How to Sell Blog Posts Before You Write Them

Most of my clients are internet marketing firms. Once I do a few gigs for them, I kind of get a feel for the type of material they want. Instead of being a reactive blog writer, I’m learning to become more proactive. And, this is how you sell blog posts before you write them.

3 Proactive Ways to Sell Your Blog Posts

1. Existing Clients: With existing clients, I use an old freelance writing tactic (querying) to sell to clients. Once I get a feel for the type of content they want, I’ll send a list of topics I think they’d be interested in for future posts.

This has worked particularly well with one client. I write 9 posts a week for him. In between, I’ll propose different topics and he’ll usually respond in one or two ways, “Yeah, let’s run with those.” Or, “Let’s hold off; I may order these later.”

2. Current Events: Current events are another way to presell blog posts. And, you can do this with old clients, or while prospecting for new ones.

For example, one site I write for intermittently is ad-driven. So, when a hot topic hits the news (eg, gas-saving tips, home foreclosures or democratic presidential nominee, for example), I’ll send a quick list of proposed article topics to this client, asking if they can use traffic-driving content on any of these topics.

Marketing Tip: This is why freelance web writers should stay well read. It makes you look uber professional and smart to clients – and this leads to more business.

3. Recycle Existing Content: I have one client that I write industry-specific abstracts for. They’re an internet marketing firm and to drive content to their site, they pay me to write abstracts of articles that appear in industry-leading publications.

This not only drives traffic to their site, it keeps their clients up to date and builds their prestige as well. In essence, their site becomes a resource.

How can you capitalize on this? If you write in a niche, offer abstracts of articles to your clients. The wonderful thing about abstracts is that they can be as little as 100 words. Most are in the 200-300 word range though.

The Best Way to Presell Online Content

The best way to presell content is to make it a value-driven proposition for clients. Offer them new ways of doing business – probably ways that they hadn’t even thought of yet. The takers will thank you for it – over and over again in new orders.

Good luck!