So, I did my research and dug deep. I found some excellent resources which I’ve detailed below — and lucky for you, there’s a teleseminar next month that if you work or may work with hi-tech clients, you’ll want to check out. (Pssst, it’s co-hosted by this guy!)

But more on that in a second. Here’s my personal library of reads for working the hi-tech world. I read them all and found them very valuable as a marketer and copywriter. (Good stuff here too for anyone working in the B2B world, as well.)

Maven Transparency Alert: Amazon affiliate links

• Lead Generation for the Complex Sale: Boost the Quality and Quantity of Leads to Increase Your ROI

  By Brian Carroll. Excellent resource on lead generation, marketing matrices, etc. This one gave me a strong overview for multi-step lead gen. I referred and referenced it often, and suggested my client do the same. (Good stuff here even if the sale isn’t all that complex, as well.)

• Selling to Big Companies

  By Jill Konrath. Although sales is not the same thing as marketing - tho they’re part of the same process - I find sales-centric resources very useful, especially for lead-generation marketing. Understanding how the sales process works after the lead comes in will help you craft stronger marketing materials upfront.

• Copywriting That Sells High Tech

  By Janice M. King. Unlike one or even two-step marketing where the sale closes relatively quickly and doesn’t require a committee to get to "yes!", hi-tech marketing involves getting lots of different folks on board, each with different agendas and needs. You have the user who’s usually the tech person … you have the executive who will make the final call … and you have the purchasing person who’s main job is to make sure that the company gets full value for the pending investment. This resource will show you how to reach them all effectively. A must-read for copywriters who want to work in this area!

If you’re wondering where white papers fall into the marketing/copywriting mix, here’s news about that March teleseminar I mentioned …

Writing to the Techie (Tips on Persuading Technical Readers With White Papers) (aff link)
Michael Stelzner and special guest Bob Bly discuss the secrets to influencing the influencer.

Here are just a few of the topics these two major mavens will tackle:

• What are proven strategies for writing to technical readers?
• Do techies only care about technical details?
• Can I persuade someone who knows more than I do?
• Do I need a technical background to write to technical people?
• What are some simple steps to convey complex ideas?

Duration: 60 minutes
Date: Thursday, March 15th, 2007
Time: Noon Pacific Time (1 PM Mountain, 2 PM Central and 3 PM Eastern)

Cost is just $29. (Imagine how much Bly and Stelzner get for an hour’s worth of their time anywhere else!) Can’t attend? Get the transcript and audio for your listening pleasure.

And just like the resources I mentioned above (which I paid good $$ for), I’ll be paying to listen in, too. For less than $30, it’s a great opportunity to fill in a few holes in my hi tech knowledge so I can move confidently when the next hi tech client comes a calling.

Sign-up and details here.

Maven’s Maxim
You don’t have to know everything about everything when a client calls. Just know where to go, what to read, and who to go to when they do!

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After several weeks, nada. My ego was bruised and I was confused. The site had solid content so where were the visitors? Then fate stepped in …

A woman who worked for one of the leading engines at the time, Excite.com, emailed me and said she loved my site. She revealed that with a few changes to my html code, I could dramatically improve my traffic and ranking.

So I looked “under the hood” of my code, made her suggested changes, and voila, within a few weeks, my site was ranking in the Top 5 of every engine. (And today, still does.)

Amazing! That fortuitous email was the start of my interest in SEO, and like many of us at the time, I read everything I could about the subject. Some was technical, some not. But I was cobbling together little bits here and there.

Almost 10 years later, you’d think I’d know it all, but I don’t. As fast as you might learn, the technology, terminology and players change yet again. If it’s hard for someone like me whose working SEO/SEM knowledge is probably better than most, I can only imagine if I were just starting out. Yikes.

That’s why I know you’re going to benefit from the easy A to Z of SEO & SEM in the Search Engine Marketing Glossary

Developed by Aaron Walls, the major brains behind SEOBook, the Glossary is Aaron’s own FYI on the names and places, terms and phrases that continue to shape the SEO industry. From the definitions of a 404 page and the meaning behind the phrase, “above the fold” to “wikis” and “white hat SEO” (and lots of Yahoo related listings under Y) — reviewing this extensive glossary offered me a great refresher and introduced me to new terms and concepts like LSI, Latent Semantic Indexing.

Dozens of listings, all nicely indexed and neatly organized on a single page, the Search Engine Marketing Glossary is the kind of “link bait” (look that up, too) you’ll want to have at the ready as a bookmark or embedded as a permanent link in your tool bar.

And sooner is better than later :=)

Freelance Copywriter Fee & Compensation Survey

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It wasn’t a cool career when I got started. When I worked for a radio station, I was very cool. Even tho I was a lowly traffic continuity director (and secretary), folks were very impressed that I was in radio. They wanted to touch me, buy me drinks, and sit next to me at parties.

That all ended when I took up the copywriting game…

Them: "What’s a copywriter?"
Me: "I write advertising."
Them: "For TV?"
Me: "No, I write direct mail advertising."
Them: ?
Them: ?
Them: ?
Them: "Junkmail?"
Me: // sigh // "Yes, I write junkmail."
Them: "Ohh, I hate you."

Years later, copywriting is like the coolest thing to do for a living. People want to talk to me again at parties. And while I discourage the touching now (I’m married afterall), I don’t mind the free drinks and the happy crowds extolling me to share all that is copywriting. Heady stuff.

Where was I when this paradigm shift occurred? 
Oh yeah, I was copywriting. It wasn’t cool, but boy it sure did pay pretty well. Certainly I was doing better than than most of my friends with literary ambitions. I was actually making a good living as a writer. I thought that was pretty darn cool even if I wasn’t (cool, that is.)

Well, times have changed and everyone must think copywriting is like the coolest thing on the planet to do. My email box is bursting with offers for courses, programs, books, ebooks, what have you, that purport to reveal the secrets of copywriting and raking in the big dough. There are a few copywriting courses out there that are indeed worth every penny. But so many are about the fast buck and they’re written by FOLKS WHO WRITE LIKE THIS with lots of !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I DON’T DO THAT! (Oops, sorry. Stiuck cap key.) Me? I’m all about the work. Producing solid results for clients who trust me to make some magic happen and bring some marketing life to their products and services — and being paid well for the experience and craft I bring.

Problem is, even with all the copywriting career hype that’s out there, it’s easy for copywriters, novices and professionals, not to be paid for the genuine value and contribution they make.

Pricing our work is both an art and a science, and even after 20 some odd years, I’m still figuring it out. But there are good benchmarks and resources out there that we can use.

One of those resources is published by my colleague, Chris Marlow. Terrific copywriter, copy coach and publisher, Chris surveyed nearly 300 copywriters from across the country and got them to reveal what they actually charge for 20 common copywriting jobs!

Freelance Copywriter Fee & Compensation Survey 

What do folks charge for a postcard? In there. Full-blown direct mail package? In there. Website copy? Catalog copy? Email series? In there, in there, in there!

Are their geographical differences in the price ranges? Yes, but armed with the information you’ll find in the Freelance Copywriter Fee & Compensation Survey, you can use it to you own advantage. And while most novices generally don’t make as much as a seasoned pro, the smart copy novice doesn’t have to "give it away" either to build a portfolio.

This isn’t about gouging a client, or not giving fair value for the client’s investment in you. It is about showing respect and self-worth for what we do as copywriters. When we do well for a client, everyone makes out.

Maven’s Maxim
How cool is copywriting? Oh honey, it’s way cool. Check out Freelance Copywriter Fee & Compensation Survey and not only will you be cool, you’ll be able to charge what you’re worth. And that’s the coolest thing of all.

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