This is Part Three of a three-part series to help you become a freelance writer, achieve the freedom of self-employment and the ability to work from anywhere. I recommend reading the posts in sequence as each post builds on from the previous post. For part one click here and for part two click here.

In Part One, I touched on how I followed a proven strategy by professional blogger Bamidele Onibalusi to land my first $1000 in two months in my quest to become a freelance writer. I also highlighted the importance of building your foundation. This involved establishing your positioning, creating a writer’s website, and setting up an online presence. In Part Two, I shifted focus towards establishing credibility through guest posting. Guest posting is a great strategy to command higher rates in the long-term.

Many of the tools and tips mentioned in the guest posting section are transferable to that of cold-pitching clients. Also, because landing clients through cold-pitching involve negotiating rates I will infuse the chapter with some negotiation skills and information on setting rates.

Cold Pitching - strategy to land high paying gigs

Cold pitching refers to establishing contact with a potential client who knows nothing about your services. For the best results, you need to target the right clients and you need to target many of them. It’s a numbers game, so don't lose hope if you send 100 pitches and land zero clients. I sent a total of 70 pitches to land two clients, but the beauty of cold-pitching is that it’s a great way to land higher paying writing jobs.

So, keep following the strategy I outline below and you will land a client. I guarantee you that much! And remember, take action based on a solid strategy; without action, you’ll achieve nothing.

What you also want is to build a relationship for recurring clients. Sure, landing one client and one article will give you some revenue. But imagine landing a deal for many articles, on a weekly, or monthly basis? This will allow you to not only become a freelance writer but help you establish a thriving business.

But, before you delve into crafting pitches and sending emails to potential clients, you need to find them and do a lot of upfront work. To help find client’s you’ll need to base it on certain search criteria. Once you have found them, you need to then find the relevant decision maker, as was the case with guest posting.

You then need to find their email address, and then only can you consider crafting a pitch to these publications. I will provide you with a template I replicated over and over in my cold-pitching efforts. Finally, once you've sent your pitch, don't forget to follow up, using the 3-7-7 formula. Follow-ups are where you will get many, if not the most replies. Clients will either thank you for mail and tell you they don’t need a writer or they'll request your rates.

There are a variety of ways for you to set your rates i.e. per word, per hour or per project. In calculating your rate, you’ll need to consider your monthly expenses. What I recommend is setting a minimum rate that you will not go under. And when a client asks for your rates, set them higher, with the idea that they will negotiate the rate down. Sometimes my response to a request for rates will be: What is your budget?

In the end, your rates will be different for different clients. For the “Earn Your First $1000 challenge my minimum rate was $0.10 per word. But if a client gave me frequent work I was happy to lower it (not too much of course).

Okay, now let’s jump into finding clients to pitch your services to.

Finding the right clients

To find clients it helps to base your client search on certain criteria. Certain countries, for example, have a higher earning potential than others, so you’d want to target those over other countries. You’ll use certain techniques and tools to speed up the search. I outlined some of these tools in part two of how to become a freelance writer, but for purpose of clarity, I’ll briefly revisit these.

Client criteria

Shooting from the hip and pitching to every publication you find, is a sure-fire way to end up having no clients. You should take a targeted approach, basing your pitches on certain criteria. For example, many websites cannot afford a writer, and so, you need to start developing an eye for filtering these websites out. To help you with this here’s some criteria:

Your positioning

Remember right at the beginning we talked about positioning. When searching for your clients, base it on your positioning. If you’ve positioned yourself as a health writer, you’ll improve your chances of success by targeting health, fitness or lifestyle websites. I positioned myself by service so for the challenge I had lots of choices, but choice can cause overwhelm. So, for simplicity, I selected several niches, stuck to those, found those clients with the techniques outlined below, and pitched.

Filter by location

Certain countries have higher earning potential e.g on average, websites in the US will pay more than websites in India. First world countries are a good place to start. For the challenge I focused on these countries:

 
1. USA
 
2. Israel
 
3. United Kingdom
 
4. Australia

Once you have an idea of the type of websites you’re targeting and in what country, it’s time to find them. Here are techniques to help.

Techniques to find those companies

To find the relevant companies make use of both Google search and Linkedin. These are the two techniques I used in compiling my list.

Google Search

Searching for companies within Google search is simple. Type in the keywords into the search engine e.g. if "business" is your niche, type in “Business Companies”, “Entrepreneurship” etc. Google also allows you to filter results according to search criteria. This is useful for filtering according to countries. Click on the “Settings” Icon. Select “Advanced Search”, and then filter by country to narrow your search results down.

It helps to pay attention to certain factors when landing on sites you might pitch:

 
1. Do they currently have a blog? If they currently have a blog, they could use your services.
 
2. Are they spending money on Google Ads? Companies that have money to spend and they’ll likely have a larger budget to invest in a freelance writer or blogger.
 
3. What’s their Google rank? If they’re ranked on the first page it means they’re doing something right It would be wise to target these companies. Companies ranked further down on Google can also benefit from an improved blogging strategy you could offer.
 
4. Do they have a professional website? If they’re willing to spend money on a professional design they’re likely to spend money on a quality writer.

Linkedin

Aside from Google, Linkedin is your best bet for finding companies. Any company that’s serious about business is on Linkedin. Linkedin has some great filtering options. You’re able to filter by people, companies, groups, universities etc. You can also narrow your results down according to country and number of employees.

If a company is too small e.g. 1-10 employees, they likely have a small budget (although not always the case). If a company is too big it may be harder to capture their attention. Finding a middle ground of 11-50 employees is a good place to start.

Using the above techniques I compiled a list of roughly 100 companies to pitch for. But before I could start pitching, I found the name of the decision maker and their email address.

Finding the editors name and email

Use the tools and techniques we outlined in part two( guest posting) to find the editor’s name and email address.

 
1. Find the editor or relevant decision maker through their website, Google search or Linkedin.
 
2. Find the email address through the website, Google Search or email apps like Voila Norbert, FindThat, Lusha, Hunter, Rocket Reach, and Rapportive.

Crafting the Pitch

While there are a variety of pitch templates to use, I preferred one, together with one subject line I used throughout. Both the template and the idea for the subject line are taken from Bamidele.

Here is the template I used:

“Hi {contact name},

I’m reaching out to see if you need someone who can help with content at {company}.

I’m {Your Name}. I’ve been featured in {publication names}.

I’d like to know if you need a freelance writer who can help with your content needs.

I can help with writing blog posts, guest posts, resources, newsletters, developing content/blogging strategy, landing page content and any of your other content marketing needs.

I will be happy to discuss how I can be of help.

Best Regards,

{your name}”

This template addresses the person by name, establishes what the email is about, showcases social proof/credibility, highlights key services, and it does so in a concise manner. Remember editors are busy people so keep the emails short.

I also found that the subject line:, "Content at [Company Name]" worked well for improved open rates as it's descriptive and concise. Using this template and this subject line, I would copy it into notepad, open my email account, and send 20-30 pitches in an hour. I would make sure to alter the key parts as highlighted above for each email. Here are my two successful pitches.

Here's the first:

I received a reply that day:

And despite that fact that I’m in Cape Town and they’re based in the U.S.A, I called them, created a short 150-word trial article to see if I could match the style of their publication, and as they say, the rest is history!

The first two articles paid me $500. Since then I’ve become a regular feature writer for them, earning $300 for shorter profile stories (1350-1500 words) and $450 for longer ones (2500-3000 words). In case you don’t believe me, here is a payment into my PayPal account for a longer article (the amount is above $450 because it includes transcription services).

Here is the second pitch. In this instance, I contacted the CEO who put me in contact with the correct person.

I followed up and negotiated three blog posts per week for $50/post. I accepted a much lower rate due to the frequency of articles e.g. at three articles a week it’s 12/month and $600/month before PayPal and bank fees are deducted (which is a small percentage).

In the case of the above rate, I negotiated after following-up as I wasn’t getting a response when I sent my first email. So, don't forget to follow-up using the 3-7-7 formula! It works!

What to do right now

 
1. Create a spreadsheet to track your progress. Give it a name e.g. “Cold Pitching” or “Potential Client’s” or anything you like. Include “Website”, “Status” e.g replied or declined, Editor (person pitched), Editor’s email address, Date pitched and follow-up 1, follow-up 2 and follow-up 3.
 
2. Color coding helps for tracking purposes. What I did, for example, was use different colors for every row in my spreadsheet. Red meant the client didn’t respond after three follow-ups and/or is not interested in my services. Orange meant I am still in the follow-up or negotiation process, and green meant I landed the client.
 
3. As you gather the relevant information, remember to update it.
 
4. While cold pitching is a numbers game and one of the best strategies to get high paying clients, also troll job boards (Her's a link to a blog post of 17 top job boards to follow) and reach out to your existing network of family and friends. I’ve actually landed a gig for an Agency through my sister's boyfriends brother.

Final thoughts

The strategy I followed works. I achieved the $1000 mark in under two months and, in the process, became a freelance writer, realized my dream of self-employment and can work from anywhere I chose.

Here’s the breakdown of how I achieved the $1000 mark.

 
1. Three blog posts per week at $50 for a total of $450
 
2. One ghostwritten article for a total of $100.
 
3. Two articles for a magazine ($200 + $300) for a total of $500.

If someone who was new to the world of freelance writing and who wasn’t even writing for a living eight months ago can achieve this and become a freelance writer, then you can too. All it requires is for you to take action and work hard. It’s as simple as that! So, lay your foundation through creating your writer website, establishing your online presence, bolster your social proof through guest posting, and follow the cold pitching strategy.

All the tools to become a freelance writer and realize your dreams are there. The only thing stopping you is yourself!