[Beyond Borders]

(07-11-2012 03:59 PM)Mr McGillycuddy Wrote:  

Thanks for this information, very helpful. I no longer have a full-time job and am throwing myself into freelance writing 100%. I have money saved up to last me for at least a year, probably more, while I get myself established but I am still in the absolute infancy here.

Would you mind expanding on a couple of points?

Specifically:

1. Marketing yourself on the freelance sites. Tips for the profile. Advice for what proposals should say. Ways to streamline the proposal process. Those types of things.
2. Ways to market to local businesses and larger mid-sized/corporate clients away from the freelance sites.
   

If you have money for a year, you're stoked! You might even consider relocating immediately so that money goes further. In Southeast Asia, that might last you two years. But don't take it for granted! It's easy to keep buying time and not working as hard as you can to get your business going because you have that little cushion, but it's way better to instead use it to pay the bills while you bust your ass. You can still party and have fun - just give yourself a regular work schedule and stick to it.

Freelance Site Tips

Be as thorough with your profile as possible! Don't half-ass this - include a pic to be personal. Fill out as much of it as you can. And sell yourself! SELL YOURSELF!

The best advice I can give you is to do a search for content providers and then study the profiles of the ones who are making the most money. Emulate those as much as possible - these people know what they're doing.

It's really all marketing.

Also, write up standardized bids for the different niches you want to work in. But change things in each bid as you place it - to match the specifics of the job. In other words, you want to use semi-standardized bids to save time, but you don't want the people who've placed the job to know it as they don't like standardized bids all that much.

They want to think you're the perfect person for the job.

I put all my bids for different types of jobs in one word document, and then as I go, I copy and paste and edit. It takes time, but it helps.

I won't tell you exactly what to say because if too many people bid the same, it dilutes the effectiveness of the bidding style. But just stop and think what would concern you most if you were ordering premium content off a site like Elance. What are the problems these people face? What are their fears? What do they really want their INVESTMENT to do for them?

Answer these questions and then find ways to address those buttons in your bids. Make them feel confident about going to you.

Tell them exactly what they'll pay and why. Hint at being flexible if you have different ideas about word count, standards, etc, but if they message you for lower bids, try not to lower your prices without taking something in return.

As for the corporates and small bizzes, email them directly. If you're in one area and want to establish a business presence, get out there talking to people and act like a real business. As success comes, you can fade into the background more.

To be completely honest, my work directly with offline businesses has been minimal, but it's paying off anyways. Once you establish a presence, there's word of mouth, and there's also just networking that happens for anyone who puts themselves out there and does business the right way.

I hear LinkedIn marketing is a great way to go too. Spend some time on the Warrior Forum and pick the brains of the people on the offline section of the forum. Those guys look for ways to connect with businesses all day - do what they're doing, but instead offer something different (premium content rather than SEO services, etc).

You can also consider emailing people with crappy content that was obviously written by cheap writers (many who are non-native English speakers) and offer to clean up their content for a "minimal fee."

Like I said, hitting up these companies directly is not my strongest point. I began my business while living overseas and therefore focused mostly on the IM crowd, but I want to again reiterate the value in buying the top books off Amazon about commercial writing and just delve into them. They'll give you way more than I ever could on this.

I started a business doing landscaping stuff when I was in college. Did I know how to plant a lawn, etc? No. But I picked up a book when it came up and dug in. Read the books ahead of time and keep them on hand as you go. Any business has a learning curve. You'll make mistakes, but that's just part of anything.