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Dan Koe - The one person business roadmap

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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 :)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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“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
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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.”
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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
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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.
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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:
-
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Cold calling
Cold email
Facebook messenger
LinkedIn
Video proposal
DM Questionnaire
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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.
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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:
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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?”
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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
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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​.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.”
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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.
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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
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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.
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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:
-
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Networking events
LinkedIn/Facebook (prospect and send a message about your 10%
referral incentive)
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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.
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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.
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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
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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?”
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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?”
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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?”
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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
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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
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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”
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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.
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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)
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
-
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Everything Included in Levels One and Two
Monthly Strategy Calls
Monthly Analysis
The Ability to Grow and Evolve: Split Testing
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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
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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-
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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