Last Updated on May 17, 2023
This article stems from a recent WordPress class I gave. On the last day, we looked at how we could use our website for our online marketing. One participant asked about working with other freelancers to leverage their marketing budget.
- We are All Niche Marketers
- Our Network is Our Best Software
- Build Your Shopping Mall, and People will Come
- Make Your Niche Sustainable
We are All Niche Marketers
We’re all in this alone but together. I mean, we’re all hard-working Freelancers with limited budgets of time, money, and pretty much every other resource. The only resource we never run low on is passion. Freelancers are the proto-keener.
We’re lucky we live in a time of almost completely free tools. From books to courses, graphic design to coding, CMS to images, and fonts to swag, we are awash in free stuff. There’s only one thing we can’t get for love or money, something we never have free, and that’s time.
We need to make the most of what little time we have because we can’t buy any more of it.
Our Network is Our Best Software
Someone said that software is the most important element of digital transformation because it alone can speed things up for us. Software can do things here while we’re doing things there. It can give us time when everything else takes time away from us.
One of the fundamental ways we can work better is to work with others. While we build something, someone else can sell it. They might even put together a snack and make coffee if we find a third person. If we bring together enough people, we will have a very effective vehicle for selling various niche products. Everyone in our network will benefit.
An online shopping mall is pretty much exactly what I’m talking about.
Buying is a task. Shopping is a pleasure.
Build Your Shopping Mall, and People will Come
Walt Disney’s inspiration for Florida’s Epcot Center came from his visit to the first shopping mall in America. Southdale Shopping Center in Edina, Minnesota, opened in 1956. It offered an indoor place filled with plants where people could go, meet with others, relax, eat, and shop without the hassle of traditional shopping or inclement weather.
Businesses working together in close physical proximity benefit each other in many ways. So can Freelancers. Accessibility and sustainability go hand in hand.
Tip 1: How to Create an Online Shopping Experience Within a Freelance Network
Alex is a Copywriter and markets their work on their website. Content is required for a website. They also need graphics and videos to enhance their written content. People also need websites to showcase this content. They will also need SEO and social media support.
Alex contacts Jess, a web designer; Stevie, a graphic designer; Rae, an SEO specialist; and Jo, a social media consultant. They decide to create a website containing their services. A content hub features the services grouped together and linked to individual pages for each service.
It’s like an online shopping mall. Now the freelancers are marketing individually but are together in one spot.
Tip 2: How to Sell Your Content Marketing for Free
Free is good, but if someone needs to work for something, they will value it more. You will also know who is a real lead and who is just grabbing the free stuff.
As a Freelancer, you have to give examples of your work. The best way is to create content that markets your abilities. Content Marketing. Write an advice book and give it away as a download. Make a How-To video and place it on YouTube.
You don’t have to get nothing in return for your work. Sell your work for free. How? Set up an ecommerce plugin, like WooCommerce in WordPress.
Create a product, and set the price at 0. You can also ask people to register with only their email addresses. The difference is 1 click and 15 seconds on your page for a free download compared with 5 clicks and 60 seconds on your page for a free product.
People who are truly interested in your product will take the 5 steps an online shop requires to place a product in the basket and go to the end of the process.
For example, here you can find a free chapter of my SEO for Beginners book.
This idea gets you more time on page, and more eyes on your page. Perhaps visitors stop and watch a video or download another free piece of content, just like at the mall.
Easy WP Guide does this too, and I love it. Check out their website and get a free WordPress Guide! https://easywpguide.com/download/
Tip 3: How to Get Added Value From Your Free 30-Minute Consultations
Everyone dreads those free 30-minute talks. People call and get free advice, and you never hear from them again. You don’t have to talk for nothing. You have an FAQ page on your website, and write posts and articles.
Short call: Place the question, and you answer in a social media post. Collect these together once a month in a blog post. If you think it worthwhile, place it in your FAQs – it may mean one less phone call.
Long call: Place the question and answer in your FAQ. This is worth a blog post you can also share on social media.
Your Content Marketing will benefit in the end because all the Q&As can be repurposed into a short book, a video – or both.
Why not answer people’s questions before they ask them? Turn that phone call into evergreen content!
Make Your Niche Sustainable
Ultimately, the key is to build and leverage relationships with other businesses. Be on the lookout for opportunities to collaborate, support, and grow.
- Partner with other businesses to cross-promote each other’s products or services.
- Join your local Chamber of Commerce to connect with potential partners.
- Leverage social media to reach a wider audience and connect with potential partners.
- Take advantage of the many affiliate programs available.
In a crowded and competitive online space, getting new business can be hard. You can throw a lot of money at the problem or you can work smarter. Leverage yourself and your network. Repurpose what’s in front of you. Don’t just think outside of the box; step outside of it.
With thanks for the image to https://unsplash.com/@sebastiancoman