So you’ve been freelancing for a while now and built up a decent collection of regular clients. But your revenue has leveled out.
What can you do to increase your freelance income?
Here are 7 strategies that experienced freelancers can use to push their business to the next level.
#1 Create An Upsell
Let’s say you’ve got a good thing going designing logos, writing blog posts, creating videos, or doing whatever it is that you do.
Well, the next step is to create an add-on to your already successful service. Something to upsell to customers who are already committed to hiring you.
Here are some examples to give you the idea:
- Sell on-page SEO audits? Offer to white label the report for a small fee.
- Sell voiceover videos? Upsell an extra version with a different voice actor profile.
- Sell blog posts? Include a royalty-free image as an add-on.
Even if these upsells only add an extra 5 or 10 dollars to a service, and even if only 10 percent of your customers actually go for them, that is still extra income that adds up over time.
#2 Add a New Service
In addition to adding upsells to your existing services, another straightforward method of increasing your freelance income is offering new services that your existing customer base already needs.
Let’s say you are a web designer, for example, whose primary service is building fresh websites from scratch. A portion of those same clients will probably eventually be interested in improving their page load speed, integrating e-commerce, and similar solutions that are likely in your wheelhouse.
If you are multi-talented or willing to learn, you can even add services that are very different from your norm.
There is no reason that a logo designer, for example, can’t learn how to build foundation links. Most clients looking for a new logo are probably building a new website. So if you can also build their new site’s foundation links, why not?
#3 Bundle Your Services
If you are offering multiple related services, you can bundle them together into a single package to entice customers to order them all at once.
The key is to bundle services that the same customer is likely to want at the same time. Offer your clients a small discount when they order a blog post and some backlinks to go with it, for example, and you’ll likely see an increase in your revenue over time.
Premium users on Legiit can employ this strategy easily by creating a combo offer from their services dashboard. Check out the video below to see how it’s done.
#4 Offer Consultation
Depending on what you offer and how much of a name you have built for yourself, consulting work is a great way to supplement your existing freelance income. As an added bonus, you will meet some pretty cool people along the way.
For example, maybe you have become a trusted name in the field of press release distribution.
You probably have a wealth of experience with getting businesses more media exposure. And there are plenty of people who are willing to pay you for your time just to get your professional opinion on their current strategies.
#5 Sell An Information Product
Of course, the problem with consulting is that it inherently carves time out of your schedule. Consultation is generally paid by the hour, after all.
The good news is that you can share your wisdom with the world without eating away at your precious hours. All you need is an information product, like an e-book or online course.
The upfront time you invest in creating your info product will more than pay for itself over time because once it is created every sale is literally passive income.
Related: 4 Information Products To Sell As A Freelancer
#6 Run A Ridiculous Deal
It sounds counterintuitive, but you can increase your revenue in the long term by drastically reducing your prices in the short term.
This strategy can be especially useful if you have been working with the same few clients for a while but are having trouble picking up new ones.
All you have to do is run a very enticing deal. To paraphrase The Godfather, make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Set up a coupon code that cuts your prices in half, for example (or maybe even more). Create a sense of FOMO by limiting the number of uses.
The goal is to get a flood of orders from new customers. Even if you don’t make much profit from the sale immediately, you will have likely earned another regular customer or two.
#7 Raise Your Prices
On the other side of the coin, you can also increase your freelance income simply by raising your prices.
There are some caveats to this strategy, though, so you’ve got to approach it with the right frame of mind.
First, you’ve got to charge what you are worth. If your current prices are lower than your competition’s, but you are offering equal value, raising your fees can be a good tactic if you have a solid, loyal customer base.
Additionally, raising your prices will sometimes cost you customers. That is okay, though, as long as your revenue ends up in a similar or better place. This means you have freed up time in your schedule that you will then be able to devote to higher paying clients in the future.
The Best Way To Keep Your Income Flat Is To Do Nothing
If you are content where you are at, don’t do a thing.
But if you really want to see your revenues increase, you have to take action.
We’ve laid out 7 strategies for how to increase your freelance income. Now it’s on you to do the work and make the magic happen.
Get to it!
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