What’s your number one goal this year as a freelancer?

Is it to earn more freelancing than you did last year? If it is, you’re not alone friend! Oh heck no.

In fact, I’m willing to bet that more revenue is at the top of most freelancers’ to-do lists this year – and for good reason!

The great thing about freelancing is your income is unlimited. There is no ceiling; no capped allowance. It’s a free for all, basically.

But, while that might get your tummy soaring and your heart pounding, it can be difficult to get to that stage, especially when it feels like clients are thin on the ground and the industry is taking a nose-dive into the murky depths of bidding to the bottom.

Which is why you need to have a strategy in place if you want to boost your income and start earning more from your clients.

Ready to earn more freelancing this year, land clients you LOVE, and take your freelance business to the next level?

I have a totally free 3-day video workshop that will arm you with the tools you need to create a set of services clients literally can’t say no to and a marketing strategy that brings you fresh leads every single week.

Just enter your deets and the first video will swing into your inbox shortly:

Let’s dive on in.

How You Can Earn More Freelancing This Year

1. Collaborate

The world of freelancing can be a lonely place. Often, we work from home, by ourselves, not really knowing who else is out there doing similar stuff, what they’re earning, and how they’re finding the whole experience.

It can be hard reaching out to others, though, right?

I mean, we tend to be solitary creatures, us freelancers, which means we like working by ourselves. But we don’t have to struggle by ourselves.

Collaboration is key in any business if you want to get ahead. Safety in numbers, they say. Two heads are better than one. All that malarkey.

These aren’t just popular phrases for no reason.

Collaboration can be key to growing your business this year in a number of ways:

• Working alongside other freelancers in your area of expertise on much bigger projects than you could handle alone.
• Teaming up with 2-3 other freelancers who you can refer work to and vice versa if you’re booked up.
• Working with freelancers in other areas of expertise to create packaged services for clients (like designers and writers working together or designers and web developers)

Actively working with other people opens up so many more doors for your business. But I bet you’re wondering where you can meet these other freelancers, right? I’ve got you covered.

• 1. Co-working spaces. These are often filled with a mixture of different kinds of freelancers, all of whom are working on their own projects that might need someone with your skillset at some point.
• 2. Meet-ups and events. You can use tools like Meetup.com to find gatherings in your area for other freelancers. You’ll probably want to start with social events if the networking ones seem too daunting at first.
• 3. Facebook groups. If you want to take it even slower than in-person networking, try starting small with Facebook groups. Find ones that are filled with other freelancers (like my group!), and introduce yourself.

How will this help you earn more?

The potential is huge here. You can collaborate on major projects that you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to work on alone. The profits from these kinds of projects are much bigger than individual ones.

2. Get More Specific With Your Knowledge Area

Your knowledge area (a.k.a. your niche) is vitally important for your business. It’s what you become known for and it’s what sets you apart from other freelancers with the same skill or craft.

I want you to think about a scenario for a moment.

Imagine there’s someone putting together a conference and they want someone to host a seminar on the mating rituals of birds.

Who are they more likely to take on?

• Someone who is an animal expert and has written loads of different books on different animals?
• Someone who has studied the mating rituals of birds and focuses solely on that?

I think you know the answer, right?

For many freelancers, these people are working within the same knowledge area – animals – but the latter option has narrowed their niche down into something way more specific.

This not only means they’ll be at the top of the list for every conference creator who wants someone to talk about the mating rituals of birds, but it also means they’ll be able to demand a higher rate of pay because they have the specific knowledge the conference creator is after.

If you’re struggling to narrow down your niche, think about it in two parts:

• 1. What form of your skill you like best/sells the most.
• 2. What kind of clients you like to work with/work with the most.

For example, if you’re a designer, your skill form might be logos and your client type might be startup tech companies. Or, if you’re a writer, your skill form might be white papers and your client type might be financial businesses.

Even narrowing down like this is a great starting point.

How will this help you earn more?

Because you’ll have a specific kind of skill in a specific knowledge area, you’ll be able to demand a higher rate of pay as you’ll be seen as an expert.

Taking that one step further, when you start becoming known for that specific skillset and client combination, businesses will start reaching out to you and, when that happens, you are in complete control of what you charge.

3. Hone Your Services

This kind of follows on from the previous point.

Answer me this: do you have a number of services that you advertise? Like email marketing, blog posts, website copy, social media copy, and everything in between if you’re a writer?

If a client comes along and asks for something that’s not on your service list, do you oblige and do the work for them?

If so, you’re not alone.

But this way of working could really be holding you back. The thing is, when you start advertising every kind of service under the sun, clients get confused as to what you offer which makes it easier for them to pass on you.

What’s more, you’ll end up with a portfolio filled with many different things that will make your work look scattered and like you don’t really know who you are as a business.

This sets alarm bells ringing in clients.

Instead, you want to offer 2-3 services MAXIMUM. Then you can start perfecting them, building up a portfolio filled with them, and create a name for yourself in that area – ergo, you can charge more.

Storytime:

When I first started freelancing, I offered blog writing, website copywriting, social media managing, marketing, and everything in between in the hopes that someone, somewhere would need one of those services.

Last year, I cut them ALL except blog writing.

Scary, right?! But guess what happened…

My portfolio became streamlined and companies started getting in touch with me because they knew I was an expert on blog writing in the digital marketing industry.

How will this help you earn more?

Just like honing your niche, selecting just a few services will boost your authority in that area, give your portfolio a clear focus, and leave clients under no illusion of how you can help them.

So, when someone’s looking for a blog writer in the digital marketing niche, they’ll happily pay me three or four times as much as someone who offers all sorts of other services because I’m the expert.

4. Use What You’ve Already Got

There’s this fear us freelancers have that we constantly have to be on the hunt for new clients, new projects, and new opportunities.

And while it’s never a bad thing to be constantly advertising your services, we often overlook opportunities that are right in front of us.

Opportunities like:

• Upselling to clients we already have by offering them an add-on service
• Asking for clients to refer us to colleagues and people they know who might need our services
• Tapping into our immediate network like friends and family, because you never know who might know someone else who needs your services

We all want to earn more freelancing, but it doesn’t just have to be something we hope and wish for.

In fact, I want you to make it your mission this year to increase your revenue.

Maybe even double it. Maybe even triple it.

These four techniques will put you off to a good start, and then it’s up to you to put in the graft and keep chugging away.

You got this!

Remember, if you want to earn more freelancing this year, land clients you LOVE, and take your business to the next level, get yourself enrolled on the totally free Skyrocket Your 2017 3-day video workshop training.