More Than Pay, Good Freelance Writing Clients Are...
Where are all the good freelance writing clients? That’s the biggest focus for most freelance writers, but their focus is on pay, rates, project prices, and income…not on what makes a fantastic freelance writing client a keeper. There’s so much more to learn about quality, long-term relationships with amazing clients instead of simply (and only) zero-ing in on pay.
This week’s livestream is going over three critical attributes of high-end freelance writing clients, what to consider when you’re looking for green light, quality freelance writing clients, and how to know a potential client is the right fit for you and your freelance writing business.
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More Than Pay, Good Freelance Writing Clients Are...
Have you just been looking at pay when it comes to working with freelance writing clients? Have you just been zeroing in on what do they pay? What are the rates? How is that going to change my income? There's a lot more to freelance writing clients, a lot more to those green light clients, right? Than just pay.
Hi, Vicki. I always love the wave. Welcome. So we're going to talk about three attributes. There's a lot of them, but the three ones that I think we're going to talk about today are going to kind of change your mindset on how you look at clients. It's beyond just like pay rates, beyond just, you know, like items where, um, it's just like ticking boxes.
We don't want to tick all the, like these weird boxes. There's some things that we want to talk about that have to do with the conversation that you have with that potential client, right? When you get on a call with them. So let's go through them. We're going to go three to one today. Um, and Charlie's here.
So Charlie's over there sleeping, over there snoozing. So we'll get to, we'll get to her later. So let's do a three. Let's start with three. So number three, we actually see it as a partnership. So this is something where when you kind of start talking to them, when they send you an email, right, they reach out and they're like, Hey, we think we would like to work with you.
I wish I could do the emojis. I can't do the emojis like in here. All I can do is add a comment and I wish I could be part of the emoji party. So they see it as a partnership when you get on that initial call with them or they send you an email, right? Which we call inbound, right? So someone, uh, sends you an email and they're like, Hey, we would like to work with you.
Like we're, we have this project, whatever. That's an inbound lead. Inbound just means it's coming into your inbox So they are reaching out or they're talking to you on the call like a partnership. Hey, we'd love to partner with you We want to collaborate. We want to talk about working together. It's not just like you're the writer you do it Or it's not like they're putting all the responsibility of the project on you because you're the writer, right?
That's not how it's supposed to work. It's a teamwork environment. So when they're reaching out to you, it should be partnership based It should be something where they respect your schedule, right? They're like, hey, what other projects do you have in the pipeline? Do you have room in your schedule? Are you taking new clients?
Right? They're making sure that that you are Um, I can try typing something between the colons. Mmm
Nope, still work. Still work.
Why don't you lay down. We'll get to the snack time in a second. Why don't you lay down. Good girl. There we go. So, they're actually respecting your schedule. They're actually paying attention, right, to, um, you collaborating with them. They're respecting that you have other projects. They're curious to see if you actually have room in your schedule, right?
They're seeing you as someone. Who has a bunch of things going on and they're like, hey, we're not just, you know, treating you like a full time employee We're like inquisitive right about your schedule. We're interested in making, you know, um, We're we're seeing you as in demand, right? Sorry. I've been talking a lot this week.
Oh, you know what I didn't do I forgot. Um, we'll talk about, hold on. So I forgot to mention this at the very beginning. I have one final masterclass. I have, uh, not that one. That one's done. I have one last masterclass. A free live masterclass, um, that is a condensed, like I have a bunch of things, like a bunch of lessons.
So the live stream is more casual, but this is like condensed lessons and slides. Last live free masterclass of 2023. Go to mandieellis. com slash masterclass three. It's on Wednesday, September 9th or September, September 13th. You guys can tell I've been talking for a while because I'm messing like things up because it's just like, I've just been talking a lot.
So it's Wednesday, September 13th. So next this upcoming Wednesday, it's at noon Pacific, 2 PM central, 3 PM Eastern and 8 PM British standard time. So that's my last live free masterclass of the year. So definitely sign up if you're interested in that. Um, it's mandielis. com slash masterclass three and, and, uh, enrollment is open for the wealth lab.
So if you have been waiting for the wealth lab, go to mandielis. com slash enroll to check it out. So enrollment is going to be open until the 14th. So enrollment's open until September 14th at 4pm central time. Uh, this is the last time to get the Wealth Lab at its lowest price ever. The price is going up in 2024.
I always like to be transparent about that. But this is the last time, uh, the Wealth Lab will not be at this price ever again. So if you're interested in Freelance Writer Wealth Lab, which is really your step by step blueprint to building a freelance writing business, uh, that's high earning and it's actually a business you adore instead of it bogging you down, um, check it out.
It's my signature program. It's 10 weeks with me. It includes, um, seven modules where we go through everything. Like we go through all the templates, all the things for marketing, all the, uh, LOIs letters of introduction pitches, uh, working with clients, both businesses and magazines, how to actually get your work done faster and use tools and systems to make your business more automated.
So you don't have to always be doing stuff. Um, we also go over how to raise your income, how to work with higher up clients, and we go over how to scale your business. If you want to get into content strategy, brand messaging, messaging and positioning, or bigger projects, right? Let's say you've been working on a case study or a blog post a lot, and you want to move into complex projects like case studies, white papers, landing pages, drip campaigns, all that stuff.
That's what we go over in the course. It's super fun. We also have twice weekly live Q and A's. So twice a week. I hop on and answer questions. All the questions get answered. You can submit questions ahead of time. You don't even have to be there live if you don't want to be. Um, and you also have 10 weeks of access to our private community where you get to hang out with all the other students.
It's super fun. Um, so if you have any questions too, you can send me an email, mandy at mandyellis. com. But if you want to check it out, go to mandyellis. com slash enroll. Oh, I see. So Vicky says colon emoji name colon. I don't even know what they're called. Like is it like I don't know. I don't remember like will that work?
Nope on my end. It didn't work Hi, Karina. Welcome. Karina was um in one of my master classes and she asked a ton of really fantastic questions So welcome Karina. I'm glad you're here. You can ask all the questions. We'll pop them up on the screen just like this So you can ask all the questions you want.
So let's get back to the topic I want to make sure I mention that because sometimes I forget and then i'm like Oh crap, I should have said stuff because people were like, Are you having another master class? And then I'm like, Oh, I should have said that. What's up, Wu? Wu says she wants to say hello while we're taking a break.
Hello, Wu. She's like, Look at my shiny lip gloss. Charlotte, your bottom lip is super shiny. Charlotte finally got a bath. She was so dirty. She loves to go out there. Uh, Vicki, there is no pop up list. So I use Ecamm Live. So I'm not, um, on YouTube. So like, for me, it doesn't, I don't see anything on there.
Charlotte, you look so goofy. You look so cute! You want to lay down? There you go. So Charlotte finally got a bath. Charlotte is uh, she loves, if you guys can see on her back, she has a bunch of like dirt granules because she just loves to go out there and roll around in the, in the dry grass and um, and just like become a dirt puppy.
So Charlotte's finally clean. She got a big bath. Can you show everyone, can you show everyone belly? Charlotte's belly! Can you show everyone belly? Come on, you can do it. Charlotte, belly. Come on. Charlotte, let's do belly. Come on. Can you do belly? Belly. Oh, we don't want to do belly today? Alright. That's all right.
So, back to the topic. They respect your schedule, right? So they respect your schedule. They make sure that it's collaboration. They treat it as a partnership. Um, and they're inquisitive about what's going on, right? They're asking you like, hey, do you have the space to take on another client? They're seeing you as high demand.
They're seeing you as someone other people want to work with, right? Um, and they're coming into it with the idea that you are working together, right? They're providing stuff you're providing stuff. It's not just like they're just like you do it They don't just shovel it on your shoulders, right? There are lots of things.
Um, oh kareena That's great You can totally do that lots of people end up watching this as a replay and they do the same thing They put it on like a podcast and then they do other chores and stuff. That's totally fine So they're coming into this call or they're coming into your inbox with an email that clearly shows this is a partnership, right?
It's not something where, um, you are just doing it all by yourself. So there are times where, um, I do want to say there's this caveat that happens when you become kind of seen as an expert. So when you're starting out a lot of times what we want to see is partnership, right when you become an expert, right?
so like for example when people come to me for landing pages or sales pages or They're coming to me for content strategy or brand messaging or messaging and positioning that stuff I'm an expert in so they're like we don't know what to do. We need an expert to help us that Instance like you're relying on your expertise.
So they're coming to you saying like we want to partner with you, but we need your expertise So it's not that they're shoveling everything on you It's that they're looking for your expertise With content strategy or brand messaging or whatever. It's your job to come up with a plan And they're kind of confused about how to do that.
So there is this kind of transition that happens from This partnership like let's partner together to you become an expert and they're like, yes, we want to partner But like we don't know what the fuck we're doing. So we need you to put your expertise in there, right? So there's a transition that happens, but it still should be viewed as a partnership.
It still should be something where they are Respecting your input they are listening to you your tips or they're listening not tips, but you're well, yeah, sometimes tips Um, they're listening to your ideas. You guys are talking things over. It should be a collaboration, like you both are making the same drink, right?
You both are making the same coffee or whatever. Um, it should be something where these good clients are understanding that they're not your only client, right? They're not trying to absorb all your schedule. Um, and they're, they're seeing that, um, you, like, how do I want to say this? They're seeing it as you're adding a value to them.
They're, you're clearly adding value. It's not just like they're, they're like, we need a writer. We just need someone. They want to work with you, right? They want to work with you, they see value in working with you, which leads me to point two. So let's talk about point two real quick. If I can find the number two.
There we go. Okay, so let's talk about two. What do you think, Woo? Would you like to talk about two? You look so cute and funny in your little You just sit like this really sad little mermaid. You're so funny. You want to give everybody high fives for doing a good job this week? Charlotte's like, I saw the Master Class replays.
They were great! Good job, dude. All right, so let's talk about two so that leads me to they see value in creating specific types of content, right? They see value in working with you, right? I have notes down here. I always make sure I have notes So it's not just that they're creating content for content's sake, right?
This is something I usually go over in the live master class. So if you want more details on this Go to mandyellis. com. I should have mentioned this but go to mandyellis. com slash masterclass three It's my last free live masterclass and I go over this specific topic more in depth So they see value in the content.
They're not creating content for content's sake, right? They're going out there. They're Creating specific types of content, right? They're creating specific types of content And they see value in working specifically with you, right? They saw your clips or they liked the vibe of your website or they saw your LinkedIn and they're like, that's the right person to partner with, right?
That's the person we should collaborate with. So they see value in those things. Those are really important. Um, the value of content is just insane, right? So there's a there's like some crazy stat. I can't remember who is HubSpot or somewhere else But it says like every dollar that you put into content marketing.
It has a 3200 percent ROI return on investment So basically every dollar that they're putting into valuable content, they're getting a ton back, right? So they understand that value. They understand that creating content has a lot of value, right? That that specific types of content for their specific audience Creates a lot of leads, sales, subscribers, likes, clicks, downloads, all the good things they want in their business, right?
And traffic, SEO, all that. But they're also seeing another layer on top of that. And that layer on top of that is that they found you and they're like, Yes, that's the person I want to work with. That's the human who makes sense for our brand, right? They get it. They're on our wavelength, right? Good green light clients operate on a certain wavelength, right?
And I think that's something that gets missed when we're focusing only on pay, right? We're like, oh, they pay more money. There's a lot of times where people get paid a bunch of money and then there's like a PITA client, right? P I T A, pain in the ass, right? So sometimes we'll talk about a PITA fee, right?
A pain in the ass fee, right? There's like a joke that goes around like, oh my gosh, I should charge a PITA fee because they're driving me crazy, right? But this is something where like good client, there are client, there are clients who can pay good money. There we go, but they kind of drive you nuts. So we're looking for them that they see value in working with you.
They see value in creating specific types of content, right? They understand that ecosystem of content. They understand how it actually brings their business money or they understand, right, like how getting the right person in there. Make sense for their audience or make sense for their brand, right?
There's all these little kind of like things that happen when they see value like they're not just throwing money away They're not just doing it because everybody else is doing it. They're not creating content for content's sake They're like, we have actually, right, a focus on content. We know this is valuable.
And it's not just like pump out as much as possible, right? It's a focus on quality. So they're looking at your work. They're looking at your samples. Or, um, if you're a new freelance writer, they're just like, Hey, I really liked your website and LinkedIn. And, you know, you sent that LOI. Uh, I think we should work together, right?
So there's a lot of things where, um, these little like, I don't know, I always kind of think of it as like a little terrarium that we live in, right? This is like this little terrarium that we live in. Where, um, oops, where your clients, um, where clients have like all these little plants and flowers and like, it's kind of, there's like a little, you're a little turtle, like walking around, right?
Um, and there's like little things in the environment that just make sense. That's how you should think about this livestream today. Is there are things in the environment of working with a good client, beyond pay, that just make sense. There are things that just operate in the same aquarium, terrarium.
Whatever kind of environment, not the desert because that's kind of hard, but you know, like it's all kind of this rain forest y Biodiversity kind of situation. So we want to make sure that they are Seeing the value in us, right? They see the value in like, hey, I saw your clip, right? This is something that happens quite often.
Someone sees a clip, right? Especially if you write for magazines. This is something Where I feel like a lot of journalists that I talk to who get into content marketing This is something I say like a lot of the work that I do in content marketing could be published in a magazine It's the same stuff It just happens to be published for a business.
That's it and I get paid more, right? I love working with magazines. I started in magazines. I love them, but there's also a pay difference, right? There's there's just so many like Um, articles you can do at a certain rate or so many articles you can fit in your schedule, right? So, the work that you're doing in journalism, right, that quality, that skills that you're bringing translates to content marketing, right?
So I often talk about this as like, you're bringing a lot to the table when someone sees like, I saw you were in Forbes, or I saw you were in AFAR, or Condé Nast Traveler, or you know, blah, blah, whatever, uh, Travel and Leisure, or uh, Entrepreneur, or I saw your article in blah, blah, blah magazine, I would love for you to work with us, right?
And you're like cool that clip rocks in order to get work like that. It costs this amount of money, right? Those are important things that we want to make sure. Um that we are Uh yet cats come from the desert because they're perfect Well, I don't know about cats charlotte. How do you feel about cats? What would you like to say about cats?
Charlotte's not a big fan of cats. Let's just say that charlotte's not a big fan of cats Charlotte really likes to chase so like cats Cats are like not her thing. Squirrels, cats, all that stuff. So, um, When we're kind of going through, oh, you know what? This is a good question to answer. Karina says, Would you recommend taking time each week, month, whatever works?
To find those clients and put them on a list to reach out to yes, absolutely This is something that like I said, we go over really in depth in the wealth lab I give you the step by step blueprint to do this So if you want to check it out, you can go to mandy ellis. com slash enroll. However This is how we want to do it.
We want to create a list, right? We're creating that list and we're cutting by revenue, right? So we're creating a list Of potential clients in the niches that you want to work in then we're cutting by revenue as the pre filtering process, right? And those revenue ranges like i've always said right at least three to ten million for a startup It could be a lot more but that's like the minimum viable amount for a budget for a for a good budget for a writer.
Thank you for licking my leg. Um, and then five, at least five to 50 million, depending on your niche for a midsize regular company. So yes, you want to create lists and there's lots of them out there. You can find all types of lists. I usually recommend going through the ink 5, 000. There's Forbes lists.
There's lists on tech crunch and crunch base. Um, there's tons of lists. You can just google like top 100 companies in niche, um, and they'll pop up. So yes, you want to start with a list and then cut it by revenue. Oh my goodness, sass bean. Make a growling noise at me and then move from there. So the value in the content, the value in working with you, they see that clip, right?
Can you guys hear her growling at me? Hold on. It's
allergy ish. Okay, so the value in um, seeing that clip. My goodness, Grisha, go back to your hovahole, you sass. The value in seeing that clip right they see that clip and they're like, I want that you're like great It costs this amount of money, right? So there's a lot of negotiating room in that right? Like someone says I want this and you're like it costs this amount, right?
It's not just like they're like, oh, well, I want this Discount rate and like can you just do it for me? Blah blah blah. Nope So there's like this piece I think especially with journalism or if you write for trade magazines Where you can use that right you can leverage that in order to Get really great rates and work on the same kind of work So whenever someone sees a clip like whether it's a case study or i'm using um I'm using journalism as the example, but whatever it is, right?
Someone said is attracted to that piece of work, right? They're attracted that clip that sample and you're like great it costs this much, right? They want that thing and that's a really great thing. They're seeing value in your content They see value in creating that thing and it gives you really great leverage to say like here's what that thing costs And good clients will be like, of course it costs that much or even amazing clients will be like, I can't believe it's not more Right.
No. Um, but there's a lot of times where like a good client is like, obviously like that makes sense, right? You quote them the price and they're like sounds good. Let's do it Right, but they're like someone who sees enough value that like what you're quoting makes sense to them Right what you're quoting makes sense for the quality of the work I see comments.
So hold on Albert says A good freelance job is a combination of aspects, the concept of the project, it's inter interesting. The client is easy to work with. The components of writing and researching goes smoothly. It's a mix. Yeah. They're definitely a bunch of, um, things that go into the project that, um, especially the client being easy to work with.
Right. That's a really important.
Oh, ha Vicky says me not asking which of my pieces of prospect like when they say my work is good You should always ask that Vicky. That's a good point So we'll put this in number two when they see value in your content and they're like I liked your work Remember to say like what work which ones right?
Which ones did you like because whatever they liked then we can kind of use that as the example piece Going forward and saying, okay, this is what they like This is the type of content that we should be making moving forward But yeah, you should ask them if someone new to you, right a new potential client is saying that they like your work, right?
They're like, hey, I like I like, um, I saw your portfolio and I liked it You're like, what did you like right that helps us really kind of get notes too for the niche, right? Like let's say someone reaches out and they're like it's a real estate And you're like, well, which ones? And you're like, okay, so it's these three and you're like, put that in the noodle or write it down for later.
Because if someone asks you to send samples, send those because another client really liked them. So that's a really good idea. Um, you can mention cats. It's just like, you know, just like, like we couldn't have a cat. That's the thing. Like Charlotte couldn't, we couldn't have a cat in the house. That's the thing.
It's not like, it's not like she's, we can talk about cats. We just like, can't, Own one that's that's the thing. Um, oh, I see. So vicki says it's it's more that they probably didn't look They're trying to use flattery as a place in place of having a plan and a budget Yeah, you can also use it as a filtering question, right?
Like let's say you go back to the like let's say you're on a call and you're like, oh great You like my work which ones and they're like, oh, I don't know, you know, like they they Avoid the question that would be something that you can avoid, right? That's something where you're like, okay, like you didn't actually look at my portfolio or you didn't didn't do the recon, right?
So yes, um, that's another thing, right? So the value that they're seeing has to be real. They have to be able to show you what they liked, right? All right. Let's talk about three. Let's talk about three. If you found this helpful so far, give it a thumbs up. If you want to learn more about building a high earning freelance writing business, subscribe.
Let's talk about three. Hold on. And let's talk about Minnie. Minnie, what would you like to say? You look super cute. I love your frosted jowls. You're so adorable. Oh my gosh. Look at you. She's doing a lot better. Uh, I know I've been giving kind of updates. She's eating pretty much on her own. Like her eating schedule is a little weird.
But she's pretty much eating on her own. It's been like over two months since her dental, but she took it hard. And we all know, um, a few months ago, you get, you know, uh, Bo passed away, which is really hard for her and hard for all of us. So I'm pretty sure, you know, like I, I'm still having a hard time with Bo being gone and I'm sure she senses that cause she's a sensi bean, she's sensitive dog.
And, uh, so she's, she's getting better. She's eating pretty much on schedule for the most part. Um, But yeah, so she's doing a lot better. What do you think? She's like more snacks more snacks So cute she's like, okay now give me a snack charlotte charlotte is very treat motivated You are very true. That's how I taught her all these things that high fives in the belly in the Around and all that stuff is she's so treat motivated Let's talk about three.
Okay, let's talk about three. Oh, someone gave me a thumbs down sad. That's okay I don't mind the thumbs down All right Let's talk about this But if the thumbs down for is for charlie, then I have I have a bone to pick with you because there are no thumbs down for charlie All right. Let's talk about three So, um, let's talk about three.
When we're going through our goals, right, these things are what we need to hear from clients. They need to have goals, right? These are important things, right? Beyond pay, your freelance writing clients need to have goals, right? So that means that they are, um, having goals for the content, right? They're like, well, we're making a blog post because we want SEO, right?
We want to improve SEO. We want web traffic. Or, we're creating a case study because we noticed that our audience Needs to see themselves in the product or in the service, right? They need to see someone who used the product or service or platform or whatever and it worked, right? So we need to excuse me have goals for that.
We need to hear that from our client, right? They need to be able to tell us that the white paper is important because of Um, how they're going to get leads in sales, or that they're going to use it as a piece of thought leadership, or, um, that they're creating a landing page to get more email subscribers in order to do blah, blah, blah, right?
And the blah, blah, blah could be sell something. It could be, um, invite people to a conference. It could be whatever kind of thing they want to warm up an audience for, or give them something for free, like a guide, right? So they need to have goals. They need to be able to explain the goals for their content and...
They need to have audience knowledge, right? So they have goals on a bunch of different things. They're partnering with you, right? That was the, or which number did I start with one or did I go backwards? I, this should be one. Sorry, this should be one, because I did three, two, one. Sorry. I've talked a lot this week, uh, so my brain is a little, like, all over the place.
And I, uh, I, it's just, I, sorry. So this should be number one. This should not be number three. This should be number one. This should have gone three, two, one. Okay. Let's go to one. This is one still. So, um, they need to have audience knowledge They need to say like we notice that our audience Uh really likes how to blog posts or our audience really responds to case studies or our audience really loves downloadable guides Right.
They need to have an a picture of some kind of goal or some kind of audience knowledge where they're like Even if they don't know what types of content they can explain like our audience really needs to learn these three things About our product service brand, right? They need to learn these three things and you're like, okay cool I know that we could do these types of content to meet those three things, right?
So they at least need to know what their client, what their audience is looking for in terms of content or is looking for in terms of help or what they need to understand about whatever that is. Product service brand, right? Platform, yada, yada. So those things are really important for them to present, right?
They need to present those on a call. They need to be able to weave that in. Right? So if they don't have goals, that's when you get stuck in the content for content sake, or you get stuck in the thing where someone's like, um, You know, someone's like, uh, well, we heard we should be creating these things. So we should go do this, right?
or it's some kind of version of like their They don't have enough audience knowledge to kind of back up what they're doing So they're like we should just create all these types of content and see what works, right? They're not actually looking at competitors They're not looking at what makes sense for their audience.
They're not actually digging into Audience questions or things that their audience may need to understand in order to buy their thing, right? Because that's the point of content content is not only to inform and build knowledge and to help people It's usually there's an event right eventually some kind of content gets made to have someone buy something, right?
That's this is why it's content marketing, right? So most of the stuff we work on Uh is not necessarily copywriting, which is sales based. It's more content writing which is like informative Um, but we need to have goals for that. We need to have goals for the content and those also, this is another important thing I have in my notes to, to mention.
It's, those can be goals about numbers. Like, they're like, we know that if we do these types of content, we want to get, you know, a 4, a 10 percent increase in web traffic, right? Or they have some kind of thing where they're gonna get a number, and it could be web traffic, or it could be something like we would like to have, you know, 5, 000 new email subscribers, or we would like to do this, like, here's what we're going, they at least have a picture.
You may not hit that goal, it may not be totally 100 percent knock it out of the park, like, you get 5, 000 subscribers, you get 4, 000, but at least it's something where they're like, here's why we're creating the content, here's the goal. And then, they back that up with the audience. Not only do we want to have this goal of 5, 000 new subscribers, or we would like to increase our web traffic, or we would like to increase the number of people who read our case studies, whatever.
They then back that up with, our audience really likes these things, or our audience needs to understand ABC in order to, you know, read more of our posts, or understand our brand, or buy the thing. Or our audience, um, really struggles with these types of things, we need to help them with those before they buy our thing or before they love our brand or before they blah, blah, blah, right?
So these types of things are really important to hear on the call. We want to know about goals. We want to know about audience knowledge. We want those things. And that's way more important than pay, right? Well, it's not way more important. It's equally as important. It's equally as important than pay because even if someone pays you well, if you're just going off in the dark, With nothing that content may not be very successful, right?
If you have a more focused plan and you have a client who's like, okay, here's what we're doing. Here's how we're moving forward Um, here's Like the, the metrics or the ideas that we're looking for. Here's how we're going to help our audience. If you have that kind of stuff in place, then your content can be a lot more successful, right?
Kind of think of it as like the wild west versus like we're driving on a highway with a very specific plan for our road trip, right? So we want to make sure that our clients have those things, right? We want to make sure that, um, We can see the goals that we can understand the, um, we can understand the.
audience depth that they have And that they are kind of like driving towards a purpose, right? So pay is really important obviously, but goals are also equally as important We want to know that we're that content has a chance to be successful, right? Creating content for content's sake in the dark of the wild west, right?
That ends up being a really big problem, right? A lot of times like this is something that I think Is like this focus, right? We often talk about being on the first page of Google, right? I want this article to be on the first page of Google, but there's so many different things that go into that, right?
And if you're just in the Wild West where someone's like, I want it to be on the first page of Google. Like there's no, there's no roadmap. There's no way for you to successfully kind of do that, right? There's no way for you to kind of like. Gather all the stuff right? We need help from our clients. We need them to know a bunch of things in order for it to be successful, in order for it to find a home on the first page of Google, in order for your audience to keep coming back to it, in order to build trust, in order to dah, dah, dah, dah, right?
In order to build trust or in order for someone to buy something. So these are really important things we wanna keep in mind. I want to make sure that, um, we're having our business goals, right? We have business goals. That's how we keep our freelance business on track, but we also have a partnership with our clients where they have goals.
They have an idea. They see value in the content they see, like they know how they're going to help their audience and why they can explain stuff to you, right? These goals, these things that they have in mind are explainable, right? They have reasons, they have explanations for doing them. Um, and I think that's something that's really important when we're, um, looking for those green light clients, when we are, um, thinking about right fit, when we're thinking about putting everybody together, right?
Those things I think are really critical. Yes, hello? Would you like to say something to the, to the team? Would you like to give everybody a high five for doing a good job today? Good job. Good girl. Charlotte, we're almost out of snacks. I don't know what to do. We're almost out of snacks, Charlie. I guess there's gonna be more snacks downstairs, but there's only a few up here.
There you go. Oh my gosh, so cute. So, um, I want to just make sure that I go back over the 3 2 1 real quick because I think I messed up the numbers. So the number three, right? Our number three thing was that they see it as a partnership, right? They respect your schedule. They see it as a collaboration.
They're interested in not treating you like a full time employee. Two, our two thing is that they see value in the content itself. They're not creating content for content's sake. Um, and they see value in working specifically with you, whether they saw a clip that they liked, or they liked your website or LinkedIn, or they feel like you're a good fit.
They see those two things. They see value in creating content, how that helps their business, how that drives. All the little fun things in their business, right? Likes, shares, subscribes, downloads, sales, leads, all that good stuff. Uh, and they see your work or they see your website linkedin. They're like, yep, that's the right person.
And then number one, the number one thing is goals. They have goals for the content, right? They have goals for the content and they also have goals for the audience, right? They understand that audience knowledge and that all plays in the same soup, right? So our content has a bunch of goals, whether that's helping more people or growing a content library or building sales leads, getting, you know, getting more traffic, more SEO.
Um, and then they can back that up with like, it's, you know, it makes sense to create this content because we know these things about our audience. Okay. That's what I wanted to make sure we went over today. If you feel like this has been helpful, give it a thumbs up. If you want to learn more about building a higher need for your notes writing business, subscribe.
Uh, last little things I want to make sure I go over. So final masterclass, final live free masterclass of 2023. There is no more. This is the last one of 2023. mandyellis. com slash masterclass three. The masterclass is on Wednesday, September 13th. It's at 12 p. m. Pacific, 2 p. m. Central, 3 p. m. Eastern, 8 p. m.
British Standard Time. If you sign up, yes, you'll get the replay. Um, so if you're interested in that, make sure you sign up. It's my last live free masterclass of 2023. And the Wealth Lab's open. So if you have been waiting on the Wealth Lab, this is the last time to get it at its current pricing. It will not be this low again.
Uh, so if you're interested in checking out the Wealth Lab, go to mandieellis. com slash enroll. Enrollment is open until September 14th at 4 p. m. Central. If you have questions, feel free to send it out. Um, go to, uh, send an email to mandie at mandieellis. com. This is good stuff. Good. I'm glad that this was helpful.
This I think is an important thing that we want to make sure we're talking about because money is important, right? Money is important, but a lot of times I get questions from newer writers or people that are transitioning into freelance writing or transitioning from journalism to content marketing.
And they're like really concerned about how it all works or like, what does a good client look like? Or what are the types of things that, uh, like are on the same vibration, right? What should your clients actually say? Or what should your client clients do? I think this is important to talk about because there's so much more Complexity to a good freelance writing client.
There's a lot more things that go into these long term Relationships that go into building good rapport with your clients or getting referrals or getting them results, right? Or helping them actually build out the stuff they want to build, right? There's so much more that goes into that than just pay.
There's all these little quirks that pop up. These are just three of them There's a whole bunch This is something I go into really in depth in the wealth lab, excuse me Um, but especially when we're looking at clients like these were things that I didn't Um that I didn't always pay attention to early on like that that like desperation perspiration really, really clouded my vision.
Instead of understanding partnerships, instead of understanding people respecting my schedule or seeing, you know, seeing my stuff and seeing it as valuable, instead of, uh, having people Um who understand why we're creating content and how to do that and goals for that and then they also know who their audience Is so they could tell you about that instead of all that.
I was just like I just need this work Please help like right that desperation desperation perspiration ends up clouding your vision a lot and you you Really focus in on pay versus like a bunch of other attributes. So then we end up with red light clients Because we just are accepting a bunch of things that aren't quite the right fit And there are lots and lots of good clients out there.
There's lots of stuff, especially now with All the changes that are happening like with layoffs and all that stuff that work still needs to be done, right? So we we have a lot of opportunities Karina says, is it worth creating an email list before you have a big audience? I don't recommend creating an email list until way late in your process.
Uh, this is something we go over in the Wealth Lab is like when you should start doing that and it also should be targeted. Don't just create an email list for like all the clients. That's not going to work. Your email list has to be targeted to like a specific type of client. Um, I do, I do know freelancers who have like a one fits all kind of email list, like they have an email list for all types of clients.
Uh, but I think it's more productive, um, and I think it works better and for what I've seen, um, to have like a targeted one. What you want to do is learn that one on one marketing you have to start with the basic Framework and this is the kind of thing I always think about is like you have to kill the basics first You have to get the basics down then you can do experiments, right?
So as long as you get the basics down, which is that one on one marketing you either are sending pitches one on one to magazines or you're sending letters of introduction lois to Businesses and you get that down so it doesn't take hardly any brain activity You know how to make the list, you know how to cut it by revenue, you know who your ideal clients are Um, you know how to send these lois in like a short period of time, right?
You know how to kind of put all this stuff together. So there's um, there's this We're we're we're putting together the framework so that it's It's setting up the house. We have to do all the basics first, then you can start a podcast, you can start an email list, um, you can rebrand your website or re, you know, focus in on like, I'm only doing case studies or I'm only doing this.
The email list thing is just a, it's a phase after you have a bunch of knowledge. So there's a lot of focus to where people think that good clients are like, you just have to capture them, right? Like you capture them in an email list or like you grow a big social following. And in freelance writing, it's just not the case.
Most of the time, we're doing one on one relationships, one on one LOIs, right? We're sending them directly only to one person. We're not mass mailing. Um, we don't want to capture all the fish. We want to capture the right fish, right? So when I teach you how to fish, right, when we're going through these processes, or even, um, when you're learning how to do it, right, Um, you can, like, when you're sending those LOIs, start with one on one, start with the process, making that list, cutting it by revenue, um, making sure that you're sending things to the right people in the right niche, right?
Uh, you're sending it to the content marketing manager, marketing manager, Uh, VP of Marketing, Director of Marketing, or CEO. Not all of them, just one. And if one doesn't exist, just go up the ladder. If there's no Content Marketing Manager, go to the Marketing Manager. If the Marketing Manager doesn't exist, go to the VP of Marketing.
You're right, go up the ladder. So, we're sending it to one person and we're planting as many seeds as possible. This is a really important thing. We're not looking for fruit on the same day We're looking to plant as many seeds as we can or the idea that I like too is irons in the fire Because the visualization of just like a big pot with like a bunch of irons in it You don't know when they're going to get hot But you can see the amount of irons growing and the more irons you have the better chance of things working out then this is the kind of thing that we've all evolved into and when I say we is like my group of Friends so all of us who do different things so like there's people who do podcasts I do the live stream people who have email lists people who are writing books Um people who are offering coaching or courses For all different types of stuff, right?
We've all branched off into those things as a specialization from what we've already done and learned It's not like we're just setting it up and waiting for people to come It's like we already know enough to keep providing value, right? So if you have an email list, you have to provide value. You have to make sure you're emailing them once a week Um, you don't want to just email them when you want projects, right?
That doesn't look good you want to make sure you're providing value content tips or advice or um, Stuff that really helps them see like your expertise, but also they're like, Hey, I would love to have Karina help us, right? So we need to be able to provide value and then that value pays off, right? Then that value pays off in someone wanting to hire us But I think that that is like the specialization later on like we have to get the basics down.
We have to be able to Do like the regular marketing do the regular be able to get your client work done have the processes in place then do this extra stuff because If you're, um, what happens, this is what happens when you get busy or when things get hard or when you're like, oh shit, I, you know, I, I need to have projects.
My, my projects are running low or my money's running low. You go back to that one on one marketing and if you can't do it really, really well, that's a problem. You're, this is what happens is like when people get busy or they drop off that email list, that weekly email, that podcast, that whatever kind of content that they've been creating just stops happening because they're busy, right?
They have stuff to do. What we need to do is have that one on one marketing or maybe they're not busy. They're like, hey, I need some work, right? I need to kind of fill my calendar So you have to get the basics done first because all this other stuff is extra all these other things email lists and building a brand, um, and uh, making sure that Your podcast goes out every week or you do a weekly live stream.
That's extra stuff on top of these things, right? That's why I talk about that Idea of that chart right where like you over time The things that used to take you so long don't take you Long at all like it took me like a week to send my first loi or maybe a month I forget but some crazy long period of time like I I didn't get it And now I can send like 50 in a day like I could send 25 in an hour Like it's it's you know, it's it's because i'm repeating that process so even when i'm busy with courses or even when i'm busy with the live stream or even when i'm busy with Um, helping students one on one, right, with coaching or whatever.
I still have all of these great systems that I'm, that are easy for me to execute because I've gotten the basics down. I've gotten the framework down, right? So if the framework is down, then I can do all this extra stuff because even if I need to do a bunch of marketing, even if I need to go back and say, Hey, I need to boost my freelance work or I'd really like a content strategy project, right?
We need to make sure that we have that in place so then the live stream and the podcast and whatever keep happening. So, um, yes, Charlotte, would you like to have, would you like to say any last words, any last words from the snorkel gallery, the snorkel peanut gallery? You want to wish everybody good luck and you say, please come to the master class.
No, just kidding. If you want to come to the master class, you totally can. It's my last free live one of, of the, uh, of the year. Actually, it's my last masterclass, not even just live. It's my last free masterclass of the year. What do you think, Charlie? What do you want to say to everybody? You just want to be like, hi, I'm snorkeling.
All right. So I hope that this was helpful. I hope that you learned a bunch about. Different pieces of good clients, uh, beyond pay, um, if you, uh, ever have a question you want me to answer on the live stream or you want to submit a topic, I often do many topics that are from, uh, either, like, from freelance writers emailing me or submitting questions.
Go to mandyellis. com slash question. If you feel like this was helpful, give it a thumbs up. Uh, if you want to learn more about building a high earning freelance writing business, subscribe. Last thing, right? Masterclass three. If you want to come to my last. Masterclass it is live. It's also free. But my last masterclass of the year mandyellis.
com slash masterclass three Wednesday september 19th at 12 p. m. Central 2 p. m. Or no 12 p. m. Pacific 2 p. m Central 3 p. m. Eastern 8 p. m. British standard time. Yes, you will get the replay if you sign up And the wealth lab is open. So if you're interested in the wealth lab, go check it out. Mandy Ellis dot com slash enroll.
It's open until September 14th. This is the lowest price it will ever be. It's going up in 2024. So check it out. Hello, flower power. It's nice to see you. Uh, flower power says this always gets me excited about work right before the weekend. Uh, hope everyone has a good Friday. I hope everybody has a good Friday too.
And you know what flower power, what I do, this is like a little off topic for this live stream, but. Um when i'm excited i'll write down a bunch of ideas So I use notion go into notion or a notes app and what you're excited about right now write it down It helps you plan your coming week So that's what i'll do There's plenty of times on friday where I will collect stuff for the coming week and then i'll get excited for it on monday All right.
I hope everybody has a great weekend I hope to see you in the live master class or the wealth lab if you feel like that's your right next step Um, I hope that this was helpful. I hope you guys enjoyed charlie's little growly noises that she's making over here Um, and I will see you next Friday at noon central time. Bye
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