Before You Go About Hunting Those High-Paying Clients...

The reality of writing for content mills is what lots of writers can relate to. Worst yet, those bidding sites are not giving a damn about freelancers. Take, for instance, Upwork's new pricing. It charges clients 2.75% per contract. Guess how much they charged their freelancers...well, they claim it’s just 20% when in actual fact it is 25%. That's crazy, you say. Now you're in search of some alternatives to bidding sites or for some Upwork alternatives.

The search is over and you're now happy. Those blogs, those websites lets you know that, for a fact, there are high-paying clients, but did they tell you how to find them?

OK, they did. And you're just lucky. But did any of those information marketers told you that high-paying clients are scattered everywhere? That they are somewhat scarce to come by? Were you told there are too many demands for them?

Since you were told that high-paying clients can be found on Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the likes, sincerely, how? What search phrase(s) are you expected to type into Google? Did they skipped that?

If there’s a client that’ll pay you $100 and above for a 500-word piece, will that be a client who had to correct your grammar in his return message to you? Are you also aware some potential clients will reply and most will not? Do you know those clients will proof your social proof. You ever knew about these and many more commitments that are required on your part? Or you're just being unrealistic?

Pretend you didn't read the title of this post. Can you guess where I am heading? Don't go over to the post title. Only 10 seconds and your time starts now...

Before I proceed, some Important information:

• Honestly I do not have a thing for or against bidding sites, content mills or high-paying clients. The above was just an analogy and one which is apt.
• I don't have my weight behind content mills. My point for emphasis' sake is that moving from low-paying clients is not to be confused to mean you'll be getting high-paying clients anytime soon, or as easily or as quickly as you thought.
• It’s not my intent to order anybody around on how to run their business. If Upwork raised their charge, they have the right to do so.
• If bidding site does it for you (or not), it's always your choice to stay or move on.
• For real there are high-paying clients.
• For real there a lot of information out there, and some information peddlers and marketers are right with maybe most of their information. And that is just it. And because they have withheld the most vital information from you, this post became necessary.

So before you start fantasizing about those high-paying clients... Or before you go about hunting them...

1. Can You Find Them?

It is not enough to be told that high-paying clients can be found through search engines and the likes. Have you tried it? Did you find them? What's the response rate like? How many cold pitches did you send until you got five replies? Of those five replies -- how many hire(s)? Can you even identify those prospective clients when you see them? What do they often look like?

While I’m not denying the fact that you could get clients via search engines, you might want to agree with me that search engines cannot capture all of them. Or does Google knows all of the events happening on Twitter? Can it interpret when an opportunity without the usual job phrases is up for grab?

Really there are two ways of getting those high-paying clients. The first is by positioning yourself as a professional and then becoming the hunter. The second is by establishing yourself as an authority and then becoming the hunted. If you're the hunter:

• Those high-paying clients cannot all be your client. Narrow down, in relation to your niche of course, and do a thorough job on where these clients usually gather. It could be on forums, social sites, or some particular websites.
• Follow them and their discussions.
• If they're most found on LinkedIn, for instance, first build your profile to reflect your skill set. Next, connect with them (if possible) and the network of their friends' friend.
• If you're privileged to comment on the platform these prospective clients are most active, comment meaningfully and make your comment relevant to the topic of discourse.
• Also in your comment, you can let them know you're a freelance writer.
• As well, you could find a way in your comment, to link to one of your posts that got a lot of shares.

If you want to become the hunted:

• Have a convincing and solid online presence and make your presence known. It could be through a blog, a website, or even a regular social media posts.
• Make yourself available for people to talk about. (Not like scandals or escapades, though).
• Grant interviews, give out free resources, and you can as well spare your spare time.
• Contribute to major authority blogs and websites through guests and/or original posts.
• Encourage people to share your posts.
• Let it be known in the most viewed area on your social media profiles that you're who you're.
• If you’re keeping social media channels, keep it clean. Ignore troublemakers and ensure you attend to questions raised to the utmost of your experience and knowledge.

If you’re keeping a blog or website, ensure you have a hire me page. Update the platform regularly with shareable and search engine friendly contents. Also, do what you preach on your blog or website. If you claim to be a content or inbound marketer, let your platform first reflect it. Let your ranking on Google reflect it. Let the landing pages you created for your eBook reflect it. That way clients will be double sure.

2. Do You Have What It Takes To Write for Them?

You've positioned and established yourself to find and to be found of those high-paying clients. In which case, you're ready to start writing for them. Likewise, it’s possible, that you're a complete beginner who has little or no experience about freelance writing. Trust me, whether you're a newbie writer or adult writer, you’ll need both of writing experiences and social proofs. Fresh freelance writers always lack these two. So without mincing words, you being a newbie freelance writer may not be able to write for those clients. Why?

• Those targeted clients might have your writing finesse in doubt (which is the case on most occasions).
• If your prospective clients are in doubt, they could request for writing samples. Do you have them? Often times they’re referring to your writing samples that are online and that are on platforms that can be trusted.
• If you narrowly get hired, you might not be able to deliver at a level the client will be pleased.
• Some styles and types of writing might be strange to you.
• Some terms like byline, fluffs/fillers, copyrighted images, etc. could be strange to you as well. And as in the example of copyrighted images, I don't think you’ll like to get yourself and your client into legal issues. Trust me, most of these terms doesn’t just jump on freelance writers; they’re discovered with time.
• There are content best practices that could be strange to you. You may not know when and how to apply them. Best practices like the no plagiarism, the use of inbound and outbound links, the use of keywords and the knowledge of keywords density, the tone of your piece, conducting thorough research and backing up your information with stats (where and when necessary), using search engine friendly and attention-grabbing headline, etc.

So How Can Beginner Freelance Writers Write for High-Paying Clients?

• Quit the rat race of hunting clients.
• Build social proofs and/or online presence.
• Cold pitch rightly by:

(a) Getting a professional email (like yourname@yourwebsitename.com if you have a website. If you don't have a website, no problem). However, you're not limited to this one example. Just ensure you're not cold pitching with the regular Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and the likes. Mail server in particular often find these mail extensions spammy, and clients find them unprofessional, too, so they ignore most of the time.

(b) Using an irresistible, value-focused, and result-oriented title. You could have something like ‘Hi, Steve, This is How I Can Help Your Business to Grow,’ instead of the routine and boring titles like 'In reference to... I want to write for you... I’m an experienced writer... blah blah blah'. I wouldn't want to have a long list of examples of cold pitches that will get clients to respond, more because different pitches will certainly suit different clients. The rule, however, is that you should ensure the title is captivating and succinct enough to be displayed in full.

You could include the name of the addressee, if it’s known, at least to catch his attention.

The truth is, (s)he probably receives thousand of such messages daily, but with one blazing his/her name, he might be tempted to open up.

Also, link your title to the body of your message and add few social proofs (if available).

Send your pitch and be sure it went through.

Follow up. If after about a week you did not get a reply, follow up with another message. You could be lucky this time.

3. Can You Actually Write for Them?

This one goes beyond submitting stellar pieces. Like how soon can you do that? Can you deliver within the agreed turnaround time? Clients are different and so are their needs. What's your typing speed like? Time could be of the essence on some occasions. Can you beat it? And will you deliver as agreed without your turnaround suffering somehow?

Aside your typing speed -- your information gathering skill -- how well have you developed it over time? If you'll not be working with a team of other professionals like editors/proofreaders, graphic designers, etc., will you combine as one-in-all?

If you're writing, doing the editing/proofreading, and creating/shopping for the images all by yourself, what a professional and thorough job will you do? If you're depending on some professionals, will they always be available for you?

4. Can You Write for Them Long-Term Without Compromising Quality?

Normally you as the freelance writer should be the one to answer this question. But sometimes, your client does on your behalf. Reason is not far-fetched -- you were unable to deliver as promised or as expected.

It’s important, that prior to going about hunting clients, you already have all it takes to work with them long term. And you can achieve this by putting up your best for every single assignment and improving your skills since you can.

If you sense that any of your team members is not doing their best -- or you feel their best is not best enough -- don't think it twice.

Trust me, any client who’s getting value from your pieces isn't planning on letting you go anytime soon.

And you were like, "but what’s the worst that can happen if I can't work for the client long term? Isn't that my decision?" Well it is your decision and it is nothing serious, really. You will just lose that client and start looking for another one. And believe me, you will easily lose a client than you will quickly get another.

But it is not like you shouldn't draw the line when you should. If for any reason you should call it quit, it is your decision.

5. Can You Keep Them?

Much about this has been discussed in the points above. The reality is, nothing will matter if you have all the skills in the world and can't keep your client. Human management is the key. And for a fact, cases of clients putting up nasty behaviors is always at its lowest. You could think things like perhaps they got disappointed at your turnaround and thus gave you a challenge. Or at other times your submission is flawless only that you got a difficult-to-please client. If this is the case, make your decision.

My intent with this post is to make known things that are otherwise unknown or often ignored when matters come to working for high-paying clients. I tried to establish that it is something for the bucks and many more things besides the bucks.

In your own view, do you think I adequately captured the subject of high-paying clients? Do you think I missed out on something? Or many things? Anything you can add? Most freelance writers will like to be paid hundreds of dollars for their pieces, you too? Under what circumstances will you not work or will stop working for a client that is paying you $500 for a 2500 words article? Is there any condition under which you'll rather be cool working for a low-paying client? Why? Let me know through the comment box. Thanks.