Under: Blog, Business, Career/By: Will Veic

It is funny how the top 2 most unpopular freelance platforms are also the most profitable ones. But people often fear rejection and lack patience, so they skip big opportunities. If you’re different, I suggest you try to use email or blog platforms.

You might say this is not what you meant by “platforms”. You wanted some new, exotic, never-heard-of platform that is waiting to give you thousands of clients.

Well, we all have dreams, but if you want something that works – I’d stick with email and a blog.

What is the reason you’re looking for unpopular platforms?

Because you understand that popular ones have many competitors, and the more competitors there are, the less you’ll get paid.

So why not choose a platform where you’re the only choice?

Email Freelance Platform

Put yourself in business owners’ shoes. When they use ANY freelance platform, they see hundreds or even thousands of people offering the same thing. If you don’t accept the offer, someone else among the thousands will.

You’re losing by default.

And low prices are your destiny if you decide to use these platforms.

Compare that to being in an inbox of a business owner where you’re the only one offering this specific service. Night and day difference.

Now I’m not talking about spamming and pitching right out of the gate because that will not work. I am talking about understanding the business owner. And here is an example…

Business owners usually have much more work than they have the time to do it. Many tasks are already on their TODO list, but they simply have no time to organize the work. Because they have more pressing issues at the moment.

Your job is to recognize these tasks.

For example, let’s say you see their website has a couple of blog posts or their social media just a few vids. You also notice they post randomly and inconsistently.

Congratulations!

You just identified there is definitely a need and desire from the business owner’s side to produce this content. However, most likely other burning issues are standing in the way.

Now imagine how this business owner would feel if you offered a solution to a problem that was pending for a long time.

Probably positive, right?

All the business owner needs is to give a green light, and the problem is solved.

And now some questions for you:

  • Is there anyone else offering the solution (no)
  • Is there anyone else competing with you (no)
  • Does the business owner feel understood (yes)
  • Did you go the extra mile to find and fix the problem for the business owner (yes)
  • Did anyone else do something similar (most likely no)
  • Do your actions communicate premium level approach and quality of service (yes)
  • Is the business owner likely to find a similar person to you in the inbox (probably not)
  • Are you then harder to replace (yes)
  • Are people who are hard to replace valuable (yes)
  • Are valuable people paid very well (yes)

And that is why email is one of the most profitable freelance platforms. But… there is one even better…

Blog Freelance Platform

As much as it’s good to proactively offer solutions if the business owners find you, it’s practically a done deal.

And for every problem business owners might have, they will search for the solution on the internet.

What are the most likely pages that will show up on search results?

Blogs.

So if a business owner finds your blog:

  • You position yourself as an expert
  • Demonstrate you know what you’re talking about
  • Lead with value and solve some of the business owner’s problems with your blog post
  • You set up credibility and demonstrate results because your blog solved some problems for free (so imagine how much more you can solve for money)
  • The business owner almost has no other choice but to pick you
  • The owner also understands you don’t come cheap because if you did, you’d be on popular freelance platforms together with other cheap freelancers

In short, with a blog, you win on almost every front.

Plus, the additional benefit for you is that blog gives you access to much more clients than you can possibly handle. And that’s a good thing. Because now you can pick and choose your clients.

Obviously, you will choose the ones that are the easiest to work with and who pay the most. It doesn’t get better than that.

Naturally, a blog is a very unpopular platform because it doesn’t give instant results. And today, everybody expects everything to happen immediately, now, ASAP.

Unfortunately, those people are destined to work for (instant) pennies on popular freelance platforms. And for the patient, the future holds premium payouts.

To learn how to shorten the waiting period and how to massively scale your blog growth, take a look at the linked article.