The Ultimate Guide to the Freelance Success You Deserve

You’re talented. And you’re smart. So why is freelance success so hard?

The problem is, you probably don’t know much about running a business.

This isn’t your fault.

You’ve been busy building your skills and your experience as a freelance writer or freelance editor (or as another type of freelancer).

Sick and Tired of Struggling?

But freelancing is a business. So you need to be a businessperson too.

And client-focused marketing is a key part of running a a freelance business.

Because clients don’t just fall into our laps if we’re good at what we do.

Chances are whatever marketing you’re doing isn’t working. And you don’t know what’s wrong—or how to get the help you need.

So you end up taking whatever work comes along. Instead of finding the high-paying freelance work and clients you deserve, you struggle.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Your Guide to the Freelance Success You Deserve

Awesome, high-paying clients who need the help of talented freelancers are out there. This Ultimate Guide to Freelance Success shows you a proven step-by-step process for finding and attracting them.

It’s the freelance marketing process I used myself to become a 6-figure freelancer in 18 months. And hundreds of other freelancers are using this proven process to get the clients they deserve too.

Achieve freelance success with the right freelance marketing

The guide will show you how to find and get steady, high-paying clients—so you can build a stable, successful freelance business. You will have to work hard. But you won’t waste your time or effort, because my process is based on what works best for freelancers.

Here are the 10 steps to freelance success:

Develop the Fearless Freelancer Mindset
Stand Out in a Sea of Freelancers
Build the Marketing Habit
Choose Your Moneymaking Specialty(ies)
Find the Right Prospects
Reach and Attract the Right Clients with Direct Email
Establish a Complete, Client-Focused LinkedIn Profile
Create a Client-Focused Website
Meet People Who Can Help and Hire You
Be First in Line for Freelance Work

[ps2id id=’Develop’ target=”/] Freelance Success Step 1. Develop the Fearless Freelancer Mindset

Successful freelancers aren’t luckier or smarter than freelancers who struggle. We just understand that what we think is as important in what happens to our freelance businesses as what we do. So we develop the fearless freelancer mindset.

You can develop the fearless freelancer mindset too.

And if you do, it will be easier for you to learn what you need to learn and do what you need to do to build a stable, successful freelance business. You’ll feel less overwhelmed and more able to cope with things not going well—which happens to all of us.

Three things are part of the fearless freelancer mindset:

A growth mindset
Grit
Resilience.

You can build a growth mindset and become a fearless freelancer. Grit and resilience will help you do this. And you can grow your grit and build your resilience.

A growth mindset

If you have a growth mindset like Ford, you believe that you can change your freelance future by learning new things, being persistent, and taking the right actions. You’ll be willing to work hard to reach your goals. You’re much more likely to face challenges head-on and overcome them.

But if you have a fixed mindset, you believe that your future is set in stone. And you may believe that you shouldn’t have to work hard to succeed as a freelancer. Since doing better is beyond your control and you expect success to come to you without effort, you’ll give up.

Grit

Also called determination, mental toughness, or tenacity, grit is having the perseverance and passion to stick with your long-term goals until you reach them. Grit is carrying on even when you make mistakes or don’t feel like you’re making progress.

Remember how Charlie Brown kept trying to kick that football even though Lucy pulled it away from him every time? Charlie Brown never gave up. He had grit.

How successful we are is largely dependent on grit.

Resilience

While grit is something we always need, resilience helps us when bad things happen—like a recession. Resilience is the ability to meet adversity head-on, adapt, bounce back, and keep trying.

Most people aren’t born resilient. Instead, they build resilience over time. If you consider adversity a challenge and deal with it, you’ll become more resilient. But if you consider adversity a threat, you’ll become less resilient.

Learn More about the Fearless Freelancer Mindset and Freelance Success

How to Turn Struggle into Success with the Fearless Freelancer Mindset

Video: Develop the Fearless Freelancer mindset

[ps2id id=’Stand’ target=”/]Freelance Success Step 2. Stand Out in a Sea of Freelancers

What do freelancers have in common with oranges, coal, and cattle? They’re all commodities—services (freelancers) and goods (oranges, coal, and cattle) that are largely interchangeable.

To many clients, one freelance writer or editor (or another type of freelancer) seems just as good as another—unless you have a freelance brand and client-focused marketing messages. Then you’ll stand out in a sea of freelancers.

Most freelancers don’t have brands and client-focused marketing messages.

If you do, you’ll be able to attract more—and better—clients. And when clients contact you, they’ll already understand what you do and how you can help them. So you’ll be able to do less marketing.

What’s in a Freelance Brand?

Your logo and tagline are the main ways you show your brand. A logo is an image, symbol, or other design to identify your services. A logo should be easily identifiable and simple.

A tagline—one of your key client-focused marketing messages—is a memorable phrase or sentence that helps your target markets understand what you do. Target markets are groups of clients (usually part of an industry) that you work with or want to work with.

Make your tagline short enough to look good with your logo. And make sure it’s clear. Clarity always trumps creativity and cleverness in a tagline (and in all marketing). Work with a professional designer you to create a logo that represents your business.

Your freelance brand is also made up of:

Tone of voice: Your company’s values, personality, and way of thinking.
Colors
Business name (or your name and title)
Client-focused marketing messages: Clear messages about how you meet client needs.

Learn More about Standing Out in a Sea of Freelancers for Freelance Success

Stand Out in a Sea of Freelancers: Your Brand

Video: Stand Out in a Sea of Freelancers

[ps2id id=’Build’ target=”/]Freelance Success Step 3. Build the Marketing Habit

Steady, high-paying clients aren’t using freelance jobs sites and content mills. And they’re not going to magically find you.

Instead, you have to go out and find them. And you have to attract them with your marketing.

If you’re like most freelancers, this is hard for you. But it doesn’t have to be.

You can make marketing as easy as trying your shoes—by making marketing a habit.

The more you practice a habit—in this case the marketing habit—the easier it gets. It’s like learning how to tie your shoelaces. In the beginning, you had to really think about what you were doing. And it was hard. But the more times you tied your shoelaces, the easier it got—because tying your shoelaces became a habit.

Here are some simple ways to build the marketing habit.

Start Small and Increase Gradually

Start building the marketing habit with small actions. For example, invite one person to connect with you on LinkedIn each day for the first week. The next week, invite two people to join your network each day.

Focus on Actions, Not Outcomes

You can’t control outcomes, like whether a client hires you. But you have total control over your actions. For example, if you aim to get 3 new clients in 30 days, you’re going to be disappointed.

But you can easily develop a list of 25 prospective clients and send them direct emails over the next 30 days. And actions like this, repeated often, are very likely to result in new clients in the future.

Chunk the Marketing Habit

Break the marketing habit into manageable chunks. Instead of trying to write or revise your LinkedIn profile in one day, for example, try this:

Day 1: Draft your About section.
Day 2: Review and refine your About section.
Day 3: Finalize your About section. Start drafting your headline.
Day 4: Review and refine your headline.
Day 5: Work on your Experience section.
Day 6: Work on the rest of your profile.
Day 7: Finalize your headline.
Day 8: Review everything carefully.

This makes it easy to practice the marketing habit consistently and get stuff done.

When You Slip, Get Back on Track

We all slip and get off track. Be kind to yourself and accept that you’re human. Then get back to practicing your mark

Be Patient

It takes time and practice to build the marketing habit. Keep going and you’ll see the results.

Learn More about Achieving Freelance Success by Building the Marketing Habit

How to Make Marketing as Easy as Tying Your Shoes

Video: Make Marketing as Easy as Tying your Shoes

[ps2id id=’Choose’ target=”/]Freelance Success Step 4. Choose Your Moneymaking Specialty(ies)

If a pipe in your home bursts and water is pouring onto your floor, are you going to call a handyman or a plumber? A plumber is the obvious choice, because you need a specialist in fixing leaks—not someone who does a little of this and a little of that.

When clients hire a freelancer, they want a specialist too, someone with expertise in the type of freelance work they need help with. And they’re willing to pay well for that expertise.

Get the Clients You Deserve

That’s why specializing is the fastest, easiest way to get bigger, better clients in good times and in bad. In good times and in bad, freelancers with in-demand specialties will stand out in a sea of freelancers.

Specializing also helps you get the clients you deserve with less work and in less time. By specializing, you’ll learn more about your clients (your target markets). You’ll know who your prospective clients (prospects) are, where to find them, what they need, and how you can meet those needs. You’ll be able to show clients that you understand their needs and have the expertise to help them.

Choose the Right Specialty(ies)

A moneymaking specialty offers lots of opportunities for freelancers like you, and makes it easy for you to find and reach prospective clients.

Finding your moneymaking specialty(ies) does take time and effort, but the work you put in now will help you get great clients throughout your freelance career.

Decide How to Specialize

The most common ways to specialize are by industry, by project, or by a combination of industry and project. For most freelancers, industry specialization is best, especially if you’re fairly new to freelancing or have been freelancing for a while but aren’t as successful as you’d like to be. Industry specialization is a broader way to specialize. And it lets you choose industries with lots of opportunities and high-paying clients. You can do work outside your specialty(ies) too.

Go for the Money

Whatever type of specialty(ies) you choose, go for the money. Focus on industries, target markets, specific clients, and projects (services) that offer high pay and lots of opportunities—even in a recession.

The best clients are usually large businesses, especially businesses that sell products or services to other businesses (B2B) rather than to consumers (B2C). There are other types of high- paying clients too.

Learn More about Achieving Freelance Success with Your Specialty(ies)

The Easy Way to Get Bigger, Better Clients

Video: The Easy Way to Get Bigger, Better Clients: Your Freelance Specialty

[ps2id id=’Find’ target=”/]Freelance Success Step 5. Find the Right Prospects

Having a clearly-defined specialty(ies) will make it much easier for you to find steady, high-paying clients. And working with steady, high-paying clients is the easiest way to build your freelance business.

But these clients aren’t going to magically find you. And they don’t use freelance jobs sites or content mills like fiverr, Upwork, or Freelancer.com.

Instead of taking whatever work comes along, you need to choose the clients you want to work with. Start by making a list of prospective clients (prospects). Then use direct email (Step 6) to reach out to them.

When you do this, you can’t be sure that a client is high-paying and uses freelancers regularly. But my process will help you find prospects that are most likely to be steady, high-paying clients. These are usually large businesses, especially businesses that that sell products or services to other businesses rather than to consumers.

Look for clients in the industry or industries you work in or want to work in. Within each industry, find target markets, or groups of clients, where it’s easy to find clients.

Find Your Best Prospects

Focus first on the prospects that are most likely to hire you now based on your background, experience, and skills. New freelancers, for example, aren’t likely to land Apple or Mayo Clinic as clients. Expand your prospect list to bigger, better clients as you gain experience.

Here are 5 ways to find high-paying clients for your prospect lists:

Professional associations
Dun & Bradstreet
Leading company lists
Online industry directories
LinkedIn

LinkedIn is best for finding the right contact person in each company/organization. Look for the types of people who usually hire freelancers or manage the people who hire freelancers. These are usually vice presidents, managers, directors, associate directors, and editors.

The right contact person usually works in departments like communications, content marketing, digital marketing, marketing, new business development, sales, or web content.

The titles and departments vary in different companies and different target markets. As you learn more about your target markets, you’ll learn the best search terms.

LinkedIn search results are also based on your connections, so the larger your network, the more results you’ll get. Relevant connections are people in your industry(ies) and target markets and other freelancers.

Finding Email Addresses

You’ll need email addresses for each contact to use direct email to reach out to your prospects. Professional association member directories usually have email addresses for members. On LinkedIn, many people don’t include their email address under contact info.

I’ve found a trick for finding email addresses that usually works. Find the format for email addresses on the company’s website and apply it to your contact’s name. Try the Newsroom, which always lists media contacts, usually by name and with an actual email address.

Learn More about Achieving Freelance Success by Finding the Right Prospects

How to Choose Your Clients Instead of Taking Whatever Work Comes Along

Video: Find steady high paying clients

[ps2id id=’Reach’ target=”/]Freelance Success Step 6. Reach and Attract the Right Clients with Direct Email

Attract the steady, high-paying clients on your prospect list with direct email. You do this by writing a direct email that focuses on each client’s needs and how you meet those needs. Common general client needs include:

Get more business or make more money (usually by selling more products or services)
Help their clients get more business
Be seen as a thought leader
Educate and inform people
Stay on budget and on deadline.

Freelancer-specific needs include experience, ability to meet deadlines, flexibility, accessibility, and responsiveness. You also need to understand your target markets (groups of similar clients), industry, and company needs.

Attract Clients with Compelling Direct Email Copy

Write a short, targeted direct email to each prospect that combines your knowledge of the target market/industry with language used on the prospect’s website. Key content includes:

Client-focused subject line
Key client need and how you meet that need
Brief, relevant experience/background
Call to action (what will happen next)
Contact information,

Compelling direct email copy is short, easy to read, personal, and relevant. Use a subhead for a key client-focused message. Make each direct email personal by using the contact’s name and the company’s name. Use some of the company’s language and/or values in your email. Focus on what the client wants to know about you.

Free tool: Direct email templates, examples, and tips:

Direct Email Swipe File

How to Increase Responses to Your Direct Emails

Most responses come from your follow-up emails. If you don’t hear back from a prospect in about a week, forward your original email with a short, polite message.

Usually, the response is that the client says they’ll keep you in mind for future freelance work or put you in their freelance database. That’s because up to 90% of the time, clients don’t need a freelancer when you first contact them.

These interested clients are very likely to hire you within the next 12 months or so—if you make sure they think of you first when they need freelance help by following up with them.

Follow-up isn’t about selling yourself. Most of the time, you shouldn’t even mention your freelance services.

Customize your follow up to the client organization or your contact person, Sharing relevant content like blog posts, reports, and podcasts in an easy way to follow up. Sign up for e-newsletters so this content comes right to your inbox.

Once or twice a year, send interested clients a friendly reminder that you’re available for freelance work. But this must be part of your follow-up process and not the only time you contact these clients. Develop your follow up list and put it in a tracker (spreadsheet, database, Word document, etc.) with a schedule for following up.

And it doesn’t matter if you’re not sure whether you have the right person on your prospect list. If you write an irresistible direct email, the person you contacted will probably forward your email to the person who hires freelancers.

Learn More about Achieving Freelance Success through Direct Email

How to Get Steady, High-Paying Clients with Direct Email

Free tool: Direct Email Swipe File

[ps2id id=’Establish’ target=”/]Freelance Success Step 7. Establish a Complete, Client-Focused LinkedIn Profile

Over the past few years, a LinkedIn profile has become a powerful tool in helping freelancers get steady, high-paying clients. More and more clients are using LinkedIn to find freelancers. When you send direct emails, clients view your LinkedIn profile before deciding whether to contact you.

Develop a Complete, Client-Focused LinkedIn Profile

If you develop a complete, client-focused LinkedIn profile, then you’ll rank higher in search results. When LinkedIn generates search results, profile completeness and relevant keywords in the headline are at the top of the search algorithm criteria.

Complete your LinkedIn profile

Only 51% of LinkedIn users have complete profiles. So you’ll outrank almost half of all members just by completing your LinkedIn profile. If you have an All-Star rating, your profile is complete. To get an All-Star rating, you need to include the right content and have at least 50 connections. The right content is:

Industry and location
Profile photo (professional)
Current position (under Experience)
Two past positions
Education
At least three skills.

Focus on Your LinkedIn Profile Headline for Freelance Success

The most important part of your LinkedIn profile is the headline. You can use up to 220 characters to attract clients and make them want to learn more about you. But the old LinkedIn limit of 120 characters is usually plenty for a compelling, client-focused headline.

Clearly say what you do and how you help your clients. Use relevant keywords to rank higher in search results, especially “freelancer” and “freelance [writer, editor, etc.]” and your services. You can also include the type of clients you work with or other key information.

See examples of dull headlines and compelling, client-focused headlines.

Free Tool:

The Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Checklist for Freelancers

Engage Clients in the About Section of Your LinkedIn Profile

The About section is the second most important part of your LinkedIn profile after your headline. And the first 220-270 characters with spaces count most. That’s what shows before clients have to click see more. On mobile devices, about 102-167 characters show. Build on your headline and offer a clear, concise client-focused message.

See examples of the beginning of good and bad About sections.

Use the right keywords

Continue to use the keywords that clients are likely to use to search for a freelancer like you throughout About. Clients often look for keywords related to titles, so use “freelancer” instead of “freelance services,” and “freelance medical writer” (or “freelance ADD YOUR FIELD HERE”) instead of “freelance medical writing.” Use other keywords related to your services, like the type of clients you work with, your key services, and industry-specific keywords.

Include just enough key content

Focus the rest of About on how you help your clients meet their needs. Briefly summarize your services and your relevant experience and background. Use bulleted lists for your services and anything else that works well in a list.

Learn More about Your LinkedIn Profile and Freelance Success

The Ultimate LinkedIn Profile for Freelance Success This Year

3 Useful Changes for an Awesome LinkedIn Profile

Free Tool:

The Ultimate LinkedIn Profile Checklist for Freelancers

[ps2id id=’Create’ target=”/]Freelance Success Step 8. Create a Client-Focused Website

When you have a professional and client-focused website, you’ll get more steady, high-paying clients with less marketing—because your freelance website will do the work for you. But you need to grab the attention of clients in 15 seconds or less with:

Content that’s compelling, clear, and focused on client needs
Design that’s visually engaging, clear, and easy to navigate.

Whether you’re creating your first freelance website or updating your website, focus on the needs of your clients and how you help them meet their needs. Quickly tell clients:

What you do (your services)
Who you do it for (your target clients)
How what you do benefits clients.

If you already have a freelance website, it might be time for an update. Website design and content change. And most freelance businesses evolve over time.

Write Compelling, Client-Focused Content for Freelance Success

Use client-focused marketing messages, include the essential web pages for freelancers, and write conversational, concise, and scannable content. If you already have a client-focused LinkedIn profile, then you should have much of the information you need for your web content.

Client-focused marketing messages focus on the needs of the clients you work with or want to work with and how you can meet their needs. Common general client needs include:

Get more business or make more money (usually by selling more products or services)
Help their clients get more business
Be seen as a thought leader
Educate and inform people
Stay on budget and on deadline.

Clients also have freelancer-specific, target market, industry, and company needs.

Use your banner heads (the horizontal bar near the top of every web page on many modern website designs), banner subheads, blurbs, and other subheads to highlight the benefits clients get when they work with you.

Free Tool:

Awesome Freelance Website Checklist

Include the essential freelance website pages:

Home
About
Services
Samples, Portfolio, or Work
Testimonials, Clients, or Testimonials and Clients.

Learn more about what to put on each page.

Write for the Web

Writing web content is very different than other types of writing. Along with compelling, clear, and client-focused content, you need to:

Write like you’re having a conversation with someone.
Put your key marketing messages and other important information first.
Be concise.
Use banners, heads, and subheads to make your content scannable and help convey your key marketing messages.
Keep paragraphs short and sentences simple.
Use simple, familiar words that your target clients understand.
Avoid jargon, and avoid or limit acronyms and abbreviations.
Use the active voice and lots of verbs.
Use bulleted lists, where appropriate.

Highlight Your Content with a Professional Design

If your design isn’t visually engaging, clear, and easy to navigate, then compelling content won’t help you. Clients will move on to the other freelancers on their list without reading your content.

And the truth is, many websites of freelance writers and editors look awful! These websites look like they were designed by an amateur—because they were.

Free Tool:

Awesome Freelance Website Template for working with your designer

Hire a professional designer. It’s one of the best investments in your freelance business you can make.

Learn More about Achieving Freelance Success with Your Website

How to Win More Clients with Your Freelance Website and Do Less Marketing

How to Impress High-Paying Clients with Your Remarkable Home Page

Why a Website Designer Can Help You Get High-Paying Clients

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at 3 Awesome Websites

Why a Website Designer Can Help You Get High-Paying Clients

Free Tools:

Awesome Freelance Website Checklist

Awesome Freelance Website Design Template

[ps2id id=’Meet’ target=”/]Freelance Success Step 9. Meet People Who Can Help and Hire You

If you’re like most freelancers, then networking is stressful—even scary. But who you know—a.k.a. your network—can be more important than anything else in getting steady, high-paying clients and achieving freelance success. And having a trusting network will help you get more referrals—the easiest way to build a freelance business.

Why Freelancers Need to Network for Freelance Success

Clients want to work with freelancers they can trust. And they use networking to find those freelancers. If you’re not in their network or the network of someone they know, they can’t find you.

With the right networking attitude and some knowledge about what works best, networking will be easier and less stressful for you. It can even be fun.

Most freelancers don’t understand networking. So we have a bad attitude about it. And this makes networking harder for us. Once you understand networking, you’ll become more comfortable doing it. And you’ll get better at it.

Here’s the truth. Networking isn’t about “selling yourself.” It’s about getting to know people. Trying to sell your services doesn’t work. And it’s very stressful.

But when you focus on getting to know people, networking is so much easier! You’re listening to the other person/people and asking questions. The pressure is off.

Give More than You Take

Giving more than you take builds trust. Ways to give include sending links to useful content, connecting colleagues to other people who can help them, and referring other freelancers to clients.

Make Friends with Other Freelancers

Make other freelancers a key part of your strategic network. They’re a great source of advice and support, along with referrals.

Join and Volunteer for Professional Associations

Professional associations are the easiest way to get referrals because they’re full of people who are working in your specialty(ies). You’ll meet colleagues and other freelancers who can refer work to you—and prospective clients too. When clients need freelancers they can trust, they often ask colleagues in their professional associations for recommendations.

Volunteering for your professional associations is the quickest way to build the trusting relationships that lead to referrals, and to impress the prospective clients you meet.

Master Virtual Networking

Virtual networking began in the COVID-19 pandemic but it’s here to stay. Great ways for freelancers to network virtually include LinkedIn, conferences and other events of professional associations, social networks of professional associations, and forums for freelancers.

The biggest difference between virtual and in-person networking is the use of technology and the need to have the right technology for effective networking virtually. Other differences include how to appear professional and approachable on-camera and the need to have a clean, uncluttered background.

Learn more about the differences between virtual and in-person networking.

Build your LinkedIn network

LinkedIn is becoming a more popular way for freelancers to network—and more clients are using it to find freelancers. To rank higher in search results and impress potential clients, you need a big, relevant network (500+ connections) and to be active on LinkedIn.

Being active means sharing content and engaging with other people on your content and their content. Review your LinkedIn feed 2-3 times a day. Comment on relevant posts. Once you’re comfortable on LinkedIn, share relevant content such as:

News and updates about your industry or specialty(ies)
Tips on being more productive
Other useful free content.

In your post include a brief description of the content, usually with a link to the content (news, blog post, etc.). Use an image to increase views and engagement.

Meet People in Person

Nothing beats in-person networking at events for building the trusting relationships that lead to getting referrals from colleagues and being hired by new clients. Conferences let you make lots of key contacts in a few days and deepen relationships with current key contacts. And, of course, the conference content helps you stay updated with your industry or field.

Networking events don’t have to be scary. If you prepare before the event, and do the right things during the event, it will be much easier—and more effective. Also, you also need to do the right things after the event.

Learn 12 Ways to Make Networking Events Amazing, Not Scary.

Learn More about Networking for Freelance Success

8 Ways to Build Your Network and Achieve Freelance Success

What Happens When Freelancers Play Nice (Are Givers, Not Takers)

Why Other Freelancers Should Be Your Best Friends

Professional Associations: The Best Way to Get High-Paying Freelance Work

6 Tips that Will Help You Succeed in Virtual Networking

12 Ways to Make Networking Events Amazing, Not Scary

Free Tool:

The Ultimate Networking Event Checklist for Freelancers

[ps2id id=’Be’ target=”/]Freelance Success Step 10. Be First in Line for Freelance Work

Get more clients by spending a few hours a month or less by doing one easy thing: following up with clients who expressed interest in your services but haven’t hired you yet.

Clients often say they want to work with us. Sometimes, their need for freelance help seems urgent and you expect to start right away. Then you don’t hear from the client again.

Other times the client said they’ll put you in their freelance database. But you never hear from them again.

While this is very frustrating for us, what’s really happening is that the client doesn’t need freelance help right now.

Be First in Line for Freelance Work

The way to get more freelance work from those clients is to follow up, so that you’re first in line when the client is ready to hire a freelancer. Being first in line means that the client thinks of you—and not another freelancer—at that moment.

Follow up is helpful, relevant, and persistent

Professional follow up isn’t about “selling yourself.” In fact, most of the time, you shouldn’t even mention your freelance services. Follow up is about being helpful, relevant, and persistent.

Clients often appreciate the follow up, because they need great freelancers—even if they don’t need you right now.

How to Follow Up for Freelance Success

Most of your follow-up should be customized to the client organization or your contact person. Commenting on news is an easy way to do customized follow-up about clients or the contact person. Ways to find news to comment on include Google alerts, the company’s Newsroom page, and LinkedIn posts.

Another easy way to customize follow-up is by sharing relevant content like blog posts, reports, and podcasts. Sign up for e-newsletters in your industry(ies) and target markets so this content comes right to your inbox and you don’t have to waste time searching for it.

Once or twice a year, it’s fine to send interested clients a friendly reminder that you’re available for freelance work. But this must be part of your follow-up process and not the only time you contact these clients. Send a professional, low-key email.

Develop your simple follow-up process

Develop a simple process to make it easy to follow up regularly. Consistent follow-up requires three things:

Developing a list
Scheduling the time
Developing your content library.

Mark time for follow-up on your calendar—and treat it like a deadline for a client. Get it done.

Learn More about Achieving Freelance Success by Being First in Line for Freelance Work

1 Easy Way to Land More Freelance Work: Follow Up

The Surprising Thing That Will Get You More Freelance Work: Follow Up

Yes, You CAN Achieve Freelance Success!

If you want to achieve freelance success, then there’s one more thing you need to do.

Work hard.

Hundreds of freelancers, mostly writers and editors, have proven that my 10-step process works. But if you don’t do the work, then you won’t see the results. You won’t get more freelance work. You won’t attract steady, high-paying clients. And you won’t build a stable, successful freelance business.

Now this is important. You must have grit, the determination to push through the obstacles that all freelancers face.

And you must do the work it takes to succeed in any business. Most of that work is marketing.

Many freelancers avoid freelance marketing or do as little as they can.

That’s why survey after survey show that finding freelance work or finding better clients is one of the top problems of freelancers. You need to build the marketing habit.

Work hard now; Avoid worry and even more work later

But if you do the hard work now, you’ll set yourself up for freelance success.

You’ll have the right marketing tools to get the freelance work and high-paying clients you deserve. And you’ll know what to do when you need to actively find new business.

So won’t end up desperate like so many freelancers.

If you do the hard work now, then you’ll have less to worry about later. And you’ll be on the path to freelance success.

Learn More About Achieving Freelance Success by Doing the Work

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Need Some Help Unlocking Freelance Success?

If you’re sick and tired of struggling and are ready to work hard, here are 3 ways to achieve freelance success.

#1. The Free Way to Achieve Freelance Success

You can learn how to achieve freelance success in this guide and in Mighty Marketer blog posts. The guide and many posts come from free checklists, templates, and other tools to help you. But you’ll have to put the process together yourself.

#2. The Easier Way to Achieve Freelance Success

Or you can get the fundamentals in one place: The Fearless Freelancer: How to Thrive in a Recession. My book covers the 10 steps in more detail than this guide and is applicable in good and bad times. It includes bonus content: free checklists, templates, and other tools.

Get my book on Amazon.

#3. The Easiest Way to Achieve Freelance Success

But the easiest way to get the high-paying freelance work you deserve and build a stable, successful freelance business is to take my 7-week online course, Finding the Freelance Clients You Deserve.

The course explains the 10 steps in detail. You get assignments to help you apply what you’re learning and develop your marketing tools. And you get lots of handouts with templates, checklists, examples, and more.

In the coaching version, you get personal guidance from me, based on your business goals and challenges. I review your marketing and key course assignments. My students tell me that coaching helps them build their confidence and succeed faster.

The course is also available as self-study. This is best if you’re an experienced freelancer who is doing okay but you know you could be doing better.

Read how the course is helping freelancers achieve success.