Inside Freelance Design

Issue #54
June 27, 2007

Welcome to Inside Freelance Design (IFD), your free, bi-weekly e-letter from American Writers & Artists Inc. Every other week, you can receive this special alert with secrets, tips, and insights from AWAI's graphic design pros to help you improve your skills and reach your goal of becoming a professional graphic designer in the fastest time possible.

IN THIS ISSUE:

How to Snag $10,000 in Free Advertising for Your Design Business
Quick Tip: FastStone – A Free, Fast Image Browser
EXTRA! EXTRA! News and Job Opportunities

How to Snag $10,000 in Free Advertising for Your Design Business
by Kammy Thurman

Imagine how you would feel if you tripled your client base in one week? Can you imagine what that would do for your business … and your income?

One of my clients experienced this happy situation two months ago. The best part: He did it by spending only a $60 distribution fee.

His success came from sending out 3 press releases that got attention from nearly 200 newspapers across 2 states. You can easily do the same thing.

Exposure in the media is one of the fastest, surest, cheapest ways to build credibility, position yourself as an expert, draw attention to your business, and generate sales. In a mid-sized daily newspaper or trade publication, a one-page article about you is worth about $10,000 in free publicity.

Here are some topics you can use for your press releases:

When you open your business
When you hold an open house
When you win an award
When you have a speaking engagement
When you partner with another business (For example, we partner with a salon that does professional makeup & hair for our clients before they come to our studio for a portrait.)
When you get an article published
A client’s success story
A book or special report you wrote
A fundraiser you’re helping with
“Predictions” about what’s coming up in your niche
A survey, top-10 list, or “free advice” about something related to your niche

(If you’re not confident in your ability to write your own press release, partner with an AWAI copywriter and barter your design services.)

Keep in mind that you need to send your press release at least 2 weeks before the publication’s print date, and earlier is better. That said, here’s how to write a release that grabs media attention and helps you sell your design services.

1. Open a new document in your word-processing software. In the upper-left corner of the page, type (in bold all-caps):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

If you want the release printed on a certain date, type:

FOR RELEASE ON OR BEFORE:

Underneath that header, type the approximate date you’d like the release to hit print (without bolding or all-caps).

2. Drop down a couple of spaces and type (in bold all-caps):

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Directly beneath that header, type your name, address, and phone number (without bolding or all-caps).

3. Drop four spaces down the page. Type the headline of your release, designed much like the headline of a sales letter – large, bold font size (18-24 point for a release), with down-style capitalization on the words. Just like a sales letter, the headline must grab your reader’s attention. (In this case, your reader is the publication’s editor.)
Down-style: “Powell to lead U.S. delegation to Asian tsunami region”
Up-style: “Powell to Lead U.S. Delegation to Asian Tsunami Region”

4. Under the headline, type a “deck” (subhead) that teases the editor to continue into the “lead.” (The lead is where you present the angle or “hook” to pull him into the body of the release.)

5. Drop two spaces below the deck and start the lead with a “dateline” (like BILLINGS, Montana - March 15).

The dateline tells the editor where and when the “news” is coming from. Immediately after the dateline, jump into the lead.

6. Next, write the body copy, where you “tell the story” you’re writing the release about. It will make up about 90% of the release.

7. After the body, provide a “call to action.”

You might say something like “For more information or an interview on (your topic) call (your name) at (your phone number.”) Or “To order your free copy of (title), call (phone number) or email (email address).”

8. Finally, drop two spaces after the body copy and type # # # in the center of the page. This signifies the end of the release.

The Internet has drastically changed how press releases are handled by the media. You no longer have to stick to local news.

Publicity expert Joan Stewart says…

“Today, you can start writing press releases directed at people anywhere who need what you’re offering, not just journalists. The Internet makes it possible to post press releases to your website and send them to press release distribution services which will blast them all over the Internet.

When someone is looking for information on a certain topic and uses a search engine to find it, even if they don’t know you, they’ll stumble across your press release if it includes the keywords they used during their search.”

You can find out how to do this in Stewart’s e-book, 89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases at http://www.publicityhound.com/pressreleasetips/ebook.htm.

And to learn how to structure releases for immediate response, see Bob Bly’s special report, Direct Response PR at http://www.directresponsepr.com/

* * * * * * * * Highly Recommended * * * * * * * *

Do You Have Questions About Your Freelance Design Business?

Get the answers to the hundreds of questions you may have about starting and running your own $100k/yr design business in specific, step-by-step details:

http://www.thedesignerslife.com/getanswers/

FastStone – A Free, Fast Image Browser
by Kristin Schwarz

FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, and free user-friendly image browser, converter, and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping, and color adjustment.

Its full-screen mode provides quick access to photo information, a thumbnail browser, and major functionalities via hidden toolbars that pop up when your mouse touches the four edges of the screen.

Other features include a high-quality magnifier and a musical slideshow with 150+ transitional effects. It also has lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image annotation, scanner support, histogram, and much more.

FastStone supports all major graphic formats (BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO, and TGA) and popular digital camera RAW formats (CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF, SRF, and DNG).

An added bonus for designers who cannot afford expensive image-editing software, FastStone allows you to save TIFF files that are in RGB to CMYK. This is important when you submit your files to the printer.

http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm

* * * * * * * * Advertisement * * * * * * * *

TURN YOUR PASSION INTO PROFIT

Whatever your passion, you can immerse yourself in it and make a six-figure income.

Learn how: http://www.awaionline.com/passionprofit

EXTRA! EXTRA! News and Job Opportunities

GRAPHIC DESIGNER – Cableorganizer.com Inc in Fort Lauderdale needs a versatile graphic designer to create their catalog, prep materials for trade shows, and design and maintain their website. You’ll need to be skilled in working with Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks. Send your resume to paul@cableorganizer.com .
GRAPHIC DESIGNER – Dircks Associates in New York has an opening for a graphic designer experienced with online, interactive, and direct-mail design. You must work well with a team and have good leadership or project-management skills. Send your resume and links to work samples to laura@dircksny.com.
ENTRY-LEVEL GRAPHIC DESIGNER – Appleone is looking to place an entry-level graphic designer with a well-established real estate firm in Tampa, FL. You’ll create designs for print and the Web, as well as help to manage and organize design documents. Send your resume to Jennifer Carlin at 3859887.6@JobFrenzy1.com.

COMING NEXT ISSUE:

How to Design a Super Simple Tear-Off Flap
Quick Tip: Designing for Visual Impact

* ABOUT INSIDE FREELANCE DESIGN *

Inside Freelance Design is a FREE bi-weekly newsletter from American Writers & Artists Inc., available to AWAI members and friends.

ARCHIVED ISSUES of Inside Freelance Design can be found on our website at www.thedesignerslife.com/insidefreelancedesign.

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Issue #54 June 27, 2007