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How to Land $100 Freelance Blogging Gigs Without Pitching

How to Land $100 Freelance Blogging Gigs Without Pitching

Not to knock BAFB’s Pitchfest, but I have to say it: pitching sucks.

It’s so time-consuming! You could spend hours each week pitching and sometimes still not get anywhere.

While I appreciate having an opportunity to hone my craft as a blogger by creating short, to-the-point, attention-grabbing elevator speeches, every time I’ve done a pitch or written up a topic sample to submit for a guest blogging opportunity, a voice in the back of my head whispers, “How much are you getting paid per hour for this?”

As a stay-at-home mom, what little time I have to write between preparing snacks, changing diapers, talking down tantrums, and neglecting housework is valuable to me.

Plus I used to be an actress and pitching reminds me way too much of casting calls where hundreds of talented people line up, hoping to outshine everyone else and get the gig. Like most actors, I spent the majority of my time in auditions, only to be judged and rejected — and not getting paid. It wasn’t a healthy or lucrative way to focus my creative energy and I promised myself I wasn’t going to do it again.

So about 2 months into my freelancing career, I decided to stop spending all my time and energy on pitching, and try a different strategy to get work.

Guess what? Once I started treating writing like a business with its own brand, target audience, and social media strategy, my freelance blogging career took off. Here’s how you can do the same. 

1: Attract Twitter followers who are decision makers

Within two weeks of setting up my Twitter account and creating a content plan (more on that below), I had a digital marketer direct message me with an offer to hire me to write 36 blog posts per month!

Let’s break this down into a few steps so you can collect the right followers.

Set up an attention-getting profile with a call-to-action

Your social media profiles are your business calling cards. Don’t mix business and personal: set up a separate Twitter profile for your freelancing business (the same goes for your Facebook profile/page). When you create your profile, use a professional headshot (if you can’t afford a pro photography session, use these tips to get free photos taken or try taking a DIY headshot with an iPhone).

Be sure your profile pic, background colors and profile description are a reflection of the persona you want to put out there to potential clients. My Twitter profile tells potential clients I’m a no-B.S. creative type with an edgy sense of humor and a passion for language and storytelling. If they’re looking for a slick, buzzword-spewing cubicle-drone, they should look elsewhere.

Start following digital marketers

If there’s one thing I learned from my previous career as a sales rep (my “don’t quit your day job” day job), it’s that you need to be in front of the right person to close the deal.

To find blogging decision makers, I did a hashtag search for “#digitalmarketing,” and “#content” to discover tweets by some of the marketing industry’s most influential voices (i.e. @NeilPatel, @SethGodin, @RandFish, @MarshaCollier). Then I took a look at who the majority of their followers were: digital marketing professionals.

When you’re scoping out possible freelance blogging clients, you want to find content managers, SEO consultants, marketing directors, and digital marketing managers. Then, when you see a profile of someone you want to work with, click “follow.” The beauty of Twitter is every time you follow someone, they’re notified and given an opportunity to check out your profile and follow you back.

At the beginning, be sure to thank new followers

People love to see themselves mentioned on Twitter and will sometimes re-tweet your “thanks for following me” tweet, especially if you take a moment to look at their profile and personalize your message to them. I always include a link to my website with a call-to-action (e.g. “Learn more!”).

One caveat: once you start getting multiple followers a day, thanking them each individually becomes too repetitive on your tweet-stream. That’s why I now reserve this kind of tweet for important decision-makers or people who have large followings.

Don’t be afraid to send direct messages to potential clients

You don’t want to be spammy, but if you happen to see an article or a tweet that makes you want to reach out to a person privately, do so. You can keep your conversation private through Twitter’s direct messages (DMs).

Let the potential client know what you thought of their post and invite them to get in touch if they need help with content creation. The worst that can happen is they ignore you, or they never check their Twitter DMs. The best that can happen (and has happened to me on several occasions) is they request a quote.

2: Share content that fits your personal brand

Instead of sending query letters and pitches out each week, I spend my time creating blog posts centered on the nature of storytelling, business and human connection. My target audience: digital marketers and entrepreneurs who are looking for insights on creating meaningful content.

I see my blog as the hub for my business; it helps potential clients understand my style, philosophy, and approach to writing.

To connect me with my ideal clients, all of my blog posts end with some kind of call-to-action to interact with my brand. With every blog post I publish, I make sure to post links on Twitter, Reddit, Google Plus communities, LinkedIn, and my Facebook page (which I promote to a targeted audience using a small marketing budget — more on that below).

But sharing your blog posts isn’t the only way to market yourself in social media. Directing your audience to relevant articles about their industry can be a great way to bring qualified traffic to your website. There are tons of social media plug-ins and apps to help you with content curation and link branding. Klout and Sniply were my original favs. Now you’ve got even more choice:

3: Publish (or republish) on LinkedIn Pulse

Did you know you can post your own articles to Pulse, LinkedIn’s online publishing platform? Pulse posts not only appear on the LinkedIn website, but all of your connections are notified when you publish an article. Even better: LinkedIn will also feature your article in an email newsletter to all of your LinkedIn connections.

As a freelancer, you need to create a great LinkedIn network so your Pulse posts land in the inboxes of the right people. I’m currently working on making local connections with digital content editors and marketers in my area.

4: Earn a marketing budget (on content mills if you have to)

Content mills are where I cut my teeth and gained confidence as a freelance writer. Yep, the pay is crap. But once I was ready to create my own website and start my own business, I invested every penny I earned from Textbroker and Constant Content into paying for my website, domain name, and pay-per-click advertising.

There’s a bit of poetic justice to taking the scraps that were tossed to me from the content mills and transforming them into a (relative) feast from direct clients. I haven’t taken a content mill assignment since attracting several ongoing (and MUCH better-paying) clients via Google AdWords.

You don’t need a huge chunk of change to support a Google AdWords budget: I only pay $5 a day for my AdWords campaign, and so far it’s more than paid for itself. My average blogging client pays $70 to $100 per post; just one new 1000 word assignment a month pays for my Google ads.

I also spend $5.00 a day for week-long Facebook campaigns each month. While Google has been wonderful for attracting leads at the moment they’re making decisions, Facebook has been great for increasing brand awareness to targeted audiences.

I almost feel like I’m cheating the system by not pitching for work (with the exception of Pitchfest), but hey…whatever I’m doing is working! I’m happy to say I’ve had to turn some clients away because I simply don’t have the time in my limited writing schedule to take them on. I’m only able to devote about 15 hours per week to my business while I’m at home with my kids.

Am I making a full-time income in 15 hours a week? Not yet. Then again, I’ve only been freelancing since April 2015.

Treating my career as a business has shown me once I’m able to be a full-time freelance blogger, I’ll have clients lined up to work with me, instead of the other way around.

It’s a very nice position to be in. Why don’t you give it a try?

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Comments

  2. Alaura, fancy meeting you here!

    I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my favorite bloggers ever here! I loved your post and thanks for the tip about Sniply. I will definitely be using it!

    • Thanks, Raymonda! Sniply is indeed a wonderful tool. I hope they’ll come out with an iPhone app soon—it would make sharing branded links even easier. I also highly recommend Buffer (which I didn’t discover until after this piece was submitted): you just place social media posts in a queue and Buffer schedules them to be published at the optimal times for each social media network. http://www.buffer.com

  3. Interesting read. A word of caution about sending DMs to prospects. Most influential people on twitter have huge egos and would block you if you send them DM without some flattery beforehand. Personal experience 🙂

    • Very wise advice, Kashif! I think the rule of thumb for any cold contact with a prospect is to find some common ground first: “I just checked out your eBook on social media trends and it’s been immensely helpful as I grow my freelancing biz” or “I noticed on your profile that you have two daschunds–I’m also a fan of the Wiener kind.” Just something to give yourself a human connection. Flattery is appreciated even when the egos aren’t huge: it just shows that you’re listening and interested in what the prospect has to say.

  5. Great advice! I’m new to the freelancing world so I’m still getting off the ground. I’m getting traction but I’m soaking it all in. I’ve let Google + fall off my radar. 🙁

    • Thanks, Nia. It’s easy to overlook Google Plus since many apps and sharing buttons neglect to include G+ as an option. Best of luck to you in your freelancing career!

  6. Great points Alaura! Another useful way I’ve found to get freelance clients is through guest posting. Alternatively, if you can build a popular blog, the result will be the same. Simply getting your name out there and demonstrating expertise is probably best way to get clients, and these clients come to YOU and are usually willing to pay your rate rather than the basement rates found on many freelance markets such as UpWork and Freelancer.

    • Thanks for the tips, Daryl! Yes, creating a great blog full of informative content and great guest posts is a MUST for any business owner, including freelance bloggers!

  7. Great article, Alaura! (I’ve tagged it in the Google+ Content Writing Workshop.)

    I number myself as a candidate for the “Top 100 Pitching-and-Cold-Calling Haters list,” so I was delighted to see this topic. However, I would have liked to see some estimate of the percentage of time spent on profile work against group participation against creating original posts–as well as how you judge return on investment and find group members in your specific business niches. (I promised my accountability partners to create a detailed marketing action plan within the next month, and some of them have prejudices against the “no-pitch” approach; so I need to be careful to be professionally organized and not get caught again in the “post everything that catches your eye for a few days and then hope for the best” trap.)

    P. S. The Klout website is doing intermittent upgrades today (January 13), and I advise anyone thinking about registering there for the first time to wait at least 24 hours to avoid hair-tearing frustrations.

    • Thanks for the Klout heads-up, Katherine!
      As for time invested in marketing/social media vs ROI: I’m going to refer you to this fantastic guide by Neil Patel:
      https://www.quicksprout.com/the-beginners-guide-to-online-marketing/
      You should be able to pull some hard numbers to share with your accountability partners.
      That said, even Neil Patel advocates for *some* pitching to authority sites to build strong links to your website (and strengthen your Google rankings), if you’re creating a scalable framework for your business.
      So will I do some pitching as a marketing tool as I grow my biz? Fer sure.
      But am I basing my growth as a freelancer off of pitching for gigs? Nope.
      Best of luck as you develop a plan!

  8. Hi Alaura

    Thanks for your post – it was helpful

    Thanks for your tip on Sniply – I just signed up.

    Linkedin Pulse is another great tactic. Currently, I only post there once a week but guess I should up that a bit. Since I started doing it (before Xmas) I am now getting a little bit of engagement. Still not as good as the engagement I get on my blog, but encouraging nevertheless.

    Thanks again Alaura

    Kim

  9. Thanks for sharing your marketing tactics. I am finding LinkedIn to be more and more of a source of great leads. I’ve basically social media except to share with other freelancers, but it’s time I start joining the “big boys” groups. Thanks!!

  10. I thought freelance writers couldn’t get work with paid ads – I spent $10 on FB ads to promote my opt-in about content marketing for people in my niche (pets) – and I got a few signups that way, but no clients.

    I’m focusing on LinkedIn and Twitter these days, and I really like how close I can get to people who have real companies. No-pitch work is all about getting consistently visible, so people learn your name before they need you, and you’re still in their feed when they do.

    • I agree that paid Facebook advertising isn’t an ideal source of leads–I’ve boosted blog posts to increase opt-ins, and I’m working on creating a more targeted sales funnel to hopefully turn those FB sign-ups into clients.
      But Google AdWords have more than paid for themselves with ongoing client projects for me.
      Thanks for your feedback!

  11. Gr…reat tips. I’m a journalist and writer, as well as a media workshop lecturer and small scale entrepreneur. I like the way you’ve detailed everything in the space of an article. I’m planning some freelance blogging on the side, since I work from home. So your dope will come in handy.

  12. I got off to a slightly rocky start on Google+ because I did what I habitually do with Facebook groups–put up an “elevator speech” as my first post. Two of the first three comments I got were to politely inform me that “we don’t put up ‘Hi I’m’ or identical-between-groups posts; it clutters up the network.” Other new joiners may want to check out this item on how GP “does” things: http://andrij.co/blog/community-member-guide/.

  13. Hi Laura,

    Love it!

    If I may add to the ones you mentioned.

    Social media isn’t the only goldmine on the blogosphere; we can also tap the big blogs.

    Personally, I use Lifehack.org. When I had reached a certain number of posts on the site, I got an endless inquiries about my rate as a freelance blogger. Let me give you a bit of a background. I cover several categories on Lifehack and one of them is reviewing new products. Upon realizing this, clients from all walks of business came asking me if I want to write a post about their new products and how much I charge for a post.

    Bingo!

    Goldmine discovered.

    Now, I seldom pitch!

    Clients started running after me instead of me running after them! 😀

    Great tips, Laura. Keep it up!

  15. Thanks Alaura,

    Great advice and tips to look into. I’ll have to put some of them into practice.

    I haven’t been much of a Google+ user but I’ll have to start.

    I didn’t even know about the Linkedin Pulse page, definitely worth checking out. Once I can build up my network there.

  16. Note on formal Twitter Lists: If they’re visible to the public, DON’T use “Prospective Customers” or anything similar as a list title; would YOU want to visit a new Follower’s profile and find yourself on a “hit list”? Choose a title such as “Experts in the Field,” something that list members will find it flattering to be associated with.