Getting Clients to Your Website
Once you have your own website, it’s time to get an avalanche of buyers to
visit it. Let’s take a look at how you can attract clients from different sources.
Use Search Engines
Search engines are a powerful way to find work. All you need is a little
creativity and you can dig up any information you are looking for including getting
freelance work.
A tip: Whenever you type a query in a search engine (e.g., freelance writing),
it will show all the pages that contain the word “freelance” and the word “writing.”
These words necessarily need not appear side by side. For example, on typing
freelance writing, a page containing the following sentence will also be shown: “I
used to freelance in 1970. It was great but you know what, I hate writing.”
A better way to use the search engines is to make use of phrase match.
Surrounding a group of words with double quotes tells the search engine to only
retrieve documents in which those words appear side by side. Phrase searching is a
powerful search technique for significantly narrowing your search results, and it
should be used as often as possible.
Examples: “John F. Kennedy”, “Walt Disney World”, “global warming”
With this tip, let’s get started to find work. Working in pajamas is so much
Type in the search engine of your choice “Write for Us” + Payment
Many online companies have a “Write for Us” section, but some do not pay
for submitted articles. Adding payment keyword, you are looking out for pages that
discuss payment.
You can use many permutations and combinations such as:
“Hiring writers”
“Writers needed”
You can also write the name of the niche you specialize in such as “health
writers.”
Use your creativity!
Use Craigslist
Craigslist is a hugely popular online classifieds site where you can find
anything from job listings to people trying to sell e-books! Craigslist claims to
generate over 4 billion hits a month. Craigslist works very well for some writers.
There are two strategies you can use on Craiglist: post your own ads or browse for
the posted job listings.
If you write ads, target them uniquely for each city. If you post too many
ads, you risk being suspended or even banned from Craigslist. To minimize this
risk, each ad needs to be different. Give them unique descriptions and titles. Don't
post more than 10 to 20 ads at a time.
The other way is to look for job postings, bookmaking and looking around
for jobs on individual city pages. However, this can take a lot of valuable time.
Your best strategy is to subscribe to the RSS feeds for writing jobs in each city.
That way, new listings come straight to you.
Note: You can get some good paying assignments at Craigslist. Keep
Looking!
The RSS feature on Craigslist is located at the bottomright of the
website. You would need a RSS feed aggregator to use this. You can
sign up for a free one at Yahoo or Google.
Find Successful Web Publishers and Marketing Companies
Here’s an underground secret to finding boatloads of work:Web publishing
is a big industry. There are millions of websites and the number is growing
exponentially each year. All these websites need content.
One of the best strategies you can adopt is to contact some of these website
owners and strike a long term contract. Most of the individuals who run these
websites don’t run one single website but numerous websites. There are some web
publishers who have 100 + websites!
Not every website owner is a good prospect. In fact, most of them are not
Many are just trying to earn a buck or some extra money. They most often do not
hire a writer and prefer to write content themselves. That’s not where the gold is.
Your goal is to find seasoned web publishers on the Internet. Seasoned pros
know that good content costs money and they will definitely pay for good quality
articles (in the range of $15 to about $40 per article).
Here are some ways you can find these big fish publishers:
- Visit forums and blogs related to internet marketing and search engine
optimization. Become a part of the community. Look out for members
who have been around for a few years. Contact them privately using
the instant messaging option. On the forums, you would also become
aware of some of the big web publishers and online marketing
- If you are dedicated, one of the best places to catch them is at Search
Engine Conferences and internet marketing seminars. These
publishers spend thousands of dollars to attend conferences. They are
red hot prospects.
- You can also browse around looking for informational websites.
There are two kinds of websites on the Internet: e-commerce websites
that sell products and informational websites that give free
information and make money selling advertisements. If you come
across a website with many pages and a professional touch up, try
contacting the owner for possible writing assignments.
Don’t Forget to Target Your Local Market
Your local businesses need writers from time to time and they can become
long term clients. Make sure to contact them and leave your contact information and
resume with them.
Sign Up for Freelance Newsletters and Job Alerts
There are numerous blogs and freelance writing websites that give periodic
alerts on writing jobs available. A few resources are:
- www.worldwidefreelance.com
- www.thegoldenpencil.com
- www.freelancewriting.com
- www.aboutfreelancewriting.com
Throw in Some Traditional Marketing
Okay, traditional marketing is harder than promoting yourself on the
Internet, but it has its benefits. You can attract better quality clients. At the end of
the day, you need as much work as possible. Having traditional marketing strategies
in your promotional arsenal is something you should always consider.
Traditional freelance writing marketing makes use of cold calling and
writing direct mail letters. If you write direct mail letters, you could expect a
conversion ratio of around 1 % (for every 100 letters you send, expect 1 confirmed
assignment).
There are various ways you can find clients in the offline environment.
Directories and Handbooks: These give you a database of
potential clients. A good resource is the annual Writer’s Market
handbook, available in local bookstores, libraries and on
Amazon.com. It lists several areas where you can find work and also
lists the ongoing fees.
Trade Journals: As well as keeping you up to date with developments in
your industry, trade journals are a rich source of contacts and potential business.
Networking: Engage in online discussion forums. Attend seminars and let
people know what you do.
Referrals: Ask for referrals from someone you know or someone you have
worked for. If you have a good relationship with people, many will oblige.
