This might be all good and well, but if you have any interest in staying afloat in the industry over a substantial period of time, it is essential to understand a system that allows for winning new projects and selling products regularly over the long term.

Marketing expert Michael Port introduced to me the concept of the ‘sales cycle’, which takes the essential elements of self promotion, and places them within a system that you can use to set out a strategy of effective long term self promotion.

A sales cycle simply highlights the key stages that need to be incorporated into your campaign of promoting yourself and your work in order to secure bookings with new as well as previous and ongoing clients.

The crucial elements of a successful promotion strategy for not only service professionals but all businesses and corporations are:

Getting your product or service noticed.

Attracting potential customers or clients.

Becoming credible.

Building trust.

Developing a strong relationship with those contacts.

Bringing clients to take action in using your services.

I have used the concepts introduced by Michael Port and formulated a straight forward sales cycle that brings in all these important elements to allow you to attract great clients and regular work (as well as sales if you have a product).

The ten steps described in my new ebook address and put into action all of the stages of the cycle I will describe below.

These stages are what a client moves through when deciding whether to use your services or buy one of your products. A potential client or buyer can drop in and out of this cycle, and they don’t necessarily have to start from the beginning in order to hire you.

Addressing all the stages in your campaign is important in ensuring a steady stream of work and sales if you sell products.

You’ll need to keep this cycle in mind as you go about promoting yourself if you want to see optimum results in attracting new work from clients or in selling to customers.

The stages are as follows:

Stage 1. Get Seen

Perform tasks that will get your name in front of your target market.

This covers any activity that introduces new people to your work, or reminds people of it.

By itself, activity addressing this stage will potentially bring new fans, clients, advice givers, collaborators, buyers and more, to you and your work.

This can include social networking, bringing people to your website, setting up referrals, writing articles, sending out mail promos, leaving blog comments, guest blogging and so on.

Of course, there may be instances where others will do the work for you, such as featuring your work on their blog having seen your work, or someone sharing a link to your site on Twitter, for example.

It is possible for you to get work with clients or sell products through this stage alone. This is also possible at instances anywhere into the cycle. However, stopping at this stage in the cycle, will make it harder for you to secure long term work and/or sales at a consistent rate.

Stage 2. Link Up

Secure contacts that you can build a relationship with.

This is where you establish a secure link with a targeted contact that will enable you to communicate with them over time and build a relationship with them.

A secure link can be in the form of attracting a Twitter follower, adding a Facebook friend or fan, and ultimately and ideally, adding targeted people to your mailing list.

There are no risks for your contacts here. People are not expected to hand over their hard earned cash at this point.

Before securing a link with the right people, it helps to demonstrate a positive reputation, credibility and value as a creative worker. This includes things like being the author of a useful and original blog, having an accomplished portfolio of work, showing client testimonials and adding good, readable content through Twitter and Facebook.

These are the things that will provide an incentive for people to secure such a link with you.

Stage 3. Keep in touch

Work on developing a trusting relationship with your contacts.

This is the stage that cultivates trust, rapport and a long-term relationship between you and your target contacts that you have already created a secure link to.

This involves tasks that maintain visibility in front of contacts at the very least, but also tasks that build trust and familiarity, and allow positive interaction with your key contacts.

Such tasks include sending blog post updates to members of your Facebook fan page, ‘tweeting’ through Twitter, interacting with people on social media sites, sending out status updates on Facebook and broadcasting a newsletter containing tips and new updates to members of your mailing list.

Stage 4. Strike a Deal

Create an offering that will lead to work.

The next step is to move your potential clients or buyers into the next stage of the cycle, which is in hiring your services or buying from you. Although creating an offering in this way is an element of selling products, it is also an important step to take in selling your services.

For most creatives, an offering in this way would simply involve reminding your contacts that you are available for work, and that any referrals that can be sent your way would be appreciated. ‘Calls to action’ in the form of a link on your site that suggests prospects ask for a quote is another example of an offering.

What your offerings are is up to you here and will depend on your area of work.

An offering to attract work, such as a discounted service, or offering tickets for an exhibition, for example, as well as discounts on any products you sell are also options here. They are not essential, however, because the important thing is that people are simply aware of your work. This alone can lead to paid projects.

Prospects who would like to work with you will hire you if they want to, or they may act as vital referrers.

It is important to be aware of this cycle as you go about the steps discussed in my ebook, if you are interested in consistently and effectively selling your products or services.

Your thoughts as comments are always welcome!

This could be in various ways, on and offline, including the ways in which I’ve talked about here and in my ebook, such as bringing targeted traffic to your blog, making connections through social media, engaging with prospects on forums, and introducing yourself via email to your prospects.

One of the best ways to get strong, consistent results with this kind of active self-promotion is to set yourself results-oriented targets instead of effort-oriented targets.

So, for example, instead of writing a post for your blog, tweeting it, then leaving it at that, make a real commitment to bringing a certain number of people to your post and blog within a week. This might mean using a few extra web tactics on top of using Twitter, but you know what you are aiming for.

Or, for example, instead of writing five email rapport-building introductions to potential clients, commit to writing as many emails or making as many calls as it takes until you receive a response from five people who ask for more information on your services.

You can apply these results-oriented methods to any active marketing technique you have in your arsenal.

These targets are short-term, but will help you stay focused on achieving your long-term goals, fast-tracking you to success.

Do people agree with these ideas?

’10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion for Creatives’.

The book has received an incredible amount of praise amongst top creative industry people and others who enjoyed the book at the pre-launch last week.

I’m pleased to share the book with you at a special launch price that will last only three days until March 13th, so if you are keen on reading the book, now would be the time to get a copy at a greatly reduced price.

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You can read more about the book and purchase it here*.

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Some early reviews:

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“Alex Mathers has mastered the methods for effective self promotion in the creative world.”

Scott Belsky, Founder of Behance, The 99%, and Author of ‘Making Ideas Happen’

“’10 Steps’ boils down the complex topic of online self promotion into a simple and pragmatic process, giving creatives the needed knowledge and resources to be able to effectively market themselves online in a fun, engaging, and wholesome way.”

Jacob Gube, Founder and Chief Editor of Six Revisions, Co-Founder of Design Instruct

“Mathers’ book is all you’ll ever need to become an expert yourself. I’ve never encountered a more valuable or thorough guide to promotion.”

Jerelle Kraus, Former New York Times Art Director

“Most marketing books say the same thing as everyone else, so it was a happy surprise to find out that the book did not have the usual marketing tips. I literally couldn’t put the book down!”

Amber Weinberg, Established Blogger and Web Developer

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Buy the book!

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Become an affiliate and earn 50% on all sales you refer.

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*10% of all sales will be donated to the World Land Trust, a charity that protects rainforest and other habitats across the world.

To go with my recently launched ebook on self promotion, I’ve put together a list of various marketing mistakes to take note of.

Here are 10 mistakes you should avoid as a creative freelancer or professional:

1. Not establishing a target market before promoting.

One of the main things that creatives and other freelancers overlook when taking action in attracting new clients and getting their work seen is the importance of knowing who it is that you are producing work for.

If you produce work to please anyone and everyone, with no target market in mind, you will have trouble maintaining high quality, focused work. You will also create too much work for yourself, and you will have difficulties promoting it. If you have no idea who you are promoting to, your strategy of promotion will be aimless, fluffy and ineffective.

You need to decide on a group of people you would be passionate about creating work for. This is the group of people who will come to enjoy and experience your work upon its completion.

2. Ignoring the smaller details on your portfolio sites.

A lot of us neglect the smaller details when we go about showcasing what we have produced to share online. This includes providing good high resolution images in your portfolios, having links that work, aligning things properly, avoiding site clutter, and keeping words spelt correctly and sentences grammatically correct.

Attention to these finer details will have an effect on how viewers regard your professionalism and your general care about your own work. This can sometimes be the difference between someone choosing to hire you and someone quickly leaving your portfolio or site.

3. Not being contactable.

I still too often arrive at the personal sites of various creatives and find it hard to find out how to contact those behind the sites. The bare essentials of your online presence are your work being showcased clearly and properly, and a way to be contacted. The latter is often hard to get to, so make it obvious how to be found on the front page of your site/blog.

The best way is to set up a contact form, so that you don’t have to worry about email spammers taking your full email address through your site.

4. Not having a referral policy.

When it comes to attracting referrals as you network and interact with your contacts later on, having an official referral policy in place is one of the best ways you can attract more clients and more work. At least making a point of asking for referrals when dealing with clients is important also.

In the business world, 80% of companies get 70% of their business through word of mouth marketing. This can apply to creative professionals too. You will be surprised how many referrals you can make just by asking, especially when you find referrals for others.

See my previous post on getting referrals for more information on this.

5. Having an unfocused marketing strategy.

It can be easy to lose your way when trying to get the word out about what you do. Sometimes marketing activities don’t happen for weeks and months because there is not strategy in place. It is therefore important to lay out some kind of schedule in a calendar that will help you dedicate some focused marketing time each day or week.

Apart from scheduling a marketing regime in a calendar, there are other ways of creating focus within your marketing strategy. Writing a blog is one way of staying focused and building regular exposure for your own work, for example. Providing updates to a mailing list is another way of staying focused, hugely benefiting your promotional strategy in the process.

6. Not being set up effectively for promotion on social media sites like Facebook.

People’s views on social media appear to be fairly split, with one group seeing the self marketing value of networking sites like Twitter and Facebook and others ignoring it. In either case, it is crucial to get set up effectively on these sites, so that your work and services are promoted in the best ways that they can be. Many people miss out on the opportunity to take advantage.

Sites like Facebook, which attract huge numbers of people every day, come with a range of tools that will help you promote yourself that people are very often unaware of. Many people often overlook the various ways these sites can really help you promote yourself, such as one’s ability to showcase artwork to targeted people, or importing a blog through your wall on Facebook.

I’m giving away a free chapter of my book through Inspired Mag on setting up properly on Facebook.

7. Not securing the relevant contacts you find.

People visiting your sites and those that you can interact with on social media sites, as well as clients, previous clients, referrals and fans are very valuable to you. For the benefit of your long term marketing success, as well as selling products and selling your services in general, you need to secure these contacts to you so that they are contactable and within your professional network.

This means directing people to your mailing list and making people aware of your social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. With contacts in place in these ways, you are able to maintain visibility in front of them over time, which will help you attract regular work and exposure.

8. Lacking credibility as a professional or expert.

For success as a creative who wants lots of work with great clients, you’ll need to be perceived as credible, likable and trustworthy within your field and within your ever-growing network.

Having a personal brand and giving off the right attitude both contribute to this, but there are a few other important things you need to consider if you want to appear credible and trustworthy, including having a unique domain name for your portfolio site, providing a high quality of service and providing testimonials of your services on your site. Several more ideas are provided in the book.

9. Not maintaining whatever self promotion steps we have already taken.

You might know about and put into action all kinds of successful promotional methods that get your work noticed and contribute to a strong brand. However, without proper maintenance, these efforts will be short lived and you are likely to see success in patches, as opposed to work coming in consistently.

Keeping things automated through delegating tasks is one way of keeping the momentum going and so is keeping a schedule together for posting blog updates, keeping your portfolio fresh and engaging on social networking sites.

Maintenance also includes tweaking, tracking and tuning the various activities you are involved with as part of your promotional strategy. It’s key to get regular feedback from what you are doing so that you know what to work on and improve and so that you know you are on the right track with what you are doing. Google Analytics is an excellent free service for tracking website stats that you can incorporate into your various sites and blogs.

10. Ignoring the importance of appropriate web etiquette on the sites we visit.

Internet etiquette, or ‘netiquette’ in general, is something everyone should be aware of before setting out on a journey of effective self promotion. These are practices used to make the internet experience a pleasant one for everyone you deal with. Often people try to market what they have, and annoy others in the process by being too aggressive and persistent without focusing on developing relationships.

Particularly when you are engaging with social media, where you want to build relationships, you need to communicate with people in a way that is respectful, professional and responsible and appropriate to the site in question.

When promoting a product or service, the old method of directly advertising what you have, has now gone out the window with Web 2.0 (the new phase of collaborative information sharing the internet is now going through). If you forget all else in marketing yourself online, remember this:

Relationship building and rapport come first, promotion comes second.

What does everyone think?

All these issues are addressed in my new book, ’10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion for Creatives’, launching Wednesday March 10th at a reduced price for three days only.

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Sign up to the weekly tip mailing list to be alerted of the when the book becomes available.

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Get fixed up here:

*Your information will never be shared or sold

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Congratulations to all winners and thank you ALL for taking part, and for such excellent and sometimes very funny comments.

The winners of the book are as follows – please contact me, otherwise I will be contacting you all individually with the free book on Wednesday/Thursday…

Heidi Burton
Nadja Johansen
Jason Philip Smith
Steve Ward
Samantha Johnson
Zack Rock
Nate Watkins
Alex Sanso
Lisa Ellwood
Liz Sterry

Well done!

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In the run up to my new ebook’s launch on Wednesday March 10th, I’ll be giving away 10 books for free.

The offer is exclusive to fans of the Red Lemon Club Fan Page.

To have a chance of getting your hands on a free copy of the book: ’10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion for Creatives’, which will also help people who want to make more sales, and bring greater exposure to their businesses, you need to do the following:

1. Make sure you are logged in to your Facebook account.

2. Go to the Red Lemon Club Fan Page, and become a fan if you aren’t already.

3. Write a wall post or comment stating why you want the book.

..And that’s it!

The ten winners will be announced through the fan page, as well as this site on Tuesday March 9th.

Good luck!

What is the #1 area you need help with, in terms of promoting your work online?

Many of you responded with some great questions. This post will take a selection of them, and I will do my best to answer them. If you have anything to add, don’t hesitate to contribute within the comments section of this post.

If you are interested in my recently completed guide on effective online self promotion, go here.

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Here we go…

Reader Question:

‘How much time should I be putting in each day/week/month into promoting myself?’

RLC Answer:

‘That’s a good question, and not an easy one to answer. I think we can safely say that for most creative professionals, the ratio of self promotion to working is very small, so must of us should think about upping the amount of weekly promotion we put in compared to the amount of creative work we do.

Levels of marketing vary according to the method used. For social networking promotion, I recommend spending a few minutes a day engaging with people, and for sending out newsletters to subscribers, once every two or three weeks.

Generally you will need to tailor your self promotion time to yourself but aim to spend a proportion of what you do, unless you have help or representation, on some self promotional activities every week. You will find out what suits you through taking action and getting feedback from what you do.’

Reader Question:

‘I guess for me, my troubled area is how to engage prospects, readers (etc) to take action, to send me an email to buy ads on my blog, or to give me a call to book my services.. Even to subscribe to my newsletter, or to respond to my tweets.

So is it a matter of words? Content? Price?’

What compels someone to take action?‘

RLC Answer:

‘My best piece of advice here is in making sure you place a ‘call to action’ at any opportunity you have that is appropriate. A call to action is something that leads your site visitors etc to taking action, such as you saying that you are available for hire, and then adding a link to your contact address.

You’ll be surprised how often people are swayed into taking action, when they are reminded and shown how to do so, and how many people forget to use one.’

Reader Question:

‘I’d like to find out more about adding subscribers to my currently tiny mailing list. How do I attract more new clients to my list?’

RLC Answer:

‘If you have a blog, nothing beats good, regular content that demonstrates your expertise and credibility on some topic, and having a mailing list that is tied to this great content, such as by having a newsletter that gives away exclusive information that relates to the content you provide on your blog or site.

Make sure your opt-in page or form is clearly linked to, or clearly shown on your various sites, including your blog. This means placing it ‘above the fold’ (within view when the web page is fully scrolled up) and perhaps giving something away for free to people who sign up as an incentive.

Take advantage of the various other channels on the net to promote your list, including leaving the link in forum signature boxes, social media, blog comments, leaving a link on articles and guest posts on other blogs you write, and so on.’

Reader Question:

‘I have noticed the highly increasing popularity of Tumblr and I was wondering if I should recreate my blog in blogger to a Tumblr one if that might increase followers and visits to my work?’

RLC Answer:

‘Tumblr’s system is very straight forward and a well designed one. If you don’t plan on being too in control of your blog’s design, it could be an option, but generally your blog popularity will come down to the quality of the content on your blog, you having a well-defined blog niche, and the extent of your efforts to bring targeted traffic to it.’

Reader Question:

‘What is the best method of putting together a portfolio these days, Html, WordPress, Flash, CSS3?’

RLC Answer:

‘There are so many ways, and by all means use any of these, although lay off the flash unless really necessary!

I personally recommend WordPress.org for your blog, but it can also be used as a portfolio site as it is quite straightforward and very efficient once set up, and the design is very customizable. I would emphasize simplicity in any portfolio site you set up.

My new ebook lists all kinds of ways and options you can choose from in creating a site that works for you.’

Reader Question:

‘Even though I’m very new to the industry, are there promotional tactics that can help me and my work to appear more professional? (A “fake it till you make it” sort of tactic)?’

RLC Answer:

‘If you stick to the very basics of professionalism in all that you do as a creative, you’re sure to impress and basically look good to potential clients.

This includes communicating positively and eloquently with readers and prospects, but also in concentrating on little details that make a big difference, such as spelling mistakes, and fuzzy, unprofessional design on your sites. Make sure you always focus on consistency as you transmit the brand you are representing.’

Reader Question:

‘I know that writing articles and social networking are good ways of bringing traffic to my sites. Do you have any other ideas?‘

RLC Answer:

‘There are several ways that creatives can use the web to bring targeted traffic to their work and their blogs if they have one. Article writing on topics that relate to your own work or blog is one good way. Social networking is a great way of bringing in traffic, if used effectively and you have substantially sized networks on them.

My 10 Steps book lists over twenty other ways of driving traffic, including writing for ezines, posting classifieds, podcasting and writing free press releases. Collaboration with others is an often overlooked way of getting traffic to each of your sites as well.’

Reader Question:

‘The number one area I could use help with is interconnecting my various accounts so that one post is distributed on multiple sites. What are the best ways to do this?’

RLC Answer:

‘This is a great way of saving time and multi-tasking, so that promotion doesn’t take up any more time than it needs to.

Ping.fm and Tweetdeck are two examples of platforms that allow you post to multiple online destinations, so that you spread the word of new posts etc quickly and efficiently. What ways work best for you will take a little experimentation, but the tools to do so are available.’

Reader Question:

‘I’m quite self-promotionally active online, but I need some suggestions on how to cut down on my time spent on the internet. What do you think I can do to cut down?’

RLC Answer:

‘Tackling time wasting is something I’m keen to address in all the self promotional methods I share and I think it is important to cut down as much time as possible spent on the computer as we go about promoting ourselves. This is why having at least a vague internet use schedule is important, as well as doing any work that doesn’t require a computer away from the computer!

I have written a post that discusses some ideas on saving time as we go about our daily business on the net.’

Reader Question:

‘The #1 question I have about promoting myself online, is what is the appropriate way to send your site to a targeted person, like a creative director at a company you are particularly interested in working at.

Is putting together a self-promotional mailer something that has gone by the wayside due to digital advancements or is it still considered a good idea?’

RLC Answer:

‘Marketing to specific people is something that is addressed in my various posts and in greater detail in my book. The key thing is to always build a relationship with someone before blatantly marketing to them.

This can happen in various ways, including in building rapport with them via email and engaging with people on social networks like Twitter. Once you have build rapport in this way, you can go ahead and share a little more about what you do.’

Reader Question:

‘I’m worried that my social media accounts on for example Facebook and LinkedIn aren’t properly optimized for promoting myself as best as they can so I was wondering where I can find out more about this?’

RLC Answer:

‘One of the things you need to be careful about is in the way you mix business with pleasure on any social media accounts you have. Make sure that any contacts you have on these platforms who are potential clients, for example, sees the professional brand side of you, as opposed to the party-animal side of you.

There are ways of making sites like Facebook an excellent self promotional platform, with security measures you can take to keep certain information from certain people, so that you maintain a professional image. I run through creating ideal social media accounts for self promotional purposes in the ebook.’

Reader Question:

‘The #1 area I need help with is finding the ‘best’ and most appropriate places online to promote my art/illustrations and my online store, in order to generate sales. And how can I avoid getting lost among the thousands of other new creatives trying to do the same thing?’

RLC Answer:

‘This will inevitably require a bit of research on your side, and it is best to always have your target market in mind when going out and promoting your sites/work on other sites. Always think about who exactly you want seeing your work, find them, and reveal your work to them (using non aggressive, relationship-building, marketing methods).

You can perhaps use online forums to not only market your work but in finding suggestions from others on which sites to use for promotion.’

Reader Question:

‘Should I work on getting my own website together before diving into promotion?’

RLC Answer:

‘I think it is crucial to have some sort of what I call a ‘base’ in place before promoting. A base is your personal site that showcases your work, that you will bring targeted people to. This does not need to be a complex site filled with loads of information, at least initially.

Stick to something professional-looking and contains at least a simple display of your work and your contact details before promoting it. Then you can add to it later. Ideally, your own site should have an element of uniqueness, including having its own domain name and of a style that reflects your brand in general, although this is not necessary to get started. As I said, something simple and professional is key before going out and marketing.’

Reader Question:

‘The area I need help with most with regards to online promotion would be my forthcoming book. My project is not entirely finished yet, but would need help in promoting it to as many people as possible. What’s the best way to promote a book?‘

RLC Answer:

‘The sales cycle that I address in the book applies to both marketing your services, but also in promoting your own products. Book promotion is something I am going through at this moment, and I can say that the internet has proven to be an extremely valuable tool in doing so.

The key thing is spend time adding contacts to your own network who are likely to buy the book or at least spread the word about it for you. You need to build relationships with these people and keep them interested. Once rapport and a solid relationship has been established with your target market you can start revealing the book to them.

This is where mailing lists and social networks can help, but there are also many other ways of building buzz. The other important aspect about promoting something like a book, especially if it requires your own expertise on something is in building your own credibility and respect amongst others before selling it. You can work on this through a blog and in sharing content and engaging through social media, forums, article writing, video-casting, and more.’

Thanks for the questions everyone!

Closer detail on all these issues are addressed in greater detail and clarity in my new ebook:

’10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion for Creatives’.

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Join the weekly tip mailing list to be alerted of the book available at launch at a discounted price.

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Sign up here:

*Your information will never be shared or sold

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The 5 ‘tweeters’ who have won 60 day-long advertising spots on this site are as follows:

@rachillustrates

@McThrill

@SnarphBlat

@printtutorials

@imediacreatives

Congratulations guys – I will be contacting you all shortly.

Thanks to everyone who tweeted!

—–

I hope the beginning of March is providing everyone with a sense of a fresh start and a healthy optimism for what 2010 has in store for us.

I’ve got some good news.

I am giving away 5 free 60-day advertising spots right here on Red Lemon Club to anyone who can help me promote my new ebook with a simple Retweet.

The majority of ad spots will replace the ones you see on the right, so will be placed above the fold of this site, for optimum exposure. I can also personally help with the banner design for you.

Simply enter the following tweet into your Twitter ‘What’s Happening’ box to be in with a chance to win:

Promote the NEW ebook from @redlemonclub and earn 50% for every book you refer! http://su.pr/9rHAxa #affiliate #promote #earn

Winners of the ad spots will be announced here on Thursday March 4th.

Good luck!

Many of us want to cut down on time spent on wasteful activities, and much has been said about how to reduce procrastination. Despite this, many of us still procrastinate! I think a lot of this has to do with the suggestions to plan what you do, and this is putting us off taking action.

Drawing from my own experiences as a writer and illustrator and the web, I’ve come up with a selection of ways to reduce procrastinating without the need to plan.

1. Take a deep breath and just start

Don’t waste time planning and thinking about it. This is simply another way to avoid actually doing tasks. If you intend to plan, most of what you need is in your mind anyway, so get started and things will tend to fall into place.

2. Expect discomfort and suck it up

Many people put something off because they expect a task to lead to negative emotions, including boredom. Realize that not everything you do will make you feel good, then do it, then feel great when it’s done.

3. Turn off the computer

Personally, the computer is my main source of distraction, and I’m sure others feel the same way. When I was writing my book, I wrote it physically in another room, and got so much more done than had the email and Google been flashing away in front of me. It might seem obvious, but avoid distractions like these and you’ll get more done.

4. Be more decisive at dumping things you don’t need

Be quick to remove/throw away email, paper, even desk clutter that you simply don’t need or will distract you. Cut out this hesitation to trash, and you will have more time to do things that matter.

5. Approach large projects in smaller chunks

For large jobs, the only planning you need to do is in deciding to start working on a small step within the wider project and simply doing it. Your plans for projects become taking action with the smaller aspects of it, instead of meticulously preparing the entire thing at once.

6. Quit the self-deception

A lot of us will dream up excuses for not doing things, such as ‘I’ll be in a better mood to do this tomorrow’. Simply be honest with yourself on what needs to be done and be free of irrational thought, and the job in hand will become much clearer.

7. Do the things you don’t want to do first

Get finished what you are dreading or dislike doing before you do anything else work-related in the day. Even committing ten minutes to the task will help you get the ball rolling for the project.

The best way to get unwanted jobs done is to set a timer, say for thirty minutes, that you spend working solely on this task. When the time is up, you can reward yourself with what you prefer doing.

8. Alternate your tasks

If you face a tough or dull task, do something you enjoy before and after it. This will bring a sense of harmony into what you’re doing and has the effect of cancelling the negativity associated with certain tasks.

9. Understand your body clock

I’m sure you’ve all got some sense of what times of the day suit you for working more effectively. Tailor your day, and the times your working energy levels are highest, to the work you do. Don’t feel that because others say one is freshest in the mornings that you should work in the morning. Do what suits you.

10. Rest

Aside from getting regular and appropriate levels of sleep each night, don’t ignore the importance of taking defined breaks away from your work.

Obviously a break will replenish energy and keep you feeling fresh. However, one of the real benefits of taking breaks that I’ve personally found, is in gaining the sensation of starting something every time you return to what you were doing. Knowing that you are starting something, even if it is in the last stages of a project, will bring to your work a renewed sense of enthusiasm.

What do you do to cut down on wasting-time?

For a similar article, see: 6 ways to save time promoting yourself on the internet.

’10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion for Creatives’ on March 10th 2010.

The book sells at $27 USD on launch and $39 thereafter.

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Become an affiliate here to start promoting!

The 215 page book addresses in close detail an effective step by step system of online promotion aimed specifically at creative professionals, including:

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• Establishing a target market and creating a USP
• Expertly building a personal site
  
• Setting up on social media sites effectively
• Building up large online networks to engage with
• Setting up and running an effective mailing list
• 18 Ways + of driving traffic to sites
• Free advertising
• Alternative online promotional strategies
  
• Blogging
• Collaborating
• More

Early Reviews (more on the sales page when revealed):

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Scott Belsky (Founder of Behance, the 99%, Author of Making Ideas Happen)

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When thinking about branding, a lot of people picture the brands of large companies or mainstream products. Branding doesn’t only apply at a corporate level, and has huge relevance at the level of the individual creative freelancer.

The internet and social media has meant that face to face interaction between worker and client is becoming increasingly scarce. Because of this, the need to project a consistent virtual persona in the form of a brand across all areas of your online presence has taken on a much greater significance.

Here are twelve ways to establish an online brand:

Determine your brand

Know yourself and what you want in life in general. An understanding of who you are in the sense of knowing where you are going will determine the characteristics of the brand you transmit online.

Name

Either use your own name, or a pseudonym, but stick to one of them all over the web that you can use so that your audience knows who you are and can identify you across multiple online venues (Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, and so on).

Make sure you secure a domain name that includes this name that you associate with your online brand as soon as you can.

Logo

You might choose to use a logo to mark your brand, that will become recognizable as you go about doing business with clients and promoting yourself online. A logo will add a sense of professionalism to your work, which should be used when you have the chance, to garner exposure for your brand.

You needn’t use a logo in its traditional sense. A consistent style and colour of the font you choose to have your own name in is often enough.

Blog/website

Have a ‘yourbrandname.com’ site, which encapsulates your brand in the content you add to it. A blog is especially effective at strengthening your online brand, be acting as a platform through which you can express yourself and share your expertise with others.

Online portfolio

A portfolio that displays your best work is one of the key parts of the online branding toolkit of any creative worker. However, these can sometimes work against the favour of the image of your brand if the work you present does not stay true to a distinct style or if the work is confused, difficult to view and/or inconsistent.

Present a clear portfolio that exemplifies a style or a presentational style that is in-keeping with the brand image you are trying to create.

Social networking profiles

Take advantage of the networking capabilities of sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to create exposure for your consistent brand. Be sure to really make the most of each of the profiles available to you on these sites, as they provide further opportunity to build and expand your brand. This includes using a consistent message, logo and/or picture.

Avatar

Even though the avatar is often a tiny image icon, most people identify contacts at a glance because of it. Keep either a photo of you or a logo consistent throughout the web on sites that use avatars. This also applies to any profile photos of you on social media sites and/or your personal sites.

Go to gravatar.com to upload an image that will appear anytime you post a blog comment and keep it consistent to your other avatars.

Colors and fonts

Just like any company, it doesn’t hurt to be consistent in terms of the colours and fonts you use wherever you have a presence online that allows them to be altered, especially your personal portfolio site.

A consistent message

Whenever you have the opportunity to reveal your work to the web, include a message that is consistent with all the other messages you include online. This includes the way you describe your achievements, your mission and yourself.

You’ll probably have a longer, more complete description of yourself on your website than on your Twitter description, but these still need to follow one unified communication strategy.

Voice

Your voice is the manner and tone with which you communicate with others through online media channels such as email and Twitter. Again, consistency as opposed to style, is more important here. Be aware that a strong brand will transmit a similar voice in all that it does. This could be a jolly tone or a corporate voice, but make sure your voice remains consistent and positive.

Video introduction and profile

Consider putting together a short video introducing yourself and your work to upload to your own YouTube, Vimeo or other video site profile (or any other online presence) so that you can vividly communicate your brand. You can also use a video presentation to describe reasons behind an application for a specific job role that you can show potential employers.

Email

You shouldn’t ignore the relevance of your email account in adding to your online brand. Include details of your site and other areas of your internet presence in your email’s signature, perhaps also a slogan or tagline that reflects your brand. Especially with Google’s Gmail account, which enables chat, you can strengthen the relationships you have with your contacts and express your brand even further.

All of this will add to your brand being firmly incorporated into the online world, so that your work becomes associated with professionalism, character and value.

What does everyone else think and do some of you have other ideas?