Freelance Writers: When Was the Last Time You Did These 2 Things to Increase Your Earnings?

March 24, 2014 - PRLog -- I've been a freelance writer since 1993 and I can tell you that when you run a business, you can get so busy doing the actual work and staying on top of the day-to-day tasks that require your attention that you forget to do the things that actually propel your business to the next level.

This is why so many freelancers find their income becoming stagnant. In essence, what you do when you operate like this is you work your way into a job, instead of running a successful freelance business.

Following are two easy things you should be doing as a freelance writer to ensure that your income increases year after year, instead of staying stagnant – or worse – decreases.

1. Ask for Referrals: If a client uses you, especially if they continue to come back to you, ask them for referrals. If you just land three or four new clients per year doing this, you can easily increase your income by thousands of dollars. Proof?

Give Yourself a 25% Raise in One Year: How?

Let's say that you land one new client every three months by asking existing clients directly for referrals. That's four new clients per year. If each one of them spent just $200 per month with you ($2,400 per year), that's almost $10,000 in new business $9,600 to be exact).

If you've been earning $40,000 per year, that would increase your income by almost 25% right there – taking you to almost $50,000 per year. And all because you just automatically started asking existing clients for referrals.

I can't tell you how many clients I've landed over the years because an existing client referred my firm to a colleague – especially internally. For example, an editor from Department A may outsource some stuff. And because they're pleased, they'll tell the Creative Director in Department B, who'll call with a project.

I've worked with as many as six individuals in the same company – all because of referrals.

2. Upselling: These days, not only must content be written, it must be distributed as well. And where is most content distributed? Via social media. For example, when I write a post, one of the first things I do after is distribute it to my social media accounts – all six of them.

For example, when I write a post, one of the first things I do after is distribute it to all of my social media accounts – all six of them! This can be time consuming; especially if you're not used to interacting on social media. And, this is time many small business owners just don't have.

This presents a perfect opportunity for you as a freelance writer to offer social media account management (http://inkwelleditorial.com/freelance-writers-how-to-make...) services. This is such an easy upsell that it's almost a crime NOT to offer the service.

At my SEO writing company, we offer this service to clients and can spend as little as 20 minutes per day updating client accounts via automated tools like HootSuite and SocialOomph. You can charge hundreds of dollars per month for this, adding a hefty percentage to each invoice month after month.

At the end of the year, you can easily see a 15%, 20% or 25% more increase in your freelance income JUST from upselling clients on your social media account management services.

Conclusion

The best thing about these two methods of landing more freelance writing jobs? It doesn't require any marketing muscle, and they work comes from those who already know, like and trust your skills. Landing writing gigs just doesn't get any easier than this.
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About the Author: Yuwanda Black is the founder of New Media Words, an SEO writing company. She's also the publisher of the popular freelance writing blog, Inkwell Editorial. Ms. Black has written over 50 ebooks, mostly on/about freelance writing. They can be found on major outlets like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, in addition to her own website(s). Want to learn how to earn $50,000 to $75,000 per year as a freelance web writer? Get the technical writing e-course (http://www.seowritingjobs.com/seo-copywriting-training/) that does just that.