What I’m listening to: Black Yodel by JD Malone & The Experts
Sunday already? Wow. Time flies when it’s the weekend, right?
I promised you 31 days of freelance writing strategies to boost your business, didn’t I? Well, that includes weekends, even if you feel like being a slug. Even slugs move once in a while.
I hope you appreciate that I’m keeping the weekend stuff relatively simple. Yesterday’s post was full of info, but it really wasn’t something that required tons of brain power or energy. Today’s strategy follows that same thought process:
December 4: Create a List of Seven Prospects
That’s it. Just write down seven names of seven people you’d like to reach out to.
Ah, but that’s not it, is it? You could write down seven names you find in a business directory. And if you’re not really looking for maximum impact, go for it.
But you’re a better freelance writer than that, aren’t you? You want quality names, so you’re going to do a little more thinking on this. Who should go on that list? Try thinking along these lines:
- Clients who match with services you already provide (such as companies looking for case studies or authors wanting ghostwriting services)
- Those clients you’ve been wishing to attract all along (like some of the household name companies or a particularly impressive business owner)
- People who are already in your social media circles
- Editors of those magazines you want to work for (managing editor is usually the contact you’re looking for)
- People who can afford you
That last one — pay attention to it. You could go crazy trying to write for the likes of Entrepreneur or The Atlantic, yet you’d be shocked to find out how little the former pays and how the latter doesn’t pay at all for online content. The same goes for big-name clients or impressive household-name companies – just because they have the name doesn’t mean they have the budget.