Top 5 Ways To Get More High-Paying Clients

Have you searched the jobs on Elance and other bidding sites and started wondering whether there’s any good work to be found? Are you tired of scanning job boards and watching other freelancers play the “how low can you go” game? Are you unwilling to write 50 articles for $50?

The good news is that there are clients out there with interesting projects and substantial budgets, and they are looking for freelancers. The bad news, of course, is that there are a lot of freelancers who want these jobs. To get high-paying work, you’re going to have to learn how to compete more effectively.

Here are the top 5 things you can do to attract more high-paying clients to your business:

1. Improve your skills. It turns out that there are no shortcuts to excellence. If you want to get high-paying work, you have to be worthy of it. But that doesn’t mean you’re stuck if you’re not currently the best writer on the block. Take a class. Participate in a workshop. Practice. Get feedback from a mentor if you can. Read about writing. Practice some more. Most importantly, you have to keep pushing yourself to get better. Don’t feel like it? Maybe this high-paying clients thing isn’t for you (I tried to warn you there are no shortcuts).

2. Specialize. As in any profession, writers with a specialty tend to make more than generalists. Clients (especially those with larger budgets) aren’t looking for well-rounded writers; they’re looking for particular people to handle particular projects. For any given project, they’re looking for the best person for the job. The best person is almost always going to be someone who specializes in that type of work. If a client with plenty of money is looking for someone to write a sales letter, is s/he going to hire a “good writer,” or the well-known expert on sales letters? That’s an easy decision. So it’s important to pick a specialty and become an expert in that type of work – just make sure it’s something you enjoy doing, and something that your target market really needs.

3. Target the right market. No matter how good you are, if your target market is broke, you have a problem. That’s not to say you should only target the super-rich, but make sure your market has enough money to pay the rates you’re seeking. Your market also has to care (a lot) about quality. The only reason a client will pay more than the average rate for a freelancer is because the client wants better than average quality. The more your market cares about quality, the more you stand to make (assuming you’re really good at what you do).

4. Set rates appropriately. It’s hard to go after high-paying clients when you’re still accepting low-paying work. First, you end up so busy with the low-paying stuff that you don’t have time to go after better jobs. Second (and more importantly), when your going rates are low, prospective clients make certain assumptions about you and your work. They assume your rates are low because you aren’t good enough to charge more. They assume that you can only handle certain types of work. You have to be willing to ask for the rates you deserve (if you don’t deserve more than you’re currently charging, go back to #1). If you’re not willing to ask for higher rates, I can guarantee you that no one will be willing to pay those rates.

5. Market yourself effectively. It bears repeating that clients with a lot of money have a lot of choices. Why should they choose you? To compete for high-paying work, you’re going to need an impressive website and portfolio, testimonials from past clients, and a professional demeanor. You will probably want to start your own blog to establish your expertise, and use social media such as Twitter to raise your visibility. Learn as much as you can about marketing and learn how to close a sale once you have someone interested.

To learn more about how to get more high-paying clients, sign up for my free e-course. It’s a 10-lesson course delivered every few days to your e-mail inbox, it’s totally free, and it will help you make more money with your freelance business. What could be better than that?