Choose the plan that’s right for you.
Want to see if we’re a good fit without making any commitments? Let’s discuss your needs, and I can suggest which plan might work best for you.
Want to see if we’re a good fit without making any commitments? Let’s discuss your needs, and I can suggest which plan might work best for you.
Here’s the short answer:
It depends. If pricing is a big concern for you, I would suggest you hire me for a small half-day project. See how it goes. If it all works out, you could commit to something bigger or put me on retainer later. The question you should be asking yourself isn’t “Can I afford to incorporate content creation into my marketing budget?” it’s “Can I afford NOT to?”
Here’s the long answer:
If I’m writing a 500 to 750-word article, and it requires minimal research, it would probably take a day. This would include an image saved for the web with an alt tag and title, on-page SEO, meta title and description, excerpt, and social media post.
If I’m writing a 2,000-word article that requires a lot of research, it would probably take three days with all the bells and whistles.
I’ve created as many as 3 case studies with on-page SEO, metadata, alt tags, etc. in a single day. The client provided the basic details, like the market area and the service provided. They took one BEFORE, one DURING, and one AFTER image of each project. Each image had decent lighting and simply needed to be cropped and formatted for the web.
On the other hand, it has taken me as long as a full day to complete a single case study, because the client provided very little info and several dozen unlabeled images for a complicated job involving a series of steps.
About pages typically take two days, because there is a lot of communication involved. Many business owners need help defining their mission and vision, which are essential to the success of the About page.
It’s possible I could write two or more Service pages in a day, depending on the level of detail you want.
One thing is certain, regardless of how much work I can accomplish in a day. Your estimate will be the same as your invoice. I would rather underpromise and over-perform than vice versa. If it takes me two days to do something I estimated would take one day, I will not charge you the difference.
The more we work together, the better I’ll get at knowing how long projects will take. Everyone is different. Communication style, expectations, etc. will sometimes take a while to sort out. If I err on an estimate, I promise that you will be the one who comes out ahead.
If I add content directly to your website, I’ll optimize it for both humans and search engines and include offerings to the Google gods, such as on-page SEO, metadata, and the like. I’ll rename your images so they can be more easily indexed and format your images for the web so they won’t slow down your website.
If your site is equipped with social media options for pages and posts, I’ll check those and make adjustments as needed to optimize the user experience on multiple platforms when someone shares a link to your content.
For videos, if I have access to your YouTube or other video hosting platform, I’ll upload it directly and add a description. You’ll also receive a digital file to download and store as a backup.
If I have to provide content to you or your website manager, I can’t provide most of the above-mentioned perks. You’ll receive the content on a Word doc along with any images saved for web. The rest will be up to you.
A big part of what I do is teaching people how to add their own content to their websites.
Some people are fortunate enough to have the talent themselves or have someone on their team that is gifted in writing and video editing, and they don’t necessarily need me to do all their content creation forever and ever, amen. They just need a little help understanding marketing concepts in web and marketing content, how to appeal to specific audiences or editing content for clarity.
If I do my job well, some of these clients eventually get to the point where they don’t need me anymore. Of course, they know I’m here if they get swamped and need help.
I know how to create websites. I created this website. But I don’t enjoy doing it, and it is not my area of expertise. I prefer to focus on creating new content and updating and optimizing existing content. Give me a call to discuss your needs and then I can refer you to a reputable agency or designer and developer.
Marketing content focuses on providing valuable content to your target audience. This helps build trust and drives traffic to your site. Ideally, your website is optimized for conversion, which means that website visitors schedule services and become paying clients.
The goal of social media is to start conversations with consumers. Social media posts are a great way to share your marketing content.
I can certainly edit whatever you send my way. However, if your goal is to cut costs, your best bet would likely be to give me a list of salient points and unedited images or footage.
It has been my experience that editing can be just as time-consuming, and even sometimes more time-consuming as starting from scratch.
Alternatively, you can schedule time for me to work with you or your team to help develop your editing skills.
Search engines do not impose penalties on websites with boilerplate content (content reused by marketing agencies, networks, and other content creators). The truth is, boilerplate content is less expensive and can be helpful for new businesses on very tight budgets that need to get websites up and running right away.
The problem is that Google and other search engines tend to lump reused content together in a category that may not perform as well as original content. Boilerplate content is only a temporary solution so you will have some valuable information to make immediately available to prospects and clients.
If you want your site performance to improve, any duplicate content on your site should be rewritten and customized, updated, and expounded upon as soon as possible. To increase your odds of ranking well on search engine results pages, i.e. SERPs (especially if you’re in a competitive market area), fresh, original content should be added to your site regularly.
The answer to this depends on a few factors:
Articles should be at least 500 words and not exceed 4,000 words. That’s a lot of wiggle room.
In my experience, the websites that perform best add articles from the 750 to 1,200 range.
Don’t forget about case studies! They are more effective for conversion and ranking on SERPs than articles. Since case studies are stories, they hook your visitors. Since case studies have all the right ingredients (relevant links, industry-specific keywords, market area, etc.), they often outperform articles in very competitive market areas.
© 2022 Alice Dean | Top Floor Writer