6 Easy Steps To Land Regular Paying Clients Without Trying
I landed a client and I did nothing to get it….
“What?”
“Wait?”
“You did nothing and you landed a gig?”
“Wholey smokes, teach me how you did that…”
My Story
I have been a struggling online marketer for the past 6 years. 😪
In total I only made about $3,000 in commissions in that entire time. Nothing to write home about.
But in that time I developed a lot of amazing skills like:
- how to write great copy
- how to create opt in pages
- how to craft emails which get noticed
- how to relate to different people/customers
Literally I had become a beast at marketing, even though the networking side of things was lacking. I was simply someone with a lot of amazing skills and talents which was entirely misdirected.
How I Got My First Gig
So I was talking to a marketer friend about my great copywriting skills. He said to me “Allinta I need help with email marketing?” Sensing his pain, I responded the only way I know how to — “I can help you with that!”
In about 10 minutes we worked out a deal where I would help him save him time and energy by working with him for a couple of hours a week. I had landed by first paying gig!
So now let’s break down how I got this gig:
- I have many years experience as a marketer
- I also had many years experience as a writer
- I had been in the trenching doing the work for years
- I was open to opportunities and looking for ways to grow
It was a win-win. I would help him with his needs and I would be paid for my efforts.
So I thought to myself, “what if I just reach out to more people who need help?”
Are there other people out there that also need help with marketing?
Pretty soon I was chatting to other marketers and I had organised a meeting with one of them for the following week.
I thought to myself, “wow this was so easy!” After years of making very little money in marketing, I had found my niche — a Virtual Assistant Service that worked with busy marketers.
Winning!!!
My Advice To Those Looking For Gigs
1. Examine Your Existing Skills
The first step I would suggest is to take a look at your existing skills and knowledge and think about what type of gigs you could offer people. For example, if you are a web developer can you provide web developing skills?
Do you have a proven track history of doing projects or developing your own sites? If you do, cool. This is going to come in handy.
2. Develop A Suite Of Services
Next, I would think about other services you can add to your main service. Like how to register a domain or how to select a custom domain, or how to do SEO. Package this all up into a comprehensive package like a “Web Starter Pack For Bloggers” “Web Starter Pack For Service Based Businesses.”
By offering multiple services in 1 you can make even more money.
3. Develop A Profile Or Website
The next step is setting up a profile on places like Fiverr or Guru. Develop a gig and post it on the site. Post your gigs on multiple sites, don’t just stick to one.
The more places you are promoting your gigs the greater the chance you have of being hired. Be proactive.
Also you can create a website here and put together a portfolio. Gather your best examples and post them in one spot where people can easily see it. Work on posting regular blog posts on your site which help the end customer. Improve your SEO and your visibility. Be active on your site by posting content every day.
Another great tip here is to set up a linktree link with multiple links to your website, portfolio and examples and also to your calendly link. How it works it this….You can post one link which includes a link to multiple websites which means people can access everything in one place.
Linktree is free to use and can be set up in less then 5 minutes.
4. Get On Social Media & Network
Whatever you do, do not post in marketing groups or make money groups. Instead, actually add people to your social media in your niche and network with them.
For me, the online marketing niche is my niche. So I inbox people from my niche and let them know about my services.
I mostly use Facebook because this is where marketers hang out. Go to the social media network where people in your niche are. If you they are on Facebook go there. Instagram, go there etc etc….
5. Develop A Plan & System For Gigs
Once you have landed a gig then you can start planning. You can develop a plan of attack and set up the right systems to help you deliver the gig. For example setting up a Paypal business account and setting up an invoicing template on Paypal business.
Another great one is Stripe where you can be paid directly to your bank account.
Also register for Zoom so you can host meetings. Set up a Calendly link so people can check your availability.
By the way, all these tools are free to use, you do not have to pay.
6. Just Do The Work (Quality Of Course)
The next step is delivering on your gigs. Always when you make a promise to your clients make sure you deliver on it. Be consistent always with your brand and message. Consider offering a 1 week free trial before you start charging a client.
Make sure to give value with your gigs. Always think of ways you can provide a better service. You will always get repeat business if you provide a quality service.
In Summary
These are the 6 steps I would take when trying to land a paying gig in 2021. I hope you have learnt something here. I enjoyed writing this for you. If you have any questions or queries reach out to me.
Which part of this blog post resonated with you the most?
What will you do differently now?
