by Joe Wallace
I love sharing dirty little secrets, especially the ones I don’t think anybody else is willing to spill (or haven’t thought to yet). For experienced freelancers, a few of these are a no-brainer, but for anybody just starting out in the game they can be gold waiting to be mined.
FREE PR
Ever wonder why Freelance-Zone writers put “by so & so” instead of having the username come up on the post or having the author assigned by WordPress instead? SEO. That inclusion of “by Joe Blow” means anytime somebody Googles “Joe Blow” or comes up with that article by Joe Blow in the search results, a little bit more free PR just happened. Repetition is the key to marketing.
A PERSONAL CONNECTION
Whenever I query a new editor, I use any advantage I can find. They live in the same state as my sainted Aunt? If I can find a way to work the personal connection in there (without being unprofessional or obviously corny) I’ll consider it. Trust is earned when you feel like you know someone.
DO A FAVOR, SAVE A FAVOR FOR LATER
One day, you will work on a project as a freelancer where you need to do the client a HUGE favor. Before you say no because it’s an unreasonable expectation or totally screwing up your other plans, think about the position it puts you in for future work and recommendations. You might want to render that big favor with the full intention of calling it in at a later date. Trust me, you’ll want to call that favor in someday. Yes you will. Those who think doing good is its own reward haven’t been in the freelance writing game long enough.
NEGOTIATE LIKE TRUMP
When you negotiate fees and terms with a client, silence is an excellent tool. When they come at you with a fee you know isn’t right for your services, reply by restating the project’s objectives and duties, then offer your own figure. And SAY NO MORE.
“I just want to see if I understand your proposal Correctly. Your offer is X per hour. My duties would be to write X, Y, and Z for your ABC.com website, plus do some social media for each of the posts and articles, plus re-write them for a second site. The posts would all be on Topic DEF and you want them to be keyword optimized. I think I could do that for you for $MY PRICE HERE.”
See, by restating and diverting attention from what you’re going to say (which is NO to their offer) by the time you get to your fee, you’ve made it expressly clear that you think the list of tasks is plenty of work and that it requires X amount of money to be worth your time. Be cheerful, friendly and helpful, but give them that task list and your counter offer, then stop talking and see what they say.
If/when they try to change the numbers, restate the tasks again “I really think that tasks A, B, C, and D that we’ve discussed are worth INSERT FEE HERE.” but try to counter by throwing a bone to them in some way as long as it doesn’t compromise the amount you really think the job is worth.