The right quote is essential when you’re replying to an inquiry from a potential client. There’s no set formula for creating a quote because each project is different. There are, however, certain elements you can include in your quote to increase its effectiveness.

Here are some tips that will make it easier for you to create a professional, effective writing quote.

One, include a header with your company name/logo and information. This is important as it shows you care about the image you present and that you are professional and know what you’re doing.

Two, use sub-headers, such as “Included Services” and “Price & Terms.” They are essential to creating a well-organized quote that is easy to follow and direct.

Three, outline everything you’ll do for your client. For example, if you’re only being hired to write several link pages on a website and you know that, by virtue of being a perfectionist, you’ll end up spending extra time proofreading their homepage, let them know. They’ll feel good knowing this extra service is provided, and you’ll get the proper acknowledgement.

Four, ask the right questions before you send a quote. Call or email the potential client to determine exactly what they want, their preferred time frame, and the scope of the project.

This information allows you to create a clearer, more effective quote by ensuring you know what the client wants. Additionally, it helps you determine what you can accomplish, the deadlines you’ll have to meet, and the amount of work you’ll be doing so you can reasonably price the quote.

Five, be succinct and straightforward. Avoid long paragraphs and overly complicated language. They don’t make you look more professional for these reasons:

• Your client wants to know how much you’ll charge for your services and which ones you’ll include in your quote-no more and no less;
• Your clients are busy people, and wasting their time with long-winded letters expounding on everything you’ll do for them isn’t necessary;
• Bulleted lists are your friends, so make good use of them. Easy to scan and nice to read, they are ideal when preparing quotes.

Six, state your terms and conditions clearly. For example, if you charge half up front and half upon completion of a project, include that information with the price.

Seven, always send a quote, even if you make a verbal agreement. Put everything in writing for purposes of clarity and to avoid any misunderstandings-this ensures you and your client will know EXACTLY what services and terms are included in the quote.

Eight, clarify how many rounds of edits, if any, you’ll provide. This refers to client changes or edits to the work after it’s been completed. This is usually essential as most people will like certain elements and dislike others, so don’t be offended. If you disagree, talk it over with the client and tell them what you think. You can explain why you wrote or edited certain paragraphs the way you did, and many times they’ll understand.

These are general outlines for quoting writing projects; for more specific projects, see the article below, titled “How to Create Quotes for Website Content, SEO Articles, Ezine Articles, Advertorials, and Press Releases”

A professional writing quote should be clear, concise, and informative. The goal is to tell the client exactly what you’re going to do for them and how you’re going to do it. The more detailed and professional the quote, the better chance you have of nailing the job.

Tip: for maximum effectiveness, make good use of bulleted lists, sub-headers, and a professional logo or header. Here is an example format you might use:

HEADER/LOGO

Introduction

Included Services:

• Service 1
• Service 2
• Service 3

Price & Terms:

• Price
• Terms

Below you will find specific guidelines a writer should follow when creating a quote for a client. These are guidelines that are unique to each project; others are sometimes interchangeable. For a full general guide to preparing a professional writing quote, see “How to Create a Quote for a Freelance Writing Job.”

Website Content/Copy:

When preparing a writing quote for a website, bulleted lists are essential. In the quote, include a bulleted list of every page you’re going to work on:

• List the names of the pages (home, about, contact, widget makers, how to make a widget, resources for widgets-you get the idea);
• The exact number of pages;
• If you’ll make the content SEO friendly;
• How many rounds of edits are included;
• Deadlines;
• Any other services you’ll provide.

SEO Articles:

In quotes for SEO articles, it’s essential to determine:

• Approximate word count;
• The number of articles;
• The keywords they’re using;
• If you’ll be doing the research;
• Who’ll provide the topics;
• What topics the client wants;
• Whether you relinquish all republishing rights;
• Deadlines;
• If you’ll be in charge of the article submissions.

When you’ve determined this information, include it in the quote with all the details. Let your client know if you charge additional fees for article submission and if you have different rates for specific word counts.

Ezine/ Magazine/Website Articles:

These articles, while they include many of the same elements of SEO articles, tend to be longer, more involved, and higher quality than SEO articles. When you’re creating a quote an ezine or website article, determine:

• Approximate word count;
• Topic (s);
• Whether you’ll retain republishing rights;
• Whether it will be ghostwritten or you’ll be credited;
• What deadlines you’ll have to meet.

Keep in mind that you’ll rarely be commissioned to write a magazine article unless you’re a known author or an expert in another field. Usually you’ll write a query letter, but that’s a whole other article.

Advertorials:

Advertorials are essentially informative marketing articles about a specific company or product. They require that you really explore a company and understand what exactly they do. Writing a quote for an advertorial involves the same requirements as a regular article (see directly above), but there are some additional elements to determine:

• Whether you’ll research the company on your own or if the information will be provided for you in the form of PDF’s, Word documents, or any other medium;
• How the company wants to portray themselves and what angle they’d like you to pursue.

Press Releases:

When providing a quote for a press release, you need to determine:

• If it will require technical writing;
• If it will require research or if the materials are provided by the company;
• If it is a press release from scratch or a rewrite;
• If the company has particular formatting requirements;
• Whether it will be released online, in print, or both;
• If they want you to submit the press release.

You need to have all of this information before you provide a quote; make sure the client knows if you charge differently for any of the elements above.

]]> http://www.auroramae.com/2006/08/12/how-to-create-writing-quotes-for-website-content-copy-seo-articles-ezine-articles-advertorials-and-press-releases/feed/ 0 http://www.auroramae.com/2006/08/12/back-on-track-and-writing-for-wikipedia/ http://www.auroramae.com/2006/08/12/back-on-track-and-writing-for-wikipedia/#comments Sat, 12 Aug 2006 09:37:52 +0000 Aurora http://www.auroramae.com/blog/2006/08/12/back-on-track-and-writing-for-wikipedia/

If you’re looking for specific information about writing, editing, or the like, please let us know; we can probably help. If you have writing or editing questions you’d like answered, leave a comment and we’ll reply.

Recently there have been a slew of questions about writing for Wikipedia. Writing for Wikipedia is actually quite easy; here are some easy steps to follow. Keep in mind that while you can edit a page anonymously, you will be more effective if you do so as a user. Here’s how to start:

1) Create a user account. You’ll fill out a profile and write a paragraph or two on who you are and what you do.

2) Visit Wikipedia’s community portal here and scope out the help and resources section. You’ll find guidelines, policies, a style manual, tutorials, editing tools, and much more.

3) After you’ve thoroughly read the guidelines and have a feel for Wikipedia’s writing style, create an article or browse around until you find something you want to edit.

Note 1: always check to ensure the article isn’t already written. If it is, make it better. If it isn’t, write away.

Note 2: visit the “Talk Page” before you edit an article to see if there are any debates, discussions, or notes from other editors. This is especially important as there may be article issues you need to know about. After you’re done editing the article, be sure to leave a note on the talk page telling other editors why you made the changes you did.

Note 3: often, especially if you’re a “newbie,” you’ll have to fight for the edit you make; be sure to have reputable sources that you can cite when you’re in a discussion with another editor.

Note 4: Three of Wikipedia’s main content-governing policies are:

· Include only verifiable information

o In Wikipedia’s words, “information on Wikipedia must be reliable and verifiable. Facts, viewpoints, theories, and arguments may only be included in articles if they have already been published by reliable and reputable sources. Articles should cite these sources whenever possible. Any unsourced material may be challenged and removed.”

· Always strive for a neutral point of view (NPOV)

o In Wikipedia’s words, “all Wikipedia articles must be written from a neutral point of view, representing views fairly and without bias. This includes maps, reader-facing templates, categories, and portals.”

· No original research

o In Wikipedia’s words, “articles may not contain any previously unpublished arguments, concepts, data, ideas, statements, or theories. Moreover, articles may not contain any new analysis or synthesis of published arguments, concepts, data, ideas, or statements that serves to advance a position.”

Bad technical writing. It screams at you from every proprietary page of a comprehensive, network-enabled, specialized technology and advanced application company’s website…

What?

Welcome to the land of techno-babble. Fraught with pitfalls, sinkholes and swamps, it is a land where heavy paragraphs drag you down; sentences trip you up; your eyes glaze over strange words; and service pages provide hazy “solutions.”

Sadly, many people get lost in this land and don’t know where to go or what to do. Give them what they really want and lead them out of confusion; tell them what you do in bold, powerful language that is simple and effective.

Above all else, good technical writing must be accessible. Visitors should leave your site as customers, with a clear understanding of what your product or service does and what it will do for them.

 

A growing phenomenon in the world of words is the use of the suffix -ize. Though it’s acceptable to summarize and harmonize in good taste, there’s rarely, if ever, a reason to utilize or prioritize. Don’t smack -ize onto a noun to create a verb. It sounds worse and a better word always exists.

The word utilize is especially annoying. Use works as well or better, and it doesn’t convey the same coldness and sterility that characterizes the term ‘utilize.’ The same goes for words like prioritize and finalize.

Using the -ize suffix to create a verb immediately separates the viewer from your language. No longer is it intriguing and interestiing, but dull and hollow.  There are some words like harmonize and summarize that can be used sparingly, but please, never, ever containerize!

 

If you’re writing for the web, one of the key factors you need to be aware of is how accessible your text is to your user, otherwise known as “accessibility.” Writing should be as straightforward and intuitive as possible for your readers to ensure their continued presence on your website.

One of the worst things people do when linking to a topic is linking the descriptive words to a site without giving the actual html address. People like to know where they’re going, so do them a favor and tell them! 

Instead of: I like Johnny Depp.

Give: I like Johnny Depp (http://www.johnnydepp.com).

But if the url is useless, like http://www.geocities.com/marge/imagesjd2.html,  link the website to a descriptive title, such as:

I like Johnny Depp (Johnny Depp Fan Site on Geocities.com).

This may not seem like a huge difference, but it is. Your users waste time trying to guess where they’re going, so make it easy on them. For more informaiton on accessibility and writing for the web, check out Jakob Nielsen’s usability website.

How to use Copyscape and Google to track duplicate content

Following up on the last article, a great tool that that allows you to check if your content has been scraped off your site and used elsewhere is Copyscape.com.

You can also pick strings of words at random from several sections of your content and type them into Google (make sure you put them in quotes). This is another great way to track your material.

If your content has been taken and you’ve been penalized, or think you might be, write and ask the owners to remove the content. If they don’t, lodge a formal complaint with Google through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. You can use it to threaten legal action and apply pressure to both the website owner and host to take the website down.

This also gives web hosts and Internet service providers a measure of protection from false copyright claims. As long as they outline certain notices and take-down procedures in their terms of service and implement them when there is a problem, they are covered in case they are unfairly accused of copyright infringement.

Originality is integral to good content creation. There are penalties for content that repeats other content, and numerous copyright laws. The easiest way to avoid this is ensure your content is original.

If you do use someone else’s work, even if you have their permission, you may still get penalized because of a duplicate content penalty. A duplicate content penalty is given to websites that Google thinks have copied original content from another source.

Unfortunately, duplicate content penalties don’t distinguish between the original content and the copied content, so be careful about letting other people use your content without changing it at least twenty percent. Google could give you the penalty even though you’re the original producer. This has to do with PageRank, and is too complicated to get into here.

Many believe that the search engines are changing this policy so that the original source is considered the site that published the content first, regardless of anything else. but until this becomes fact, don’t allow anybody to publish your content until after it has been available on your website for at least 2-3 weeks or until it has been spidered and indexed by the search engines.

There are many people who steal content and use it word for word; there’s not much you can do to avoid this, but you can track it with certain tools and take the proper action if you find someone is stealing your content. Also, put a copyright tagline at the bottom of anything you create; it can be an effective deterrent for prospective copyright violators.