Those of you who read this blog regularly, will know I like to conduct experiments. Recently I ran a challenge for local Women In Rural Enterprise, on whether posting more on Linked In would result in more course sales, something I could measure fairly specifically from Udemy metrics on external traffic to my course.

It was a 21 day challenge, first week improving profile and second two weeks posting more regularly. The image above shows the most popular post, and all you freelance writer students of mine – please feel free to steal this idea to market your services! There was no measurable uptake in course sales, but I did get 44 more Linked In connections. I was a rather inadequate experimenter as I forgot to send out targeted connection requests much myself – I did a total of 10 during the three weeks…

So what did I conclude from the experiment? Some freelance writers are making a killing on Linked In and using it as to get business most effectively. See Bruce Kasanoff On Linked In

It certainly works in the first stage of that old marketing process: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, and to raise awareness that you exist.

If you’re producing content anyway to showcase your talents, it’s not too arduous to post there a couple of times a week. And if you know you want to target a particular sector, then your efforts can be much more focused than say on twitter, which is more scattergun. I was surprised to get so many more connections and will continue to post a couple of times a week there. And you can expect some video tours of Linked In to appear here, soon.

Are You A Poet – But Don’t Really Know It?

We can keep growing as writers by experimenting in different forms. Thanks to a local group,I’ve started writing poetry – I don’t know much about it, but am getting some lovely new friends as a result. We collectively critique each other’s work and recommend events, books and other poets. And also, bizarrely, as a result of this interest and sticking up some video poetry online, I’ve had three workshop and speaking invites…

So if you’re feeling a bit stale or trapped in what you’re writing, why not take a tangential break and experiment with something different?

And Now The Money Stuff

Jane Friedman’s newsletter, which I can’t recommend enough for a grown-up guide to writing, had this useful link, a month ago.

Successful Self Publishing On Amazon

And if you missed this post, it created quite a furore online last week. Whatever you think of Jessica’s openess and goals – refreshing or revolting – I love hearing about the 70 personalized notes…

Jessica Knoll Writer, the luckiest girl

We’re having lovely Spring weather here in the UK, which despite our political turmoil, is most inspiring. May similar uplift be happening up your way.