Hello again everyone! I hope everyone is focusing on their writing and finding great clients. With the holidays fast approaching you might be having difficulties finding time to write. There are so many distractions that it can be tough. If possible find a way to delegate some of the less essential holiday planning tasks to someone else so you can focus on finding new writing clients.
Finding new writing clients now will have you in a better writing position as the new year begins. This is important to do now because many places are getting their budgets set up and planning projects. You want to be in on this from the beginning so getting started now is essential. In fact, you can find 10 new writing clients today, if you set your mind to it.
Favorite Magazines
You already know what your favorite magazines look for in terms of writing content; you read every issue. Now it’s time for you to query your favorite magazine with all the ideas that you have wanted them to cover. Not only do larger magazines pay well but the exposure is outstanding. Check their website for precisely who to contact and for their guidelines for writers; they all have them. Send them an email and before long you could find that it’s your article published in your favorite magazine.
Favorite Blogs
Everyone has a few favorite blogs that they read either for fun or to keep up to date with the latest information in a particular area. Oddly enough, few have ever really examined their favorite blog. Generally at the bottom of the page or under the “about me” page you will find information about guest blogging. If it isn’t there then you simply send a quick email to the blog owner with the outline of a proposed guest blog topic. If they agree, you write it up.
Now this may or may not pay and even if there is money involved you generally will not make a lot. What you do get is exposure on a successful blog that can be used to drive traffic to your own site and attract clients in that manner. I generally consider this more a form of marketing than an actual revenue maker but every now and then a site will surprise you and pay well. You have nothing to lose here and everything to gain as long as you aren’t trying to make a fulltime living as a guest blogger.
Examine your Hobbies
What you enjoy doing in your free time can lead to an outstanding writing gig during your work time. If you haven’t already, look for writing opportunities online and offline that are related to your hobbies. Don’t limit yourself to already existing blogs and magazines dedicated to these hobbies though. Look for complementary blogs and magazines as well. You can query those for writing gigs as well. It’s not unusual for blogs and magazines to look for new directions that complement their current offerings. For example, if you love to cook, your local or regional magazine might be interested in an article full of ideas for tailgating parties. This can even extend to local events held in conjunction for a national event: writing up ideas for locally held Super bowl parties is one example. The only limit here is your own imagination.
Send out targeted emails
You can make your list in a couple of ways here. Open your local phone book and find a group of related businesses that interest you; travel agencies is one example. Jot down their email address and visit their website. Find the email address of the contact person. After finding the contact email address, create an email list of them and send them a targeted email about what your writing can do to improve their business. Be specific and be brief. This can work for every industry and in every geographic location.
Query local and regional magazines
Virtually every town has one of these magazines. They are typically free and available most places in town. Even small towns have them so living in a rural or semi-rural location is no excuse. Go through the magazine and examine everything. Look at the types of articles of course but also look at the ads.
You have several places here where you can land new clients. The most obvious, of course is to pitch an article to the magazine based on the type of content that it publishes. Less obvious is to contact the advertisers and offer your writing services to them. A great place to start is their website as this will give you all of the information you need about the business to target your pitch directly to them. As a bonus, if their website or blog content is lacking, you can offer to help them improve that as well.
Visit local tourism sites
This is way out of the box thinking but stick with me for a bit. Local tourism sites will give you information on all local tourist attractions. This can be a bonanza all by itself. First you have the tourism site and the content on that site. Then you have brochures and ad copy put out by the tourism bureau. Most of these groups put out quarterly magazines or newsletters. The magazine might be a place to query to see if they have an article that they want you to write. As for a newsletter, these are often poorly done by someone in house who hates doing it and would love to have someone else do it.
After you finish looking over the main tourism site, visit the sites of each and every local tourist attraction and repeat the above process. You could easily come up with 10 new clients from this alone!
How to find clients in your local small business community
Your local Chamber of Commerce keeps a list of local businesses and there are often gatherings designed to bring local businesses together. These are often monthly meetings that are announced in your newspaper. Also look for networking groups such as Meetup.com to see if there are any local opportunities.
One networking opportunity that is frequently overlooked by writers is to attend community meetings. City Council, County Board and School Board meetings are often places where business leader congregate. Take business cards with you and mingle before the meetings, during the executive sessions and after the meetings. This is a great way to not only keep up with what is going on in your local community but to also find out what it is that the local business community is concerned about, what they needs in terms of writing work and present yourself as a solid member of their community of concerned leaders. They are more inclined to do business with one of their own and this gives to the opportunity to become just that. These meetings are generally held monthly and to a set schedule and they will be advertised in the local newspaper.
E-zines
E-zines, for the uninitiated, are magazines that publish strictly in an electronic format. They do not publish print editions. These electronic magazines have become increasingly more popular as tablet computers emerged. They are also extremely popular for their ability to publish new content much more rapidly than is possible for print publications.
There are E-zines available for every topic imaginable. In fact, many print magazines, in the anticipation of ceasing print publishing, also have e-zine formats. You query them in much the same way that you would magazines; visit their website and find the writer guidelines and contact person. Send them your idea and when approved, write it up. E-zines are great for freelance writers because they need so much more content than a standard print publication. For E-zines, a constant stream of content is necessary to keep the readers engaged and subscribing to their work.
White Papers
Businesses are using these more and more when they can to introduce new products and explain difficult concepts. This is a great opportunity for writers because these papers pay well but few writers are actually involved in creating them. Make sure that you include that you write white papers on your website, business cards and whenever you query a business. Want to find a white paper client today? Contact a local company and include how your creation of white papers will take their business to the next level. You will be surprised at the results.
Niche work
There are always opportunities for niche work but some times of the year are better than others. For example, Gardening is primarily a warm weather niche point. Likewise, the closer you get to the holidays, the more cooking and baking for the holidays becomes popular. If you love to write about cooking then this is a great time to contact local newspapers and magazines, blogs and even popular magazines. They need a great deal of content right now and that means writing opportunities for you.
