Freelancing

How I Get Freelance Writing Clients With 4 Simple Rules

Get Freelance Writing Clients

Do you know people ask me that how I get freelance writing clients?

Then I ask them back: do you have 10 minutes to listen to the answer?

A lot of them say, sure, go ahead — then I explain to them that there is no single strategy but rather a combination of multiple things.

So, today I sat down to write about those multiple things that help me land more clients.

I believe in testing out different things because something will take you off the ground.

It could be:

  • Guest posting
  • Facebook Group
  • Blog Commenting
  • LinkedIn Publishing
  • Quora Answers
  • Twitter Lists
  • Triberr

You know, when we talk about a dozen options to try out; things start to look overwhelming. Here the procrastination comes into the play. We don’t want that, which is why I’m going to share my four rules/tactics that I apply to get freelance writing clients.

Buckle up!

Here are the four simple rules:

1. Helping Without Asking for Anything

This is by far the best engagement and business growth strategy for me. Help out as many people as you can. I get an enormous amount of messages on my both Facebook page and profile. I try to answer all of them even in detail; sometimes along with the relevant resource links.

Do you know what happens next?

Do they pay me something?

Nope.

When I help them understand something or help them get through the hurdle they are facing, they simply don’t forget me. In fact, they start to respond to my tweets, Facebook status, and blog posts.

I do believe that GIVING has so much power that it intensifies the value of your message.

So, when I help people out, it just contributes to my personal brand.

In fact, I don’t take a lot of projects that new and old clients offer me — because I don’t have much time. If you’re connected with me and follow my blog, then you probably know that I forward some clients to the fellow freelance writers.

2. Publishing the Content on a Regular Basis

If you’re a supermarket owner and want to be a successful businessman, then you got to open the supermarket and let people know and visit your store to buy stuff. If you keep the shutter down all day long, how are they going to notice your supermarket? The chances are, they’ll move past your supermarket without even noticing it.

Same is the case with your blog, especially if you’re a freelance writer. You got to write, write, and write.

A lot of freelance writers step on the wrong foot. They think they just have to write — there is no harm in writing whatever you want. It just delays the results you want to achieve.

For instance, if you’re writing weekly blog posts on your personal blog and most of the blog posts revolve around your life experiences, meetups with friends, and self-exploration, then you shouldn’t expect brands to reach out to you for writing their blog posts.

On the flip side, if you’re aware of what kind of clients you’re looking for and you’re attracting the readers through content, then you’re doing the right thing.

So, one of the tips I can share is that publish content on your blog consistently. At least, try to publish three times a month.

3. Capturing the Attention on LinkedIn

This goes a little deep into social media. If you’re not using LinkedIn at all, then you must start using right away. Don’t push hard on yourself, keep it simple, and connect with your friends and colleagues on LinkedIn. The purpose is to start growing your LinkedIn network.

I’m assuming that you’re already on LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows you to write articles, which publish on it native content section called LinkedIn Publishing. The upside is that you can repurpose your blog posts, meaning, repost your blog posts in LinkedIn Publishing section. Whenever the user publishes content on LinkedIn, it notifies all the contacts.

4. Focusing on Word-of-Mouth Marketing

There are different ways to build a connection such as social media engagement, blog commenting, live stream interaction, and mentioning them in your blog posts. Word-of-mouth is a strategy that does equally good. When you develop a sincere and warm relationship with other people whether online or offline, they mention you in their talks, content, and meetings.

I’ve personally seen this. A lot of bloggers mention me in their discussions and content. The reason is that they remember the moment I perhaps helped them somehow or even responded to them politely or positively. The word-of-mouth marketing is bigger than it seems. For instance, bloggers like Adeel Sami, Ali Raza, and Luqman Khan have mentioned me in their blog posts.

The value I receive is way more than I give to the people.

So, the point is that this word-of-mouth marketing does land me freelance writing opportunities occasionally. Although I don’t pick up every gig that pops up, instead, I’m grateful that it all happens.

Takeaway

It’s true that there isn’t a secret strategy to single out here. In fact, you have to get into the ecosystem where you need to adopt certain things, respond to the situations, and keep on moving forward.

These four rules that you’ve just read would reveal that it requires consistency, believing in yourself, and patience.

[Read the next two lines with much more attention]

If you try out for five weeks but nothing happens, you might quit trying. The coolest part is that I kept on trying for three years. And, it worked for me.

If you’re serious about your freelance writing career, you may go an extra mile here. These four strategies aren’t the ultimate solution. These things just worked for me.

Maybe, something else would work for you. It just takes DOING rather than COMPLAINING.

SO DO!

Does this blog post make any difference in your freelancing approach?

Let me know in the comments section.

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20 Comments

  1. Hello,
    Hassaan Bhai it was a nice read and your articles are always awesome, every time I land on your blog I learn something new, something which I don’t know.

    1. Hi,
      Thank you so much for your comment. I’m glad you always find my content helpful.
      I hope you’d come back every week to read the new blog post.

  2. Hello, Hassaan bhai!

    The relationship development with the like-minded people is the one thing that is working so great for me.

    It made me noticed in the blogosphere and recognized as the blogger as well.

    Networking is the best strategy not only to help you but uplifting others to assist them to actually assist you back.

    And I am totally delighted with you mentioning me in the post, Hassaan bhai!

    There’s nothing shortcut we can seek in the world of blogging where we’re virtually connected.

    Help others!

    Stay awesome! And keep rockin’!

    ~ Adeel

    1. Hello, Adeel Sir!

      Yes, I can vouch for that. I learned building relationship from you. I have not seen any blogger from Pakistan who does this better than you.

      It’s my pleasure to mention you in my content. Thank you so much for connecting and making this blogosphere a good place to stick around.

      Keep crushing it. Keep spreading the love.

      All the best!

  3. Hassaan, I am not into freelancing but enjoyed reading your article. I hundred percent agree with you that GIVING is paramount, it opens the door for receiving.

    Your other point about repurposing on Linkedin is interesting and I might actually start using it. I need to leverage a few other platforms for my articles and Linkedin can be one of them. Keep up the good work, cheers. Ahmad

    1. Hi,

      I’m so glad that you’re going to use LinkedIn for repurposing your content. I’d say don’t stop right after 15 publications. Give it some time. At least, publish 40 articles there before even thinking about something else.

      All the best!

  4. I think consistency is the key …I agree with you helping others without asking in return always help and yes consistently publishing articles is always important for increasing blog performance and ranking in search engine…I am also trying to find few clients for freelancing…this post is really helpful for me…thanks for sharing Hassaaan!!

    1. Hi, Arvind!

      I’m glad to know that this blog post is helping you. I shared whatever has helped me so far as well as I learned along the way. I’m hopeful that you’ll use these tactics and they’ll benefit you.

      All the best!

  5. Hi Hassaan,
    love the way you elaborated everything. 🙂
    Building connections/relations with readers has worked for me and I have worked for 5+ blogs that were owned by my blog readers.
    Will try LinkedIn Pulse for sure. Thanks for sharing!
    ~ Ahmad

    1. Hello, Ahmad!

      Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you liked the blog post.
      Try LinkedIn Publishing or Medium.
      All the best.

  6. Hey Hassaan,
    It’s really great.Your suggestions are very good and very helpful.
    Thanks For nice share.

    1. Hello Shaon,

      I’m glad you liked the blog post. I hope you’ll stop by again to read the fresh content.

  7. Thanks Hassan for sharing this valuable Information.

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