Today I am glad to announce that a revised edition of my Profitable Blogging Training is almost complete! A few more days and I will be sharing my journey into building a niche website from scratch to full profits in just six months!
This month’s Kindle royalties also just hit my account, and they are more than I could ever have imagined! Getting close to $700 in royalties is surely a blessing!
And in the context of this celebratory atmosphere, I would like to show you how to go past the basics in your freelancing career.
So far, we have only looked at getting jobs from freelancing websites. Most of the time, such jobs are never sustainable. You work for a client on a project, and that is it. You may never hear from that client again. Your connection is severed.
But what if you could get clients who directly inbox you their orders in your Gmail or Yahoo account?
What if you never had to stay at the mercies of the freelancing platforms again?
As a freelancer, you must be able to approach clients directly. This strategy is called cold-calling.
What I am going to teach you today might sound crazy and undoable. It involves you going past your comfort zone. It involves you starting conversations with total strangers on email. Emails that you never even know whether they are ever monitored!
Also Read: Why Hire a Copywriter?
If you thought that bidding for freelance writing jobs is a hustle, wait until you try cold-calling. The best part is that it is absolutely worth every hustle you put into it. Most of my return clients are clients that I got from cold-calling, and they make up to 45% of my monthly income from freelancing.
So how do you find the right clients to pitch your services?
Google is your greatest ally when it comes to finding clients to cold-call. Simply do a search of the terms related to your specific writing niche. At the top of the search engine results, they are several links marked as ADs. Those are advertisers who are spending money to advertise their websites, and there are chances that they also need to hire freelancers to assist them with their search engine marketing (SEM) efforts.
Visit their websites, go to the contacts page, and either use the contact form to let them know that you are a freelance writer and you could be great for their business or find their email address and send them an email.
A lot of
Kenyan freelancers think that online job boards are a reserve for the western freelancers. This is not actually true. Visit
BloggingPro Jobs Board right now, find a job posting, apply for it, and let me know the results… Remember to be awesome in your job application letter.
If you are not on Twitter, this might give you a reason to join. There are clients lurking in Twitter, waiting for the right freelancer to connect with them. Create an account if you don’t have one. Search for your writing niche, and follow the accounts that are related to it. Engage in conversation with the Tweeps who own the accounts, and always be on the lookout for when you can pitch them your services.
LinkedIn is another great social network for you to connect with clients. Get proactive in the discussions on your writing niche, and always put your instincts on high alert on when it might be the right time for you to pitch clients your services.
As you grow in the freelancing industry, your blog will become the most important tool you have for netting clients. I get contacted by at least 10 clients every month who are looking for a Kenyan freelance writer.
Besides, your blogs will let you go past freelancing. It is a great way to make money from other services that you might have for offer such as launching an ebook or training course.
One tip when using a blog to attract clients. Always include a ‘Hire Me’ or ‘Services’ link on your navigation menu.
I am currently creating professional and profitable blogs for free to freelance writers who sign up for webhosting using my
iPage Affiliate Link.
There are several other strategies that you can use to cold-call clients. I hope that you will discover more as you get more adept at this. The most important thing that I would like to emphasis, have a specialized writing niche. It is not only the way to differentiate yourself from the rest of the freelancers who apply for any job but also saves you a lot of time and confusion when you are hunting for freelance writing jobs.
Patrick Mahinge
Patrick Mahinge is a prolific digital marketer and "serial webpreneur". He runs multiple profitable niche websites and blogs monetized through affiliate marketing and advertising. Patrick generously shares his expertise in affiliate marketing, blogging, and online business through his Facebook group of over 5,000 aspiring entrepreneurs.
