I bet as a freelance blogger you are highly creative and most definitely armed with more than one skill set. In this post, you will discover 8 combo-pack services you can offer clients For better results.
Do you make plans before writing?
Or strategize on the best way to promote your content?
Do you edit and proofread your entire site to ensure it’s error-free?
Or even know a bit about web design and spend hours trying to tweak your website instead of writing?
Then, I think you should offer some of those skills you use in your own freelance business to your clients as well and get paid for them.
Customers who are searching for freelance bloggers to write blog posts for them might have other needs along the way.
As a freelance blogger working with a client, you should learn to ask questions and make suggestions to clients on how to improve their business while at it, enlighten them regarding the other kind of skill set you have, and make them an offer as part of the project.
Let’s face it: most of our clients are busy people and would love to have someone else worry about some parts of their business while they focus on more important things.
So whatever skill set you have, you should be able to tailor it to suit a particular client and practically help them “kill two birds with one stone. In a blog post by Kirsty Stuart, she sheds more light on what your Client might perceive as “providing value.”
So, in addition to writing blog posts, you can offer the following services as well.
Pre-Service
These should be considered during the project evaluation process, even before you take up the project.
1. Content marketing
This process is usually the most important step after writing a blog post. Most clients still have to seek ways to market their content; otherwise, it will not be seen or read by their target audience. Content marketing is effective for driving engagement and new leads for clients.
Places where you can market content will be discussed below. It is also an advantage if you already have a large followership or fans in the same niche as your client.
- Social media sites include Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, etc. This will help not only the client but also boost your content marketing portfolio.
- Forum posting: if you belong to forums that are in the same niche as your client’s topic, you can share the post in the forums for traffic and backlinks for your client.
- Web 2.0 sites: Some of these websites allow you to blog freely on their sites, and you can also drive traffic by sharing the blog post either as a snippet or anchor text back to your client’s blog post.
- Blog post commenting: you can help clients make detailed comments on relevant blogs with the aim of driving traffic and quality backlinks.
Any or all of these can be added to the blog post-writing package, and I’m sure your client will love you for it!
2. Editorial calendar planning
Sometimes, clients are not too clear on how frequently they want you to write for them. You can offer to help with an editorial calendar that will serve as a schedule for when each post should be written.
It will include post titles, the dates for submission of the posts, and the frequency of posts required per month.
This will not only help your client but also assist you with planning for other projects you are working on.
You can search online for templates if you cannot come up with one.
3. Content marketing strategy
This service can be offered to clients when they are unsure about the best strategy for their content marketing.
Here, the client needs to define the goal of the blog posts they want you to write. Based on this, you can advise on the best strategy to use.
For example, if they want quality backlinks for traffic, then the sky scrapper technique or blog network for backlinks would be appropriate.
If the aim is to generate engagement, then they might need to use autoresponders coupled with an email series for subscribers.
A good understanding of your client’s goal is important for you to nail this.
Point of Service
4. Proofreading and editing
You write and edit your work constantly, making you better than the average person. Over time, you have developed your editing and proofreading skills.
Wrong spellings or grammar give you goosebumps, and you can instantly spot them.
Then, you should put the acquired skill to good use.
Sometimes, clients might have had a certain number of posts written on their blog and need additional writing services and proofreading or editing services.
They might not even realize they need the service until you notice errors in their previous blog posts.
You can use software to make this process easy for you when you have large assignments.
Software like Ginger or Grammarly will help you do the job faster.
5. Graphic design
Usually, the need for graphics comes with the need for content or blog posts. These forms of graphics can be illustrations, images for blog posts, infographics, eBook covers, and so on.
If you are good with graphics, this will be a bonus. However, if you are not, you can lease with a graphic designer to help out while you take your cut from the project.
The whole graphic package can range from logo design to letterheads and all other items that require graphics.
Post Service
6. Website design
Most clients probably already have a website or blog before contacting you for content. However, they might need to tweak some of this on the site, such as adding additional plugins, layouts, and designs.
For example, clients might not have Meta descriptions for their previous blog posts. You can easily install SEO Yoast for them and update all the Meta descriptions.
Another good example is the Alt tags for their images. The client might have also omitted this phase, and they will be losing some traffic that could come from image searches.
7. Ad Setup
Are you familiar with setting up ads with Google Adwords or Facebook?
This skill can come in handy, too.
You can help clients set up Ads that will be optimized for the lowest cost possible, and they will be grateful to you.
This can be used when the client needs to generate new leads or when they need more paid traffic and have a budget for advertising.
8. Content Marketing
Clients usually get content written to help them drive traffic to their blog posts. After writing the article, you can offer to convert that same article into PDF, PowerPoint slides, and video. Once this gets done, you can share these new formats across content-sharing sites for each format.
For example, there is a list of PDF-sharing sites where you can submit the PDF. The same applies to PowerPoint slides and videos, which all have corresponding slide-sharing sites such as Slideshare and video-sharing sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo.
This system is a literary win-win for the client and the freelance writer. It saves the client the time and effort to find another freelancer to handle other parts of their project, and it helps the freelancer with additional funds and a boost in their portfolio.
I usually offer to transform your article into various forms (i.e., PDF, slide, and Video) and then distribute it on content-sharing sites as a package. I am also considering adding blog post comments for quality back-links for my clients.
So there you have it. Eight ways to provide additional services to your clients.
Have you used any of the above? If so, share it with us in the comments.
Or perhaps you offered an entirely different package?
We would love to hear that, too, in the comments section.