Since you gave me your feedback in the writer poll, I’ve been working on making my freelance writer’s membership club a reality.
Some parts are falling into place. Hire Webmaster to wrangle all the technical pieces into place: check. Begin weekly calls where I answer writers’ questions: check. Select and purchase programs to manage chat forums, monthly membership group, and affiliate sales: check.
The part that was really stumping me was the name
It has to embody a lot:
It has to feel welcoming and comfortable, yet exclusive.
It has to let you know there will be loads of great information that’s well-organized into subjects, so you can find what you need to know.
All my previous Webinars and teleclasses available whenever you want.
Free access to monthly live Webinars, too, instead of having to pay $36 each time.
Of course, it needs great forums with caring moderators to support you and help you find the resources you need on your freelance writing journey.
And the moderators and other helpers inside the community should get to participate free.
A community of writers who’re serious about earning more — serious enough to pay to hang out in a place where everyone is as serious about it as they are.
A community that delivers terrific value each month and is way more affordable than buying the resources piecemeal.
A place where a revolving cast of experts drop in to add their expertise.
Most of all, it has to have lots of opportunities to get your questions answered. At live events, and privately on email.
I thought about having different membership levels and different levels of access, but in the end I felt that wasn’t very welcoming or friendly. Sort of a caste system. Ugh. And then I’d have tons more marketing to do trying to convince people at one level to go up to another level.
I’d rather spend more time helping writers. So either you’re in, or you’re not.
I didn’t want to call it a bootcamp. That sounds bossy! Make me think of a drill sergeant yelling at me. Not a supportive climate for nurturing freelance writers and helping them succeed.
Also, been done to death already. Ditto with calling it a club.
I told all this to my husband. We free-associated for hours about names. Then we found the photo above.
And he said, “Why don’t you call it The Freelance Writers Den?”
Bing!
“That would make me the Den Mother,” I said. “Perfect. Every week, we’ll have Den Meetings, where I’ll answer live questions.”
So that’s the plan. I’m hoping to have it ready to beta-test in a couple of weeks.
Branding help, please?
One question nagging at me —
Freelance Writer’s Den?
Freelance Writers’ Den?
I actually like Freelance Writers Den, but it’s ungrammatical. But that’ll be the URL since apostrophes mess up site names. So could that work, Freelance Writers Den? Or would no writers join because of the grammar issue?
What do you think? Definitely give me some feedback on that, please!
A-List Blogger Club has kind of gotten around this because they are still officially known as A-List Blogging Bootcamps on their site…but everyone calls them A-List Blogger Club. Which is a bit ungrammatical, too, but seems to work.
Freelance Writer Den won’t work, though
I kind of suck at branding, so really appreciate any thoughts on the name in particular.
One other question…I’m considering locking down older posts on Make a Living Writing — perhaps older than three or six months? — to members only. What do you think about this idea?
Another possibility is to lock down just some of my most popular old posts to be readable in full only to members. Appreciate everyone’s feedback on that.
Free invitations to the Den will be going out. I want a lot of people to test-drive it and give me feedback to help shape what it will be.
Who’ll be hanging out in the Den?
The top 100 most active subscribers on this blog will be getting an invite for a free month’s membership.
Everyone who participated in the poll, too.
And everyone who leaves me some serious feedback in the comments below will also be invited to try it out, free. Please leave me some below! (Yes, if you also took the poll or comment a lot, that means you might get a two-month free invite.)
Thanks in advance for everyone’s help in making this a mindblowingly awesome, welcoming, supportive, and supremely useful freelance writers’ community.
I can’t wait to open the doors and invite you in.
