The Freelance Writer’s Guide to Securing Great Clients

Career success as a freelance copywriter depends on your ability to secure the right clients. If your clients cost you time, wear down your emotions, or pay you a pittance, you can kiss your career goodbye and head back to a cubicle. And who wants to do that? Not I!

Here’s how to secure the best and dodge the worst in clients so you can make a living and have fun doing it:

Avoid people who can’t make up their minds.

My rule of thumb says if a client takes longer than four weeks from initial conversation to an up-or-down decision to hire me, they’re out. I’ve heard all the excuses: We’ve been busy. Something else came up. School started. One client actually told me, “I’ve just been so full of grief because my son’s girlfriend broke up with him that I haven’t called you back.”

If a client is too busy to hire you now, they will be too busy to work with you later. They might be great people with a strong mission, but they’re not ready to employ a freelance writer. Your time is money. Don’t waste it.

Look for clients who know exactly what they want.

The ideal client already knows the project and can send you a brief or talk you through it in 30 minutes on the phone. If it’s ongoing work—the best kind—then they can tell you what they will generally expect you to accomplish every month. They also know if speed, quality, or quantity of work is most important to them.

Your prospect doesn’t have to nail down every detail before a project begins, of course, and additional work is often welcome. But use caution when conversations go like this:

You: What exactly is it you’re looking for?

Prospect: That’s what I expect you to tell me.

End that conversation with a firm: I’m not the right freelancer for you. Good luck in your search.

Anything else is a waste of time.

If they don’t want to pay, run away.

Set your fee, and stick to it. I sometimes quote a higher price than I actually expect in order to give some negotiating room, and in those instances, I’ll drop back to a lower dollar amount if the client asks me to. But I no longer give away work for free. Yet I remain amazed at the people who ask for it.

After 15 years of working for non-profits and schools, it kills me to say this. But I refuse to work for another charitable organization unless there is a marketing company acting as the middleman. As a freelancer, I’ve never had a good non-profit client nor have I had much luck with companies that are one-person operations.

If you want to help out a charity or friend, write them a check, but don’t let have them free work. They’ll leave you unpaid and feeling disrespected.

Does your prospect have a hiring process?

Most companies expect you to send them a resume, a link to your portfolio, and maybe a short writing sample. If the client wants more than that up front, it could be a sign they have grandiose ideas about themselves. As a second step, you might do an interview, take a writing test, or craft an audition article. These shouldn’t take more than an hour to do. If it looks like a major undertaking, the client should pay you for your time.

Whatever process the client uses, make sure that it exists, is formalized, and is fair to everyone involved. Ask yourself: If this company doesn’t know how to work with me before we sign a contract, how will they work with me after we sign a contract?

Can they onboard you like the navy? Or do they toss you a lifesaver and expect you to dogpaddle in the ship’s wake?

If the client expects more than a single project, how will they onboard you? Are you contracting with a marketing firm? Ask what your relationship will be with the client. Contracting directly with the client? Ask whom you’ll report to, how they expect to communicate with you, and what kind of deadlines you’ll be working on.

Some companies have no experience with remote contract employees. Others do this kind of thing all the time. It probably doesn’t matter what their process is, but one needs to exist. Without it, you can spend a lot of time feeling frustrated.

As a new freelancer, it’s tempting to latch onto any job that comes your way even if it’s a volunteer gig or the client seems sketchy. Don’t do it. You’re worth more than that. Plenty of good clients need you. Find them. Do great work for them. And enjoy a long and fruitful relationship with the best.

Holland Webb is a full-time freelance copywriter based in the lush upstate of South Carolina. His writing focuses on making technology accessible to non-techies and selling household goods to urban-dwelling Millennials. He can be found at www.hollandwebb.com.