Companies that hire writers look for one of two things, depending on what they need.
They might look for a writer to handle a single project, like a website or sales campaign. In this case, many companies will seek out a writer with specialty knowledge about their industry and experience handling the project type.
On the other hand, they may want a writer who can handle an ongoing need. In this case, industry knowledge and an understanding of the project are helpful, but they also want someone who will work well with their team, be reliable about deadlines, and be responsive when edits are requested.
Projects in the first camp tend to be larger… and have larger fees associated with them. But projects from the second camp have a lot of advantages.
When you take on a project with an ongoing need, it comes with a stable, predictable income.
You also don’t have to spend as much time marketing yourself. You should always dedicate some time to marketing your services, but when you have ongoing projects, you don’t have to do this as much… which frees up time for other things.
Ongoing projects foster deeper relationships between you and your clients. If you work with them every week to take care of their recurring needs, you’re bound to get to know the team, and that makes work more enjoyable.
And with ongoing projects, you know what’s coming, which makes it easier to plan for things like vacations, long weekends, or even just leaving early for a movie now and again.
And here’s the real kicker… if you’re handling an ongoing project for a client, you’re more likely to be in the running for those bigger one-off projects. After all, you know the company’s products, its mission, and its voice. You’ve proven again and again that you’re reliable and easy to work with. Who better to tackle a website overhaul or a sales campaign or special report than you?
So, what are the best ongoing projects to land with a client? Let’s explore five that pull you into a client’s inner circle, create a stable income, and set you up for all sorts of exciting opportunities.
Content Marketing — Writing Articles and Blog Posts
Companies use blog posts and articles to achieve all sorts of goals.
Regularly publishing on their website can help a company rank better with search engines, bringing more traffic their way.
More traffic can improve brand awareness and build trust with audiences.
Companies can use blogs and articles to capture leads and make more sales. They can also use them to cut down on their customer service load. And even to support their social media goals.
Some companies publish to their blog daily. Others publish two or three times a week. And still others publish just once a week.
When you write blog content for a company, you can anticipate charging anything from $200 per post all the way up to $2,000 per post. The company’s budget and typical return on investment from content marketing will affect what they’re willing to pay. And of course, you should weigh what makes sense to you, based on the time you need to put in and what you want to earn.
But, if you’re in the normal range, charging around $500 per post, you’ll be earning $2,000 a month for a once-a-week client.
And often the opportunity doesn’t stop there. Your client may ask you to build out an editorial calendar, create social media posts, and write special reports… all for additional fees.
One of the best ways to land these kinds of projects is to visit sites in industries you’d like to work in. Look to see if they have a blog or an article page. If they do, check that it’s updated regularly. When that’s the case, you’ve found a company that understands the value of publishing content on their website.
Review the topics they’ve covered over the past six months. Do a little research on what their audience might want. And then send an email with two or three post/article ideas to the content-marketing manager.
If you do this often — sending a message or two a day — eventually you’ll start to land clients… and things will grow from there.
Build Affinity and Engagement Through Social Media
Companies use social media to build community, to listen to their audience, and to grow their following. They might use it to draw traffic to their onsite content, to gain new leads for their email list, and to make sales.
Whatever their goals, for social media to work, the company needs to show up regularly and in the spirit of community and generosity.
Depending on how many platforms a company is engaged on, they may need to create multiple social media posts each day… often several every day. It’s a lot of work, and they may welcome the help of a writer who understands social.
That could be you!
Your clients might hire you to create a certain number of posts per week, or they might want you to manage their social media channels — planning out the content, creating it, and interacting with commenters.
When writing social media posts, you can charge somewhere between $25 and $100 per post, depending on the complexity. (LinkedIn posts can be quite lengthy, for example, while tweets are short by nature.) If you’re doing a post a day at $50, that adds up to $1,000 a month. Not bad.
If you’re handling a company’s entire social media management, you can charge between $1,000 and $3,000 per month… more if you’re managing multiple platforms.
To get a company’s attention, start engaging with them on social media. Comment on their posts. Share them with your own audience. If they have a group, join in.
And then reach out to the people within the company who you’ve been interacting with to see if they need help with their social media presence.
Ongoing Sales Copy — Ads & Landing Pages
A lot of companies use paid advertising. They advertise on Google, on social media platforms, and through other ad networks.
They may use ads to gain awareness, drive traffic, earn leads, or make sales.
One thing is for sure… the need for ad copy to test never ends. And companies that use paid advertising need new landing pages on a regular basis, too. If you learn how to write for common networks like Google search ads or Facebook ads, you can set yourself up to be very busy with just two or three clients.
You can charge between $75 and $350 per ad, and clients will often ask for batches of them to test against each other… up to 10 at a time. For landing pages, you can expect to charge between $500 and $1,500. Even at the low end, if you were writing one landing page and 10 ads for a client each month, you’d be bringing in a steady income of $1,250.
Ads are short, so one way to get the attention of potential clients is to send them an ad written for one of their products. This will show you can write in their voice, that you understand the ad format, and that you’re serious about taking on a project.
Nurturing Leads With Email Newsletters
Businesses use email newsletters to keep in touch with their prospects and customers, to build trust and credibility, to give away value, and ultimately to make more sales.
Most email newsletters are sent out weekly, but some go out monthly or every other week. And others go out two or three times a week or even daily.
The format of an email newsletter can vary. In some cases, the content is very short, linking off to items of interest on the client’s website or on industry news sites. In other cases, the newsletter might contain several sections of copy running from a few lines to several paragraphs. And in still other cases, the newsletter might contain a single article.
Like blogs and articles, email newsletters have a broad range of possible fees. A single article newsletter might run from $200 to $500 per issue, while a multipart format might command a higher fee in the range of $800 to $2,000.
If you’re doing two multipart newsletters for a client every month at $1,000 each, you’ll be earning a steady $2,000/month from that client. Not bad.
To break into newsletters, sign up for more newsletters. See what companies are doing. Find things you like, and then drop a note complimenting them… and asking if they ever need help. Newsletters are one of those projects that keep clients busy, which means they may very well be interested in getting some help.
Converting Leads Into Customers
with Promotional Emails
In addition to sending out newsletters, companies also send promotional emails to their lists. Again, these might go out bi-weekly, weekly, twice a week, or even daily.
An email promotion is typically a short, engaging, persuasive message with the singular goal of getting the reader to click through to learn more about a product or service, and hopefully make a purchase.
You can command between $200 and $2,000 for a promotional email. If you’re writing eight a month for a client, and charging $500 per, then you’ll be bringing in a steady monthly income of $4,000. It adds up fast!
Start paying attention to the promotional emails you receive from clients. If you have an idea for how you might beat their results, send them a note to see if they’re interested.
Each of these projects can put you in the position to earn a steady income on your own terms. And really, if you focus on these kinds of recurring projects, you can grow your income fast with just three or four clients on your roster.
Best of all, each of these is fairly quick to write, which means you’ll have time to take on other things, whether that’s a bigger one-off project like a website or spending more time pursuing a hobby. Recurring income makes it possible to tailor your business to perfectly suit your needs and lifestyle
