Freelance Writing Confession: I never used to want local writing clients

19th June, 2009 - Posted by admin - 1 Comment


When my freelance writing business was just getting started, I knew one thing: I didn’t want local writing clients.

There were a few reasons for that, and here they are in no particular order:

  • You may run into your clients at the grocery store, in restaurants… even in WalMart – so I felt like I’d always have to be dressed professionally (not happening in Florida!).
  • Local clients like to meet… a lot. There’s the initial meeting, the “here’s what I’m thinking” meeting, the delivering stuff meeting, the meeting about revisions, and the “hey, why don’t you stop by and pick up your check” meeting. Again with the professional costume! Plus, add in all that travel time and your fees start to shrink.
  • I didn’t want to get “pity work” when I was just starting. You say ‘writer’ and they say ‘starving’… and next thing you know, you’re networking with people who are offering to hire you to proofread their children’s term papers! (ok, not really, but it was a fear I had)
  • I definitely didn’t want to have to persuade people they needed my services. Most people think they can write – and even the suggestion they might benefit from professional copywriting might be enough to make them growl. Plus, I’d spent long enough before that trying to persuade people they needed vitamins, healthy skin care, and stuff like that – I was done with the “dragging my clients along behind me” method.
  • Hearing “I don’t have the money to hire you” over and over (we live in South Florida in one of the hardest-hit areas of the state where real estate is concerned – people are definitely hurting). It breaks my heart to see businesses closing, neighbors disappearing in the night.
  • I’m naturally shy, and the idea of having clients I never spoke with or saw seemed like the way to go.

So, I focused on online clients. That seemed like the perfect solution – and it’s worked great. You can absolutely build a thriving writing business without ever meeting a client in person.

But in the past couple of years, some stuff has changed.

First, I’ve gone through a lot of personal development stuff – and have come to realize the importance of pushing past my shyness and “taskiness” to connect with other humans… face to face. Knowing that who I am is so much more important than what I DO – and that I’ve actually got a lot I can contribute to people in my community – has made working with local clients a lot more appealing. In fact, I actually get really excited now when I meet local business people because it’s cool to kind of band together and see how we can help each other.

The second reason is even MORE exciting.

I’d worked before to use my writing skills to promote a hair salon and some other small businesses around town. And it helped, but it was hard to measure how much it helped. Plus, while I knew how to help online marketers get website traffic, I couldn’t connect the dots to see how to put that to use for a local business. Articles, press releases, sales copy, website copy… yeah, yeah, yeah – great for working with internet marketers. But they seemed not to work so well with the local businesses I’d tried them on.

Until…

My friends Kevin and Jeff came out with something I can only describe as revolutionizing my writing business. When I first heard about it, it was a Thursday night several weeks ago. Honestly, I only tuned into their webcast because they’re awesome guys and because everything I’ve seen that’s come from Kevin has been top-notch and easy to follow. (Using his Nitro Blueprint System, I’ve gotten more stuff done for my websites in the past couple of months than I had in YEARS prior – and it was easy.)

I remember laying awake – mind racing – after I saw their webcast.

Kevin’s a genius, so that wasn’t news – but THIS was just astounding. I wanted in, and wanted to share it with you because it’s HUGE. But the doors slammed shut when they reached 100 people (faster than anyone expected), and I was too slow to get the info to you.

So, when they decided to open it again, I was first in line, waving my hands and yelling, “OOOooh ooooh oooh!!!” And today’s the day I can tell you about it.

But you know… I won’t even go into WHAT this thing is. You just have to see it for yourself. All I can tell you is to watch out, because if your brain is anything like mine, you’re probably not going to sleep well because you’ll be getting ideas left and right!

Go here and see what I’m talking about – and save your spot for this free webcast with Kevin NOW.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • RSS

1 Comment

Rob Smith

June 20th, 2009 at 10:56 am    


I’m currently a student of Kevin Wilke’s Local Business Money Machine training. I was hesitant to begin another class (as I was/am already enrolled in Ignition through GetAltitude with Eben Pagan) and I didn’t want to spread myself too thin. I was curious and signed up with the intention of dropping out once I experienced what the class was about and believing it wouldn’t amount to much. That was over 3 weeks ago and I’m still enrolled. I have to say, plain and simply, Local Business Money Machine is a “Home Run”. The value in the form of theory and technical knowledge I’m receiving is incredible. Do yourself a big favor and sign up for the next round of this class…just try it and then get your money back if you don’t like it. And to my fellow Ignition students – LBMM is a PERFECT complement to what we’re learning with Eben/Kevin/Emily…together these classes are an unbeatable combination!

Leave a reply

Name *

Mail *

Website