When freelance writers tell me they’re having trouble finding gigs, I often find what they really mean is “I’m sending out lots of resumes to online job ads I find on Craigslist and not getting any bites.”
But there are many, many other ways to land a freelance-writing job.
If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you are likely to get the same result you’re getting now. If you want to find more clients, it’s time to get proactive and try new marketing strategies.
Here are 50 suggestions for other ways to market your writing:
- Ask friends if they know anyone looking for a writer
- Ask former coworkers if they know anyone looking for a writer
- Ask former bosses if they know anyone looking for a writer
- Find former editors — reconnect and see if they have any current writing needs
- Find former editors and ask them to refer you if they hear from other editors who need a writer
- Call all your previous clients and see if they have any writing needs now
- Check in with previous clients and ask them to refer you business
- Ask current clients to refer you business
- Ask current clients if they have any additional writing needs
- Analyze what your current clients are doing and actively propose new projects
- Bid for jobs on freelance bidding sites — especially on jobs that seem high-quality and have few bidders
- Put your profile on freelance bidding sites, then just lurk and let clients find you
- Have a profile on MediaBistro, the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors, or other professional sites prospects might check to find writers
- Develop story ideas and send query letters
- Make cold calls — identify prospects, call them on the phone and simply ask, “Do you use freelance writers?”
- Send a direct mail pitch to prospective businesses
- Drive the industrial parks of your town and write down business names — then check out their websites and call them.
- Go to in-person networking events
- Create a new in-person networking event and serve as the host
- Go door to door on your main street and meet business owners
- Send InMail on LinkedIn – they have a high average response rate, and LinkedIn now guarantees you’ll get a response
- Troll the full-time jobs on LinkedIn and apply, asking if they might also need freelancers
- Check “Who’s viewed my profile” on LinkedIn and reach out to people who’ve looked at your site
- Hold a free or paid in-person class about how writers can help businesses succeed
- Hold a free or paid webinar or teleclass for prospects
- Do a podcast about the benefits of your type of writing to clients
- Start a blog with tips for your target audience
- Create a free ebook or report that can be downloaded or emailed to prospects
- Make your website rank high on Google for key search terms, ie “freelance writer + your city”
- Take out an ad online — on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or a popular site for your niche
- Take out a print ad in a publication your prospects read
- Place ads on Craigslist (instead of just answering ads on Craigslist)
- Find niche job boards with better-quality jobs you can apply for
- Look at newspaper classified ads
- Send an unsolicited article to a magazine or online publication
- Inquire about guest posting on prominent blogs your prospects would read
- Send an unsolicited guest blog post to a prominent site
Write promotional articles on Biznik with useful tips for your prospective audience (they can be emailed to everyone in your market)or offer a free or paid event for members only [NOTE: Biznik has closed.]- Refer other writers so that they in turn refer you
- Tweet about the type of work you do
- Look through the job offers on Twitter
- Use the Writer’s Market online to identify new markets you could approach
- Join business and writing organizations and take advantage of their events and forums to find new prospects
- Call relevant organizations your prospects might belong to, and ask if you can be listed in their online resource guide for members
- Join writing communities such as A-List Blogger Club, where lots of other writers will get to know you and might refer you
- Put a bumper sticker or door sign on your car that says you’re a freelance writer
- Wear a button everywhere you go that says you’re a freelance writer
- Create business cards that make a special offer for prospects and hand them out everywhere you go
- Put a tagline about your writing business in all your outgoing emails with a link to your URL
- Write a substantial ebook or print-on-demand book that would build your authority as a pro writer
How do you find freelance writing clients? Leave a comment and let us know your approach.
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Thanks for the prompt reply. 🙂 That’s true, I guess trial and error will determine which is best and probably a mix of both would be the best approach – for backlinking purposes as well. Thanks again!
Thanks for this brilliant post. I really want to start working on marketing my business more in the coming future. With regards to posting on prominent blogs – I’m a health and fitness writer and am setting up two sites, one that is more of a blog style with my own fitness articles on it (which I’ll also use to develop passive income through affiliate products, etc) and one that’s my writing profile site, where I’ll send clients. Which site do you think would be the better one to refer people to from guest posts? Part of me says the fitness blog site since then they see more of my writing work, but the other part says my writer profile since that allows them to know I offer writing services. Any thoughts would be appreciated. 🙂
Sort of depends on what your guest post topic is and what your goal is in creating it, which of your sites you’d want to link to.
You can try my usual technique for everything — experiment and see which one gets you more desirable results! Everybody wants the magical answer, but really it’s all trial and error and testing things out here on the web.
Let me share what I did when I got to the Writing World
#> I built FREE WordPress Blogs [3-4] on different niches [Eg. health, tech, self-help etc], filled them with 5+ articles.
#> Once the contents were UP, I inserted links to certain blogs related to that topic, and sent a PM to the webmaster asking for writing jobs, with a note showing the backlinks from my blogs and my ‘EXPERTISE’ on the topic.
Although this helped me only to find a couple of clients, they were LOOOOOOOOOOONG Term clients
Great strategy, Shanik!
I too found that prospective clients only need a few posts to look at written in a niche blog to decide you could help them. Your blog shows you know the technical end of how to blog, and your posts show you understand how to stick to their topic…and that’s pretty much what they’re looking for.
So many writers DON’T have these skills that at this moment in time, it really gives you an edge with prospects if you can put up a few posts on their topic.
Awesome list Carol! So useful again!
Did I tell you, btw? I got my first paid freelance job! And I just sent in a pitch to do a series of posts for them. It’s a start, but for me its wonderful little milestone. It was gotten through referral. Yes, the ones that you apply to online are so much harder to get.
Does that make me a freelancer now Carol? Can you “knight me” yet? 😉
You’re a freelancer, Ollin! I’m so excited for you. If you want more gigs, may many more follow shortly…
You’ve built a really robust blog and ought to be able to find work blogging for others pretty easily if you prospected for clients.
Thanks for the great information, Carol. You’re the best!
Yes. I’m still learning. I have to make up a contract for myself. Is there a template I should be styling my contract after?
BTW – great tips – I printed them out and keep them by my computer.
Thanks.
I think Nolo Press is a great resource for contract ideas. I used to be a legal secretary so I felt confident creating my own short contracts, but I think there are many models you can draw from online.
I did a post on contract basics for WM Freelance a while back…enjoy.
Hi Carol,
I’ve had two prospects contact me after viewing my profile on Mediabistro.com and it’s only been there for a couple of months. Which leads me to a question, one of the prospects looks very promising, however, they sent me a contract, I9, and some other stuff to read and sign. Should I send them a contract to sign to keep for my records?
Thanks.
Definitely! The whole point of it from your perspective is you want to see their signature on the contract, right?
Hi Carol! Love #47! Though for me, I get the most of my gigs from referrals.
I love the idea about the button Carol. I can just see it: “I’m a freelance writer – ask me how I can help you!” I so need to get one made up!
That comes from my experience in adoption. I knew parents who did that, wore a button that said, “Looking to adopt!” Some found their baby that way. Some put letters in their outgoing bills.
There are really a million ways to get the word out about what you’re looking for in life! The more ways you use, the faster you find what you want — in this case, freelance gigs.
Carol, you rule.
Fellow commenters, you also rule. It’s really helpful to me finding out what marketing techniques have been worth the trouble for other people. So far, my most successful marketing tactic has been good old-fashioned querying.
I’ve also done Google Ads and Facebook Ads (only because I had free gift cards for both of them). Google Ads has netted me two prospects so far, but neither could afford me and Facebook ads have netted me exactly nothing. I probably won’t be continuing either. Of course, there are a lot of variables, so your mileage might vary.
Great list, Carol! I was pleasantly surprised by how many inquiries I’ve gotten in response to my profiles on MediaBistro.com and LinkedIn (I update both regularly so that certainly helps). I used to get quite a few potential clients contacting me through CreativeHotList.com and landed one of my first ongoing clients through a services ad I posted on Craigslist. Nowadays, the bulk of my clients are repeat business and/or referrals.
Hi Susan —
I too am now at the point where the business is pretty much marketing itself, between referrals, repeat business, and inbound marketing — people discovering my site through Google, or my profiles in social media. But I did about 18 months of very aggressive marketing in ’09 to mid ’10 to get here!
I’ll have to check out CreativeHotList – don’t know that one!
I know another writer who’s been getting clients through placing Craigslist ads…but they’re not terrific payers. But yet another interesting strategy to try, depending on where you’re at in your career!
Carol,
CreativeHotList.com seems to have more designers than writers. BUT that means the writers who use the site stand out a bit more than their design counterparts.
Susan
Wonderful list, Carol! I would add two other ways – partner with graphic designers who can’t write and focus on your personal passions. I recently suggested to some Web designers who are passionate about dogs that they target veterinarians who need Web sites. Writing is much more FUN when you share a passion with your client!
Right on, Katlin!
Have that partner-with-designers tip in my ’40 Ways to Market Your Writing’ report…but I purposely wasn’t looking at it doing this post because I wanted other ideas to filter up from my brain and get included…which means I left some of the old ones out!
But definitely getting to know vendors who have related services is a GREAT way to spread the word. They may bring you into a project, and you don’t have to do much beyond sending them a link and introducing yourself.
Let me share one more COOL tip, not sure if it is WHITE, GREY or BLACK though.
I visit the most active forums online, copy the contact info [YM, Skype or MSN] displayed close to their profile badge and contact them via mail, with the title saying that “I’m ……………from………….Forum]. It really works!
Thanks for the post!
Hi Nisha!
Very interesting strategy — I’d be interested to hear what kind of forums you participate in that have prospects in them…guess most of the forums where I’m active it’s other writers, so the strategy wouldn’t work.
I think it’s sort of grey-hat as long as you’re up-front about where you got their info…though I know some forums might object. My sense is you’re really not supposed to do that, as it can make commenters feel annoyed and then they stop participating in that forum.
I actually asked this question at one point on Copyblogger — could I email your commenters and market to them? And I was told it would totally get me banned from guesting on there again. So watch out where you do that one!
Hi,
Thanks for the quick reply [I never thought that the blog owner would reply comments in minutes after they are up!]
I have tried it mainly on WF and it really works. Hope you remember my comments asking for tactics to land on decent paying jobs. It was a time when I struggled to find people who are ready to pay me more than $5 per article. Today, most of my clients who came in touch with me via my “Secret Grey Hat Technique” are paying me more than $12 an article [not even comparable to your rates, but it is a great achievement on my side!]
You are always permitted to forward any and all comments [have you seen John Chow’s comment policies?]. Brian Clark is another great mentor to me as well!
Thanks
You’re permitted…but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
Don’t know what WF is — can you elaborate?
And yes, I AM that blog owner who just might respond to your comment right away…loving the conversation on this one!
Carol, you’ve created an excellent list here. I especially like the first 10 suggestions because they focus primarily on networking directly with current and past clients to get new work.
I’ve had the most success with asking for referrals from people I’ve worked with before.
Well…it is sort of the path of least resistance, to network with people you already know to ask for gigs.
I wish I could say there was one method I had the most success with so I could just do that, but I find I need to be doing many different types of marketing to bring in the business I want. Though I’d say in the past quarter, my marketing has gone more passive — a lot of clients are finding me through my writer website (good SEO for Seattle Freelance Writer) and my LinkedIn profile. Stuff those with key words, folks!