TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface 2 The #1 Myth About Freelancing 12 Finding Your Dream Client 17 The Main Skill That Will Bring You More Money 19 How To Create Amazing Websites Fast 25 Crafting Your Irresistible Offer 30 Packaging Your Services 31 How To Get A Consistent Flow Of Clients 34 The Best Ways To Find Clients 40 The “Referral Machine” 51 The Client Timeline 52 How To Not Do Any Of The Work 65 3 Ways To Create Recurring Monthly Income 67 Action Plan: Get Your First Client 77 1 thedankoe.com/resources PREFACE Before you start reading, I highly recommend you download this book to your computer. There are links to different resources that will help you exponentially. If you read this in the built-in reader, you won’t be able to click links. This book is to set you on the right path with web design. It is very difficult to explain some topics in an ebook without further explanation. So, I include links to relevant articles that will help you understand concepts more. Read every single word and take notes on this book. This is your future we are talking about here. Do not skim and skip over small nuggets of information. Who This Book Is For I created this book for my former self. After rereading the final revision of this book, I am happy to say that this would have shaved off 2-3 years of spinning my own wheels. This book has zero fluff, I wanted it to be as straightforward as possible so you can start making money immediately. If there is a concept that you do not fully understand, research it more on Google or watch a YouTube video. If you are a complete beginner, take your time with your first couple of clients to fully learn and understand these concepts. 2 thedankoe.com/resources With your first few clients, give yourself more time to complete the website. Communicate this to the client, most of the time they will not mind. Everyone has the dream of making good money while being your own boss. The freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want is truly something to work for. There is a price to pay though. I am guessing you bought this book because you were motivated to start making money. I am here to tell you that this is not the hardest thing in the world but it is not the easiest either. The amount of work you put in after reading this will determine how much you make. If you put in a little work, you will make little (but decent) money as a side hustle. If you put in 2-3+ hours per day you can easily earn a respectable income within a matter of months.. 2-3 hours a day is not much, but if you hit a bump in the road (they happen) whether it be emotional or financial it can throw you off the road to success. Here is my promise to you, if you take the knowledge you will gain from this book and CONSISTENTLY work towards the goal of a better life. You will attain it. Consistently is the keyword here. If you fall off for a week, get back on ASAP. Don’t let complacency win. How I Got Myself Into $8000 Worth Of Credit Card Debt (And Became Debt-Free) I am not proud of this section. It was one of the hardest points in my life. 3 thedankoe.com/resources Many of you may be able to resonate with this, it was one of the MAJOR mistakes I made in my freelancing career. I had been in college for 3 years (going on my fourth) and after switching my major at least 4 times, I decided to drop out. Why? I had launched around 6 “businesses” by this time (lol), all of them failed horribly. My first business was a photography blog/community page. I put effort into it for about a month, that was it. Most of the other businesses were related to web design, Facebook Ads, social media accounts, and SEO. Same story with those. I was extremely motivated while creating the website itself, but when it came to actually getting clients (especially ones that would pay me over $300 for a measly website) I had no idea what to do. These businesses cost me a lot of money. I thought they were going to magically take off because I thought I knew what I was doing. I would buy $500-$1000 courses and software without a second thought, and I never actually did anything with the knowledge I had attained. This built up. Out of those 6ish business ventures, one of them was an eCommerce business. I had persuaded myself into buying $3000 worth of product to sell. Where did I get the $3000? My dad. Yeah, not cool. This is when I cracked. I wasn’t able to sell the products, I was $8000 in credit card debt (plus $25k in school loans mind you), and all of my “businesses” were a joke. 4 thedankoe.com/resources I called my dad one night balling my eyes out telling him I wouldn’t be able to pay him back for a very long time. I was making around $250 a week at this time working a part-time job at a print shop. Fast forward to the present, I paid him back the $2000 plus interest, my credit card is paid off, and I am living a life of freedom due to multiple businesses of mine that have seen some success. I would like to say I feel accomplished but from what I’ve learned on this journey, there is much more to be made. My First 5 Figure Month The first time I hit $10,000 in a month changed the way I thought about money forever. We have a lot to talk about in future chapters but for now, I will throw some numbers at you to help you understand how attainable this actually is. 5 clients at $2,000/month = 5 figures 2 clients at $2,500/month + 15 website updates & maintenance monthly retainers at $500/month = 5 figures (this one takes time) 1 website creation client at $2,500/month + 3 marketing retainers at $2,500 = 5 figures 1 client at $10,000+ The list could go on but you get the point. By the end of the book, you will have the practical knowledge on how to attain this. 5 thedankoe.com/resources The Mindset Shift That Will Make You More Money Than You Ever Thought Possible I’m going to be short and sweet in this section. You need to change the way you think about your business and money as a whole. You are no longer a freelancer. You are not a slave to your client(s). You are a business owner. If you make websites for people - You provide businesses with an online presence that will bring them more leads and sales. If you create landing pages or sales funnels for people - You help them capture more leads, make a quantifiable amount MORE of sales, or help them convert more from their ads (as an example). If you run Facebook or Google ads for people - You bring businesses more paying customers each month. If you create videos for people - You create drool worthy content that makes someone's business look like a luxury brand. Etc. etc. you get the point. You are of immense value to businesses, you need to display that in a way that makes them want your service. Many freelancers will take any client they can get their hands on. You take clients that understand the value you are bringing to the table. In terms of money, most freelancers have LOW variable prices. This part blows my mind. Some freelancers spend countless hours perfecting a 6 thedankoe.com/resources website and charge THE SAME as someone who can build a website in 1 hour. Side note: I will be using web design as an example throughout this book. That is how I made enough money to quit my job and transition into other businesses. I now offer marketing/funnel consulting to coaches, consultants, and creators - so you will see examples of these as well. Nearly EVERYTHING I mention can be used by you, no matter what service you want to offer. This is what changed the game for me. I was always the one that wanted to create a website in the most difficult way possible. Think about it, what does the client see? They see a website. They don’t care if it's custom coded. They don’t care if you build it on GoDaddy website builder (don’t do this please). They ONLY care that you gave them a great website that gets them the results they want. Clients that do care about these things are clients that you do not want. Period. As a developer, you know that every website is built out of the same pieces. HTML, CSS, & JavaScript. This can be applied to any service you offer. Over time, you need to create a system that makes it easier on you while maintaining the quality of the service you are providing. 7 thedankoe.com/resources If you truly want to make more money, don’t be who I was. Don’t be the freelancer that spends weeks custom coding a website when it can be done much quicker without sacrificing quality. As glamorous as it seems, don’t do it. In other words - maintain your quality of service while decreasing the time you spend doing it. This can be done by: - Hiring other freelancers Documenting everything you do when you land a client and using it as your standard procedure or process for your next client Using software that makes it easier on you (when you have the money to invest) One thing that changed my life for the better was understanding that money is out there. I thought it was nearly impossible to make 6 figures in my early twenties. You will soon realize that it is 100% possible for you to achieve this (and much more). Skills That Will Turn You Into A Money Making Machine Guess what, something like web design, Facebook ads, funnel creation should not be your primary skill. Web design is simple (as you will learn) and should be close to the bottom of your skill tree. Keep in mind that this is specifically for freelancing. A freelancer is an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs need a wide range of skills to build a profitable business. If your main goal with freelancing is to get experience for a job, you will learn what you need to with this book. 8 thedankoe.com/resources What are the top skills that you should be focused on? Copywriting and sales. Simply having a basic understanding of these will put you ahead of the one-trick ponies out there. I.E. web designers will get themselves AND their clients better results with an understanding of copy and sales. Copywriting, in my definition, is being able to write persuasively enough to get someone to buy something. The better you get at copywriting, the better you can sell literally anything. Copywriting for a freelancer pertains to sending cold emails to prospective clients, communicating with the client, and getting the client to pay you more. If you offer copywriting services, this also pertains to the actual work you do. If you have the slightest knowledge of copywriting, you can charge more for a website. Writing better copy on the actual websites you sell will result in businesses getting more customers and leads. We will touch on copywriting in its own section. Sales can be synonymous with copywriting sometimes. When I say sales, I mean verbally speaking with a client. When you have a “discovery call” or sales call with a client after they have shown interest, then you will want to learn the basics of sales. I am not a sales expert. With that I will not be teaching you every aspect of sales in this ebook because I feel like I would do it injustice. 9 thedankoe.com/resources Instead, here are the most important things pertaining to sales. If you study and practice these every time you are on a sales call, you will inevitably sign on more clients. Objection Handling In short, objection handling is being able to have a response to someone trying to get out of a situation. For example, if you are on a call with a client and they say, “Can you call me back in a week? We aren’t ready for this yet.” For some of you, that would be the end of the call and you would most likely never hear from them again. A good, but basic response to this would be, “Let me ask you a question. If you had the chance right now to double or triple the number of leads you are getting from your website, would you do it? This is what I’m offering you right now.” The tone behind this is what makes the magic happen. If given time, you can probably learn to respond to objections better than I can. Like I said, I am a bottom tier salesman. Practicing sales or hiring a closer would be extremely beneficial for me. Confidence This one is self-explanatory. If you are nervous and mumbling when describing what you can do for a business do you think they are going to trust you? Of course not. If you are 100% confident in the services that you are providing, it gives the prospective client a sense of ease. 10 thedankoe.com/resources Brush up on some confidence techniques before your next encounter with a prospect. If you aren’t confident, at least FAKE confidence. I was listening to a podcast the other day and they spoke on fake confidence. The word for fake confidence is courage. Courage/belief that your services will truly help someone’s business will display confidence. As I said, I am not the best at sales. I would be more than happy to provide an entire section on sales but I would do it injustice. In “The Client Timeline” section I include a tried and true sales call script. Following this script will give you a HUGE advantage over most people that are trying to freelance. Most people don’t even realize that using a script like this can double the chances of you landing a client. Emotional Attachment In short, you shouldn’t care whether or not a business owner does or doesn’t buy your website. Caring about this will lead you down a road of despair. If you feel like you can’t sign on clients for the life of you, the more likely you are to quit. Not becoming emotionally attached to the sale actually helps you sell more! If you are desperate to close the sale, the prospective client will be wary of actually hiring you. This was just the preface. Enjoy the rest of the book :) 11 thedankoe.com/resources THE #1 FREELANCING MYTH You Do Not Need Experience, Or A Portfolio... Wait what?! Yup, you do not need experience. You need the right mindset (as talked about previously) in order to thrive. Is experience helpful? Obviously, but it does not add much to the difficulty of actually getting clients. I would argue that I sign at least half of my clients without them ever seeing my portfolio website. Right now I am simply telling you that this is not necessary. When we talk about the process of signing on a client you will understand. The Best Way To Fake Experience A great way to “fake” experience is to CREATE “fake” experience. This means creating at least 3 portfolio pieces that look amazing and will display your skill to a client. We will learn more about the methods of creating websites later in the book, but with that knowledge, you will be able to create 3 amazing websites for your portfolio. If you offer a different freelance service that would be difficult to create a portfolio for (like Facebook ads) we will talk more about landing your first client in a bit. 12 thedankoe.com/resources This will dissolve any doubt in a client’s mind. If you doubt your actual experience, offer your services for free until you have built up enough confidence to get paid for it. The Best “Portfolio” For Your Business Portfolio sites are overrated. What you need instead is a sales page OR squeeze page (email capture page). This is an extremely basic client acquisition funnel. If you have gone through W ebsites That Work (you have free access), then you will understand these terms. There are multiple ways to build this funnel. I will walk you through a few options that I have used (from most expensive to least). Kartra I currently use Kartra for my freelance/consulting funnel. It is literally in all-in-one tool. It gives you: - Landing pages + funnels Payment processor for clients Scheduling calendar (like Calendly) to schedule sales calls Entire email marketing suite I would only recommend g etting Kartra if you are ready to go all in on online business. 13 thedankoe.com/resources This is not necessary for a beginner. I started smaller and eventually moved to Kartra. Carrd + Calendly Carrd is a very simple and lightning fast single page website builder. I personally use Components UI when starting all of my web page designs with Carrd. Components UI gives you the perfect starting point for any project. All you have to do is drag and drop the section you want to use and edit it. Plus, it is an extremely good looking design out of the box. In order to Components UI, you will need to purchase a premium plan with Carrd. (YOU DO NOT NEED THIS for Carrd, it is just what I have used and enjoy - it reduces my time spent creating a good design.) Carrd is very affordable. The purpose behind this is simply because Carrd makes it easy for specific things, like a landing page for your freelancing services. Wordpress and Elementor make it easy for creating full fledged websites, as you learned in Websites That Work. If you do not want to use Carrd, you do not have to. You can create the landing pages in Elementor if you have already begun creating your website. (This will save you some money). The simple route is creating a sales page. Follow the video tutorials in Websites That Work and include all of the necessary page elements for your sales page. 14 thedankoe.com/resources You call to action will be to schedule a strategy call with you. You will understand this more later. If this is a lot of information to take in, I understand. Make sure you are taking notes and re-read the ebook when you need to. If you have some form of an audience (like on Twitter), having an email sequence to get them on a call is a smart move. In this case you would create another landing page to capture their email, nurture the lead, and get them on a call with you. (This is why I like Kartra so much). You should then have an email sequence with 3-4 valuable emails teaching them about whatever service you offer and why it is beneficial to them. Then 2-3 sales emails encouraging them to schedule a strategy call with you. This would require you to have an email marketing software like Convertkit or K artra. Again, you will understand more about this process later on. As a recap: Sales pages are better than a traditional portfolio site. Having portfolio pieces are necessary, but you do not have to include them on your site. You can send relevant portfolio pieces when a potential client asks to see them. There Are So Many Freelancers, They’re Taking All Of My Clients! No they haven’t. I thought this at first as well but there is SO MUCH work to go around. I would argue that there is too much work and not enough freelancers. 15 thedankoe.com/resources I didn’t know this statistic, but I just looked it up to prove a point. There are 28.8 million small businesses in the US alone. Okay… what does this mean? That means, by my standards, that a little bit less than 28 million businesses need a new website. Businesses are desperate for a website that actually gets them more leads and sales. In terms of the amount of websites that are being created each DAY (500,000+), you can grab a piece of those. If you are able to talk your way into creating a website better than the next person, you are on your way to success. How do you talk your way into it? Copywriting. Saturation is GOOD If a market is saturated, or has a lot of competition, this is a very good thing. It means that people are actually buying the product or service. This is why I stress not being “different.” If people are already selling websites for $5000+ then you can too! Don’t try to create something original. Sell what has been selling for ages. FINDING YOUR DREAM CLIENT 16 thedankoe.com/resources If I asked who your dream client was right now, I’m sure I would receive an answer along the lines of this: “Anyone that will pay me money.” While you aren’t wrong, you need to be a little pickier when it comes to who you will take as a client. Client Stereotypes You DO Want Here’s a story about one of my first clients that changed the way I viewed things forever. “Jim” owned a general contracting business and was looking for a new website. My girlfriend’s dad mentioned this to me. I shot Jim an email introducing myself and how I could build him a new website. He responded by telling me what he would like to include on his website. I told him I could do that no problem. He didn’t respond for a bit and I started to get worried, what if he doesn’t hire me? That’s the number one doubt I always used to have. I sent him a followup email including an extensive list of services that I could provide him and gave him my pricing. I broke the pricing down in a fairly complicated way. It took him a couple of days to respond but what he said was unexpected… “Hi Dan, I would like a website please!” That’s it. The confirmation of a proposal would get anyone excited, especially if it was my first time asking for $2000 to build a website. Also, guess what, I built it using WordPress + Elementor (took about 2-3 days to complete). 17 thedankoe.com/resources Some would hate me for this but we will talk about why it’s one of your best options. Back to the story, I sent him a long questionnaire to fill out along with tons of information, I thought I was being thorough. He didn’t respond for another few days. I knew he was interested, so I sent him an invoice followed by an email saying that once the invoice is paid I can start on the website right away, no need to fill out the boring questionnaire. 5 minutes later the invoice was paid. $2000 just like that. I handed the website over to him in about a week. Not only was he happy with the website, but how quickly I got it finished. Dan, not all clients will be like this! Understood, this is still your ideal client. Create a system for your business that will bring forward more of these clients. If you have a straightforward system for your business that exudes confidence and the sense that you know what you are doing, clients will be more than happy to let you take the wheel. There are a few more client stereotypes that you want to target when prospecting: Business owners with few to no employees that seem to be making a lot of money and business owners with many employees that look like they don’t have a lot of time on their hands. Business owners with few employees but lots of money won’t mind paying top dollar for a top notch website that brings them MORE money. 18 thedankoe.com/resources Business owners that don’t have a lot of time on their hands will fall more into the stereotype that “Jim” had above. Client Stereotypes You DO NOT Want Business owners with too much time on their hands. These ones are silent killers. They will drag the project on for months making revisions and you will want to quit altogether. If you get a sense that a business owner has too much time on their hands. RUN. That’s pretty much it for clients that you don’t want. Anyone that will try to do your job for you is a no go. THE MAIN SKILL THAT WILL MAKE YOU MORE MONEY Web design will only get you so far. Think about it from an overall business perspective. I used to work at a web design agency that catered their services specifically towards retailers, home furniture/appliance retailers to be exact. Side note: Working at this agency (along with other things) taught me a lot about structuring your business. They focus on the retailer niche and provide proprietary services to them. They built their own platform/CMS, advertising platform, and other things. Because of this, I would guess the business is worth over 8 figures. 19 thedankoe.com/resources If the agency only hired web designers how well do you think they could scale their business? Like other businesses they have a marketing team, a design team, a sales team, a customer support team, etc. Web designers know web design, salesmen know sales. If there was one thing that you had to take away from this book is that understanding how to sell a product is THE MOST important thing that freelancers need to know. But guess what? 99.99% of web design freelancers DON’T know this and it is drastically limiting their ability to make more money. Want to get into the top .01% of freelancers that make over 6 figures? D o not limit your skill set to web design. Freelancers and entrepreneurs alike both have admirable skill sets. They understand many different aspects of running a business. Most of them skip over the part that will make them the most money. Direct Response Marketing 101 My goal with this book was to give you everything you need to know to attain a 6 figure income as a web designer/freelancer/business owner. I was not going to include this section but I thought it would be rude of me to tease you with the idea of a skill that will make you the most money and not at least teach you the basics of that skill. Basics Of Direct Response Marketing 20 thedankoe.com/resources Direct response marketing, in other words known as copywriting (when written/typed), is the ART of persuading the end user to take action immediately. It doesn’t have to be immediately, but write it as if you want them to take action immediately. In comparison, general marketing or advertising just puts your product in front of someone's face, hoping they will eventually make a purchase. Radio and TV ads are like this a lot. Think about any radio ad that you’ve heard and tell me if they have recently impacted or caused a purchase that you made. I would guess not. Here’s the thing with copywriting, you are crafting an argument for your target audience to spark an emotion, making them feel like they have to purchase whatever is in front of their faces. Copywriting should be implemented everywhere. On your website, in your cold emails, in your Facebook posts, and even when you are talking to someone (even though it’s not written.) From now on, I want you to use this next sentence to transform your business. This has the power to transform your life as well if used correctly. Tell people what they want to hear. The more you learn and understand direct response marketing, the better you will be at telling people what they want to hear. After practicing and implementing direct response marketing principles, I have seen an increase in my email open rates, conversion rates, and amount of kindness when being rejected. Jugular Objection 21 thedankoe.com/resources Remember objection handling? The jugular objection is the one thing in the clients mind that is holding them back from making a purchase. Our job here is to eliminate all doubt right off the bat. For example, when sending a cold email to a prospective client. They may be worried that you don’t have experience. Send them a few of your portfolio pieces to show how amazing your work is. (This is the reason why you should have “fake” experience, to eliminate this jugular objection.) Every prospective client could have a different jugular objection. It is your job to know your target audience. The best way to know your audience is to create a buyer persona. This is simple to do but helpful, search for a buyer persona template on Google and fill it in with your target client’s details. AIDA AIDA stands for attention, interest, desire, and action. When writing your copy, this is a good boiler plate to follow. Attention: Don’t over complicate this part. What would stop your target audiences scroll? Something as simple as “Question” in the email subject line could make someone stop and at least open the email. Interest: Again, your target client’s traits are important here. What do they want out of a website? What do they want that they don’t even think they can get out of a website? I’ll give you the answer, more sales. If you can persuade the prospect that your services will get them more customers, they will be interested. 22 thedankoe.com/resources Desire: Similar to interest, but here we want to play with their emotions. This is where you focus on the BENEFITS of your services, not the features. This is very important, take note of this. Benefits over features. What are your target client’s problems? Are they spending too much time taking payments over the phone? Tell them how you can eliminate this problem altogether and allow them to spend more time focusing on their business. Action: This can be simple really, just don’t sound desperate. This could be as simple as, “If you think we would be a good fit let’s schedule a call.” Don’t over complicate it, just know that you need a call to action. PASTOR PAS and PASTOR are common copywriting frameworks. PAS = Problem, Amplify, Solution. You state the problem, amplify it by hitting pain points, and offer your service as a solution. PASTOR = Problem, Amplify, Story, Transformation, Offer, and Response This framework can be powerful, but for outreach, it is too long. If you want to learn more about this, c lick here. Readability This is simple, but INCREDIBLY overlooked. Stop trying to sound fancy when talking to a client. 23 thedankoe.com/resources Don’t say: “I will use JavaScript functionality to put a payment capture form on your website.” Do say: “I will make it easy for customers to pay you.” This is a good rule of thumb: write at a 5th grade level. Yes, seriously. I used to enjoy spicing up my writing with fancy words, but now I hate it. Why? It didn’t make me more money. Scarcity Scarcity is easy to implement. Simply include somewhere that a limited quantity of something is available. For example, at the end of your email insert this line (even if it’s not true). “We can only take on a few more clients this month and would love to work with you.” Price Comparison This is my personal favorite. It works so well. Make the prospect feel like they are getting an insane deal, even when you are charging a lot. Here’s some examples I use that you can add on to or make your own: “My base price is $2500, since ______ referred you I can offer it for $2000.” My base price here is actually $2000, add $500 to the price and use this method. 24 thedankoe.com/resources “At this price, it would be similar to hiring a part time employee for a month.” Part time is the key word here. “At this price, if you get two extra customers per month from the website it will pay for itself quickly.” Tailor the amount of customers to what your client would actually need. Only use this method if it’s a small number of customers. Act Like You Don’t Want It Do not seem desperate. I repeat, do not seem desperate. Act like you do not want and or need them to buy your service. You are the expert and they will be missing out if they don’t hire you. This is a mindset more than anything. There aren’t many examples I can give on this topic. Simply rewire your brain to speak bluntly. The main way to do this is to keep your copy blunt and to the point. Match their “tone” when replying, most business owners keep their emails very short and to the point. Do the same but include all of the information necessary. Eliminate the fluff, business owners don’t like wasting their time. HOW TO CREATE AMAZING WEBSITES FAST 25 thedankoe.com/resources In this section I will give you some options on how you can create websites quickly. If you want to create a portfolio, blog, landing page, or sales page for your own freelancing business, this will help. If you want to add web design as a service you offer, this will also help. Almost every other freelancing, coaching, or consulting service will require a knowledge in websites/landing pages. Plus you can add it on as an upsell to your current service. It is crucial to create them quickly. It will give you more time to do the things that you want in life and will help you scale down the road. Think about it, if it takes 3-4 hours a day for a month to create a website (people that custom code them run into this problem), how many clients do you think you can handle every month? Maybe 2-3 while having zero time on your hands. One thing that worried me when I first started was creating a beautiful website. I know how to code, that was my job for a while. I felt like that was the best way to do it and if I didn’t do it that way the client would notice. Fact of the matter is, the client doesn’t give a @#$%, AND if you use a platform like WordPress, you can offer to give them access to that platform instead of having them pay you to manage it. Benefits over features. Client: “I want to be able to edit my own content on the site and write my own blog posts.” You: “I can build a website in a way where this is possible but it will be another $250-$500, or you can contact me at any time and I can add content to your site for a small monthly retainer.” 26 thedankoe.com/resources You can create the website however you’d like. If your main goal is to get a tech job and you are only creating websites for experience, then by all means show off your coding skills. If you are a designer and just want to make some money off of creating websites, use a platform like WordPress. The main goal here is to create the websites efficiently. The Non-Coder Route Firstly, you do not need to be a coder to create amazing websites. With the technology available today, anyone can create a website. It is not cheating doing it this way. Business owners simply don’t have the time to learn how to create a website on their own. We are charging them accordingly for our services and the value we provide. I build some of my client’s sites in WordPress. I use the Elementor plugin to actually build the site. I am more of a designer at heart (although I used to code all day every day), Elementor lets me quickly create custom websites tailored to the client. There is a free version of elementor that will let you build amazing websites. It is available on the WordPress plugins page. I personally recommend Elementor Pro, especially if you plan to create multiple websites (which you will). 27 thedankoe.com/resources Elementor Pro gives you tons of features that make building a website extremely easy. I could probably finish an entire website in a couple hours if I really wanted to. Elementor Pro costs $50 for 1 website, $100 for 3 websites, and $200 for 1000 websites. If you want to create portfolio pieces with Elementor, buy the $100 tier and create 3 good looking websites. When you land your first client, use some of that money to upgrade to the highest tier. If you ever have questions, you can always look at their documentation. It is kind of hard to screw up with WordPress & Elementor, they hold your hand and walk you through every step. Nothing to worry about here. Doing this keeps the process incredibly simple. Once I have enough information to actually create a site, I start building according to their requests. It takes me about 5-6 hours total to complete a website. I don’t send it to the client for at least a week or two so it seems like I did more work. Waiting a couple days also gives you clarity, you may want to add more or refine your design. In terms of hosting I use SiteGround. Their middle tier plan lets you create as many websites as you can imagine for about $80/year. Even if you have 1 client on a $300/month “updates and maintenance” retainer, it pays for itself. SiteGround allows you to create a website with a temporary domain name, this means that you can create the site, then change nameservers to point to the clients current domain. Once you do that, the website is complete. 28 thedankoe.com/resources If that didn’t make sense to you, SiteGround walks you through it and provides incredible support to people that buy their middle tier plan. I do not recommend any other hosting platform. You can sign up for Siteground here. Flywheel seems like a great alternative for hosting but I have not tried it. They allow you to have the client pay for their individual hosting. The way I see this is that you can no longer charge for hosting which isn’t ideal in my mind. Other Notable Platforms To Create Websites Webflow: For the coders that want a visual interface when building a website while still having control over the code. Shopify: Best for ecommerce businesses that don’t really need a fully custom website. There are options for theme customization. WooCommerce: This is a free WordPress plugin for ecommerce. It also works with Elementor. If your client has a simple ecommerce site, this could be a good option. Keep in mind that WooCommerce can be difficult. If you have the option to use Shopify, use it. Carrd: Great for creating extremely fast single page websites. It has grown in popularity recently and is a great option for a basic website, landing pages, or sales funnels. If you have forgotten, Carrd is what I use to create landing pages or squeeze pages f or myself or my clients, it is a great tool to have in your toolbelt. As a reminder, Components UI makes it extremely easy to create these pages with a great design. 29 thedankoe.com/resources Kartra: Expensive but extremely effective as an all-in-one online business tool. Again, the web is filled with amazing tutorials on these. If I created a tutorial on these, I would be doing it a disservice. YouTube creators are extremely generous with the information they put out in tutorials. CRAFTING YOUR IRRESISTIBLE OFFER Before we get any further, I want you to understand the importance of having an OFFER. Creating a website is not an offer. Being a “life coach” is not an offer. At a maximum, it is an extremely poor offer. It positions you as a commodity and leaves you with cheap, hard to find clients. In order to create an irresistible offer, you need to understand 2 things: 1. Every little detail about your target client (why niche is important) 2. How to provide results with your skills/service How to provide results goes far beyond the high level skill, like web design. If a client has trouble with generating leads, will web design help? Kinda sorta. You know what will help more? A high converting landing page selling ONE thing that he can send his social media followers to. 30 thedankoe.com/resources This is just one example of many, you need to tailor your skills to what will actually help the client. You have free access to my course W ebsites That Work - there is a market research PDF included in there. If you are not confident in your web design skills, watch the entire course. Understanding The Client’s Problems In order to accurately provide a solution, you need to first understand the problem. MOST businesses you will be going after do not have a reliable way of acquiring new customers online. This is an easy problem to go after and provide a solution to - websites, landing pages, and sales funnels are the FIRST STEP to increasing anyone’s sales online. Without a web page, you cannot make sales online. Without a web page that is optimized for conversions, your conversion rate drastically decreases. Every business with an ugly website is NOT getting as many customers as they could be. You need to give them a very clear solution to getting more customers online. There are many ways to position your offer, packaging your services is a great one - AND it allows you to provide a solution without a ton of custom work that wastes time and prevents you from taking on more clients. PACKAGING YOUR SERVICES 31 thedankoe.com/resources Packages or productized services have become more and more popular, and for a good reason. These services provide a specific solution to a specific problem. These packages are usually tiered and have a catchy name. Here are some examples: Tier 1: Client Acquisition Machine - Cost: $3500 one time fee For businesses that have an online presence but are struggling to acquire more clients. Services: - Optimized Squeeze Page (email capture page) Lead magnet creation Email nurture sequence If you have read any of my free guides, or have followed the videos in Websites That Work, you should understand this. This is a very basic, but effective, sales funnel for any niche. If you look at any highly successful business, they will have something similar, because it works. Tier 2: Residential Profit Accelerator - Cost $3000 upfront + $1500/month For contractors that do not have a reliable way of acquiring new residential contracts. 32 thedankoe.com/resources Services: - Optimized squeeze page/landing page Highly effective Facebook ad campaigns to drive traffic Automated lead follow up via email/text This is an example for a contracting business, I.E. pest control. This niche has two different types of customers, residential and commercial. We are solving a problem for their residential clients with Facebook ads. If you do not know how to run effective Facebook ads, you can outsource them (refer to the chapter How To Not Do Any Of The Work) or you can learn it quickly via YouTube. Facebook ads work better for the residential side of their business because you can target homeowners relatively easily. Tier 3: Triple Your Sales - Cost $5000 upfront + $3000/month For businesses that want a complete solution for predictably generating quality leads and turning them into loyal customers. Services: - Squeeze page Lead magnet creation Monthly SEO Facebook ads OR Google ads Notice how with ALL OF THESE you are creating a landing page or squeeze page with your web design skills. These are simply example packages to get your creative juices flowing. 33 thedankoe.com/resources If you want to see more package examples, keep on reading. We talk more about them in the chapter 3 Ways To Create Recurring Monthly Income. If you only have web design as skill right now, that is not a problem. You can create packages with only this. Take a moment to think what you can actually do with web design: - Create squeeze pages Create single page websites Create multi page websites Create landing pages for specific products/services Create sales funnels Once you get through the coming sections, start brainstorming problems that these skills can solve and how you can position them to get a business more customers. Start brainstorming ways that YOU can make your offer more seductive to your specific niche. If you are a high performance coach, MAP out the path for your client of how exactly they are going to get from A to B. A being lazy and unproductive B being hyper focused and disciplined Once you have everything mapped out - exactly what you are offering - slap a unique name on it and sell it only to your niche. 34 thedankoe.com/resources HOW TO GET A CONSISTENT FLOW OF CLIENTS This is where I need you to pay attention. Many people think there is some magic to getting more clients. Guess what, there is not. Since you bought this book, I’m guessing that you are incredibly motivated to get to work. Up until now, things have sounded easy, this is where you will need great discipline. Getting a consistent flow of clients does not come easy, people don’t talk about this. Especially at first - and if you aren’t running paid ads. (Thing is, paid ads aren’t a magic pill. If organic clients won’t buy your service, neither will paid ads.) Get to $10k-$20k/month with organic and then dabble in paid ads. Don’t get scared off here. The people that do the work will be the ones with flourishing businesses. They will be the ones who can go on vacation for a month with zero worries. They will be the ones that can live with purpose. In this section (and the next two), you will learn exactly what you need to do to get more clients. Choosing A Niche Choosing a niche is one of the best ways to get more clients, scale your business, and provide a great experience for the client. Here’s how you can think about it: 35 thedankoe.com/resources The agency I previously worked for only provided services to retailers. Everything they did revolved around getting retailers more customers. If you were a retailer, would you go to the generic freelancer offering to build you a website or would you go to the agency that specializes in websites for retailers? It’s kind of a no brainer. The agency has proven methods and ecommerce solutions built to grow a retail business. Use this to your advantage but don’t get too caught up in picking a niche. I switched around too many times and it only slowed me down. Bad Niches To Go After Most people want to go after super high ticket niches like chiropractors. Why is this a bad thing? Chiropractors, dentists, dermatologists, etc. have people reaching out every second of the day to provide their own services. They are extremely competitive. Most of them have gatekeepers (front desk associates for example, they are trained to not let you talk to the owner). These niches are not off limits however, with what you’ve learned already you can stand out from the other people in their inbox. I am just forewarning you that it could take longer and would need some serious dedication/innovation. In general, don’t go after difficult niches if your offer is not specifically tailored to them. Also, if you offer coaching to consumers (rather than businesses) stay away from those who do not have money to invest in your services. Good Niches To Go After 36 thedankoe.com/resources Good niches are ones that are a needle in a haystack. They aren’t as hard to find as a needle in a haystack but you get the point. People often glance right over them. Before I worked at the web design agency, I worked at a print shop. This would be a great one to go after. I haven’t done my fair share of research on this niche but it’s worth looking into. When I first started working there they had just bought a new website from GoDaddy (gross) for $2500. The shop was making decent money even with me as their only employee. Imagine if you had got to that print shop first telling them that you only provide your services to print shops. They would’ve chosen you in a heartbeat. Especially if your business had gotten to the point where you can provide something proprietary for them (I.E. a software that helps them manage shop inventory). This is a little much to be thinking about right now, but do not limit yourself to only doing web design. This will be touched on later. Do keep in mind that high ticket niches will be able to pay you more for your website. A solar panel company that makes $10k-$15k per sale is much easier to charge $10k for a website compared to a print shop making $50-$300 per sale. That may have shocked you. Yes, you can 100% charge $10k for a website. In the biz we like to call these “behemoths.” (Not really, but I like to call them that). How much you charge can and should be dependent on your niche. Charge them what they can afford and what you are comfortable with making. 37 thedankoe.com/resources Any niche can work. You just need to find the businesses that are actually making money. For coaches, you need to target individuals who have decent jobs or businesses of their own. Good niches for freelancing/consulting: - Personal brands/influencers/consultants/coaches Financial advisors (or other high end consultant that needs leads) Plumbing, HVAC, or contracting businesses Ecommerce stores (email marketing is wide open for this) Pick Your Favorite Method Of Prospecting We will discuss the best prospecting methods in the next section. These are some tips to keep in mind. Like choosing a niche and a specific platform, you want to streamline your processes for effectiveness and efficiency. These are the main methods of prospecting: - 38 Cold calling Cold email Facebook messenger LinkedIn Video proposal DM Questionnaire Twitter thedankoe.com/resources With these, you want to try a few and see which one yields the best results. Once you’ve found the best one, use that method exclusively and create a system that saves time. For example, if you choose to cold email you will want to create some form of spreadsheet to keep track of who you’ve reached out to and when you need to follow up with them. If there are specific emails that yielded higher conversions, save them and tailor the copy to each individual prospect. Following Up This is extremely important when reaching out to prospects. Sometimes business owners glance over emails or just forget to respond. If they did not reply and explicitly tell you they are not interested, you need to follow up. The more follow up emails/calls/messages you send without a reply, the more you should space out your follow up emails/calls/messages. If someone doesn’t reply, follow up in a week. If they do not reply to that, follow up in 3 days, 1 week, another week, and then 2 weeks apart. If they are completely unresponsive, you have my permission to call it quits. Another option would be to follow up every 2 weeks until you get a solid ‘no’. How Much You Should Prospect How much you prospect is going to be dependent on your own limitations. The best advice I can give you is to have a schedule and stick to that schedule. 39 thedankoe.com/resources Time blocking is my favorite way to do it. Grab a coffee, throw on some music, and sit down for 1-2 hours to reach out to clients. If you have to make this a Monday, Wednesday, Friday thing then do that. Pick your own schedule and stick to it. Client acquisition is your first “job.” If you do not want to prospect for an hour or two… hate to say it but you aren’t going to make it. The MAIN THING that separates those that are successful with this and those that aren’t is consistent prospecting + landing appointments. After that it is up to your offer and you doing the work. THE BEST WAY TO FIND CLIENTS Cold Email My own statistics and those of others show that short and sweet emails work more than long drawn out ones. I won’t go into this too much but I will give some examples of short and sweet emails. Craft what you say in a way that will make them curious and respond. The key to this is being DIFFERENT from everyone else. Show that you are human, not just sending out sales letters to 1,000 people like most do. The only purpose of sending these emails is to get a reply and book a meeting. You should not be pitching your services on the first message. Your emails should not be long, sales emails. They should be short and to the point while including these key areas: 40 thedankoe.com/resources 1. A personalized compliment based on information you found after researching their business. Look at the prospects' social media accounts, blog, or website in general. Find a project or recent milestone that they are more than likely proud of and give them a compliment on achieving it. 2. Positioning yourself as an expert by describing the value you can bring to the table. For this, you can flat out use the value proposition you came up with earlier. “I help fitness influencers get more coaching signups through lead generating systems.” 3. Include social proof if you can. Considering this is your first client, you probably won’t have much social proof. If you do, include a short yet relevant case study from a client within the same niche. (This is important, include it when you get your first case study). 4. Call to action Have a clear call to action that infers they should reply. This can be something as simple as, “Do you have time for a call this week?” 41 thedankoe.com/resources 5. PS A PS is something included after your entire message. A great way to utilize a PS is to mention why you decided to reach out to them in the first place so they aren’t wondering where you found their email. If you choose to direct message instead of sending an email - ask a question about their business that will result in a reply. Don’t message them with “Hi” or “Do you need a website?” You will never get a reply. For cold email - don’t overcomplicate the subject line. Simply use “Question,” “Question For [Name],” or “Question About [Business].” For both social direct messaging and cold email, you can use a message like this as well: “Hey [Name], [Compliment about their business or profile] If you don’t mind me asking, which type of clients do you normally work with?” You can replace this sentence with something that will resonate with the prospect more. I.E. How do you currently make the bulk of your sales? Where do you currently find clients? Etc. This works great for building rapport. I highly encourage you to test different styles of emails with the information I’ve given you. Cold outreach 42 thedankoe.com/resources is a numbers game. Pay attention to which messages get the most responses (and what kind of responses they get.) Change the email around, try different things, and see which variations make people respond more. I explained earlier that you will want to stick with your favorite prospecting method, this is why. In order to thoroughly test what works you need big numbers. Sending 10 emails and getting 0 responses has no value in terms of the overall response rate. Sending 100 emails over the course of a month or two with 15-20 responses gives you some actual data. Those are big numbers, remember earlier when I said this is where the work actually begins? It is simple but necessary work. This is why it’s best to time block as much time as you consistently can. How To Find Business Emails Firstly, you need to find a business that you would like to email. Do not limit yourself to your current location. For example, search Google for (niche) in (city) and email all of the businesses you would like to. A lot of the time you can find their email listed on their contact page. I use I cy Leads to find, and sometimes automate my emails. Icy Leads has many different tools for finding emails and creating automated email sequences. If you want to check out all of their features (which I would highly recommend doing), go here. 43 thedankoe.com/resources Another great way is through Instagram. If they have a business page, their email should be listed directly under their bio. If you can’t find an email, move on. Or try a different prospecting method for that business. LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, etc. Sending Cold Emails Safely In order to send cold emails safely, you should create a “burner” email. Buy a domain that is related to your niche. If you haven’t chosen a niche yet, create a generic one like jimmymakeswebsites.com. Create a G Suite account and email for the domain you just purchased and email from there. If you buy the domain through NameCheap, you can set up your email right when you buy it. Start out by sending 5-10 cold emails a day. If you start sending hundreds right when you create the email you will get sent to spam. This is another place where YesWare can come in handy. If all of your emails aren’t being opened, it’s probably time to start over with another email address. Gradually increase the amount you email each week by 5-10 until you hit 20-30. It may be worth it to email your personal email address a couple of times to show Google that you aren’t a spammer. You can also email your friends or family to start warming it up. LinkedIn/Facebook This method is similar to cold email. If you find a business that doesn’t have an email address listed on Facebook you can usually find their LinkedIn/Facebook page and find the owner from there. 44 thedankoe.com/resources When you find the owner on these platforms you will want to connect or add them as a friend FIRST, do not try to send them a message without doing this. Use the same structure as you would when sending an email. A great way to start the conversation is by asking them a simple question about their business: Hey [name] I took a look at your profile and really enjoy (detailed aspect of their content) and how you've branded yourself. If you don't mind me asking, which type of clients do you normally work with? Dan Prospecting Tip For Facebook I do not do this very much but it is a great way to find clients. Search for Facebook groups related to your niche and request to join the group. A lot of groups have questions that you need to answer before you are accepted. Fill these out as truthfully as possible. For example, if you join a pest control marketing group and the question is, “What is the name of your pest control business?” You can put that you are a solo operator. That way they don’t really have a way to know if you are telling the truth or not. 45 thedankoe.com/resources When you are accepted, do NOT post anything. Lay low and do some research about the members inside that group. Pay attention to members posting in that group as well. Once you find someone that you would like to reach out to you have a few options. Add them as a friend, find them on LinkedIn, find their email, or find their phone number and reach out from there. Once you have been in the group long enough, start replying to peoples questions if you can actually help them. Answer their questions and a majority of the time others will respond asking if you can help them as well. Tell them to DM you and take it from there. Video Proposal A video proposal has been the go to in a lot of the freelancer groups I belong to. Record a video of yourself (or your screen) and explain your services to the client. You can use a software like Loom to do this for free. If you’ve noticed that they have slow page speed, bad Call To Action buttons, or just a terrible website in general, let them know. Follow the guidelines in Websites That Work and give them helpful advice. Don’t be mean about it but walk them through what could be better while you are screen recording. If you want to, show them some of the work that you have done and what aspects are better about it. Why should they buy a website from you? 46 thedankoe.com/resources If your website will bring them more customers, explain what you would do to achieve this. Better design? Better on-page SEO? Faster page speed? At the end of the video make sure to have a call to action of your own. Ask them to follow up with you if they are interested and you can then hop on a sales call with them. DM Questionnaire This one is awesome. Create a questionnaire and disguise it as a “market research survey.” You will then send this survey to prospective clients asking if they can help you with research you are conducting to make your services better. The questions are written in a fashion that makes the prospective client start desiring your services. At the end it will ask if they are interested in having professional help with their website. Here is exactly how you do it: Send this message to prospective clients (this could be through LinkedIn, Instagram, cold email, anything) “Hi, my name is [name]. I’m reaching out to see if I can ask you a few questions for some market research I am conducting to help improve [web/UI/UX design] for [niche]. I’m sure you are busy (as am I) but it is only a few questions. Would you be willing to help me out.” 47 thedankoe.com/resources If they say yes, send them a link to the survey. The survey should consist of questions like this. 1) What is your name? 2) What is your email? 3) What do you find more appealing: hiring somebody in-house or hiring an outside professional for marketing/design services? 4) What is your current monthly marketing budget? (This will help qualify the client before you even talk to them) 5) What is your business’s current monthly income? 6) Are you currently making a return/profit with your marketing efforts? 7) Which of these marketing tactics are you currently using to grow your business? (Facebook ads, Google ads, Social media, Referrals, SEO) 8) Would you be interested in a free strategy session for boosting the amount of customers you get from your website? If they say yes to the last question, follow up with them and schedule a phone call. You will be using the sales script found in “The Client Timeline” section for this “strategy session” Twitter If you purchased this book, you probably found me on Twitter. Since I’ve been on Twitter, I’ve gotten clients just because they know I am a web designer and I talk about web design sometimes. 48 thedankoe.com/resources If you are looking to have another channel where you can get clients, consider growing your Twitter account. Here is how I did it: - Post valuable, but polarizing content, stand firm in your beliefs Write as a confident expert in your field Engage with big accounts (reply reply reply) Use your copywriting skills when posting Post 3-7 times/day Twitter is a great place to grow your audience. There isn’t anything compared to a retweet. Getting retweets will get your account exposed to tons of users. Think about it, one tweet could turn into a client worth $1500. I wish I had started much sooner than I did on Twitter. To get clients on Twitter, DMing people is necessary. As with other forms of outreach, you don’t want to pitch your services on the first message. Your main goal is to get them to respond. Start off with a compliment or asking them how their new project is going. Start by building a relationship with them. When the time comes, pitch your offer as a valuable connection of theirs. Other Notable Methods For Getting Clients Friends & Family 49 thedankoe.com/resources Reaching out to friends and family is by far the easiest way to get your first client. When I say reach out to friends and family, what I mean is: Blast your social media - all of them - telling them that you can create a killer website for them. Tell EVERYONE you know that you make websites. Seriously, do it. The results may not be immediate, but you will be surprised when a friend refers you to a client after a couple weeks simply because they know YOU create websites. You are now the “website guy” to these people. ----The methods below take time (and money), so use them at your own discretion. SEO If you understand SEO, start implementing tactics immediately on your own site. You can pay somebody on Fiverr for cheap to do this monthly for you as well. If you understand SEO but don’t have the time for certain things like writing content articles and backlinking, outsource the parts that you don’t have time for. This can cut down on cost and save you some time. Paid Ads I’ve never done paid ads for my business. They are a viable option for when you are making some money though. Only do this if your offer is already selling. 50 thedankoe.com/resources THE “REFERRAL MACHINE” Once I had a few clients under my belt, a referral machine came into my life. A referral machine is someone who has an incentive to refer you to a business owner. Here’s an example of one of my referral machines. She is an established social media manager that has many clients. When I introduced myself as a web designer she mentioned that the web designer that she formerly referred her clients to fell off the face of the earth for some reason. I offered her 10% of the cost of every client she referred to me. If I charge $2000 for a website, she gets $200. If she refers me to 10 clients, she makes a lot of money for doing practically nothing. Now imagine having 5-10 referral machines working for you. This alone could give you an endless stream of clients. Examples of referral machines: - Social media managers Advertising agencies/freelancers B2B businesses (I.E. print shops) Freelancers in general Where to find referral machines: - 51 Networking events LinkedIn/Facebook (prospect and send a message about your 10% referral incentive) thedankoe.com/resources - Friends and family that freelance but don’t do web design Use your imagination with this, create a referral program and tell everyone about it. THE CLIENT TIMELINE The client timeline refers to the time where you have an interested client up to the point where you hand off the website. Since we have already discussed how to get an interested client we will start there. Pricing Your Services Pricing is a widely debated topic amongst freelancers. Here is my one, most important tip. DO NOT undercharge for your services. A good baseline here is to not go under $500 when you are starting out. If you want to do a website for a friend for less than this, be my guest. In a month or two, you will need to raise your prices. $1000 minimum. Do not take any less than this. With what we have talked about so far, you should be pretty comfortable with being able to create a killer website for a business. If you understand another freelance/consulting service well - start landing clients immediately and learn how to tailor your service best to them on the job. I will tell you now, if you are not exuding confidence when you tell them your price, they will not buy. 52 thedankoe.com/resources Start at $500, sell a few websites/services and increase your prices accordingly. Business-Based Pricing I am a big fan of what people call “value-based pricing” but I feel like it is better described as “business-based pricing.” Once you choose a niche, this will become much easier and allow you to be more consistent with your pricing. Until then, your prices should vary. Tell me this, would you charge a coffee shop the same price as you would a chain retail store? Of course not. Why? Because if you were to charge $500 to a chain retail store, they will think you are a joke and will not by from you. To a coffee shop, a $500 website will seem like a great, quality deal. To a chain retail store, a $20,000 website will give them a sense of psychological security. They need a top notch website that will bring them more sales. Their business depends on it. Doing solid research on a business beforehand should give you an idea of what you can charge: - Are they putting money into marketing? Do they have multiple locations? Do they have high-paying customers? Does it look like their business is thriving? Base your pricing off of what the other business can afford, but above your minimum price. After getting on a call and going through the sales script below, you should be able to charge whatever you want. 53 thedankoe.com/resources You can usually find the average cost for your niche by searching “average [niche] business startup costs,” search around until you find a good range. Schedule A Call During this call, you need to lead the conversation. Ask questions about their business and get to know them better. Make them feel like you truly want to help them get more leads and sales through their website. Once you are finished with the call, send them a questionnaire for onboarding (next section). Respond accordingly to whatever they say, once they approve, get started on making the website. For invoicing I use Stripe but there are many options. Some include Freshbooks, Square, and Braintree. Create an account on one of these websites BEFORE you try to land your first client. Look around the dashboard a bit and figure out how to send an invoice. You will be sending it at the end of the call. If the client is wary about paying $2000 upfront, offer to split it up. Half at the beginning (which will cover your hosting and theme charges) and half at the end. ONLY offer these two options. Getting paid at the end of the project is a good way to lose motivation and have clients not pay you. Tried & True Sales Call Script 54 thedankoe.com/resources Here is the exact structure of how a sales call should go. Once you schedule a call with a prospective client, pull this up, stay cool, and let a conversation happen. Use this as a conversation guide. Side note: THIS WORKS FOR ANY SERVICE YOU ARE TRYING TO SELL. Let’s say you want to offer Facebook Ads down the road. Use this script. Pro tip: Don’t use this script word for word. Tailor it to your client. Take note of what you are actually doing with this sales script. 1. Building rapport 2. Staying in control of the call 3. Make the client understand their business goals 4. Make the client understand they need your service 5. How you can help them reach their goals 6. Pitch & make the sale. Keep in mind, you can talk about whatever you want on this call. If you want to get all of the information for a website you can. This “script” should be considered a f ramework. Step 1) Small Talk You: “Hey [Name], this is [Name]” Prospect: “Hey!” You: “How’s your week going, [Name]?” Prospect: “Good… how’s yours going?” 55 thedankoe.com/resources You: “Great! It’s been pretty busy, had quite a few calls but am very excited for this one. Ever since I found out about your business I knew I had to talk to you.” Prospect: “Blah blah” You: “So what do you say, let’s jump in?” Prospect: “Sounds good.” Step 2) Expectations You want to guide the conversation and remain in charge, setting expectations and telling them what will happen will keep you in charge. You: “Okay so on this call I’ll begin by asking you some questions to gain a better understanding of your business and goals. Then, if it sounds like we would be a good fit, I’ll tell you a bit about myself and what I do. Then at the end, you can make a decision if you want to be a part of it. Sound fair?” Prospect: “Definitely” Step 3) What’s Their Reason For Getting On The Call? They hopped on the call with you for a reason. They are more than likely interested in your service, make them understand their interest more. You: “So I always begin by figuring out people’s motivations. I talk to quite a few people and everybody has different reasons for talking with me. So.. why did you decide to take time out of your schedule to hop on this call with me today?” 56 thedankoe.com/resources Prospect: “Well, my website is absolutely terrible, it’s more than likely losing us customers, etc etc” At this point, you should be able to gauge what kind of service they are actually looking for. This will give you an advantage if you offer other services (we will talk about this in later chapters) and will ultimately allow you to charge more for the results they want. Step 4) Understand Where They Are Understanding where their business is in terms of their goal will allow you to put yourself in the middle and help them reach their goal. Having the prospect talk about it will make them realize that they may really need some outside help. You: “Good to know! But, before I can tell if I can be of value to your business I need to understand it a bit more and what you’re all about. (Ask relevant questions about their business.) Prospect: Answers You: “Sweet. So, how many customers are you currently getting from your website?” Prospect: Answers You: “How often are you updating content on your website i.e. blog posts, promotions, etc” Prospect: Answers You: “How much money do you think you are missing out from lost customers on your website?” 57 thedankoe.com/resources Prospect: Answers You: “Are you comfortable leaving that much money on the table?” Prospect: “Of course not” You: “So.. give me a ball-park estimate on your current monthly revenue” (Don’t seem nervous asking this, it is necessary to understand where they currently are so you can help them get to where they want to be. And how much you can charge.) Prospect: Answers Step 5) Find Out Where They Want To Be You: “Sweet. How much do you want to be making per month 12 months from now?” Prospect: Answers You: “Why do you want to make that much? How will it improve your business/life?” Pro tip -- When you are selling something, do not sell the features, sell the emotion the person is seeking. Luxury brands don’t sell a wallet with xx features, they sell a wallet that gives you status. That’s what determines the price tag. Prospect: Answers Step 6) They Can’t Do It Themselves 58 thedankoe.com/resources You: “What’s stopping you from hitting that on your own?” Prospect: Answers Step 7) Urgency You: “What’s it costing you to not hit your target?” Prospect: Answers You: “How soon would you want to start trying to hit that target goal?” Prospect: “Now!” Step 8) How You Can Help You: “Based on what you’ve told me I believe we would be a great fit and I can definitely help you hit your target. Do you want to hear a little bit about what I do and what I can offer?” Prospect: “Sure thing!” You: “Awesome! So, I am a web designer by nature, with that I have expertise in conversion centered websites and (SEO/PPC/Paid Social/etc.. Whatever services you offer) for [Insert Niche]. Typically, we work with clients who want to get more paying customers out of their website, but… they aren’t sure how to. They don’t know how to build trust with customers on their site or how to take someone from a viewer to a paying customer. Prospect: “That’s great! How exactly does this work and how could it help me?” Step 9) Your Offer 59 thedankoe.com/resources You: “So the way it works is that our websites have top notch on-page SEO, meaning over time, they will rise in search engines and bring more and more people to your website. Our websites are conversion centered meaning that the content, layout, call-to-actions, and usability will inevitably lead to more paying customers.” (You can list other services you’d like to offer as well) Prospect: “Nice! How much would this cost?” Step 10) Give Price With A Price Anchor You: “Normally a conversion centered website with on-page SEO would cost $3000 but, after working with many clients we’ve found that the ones who make decisions quickly end up being the best clients. So, if you were to say yes today we can knock off $1000, making it only $2000 for the whole package.” Prospect: “How do I start?” You: “I can send you 50% of the invoice right now. As soon as it’s paid we will get started with the onboarding process (where you find out what they want on the site). Then we can normally finish the website within 2 weeks depending on how many revisions you’d like to make. Is [email] the best email to send the invoice to?” Prospect: Answers **Send the invoice on the call to lock in payment** You: “Awesome, I just sent it, let me know once you got it. Prospect: “Got it” 60 thedankoe.com/resources You: “Great! Just submit that now to lock in the $1000 off and I’ll shoot over an email with onboarding instructions as soon as I receive it.” Prospect: “Done” *End the call now or you will be practicing objection handling all night The rest of the ebook will help you understand the process more. When you come back to this script, everything will fall into place. Proposals & Contracts I have had clients that are super picky when it comes to revisions and changing the website as a whole. I used to not send proposals or contracts, it worked fine. As I started hearing more and more horror stories from other freelancers, I began implementing them. AND.CO is the perfect solution for this. It walks you through some fields to fill out and boom, you have a proposal or contract that you can send directly to the client for them to view or sign. Technology is great. One word of advice, add fields to your proposals and contracts that will make it easier to sell them on a monthly retainer. I always include a statement saying that I only offer 1-2 revisions after website completion. Anything more will be subject to an extra charge. 61 thedankoe.com/resources If they get picky and start asking for more revisions, offer to sell them on a monthly retainer. You will learn more about this in upcoming sections. Onboarding Send the client a questionnaire that will give you everything you need to start working. Ways to create a questionnaire: - Build your own on your website TypeForm (limit of 10 responses for free accounts) JotForm Google Forms You can create this however you want and include whatever questions you want. Here are some questions you should consider having: (This is for web design - you can find an example questionnaire for the service you offer by googling it. Or create your own based on what you need to best do the job without their interaction. This questionnaire does NOT need to be this long, be intentionally thorough.) 1) Business name 2) Full name 3) Title 4) Business address 5) Phone number 6) Email 7) Current website URL (if applicable) 62 thedankoe.com/resources 8) Current web hosting company (if applicable) 9) Where did you register your domain? (if applicable) 10) Describe your organization in a few sentences 11) What problems do your clients have that your organization solves? What makes you different? 12) Why do you want a new website? What are your priorities? 13) What frustrates you about your current website? 14) Describe the desired look and feel with adjectives 15) Describe your target audience. What do you want your site to convey? 16) Who are your direct competitors? 17) List important words that you want people to associate with your organization's image and brand 18) Do you have a style guide for your brand? 19) What fonts do you typically use? 20) Are there any colors that you want incorporated into the website? 21) Do you have pantone numbers or hex codes for the colors? 22) What would your target audience type into Google to find your site? 23) Which of these phrases is most important? 24) Do you use Google Analytics? 25) List a website that you like 26) Why do you like it? Repeat 25 and 26 three to five times 27) What types of things do you see on other websites that you hate? 28) Do you currently have a blog? 29) If yes, where is it hosted? 30) Will you allow comments on your blog? 31) How many static pages will you need? (About, Contact, FAQ, etc.) 32) Do you currently have content that you want to use? (text and images) 33) If no, who will be providing the content? 34) Who will be updating this website on an ongoing basis? 35) How often do you think you will be updating the website? 36) Which social media do you use? 37) Are there any other website functions that you need? 63 thedankoe.com/resources 38) Who is the decision maker for this project? 39) What is the typical turnaround time for making decisions? 40) Do you have a designated IT person that we need to coordinate with? 41) What other staff are involved? What are their roles? 42) What is your preferred deadline for completing the site? 43) Anything else we can help you with? Project Management Onboarding I use T rello for my onboarding process (I also use it for my coaching/consulting curriculum). If you want, you can include a link to the questionnaire INSIDE your project management board. This has become a necessary part of my business processes. It makes you seem professional to a client and everything is in one place. Here is a great video on how to structure a client’s board in Trello (this is the exact same one that I use). This one is web design - you can find one for your service by doing some research. Once they have paid you, duplicate the board that you created after following the tutorial above and invite your client to it. Creating The Website We’ve already learned how to create an amazing website quickly. There are a few things that you should do to eliminate wasted time. Build out the website how you would like (or how the client would like). If you need inspiration, look at other websites within the same niche. Take the good things from websites and make them your own. 64 thedankoe.com/resources The client should have limited say in how it looks. Your specialty is creating websites that get more customers, the more they change it, the less customers they will get from it. The onboarding questionnaire and Trello board should be more than enough to get a feel for how they want the website to look. Once you’ve done this, use the Full Page Screen Capture Chrome extension to take a screenshot of the browser window. This is your mockup, send it to them and ask for permission to continue. If the client seems super picky about how they want it to look. Have them send you websites for inspiration. Pull from those websites and use software like Figma or Adobe XD to create a mockup so you don’t spend hours redoing the actual website. If they dislike parts of it, change it and send another mockup until it is approved. Once the mockup is approved, complete the website and send them the link to review it once more. After they review and approve the completed website, all you need to do is swap over their nameservers (or do whatever it takes to get the domain name linked to their new site.) ** Pro tip - as you get more clients, you will be able to create systems to prevent this process from being repetitive. ** Take this section with a grain of salt. If you want to spend the time creating a mockup and making it perfect before you actually start creating the website, be my guest. 65 thedankoe.com/resources HOW TO NOT DO ANY OF THE WORK Yes, that’s right, you don’t have to do a lot of the work once you sign on a client. We will discuss more, but in short, this is how you transition from a freelancer to owning a business and scaling it. Having Others Do The Work For You You know how to get clients. You have a service to sell. The only downside? You can only take on so many clients each month! Or, you want to offer a service that you have no idea how to fulfill. (Because adding it would make your offer perfect) The next best option is to outsource the work. In other words, hiring someone to do it for you. This will take you from ‘freelancer/self-employed’ to ‘business owner.’ In short, you should find someone that can do great work but at a lower cost than you charge (of course). Your best bet to start would be GOOD s ellers on UpWork or Fiverr. If you don’t understand email marketing but need 5 emails for a welcome sequence made - go to UpWork and have someone write them for you. 66 thedankoe.com/resources My advice? Start freelancing on your own. Get the clients, do the work, and make notes about EVERYTHING. Create a screen recording about how you create your websites. Then, anyone can create them. The point of making notes, videos, and training about how you complete your services will keep the end product consistent. It won’t matter who you hire. 3 WAYS TO CREATE RECURRING MONTHLY INCOME Small Maintenance Retainers If you offer web design, you should ALWAYS offer to maintain, update, and host your client's website. This doesn’t require much if any work at all. Maintaining and updating means updating plugins and checking in on the site every so often to make sure it hasn’t exploded. Check on the site every week and update accordingly. 30 minutes of work a week max. I also tell the client they can call me to do minor work for them. This means updating store hours or something similar. I charge $300/month for maintenance and updates for businesses with a low budget. You can normally spot these clients out as the ones that say “I just want a simple website.” These clients are normally the easiest to land. 67 thedankoe.com/resources Imagine after 6 months when you’ve gotten a good amount of work under your belt. 10 clients at $300/month is a solid $3000 of recurring monthly income. If you want to stack offers, or offer more small maintenance retainers, you can provide services for anything under the sun. Thanks to Fiverr and other freelancing websites, there are many cheap ways to hire. For graphic design - unlimited promotional and social media content for $1000 For content writing - $1000 for monthly blog posts to help with SEO For basic SEO (no backlinking or other expensive services) $500-$600/month Again, these are arbitrary numbers. Small retainers are my favorite, compared to large retainers (which we will talk about next) because of this: If you have 10 people paying you $300/month and 1 of those people cancels their retainer, you are only out $300 dollars. If you have 3 people paying $1500+/month for marketing services, one person leaves and you are out $1500+. For other freelancers/coaches/consultants - use your imagination here. Coaches + consultants can create “micro coaching” or “accountability” offers. Coaching example: charge $500/month for unlimited text access to you. They can ask questions and you can follow up with them to keep them on track. The opportunities are endless with this. 68 thedankoe.com/resources Large Maintenance Retainers Once you land a high-quality client that can afford to pay you $2000+ for a website, sell them on a large maintenance retainer. I have done this a few times and plan to do it more often as my business grows further. Here are the prices of maintenance retainers offered by a web design competitor: Level 1 - $997/month - Reliable Backups: This can be done with a plugin. Regular Updates Super Security: Another plugin. Website Restoration: From the backup plugin. Level 2 - $1,550/month - Everything Included In Level 1 Automated Reporting: Send monthly reports for Google Analytics/Facebook Pixel for conversions Two Hours of Development Work Priority Scheduling Level 3 - $3,250/month - 69 Everything Included in Levels One and Two Monthly Strategy Calls Monthly Analysis The Ability to Grow and Evolve: Split Testing thedankoe.com/resources - Five Hours of Development Work Remember, these prices are not out of the ordinary for businesses. Think of it this way: Businesses spend thousands on insignificant items all the time. $2000 on janitorial equipment, $2000 on unhealthy snacks, and $4000 on that employee they don’t like. Having safe and secure “digital real estate” is much more important, if you can display its importance. Large Marketing Retainers Monetarily, these make sense to offer. (As a service OR upsell) Services that you can offer at $1500+ a month include: - Facebook Ads Monthly SEO/Blog articles Google Ads Email marketing/sequences You DO NOT have to learn these skills, you just have to talk your way around them with confidence in order to sell them. Once you have sold them, you can outsource the work to a trusted freelancer or agency. If you want to learn these skills, be my guest. That’s what I did. In order to outsource the work, look on Fiverr, UpWork, or find a freelancer with good reviews/case studies. Once the client has confirmed that they would like to purchase one of these services, reach out to the person you 70 thedankoe.com/resources are outsourcing to and have them take over from there. You can even make them their own business email under your business. Rank & Rent Websites Rank and rent websites are awesome, they are nearly pure passive income. The hardest thing about creating these websites is the “rank” aspect. What Is A Rank And Rent Website? These websites are normally made for a specific niche. Again, think plumbers, print shops, HVAC services, solar panel companies, etc. What you will do is create a website that gathers leads. A great example of this is a website that will give the user a quote for [HVAC services] in their area. It is just a basic site with a form that gathers emails of people that want a quote for [service]. The more leads you can gather from this website, the more you can charge a business owner each month. If you have a website that is gathering 10 leads per month of people that ACTUALLY want a specific service, businesses will pay top dollar for those leads to be sent to them. Once you “rank” the website on Google, these leads should come in organically at no cost to you. You can then charge a business a monthly rate to put their email as the one receiving the leads from the quote request form. 71 thedankoe.com/resources Depending on your niche, you can easily charge $1000-$5000/month depending on how many leads your site is getting. Once you are getting a good amount of leads (10-20/month), you can start reaching out to business owners. Start by charging them according to LTV (lifetime value) of a customer, we will discuss this in the W ays To Sell These Monthly Retainer Services later on. In short, if 1 of the leads you get from this website converts into a customer, it is worth a certain amount to a business. 1 customer that pays a business $1000 over their lifetime as a customer is worth ~$1000 to a business owner. How Do I Rank These Websites? As I said earlier, ranking these websites is the hard part. It takes a lot of SEO work. SEO means Search Engine Optimization for those unaware. Here are the main things you need to know about SEO in order for your website to rank. Use keywords wherever possible Keywords are little strings of words that search engines associate with the search term. If somebody types in “best chiropractors in Phoenix, AZ” they will find websites based on that search term (duh). 72 thedankoe.com/resources Your job is to place these keywords on your website in the right places. Here are terms that you will need to research. - Title tag / SEO title / Meta title Meta description H1, H2, and H3 tags You will want to place keywords specific to what your site offers in these areas, as well as scattered throughout your actual website text. In order to find which keywords to use, use UberSuggest, a free keyword tool by Niel Patel. Niel Patel offers some amazing resources on SEO, I highly recommend you check him out when trying to rank websites. Make consistent blog posts You will need to consistently add more keywords to your site that will bring in more traffic related to your niche. You will want to target as many “long tail keywords” as possible with these. Choose one or two long tail keywords per blog post. A long tail keyword is one that has a lower search volume (300 to 1000 searches per month) and belongs to a longer search phrase when typed into google. An example of this is: “Can I chiropractor help with neck pain” Again, I highly suggest doing some homework on this. Since this book isn’t about SEO (and I’m not very qualified when it comes to SEO), you will need to take the initiative on this one. 73 thedankoe.com/resources I am simply giving you the keys and direction towards more monthly income with this method. Backlinking Backlinks are a link back to your website from another website. If there is a chiropractic blog with a lot of monthly visitors, getting them to link to your website will work miracles on ranking you higher. It takes time to acquire a good amount of backlinks, I tend to hire somebody to do these for me. In order to get backlinks, you will need to use your copywriting skills and reach out to medium to large sized websites and ask them to link to your site. I would highly recommend hiring somebody to do this for you, it is not worth the time if you are already making some money with client work. These were some of the more important aspects of SEO. If you plan to work on your website’s SEO by yourself, please do the research. Ways To Sell These Monthly Retainer Services Some will call you crazy for charging $1500 for a marketing retainer. The keyword here is some… most businesses can and do pay for this no problem. In order to sell these services, you will again need to use the sales script from The Client Timeline section. This goes for the large marketing retainers and passive income sites. For small/large website maintenance 74 thedankoe.com/resources retainers, you should be able to hop on a call after you complete a client’s website and discuss why it would be beneficial for them to do. Selling these services can be done in multiple fashions. Before and during your sales call with a client you should be trying to diagnose what their business is struggling with. Once you understand what their business actually needs (more customers in general, brand awareness, more conversions on their website, etc.), you can offer them a service that will fix all of their problems. For example, if you find out that a prospective client wants more customers in general per month, offer them Facebook Ads or Google Ads. If you enjoy SEO more and have more connections to good freelancers in this area, offer them SEO. If a prospective client wants more conversions from their website, offer them a conversion centered website + SEO package with the option to upgrade to a paid advertisement package. You can always offer these as an upsell once you have completed their website. The Secret Persuasion Method A great method to have in your back pocket is understanding LTV and making your client understand LTV. LTV stands for the lifetime value of a client. Here is the LTV equation: (Average price a customer pays per month) x (How many months a customer stays) x (Amount of people a customer refers + 1) = LTV 75 thedankoe.com/resources So, if a gym membership costs $30/month and the average person stays at the same gym for 2 years and they refer 1 person: 30 x 24 months x 2 = $1440. With that, for every paying customer you get that gym you are making them an extra $1440. If you charge $1500 per month and can get them at least 2 customers (preferably more) than you can EASILY justify your price. With the sales script I gave you in previous sections, this shouldn’t even have to come up. Use it as a weapon in your back pocket. Packaging Your Services By now, you should have a good idea of specific services you want to offer. Create a package that will give your ideal client the tools they need to succeed. Here is an example: Basic Package: $997-$1500/month - Conversion centered website creation 2 SEO content articles a month (blog posts) Regular website backups Website security Website restoration if it goes down Premium Package: $1500-$2500/month 76 thedankoe.com/resources - Everything in the basic package 4 total SEO content articles 2 hours of development work (they can contact you to do anything on the website) SEO work (directory submission, Google My Business optimization, etc) Ultimate Growth Package: $2500-$3500/month - Everything in the premium package Google Ads or Facebook Ads PRO TIP: Make these your offers, name them something catchy. When on the sales call, start at the “ultimate package,” if that is too expensive for them, do not discount, just go down to the “premium package,” then the “basic.” These are just examples, create a package with skills you are confident in selling and go from there. ACTION PLAN: GET YOUR FIRST CLIENT Choosing A Niche You do not have to choose a niche right off the bat. You do not have to choose a niche at all if you don’t want to! The thing is, you need to pick a niche that you want to start reaching out to first and understand what they want out of their business. 77 thedankoe.com/resources If you choose personal brands, they probably want more: - Course sales Email subscribers Blog traffic Now that you understand what they want, you can tailor your services to them. If they want more course sales, create landing pages for their courses and direct traffic to those pages from the home page. For email subscribers, include an email sign up form in a few spots on their site. Create a lead magnet for them if you have to! For blog traffic, optimize their website for SEO and possibly sign them on to a retainer that will increase their blog traffic. Creating Your Portfolio There are many different ways to do this. As we talked about earlier, creating a sales page with an appointment booking option is the move. I use C arrd o r Kartra to create these quickly and seamlessly. If you choose to create a sales page, follow the guidelines in Websites That Work and create a page in Carrd. Your call to action is having them schedule a call with you. 78 thedankoe.com/resources If you choose a squeeze page, you will need to create a lead magnet to get prospects to give them your email address. The lead magnet could be something like a marketing checklist specific to their niche. You can steal the elements in Websites That Work and turn them into a good looking checklist for this. Once you have their email, you can put them into an email sequence with Convertkit. If you went with Kartra, it has a great built in email marketing tool. Alternate Route For Creating Sales Pages OR Creating Your “Fake” Portfolio Pieces Purchase Siteground Hosting I do not recommend many other hosting platforms. Siteground gives you a ton of extra perks. For those that have not set up their website yet, DO NOT pay for WordPress. Purchase Siteground, and it will give you the option to install WordPress. Install Elementor Elementor is free to install. Visit the link above to learn how to install it, or do some on creating a website with Elementor if you did not purchase the bundled version of this course. Siteground + Elementor are the ultimate tools to get started quickly with web design. 79 thedankoe.com/resources If you want to speed up your website even more, consider installing A stra Theme before you start creating pages for the site. Create a starter portfolio with around 3 websites. These can be “fake” websites for businesses that you made up. Not all of these websites need to be related to your niche. They simply need to display that you are a competent web designer. Make these look professional by looking at similar, big name websites and emulate their design patterns. Look at how they design their headers, buttons, font choices, color choices (and where they use the colors), layout choices, etc. Doing this alone will start hammering good design into your head. If you have to, read some articles or watch some YouTube videos on the current year’s design trends. You can create a full website for yourself to display these portfolio pieces, or create a landing page that displays how you can help someone grow their business through web design. The portfolio pieces are mainly to send to the client when they ask to see your previous work. Finding Clients Finding clients seems to be the most difficult thing that beginners struggle with. 80 thedankoe.com/resources This is why YOU NEED to understand what your services are worth and how they provide value to your niche. When you are reaching out to a client via DM, cold email, in person, etc. The prospective client will ONLY care about how you can help them. Your main goal of initial outreach is to get them on a phone call so you can display your value. Consistency is key here. Reach out to potential clients EVERYDAY, especially if you are just starting out. If you don’t have much time one day, send 5 messages and don’t beat yourself up about it. If you have a lot of free time one day, send out 100+ messages on different channels! (cold email, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) CLOSING WORDS You now have the knowledge to build your own business from scratch. If you consistently work on client outreach, building referral networks, and providing valuable websites, everything else will follow. In terms of building the actual websites and/or doing something what you do not know how to do I can point you in the right direction but it would be much quicker to find YouTube tutorials on building WordPress websites. Now… listen, there may be some things (unrelated to this book) that you still have NO IDEA how to do. Things will come up where you freak out a bit because you don’t know how to do it. My answer to this: figure it out. 81 thedankoe.com/resources I’m not saying this to leave you drowning in the middle of the ocean, I’m saying this because “figuring things out” has changed my life. Whenever I encounter something that I want to do but don’t know how to, I literally just start working on it. You’d be amazed how much you can learn just by doing. If you have a question when you are doing client work, google it. It is literally as simple as that. You have the foundation, now is the time where you go and start finding clients! 82 thedankoe.com/resources