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 fun!

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 marketingcompanies.

• 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.