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5 Easy Freelance Marketing Ideas

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Mind Over Matter

Maybe you’ve had this same out-of-body experience too: Sitting in your home office, staring at your computer screen, trying to “will” new clients into your inbox. You. Need. More. Work.

After all, you ARE a writing professional, aren’t you? Of course you are!

And you ARE a pretty darn good writer, are you not? Absolutely!

And don’t forget the vast assortment of LinkedIn accolades and “atta-girl’s” you get when you crank out those stellar literary delights. Un-matchable!

But the truth of it is, once your inbox stops pinging, it may seem like the love for your work has disappeared. No matter how much mind-melding you do at your computer screen, the work just…won’t…come. What to do? How do you keep the work consistently flowing, even when your writer peers are having the same troubles?

Good Times and Bad Times

Having freelanced for over 15 years, I’ve also experienced my fair share of dry spells as well as work over-abundance. I, too, covet those times when the work is plentiful, stacked with waiting list clients who are eager for me to weave my magic with their content.

But for those in-between times, I have to do a little creative marketing not only to acquire work, but also to maintain a steady flow of work. Here I’ve compiled a short list of some things you can try too to beef up your freelance work:

1. Write an eBook or a Guide

Ebooks are fabulous marketing tools, and awesome for dropping knowledge on your audience. Want to show off your smarts? You can do that with ebooks, without sounding obnoxious – – well, maybe you’ll sound just a little bit, but your readers will be so impressed, they won’t even notice. And, if the ebook is f-r-e-e, they won’t care about how obnoxious it is as they share its value with their Facebook friends.

2. Soft pitch to Social Sources

Speaking of Facebook, utilize the social services to the max. With your Twitter friends (TF) and Facebook friends (FF), go ahead and “Like” their status updates and leave tasteful, timely comments. It’s cool because other FF’s will also leave comments and may solicit your advice on stuff. Caution: Nix sounding sales-y.

3. Contact Past Clients 

Try not to sound too desperate when you make contact with them, but very pointedly, state your availability, and ask for their business. Update them on new certifications or skills you’ve acquired, including marketing, social network or list building skills.

4. Join your local Chamber of Commerce offline. 

The Chambers of Commerce meetings not only have the coolest white tablecloth luncheons, but also give you an opportunity to be the business speaker of the month. First, make networking a priority in the months beforehand while you learn names and faces. Start with your fellow luncheon guests, while you’re passing the breadbasket and politely smiling.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

5. Submit to Local News Mediums.

Rantings, ravings and soap-boxing diatribes are allowed here. Submitting opinion pieces to your local newspaper might make you popular! Now since that popularity will be relative, it’s best to find a clever way to connect your business topic with the theme of the news outlet. Ideas? Connect your business style with what the popular blogs or websites are currently discussing these days. Or, discuss a problem in an industry and offer your own solution to that problem. That should definitely get your blog some attention!

While it is true that freelancers enjoy convenience and flexibility, they still have to work pretty hard to acquire and maintain a client base as they wear different hats to keep their business afloat. No doubt that there are many, many perks in working from home, freelancers sometimes experience a work lull where they may wonder where their next gig is coming from.

Apply one or all of these ideas to your freelance business and see what happens. It’s important as a freelancer to have and use several different marketing strategies in your business to ensure a steady workflow.

Now, go put your mind-melding abilities to other uses like levitating the dog or the cat. They’ll get a kick out of that, for sure!

How I Handle the Hard Work of Freelancing

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I’m not gonna lie to you; freelancing is hard work.

As much I enjoy writing, and as much as I enjoy being creative, it is a challenging task to be able to do what I love to do AND find and keep consistent writing work at the same time. That’s because I still have to market myself and bid on different jobs just to make sure that I keep myself busy all of the time and to keep my calendar filled with work. There are days/times when everything is D-R-Y…and then there are times when I’m burning the midnight oil at both ends trying to keep up with my deadlines and client satisfaction. (can you actually burn oil…and where are the ends??)

This past week for me has been one of those frustrating times when I don’t know if I’m going to get a client bid on a job, or if they’re going to offer me peanuts to write for one of their sites. Usually when it’s the latter, I get a foul attitude and I decide to never, ever, ever write for anymore private clients again. That is, until the middle of the month gets here and it’s time to get those bills paid.

Know Your Worth

I’ve come to realize after years of writing that as a writer, you have to know and value your own worth. And I know that I am a very good writer. A VERY good writer. How do I know that? Well, for the past 17 years I’ve stayed busy with my writing and have managed to keep a decent momentum going with steady work and a steady clientele.

I’ve also been told numerous times over the years how good my work is. Clients have retained me as their top writer, their top editor, the 1st choice for big accounts, etc. So why is it that sometimes I would be so frustrated??

Well, my frustration often came from trying to understand people. Sometimes it seemed that no matter how hard I work and how much heart I put into my work, I was often expected to either

1.) work for ridiculously low per word rates, or

2.) do more writing work than what was originally agreed upon before I start a project.

By that second one I mean that once the client discovers my writing caliber and my fast production output, they want more, and more, and more. And More. That wouldn’t be so bad to do but they will sometimes flip the script and want the same productivity level with no pay increase or they decide to pull the project once it gets to a certain level for them. This can come without warning to me, who has by this time determined the project to be long-term and have placed everything else (including other clients and my own blogs) on the back burner to focus on the clients needs.

Once I realized my worth, I stopped allowing that to happen to me. Now, I demand and stand firm on my rates, and I get them. Why? Because I let my work speak for itself.

My Freelancing Answer

Freelancing works great for some, I’m sure. And honestly, it works for me too. But for the things that aggravate me so much, I’ve come up with a different solution and a way to get what I need (income, consistency) without feeling like a computer slave.

I own several blog sites that I write on periodically. Periodically because I’m working on client work. Now I realize that those blogs will never grow if I don’t concentrate on growing them.

They will never get to a sizable traffic if I don’t market them and network them. Well, one of the reasons why I haven’t done so before was because I was always working on someone else’s stuff!

To answer that problem, I’ve decided to continue to write for private clients AND work at my own blogs and on getting them up to speed so that they can give me that income and consistency that I need from my own work. My own creative, professional, full-of-heart work. After all, if 17 years worth of clients think that it’s all that, shouldn’t I think so too??

Absolutely.