How to start from scratch

Well, it’s Friday again. It’s time to fire up the presses and crank out another mind-bending issue of TFF. One of my favorite things is when people reach out to me and ask legitimate questions about how to get into freelancing, or if they already are in it, how to approach a client, set prices, and so on.

But more often than not, the questions are coming from novices who haven’t yet broken ground and are trying to get into the game. And I am honored that they reach out to me. First, remember that you are farther along in your journey than someone else (especially if you make a good living doing it), and your knowledge is valuable.

“I have no clients and no idea where to start.”

A common theme that I get asked often. Novice freelancers are looking to find some clients who will pay them, and the $5 per 1k word offers from content mills (yes, the wages really are this low from content mills) sounds like hell on earth.

There has to be a better way, and there is. Don’t lower yourself to writing for content mills; not only does the pay suck, but they are the pickiest clients on the planet.

As a rule of thumb, I have never seen it proven wrong, the higher the budget, the chiller the client. Low-budget clients are a nightmare to work for most of the time. I say this to encourage you to see past content mills. The frustration is never worth the time you put in. Instead, just do the work for free in exchange for a good word or a review.

But that is putting the cart before the horse.

Figure out what you want to do

I talk about this next thing a lot because it bears repeating: figure out what kind of service you want to provide. If it’s coaching, great. You can sell anything as a service business, and you can make a killing doing it if you deliver.

I’m focusing on writing for two reasons:

1. It’s what I do, so I am familiar with the process and can relate

2. It’s always in high demand and always will be.

Look, the biggest thing is that right now, you don’t need to map out your entire future. You need to earn your first dollar of internet money. That’s it. Stop complicating things. When you are a rank novice, it is ALL about the zero-to-$1. Nothing else matters.

When you go out thinking you want to try a scattergun approach and throw five or six different disciplines at the wall and see what sticks, none of them will. They won’t stick because, truthfully, you will suck at all of them.

You need to pick ONLY ONE discipline to start out with. Here are some ideas:

• Writing emails

• Ghostwriting services

• Direct response copywriting

• Website content

• Long-form article and blog writing

• Whitepapers

I could go on and on, but this is more than enough to get started.

Now, you might want to experiment with each of them outside of trying to find clients to see if they pique your interest more than others, especially to see if you really hate any of them.

For example, I have done a fair amount of website content writing over the years, and I absolutely hate it. Just despise it. So I never look for that kind of work anymore. I like writing long-form articles, so I stick with it. At seven years in, I seldom deviate from writing articles. And why should I? The thousands of reps I’ve put in have paid off.

That’s it, though.

Skills inventory…again

If it sounds like I keep pushing the same things, it’s because you need to keep hearing them.

Look, freelancing is really simple. You sell ONE service to one specific target audience. Line up 3-5 clients that will pay you $2k-$3k per month, and you will live handsomely.

And it is not about action or adventure. You will write the same exact thing over and over again to get Google to notice your work. If you write emails, you are writing them to exact same target audience about the same products. That’s the nature of the game, but the game easily pays $10K+ per month with ease.

To break into it, you have to be honest with yourself. If you hate to write, you won’t want to be a writer when the pressure is on you. If you suck at art, you won’t want to be a graphic designer. But the good thing is that there are infinite opportunities to freelance. It is up to you to figure out what you like doing. Do not settle on anything for money; you won’t make any if you hate it.

If you enjoy what you do, you can scale up almost any skill to ridiculous sums.

Parting thoughts

Stop complicating things that are not complicated. Freelancing is unlike any other job you’ve ever worked because it isn’t a job. It is a service. You do not clock in for 40 hours and mentally check out. You have to be on point when you’re working, but once you get in the zone, you’ll probably only work about 20-25 hours per work.

But you have got to get the carpet-bombing approach out of your mind.

One niche= whoever your target audience is.

One service= whatever you are selling. For me, long-form articles.

One offer= 10 articles per month with images, X amount of edits, etc., for $4,000, etc.

Don’t try to do a bunch of different approaches. Just find the potential clients in your industry (i.e., something you actually know about), make a list in Google Sheets, and email them. And keep emailing or DMing them until they hire you or ask you to stop. That’s it.