing client is a nightmare. Writers need to set limits with their clients and not work during established times.

Contracts should always be given up front and negotiated upon if the job changes. If worst comes to worst, writers shouldn’t be scared to simply decline to do work: “When pushy clients want more and more, simply refuse to play. When they ask if you could bang out a couple of extra articles by Friday, tell them you’re fully booked. They can’t make you do it.”

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If you’re a freelancer, you’re a business owner. And there are a few things you’ve got to keep in mind in order to make your business official. Getting your legal ducks in a row will help you avoid legal pitfalls in the coming years, and yes, may even help you save money on taxes.

If you’re a self-employed blogger, writer, social media consultant, or anything else, it can be a smart idea to incorporate or form an LLC (Limited Liability Company). Here’s why:

• Liability/personal asset protection: Without incorporation, your own personal savings and property are at risk to settle any debts of your business. Once your business is a corporation or LLC, it becomes a separate legal entity. This means that the corporation (and not you) is responsible for all of its debts and liabilities. I know, you don’t anticipate angering clients or defaulting on any payments. And most likely, you’ll never encounter this kind of trouble. But things do happen. And a legal business structure gives you peace of mind that your retirement savings won’t be wiped out by your business venture.   But what if you’re just starting out and don’t have much in terms of savings or assets yet? You still should worry about asset protection, as creditor judgments can actually last a total of 22 years (11 years plus 11 years). So think down the road when your business is a huge success. I don’t need to tell you that Mark Zuckerberg’s personal holdings have changed dramatically over the past 11 years. Forming an LLC or corporation can protect the assets you have in the future, not just what you own today.
• Tax benefits: While liability protection is the main benefit for incorporating or forming an LLC, in many cases, corporate tax rates are lower than individual tax rates. And corporations and LLCs often qualify for additional tax benefits and deductions that aren’t available to individuals. Of course, specific circumstances vary, and you should consult with a CPA or tax advisor about your own particular tax situation.

Which business structure is right for me?
A self-employed person or small business will typically choose between two business structures: LLC and S Corporation:

• Limited Liability Company (LLC). In an LLC, the owner’s personal assets are shielded from business liabilities just as they would be in a corporation. An LLC does not file separate taxes; company profits and losses flow through to the owners and are subject to each owner’s individual tax rates. The LLC is great for entrepreneurs that want liability protection, but minimal formality (no exhaustive meeting minutes or paperwork). It’s also the perfect structure for a business with foreign owners since anyone can be an owner of an LLC.

• S Corporation. An S Corporation is great for a small business owner who can qualify: The IRS places limits both on the number of owners and on who can be an owner in an S Corporation. All owners are taxed based on their percentage of ownership.

Take some time to explore the two business structures and see what’s right for you. I know that in the flurry of supporting your current clients or drumming up new business, it’s all too easy to put off some of the legal aspects of your business. But make some time in your busy schedule for some of the legal fine print. Your business is worth it.

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