This is Day 29 of 31 Days to Start a Freelancing Business (or Make Yours a Better One). If you want to catch up, click here to read Day 1.

If you found yesterday’s freelance marketing strategy (cold calling) hard to swallow, you will find today’s task much more palatable. You’ll still be promoting your services. But you’ll be doing so much more subtly. And, you’ll be giving value first before asking for something, possibly, in return.

What You Get When You Give

There are many benefits to being generous with your talents. By giving away useful stuff, you:

• demonstrate your knowledge, skills and expertise
• generate goodwill from your prospects and anybody who finds your free stuff useful
• give people a reason to spread the word about you

By the way, by “free stuff,” I mean something you give away with no strings attached. You won’t even ask for people’s Email addresses in exchange for your freebie. It’s a total gift.

This is what “content marketing” is all about – using freely available, useful content to generate leads, subscribers and sales. Or in your case, clients.

As an example, I recently completed and gave away a special report about video marketing.

What to Give Away

You have plenty of choices when it comes to freebies. It could be a:

• special report
• white paper
• video
• website template
• WordPress theme
• checklist
• action guide
• flowchart
• resource list
• audio recording
• webinar recording
• special pages on your site/blog

Really, your imagination is the only limit! Of course, you should keep in mind what format your target clients are most likely to consume.

And what about the content of your freebie? Well, it should be related to the services you offer. Your freebie could be about:

• the benefits of something (such as a service you provide, or a software you know how to use) – demonstrate benefits with case studies
• how to do something
• how not to do something – mistakes to avoid
• myths and misconceptions – and what the truth is
• lessons learned

The reaction you’re looking for is, “Wow, I really need this to make more money from my business/have more free time/enjoy life more. But it looks like a lot of work. I better just hire this person. He/She knows what he/she’s talking about.”

So remember to put a soft-sell offer for your services. For example, you could put this at the end of your report:

“If you need help with your article marketing efforts, I offer a complete article marketing solution for small businesses of different budgets. Contact me at me@mydomain.com or 212-1234567 so we can discuss which article marketing package is best for your biz.”

Now, that wasn’t hard, was it?

Selling Your Freebie

What?! Did I just say “sell”? Well, ya! You still have to sell your freebie even if you’re not asking for anything else in exchange.

You need to spread the word that you’ve got this really useful stuff available for anybody. Here are some ideas:

• Email everybody you know.
• Remember the forums you joined on Day 21? Go there and post a link to your free stuff.
• Promote it on all the social networking sites you joined on Day 22
• Publish a blog post about it
• Link to it when you guest post on other people’s blogs

And keep promoting your free stuff. You shouldn’t be ashamed to do so. After all, it’s free and it’s really good – you will make it really good, won’t you.

Here’s an excellent example of free stuff. It’s in the form of both a PDF and a website. And it’s all about what we’re trying to do today, which is build up your authority in your field. Click here to read all about how “Authority Rules.”

Got any questions? Additional ideas? Post them in the comments section below. You don’t know just who may benefit from your wisdom.

Thank you!

Lexi

PS: You might be thinking, “But if I show people how to do something, won’t they just go ahead and do it themselves – instead of hiring me?” Yes, some people are do-it-yourselfers and they have more time than money on their hands. Don’t worry about them; they’re not your ideal clients. But they just might refer you to those who are.

photo credit: kalandrakas

This is Day 9 of 31 Days to Start a Freelancing Business (or Make Yours a Better One). Click hereto read Day 1.

Today’s task is meant to make you shine: today you’re going to write your Unique Selling Proposition.

I’ve already written in more detail about this a few weeks ago. You can read all about it here. I just want to reiterate that you need a USP to give your prospective clients a reason to hire you and not your competitors, including those who may be charging less than you are.

I also co-hosted a webinar with Sharon McMillan about this topic. If you want to access the recording of that webinar, click here to sign up for The Savvy Freelancing Webinars. Don’t worry, we don’t try to sell you anything.

Watch the webinar if you want to learn:

• why you need a USP
• the four elements to crafting your USP
• how and where to use your USP online and offline

Here’s the link to sign up for the webinar again.

I also suggest that you read Sonia Simone’s post about branding. It isn’t about USP per se, but if you substitute “USP” for “branding,” it makes so much sense.

As an added help for today’s task, here are some examples of USP I’ve seen in freelancer’s sites:

• Virtual Assistant: Your Multimedia Timesaver
• Copywriter: Your $Ka-Ching!$ Marketing Strategist
• Designer & Copywriter: On-Target Web Design & Copywriting to Help You Hit the Bulls-eye of Success
• Copywriter & Internet Marketing Strategist: The Mozart of Direct Marketing
• Virtual Assistant: Girl Friday Online

These aren’t necessarily the best USPs out there. However, they do give you an idea of what a USP is and how you can use it to brand yourself and your services.

Put some effort into your USP, because it’ll work hard for you. It has to be short and catchy, yet communicate effectively with your prospect.

Inspired? Get going and share your insights in the comments below.

Lexi

photo credit: Space Ritual

This is Day 6 of 31 Days to Start a Freelancing Business (or Make Yours a Better One). Click here to read Day 1.

Today’s task is easy and might even be amusing: scoping out your competitors.

The one thing you should watch out for is getting intimidated, to the point that you decide you’re not good enough to get payment for your work. Get that out of your system right now, ok?

How to Find Your Competitors

Where are your competitors? Here are some easy ways to find them:

• Google (you knew I was going to say that, didn’t you?)
• Twitter. Go to search.twitter.com and type in your industry or service or even the name of a specific person.
• Industry forums. Keep your eyes open for service providers forum participants recommend.
• Your target clients. Ask them whom they hire for specific services. They’re usually responsive on Twitter.
• Elance. Search your industry keyword and find out which Elance service providers have earned the most in the past 6 months or so.

What You Want to Know

Now that you have a small list of possible competitors, look at their professional websites. You’ll want to find out:

• what services they offer
• how much they charge
• who their clients are (look at their testimonials or feedback page)

You’ll also want to make note of:

• how well they present and market themselves (do they appear to be professional?)
• what their unique selling proposition is (what makes them stand out from others?)
• what your target clients want which your competitors don’t address
• where they get their clients (this may not always be obvious; don’t sweat it)

Basically, you want to find out how you can do better than your competitors – in terms of the services you offer, your pricing, and your work ethics.

You’re not trying to do what they’re doing; you’re going to distinguish yourself from them. Make a bullet list of how you can (and will) be better than your competitors.

All done? Post a comment below then take a break (another slice of apple pie?). You deserve it.

Lexi

photo credit: -miguelito-

If you’re looking for more clients, my newest offering is just for you. Check it out here:

=> http://MoneyOnElance.com

This is based on an interview with Trish Lambert, a six-figure, power Elancer.

If anybody knows how to (really) make money on Elance, Trish does.

In this hour-long interview, I squeeze as much as I can from Trish about:

- finding quality projects on Elance (Trish says, “Just don’t mind those buyers who want to pay peanuts!”)

- setting up a client attracting profile

- writing winning bids (it’s NOT always the lowest bid)

- getting glowing feedback (even if you’ve never won a single bid!)

Aside from the audio recording, “How to Make Money on Elance” also includes a PDF transcript, mindmap and worksheets to make it easy for you to implement the strategies described in the call.

As you can see, this was truly a labor of love from me to you.

And before you discount Elance as a marketplace for bottom feeders only, read what Ed Gandia of TheWealthyFreelancer.com says about it:

Worst-case scenario, don’t discount sites such as Elance or Guru.com. Sure, the competition is tight, but there are thousands of opportunities there right now!

I like to reward fast action takers, so I’ve got a surprise bonus for the first 30 cool people who order “How to Make Money on Elance.”

If you’re looking for more clients, do check this out. Trish knows her stuff, and I’ve put in a little of my own wisdom as well.

PS: I never had any “luck” with Elance when I tried it a couple of years ago. But I didn’t know then what I know now. If I did, I’m sure I would have made money on Elance, too. Go here now to discover Trish Lambert’s secrets for getting well-paying gigs on Elance:

=> http://www.MoneyOnElance.com

Products have them. Home TV shopping is filled with them. Online sales pages swear by them. Freelancers need them too.

I’m talking about testimonials or feedback from your happy clients.

If you’re not systematically collecting testimonials from your clients, then you should. Testimonials give prospects a quick reference and social proof of your worth as a freelancer.

You can use testimonials in various places:

- Your professional website: Place the best testimonials on the sidebar so they’re visible on every page. In addition, create a dedicated “Testimonials” or “Feedback” page. Here’s mine.

- In your online profiles, such as on Elance, LinkedIn, etc.

- On job bids or proposals. A good place to put one or two testimonials is at the bottom of your proposal.

- Brochures and other printed marketing materials for your freelancing business. You can even include a one-line excerpt in your business card and letterhead (Note: I don’t use business cards or letterheads, so I’m not sure if this would be considered tacky. But it’s an idea worth considering)

To give your testimonials more credibility, make sure to include as much detail as your clients will allow you, such as full names, location, URL and/or Email address, and photograph. Of course, make sure you have your client’s permission to use these details before you publish them.

Also, the more detailed the testimonial itself, the better. Some people provide their clients an outline or guide questions to make sure they get specific and useful testimonials. I don’t do this myself. I prefer to let my clients’ personalities shine through. And besides, I want their feedback to be as genuine as possible.

You can read more tips for getting and leveraging glowing client testimonials here.

How do YOU collect and use client testimonials? Do share by posting a comment below. Thank you!

PS: If you’ve been bidding on Elance but don’t have any feedback yet, six-figure Elancer Trish Lambert has awesome advice about how you can get feedback – even if you haven’t won any bids yet! Click here to learn more.

Image by LDRBRS via Flickr