Freelance Writing for Beginners: How to Become a Content Marketing Writer and Get Your First Client
If you've been working your butt off trying to build or grow your freelance writing business or start your journey as a content marketing writer, this video details exactly how to set up your business to get your first client.
Through the strategies in this video, you'll be able to understand how to set up your biz, how freelance writing clients think, how to reach out and attract them, and what next steps to take once you have a big ol' YES on a brand new project.
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Freelance Writing for Beginners: How to Become a Content Marketing Writer and Get Your First Client
Hello. If you have been struggling to get your freelance writing career off the ground, if you're trying to figure out what you need to do to become a content marketing writer, that's what we're talking about today. So I have some steps and I have some cool, important things that we need to do. And I will give you some freebies too, along the way. So let's get started on some cool stuff. Uh, just as like a quick overview, if this is, you know, your first foray into freelance writing, I've been a freelance writer for the last 10 years. Um, I'm gonna give you some of the steps that I have used to build my six figure business and the steps that I used over the years to kind of build the structure into my, this, and the little framework that I needed to, to grow and scale and kind of get away from clients that were asking for one-offs.
Hey, Bena, welcome in, um, and get everything together. Oh, <laugh> a ho would be nice. A Hoy would be nice. All right. So let's talk about this. Let's talk about setting up your business. Hey Vicky, I'm glad you're here. Nice to see you. We'll do AUP date in a little bit too, cuz I know sometimes when I'm doing this, people ask for up dates before I actually do them. So I'll do a little up date in a little bit.
1) Setting Up Your Freelance Writing Business (LinkedIn Profile, LLC, Contracts, Invoices, Proposals, Getting Paid, Pricing Your Content Work)
So let's talk about setting up your business. So when you're becoming a freelance writer or a content marketing writer, there's a few things we need to do. And then we'll talk about getting our first client. So when you're setting up your, this, you need to make sure that you understand the foundations of how people find you as a freelance writer. So this is something that my students get stuck on sometimes and I was stuck on it for a while.
Um, you don't have to worry about your website. First thing. Yes. It would be ideal that you already have your website set up. It would be ideal that you already did LinkedIn, but the deal is, Hey Marie, welcome in glad you're here. So the deal is that the bare minimum is LinkedIn. You gotta have LinkedIn up because that's how we connect with a lot of our clients and we need somewhere to send them. So in a day and age where basically anyone can create a website, anyone can create anything. We have to look legit. If we're starting out, right, we're starting our business. We have to look legit. And one of the ways, the best ways to do that is to get a LinkedIn profile. Yes, people create fake LinkedIn profiles that happens, but it would be pretty rare that you, as a writer would create a, a LinkedIn profile and then start marketing to people to work with them as like a fake person that just wouldn't have.
So our bare minimum when setting up our business is we need a LinkedIn profile. So we have some place to send people. Even if you don't have clips, even if you don't have a ton of writing experience, even if you're starting from zero, we at least need to set up somewhere where clients can go to learn about you, your services, who you work with, um, what it's like to work with you. If you have clips, that's a bonus. You put 'em in the featured section on LinkedIn, but um, <laugh> yeah. Maurice said, yeah, this the stuff, uh, it was stuff, but Mandy helped get Mandy helped get me on track. Good. I'm glad I know. I've got a few students in here that are hanging out. So thanks so much guys for, for popping in on a Friday. So we at least need just something.
Oh, and I need my little numbers. Gosh, I always forget these. So number one, we have to have a LinkedIn profile. We have to have something to send people to. So the deal is that we wanna look legit and we wanna attract the right clients. And the way to do this is to have that LinkedIn profile set up. So when people visit it, when we send our Lois, our letters of introduction, Lois, our pitches, they know that they're the right client for us or when they find our <laugh>, why you raking everything over there, buddy. When they find our stuff, they see that, okay, they write about travel or they write about SAS. Don't bother her <laugh> or they write about, um, FinTech or they write about AgTech or they write about law tech. Um, there's all these different things that we need to have in our profile. So let's talk about that and I'm gonna link to this below. So I'm gonna put a link below of the questions, your LinkedIn profile and your a website need to answer. That will be in the description below. Hey Annie, welcome team. Yeah, I like that. We have our little livestream team. Hi buddy.
You're gonna have to go hang out over there. I know you're a little antsy fancy today. Mini's all nice and snuggle.
Hey, go. All right buddy. Why don't you go lay down? I know you're having a day. Oh, don't lay on.
All right. We having a day. All right. So the deal is that your LinkedIn profile, I'm gonna, I'm going to put those in the description of questions. Your LinkedIn profile needs to answer. Cause I have a whole video on it and I don't wanna go through that on here just because I feel like there's a lot more important things to talk about. So our LinkedIn profile, we need a tagline that says that we are a free writer, ideally that it says freelance content marketing writer, and then your niches. We need a photo where we're smiling and we look like we're inviting people to our profile. Um, I always kind of think of it as like a little Hoit hole. Like I know I joke about them having their Hobbit hole over there, but I always say like, this is your little Hobb hole. You have a mini Hobbit door.
Your picture on your LinkedIn profile is like your little Hobbit entrance. Hello, welcome. Like, it should be, um, interesting. It should be fun. It should be something where someone sees your photo on LinkedIn. And they're like, yes, that's who I need to talk to. They look pleasant. They look fun to work with or they look interesting or they look happy. They look like they're enjoying stuff. That's really important. Then that header box at the top, right? That big image behind your profile image, use that as a way to share more information, your niches, your website URL, if you have it, your email so they can get in touch. Um, and hello. Um, and anything else in there that you think is really important? Like your niches, your contact information, like your email and your website are super important that you are a freelance content, marketing writer is important.
Um, all that stuff needs to be at the top. And then you're gonna fill out your about and your experience section. So if you don't have any clips yet you don't have any clients, don't worry about it. What we're gonna do in these sections is explain who we work for and how we help them, how we're solving problems with our content, what types of content we work on. Um, and the types of things that we can help with the types of results that we can help people get. Right? So all of these things we can talk about out without having had clients yet, this is totally fine because there is a way to help people, right? We know how to help them. We can figure it out, right? We know that when someone wants a blog post, they're doing their blog post, cuz they want more website traffic, or they want to help with their SEO performance or they want to, um, get people to their website, download something or to get more sales.
Like we know they're creating a piece of content for a specific reason. So when we're writing our LinkedIn stuff and I said like, like I said, I'll put the questions in the description. Like I'll put the video, uh, for the, the questions to answer below, but we are giving them a presence. So when you're starting your business, right, when you're becoming a content marketing writer, in order to get your first client, you need to have a place where that client can go where they're like, oh, they write blog posts. They do case studies, they do white papers. Um, and I need that stuff. I need help with that. Oh. And they understand that I need a case study as a prop tech client because it helps show, uh, potential that these are stories that could be theirs. This, they could be these, these clients that we've helped.
Um, they could be our next success story, that kind of stuff. So these are really important. It's really important to have some place. And I like LinkedIn because I do a lot of marketing on there and I find that that's the best place to get started. And then we can build out the website later. Um, then next part about starting your business is don't worry so much about all of the business tea, tacky stuff. So I've had students, I've had, uh, freelance writer, wealth lab students, and one-on-one coaching students, um, create an LLC before they start their business. Cuz they're just kind of nervous about it. And that's fine. I didn't create an LLC until many years into my business. So you can create one. You don't have to, um, you would just use your social security number instead of an E. And once you create your LLC, you use an E, but don't get stuck on that kind of stuff. There's a lot of ticky tacky, things that, um, we expand upon as we go along in our business. Right. There's a lot of things. Why don't you step on in her? She does. <laugh> you're just driving her nuts. Okay.
All right. Lay down buddy. Lay down buddy. There you go. Good job. All
Right, MI can you go back to your Haba hole? I know he's stepped on you. How
Rude, how rude, how rude.
Let's just do a quick cup date since they're there. Oh, we only have one on screen. Classic. Always only have one on screen. They just can't sit close enough together unless they're sitting on each other. All right
Buddy. Ready? 1, 2, 3 dogs. Good job.
I mean I thought good job. Woo. Sorry me. That was my fault.
That was my fault.
All right buddy. Ready buddy. 1, 2, 3 dog. So close. So close. I have good girl. I have good girl. All right.
We did our quick up date except only half of us are on the screen. If only you guys could just be on the screen at the same time. There we go. We got everybody on the screen at the same time. All right. Everybody gets a treat out for being on the screen at the same time.
All right buddy. Ready? You're so close I five. Good girl. Other one other one other one. Good job. Close enough.
Cool. All right. So let's keep going. So our LinkedIn profile is the bare minimum of setting up our business. Two, don't worry about an LLC to get your first client. You don't have to rush to set everything up. If you feel really nervous about it, if you are, um, feeling like you need an LLC to feel like you need to move forward in your business. I like Northwest registered agent. That's how I set up my LLC. Um, and you need a registered agent anyways for your LLC. So it's just kind of natural to fold it right in there. So if you go to Northwest registered agent, you can set up your LLC. It's super easy. Um, and then they basically like act as your registered agent, meaning they collect papers or notify you of things or do a bunch of other 'em things, but it's not critical.
So the other thing you need to do to set up your business is you need to, um, have your payment system business software situation kind of at some basic level. So when you're setting up your business in order to get your first client, right, if you get, how are you gonna invoice them? How are you gonna send a contract? How are you gonna get paid? Like how does that work? Well, that's what we're gonna do. The registered agent thing is state based. Okay. So you may or may not need a registered agent here in Texas. We need a registered agent and also there's different fees. I know that I have some students in California and other places where they have to pay different fees for, or their LLC. Um, forming an LLC costs different amounts depending on the state you live in. So another story there, um, when you're setting up your business, when I started, I had, um, fresh books, but that be like, they added too many things that were too complicated for my business.
So I moved to harvest. So if you're first starting out as a freelance writer use harvest, it helps you invoice. It helps you track your client stuff. If you wanna track your hours, you can do that. It's very basic, um, kind of client management and invoicing tools. And then you can hook it up to like Stripe and PayPal and all this stuff that helps you get paid. I like Stripe personally. Um, because with Stripe, if you allow them to just do bank to bank payments, you only pay a maximum of $5 where if you're using PayPal, then in someone pays with a credit card, then you get crazy fees for it. So with Stripe you can do credit card or bank payments, but if you just select bank, bank payments for Stripe, then you end up paying very low fees, which is a big, big plus.
So when we're starting things up, I think harvest is your best option. It's really easy to send an invoice. It's really easy to get paid. It's really easy to manage all your stuff as you move along. This is something that I recommend to my freelance writer, wealth lab students, and my one-on-one coaching students is dub Soto, D U B S A D O Dubsado. This is the entire way that I run my business now. So that means that it is my invoicing, my project management, how I make appointment, how I get paid. So I have Stripe that connects to Duba. Um, I have all of my contract templates, all of my proposal templates, all my invoice templates, um, everything that I need is in Duba. I don't have, like, I got rid of so many other tools when I ran, uh, when I started using Duba it also helps me track on my business financials.
My expenses helps me pull stuff for taxes. My to-do list is in there. Um, it tracks like how much revenue, like, you know, like in my percentage of revenue going in and out whatever, or not in and out, but coming in. Um, and so that is a more complicated tool and it's kind of like a little mini monster base. Like if you're starting out, um, DOA is an investment. Like you have to invest both time <laugh> and money. So DOA is free for the first, um, three projects that you have in there. So if you wanna start with DOA just to get warmed up and you wanna use that it's free up to three clients or three projects. Um, and then it's 50 a year. I also have an affiliate code for dosa that gives you 20% off your first year or your first month. So I'll drop that in the description. But I think for just basic getting started harvest is your best option so that you can get paid when you're setting things up. So let's move on to the next thing that we're doing to start our business. And that is, I have to cough. Hold on.
Ooh. Okay. And that is, um, so we did invoicing, we did setting it up. We did, um, contracts. So the best way to get started with contracts, cuz you need a contract for every single client that you work with. So you can create this contract. This is what I used to do. When I started, I would create it in a word doc or a Google doc. Then I would upload that to hello sign. You can use DocuSign if you want, but you upload it there. And then you get electronic signatures. So it's binding now what that I use now that I use dub Soto, all of my stuff is signed in there. Like all of my electronic signatures and all my contracts and proposals are sent through dub Soto. But if you don't wanna best in DOA and you're just getting started, make your contract in Google docs or whatever, download it, upload it to a hello, sign, DocuSign, whatever your favorite um, e-signature program is.
Cuz you wanna make sure you get a legally binding signature, um, upload it there, get it signed and that's that's good. And then store it somewhere safe. Um, we wanna make sure that we have some way to bind ourselves together, right? We have some way to say like, Hey, we are agreeing to work together. Here's the work we're gonna do here is what is, here's how we're gonna get paid. And it like if any legal stuff happens, here's how to do that. And I actually, I forgot about this till now, but I have a bundle. So if you need contracts, if you need proposal templates, if you need marketing templates, you can go to Mandyellis.com/bundle. This is where I give you all of my stuff. So, um, it has my current current contract templates, my current marketing that I use for LinkedIn, my LOI templates.
So it's all of my good juicy stuff that I use for marketing and setting up everything for clients. So if you go there mans.com/bundle, you can get it. All right, let's move along. Oh, and I have a free pricing guide. So if you're starting out, this is the next thing I we're gonna talk about, but if you're starting out and you're like, I don't know how to charge for anything, like let alone invoicing or setting up my business. Like I don't know what to charge. This is my free pricing guide. If you go to mans.com/pricing guide, this is like, I give you all the different type of projects. I'm actually about to update it too. Um, and every time I update it, I send it out to everybody who's on, um, my email list and this is a good way to get my email list.
So the deal is that, um, I'm giving you all the different project types in there and it helps you kind of figure out where you are. Um, there's also like some directions of how to use it if you're kind of like confused about the ballpark ranges, but free pricing guy. Cool. All right, let's go. Keep going. So, um, let's talk about pricing. So once you have your, um, contracts set up, you have some kind of way, right? You have everything like your systems are set up, right? Your contracts or invoices, setting up your business on LinkedIn becoming a legit member of the freelance writing community. Right. We need to figure out how to price stuff. That that's why I have my free pricing guide because I have found that the questions I get most of the time are like, what do you charge for this?
Or what is, how would you price that? Or, um, what did you charge for this in the past? So I made this pricing guide as a freebie just because I feel like it's helping all of us raise our prices. And I had a note, um, I got an email just the other day from someone and I told them like, they were kind of nervous about raising their prices. And I was like, I've only known one writer in the last 10 years, one writer who grossly overcharged for their services one in 10 years, everybody else under charges, like the probability that a freelance writer would overcharge someone is really low because freelance writers are often not aware of the value that they're bringing to a client or the value of their content or, um, how much experience and knowledge they really have, or the quality of their writing.
So they often undercharge. So I made this pricing guide. So you don't undercharge anymore. We're not gonna overcharge, but it's giving you ballpark ranges. So you kind of have to figure out what your ballpark ranges are. What are your floor prices? What are the, um, numbers that you feel good about with the work you're gonna do? So what is your ballpark range for a 500 to 700 word log post? What's your ballpark range for an 800 to a thousand word reported article? What's your ballpark range for a three to five page case study, all that stuff. Um, and like I said, that's in the pricing guide. So if you get the pricing guide, it's here.com/pricing guide. Um, and when you get the pricing guide, you get attached to, um, my weekly emails where you get tips and tricks. So in addition to this live stream, I send a weekly email with fast tips and tricks like this live stream lets me expand.
Uh, but I send a weekly email with tips and tricks and you get those for free when you get the guide. So, um, I think that's what we want. So we wanna set up our LinkedIn. We wanna make sure we set up our business in turn of setting up our systems. So invoicing contracts and figure out pricing. So all of those things need to go together to set up our business. That's our first phase. Then we're gonna figure out how we're gonna get our first client. So that's our second part. So let's move on there, boo. And we'll do a quick cup date. Everybody's licking or sleeping or hi Barry. Barry's like I heard the trio bag. All right buddy.
Ready? 1, 2, 3 dog. Good job.
High five. Good girl. Other one. Good job.
Oh my gosh. You guys are doing great today. There we go. Now we can actually see you mini. All right buddy. Ready?
1, 2, 3 dogs. Good job.
High five other one. Good job.
All right,
2) Freelance Content Marketing Writer Marketing (LOIs, Niches, Ideal Clients, Revenue Ranges for Ideal Clients, Getting Your Train Up to Speed)
Everybody you guys are doing great today. Everybody's doing great. All right, let's talk about number two. So let's talk about, Ugh, got dog DRO all over me. <laugh> um, let's talk about when we are putting our business together in terms of sending our marketing. So this is our next phase, right? This is how we start getting our first client in addition to LinkedIn. So we set up our LinkedIn and we have, we've answered all the questions that I drop below, right? Those videos below that. Talk about the questions that your LinkedIn profile needs to answer. We've done that. That's starting our attraction thing. So the LinkedIn is starting the possibility of people being able to find us on LinkedIn or find our LinkedIn profile by Googling things because LinkedIn has strong SEO. So your profile can come up, um, and that's starting it and it's okay to make your LinkedIn aspirational.
It's okay to say like I, you know, I work on case studies, even though you haven't done a case study, what you do need to do is learn how, how to do a case study before you actually do one, don't say you're gonna do a case study and then like not learn about it. And then kind of like do a shady case study. You need to learn about the types of content that you're gonna provide for someone before you actually do it. So when you, I say, make your LinkedIn aspirational, it's okay. If you haven't done that type of content yet, but you need to learn how to do it. You need to know how to do it in order to offer it. But it's okay in aspirational terms to say like, you know, I haven't done it yet, but I know how to do it.
Or for me you find a relational piece of content. So for example, like I haven't done a case study, but I've done a ton of reported articles. I'm familiar with interviewing and case studies and reported articles are very similar in how, you know, an questions you ask or how you kind of think about them and put the puzzle together in my mind, at least. Um, so the next thing is marketing. This is our outbound. So if LinkedIn is our inbound, it's how people find Lois and our marketing outbound. So our letters of introduction, our Lois, we are gonna send these out. We're gonna make our list. So when you're trying to get your first client, you're gonna be sending 50 to 75 Lois per month to get those clients. Okay. So I know it sounds like a lot, but as you move along, it'll get quicker, were in quicker.
So for me, I'll just give you an example. Um, the, I think the first LOI that I ever wrote or ever sent took me either a week or two weeks or a month, something in there, it took me a long time to get my LOI all together. My first reported article took me a month to put together two. And now I send, I don't know, I can send like 25 Lois in a day. It's not hard to do when you have a template and that's why we have the bundle. So the bundle has all the LOI templates. So if you're trying to figure out your marketing, you can go to Mandy ellis.com and get the bundle. And the bundle has my LOI templates, but the point of our marketing here with our Lois is I always think of it as a drive through. So you're basically getting in there being like, hi, do you need help with your content?
I'm qualified. I, you know, here's my past clients or here's the niches I work in or, um, here's how I can help you. Here's a link to my LinkedIn profile and or website and or testimonials, depending on how far you are in your Lance writing journey. Like, um, if you're coming from corporate and you have like 20 years of experience and now you're freelancing different story, or if you're starting from scratch and you have no clips, you know, at least you have your LinkedIn. Um, and that's kind of it, we're not using our LOI to oversell people. We're not using our LOI ready,
Good job. Ready, buddy. 1, 2, 3 dog.
Good job. We're not using our LOI to like overly sell people. I'm like, you need a post because da, da, da, da, da, cuz I used to do this. And it was such a waste of time. Uh, not only was it a literal waste of time of me coming up with ideas or thinking about how to pitch my services or convince people to hire me. The deal was if someone did answer, which was rare because these Lois were like two pages long, um, they would end up saying like, that's nice, but we actually need help with this. Or that's nice. We actually need help with that because you don't know, you're making a lot of assumptions by trying to pitch a service to someone you don't know if, excuse me, you don't know what they need. You don't work at that company. So although they may be creating blog posts, they might be really struggling with creating downloadables like eBooks and guides or although you notice they have a bunch of white papers, they're really struggling to get more case studies.
You just don't know. So with your LOI in your marketing, you're just driving by. You're just drive through. Hey, do you need help? Cool. I'm here to help. I'm qualified. I'm in your niche. I know how to help you. Here's my LinkedIn goodbye. That's it. That's how we end up sending 50 to 75 a month is like they're templateized we make them personality driven. So you make a template. That sounds like you. So if you get the bundle that I was talking about, take my examples and make them sound like you personality driven template work. Okay? So then you take your personality driven templates and you use them to send out your Lois. So like who are we sending these to? Now that we have our templates, who are we sending these to in order to get your first client, you need to know where you're going, right?
So you need to pick some direction. And for me, I had to pick niches and I, that that's the direction that most writers need because I have found there's a big difference. So people that start out as generalists, as freelance writers, either have a lot of experience writing in a bunch of areas. Like they worked in a newspaper and they have a ton of experience in a bunch of different areas. So they can be a generalist cause they already have a bunch of experience or they come up with a ton of ideas. I couldn't come up with ideas when I started out, I was not good at that. I didn't get it. I, I didn't know how to come up with an idea. I, I, it just like was beyond me at the time. So picking my niches gave me direction in what types of clients to reach out to.
So think about where your experience, your background now, your expertise and what you really like to write about and who has money combined. So those things need to combine. So for example, when I started, I wrote a lot in food and travel because I had a lot of experience. I was really lucky when I was a kid. Um, or when I was younger <laugh> um, to travel a lot, my family traveled a bunch. So I knew a lot about traveling. I had been to a lot of different places. I had eaten a lot of different types of food. I was really interested in, um, like not only like recipes, but food, culture, food, history, all this stuff. And so I knew that I needed to target those types of clients. So that means you need to make a list. Now in your list, you need to have at least, you know, those 50 to 75 companies, you need to have a list of companies to work off of.
So you can send your Lois quicker. Those companies need to have money in order to hire you. So that means if you have startups on your list, they need to make at least 3 million. And if you have regular companies, they need at least five to 50 million in revenue. And that gap is so big because some companies spend a lot on marketing. So, um, they, they allocate a lot of their budget for marketing. So they only need 5 million in revenue. Cuz most of that goes to marketing and other companies wait a really long time to allocate more to marketing. So they need like 50 million. So while you're making your list, I have found that having a niche, having some like three to five niches is the way to go. So you at least have some direction. You're not handcuffed to them forever. Your niches are not forever.
And for me, I, like I said, I started in food and travel. And now I write about, um, hospitality, tech, restaurants, real prop tech, insurance, InsureTech, health, health tech, sometimes dogs. Sometimes these guys, sometimes I write about pets that are over there making noise. Um, but the deal is that those niches expand over time. So you are just picking direction just to get your first client. You're picking a general idea of like, are, is this niche like the niche that I'm thinking about the types of clients in there, let's say that SAS or FinTech or AgTech, there are thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of clients that I could reach out to like when I Google AgTech companies or when I Google SAS companies, I see huge piles of lists of potential companies. So that's always really important to know. So when we're doing our marketing, we create our list.
We use our, we, we refine that list by saying who has money, who has at least as a startup. If they have 3 million or regular company has five to 50 million, then once they have money, we go to LinkedIn and we send our Lois, we have our person driven LOI templates and we go to LinkedIn and we can send them as an InMail. If you have LinkedIn premium or we go to LinkedIn and we just find the person who is that person, is it, um, you need to look for the content marketing manager, the content director, the marketing manager, the VP of marketing, or sometimes the CEO, depending on how many people they have in marketing. Ideally it's content marketing manager, but sometimes they don't have that. So then we send them either our LOI via InMail on LinkedIn, or we use hunter.io. So hunter.io, um, will help you find emails.
All you need is the URL of the website. And it'll tell you the email convention. And then you can send that email to the whoever you found on LinkedIn. And that's what I did when I didn't, when I couldn't afford premium. I just sent them through, um, email and used hunter.io to find in, to find emails. So that's our second one. All right, hold on a second. So that's our second one is our marketing piece. So we set up our business. Now we actually have to get our client, right. We actually have to market to get the client. Now the LinkedIn should help us because people should be able to start finding it more frequently, but we also have to keep the train going, right. So I always kind of give this analogy of, um, trains. Oh, hold
On. Ready? 1, 2, 3. Do. Oh buddy, hold on. Here you go.
There you go.
So I always give this analogy about trains. So trains need about two to three miles to get up to speed. That's what we're doing here. So trains take two to three miles to get up to speed. And then they take two to three miles to slow down. So as you're getting up to speed, you're sending your marketing, you're shoveling the coal. Once the business is going. Once you have clients, once you have money coming in, then we're kind of like cool. We can kind of ride it for a bit, right? Because it takes two to three miles to slow that thing down. We always need to be marketing, but we don't always have to be marketing at such a high level of 50 to 75 a month. But you have to start the train. You gotta start doing those 57 50 to 75 Lois a month and shoveling the coal.
Yes. Hello. Would you like to say hello to everybody? Come here. Let's say hello. Oh, <laugh> okay. Goodbye. She's like, no, I don't want you to pick me up. All right. So that's number two and this is my fast stuff. So I'm going through this pretty quickly because I wanna make sure we have all the value packed stuff in here. If you feel like this has been helpful so far, give it a thumbs up. If you feel like you wanna learn more about building a hiring freelance writing business subscribe. I can't remember which side the button's on, but subscribe.
3) How Freelance Writing Clients Think and How to Find the Right Content Marketing Clients
Let's talk about number three here. So let's talk about how, um, freelance writing clients think and then how to the right clients. This goes back to our copy on our LinkedIn, on our website and understanding what they need. So one of the things that I think is really helpful is to look at what your ideal clients are talking about.
So that means if you pick your niche as biotech or robotics or cybersecurity or FinTech, SAS, health, whatever you read through a bunch of other websites of those companies, go look at hospitals, go look at FinTech companies, go look at mortgage tech companies and see what they're talking about in terms of struggles, like what are their customers struggling with? And look at their website. Are they struggling to be consistent with blog posts? Are they struggling to be consistent white papers, case studies? Um, have you noticed that they're not getting a lot of likes and shares on their stuff on LinkedIn? Uh, does it look like their email list isn't growing because they're not actually asking people to join the email list, to get the downloadable right? Look at all of those different things and try to figure that out. So that's part of the research process.
Like how do they, they think really what your clients are struggling with is connecting with their audience and content is the glue that connects them with their audience, right? So your clients oftentimes struggle to either be consistent to understand their audience or to meet their audiences needs where they're at. They're like we heard we need blog posts, but really the thing that can inverts for them, the thing that gets subscribers likes shares, downloads sales is case studies, cuz those that audience needs to see themselves in somebody else using that thing. But they just don't know that. So your job is to go do research on your bunch of niches. Like what are they struggling with? What are some things that are going wrong? And this will evolve over time. Take your guess. Um, this is something that a lot of first time freelancers get stuck in cuz they're like I have no idea.
Go read about it, go research and do the best you can. You have to do the best you can where you're at. That's it. And then the bonus point here is to go and look at other writers' websites in your niches. This helped me a ton to understand what was actually going on. So I went and looked at travel writers and food writers and health tech and ensure tech and people who did content strategy and people who wrote a lot of blog posts. Um, and people who were in SaaS, like I looked at their website and I was like, oh, it seems like they really struggle with this. Or they really struggle with that. Or they are looking for clients who need ABC. Then I start formulating my own ideas of how I can help with that. That's the important piece. So get examples, do some research and then you can see like, what are your clients thinking?
What do your ideal clients really struggle with? Um, what are their pain points? And this is something that, um, I go really in depth with, with my students and my freelance writer, wealth lab, course, I give them like pages of stuff saying like here's all of the pain points. Here's all the possible things your clients could struggle with. Talk about any of them. Um, here's all these possible niches that you can consider. So for me in worse, um, I just feel like we have to do a deep dive, but if you're just starting out and you're kind of scratching the surface and you're like, I have no idea use the basic approach of research, research, your clients, research what they're talking about, research, what types of content they're putting out and then research other writers in your niches. Don't pull direct phrases and you know, as writers don't plagiarize, but I am gonna say this anyways, don't pull direct phrases from those other writers' websites.
Use that as reference material of what you may need to talk about and then use your own words to talk about that. So like, um, don't look at my website and then pull a bunch of stuff from it and be like, this is perfect. It won't sound like you. And then you'll attract the wrong clients. You gotta have stuff that sounds like you. So that means when you do your research, you write down a bunch of basically like the facts and figures kind of stuff. Like what do they need help with? What are their pain points? What do they struggle with? Um, what are the things that you specifically can help with? What makes you unique then you kind of mush all that together and make your own recipe. So that's number three. All right. Um, I'm gonna speed up a little bit, cuz we're like gonna be over time.
The button is on my left, like this left <laugh> or this like my left hand or like my right hand. Cause this is my right hand and it's backwards on my monitor <laugh> so I, I, this is a, like one of my weaknesses. I'm not very good with directions sometimes. Like, yeah. So I'm good with like map directions, but not directions, like when I'm on camera. Um, okay. So when we're figuring out our right clients, remember that this is gonna change over time. So when you create all these things, when you do your research on your clients and you're doing your marketing and your ho things around, this is just your starting point. Don't stress out that you're gonna be ha like I said, handcuffed to this forever. It's not forever. It's just for now. It's just to get your first client it's just to get the ball rolling and to get people in the, in the door, on my left hand. Okay. So this one subscribe <laugh> all right here.
Go buddy. Ready? 1, 2, 3 dog. Oh buddy. You just popped that over to her. I hi. Mean good job.
4) Additional Steps to Get Your First Freelance Writing Client
All right. So, um, let's talk about getting your first client and then let's talk about when you get a yes on a project. So let's talk about those as three or as four and five. So four. All right. Number four here. Here's the deal? Um, getting your first client is a numbers game. So let's talk about this. Sometimes people are really lucky when they start freelance writing in that they already have a network. So know several writers who have already had a network where they can say like, Hey, I'm a freelance writer. Now, if you know anyone who needs help I'm here. And then they get a bunch of work because they've built connections for the last 10, 15, 20 years. And they're like, cool. Now that I've got all this work. So that's some people on the other side of the spectrum, I know P and like burn this story into your brain as a new freelance writer. I know people who got their very first clips, they had no freelance writing experience. Their very first clips in the New York times, the Washington post traveling, leisure, all of the biggest publications. I know people who have gotten their very first clip in there. They didn't have anything else. Okay. So there are people who start, where are you going? You can't go over.
Get out of there.
No. Oh, Charlotte, get out of
The camera.
Oh my gosh. So burn that story in your brain. What are you doing? We've gotta, we've gotta pork on the move.
Here you go. Pork. Oh my gosh.
Okay.
So the deal is that you can be on a bunch of different sides of the spectrum of getting clients. So don't sweat about what somebody else is doing or what somebody else has that you don't. Um, I started with 71 connections on LinkedIn and now I have 4,000 <laugh>, uh, it's just part of learning the, the process. So getting your first client oftentimes is a numbers game and there's a couple ways to kind of not cheat the system, but get it quicker. So, number one, I think one of the best ways to get your first client and get paid and get a clip is to go to, uh, trade magazines. And in my bundle, I have my LOI that I send to trade magazines. So it's an LOI pitch hybrid. So you put your LOI in there and you put some headlines. And I think this is the best way to get a clip.
Because if you send ideas, you can get an idea picked up. When you send an LOI to a business, you don't know what's going on there. And the business can be a long time. It can take a while for them to get back to you. Um, it can take a, a bit for them to like onboard you and with a pitch. Although the paid part comes in later, like trade magazines can be net 30 net, 45 pay on publication. At least if your stuff is published and you have a clip to work with, you have a clip and ideas getting accepted by a trade magazine or a news magazine is at least some way to get a clip, usually quicker than a business. In my opinion, the paid part, different story usually get paid faster by a business than a magazine, but at least if you're getting clips and you're trying to get your first client sending, sending pitches, um, sending pitch LOI hybrids to trade magazines, that's a good way to go.
You need to intertwine that with sending, um, Lois to businesses, right? So getting your first client is a numbers game. Like I said, either you have a network or you don't, it doesn't matter. You still have to send those Lois. So my friends who have started with big networks, they still send sent lots of Lois, but they also had the benefit of being able to connect with people on LinkedIn and say like, I'm a freelance writer, but the people who started out and just sent some pitches to, to big magazines and got accepted. Now they have this big juicy clip that everyone's like, that's so fancy. You have to kind of do those things together. You to send those Lois and those pitches, and eventually you will get a client. It is always a numbers game and the cycle is different for everybody, but everybody eventually hits different parts of the cycle. So even if you start out with no clients and it takes you a while, like three, six months to get your first client, like let's say, you're still working your full-time job. And you, it takes you three to six months to get any type of client. That's part of your process. Some people immediately start out with clients as a freelance writer and oftentimes that's because they're, they leave their employer and their previous employer hires them to do their part of their work. Right?
Hi, grumpy.
Um, hi,
Grumpy, go back to ha.
So sometimes that's what ends up happening is they get hired as their, you know, they get hired to do part of their job that they just left. Um, that's just part of it. And eventually everybody gets to a point where they have to do a bunch of marketing. I don't know any writer who has their entire career handed to them. I don't know any writer who has spent their whole career to is getting inbound leads or magically. Their network always pays off, or they're always having editors come to them. Everybody has to do the marketing. There is no way to escape it and think of it this way, the better you do your marketing and the more marketing you do, the chewier you get to be about your clients, the chewier you get to be about who you say yes to what your prices are type of work you're working on.
That's the benefit. It's not that you're going to be spending all this time, getting no answers, which if you are getting no answers, definitely get the template <laugh>. Um, but the deal is that everybody gets there. If it's, if it's not immediate, it happens at some point. So don't compare somebody getting their New York times clip or somebody getting this thing, or you not doing as much marketing as you like. Everybody has to do the marketing everybody. So let's do the marketing <laugh> um, and then the last thing that we wanna talk about is, um, oh, and the last thing I wanna say about getting your first client is, um, this is a really exciting moment. So make sure you celebrate getting your first client is a big deal. Even if you've been a writer, like I have gotten, uh, messages from people who, um, have been freelance writers for 25, 30 years.
And they were like, I finally got my first high paid gig. You know, I've been stuck at 40 K or like 20 years. And I finally got my first high paid gig. You should celebrate that if you're starting from square one, if you're starting from zero, which is, we all do that. Getting your first client is a big deal. So make sure you celebrate that. That's super important. Last piece. We're gonna talk about here. If this has been helpful so far, give it a thumbs up. If you feel like you wanna learn more about Billy, a earning freelance writing business subscribe. All right.
5) Next Steps to Take When You Get a Yes on Your First Freelance Writing Project
So last thing. So when you get a yes, so let's say you're doing your marketing. You look so cute, but why are you over here when you're doing your marketing? You finally get a yes. Right? You get a project. Someone says yes to your pitch.
You, um, end up getting an article, published, all that stuff. Like when you get a yes. Oh, he's put over there. Here you go. Um, this is a big, important thing. So when you finally get a yes on a project, make sure you put in all the things we've talked about so far, right? You have your contract, you have your invoice, you have your system set up so that you look super pro, excuse me. They're like, yes, we wanna work with you. And you're like, sounds good. Here is my proposal, my contract and my upfront invoice, or however you decided to do invoicing with them. Um, I mean, magazines operate differently, but the deal is that we already have our stuff set up. Right. And we already have things going. We, we connected Stripe. We connected PayPal. We've got our contract already to get our E signature on hello, sign or DocuSign.
Um, we are putting everything in place. Like everything has already been put in place now that we hello now that we put all our stuff together. Um, it's easy to flow through that process and look like a pro. So getting a guess on a project, big thumbs up big celebratory moment there. But what we need to do is make sure we have all of our stuff put in place, right? So while we're at step five, we've already done everything. We've already figured out how to use harvest or dub Soto. If you wanna be spicy, um, we know how to use hello sign. We know how to use DocuSign. Um, and then there's other things that come up, right? Sometimes when you get a project, they want you to sign an NDA. They want you to, um, talk to AP, which is accounts pay. Um, and then this is totally normal.
And sometimes they'll negotiate. Sometimes they'll negotiate your rates. Sometimes they'll negotiate. Um, your contracts sometimes they'll negotiate the NDA, but here's a few quick fly by kind of pointers. Number one, if you get an NDA and it says that NDA is forever, you need to go back and change that. Uh, I have found with the changes in technology and how things move, like how quickly they move. Like two, like one year is ideal. One year for your NDA is ideal. Uh, two years is, is okay. It's in the ballpark of ideal five years is the max. Like, I think, I think anything longer than five years, like with everything that's been changing and how fast apps and tech and industries change, like I think five years is the max. So check that NDA. If it says forever, you need to go back and say, can we change that to one year?
And if they say no, you know, like if they say no to one or two years, try for five years, but you need to change that. The other quick pointer is, um, make sure that your contract talks about all the good stuff. That's why I push the bundle so much. Um, is the deal. It gives you a deal. It shows you the deal of the contract. Like it shows you how that works. So you have the scope of work who owns the rights, the legal stuff, the payment stuff, all the things that you need, or like how long the contract lives, all that stuff is super important. So if they send you their contract, look at all that stuff. Does it have the scope of work? Does it have things in it that don't apply to you? Because sometimes they'll send you a contract that's for like general contractors and I've had contracts that are for people who like do tile, like people who are like contracted to like fix the bathroom in the office.
And they're like, this is our general contractor agreement. And I'm like, no. So if they send you a general agreement, it's totally fine to go back and say like, Hey, can I send you my contract? Or, Hey, this, you know, these sections don't apply to me. Can you remove them? That's totally fine. If they don't send you a contract, don't stick your hand, head in the sand. You need to say like, Hey, let me send you my contract. This is something that I find with a lot of new freelance writers. They're like, oh, well, they just didn't say anything. Okay, well, that's your job now, it's your job to say, we need a contract. That's really important. This is how a lot of freelance writers end up stuck or with problems, especially with payment. When you don't have a contract, you need to have a contract that spells out what work you're doing. Right? Get rid of scope creep because we have a contract. Um, make sure your payment terms are clear. Make sure all the rights are clear, right? All that stuff is super important. So you gotta make sure you put all those things in place. Then you make sure that you get paid, right? You have your upfront invoice or you have your monthly invoice or you send an invoice when you finish the article, all that stuff. But
When you get
That client, all of these things will be in place. Um, there was one other thing I wanted to say that I'm trying to remember. Let's do AUP date while I try to remember. All right, Charlotte, can you go back to your Haba hole? She, can you go back to your Haba
Hole? Ready buddy? 1, 2, 3 dog. So close.
All right. Ready? High five high five. Good girl. There you go.
All
Right. Let's Charlotte it down, down, down. Good job
Bo. You're laying on it, buddy. Did you find it?
Okay. Hold on.
Hold on. Oh, we found it.
We found it. We used our Jerry
Eyeballs and we did it ready? 1, 2, 3 dog. Good job.
Good job. Uh, what was the last thing?
Oh, I remember high five other one. Can you set up? You're like, no, not right
Now. Ready? 1, 2, 3 dog. It's right in front of you buddy. There you
Go. Good job. That's what happens when you're 15 and a half when you're 15 and a half, sometimes it's hard to find things. Last thing I wanna say, uh, while we're talking about getting your first client and doing all this stuff is beginners, is that everything is not a pressure cooker situation. It is okay to ask questions. If you are confused about something in the scope of work in the contract, in the NDA, in whatever process, go back and ask the question. It doesn't make you look incompetent. It makes you look interested, curious, and like you wanna do things right. Hey, I noticed that, um, you had this in the NDA. Can you tell me why it's there? Or can you explain to me, um, like how that applies to our work together? That's totally fine. Everything is negotiable. Everything you can ask questions. When I first started out, I thought that when you just immediately accept things that just meant that you were like, I know it, it's fine.
I accept it because I already knew know. Uh, but that was a big mistake. You know, you end up signing a bunch of stuff where you could have had it changed. Like you could go back and say like, Hey, I noticed your payment terms are net 90. Uh, can we change them to net 14? Or, you know, can we change 'em to net 30 or something quicker? You could always ask questions. So don't be afraid to go back and ask it. Doesn't make you look done. Um, um, if anything, you know, if you get a scope of work or you get a, a content brief and someone is, and it's confusing, go ask what you wanna do is put the focus on doing the work, right? Getting things cleared up. You wanna make sure everything is straightforward and easy to understand. So if you get something in there, go back and ask questions, cuz you're like, Hey, I wanna do this.
Right. I noticed in the content brief, it says this, what does that mean? I don't get it. Um, the deal is that you are invested enough in their content to go and ask questions. You're not just like, I don't give a. I'm gonna write whatever and they'll just deal with it. No, the point is that you're asking questions so that you can create con content that actually works content that it's content fitting their scope of work content. They care about content that continues to give them value over the years. That's the point when you don't ask questions and you just sign contracts or sign, um, NDAs, or you just like agree to a content brief without understanding it. That's when writers get in trouble. That's when they end up doing things that are, um, like the client is unhappy with the work or you, you know, you're like, well, I didn't ask questions because da da, da da, whatever reason it is, like you have to ask questions.
And here's another last thing. So if you're asking questions and the person is like, you should just know this or I'll know it when I see it, or, um, like basically telling you, um, for asking questions or like the fact that you're interested in trying to do good work or trying to clear things up. Like that's a bad, that's a red flag. That's a big red light. That's not good. The deal is that someone should be working with you as if you're on a team. Oh yeah. I didn't even realize that was in your contract. Okay. Let me go ask legal about it. Oh, well I didn't even know our payment terms were net 90. Like, let me go see if AP is willing to, you know, change that. There's always like, you want people who are, who understand that you're being a good per business owner by asking, right.
And they're on your side, right? They're they're working with you as a team. They're not like you're a idiot. You should know this. Um, or they're like, oh my God. It says what it says. How could you not understand this? Like, those are big problems. That's a big red light. So if you're trying to go back and ask questions or trying to understand the content brief, and you're getting that kind of like really harsh negativity or like you're dumb or, or like you should already know this, or like you're a bad writer cuz you don't get it. That's red light behavior. That's not a good client, good clients are there to support you to help you. They understand it's a team effort to create this good content. They understand the better you, they get that. The better you understand what you need to do.
The better the content is. That's what they get. Or they understand that you are asking these questions because you wanna have a fair contract. You wanna get paid on time. You want to make sure the rights are allocated properly for the content. So don't be scared about that. I used to be scared about questions and I used to be like, oh, maybe I am dumb by being gaslighted by this red light client, like find the good clients, find the people who wanna to be on a team with you, who, who see your work as a partnership who see the value in your content and see the value in creating that content for their audience. That stuff is all super important. So I hope this has been helpful. I don't see any questions that popped in here today. Last thing I'm gonna talk about here is freelance writer.
Yeah, I know I have. I have to hop cuz I have like a, um, my course students have a live Q day in a few minutes. So here's the deal right now. I'm gonna tell you about this. So, um, my course is open right now for enrollment. It is open for enrollment, freelance writer. Wealth lab is my course is open for enrollment until April 21st at 4:00 PM central. And it's not gonna reopen until September. So if you wanna go to check it out and see what's in the course, go to mandy.com/enroll. Um, for me it has been like my, what, you know, my passion project. And for example, I created this course and I was like, sweet. It's got all this stuff. And then my students were like, can you add this and this and this? So for example, our tech library of things that my students four has tripled, um, for me, the course is about giving you the framework and the blueprint to build a high earning freelance writing business, whether high to you is six figures or 50 K or whatever number feels good.
It's giving you the framework to build a business that's personalized to you. It's customized to where you wanna go in your direction, the things that work for you. Um, hi bean, I hear you making noise, but the course is open until, uh, like less than a week. So it'll be open until for enrollment until 4 21. So April 21st at 4:00 PM central. Um, and if you have any questions you can pop on that page. So if you go to man.com and slashing roll, there's a little box there where you can ask me a question and I'll send you a little video reply back. Um, and it's actually me. It's not like prerecorded, it's me sitting in my house, making a video for you. So if you have any questions you can pop there and ask them to me. Um, and the course is come comprehensive. So for me, it was really important to build something that not only helps you in your current stage, but helps you scale your business, like actually grow it beyond a certain point.
Um, and this is whether you wanna work less hours and make more money or whether you wanna six figure business or whether you wanna have vacations or time off, um, or you need to like get the marketing done quicker, or you need to understand how to attract your ideal clients or get like four and five figure projects. That's what this course is about. It's about actually giving you <laugh>, uh, a proven blueprint, a framework that I have used myself. My students have used, um, to build their businesses to where they earn more and less time. They take those leaps and they like actually make big leaps in their business. Um, and they actually get to take vacations and work less hours. So that's my little thing. Um, Marie says super workshop. I've doubled my business and I don't stress. And I have a game plan and support.
Marie is one of my students. Venos one of my students. Uh, let's see, Annie is one of my one-on-one students. Vicki has been here forever in the, uh, in, in the live, in our live streams, giving support. So thank you guys for hanging out. Um, so yeah, the deal is that the course is all about kind of like getting rid of the overwhelm while helping you build things and making it reasonable, like actual doable tasks. So if you're interested in that, it's open for enrollment. Um, it opens basically every year on April in April and September. So, um, this April it'll close on the 21st at 4:00 PM central and then it'll open back up in probably like early to mid-September. All right. Hi, grumpy. Hi grumpy. All right. I gotta hop for my live C for my core students, but, um, I hope that this was helpful. If you feel like you wanna learn more about, um, building a hiring freelance writing business subscribe. I give out some really gold star tips here. Um, if you feel like this video is helpful, give it a thumbs up and I'm here every Friday on the live stream. So I hope you can come hang out again and uh, I'll see you next Friday. Bye.
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