Website Creation Rule #1: Think First

I have to admit: I've used mind mapping software for years. And yet, when I decided to create a website for my freelance writing business, the first thing I did was try to come up with a good home page headline.

Strong words are vital to a home page--any home page. But what makes a site work is the overall design and navigation, and the content you provide to visitors.

So the second thing I did was to open up a ConceptDraw MINDMAP and start figuring out what I wanted on my site. Here are the general areas I broke my site into:

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wasn't presenting myself the way I wanted to be seen by potential customers. The two main things I specialize in are developing strategies that help companies get noticed, and creating content--all kinds of content. Very often, the strategy involves content creation. But not always. So I keep them separate:

So now I have the basic skeleton of what I want my website to communicate. I'll post again soon (I'm not going to commit to tomorrow just in case...) on how to use MINDMAP to capture and organize in one place all the content and links you're going to need for your site.

A Better Way to Manage PR Campaigns

I suppose that many of you, like me, wear more than one hat in the course of a working week. One of my hats is doing public relations. I love to find companies that are doing something great, but that don't know how to get out there and tell their stories. It is the writer in me that helps communicate what a company is all about--without it sounding like some kind of cheesy brochure.

But PR isn't a one-off thing: It's a process. It's about creating a plan, then executing the plan. And PR plans, like most plans are complex. There are a lot of dependencies. Mind mapping helps me merge my creative, writerly brain with my organizational brain.

There are a lot of moving pieces to the typical pr plan, so I thought I'd make a few short blogs about it so you can see how ConceptDraw MINDMAP helps me work quickly and creatively on behalf of my clients.

PR success is all building strong relationships with influencers, and in having clear, compelling stories to tell. To build strong relationships, you have to understand the reporter--and keep track of your communications with them. Here's how I do it.

I have a set of maps where I keep my media contacts (I pull them from a media database I subscribe to). Every time I start a new campaign, I pull from that the names and info of the reporters I hope to work with on the campaign. The map looks something like this (though this map is very simplified):

I'm trying to keep these posts short, so I'll end it here. Tomorrow I'll talk about capturing your pr brainstorming.

How to Impress New Clients from Day 1

I read an interesting post today about how freelance writers can build strong, professional relationships with new clients. The post is on Freelance Switch and is about creating a smooth client intake process.

The gist of the article is that it makes a lot of sense to develop a repeatable way to bring new clients into your work process and your world. I've made a map of the blog post:

The author of the post, Thursday Bram, points out two distinct benefits of creating a repeatable client intake process:

1. By presenting the client with a well-ordered process, you immediately present yourself as a professional who knows how to get the job done--with the least pain and stress to your client.

2. By creating a repeatable process, you make it easier (should this happy day come), for you to pawn off some of this early client interaction onto your assistant.

Both of these benefits can mean more money in your pocket, a less-stressful experience for your client and, who knows, maybe a decent starting income for someone who's just getting into the game and is ready to assist you and learn from you.

As Bram notes, it's critical to gather this information in a way that you can put it right into the writing process. So you can gather all your client intake info in a CD MINDMAP, organize it and add to it, then export it all to an MS outline and get to work. By jove! Brilliant!

ATTN Freelance Writers: You are Project Managers too.

As a freelance writer, you can get in trouble when you have too many writing projects going on at once. Each project is always at a different stage. Each one needs something different to move it forward. It can drive you seriously nuts (been there).

If you don't already, you need to think of yourself as a sometime writer, sometime project manager. ConceptDraw can help you assume this role without having to attend ze L'Universite de Project Management.

Here's the kind of map I use every week to keep track of my contracts. It takes me just a few minutes to create and update the map, which I do at the end of every day:

The map lets me see AT A GLANCE where I am with all of my work. I can visually track the milestones of each project. I can tell by the various icons that I have attached relevant documents, be they Word docs, emails, mind maps, or just notes to myself. I can add notations about things that went on during a phone call. I can add reminders. But best of all, I have all my projects--and direct links to all my documents, in one easy-to-read document.

Download a ConceptDraw MINDMAP free trial and give it a try. And enjoy your new status as a bona fide project manager.