Finding Private Clients

[purpleash09]

Thanks for this post! This is wonderful!

[Emeraldgreen21]

This is a great post, thank you! The suggestion to approach business owners directly is another interesting one. Many of the local web sites have dreadful copy, and I'm not talking about just dull or vague...I'm talking spelling errors! Surely these guys could use a helping hand....! My brain is working overtime here. This is real food for thought.

[Ashlei Rose]

Thank you for this one. You are so nice. This is really helpful.

[skrybe]

Some of the posts in this thread make me wish I could reach out and hug some of you guys. For real. I am totally destitute and can't work so I started last week with MC, it is SUCH a good feeling to start earning money when everything else seems hopeless!
THANK YOU!

[rhpearson1]

The simplest advice to find private clients is to go where they are. If there's a forum where a lot of your potential clients hang out, join up and then contribute to the conversations. If there are blogs in the industry, start commenting or offer to write some guest blogs. That will help people learn your name, see your writing ability and then you will be approached for work in many cases or at least have a reputation preceding you in the industry before you start talking to potential clients.

[Joe Ryan]

Nice list. I'd just like to add Ebyline to it. They are a good client to have if you can get accepted.

[Jonelle]

Yes, thank you for this info.

[momoftwingirls]

Hey there!

I used to write for DS, then they bought all my articles..I actually used to write for eHow, then I suppose DS bought them out. I any case, I do have a variety of private clients I write for and four guest writers on my blog.

The way the private clients find me is through a search under a particular word search and if they are members of such wesbsites as BlogCatalog and FeeJit, the private clients will find me there. I have yet to receive a job from LinkedIn, but I still send my articles to this website in hopes I receive a paid job.

Are you signed up with SocialSpark or PayPerPost? How about SponsoredTweets? Oh and I sometimes receive wriitng jobs from Blogsvertise. I used to find a lot of writing jobs here. In fact,this is where I signed up at DS...

If you write a lot on your blog or website, and write quality articles, you are more likely than not to be noticed and your website or blog will be at the top or near the top of any search engine..I type my blog into MyPoints, SwabBucks and Yahoo and my blog is usually at the top or near the top..this lets me know my blog is being looked at..this is a good thing..

[B2BWriter]

Has anyone tried giving free seminars to local small businesses as a way to generate writing clients?

Here's an article that explains how to do it (it's on a diet and fitness site for some reason):

How to Find Freelance Clients

I'm just curious if anyone's done this, what type of response you got, did you get long-term clients, etc. Anyone ever approach a Chamber of Commerce and how did they respond? Anyone try the paid seminar suggestion/route?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

[jabrankundi]

Once you have worked as a freelance writer for about a year, you have built enough clients to ask them about other contacts of theirs that need work. Sometimes this really works well but i must admit it isn't the best idea