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Welcome to all MMH members.    

This is Part 2 in our freelance writing series.

You remember I was taking you through the process of earning a reliable income as a freelance writer.

This is what I do for a living, and I do it fulltime. Did you miss Part 1 of our series? Read it first.

I have always imagined a time when I would have the opportunity to share my experience with others and I’m so glad, my blog (makemoneyhi.com) was my greatest weapon to do it.

And it feels great to have you as a reader – I admonish you to keep reading and if you’ve not subscribed to this blog, do so right now & download the e-book by the right-hand sidebar.

You don’t want to miss out on the updates.

Now, back to Part 2: I want to show you how to prepare your blog that you can use to attract high paying clients to your writing services.

What I’ll be sharing here is the strategies I’ve used. It’s proven to work for anyone and it is evergreen. Let’s go:

1.    Package Your Blog Professionally

If I decide to split this bullet point, I would have five different points to give you. But I believe everything that makes up a blog needs to be ‘one.’ The first thing potential clients look for when they visit your blog is the theme.

Does it look awkward? Considering that the theme is not the real writing project. After all, you’re the writer, not the blog theme. But that’s not the case here. Potential clients like everyone else are moved by what they see. There is a saying that “people don’t judge a book by its cover.”

But here is a shocker: On the internet, people judge a book by its cover. If the theme you’re using isn’t professional, find a better one today.

Well, if you’re just starting out, spend time with Google to research free, simple and professional theme. And if you’ve few dollars to spent, go for premium themes. Don’t be too stingy to invest in your business – I got you smacked there. Lol!

2.    Clean-Up Your Sidebar Right Now

Oops, your sidebar looks messy with affiliate banners, irrelevant widgets and blogroll links. Wow, do you think all these would make you good money as a blogger or writer? Don’t be deceived, it’s time to overhaul the car engine and become the expert you’re.

It’s Ok to have affiliate banners on your sidebar if you’re not offering a professional service.

But since your aim is to attract people who can pay for your services, why waste time clogging the sidebar with unhealthy banners and widgets.

So, can’t I have one banner on my professional website?

Hmm, I’ll pardon you. You could add one banner to the sidebar but make sure it doesn’t interrupt or distract your recent and popular posts.

Most importantly, the affiliate banner you put on the sidebar should be able to earn you recurring income. Steer clear of one-off commissions. They’re a waste of time and space.

So, clean up your sidebar today. You’re likely going to do well in your freelance writing business if you get serious and focused. Can you combine affiliate marketing with freelance writing? Yes, you can but not for a beginner or intermediate. Attract and retain at least 5 paying clients before you dabble into other business models.

3.    Write 10 Exclusive Articles For Your Blog

When I started my freelance writing career, I didn’t create the base for my subsequent posts. You see, every article or post you write for your blog must link to an internal page. The page can either bring success or failure to your writing business.

To get started at spoon-feeding search engines spiders and befriending Google, you’ve to write at least 10 exclusive articles for your blog. You need to conduct a keyword research for your writing services.

Determine what your area of specialization is and research the primary keywords around it.

For instance, if you’re a freelance writer, some of the key terms that are tied to freelance writer are: freelance marketer, hire a freelance writer, freelance writing expert, content writer, SEO content writer and so forth.

Now that you know the key terms which you’ll be targeting, it’s time to create epic contents around it. Research your topic and write 10 articles published under those keywords. Have the keywords on the Headline, title and sprinkle them on the article body, but don’t stuff.

Do it, naturally – write for prospective clients, not search engines.

BTW: search engines spiders don’t hire freelance writers, but human beings do. So, why should you optimize and stuff keywords just to please Google? Rubbish!

4.    Set up List-Building Systems Instantly

You must not wait until you’re a millionaire to start collecting email addresses of your target audience. You need to get started right away. It’s one of the core tasks when preparing your blog to attract writing clients.

Come to think of it, when a potential client come to your blog and got hooked by your 10 articles, what is the guarantee that they would visit again?

There is no guarantee – except the prospect is your grand mom or girl friend. Lol!

If that’s the case, you need to capture prospects’ email addresses and names first and foremost to keep in touch. Keeping in touch via email is the best thing that can happen to a freelance writer. Can I tell you a little secret?

I got my best paying client via the newsletter I sent a couple of weeks ago. If you prepare your blog as I instructed above (write 10 exclusive articles), majority of your visitors and readers would be potential clients, not lay-offs or fellow bloggers who don’t have money to spend on quality contents.

Hear me out, start building your email list today. Or have you started already? If you’ve, congratulations!

You could give away a valuable report, an e-book that’s related to your writing services and how you can improve people’s business if they hire you. Give away ‘benefit’ in exchange for prospects’ email address and names (optional).

Please make sure the list-bait (e-book, short report, themes, plugins, templates, whitepaper, manifesto et al) isn’t about you, but your target audience. You’re only adding persona to emotionally connect with clients.

If you want to start building an email list, I’ve a list of 30 email autoresponders for you to choose from. Click here to get 30 email marketing services today.

5.    Go Get Some Relevant Links Outside

Dear freelance writer, it’s time to move out and touch other blogs in your niche. As you touch them with quality and jaw-dropping articles, they would be forced to link back to you.

You know what I’m talking about – guest posting like a BUM. I can’t think of any effective link building strategy that works but guest posting. I started using it a long time ago when my niche blogs were nowhere close to Google first page.

As I write this post, 3 of my niche blogs are ranking highly on Google first page, generating targeted traffic and nice income. My fiancée loves me for this. Lol!

It works like this: You contact an A-list blogger. Propose to write for them and I guarantee they would say yes providing the guest post idea is unique and helpful.

All you need is a yes from an A-list blogger. For every guest post submitted, you’re allowed to link back to your blog/site with anchor texts.

Do you know where you’ll be linking to? Gueeeeeeeess?

You’ll be linking to those 10 exclusive articles resting at your blog. Remember they’re keywords and with few quality backlinks, you would be on your way to Google first page within 3 – 6 months.

Don’t take my word for it; some keywords can be highly competitive so you need to spend time building 10, 20, 40, 50 or even 100 links to the page.

Don’t be scared, you don’t have to build that much if the key phrase is ‘long-tail.’

If you’ve followed this post from start to finish, I can guarantee that clients would be knocking at your door within the first 3 months. No, I’m not promising you anything, but I know my strategies works.

Do you know that if you can land a guest post in a popular blog with a handful of targeted readers (entrepreneurs, professionals, consultants etc), it might just be the breakthrough you need to get hired?

I got my 2^nd client from the guest post I made at FreelanceSwitch.com

What is the Next Step?

You’ve to start from somewhere and scale it up from there. I’ve revealed the 5 ways to attract paying clients to your freelance writing blog. The five tips are not for you – but if your blog isn’t packaged professionally, do that now.

A lot of folks who want to succeed at freelance writing are lazy, so writing 10 articles can be hectic. My advice is simple, write 2 articles every day and in 5 days, you’ll be done – simple, well-planned and executable.

Don’t forget, this is Part 2 in our freelance writing Series. Part 3 will be coming your way in a couple of days. Did you enjoy reading this post? Leave a comment and let me know. Thank you for reading!

Image Credit: glowgwinnett | ticketock