- This is one of many ways to get clients for your freelance business. See the full list here.
Before I show you how this works, you need to know about Molly.
Molly is a young lady from the UK I met through a mutual friend last year when I was spending a couple of weeks in Chiang Mai in Thailand.
We went out for a group dinner – photographed above – and Molly was a friend of a friend who came along and we ended up sitting next to each other. (She’s third from the right in the photo, and I’m on the far right there with the big mad head on me.)
During that dinner Molly told me that just a year earlier she was stranded in rural India with no online business and only £17 left in her bank account.
And then she used the Billboard Method.
A few days later she had over £1000 in her bank account.
When I met her in Thailand, only twelve months later, she was still going strong. She had become fully location independent, thanks to her thriving online business.
So what is this Billboard Method that Molly used to break through and earn £1000 in less than a week?
Well, I call it the Billboard Method because the basic idea is that you put up a nice billboard advertising your availability for online freelance work, and you display it in a public place where lots of people are likely to see it.
Now clearly putting up a traditional billboard…
…clearly that is not realistic. 1
What we’re talking about here is the online equivalent of a traditional billboard.
Which is, as you can probably guess: social media.
Places like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, with all their traffic, are the online equivalent of busy streets and highways.
And your posts on there are like billboards.
And that’s what Molly used to find her first clients and earn more than £1000 online in less than a week… it was all down to a single post on social media.
In her case, it was Facebook, and she kindly shared with me a screenshot of that post:
Now I don’t recommend you copy that word for word, but here a few things from it that are worth emulating:
- Molly included a nice photo of herself, making it much more personable and attention-grabbing.
- The post was friendly and informal. Even though she only had £17 left in her bank account, she didn’t come across desperate or looking for a favor. Instead she came across as a friendly freelancer offering her services to folks on Facebook.
- The post was short and sweet. She stated what service she had to offer, noted that her prices were competitive, and told anyone interested to get in touch.
That’s it.
So the first thing you’re going to do as part of our step-by-step plan to find your first clients is post something similar to Molly on whichever social network you’re most active on.
Post it up there, then wait and see who expresses interest in working with you.
That is the Billboard Method and it’s something you can do in 20 minutes or less, including the time required to take a nice friendly photo of yourself.
Billboard Method – A Variation
I came across the following variation of the Billboard Method in a Facebook group called the Cult of Copy Job Board.
The key difference here is that Lauren was posting in a group rather than on her personal Facebook timeline.
Posting on your timeline exposes your offering to people who (most likely) already know, like and trust you. The downside of posting on your timeline though is that your friends and family are unlikely to be your target market.
Lauren posted her “billboard” in a group where her target client is likely to hang out.
The result?
Within 24 hours, Lauren had already generated four leads for her offer…
A few things to note about Lauren’s approach:
- She was new to the group, despite her claim that “lots of you already know me.” I checked and she’d only joined the group the day before, and only posted once before, so you don’t need to “warm up” a group before you can try this.
- The Cult of Copy group rules allowed self promotion. Many groups online don’t allow this, so definitely check their rules or ask a moderator before you post. Posting about your services in a group that doesn’t allow self promotion will get you banned fast.
- Lauren didn’t mention her prices. Instead she said she was “offering everything at 50% off.” This gives her flexibility when talking to prospective clients, instead of locking herself in to a specific offer.
Give this a try and see how it works for you.
- This is one of many ways to get clients for your freelance business. See the full list here.
