4 writing projects you should offer

This makes it easier to land paid assignments [The Writer’ s Life]( February 1, 2023 "I'm a big believer that life changes as much as you want it to." – Martin Freeman Hey {NAME}! Yesterday Heather Robson gave you the secret to landing more paid writing assignments AND getting referrals: a well-defined offer. Did you create or update yours? Any responses yet? Either way, today she's back to help you strengthen it further, by focusing on the project types that are in high demand right now. Companies are looking for you to help them NOW. So don't put this off! And if you want help building your writing business … [>> Go here now.]( We'll get you up and running as a professional writer in just 5 DAYS!! I know it sounds a bit crazy … But this is our most popular and successful launch system ever. [See for yourself here.]( [Rebecca Matter’ s signature] Rebecca --------------------------------------------------------------- Four In-Demand Projects for Freelance Writers By Heather Robson Hi there, Heather Robson here again! Yesterday, I talked to you about the value of having a well-defined offer when talking to potential clients … It immediately shows people how you can help them, which can change the nature of the conversations you're having with prospects and lead to more projects and referrals coming your way. And it can gain and emanate confidence … which is highly attractive. All good things. Now assuming you don't yet have a well-defined offer, and aren't sure where to start … Let's look at four in-demand projects that you can turn into one. But before we get started, I want to emphasize an important point … you can turn ANY writing skill you learn into a well-defined offer. Maybe when you finish this, you think, "This is all nice and fine, but I really like writing case studies." Great! You can turn case studies into a well-defined offer. And remember, your well-defined offer doesn't preclude you from doing other types of projects. What it does is give you a way to have more specific conversations with your prospects and clients. Okay … on to our four project types. Project #1: The Blog Post/Article/Email Newsletter Content marketing is popular with companies — both consumer-facing and business-facing — because it works. Good content brings in traffic, earns leads, answers questions, overcomes objections, gets shared, reduces customer service load, and primes readers to buy … just to name a few advantages. So, being able to write a solid article, which can also be used as a blog post or sent out through email as a newsletter piece, is a seriously in-demand skill. And it makes a great well-defined offer. When I say this is an in-demand skill, don't just take my word for it … According to Content Marketing Institute, 60% of marketers report that content brings in leads, 73% say that content is effective at nurturing those leads, and 64% find that content helps to increase sales and revenue. At every step of the buyer's journey, most marketers are saying content is improving results. If you decide you want to be able to write the staple of content marketing — the article, in all its forms — you can count on there being clients willing to hire you. Articles are ubiquitous. I can't guarantee your chosen niche or focus markets use articles, blog posts, or email newsletters, but if I was placing a bet, the odds would be in my favor. By a lot. Most articles run under a thousand words, and you can charge anywhere from $150 to $850 per article. The fee you set will vary by industry, your experience, and especially your confidence. You'll also encounter the demand for longer articles — closer to 2000 words. You can charge more for those. You have options for how you structure your well-defined article-writing offer. You can focus entirely on the benefits. Or you can define the pricing and timeline details, too. You can offer a single article or a packet of articles. You can augment your article offering with other services or not. Let's look at a few possibilities … . Keeping it Simple— For a simple article-based offer, you might zero in on the benefits rather than the details and offer a single, straightforward article as a first project with a client. That offer might look like this: "I can help you with the staple of content marketing — well-written articles that attract traffic, earn leads, and support your sales process. For new clients, I do a single article to start, at my standard rates, to see if we're a good fit." Notice how that leaves the door open for future projects if things go well on the first one. A Package Deal— Once you start to get busy with clients, and you realize you love writing articles, you might decide to require a bigger buy-in from new clients. And you might give them more details about your fees and timelines. In that case the simple offer above might become something like this: "I can help you with the staple of content marketing — well-written articles that attract traffic, earn leads, and support your sales process. I offer a package of four articles for $2,000 with a two-week timeline." A Few Bells and Whistles— As your expertise grows, you might naturally start to include some things with your articles, like SEO optimization, image suggestions, or social media posts for increasing reach. When that happens, your simple offer could become something more like this: "I can help you with the staple of content marketing — well-written articles that attract traffic, earn leads, and support your sales process. I offer a package of four articles for $3,000. Each is SEO optimized and I include image suggestions and two social media posts for each. My timeline for this package is two weeks." Now, you can start out with the bigger package and all the bells and whistles in place. Or you might decide you like keeping it simple and want to keep offering single articles to a variety of clients. It's entirely up to you. Project #2: The Landing Page A landing page is a page on a website where people arrive via a specific link, like a paid advertising link, a link in an email message, or a social media link. Companies that use paid advertising and social media marketing often have an ongoing need for landing pages. Smart companies use landing pages as part of their email marketing campaigns. Landing pages can be useful in all sorts of scenarios, but these scenarios are the big ones. Tailored and targeted landing pages are powerful. According to Hubspot, companies that use 30 or more landing pages in support of their specific sales and marketing campaigns generate seven times more leads than companies that have 10 or fewer landing pages in their rotation. These companies need fresh ideas and fresh copy for their landing pages … and if you're a writer who understands how to put a good landing page together, they'll take an interest in what you have to offer. The fun thing about landing pages is they're often quite short. If the purpose of a landing page is for someone to sign up to receive a free report, for example, that landing page might have 300 words or fewer. Or course if you're making a direct sale on a landing page, that will call for longer copy … and command a higher fee. Typical fees for short, lead-generation landing pages range from $500 to $1000. Fees for longer, sales-oriented landing pages are a lot bigger … as much as $5,000 or more. Your well-defined landing page offer could look something like this: "I can help you get more leads with landing pages that are tailor-written for your specific campaigns. For new clients, I provide two initial landing pages at my standard rates, which allows you to start testing and improving your results right away. Then, if it looks like we're a good fit for each other, we can build from there." Like the article example, you can expand this into a bigger package or add extra features for a bigger fee. Project #3: The Ecommerce Product Page Online shopping is kind of a big deal. Globally, online purchases account for trillions of dollars. That's trillions. With a T. And most of those purchases have something in common. The person making the purchase usually did so from a product page. Product content is extremely important to ecommerce websites. Poor product content leads to abandoned sales. Strong product content means more revenue. So, it's not surprising that there's a ton of potential here for a well-defined offer. The companies that use product pages are typically business-to-consumer companies with an online store or that sell their products through a retail site like Amazon. Product pages vary widely in length. Some run just a couple hundred words. Others may be 500 words or longer. It will differ from site to site. Rates for product pages range from $250 to $1,000 per page. Your offer here could begin with something simple, like: "I write product pages for your online store that get more conversions and reduce cart abandonment. For first time clients, I offer a five-page bundle at my standard rates." Again, think about ways you could expand this offer to make it bigger or add extra features. Project #4: The Email Welcome Message Email welcome messages are messages sent automatically to new subscribers. When done well, they help the relationship with the new subscriber start on good footing. A typical welcome message or series thanks the subscriber for joining, establishes expectations (how the reader can expect to benefit from joining the email list), and delivers any incentives that were promised. It might also ask the reader to follow the company on social media, talk a little about the company and its mission (framed in terms that benefit the reader), and share a few links to resources the reader might appreciate. And the welcome message might offer a special discount on a purchase or invite the reader to send in a question. In other words, a solid welcome message (or series) does a lot to make the new subscriber feel welcome and at home … and excited about what's to come. Unfortunately, a lot of companies don't use welcome messages, or they send out one that's bland and boring. Which is too bad, because the first message that goes out to a new subscriber has an open rate between 50% and 95% depending on which research you're looking at. That's a lot of eyeballs on that initial message … so why waste it with boring copy?!? A typical welcome message runs between 300 and 500 words. And a welcome series might have three to five messages in total. You can charge between $250 and $500 per message, which can add up to a tidy sum. And then, once you've written the welcome message and do a great job on it, you're in the perfect position to start writing other email messages for them. It's a great break-in project. Your simple, well-defined offer for this service might read like so: "I write engaging welcome emails that result in faster conversions and longer relationships with your email subscribers. In most cases, a three-part series works best, and my typical turnaround time is two weeks." So here you have it … Four possible project types that you can turn into a well-defined offer to help your prospect see immediately the benefits of hiring you. But remember, you can take any project type and turn it into a well-defined offer. Just use what you learned here as inspiration. Now, you may be wondering … what if you don't feel confident with any of these projects? Don't worry. I've got you covered. Tomorrow, I lay out a process that will get you feeling comfortable and confident with your project type in just a few weeks. See you then! Heather YOU a Professional Writer in Just 5 Days! Our proven system speeds you past any roadblocks and get you up and running as a writer … With the confidence, skills, and polish to take on your first clients and get paid … In just five days … GUARANTEED! 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