Tips for Finding Great Clients as a Freelancer

I’ve been freelancing since October 2020. If all that experience disappeared and I had to start again from scratch, here's step-by-step what I'd do: Phase One: Knowledge Time to learn how to write. This is the number one thing you must do before anything else. Read... • “The Adweek Copywriters Handbook” by Joseph Sugarman • “The Boron Letters” by Gary C. Halbert • “Writing Tools” by Roy Peter Clark (Free PDF in the comments!) Next, you have to know what you’re selling. What is an article, exactly? How is it structured? What’s the difference between a case study, newsletter, landing page? Semrush has a solid article explaining it all (link in comments)! Post what you learn on a Twitter or LinkedIn account to start building your personal brand. 💡 Phase Two: Practice It’s time to put into practice what you’re learning. → Choose three topics you’re interested in writing about. → Create a Medium profile. → For one month (minimum) post one article a week on Medium. For ex: In my case, I was interested in digital marketing, remote work, and influencers. A few articles I wrote... • How Onlyfans is Ushering the Creator Economy into a Prosperous New Era • How Chloe Ting Became the Queen of Home Fitness • “Skinfluencers” Won’t Make it Easy for the Luxury Skincare Industry Phase Three: Pitch Let’s get some clients. Step 1) → How to Find Them: • TechCrunch’s “Recently Funded” • LinkedIn’s “People Also Applied To” • Newsletter Sponsors (Ex: If your target client is crypto, subscribe to Milk Road and pitch its sponsors as the audience demographic overlaps) Plus, subscribe to these newsletters dedicated to surfacing freelance gigs: • Kat Boogard’s Newsletter • Peak Freelance’s Newsletter • Sonia Weiser’s Opportunities of the Week Newsletter • Superpath Content Marketing Slack Community • Kaitlyn Arford’s Newsletter As you sift, create a list of clients that are in relevant to the topics you chose earlier. Step 2) → How to Pitch Them: The final step is to cold pitch. The rules: • The email is 80% about them, and 20% about you. • Bring a gift by pitching articles that are relevant to their target audience. • Link to your Medium articles to prove you can write. • Follow-up twice over the span of eight business days (roughly). Reminder: Stellar articles and personalized cold emails are *all* you need to start freelancing. I was earning ~$5,000 a month before I had a newsletter, website, Twitter, or LinkedIn. The next phase will be building the little parts: Contracts, website, etc (will explain in a future post 😌 ). Did I miss anything? Let me know! (Pictured: My setup working remotely for the first time ever in Paris 🌱 it felt v special :') ! )

💡 Freelance tip comin' in hot! I keep track of leads and potential clients on a Trello board. Whenever I come across a brand or person that seems interesting and like a good fit—on Twitter, LinkedIn, or wherever else—I add a new card to the board (or, you know, screenshot it on my phone and hopefully *eventually* remember to create a card 😬). I have a template card that I copy for each new lead or potential client. There's space for me to leave some notes about what they do, where I found them, points of contact I could reach out to...you get the idea. The board also has columns for the different "stages" those leads move through: • Leads • Reached out • Actively talking with • Onboarding • Actively working with • Work has been sporadic • Not right now If and when I need to do some business development and reach out to potential clients, I have a super solid place to start. You can do the same thing with a spreadsheet, fancy freelance software, or even a whiteboard or random notebook. Whatever works for you. Regardless, it saves you a lot of head-scratching (and the dreaded panicky "There's nobody out there I can work for!" thoughts) when it's time to look for new work. 😊

The freelance world can feel uncertain and confusing, so in the spirit of paying it forward, I want to dive into how I find new work. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula, but this is what works for me. • Crafting and sharing a LinkedIn post that indicates that I’m looking for work and outlines what an ideal client or project would look like • Reaching out to existing contacts from previous full-time jobs — I use a Google Sheet to keep track of everyone — to see if they’re looking for freelance writers or know someone who is • Seeking out people who work for companies I admire and sending them a clear and direct email or LinkedIn message about working together • Reaching out to people in my personal life to see if they know anyone who is looking to hire freelancers • Asking previous clients I enjoyed working with if they have upcoming projects that require freelance work Yes, it’s vulnerable. But it works. Fellow freelancers, how do you go about finding new work?