In my first post on going it alone, I mentioned that you don’t have to sever ties with oDesk right off, rather, a mixed strategy was best. Here’s some more tips and tricks along those lines.

Funnel through oDesk.

This has already worked for me. A client wanted to link up in Skype. The job listing wasn’t through oDesk, but from another brokered site. Now, there’s a lot of back and forth when you’re chatting live. I’m trying to get more info about the project (word counts, number of pages- the usual) and he’s pressing me for a price. In the middle of this he asks about references. Off the top of my head (I’ll be prepared next time) I tell him my profile is at www.william.morrison.name. You might remember from the previous post in this series (which goes over how to claim your .name) that this URL currently points to my oDesk profile.

Well, it worked. He was impressed by my profile enough to hire me on the spot.

So, bottom line- you’ve spent some time getting your oDesk profile right. Don’t waste that effort. If you just pull up your profile without knowing about oDesk, you will see what a great ad it is. Funnel prospective clients through it, regardless of where and how they are hiring you.

Hustling jobs.

You see and read hundreds of websites a month. Most of them are pretty professional, but many are not. If you are writing web copy, don’t be shy about selling your talents, either for a bad website or just to update and freshen up a website. One good place to troll for business is locally. Most of the middle to large business owner’s I run across have a domain and website for their business. Check them out.

You can find URLs for local businesses by looking for links in online phone directories and on business cards. Take a look at a few sites with the idea of improving them for a fee. Rewrite a few paragraphs of their ‘about us’ page or FAQ to show them what you can do. Walk softly here, don’t be too critical; they may have written the copy themselves. Again, funneling them through your oDesk profile takes some of the selling burden off you.

Offer your services to websites/blogs in your area of expertise. If you have credentials, play them to good effect. “I’m a freelance writer with five years experience growing bonsai. I’d like to send you an example article for your site/blog which you can use with my byline and a link to my profile.”

This is called network marketing, but it amounts to bartering. You are exchanging something you do well for exposure. Don’t overdo this. If someone likes your stuff, don’t keep flipping freebies at them. Quote your regular rate, you are a professional.

Start an idea jar.

An idea jar is a wide-mouthed jar (a cookie jar works well) that you throw little notes into. Ideas you haven’t thought through but seem like they might have legs. The point is to accumulate enough ideas about expanding your writing opportunities beyond brokered sites that you never ‘run dry’.

I’ll give you an example. I’m looking at a little slip of paper that says, “Local business features, snowmen and museums”. Fleshed out, the idea is to profile local businesses and their owners for Sunday feature articles in my local (small town) newspaper. The ’snowmen’ part references a local business that makes and rents out snow making machines for the winter; the ‘museums’ tag is for a company that makes elaborate display cases for museums. Either of those companies would do to start. The advantages are connections with local businessmen, local newspaper editor, and the chance to leverage articles in other venues. For the businessmen, trade magazines would be a natural segue.

Here’s another one from the jar: “Buy small ads”. The idea is to take out small ads offering ghostwriting (article/ebook) in the hobby magazines I read and have an expertise in. I’ve already bartered an article for a free subscription, I think I could barter another article for some small ad space.

Another:
“Check out ezinearticles.com” I forget why I wrote this one down, but I assume I’ll remember when I go to that site…

I’ll have to hold off writing the next article in this series until I try out some marketing techniques and see if they fly or not. In the meanwhile, if you have an odd-ball idea that has worked for you, share it. We learn the best stuff from each other.

ShareThis

• Flying Solo I
• Bulking Up: production writing technique
• You’re Ready, but are you oDesk Ready?
• Improving Employee Morale