What is a business model, and why do freelancers and self employed people need one?

A business model describes the reasoning behind how an organization or individual creates, delivers and captures value. Essentially, it is the framework through which an organisation makes money.

If you don’t have one in place, your money-making strategy is likely to be cloudy, less efficient, and confusing for you.

As a freelancer, you are in the business of creating and capturing value in this way, so it is crucial that you have a model in place when you set out to do business.

Here are 9 key elements of business models for creatives that you would benefit from knowing.

1. Customer Segments

This defines the different groups of people your creative work is aimed at. Make sure you know specifically who you are working and marketing for.

2. Value Proposition

This describes the value you are delivering to your customers. This is the response to the question: ‘What problems of our customers are we helping to solve?’

The value proposition of a graphic user interface designer, might be to improve the user experience of people using a site that would be of interest to site owners, for example.

3. Channels

Your business channels cover the methods you use in showing and delivering your potential customers the value in your product or service.

This could include the website you use in selling your products and the social networking sites you use in sharing information about your business.

4. Customer Relationship/s

You should be thinking about how to engage with your customers, and how to carry out a long term relationship with them. If you are dealing with more than one customer segment, you might find a very different type of relationship style is required.

For example, it might be crucial to dedicate considerable time in dealing with some clients face to face or on the phone.

With a different area of business, such as in selling merchandise, for example, it might be sufficient to make the process more automated and less personal, but it all depends on the nature of the market segment you are dealing with.

5. Revenue Streams

This represents the money you generate from one or more market segments.

You need to be crystal clear on exactly how you intend to create revenue from your business. For most creative freelancers, it would be a case of agreeing to carry out a service of some kind, and being paid on a ‘per job’ basis.

As another example, an alternative revenue stream could be subscription payments brought in from the customers of a printed magazine.

6. Key Resources

This describes the most important assets required to make a business model work and is key in the functioning of all other aspects of the model.

Such resources are all the elements required to contribute to your Value Proposition (2.), including your own personal skill, but also physical assets like software, hardware, printers, canvases, cameras and scanners.

7. Key Activities

These are activities that are crucial in making the business work. Like key resources, such activity is required to create and offer a strong Value Proposition, reach markets, maintain existing customer relationships, and earn revenue.

A key activity for a web designer might be in solving problems of web user experience and require face to face meetings with clients, whereas for a sports photographer, this would be in preparing for and documenting sports events, as well as delivering photographs electronically to customers.

8. Key Partnerships

These describe one’s network of suppliers and partners that exist to allow a business to function properly.

In some cases, partnership for freelancing or other creatives are not a part of their business model, but others, such as in the case of a collaborative group of illustrators working together or in marketing the work of a combined illustration collective, can act as a powerful element of an effectively functioning business.

9. Cost Structure

This defines how you go about paying for the things you use within your business. Being clear on your cost structure is an important element of your business model because it will define where and when you add or subtract costs.

You might create luxury furniture requiring high value materials. In which case, your business would be more value-driven, and depend on more expensive items.

On the other hand, you might provide a cheap and basic web design service that markets itself based on keeping costs low, with high output. In which case, you would strive to reducing costs wherever possible in your business.

These 9 elements all come together in creating a sound business model structure if used properly and appropriately.

It is definitely worth thinking about how each of these elements applies to your business and where certain areas might need tweaking in order to maximise value for the services you offer and therefore allow you to earn more of the green stuff.

Do what most freelance creatives don’t do, put together a business model that defines how you create value, and push ahead!

*Credit must be given to several sources of business model advice, including Alexander Osterwalder’s book: Business Model Generation, which I thoroughly recommend.

Often we hear about the need to stop thinking and start doing; take action; take the plunge, in getting new projects going.

I agree entirely with the importance in actually moving from the theory behind something, whether it be starting a blog, writing a book, or starting a business, because it means you are actually doing something as opposed to standing still, stuck in the never-ending process of learning about what process it is you intend to embark on.

So what’s the problem?

There is a risk, I think, of diving into something, confident that you know what you are doing because you have learnt everything you think there is to know about something, but fail because you lack a defined background concept to guide you.

When I talk about concepts, I’m talking specifically about an intentionally vague idea that creates a framework that steers us in the right direction when it comes to making decisions and taking action.

For example, you decide to start a new website because you have a good idea for what you want and you feel you know everything there is to know about web-building: the code, the software, the css and the branding. But you might not have a guiding concept to show you the right track, such as:

• ‘I need to emphasise the sense of adventure in our product.’
• ‘We want to bring creative buyers to creative workers more effectively.’
• ‘We need a website that converts new users into subscribers in a different way’.

What a concept does is provide you with a framework to revert to when coming up with new alternatives for the creative project you’re working on. It is important that the concept be vague enough to allow deviation of your ideas within it, but not too vague so that you have nothing to extract new ideas from.

It is down to you to decide exactly how to define the guiding concept before you take action, but take action!

What are your ideas on this?

When we are at the point of requiring to come up with a new idea, be it for the design of a building, writing a screenplay, illustrating a character, or composing music, it often proves a difficult task, simply because we are trying to be creative.

We are putting effort into creating something new, searching for inspiration online, in magazines, procrastinating, hitting ‘mental blocks’ and simply struggling.

So when we do eventually give up trying to generate a big idea, it is during those unexpected moments we so often claim to reach them. These moments may be lying awake at night, in the shower, whilst cooking food or out for a run.

It is in moments like these that we can be at our most creative, simply because we are not trying to be, and this is the contradictory nature of the game we are in.

“Mental clarity will eventually lead to strong idea generation.”

More often than not, we are constricted by time in coming up with new ideas in ways that work, especially when we are faced with work deadlines. If this is the case, there is a way to generate ideas in minutes through the process of simple meditation.

Forget any preconceptions you have about meditation being religious, spiritual, ‘for hippies’, and so on. We are talking about just getting comfortable and focusing on breathing for at least 5 minutes. Meditation will allow you to become detached from wandering thought and, interestingly, can reveal to you new ideas in the process.

Here is how to do this:

- Sit upright somewhere that is comfortable, and distraction free.

- Relax the entire body, but keep the spine straight, to prevent you from falling asleep if you are drowsy.

- Focus on a point directly in front of you slightly above eye level or close your eyes.

- Commit to coming up with an idea for anything you like, it might be for the project you are working on. Just commit to it.

- Now spend at least 5 minutes focusing on your breathing, becoming aware of any thoughts that come up and allow them to wash past you.

If you become engaged with any thought, simply drop it and let it pass. The object of this exercise is to be unattached to thought.

-  Do this for as long as you like, focusing on your breathes and being aware, but detached from any thought.

- You’ll find that such mental clarity will eventually lead to strong idea generation.

When an idea does pop up, just acknowledge it and move on or end the meditation.

You’ll see by doing this that true creativity really does come when we are not trying, but simply staying focused.

Good luck!

From working on your dream project to learning new skills, your time is your own to use as much or as little of as you choose.

Here are ten ideas to put to use in order to use your extra time productively:

1. Make a Plan

Back when you started out, was there an end goal you had in mind that has got lost among the day-to-day work? Perhaps you have a new goal but it seems far away or almost impossible. Now time is on you side, why not make a plan of action for the next week, month or year to help you get closer to achieving it.

2.    Do What you Dream of Doing

While you’ve been knuckling down and working hard for other people, has there been something in the back of your mind you’d love to be doing? Now is the time to start that graphic novel, draw that comic or create that amazing typeface. Even if it is out of your usual area, your personal work could spark off new ideas and techniques to use in the future.

3.    Learn a New Skill

Whether it’s on the computer or using paints, is there anything you’ve ever wished you knew how to do? From making vector badges on Illustrator to how to paint snow, there are tutorials available online to help you do almost anything.

4.    Try New Ways of Self-Promotion

Aside from social networking, there are many other ways to promote yourself and drum up business. Try contributing an article including links to your work to an article site, create an exciting item or product to give away in a competition, or send out promotional postcards to your contact list.

5.    Contact Someone You’d Like to Work With

Send out an email introducing yourself to an artist or writer you’d like to collaborate with, or get talking to an organization or company. You may not set up a job straight away, but you can establish a dialogue and get your name out there.

6.    Write a Guest Post for a Blog in your Industry

A great way to be seen as an expert in your field, a guest post including your link will provide ongoing traffic to your site. Show off your knowledge to the community and get your name and links on sites with high visitor numbers.

7.    Re-Visit your Portfolio

If you’ve just come out of a busy period, chances are you’ve not had chance to update your portfolio in a while. Is there anything missing from it – a new skill you can show off and market yourself with, and does the work already in it still really represent you as a creative?

8.    Do Some Research

Although it’s a given that you’re interested in the field you’re working in as a creative professional, it’s worth taking the time to immerse yourself in the work of others. This is useful not only as an opportunity to check out the competition but also to see where your field is heading. See who’s new and what’s popular and what you can take from that to boost your own work.

9.    Try Creating Stock Images

There are numerous sites out there you can submit your work to, and not only will they keep you in the creative mind set, but you could earn a little money off them too. Check out what’s trending in the news and what gaps there are in the market to make your work more likely to sell.

10. Give your Workspace a Clean Up Blitz

Remember that idea you had a few weeks back? You wrote it down but it’s now lost in the mess on your desk. Organize your workspace and not only will you find all sorts you thought you’d lost, but when you start your next project everything will feel a lot less hectic.

This article should provide you with a large resource of software tools to help you block out distractions and get more done.

“Man must shape his tools lest they shape him.”

Arthur Miller

Keep in mind that these suggestions are not necessarily the solution to your lack of focus, but tools to help you build momentum in blocking out various distractions that can affect the quality of your work.

Here are 18 tools for beating distraction:

Mac

Freedom: An extreme tool, but an effective one that disables your entire Internet connection for a time period set by you. Perfect when you really need to focus for an hour or three at a time.

SelfControl: Disable access to mail servers and websites that distract you. For example, you could block access to Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, and your favorite blogs for 90 minutes, but still have access to the rest of the web. Once started, you can’t undo it until the timer runs out.

Concentrate: Create an activity (design, study, write, etc) and choose actions (launch or block websites, quit applications, speak a message, and more) to run every time you concentrate. When ready, just click “concentrate.” All your distractions will disappear and a timer will appear to help you stay focused.

WriteRoom: One of the best, distraction-free text editors. Goes full screen so all you have is your text. No formatting, just writing text. Beautiful program, copied by many others.

OmmWriter: A beautiful app just for writing. Has a serene backdrop with background music, perfect for creating the distraction-free writing environment (especially if you use headphones).

Ulysses or Scrivener: Two great programs for writers, many more features than WriteRoom but great for longer works such as novels, screenplays, academic papers and more. Both feature full-screen text editors.

Megazoomer: A cool little app that allows you to put almost any Mac program into full-screen mode (ala WriteRoom) using a system-wide keyboard command or menu item. Requires you to install SIMBL — both programs are free.

Think: Little utility that will fade out everything but the app you’re working on at the moment. Allows you to focus on one document at a time, clearing the distractions.

Browser Plugins/Extensions

Leechblock (Firefox): Specify what sites you want to block in Firefox, and when to block them.

StayFocusd (Chrome): Choose certain sites to block, and you get 10 minutes total (by default) per day to go on those time-wasting sites. You can change the time allotted for time-wasting sites, and you can also “nuke” (block) all sites for a time you specify.

Readability (bookmarklet, Chrome extension): clears the clutter on any web article or blog post you want to read. Removes everything — ads, icons, widgets, and more — and just leaves the content in a nice, uncluttered, readable design. Quietube does the same for videos.

Windows

Dark Room: A WriteRoom clone for Windows.

CreaWriter: Distaction-free writing tool inspired by OmmWriter (above), with a peaceful background, full-screen writing, soothing ambient sound, and not much else.

Q10: Full-screen text editor with a timer for focused writing, typewriter sounds as you type if you want them. Freeware.

WriteMonkey: A new entry into the full-screen editor field. In the words of the makers: “Zenware for full screen distraction free creative writing. No whistles and bells, just empty screen, you and your words. WriteMonkey is light, fast, and perfectly handy for those who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter but live in modern times.”

Other

Emacs: One of the classic text editors (vim is a good alternative and we won’t into which is better here), Emacs runs on all platforms (PC, Mac, Linux) and can hid the menu bar (M-x menu-bar-mode) and tool bar (M-x tool-bar-mode) in any operating system, and can hide also the window title bar in most Linux window managers.

Typewriter: A minimalist text editor that runs in Java (which can run on most operating systems – Mac, Windows, Linux). All you can do is type in one direction. You can’t delete, you can’t copy, you can’t paste. You can save and print. And you can switch between black text on white and green on black; full screen and window. Perfect for writing without stopping, and getting out that first draft.

Many thanks to ‘Focus‘ author, Leo Babauta for these resources.

Any other ideas or suggestions? Comment below!

1. Make Good Offers and Promises

Don’t sit back an wait for work to come to you. Make offers to help your clients improve their business. If you think you can improve their branding…say so. Make and keep promises that are valuable to your clients. Promise delivery dates and milestones.

2. Over Deliver

Over-deliver….always. Delight your client with something extra they are not expecting!

If you produce videos, provide a DVD of outtakes from the production. Over-delivering will immediately differentiate you from 99% of your competition and will drive WOM (word of mouth) through the roof.

3. State Your Conditions of Satisfaction

Before beginning work, state your conditions of satisfaction (COS) verbally and in writing. What do you agree to deliver? When? When do you expect to be paid? What must happen for both parties to declare they are satisfied?

4. Confirm Satisfaction

Immediately after delivering your work, confirm that the client is satisfied. Now is the time to ask for referrals. If they are not satisfied, why not? Review the conditions of satisfaction with them. Who deviated? You or the client?

5. Invoice on a Timely Basis

Immediately after confirming satisfaction, send your invoice. The transaction and feeling of satisfaction is fresh and rooted in the client’s mind. This will contribute to you getting paid faster.

6. Get Paid

If you diligently adhere to the first five commandments, getting paid on a timely basis is usually a no brainer.

However, if you do not receive payment within your specified payment terms, be proactive about collecting your money. Don’t let your psychology take over. “It’s unprofessional to request payment”. “The client might think I am desperate for money.” Hogwash. Its your money!

Be firm and prompt about collecting your money.

7. Create a Strong Support Network

Being a creative entrepreneur can be lonely. To be successful you need a group of peers who share the same ambition for success. Cultivate these people. Meet with them on a regular basis. Share best business practices. Don’t whine. Motivate each other.

8. Create a Strong Contractor Network

If you are doing good work, making good offers, and keeping your promises, you will encounter a joyous problem…you have more work than you can handle. What to do? Find high-caliber contractors that can help. Its not easy. Most people do not share your ambition or commitment to quality.

Be constantly searching for those people you can trust to increase your capacity to do more.

9. Evolve to Fixed Price Engagements

Billing by the hour is a nice safe place to start. However, to fully leverage your talents, you must evolve to offering fixed price engagements to your clients.

Become an expert at defining the COS and estimating the time involved. Then be bold. Offer a fixed price fee. Clients will love you. They don’t like the uncertainty of open-ended, hourly projects.

10. Niche Thyself

Become an expert in a few industries (ex. healthcare, manufacturing). Build your identity in that community.

Domain experts command a higher price for their services. Why? They remove risk for the client. If you know my business, you will be more productive and your offers will be more aligned with my concerns.

This was a guest post from Scott Miller.

Scott Miller is a serial entrepreneur, having started service and software companies.  Scott is presently founder and CEO of the Bee, an online invoicing and bookkeeping tool for creatives and other small service businesses.  Scott writes about best practices for service businesses at Get the Bee.

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

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