6 “foot in the door” paid writing opps

How to get that first chance with a new client [The Writer’ s Life]( June 8, 2023 "You don't get anywhere without saying yes." – Joel Stein Hi {NAME}, There's so much power in the word "YES." Whether you say it to a client to accept a project … … or they say it to hire you … … "yes" means you're making forward progress. Now, odds are, you're going to hear "no" from prospective clients at some point … It's part of doing business! Hearing "no" means you're actually in the game. 😉 Which means you can't let the "no" answers bother you. Being a freelance writer is a numbers game — for every "no" you hear, you're that much closer to a "yes." That being said, you can minimize the odds of hearing "no" when you realize some projects are MUCH easier to get hired for, especially if you're new to the paid writing world. So today, AWAI Success Andrew Murray highlights six projects that make it easier to get your foot in the door — they're short, easy for you to learn, and easy to convince a potential client to give you a shot. Plus, he'll give some insights about getting hired by today's marketers. Once you've got an "in," momentum is on your side, and you can keep building the writing career that fits you. And there's never been a better time to get started — it's easier than ever to create that "chance" with a new client. Having unlimited access to our complete library of skill and business-building resources makes it easier for you to gain the skills clients need, and to get to "yes" between you … Because with that library at your fingertips, no matter which type of project you're asked to write, you'll be able to gain or brush up on the skills quickly enough to help them. And you'll be the one getting to deliver the positive "yes! "when they ask. If there's a way to make money writing, you can bet your bottom dollar we have a training program on it in our catalog. 😉 And for a very limited time, you can get access to everything AWAI publishes — now and in the future — for life, for the lowest price ever. Over 120 training and business-building resources and counting — the complete library for pennies on the dollar! But today is your LAST CHANCE to gain lifetime access to AWAI's entire library of home study and business-building resources … For a tiny fraction of what you might pay on a one-off basis. [Check it out now, before enrollment closes at midnight.]( To your success, Rebecca Matter President AWAI Now Accepting New Writers If you want … - high-paying gigs, - predictable writing income, - greater flexibility … AND the satisfaction that comes with LOVING what you do for a living … Then getting accepted into our influential club can set you up for everything you're looking for in a writing career. NOTE: Your acceptance window will be closing soon! [Apply Now]( These 6 Projects Are Easy for Clients to Say "Yes" To! By Andrew Murray [male freelancer showing two thumbs up to laptop screen] How can you land your first or new copywriting clients? How can you get a foot in the door? Start with shorter, easy-to-learn projects. They make it easy for potential clients to say "yes"! Why focus on these easy-to-say "yes" projects? Because there are benefits for both you and the client … Reduce the Risk Imagine you approach a busy marketing manager for copywriting work. What's the risk to them? Well, let's see. They don't know whether your copy is any good, they don't know what you're like to work with, and they don't even know whether you'll meet deadlines. Hmmm, that's a lot of risk for them to take on! But imagine you approached them with something far simpler. Like this, "The Welcome Email to a new subscriber is one of the most important emails you'll ever send. I noticed a few opportunities to make yours really stand out from the crowd. This is something I can help you with." Start with simple projects like this. It's short, easy for you to learn, and easy to convince a potential client to give you a shot at. And finally, you get a chance to prove yourself to a client … that all-important foot in the door. If you make good on your promise, the marketing manager has potentially found a new writer … someone to ease their workload. Then you can discuss what else they need help with. You have a client and they have a reliable copywriter. That's a win-win for both of you. And if it doesn't work out, they've paid you a small fee with no damage to the business. What's the risk to the marketing manager? Absolutely minimal. Start with small, low-risk projects. Then once established, you can ask for more higher-paying, consistent work. So what types of projects are easy to say "yes" to? Here are six to consider. 1. Email Writing ($250-$3,500) Email writing is in huge demand worldwide. It's a great way to get started and to prove yourself as a copywriter. Businesses use emails to keep in touch with customers and prospects. Consider how many emails land in your inbox every day. Someone has to write those and businesses are constantly scrambling for new angles, and new ideas. Emails are low risk to a business … they're very easy to track and compare. A business can easily test your email promotion and know very quickly whether it has been successful. So they'll likely give you a chance. They might ask you to write a campaign comprising several emails, then compare the results with similar campaigns. If your emails get results (opens and click-throughs), then they'll want you to do more. The other opportunity is autoresponders … a series of emails which automatically get sent once a client or prospect buys a product, signs up to an email list, and so on. (The Welcome Email we spoke of earlier is an example of an email in an autoresponder series.) Some autoresponders can include up to 10 emails. So you can earn good money from an autoresponder series. Quick Tip: Start with a simple email campaign to gain experience, then offer to write their autoresponders. 2. Email Newsletters ($800-$1,500) Email newsletters are an ideal way for businesses to build a relationship with prospects and clients. The problem is, they take time to write on a consistent basis. All too often, a business will start sending email newsletters then become overwhelmed with other, more urgent work. This is where you come into the picture. Offer to write their newsletters. Email newsletters follow a standard format, are usually less than 1,200 words … and they're ongoing, month after month, year after year. So you'll potentially have consistent work well into the future. There's no hard-sell. The best newsletters are conversational. They establish and maintain informal business-client relationships. So they're fun to write with no sales hype. As with emails, email newsletters are easy to track and measure for success or otherwise. So a business can say "yes" with little risk. Quick Tip: Sign up to receive several email newsletters in your niche. Choose the businesses you resonate with. Then approach each one, offering to write their newsletter. 3. FAQs ($150-$750) Have you ever used an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on a website? Most of us have. It's simply a list of questions people most often ask a business. Why are FAQs important on a business website? Well, imagine a lot of prospects or customers call the business to ask the same set of questions. This takes up a lot of time and resources. By having an FAQ on their website, a business can free up resources to focus on other parts of the business. There's another important benefit FAQs bring to a website. They're an excellent way for users to find a business during an online search. If an FAQ answers a commonly-asked question, the search engines will send more traffic to that website. This potentially means more inquiries and sales. If you offer to write or update an FAQ page, the business has little to lose and a whole lot to gain. Many smart business operators will say "yes" to this offer from you! Quick Tip: Think about what questions people might ask within your niche. Then search for those questions to see if any business websites answer those questions in FAQs. You'll be surprised how quickly you'll build a list of prospective clients. 4. Blog Posts ($200-$800) Marketing managers understand the benefits of having a blog on their website. Blog posts: - Help answer prospects' questions about their products or services, - Build trust with prospects, and - Enable marketers to showcase their products or services in a low-key, conversational way. The downside? Blogs need new content. Fresh angles, new ideas, new ways to say the same thing … endless content. This is a huge opportunity for you. If you approach a business with a series of fresh ideas for their blog, they'll likely say "yes." Why? Because they can try out your ideas with very little risk to them. If your blogs don't gain any traction, no big deal. But if they do, then they'll attract a whole bunch of potential new customers. Blog posts are easy to write. They're typically between 300 and 1,200 words. And once you prove yourself as a blog writer, the business will likely want you to keep writing for them well into the future. Quick Tip: Find out which businesses in your niche have blogs. Then approach the ones which have recently added content. They are the businesses that respect the value of an up-to-date blog and are most likely to need your services now. 5. Site Audits ($1,000-$2,500) Have you ever landed on a business website and you couldn't find how to contact them, where they were located, how to search the site … or worse, you couldn't figure out what it is they actually do? Issues like this are all too common. And many of these businesses have no idea why their website isn't "working" for them. Become a "fixer" by doing Site Audits. It's not difficult. You follow a proven set of checklists, identifying what's missing and what can be improved. Then you roll this into a professional report, which you present to the client. And what generally happens is they'll ask you to make the corrections. So you get paid to conduct the site audit, then paid again to fix the site. Businesses can pay tens of thousands of dollars to have their website built. So they'll gladly pay $1,000-$2,500 for you to audit their site and identify what needs to be fixed. It's easy for them to say "yes"! Quick Tip: Site Audits are equally relevant across all niches and business types. 6. Case Studies ($1,250-$2,000) Case studies are short "before-and-after" stories that describe how a company or organization solved a particular challenge with a product or service — and what the results of solving that challenge were. Generally around 800-1,200 words, case studies are normally about two pages in length. They follow a formula, making them an easy project to learn and write. Clients need case studies year-round, so they can be a steady stream of work. AWAI has paid a case study writer to write over 50 of them! ([You can see them here.]() With the exploding growth of content marketing among B2B companies, the demand for these proof pieces has never been higher. Make It Easy to Say "Yes" If you make it easy for a prospective client to say "yes," then you're well on the way to building a successful copywriting career. Get your foot in the door with these six easy-to-learn projects: - Emails - E-newsletters - FAQs - Blog Posts - Site Audits - Case Studies They're all stepping-stones to new projects, new opportunities. No long learning curves either. You can get up to speed in no time. Start making money faster, build a portfolio of samples with these projects … and take the stress out of marketing your services. THEN, once you're in, you can offer more writing services. Because when you get your foot in the door with these six short copy projects … they lead into a whole new world of other copywriting opportunities. For example: Now: Emails → Later: Sales pages, landing pages, ads Now: Email newsletters → Later: Emails, articles, case studies Now: FAQs → Later: Copy research, copyediting, SEO copy Now: Blog posts → Later: Articles, social media, case studies, web content Now: Site Audits → Later: Web content, SEO copy Now: Case studies → Later: White papers, web content, articles, blog posts I've really only touched on the opportunities available. I could easily add many more. It doesn't matter where you start as much as it matters that you DO start. Develop new writing skills, and make it easy for prospective clients to say "yes." Then start building your writing business. And whatever your next step is on your journey to being a well-paid writer, we've got the training, business-building, and client-getting resources you need. As an Infinity member, you'll have lifetime access to AWAI's entire library of home study and business-building resources … All the resources you need to build a career that grows and changes with you. For a tiny fraction of what you might pay on a one-off basis. Whatever project you may be asked to write, there's sure to be a training program that can help you. And as an Infinity member, you have access to a complete library of self-study courses, so you can say "yes!" to all the projects clients throw your way. And for a very limited time, you can get access to everything AWAI publishes — now and in the future — for life. With over 120 training and business-building resources and counting — the complete library for pennies on the dollar! — you'll be able to figure out how to do it. And you'll be glad you can say "yes." [Check out all the details here.]( What's Hot at AWAI … 🙌 LAST CHANCE: [Access to every program we've published to date, and in the future — FOR LIFE!]( 👉 [What to charge for 80 different copy and content projects.]( 😊 [This one-of-a-kind investment creates true financial freedom.]( 👀 [This will make you more productive as a writer — and in life!]( 🤩 [From stress to peace: schoolteacher-turned-copywriter finds happiness in third career.]( 🚀 Bootcamp is the rocket fuel you need to launch or grow your copywriting business NOW. [Grab your seat here!]( Say "yes" and figure it out … Chuck used the "Sure! I can do that" tactic with a prospective new client … he said "yes" to a project before he was confident he could do it, and then figured out how to tackle it. And it worked. Way to go, Chuck! [Social media post about saying yes to a client project and then figuring it out] It's exciting to see how Chuck's dream at age 13 of becoming a writer has come true. ([Read more of his story here.]() You can say "yes" to any copy or content projects you're offered when you have access to the library of 120 skill and business-building resources in our Infinity program. It's safe to say it's the best "value deal" of the year. But the doors are closing soon, [so check out the details on Infinity membership now](. Have your own story to share? Email us at mysuccess@awai.com, or [post it over in the Facebook group](, so we can celebrate your win too! FREE TRAINING: How to Start Making Money FAST as an Email Copywriter Join top email copywriting expert Guillermo Rubio, this Friday, June 9 at noon ET. [Click Here For Details]( TODAY! Get all this for $1 … [PWA Product Spread] The Professional Writers' Alliance (PWA) takes the stress out of running your writing business. With ready-to-use business forms, templates, and checklists … VIP job board access … networking opportunities … and a mountain of tips, tactics, and "been there, done that" advice from working freelance writers … You'll minimize the "unbillable" hours you spend working on your business and maximize your time writing — and getting paid. 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