Direct Response Copywriter on How NOT to Find Clients. Part 1.

How NOT to Find Clients. Part 1.

A Series of Essays for Copywriters and Fellow Creative Professionals.

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NOTE: I’m starting a series of blogs about how to find clients. This series will be extremely controversial. Read the blogs and you’ll discover my experiences with finding clients … what works and what’s a waste of time. The goal is to help you find “elite” level clients with deep pockets who are looking for top-quality creative talent.

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Client Finding Method #1. Elance, oDesk, Guru, Fiverr, People Per Hour, and Other “Commodity” Sites.

These sites match buyers who need creative work with copywriters and other creative professionals. You register on the site then you can start bidding on assignments. Clients post assignments on the site when they need creative talent.

Five years ago, when I went totally freelance as a direct response copywriter, I won some assignments on Elance. The revenue was useful BUT I had to spend hours and hours bidding on work. I failed to win 97% of the assignments I bid on because – and here’s the big problem with these sites – 97% of the people who come to these sites are looking for the lowest possible price. They say they care about quality but they don’t. They will happily give assignments to people who barely speak English.

Here’s another major problem. The “clients” are typically amateurs who are totally clueless AND overly demanding.

Worse, it’s almost always “one and done” work with no possibility of additional and regular assignments. Many potential clients will say “this will lead to additional and regular assignments” but they are lying in order to get you to submit a low bid.

I feel sorry for the people who created Fiverr. They believed, correctly and tragically, that creative professionals would be willing to provide their services for $5. I won’t justify this business model with much more time but if you’re a creative professional using Fiverr then take your palm and smack your forehead. Now. Then leave Fiverr forever. And if you’re a client looking for talent, do you seriously believe you will get anything of quality for $5?

As a creative professional, you are NOT a commodity. Your skills help people SELL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES and, as such, you have a huge value. The clients who go to sites like Elance and Fiverr will never prosper because they will ALWAYS get poor work.

Let me introduce an amazing concept I just discovered.

You get what you pay for.

Amazing insight, I know.

If you want a super-successful career then you MUST have serious and deep-pocketed clients. These clients are NOT cruising around on sites like Fiverr and Elance.

One recent client tried to find a copywriter on Elance and hated the results. So they bellied up to the bar and paid me a fair rate for my expertise. We tested like crazy and the client earned vast amounts of money. They had a great offer and solid products. But they made a commitment to excellent creative work.

You must find the clients you want and pound away at them. I recommend direct mail. You must build a database of ideal clients.

This can be a difficult and time-consuming task. I have a database I created that will make this task massively easier.

Click here to get my database. I have used this database to get assignments from great clients.

Yes – the database is not inexpensive. But it can generate tens of thousands in revenue from the top clients on the planet. You will not find these clients on Elance, Fiverr, and other “bottom fishing” sites.

To see the sales page for the database, click here.

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I'm a direct response copywriter. I write direct response copy for clients around the world. Enter your information to the right for my free series: Seven Steps to High Converting Copy. Or [contact me here][3] if you have a project you'd like to discuss. I'm also a Dan Kennedy certified copywriter for information products.