30 Ways to Get More Clients & Customers on Your Mailing List

You've heard the benefits of growing your mailing list, but sometimes it seems like too much darned work.

Maybe. Maybe not.

Because have you ever considered how hard you have to work when you DON'T have a list?

It's one of the biggest mistakes of a freelancer. You get bogged down in client work and then suddenly, a few clients drop off. You have to scramble to fill that space in your client calendar, but wouldn't it be much easier if you already had a mailing list of potential clients?

Or what if you're an information product creator or ebook author? You get really excited about you next release, but nothing happens...because you don't have a captive audience to sell it to. Imagine if each time you released a new product or book, your readers were just waiting to buy.

As a writer, there is no reason why you can't have a ready source of clients and customers. You've already got the writing talent that makes it easy to grow your list. Put those skills to work with these proven list building ideas.

* Offer a useful free gift. This is one of the most common and popular tactics for building a list. Give your visitors something for free if they sign up. It could be a report, checklist, worksheet, video or anything you can think of. Remember, if you want your clients to hire you to write for them, don't teach them how to write...but teach them how to use the writing you do to effectively grow their businesses.

* Include a graphical representation of your freebie. Whether it's an ebook cover, CD or DVD (to reflect an audio or video recording), these visual elements can draw the eye into your offer and give your freebie a higher perceived value. Both those things will increase your opt-in rates.

* Create a focused opt-in or lead magnet page. It's only purpose is to entice your visitors with the benefits of signing up for your list. Drive most of your traffic here, so you can grow your list more quickly.

* Share testimonials. If you've received feedback about your freebie or being on your mailing list, publish it. This kind of feedback is an important element of social proof that makes people want to sign up.

* Clearly tell the benefits and have a clear promise. Tell them in no uncertain terms what the benefit is of being on your list. This goes beyond the free document you're offering them, but tell them the benefits of continuing to get email from you.

* Set expectations for how often they receive mail. People hate spam, but if you tell them exactly how often you'll mail them, (E.g. "We'll email you a few times per week with easy to digest gardening tips") they'll often be much more willing to sign up.

* Use a lightbox. A lightbox is a popover that greys out the rest of the screen when it pops over. It's one of the most attention catching ways to build a list. You can also use pop-ups, page footers and other tools that let you display an opt-in offer to your visitors.

* Link to a sample issue. Link to an issue of your newsletter that people can look through. Make sure to put your best foot forward.

* Use Facebook, Google Adwords and YouTube Ads. Free content and offers are perfect for creating successful ad campaigns.

* Write a guest post around your freebie. For example, write a guest post about "17 Mistakes AdSense marketers make" if you have a free report about how to succeed with AdSense.

* Promote your list on social media. Especially try posting relevant responses to popular hashtags in your industry. Get your friends to share your content too.
 
* Create a viral video. Have a link to your signup page on the video (you can do this easily with YouTube's editing tools) and also include it in the video's description.

* Launch a podcast. Promote your list in your podcast or have them opt-in to receive instant notifications of new episodes.

* Offer a "Secret Blog Post". Tell your blog audience that you're going to release a blog post only to your email list. Give them hints on what it will be about. What problem will you solve? What secret will they learn?

* Give list members discounts. If you sell products or arrange for special offers, give the best deal to your subscribers. Use this as leverage to get new people on your list.

* Add a signup box on every page. Add it on the right, on the bottom or both. Make sure it's visible throughout your website.

* Do a solo ad mailing. Buy solo ads from other people with mailing lists to promote your list.

* Do an ad swap. Mail a promotion to your list, then have someone else do the same with their list.

* Tell people who email you their question will be answered in the email list. Answer questions on your list rather than privately. Answering questions privately takes up too much of your time and benefits only one person, but when you can turn that answer into email content, everyone wins.

* Build your customer list. A customer list is even more valuable than a subscriber list because once a satisfied customer buy once, they're more likely to buy again. Make sure you're including your customers in your mailing list.

* Wall off long content. For example, on a 5 page article, make people sign in to their mailing list address after 2 pages to continue reading.

* Get them to share. Encourage your website visitors to refer a friend, share articles, etc. Install a "refer a friend" or "email this article" plugin. Add a note to the end of your emails to encourage sharing as well.

* Run a pay-per-lead affiliate campaign. Pay affiliates for every email signup they generate, rather than for sales. If you know what your short term or lifetime customer value is, you can come up with a cost-effective amount to pay your affiliates.

* Make it mandatory for free online tools. Give away free web tools, but make sure they sign up before using it.

* Add a signup form to your Facebook page. Facebook makes it easy to create a "sign up" button on your page and most autoresponder have a tool to make it easy to integrate with Facebook.

* Use press releases. Distribute press releases to online and offline media. Encourage press release readers to get your free offer.

* Have a sweepstakes or giveaway on your site. Encourage entrants to claim their free gift and subscribe to your mailing list. TIP: Don't automatically add sweepstakes entrants to your main list as it's not likely they'll remember you or be particularly responsive. Have them opt-in directly to hear more from you.

* Host a free webinar to collect names and addresses at registration. Or you can charge for the webinar and grow your list of customers instead.

* Be a sponsor. Sponsor sweepstakes or giveaways on other sites by offering a prize. Have the website link back to your free opt-in offer on their sponsor page.

* Get interviewed. Media is all around us and you don't have to be on a big TV show to get exposure. Get interviews on targeted podcasts, webinars and have them share your free offer.

Growing your list is all about sharing great content and each day you want to grow your business (that's every day, right?), should include list building in your schedule. Do this consistently and your list will continue to grow, giving you a steady steam of new potential clients and customers.

Do This Next and Turn Your Writing Skills into a Living
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WriterHelpWanted.com co-founders, Ron Douglas and Alice Seba, recently got together to discuss the 5 obstacles that keep most writer from earning a good living from their writing. Click here to access this eye-opening recording.

7 Steps To Freelance Writing Success

“When your livelihood depends on self-imposed productivity, you either get good at it or you find yourself in mounds of debt.” ― Nacie Carson 

Working as an independent contractor is a great way to earn money while enjoying flexible hours.
Another attractive benefit of freelancing is being able to work wherever you want, whether it’s at home or at your local coffee shop.
And for a lot of people, they see freelancing as a way to break away from the rigid structure of a corporate environment.

In the recent years, more and more people have jumped ship and gone over to the freelancing side to enjoy a better work-life balance.
After the U.S. economy took a serious hit during the recession, a lot of companies have found that hiring specialised workers is a better business model than employing full-time staff.

In fact, a Harvard study in 2016 shows that the number of freelance workers in North America alone has skyrocketed from about 14 million to almost 24 million between 2005 and 2015.
As of today, this number is still growing and will continue to do so in the next decade.

With developments in technology and a rapidly expanding freelance job market, it’s become easier than ever to get a piece of the action.

Freelance writing: Legit or not? 

With freelance writing in particular, some people are worried about getting ripped off for their hard time or getting scammed by a shady employer.

But freelancing sites like Upwork and Guru have made it possible for aspiring freelance writers to get fair-paying jobs and get compensated on time.
Furthermore, you don’t need to have an academic background in language to land your first assignment.

On the contrary, most companies are probably looking for someone who can write in a relaxed, casual tone to connect to readers.
As you’ll learn, a lot of these online writing jobs specifically avoid words and phrases that might sound too stiff or formal which would alienate their target market.
So you don’t have to worry about writing like a professor just to get started with your freelance career.

The best part is that there’s ALWAYS work to be done, which means you’ll have a stable cash flow even without punching a clock at the office.

If you’re ready to try this exciting, new venture, check out these

7 Tips To Becoming an Awesome Freelance Writer:

#1: Have a system in place 

This is the most essential part about finding steady freelance work.
Once you’ve done your due diligence, you’ll have no trouble getting clients and keeping them.
Better yet, you’ll have the advantage of working around a schedule that works for YOU.
Like I said, it’s easy to earn from online writing for the simple reason that demand for this type of work is high.

You’ll find that just about any industry has an online presence, and that means they need someone to provide them with content to increase their market reach.
It’s likely they have a blog, a social media page and an email campaign - all of which need to be updated regularly. Some might even need freelancers to help them out with writing brochures and other marketing related materials.

That’s where you come in.
The truth is that you just need a step-by-step system for sniffing out potential customers, pitching to them and writing the content they want. After that, the rest will take care of itself.
I’ll show how to do that in a bit, but first let’s move on to the next step…

#2: Play to your strengths 

Some freelance writers are better at handling large-scale assignments, like a sales report or PDF book. Others are more comfortable with an arrangement where they can quickly bang out short articles or free reports.

Obviously, the bigger jobs pay more, but require a lot of lead time, ranging from a few weeks to a few months.
Meanwhile, short articles may take anywhere from a half an hour to two hours, but you’ll get paid sooner.

In most cases, I’d suggest doing shorter assignments first to get a feel of how things go.
In the long run however, try to figure out which one option works better so you can narrow down the niche you want to write for.

=> Discover this simple method to make easy money in your spare time

#3: Know thyself 

This is an important step that most freelance writers skip. I don’t recommend glossing over this one.
Experience has taught me that a little self-evaluation and soul-searching is CRUCIAL before getting into this line of work.

This gives you a better idea of which types of clients you’re best suited for, and which content you’ll be good at writing.

A good way to do this is by having a more seasoned writer go over your sample work and give you an honest assessment. They can tell you what you’re good at and what you can improve about your craft.

Also, try looking up examples of what constitutes as good writing in your intended niche.
It’s as easy as looking at a potential client’s website and quickly browse their content. This will give you a better idea of what they want in a writer.
Remember, knowledge is power, so doing this will help you step up your game.

#4: Hammer out the details 

Now that you’ve done some of the general groundwork, it’s time to get into the specifics.
As you learned, your clients will want a particular kind of content you want to do.
I mentioned some earlier, but here are the other possible types of content you could see yourself writing:

• Annual sales reports 
• Slide presentations (like PowerPoint or Keynote) 
• Free reports (usually in PDF format and less than a hundred pages to promote a certain product) 
• Full-length ebooks
• Newsletters (often sent through email)
• Sales copy (which may include a detailed product description, its benefits, testimonials, pricing, etc.)
• Blog posts (anywhere between 500-1500 words)
• Articles (could be 500-3000 words depending on the purpose of the content)

Aside from this, it helps to check out the particular industry you want to write for.

As I pointed out, sites like Upwork and Guru are great places where you can search for jobs under specific categories.

This will help you find out which ones in your chosen industry are in demand for writers, and what kind of content they require. 

Get this FREE Report: How much can you make as a freelancer?

#5: Find the right price 

Of course, the idea is to sustain yourself with a healthy income stream, so you need to approach this the right way.

Basically, you’ll want to work for lower-paying jobs in the beginning until you can build up your game, then increase your fees later on.

You’ll probably bill your first few clients a little less than you’d like, but charge this to experience and get the job done anyway. 

In the bigger picture, it’s better to be classy about it and act professional.

So as you go along, you’ll get a better idea of the standard rate in your chosen niche.

In particular, you’ll learn how much other writers in your industry are charging on average. Depending on how long you’ve been in the game, you can decide if you should charge higher or lower than that. 

As you start growing your client portfolio and get referrals, you’ll have more leverage to charge more for your writing services. 

#6: Establish a routine

Whether you’re a freelancer or not, it’s always important to have a solid work ethic no matter what.

Find a rhythm you’re comfortable with, and stick with it. Figure out early on how you’d like to tackle a writing task. 

You might want to do a little homework before getting down to it, or maybe you’d prefer going straight into writing then adding the missing gaps later on.

Whatever approach you choose, you need to cultivate the discipline to efficiently work on writing jobs and submit them on time. 

Cal Newport, author of the book “Deep Work” has a great deal to say about this - 

I’ll leave this here:

“The key to developing a deep work habit is to move beyond good intentions and add routines and rituals to your working life designed to minimize the amount of your limited willpower necessary to transition into and maintain a state of unbroken concentration.” 

#7: Educate yourself 

Since you’re reading this now, you’re well aware that you can’t do it alone.

As talented or driven as you are when it comes to writing, it will never hurt to learn as much as you can. That goes for BOTH newbies and veterans. 

Remember, the freelance writing game is always changing, so you’d best keep up with the times and adapt. 

So if you’re just starting out on this journey, I don’t recommend taking the self-taught route.

It’s better to take advantage of the many resources out there so you can hit the ground running and not make the typical “rookie mistakes” that a lot of newcomers make. 

Earn five to six digits a MONTH from freelance writing?

Yes, it’s possible. You can go from one-off assignments to big-time gigs in the neighbourhood of a few thousand dollars. 

That’s how I did it, and I can teach you how.

Like I said in the beginning, all it takes is a system to help you find employers on a regular basis. After that, you’ll be rolling in the dough from your hard work.

I probably made every mistake possible when I started out. But thanks to my experience, I finally cut the umbilical and left the 9-to-5 world for good.

It took over a year to finally refine my system, but now it’s like I’m earning six figures on auto-pilot.

Here’s a video I made about my personal journey in freelance writing – and how you can do the same:

Enjoy the freedom of being your own boss while earning more than you ever dreamed of – 

CLICK HERE