I mentioned Bamidele Onibalusi in another article. He’s a freelance writer from Nigeria who regularly earns $1000+ per month.
Some numbers from Bamidele’s latest cold-pitching challenge…
- Cold pitches sent (no bounces): 724
- Responses: 63
- Response rate: 8.7%
- Resulting clients: 2
- Final conversion rate: 0.3%
So roughly speaking, for every 360 pitches Bamidele sent out, he ended up with one client.
That conversion rate isn’t going to impress anyone, but Bamidele earned $1,050 from those two clients. For reference, the median salary in Nigeria is about $860 per month.
Plus, as Bamidele notes in his article, he was quoting a high rate for his services, and would likely have landed significantly more clients if he charged less.
All that to say: remember that finding clients is largely a numbers game. Seasoned pros like Bamidele know this, and so they don’t get disheartened when they send out several pitches and hear crickets.
Someone emailed me a few days ago saying he was struggling to get hired on Upwork. I asked how many jobs he’d applied for.
His response: “up to four”
🤦♂️
That’s simply not going to cut it. Especially when you’re starting out on a platform like Upwork, where you’re competing with established freelancers for each job.
Apply for at least 30 jobs before you pass judgement on your progress.
(These proposal templates will help speed things up)
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