Marketing Yourself

[Michele Davis <michele -at- krautgrrl -dot- com>]

Hello all,

I know some of you are independents or own your own company. Here is a 
smidgen about me first. I have a PhD in English and have been 
self-employed (with an S-Corp) my entire career. I started out in 1988 
as a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and my cousin Mark, who at 
that time was very well-known in the technology field and a prodigy 
(heck, he's my cousin, I have no idea why he was so popular) in the 
computing field for some program he wrote. I was a Mac person and knew a 
lot about the publishing process having used Atex machines and stuff 
like the Compugraphic. My cousin told me I could make way better money 
if I went into computer writing. He was right. I moved into Mac training 
and then learned the PC from the ground up.

For years I did a combo of tech writing, training and design. GE Capital 
Fleet Services gave me an award for excellent use of typography in the 
early 90's, but writing had always been my passion.

I now usually get work through referrals, from my agent, friends, or 
even ex-coworkers. I just had a contract where I didn't even have to 
interview because the guy remembered me from Spanlink, an IVR company, 
that I worked for ~7 years ago.

--------------------------------
Now, onto my questions. I do a combination of both writing and design. 
I've always tried to keep my web site and resume focused on writing, but 
since I do design I'm thinking perhaps I should do a web page for that 
and bury it so it isn't easily accessible. What does everyone think 
about those two skill sets, are they mutually exclusive? Will it damage 
me to do a web page that has design samples? Would it be "ok" to put the 
design work on the resume with the writing, especially since I write in 
conjuction with the design work?

I did a big (300 postcards) mailing for web design that was an amazing 
flop, I only received one follow-up but the contact was a cool lead and 
nothing materialized. I did make follow up calls but got nowhere. These 
were all small business owners that did not have web sites and had 
businesses that would be greatly helped by the addition of a web site. I 
don't know if it was the economy or that they didn't *get* my postcard 
as it was a sushi reference and Minnesotans aren't exactly savvy about 
food outside of the "hot dish." Altho' we do have numerous sushi 
restaurants... Any advice for culling new clients since the postcard was 
a flop?

I also hesitate to put the PhD on my resume as the MFA in Writing has 
gotten negative responses. What do you think? The PhD is in English, not 
rhetoric.

Thanks everyone, and you can certainly reply offline. All help is 
appreciated.

--
Michele

"I've learned that sometimes all a person needs is a hand 
to hold and a heart to understand." Andy Rooney
www.krautgrrl.com



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

NEED TO PUBLISH YOUR FRAMEMAKER CONTENT ONLINE?
?Mustang? (code name) is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to Web, intranets, and online Help.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! See a live demo that
will take your breath away: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l3

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.