How to Land Repeat Clients That Pay Well

Whether you’re new to the world of freelance writing or you’re a seasoned expert in the field, there’s three things that you generally always want: better clients, high-paying clients and repeat clients.

So how do you get them?

Go looking for them. Clients won’t fall in your lap and they aren’t going to easily part with their money. Your job isn’t just writing – it’s convincing people that you can help them make more sales, get more readers, enjoy heightened success. If you’re not going out to tell people you’ll provide exactly that, all you’re doing is waiting for the bargain hunters to come find you.

Get Confident

You’ll hear this a thousand times and more during your career. Confidence is your key. Find it, use it and flaunt it, or people won’t take you seriously. No one is going to give you handouts or offer you more money if you don’t ask for what you believe you deserve.

Be Ready to Lose

This doesn’t mean you need to brace yourself to lose the game, fail at your career or miss out on opportunities. It means you need to be willing to lose the clients that hold you back. Shed those you don’t like and make room for better-paying customers that treat you well.

Up Your Rates

As simple and common sense as this sounds, so many writers complain about low pay, but they do nothing about the rates they offer. If you want more money, up your rates, ask for higher pay and be done with it.

Listen Well

If you play the diva, you’ll soon find yourself wondering where everyone went. It’s not about you, ever. It’s always about the customer. The more you listen to that person’s needs, goals and desires, the better your client feels and the more likely the client will be to hire you again.

Be Helpful

You may not be the best writer. You may not have the most skills. You may not know everything. But if you’re helpful, present and willing to work with your clients, you’ll definitely notice many of them coming back to you for more. Good attitude trumps great skills every time.

Be Generous

Stand your ground and be firm with clients when necessary, yes. But until you need to play tough love, be generous with your time and go the extra mile. That might mean a touch of extra work, a small discount or offering a freebie – whatever. It’ll go a long way to make people think well of you.

The list of actions you can take, behaviors you can change and tricks you can use to find better clients who pay well is a long one. This selection just scrapes the surface – but it’s a good start.

What techniques have you used to find clients that treat you well, pay you well and come back for more?

Want more great advice on making more money at freelancing and getting repeat clients? Check out The Unlimited Freelancer. It’ll teach you the tricks you need to know to really unleash your career.


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3 responses
  1. Sharon Hurley Hall Avatar

    I think I’ve used all of those. My clients know that I will do what’s necessary to make sure that they are happy, but I won’t let them take undue advantage of me. This works for both of us.

  2. Jennifer Avatar

    This is all great straight forward advice. I think the biggest thing that I learned is that if I wanted to make more with my writing then I need to give myself a raise. Once I saw it like giving myself an evaluation and looking at what I should be making, it was much easier for me. I was a retail manager many years ago, so the idea of giving a review and receining a pay raise on merit is very easy for me to implement in my own career.

  3. Phil Avatar
    Phil

    I’ll add one…

    Stay in contact. I have one good client in all other aspects (pay level, pay timeliness, interesting work, etc.), but I have to bug the editor every couple of weeks or more to get assignments. I bugged him for six months before getting any work even though his constant lament was about writers missing deadlines — and I treat deadlines like the first commandment (Moses dropped the tablet with that one).

    Have also found that such regular communication moves some prospects off the idea of “call back in a few weeks,” to “we don’t use freelancers” or “we rarely use freelancers,” and you can cut off contact (nicely) without losing the chance of work.

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