Writing For Local Businesses (Journey Thread)

[Aluminium]

I simply upsell my service, nothing more nothing less. I tell them that the content they have is no good for business (as well as rankings) in the hopes that they purchase some content accordingly.

The rate of success has been pretty slim so far, but it only takes one big local client to get me to $3,000 (I can feel it!).

- A

4 days deep in June and I've still only made the initial $220 for sample work, I've gotten a couple more responses and now I'm just waiting on what they have to say.

This is a lot tougher than I would have imagined, not gonna lie...

REVENUE SO FAR: $220

- A

 

[BassTrackerBoats]

What you are selling they do not need nor will they buy, at least not many.

You need to be targeting SEO providers to sell them good content for their customers.

Good luck

That would actually be a good BST for you to start, Aluminum... offering specific onsite content for SEO providers and Site owners... I do not know that there is one in the writing niche here that targets that group of people.

 

[Aluminium]

That would actually be a good BST for you to start, Aluminum... offering specific onsite content for SEO providers and Site owners... I do not know that there is one in the writing niche here that targets that group of people.

Very true, and that sounds like it could be rather successful.

Maybe it's time to put my penny-pinching ways aside and finally become Jr. VIP ?

- A

 

[Techxan]

Very true, and that sounds like it could be rather successful.

Maybe it's time to put my penny-pinching ways aside and finally become Jr. VIP ?

- A

Don't you have to be a Donor above Jr. Vip or is Jr. Vip enough?

 

[Aluminium]

Don't you have to be a Donor above Jr. Vip or is Jr. Vip enough?

Jr. VIP is enough, I thought I met the requirements when I originally donated (I didn't, that's pretty much why I haven't donated again; out of principle and being incredibly cheap).

- A

 

[Techxan]

That would actually be a good BST for you to start, Aluminum... offering specific onsite content for SEO providers and Site owners... I do not know that there is one in the writing niche here that targets that group of people.

I would buy of the quality was there. PM me your rates per 500 words of money site content (not sales copy, and not "SEO" quality either). Samples too if you have them.

 

[Aluminium]

I would buy of the quality was there. PM me your rates per 500 words of money site content (not sales copy, and not "SEO" quality either). Samples too if you have them.

Just saw this now, PM sent.

QUICK UPDATE:

So, I have contacted a couple more businesses, and although I thought this would be a lot more successful I've gotta say... this is going rather slow. I've almost made as much on Fiverr ($170) in a week as I have with two weeks of trying to sell my services to local businesses ($220, and that was only a sample!).

I think it might be time to cut down on the cost, I threw out $100/page because I figured that local businesses wouldn't be too savvy when it came to an online presence.

Either way, I'm not going to give up! (Not yet anyways..)

- A

 

[Aluminium]

UPDATE: Just sent a second e-mail to those who didn't respond initially, I also put together another set of e-mails to work with (going to type up a completely different sales pitch for this group).

REVENUE: Still sitting at $220.

- A

 

[costin]

Curious to find out the results
Your target is very generous, good luck to achieve it!

 

[Alpha.]

Okay this is just my opinion so feel free to ignore it, but I think you might be taking the wrong approach here!

Instead of contacting your local companies directly, you should probably contact local SEO/SEM/Marketing agency's etc who sell this kind of stuff!

In my experience the final consumer (the store) doesn't even know why he needs content!

That being said, do you have any blogging experience? hit me up with some samples (preferably something blog related stuff) and we'll have a chat!

---edit--

Damn.. should have finished reading before I start my reply Pretty much said the same as a bunch of other people

 

[Aluminium]

Okay this is just my opinion so feel free to ignore it, but I think you might be taking the wrong approach here!

Instead of contacting your local companies directly, you should probably contact local SEO/SEM/Marketing agency's etc who sell this kind of stuff!

In my experience the final consumer (the store) doesn't even know why he needs content!

That being said, do you have any blogging experience? hit me up with some samples (preferably something blog related stuff) and we'll have a chat!

---edit--

Damn.. should have finished reading before I start my reply Pretty much said the same as a bunch of other people

Haha yeah I took that advice, I actually sent out sales letters to a bunch of SEO companies (well not sales letters, I guess just e-mails reaching out to them with my service).

I'll shoot you a PM real quick.

- A

 

[WeavingThoughts]

Having the experience that you're trying to gain from doing this. Yes I charge a lot less than you both offline and online but have tried every possible avenue to get clients and know what works and what doesn't.

1. Local businesses don't need content. Local businesses may or may not need SEO. Local businesses usually don't need PPC. The only thing that local businesses might care for is design. But that rarely works for most. What everybody is interested in is leads or business or at least more presence. You have to launch a whole campaign with a website, ppc, seo etc.

2. Even if you do a complete campaign for a business. Content is unlikely to make much of a difference. Sales letters or copy is the only place where you can up sell. They likely don't have more than a dozen visitors a day and content is unlikely to bring them more sales unless you're talking of a landing page that brings enquiries. You could charge $25-50 per page for copy content (not sales letters) provided you offer to do everything including guaranteeing more sales or a complete refund of every penny.

3. You could contact local SEO agencies. But 95% of them would know about online avenues as well. The ones that pay extremely well are likely to pay $5-15 per 500 words with some exceptions who might pay a bit more. If you are expecting $50 for 500 words from a SEO agency then you're kidding yourself. Hasn't ever happened. Nor will it ever. Unless they want something special for a high paying client or something. SEO clients don't pay because content doesn't mean as much to them. Not per article, that is.

4. You could contact high profile web developers. Those who charge $5000+ for a 4 page wordpress website. They will pay you $50-100 per page if you can convince them.

5. Get your own website. And advertise yourself as a copywriter. Write for magazines and newspapers, newsletters. Write email copy. Write advertorials etc. Write for a few months for free to build a base. And within 1 year you might be in a position to charge 3 figures per page.

6. Nobody needs content other than mentioned above. And those who do won't pay as much for it either. Not because of any other reason but because they can't get any reasonable ROI on it.

7. If you can write copy then you can charge any amount you want. But for magazine quality articles or ehow articles there isn't much to charge. That content doesn't make as much money.

8. Big clients hire copywriters for their websites. Not content writers. Copywriters will get paid $0.5-2 per word for writing website copy. Content writers will get paid as much for 100-500 words.

9. You are marketing yourself wrong. You don't know what you can do for your clients. You're confusing them and asking them to do most of the work while you just write content. And that isn't even copy as you claim. So you're doing everything wrong.

10. Emails won't work. Call. Everybody relevant. But don't expect a conversion rate of more than 1-3% even then.

 

[Fingerpod]

Pretty nice idea, good luck!

 

[goosefrabah]

I have to agree somewhat with WeavingThoughts in that smaller local businesses are far more willing to put money into marketing than content. Content is highly valued by some clients, but you need to find the people that have been successful and value high quality content which is difficult.

I would try, if I were you, selling them a content strategy. This would include a full strategy that would raise the client's branding efforts, exposure channels for content and maybe even social marketing to help make their content get noticed. There is a lot of analysis needed to further understand the client's audience and form a strong plan based off of current successful content on the client's site as well as what has worked well in the industry. Businesses are often willing to pay much more for a content strategy than a rewrite of their site.

I would also market yourself as an X writer. For instance, I have a lot of technical clients because of my degree and past experience. I can charge these clients much more because they know you need to have experience to write this level of content versus content for your local plumber. There is a market, but it will take some time to build up a client base.

Good luck with your journey!

 

[Aluminium]

I have to agree somewhat with WeavingThoughts in that smaller local businesses are far more willing to put money into marketing than content. Content is highly valued by some clients, but you need to find the people that have been successful and value high quality content which is difficult.

I would try, if I were you, selling them a content strategy. This would include a full strategy that would raise the client's branding efforts, exposure channels for content and maybe even social marketing to help make their content get noticed. There is a lot of analysis needed to further understand the client's audience and form a strong plan based off of current successful content on the client's site as well as what has worked well in the industry. Businesses are often willing to pay much more for a content strategy than a rewrite of their site.

I would also market yourself as an X writer. For instance, I have a lot of technical clients because of my degree and past experience. I can charge these clients much more because they know you need to have experience to write this level of content versus content for your local plumber. There is a market, but it will take some time to build up a client base.

Good luck with your journey!

Having the experience that you're trying to gain from doing this. Yes I charge a lot less than you both offline and online but have tried every possible avenue to get clients and know what works and what doesn't.

1. Local businesses don't need content. Local businesses may or may not need SEO. Local businesses usually don't need PPC. The only thing that local businesses might care for is design. But that rarely works for most. What everybody is interested in is leads or business or at least more presence. You have to launch a whole campaign with a website, ppc, seo etc.

2. Even if you do a complete campaign for a business. Content is unlikely to make much of a difference. Sales letters or copy is the only place where you can up sell. They likely don't have more than a dozen visitors a day and content is unlikely to bring them more sales unless you're talking of a landing page that brings enquiries. You could charge $25-50 per page for copy content (not sales letters) provided you offer to do everything including guaranteeing more sales or a complete refund of every penny.

3. You could contact local SEO agencies. But 95% of them would know about online avenues as well. The ones that pay extremely well are likely to pay $5-15 per 500 words with some exceptions who might pay a bit more. If you are expecting $50 for 500 words from a SEO agency then you're kidding yourself. Hasn't ever happened. Nor will it ever. Unless they want something special for a high paying client or something. SEO clients don't pay because content doesn't mean as much to them. Not per article, that is.

4. You could contact high profile web developers. Those who charge $5000+ for a 4 page wordpress website. They will pay you $50-100 per page if you can convince them.

5. Get your own website. And advertise yourself as a copywriter. Write for magazines and newspapers, newsletters. Write email copy. Write advertorials etc. Write for a few months for free to build a base. And within 1 year you might be in a position to charge 3 figures per page.

6. Nobody needs content other than mentioned above. And those who do won't pay as much for it either. Not because of any other reason but because they can't get any reasonable ROI on it.

7. If you can write copy then you can charge any amount you want. But for magazine quality articles or ehow articles there isn't much to charge. That content doesn't make as much money.

8. Big clients hire copywriters for their websites. Not content writers. Copywriters will get paid $0.5-2 per word for writing website copy. Content writers will get paid as much for 100-500 words.

9. You are marketing yourself wrong. You don't know what you can do for your clients. You're confusing them and asking them to do most of the work while you just write content. And that isn't even copy as you claim. So you're doing everything wrong.

10. Emails won't work. Call. Everybody relevant. But don't expect a conversion rate of more than 1-3% even then.

Haven't updated this is quite some time, but whatever I've been doing "wrong" has been working out quite well for me. I've actually been walking into local shops and asking them about their online presence, I outsource the web development to a freelancer (haven't had any trouble so far) and simply write the content myself. I plan on pitching hosting next, because most of the businesses (I've got three that are doing this) don't know how it works. I do call the businesses, I follow up consistently and my strategy has worked decently so far.

Thanks for the tips though, I'll definitely figure out a way to implement the combined knowledge of other writers into my own!

TOTAL REVENUE: $770 (220 from the samples, 550 from the other three businesses).

EDIT: I just realized I only have three days until the milestone date. I don't think I'm gonna make it guys!

Nonetheless it's been a fun thread, thanks for those who checked in/gave me tips along the way. Next month will be something special, I can feel it .

 

[pcsyndrome]

I had fun reading your journal

 

[devil1983]

Nice journal, keeps me motivated that really everything is possible to convert.