Category: Solopreneur Journey

I’m showing my age here, but the first computer I owned was a ZX Spectrum with a massive 48K of memory. I told my Grandma about my new computer when we visited on Boxing day.

Not really getting how awesome it is to play Manic Miner she said something to me that just popped into my mind whilst thinking about some of the Chat GPT integrations I’m working on.

As an aside I’ve found the Fuse Emulator and I’m reliving my teenage years playing Level 9 Text based adventure games (Snowball anyone?).

Ooh, that’s nice you can tell it to do your your homework for you.

Vera Matthews nee Whitehead- Neil’s Grandma

We had a laugh trying to explain to her that you had to code up a solution to output data, you cannot just prompt the computer with what you need and it will output it for you. Even as a teenager I was being a tech evangelist.

38 years later and I’m giving my dear departed Grandma an apology, yes I can tell my computer what I need and it will do my homework and my real work for me.

The advent of AI and systems like Chat GPT means I can do exactly that. Tell a computer what to do and it will output your homework solution.

This roundabout story is helping me get to the point of this post, am I a developer or am I going to have to become a prompter?

I’ve written my own AI WordPress developer, I’ll wait while you check it out so you can see where I’m going with this post.

Am I going to become a Freelance WordPress prompter?

Chat GPT has access to all the WordPress code manuals, it has gobbled up tens of thousands of code samples from sites such as stackoverflow.com here’s an example I was looking at yesterday. AI has full knowledge of how to code WordPress solutions.

The problem is NOT that Chat GPT knows how to code, but it doesn’t know WHAT to code.

The quality of the code Chat GPT outputs is great, and I have used it for custom coding project my clients have requested. The only limitation is the ability to tell the AI developer what code you need. This is called a prompt.

So if AI can write the code am I becoming a prompter?

Will my job change to become the person that tells the AI what is needed, validate the code created and implements and test that code?

The WordPress Prompter Job Description

Here’s what a job description for a freelance WordPress prompter could look like:

• Ability to manage a WordPress development project
• Must have a thorough and deep understanding of all WordPress technologies
• Ability to write and test prompts to output quality code
• Know how to implement the code the AI generates
• Know how to test code before moving to production
• Have a trained AI assistant that knows how to output WordPress code

We still need people with a deep understanding of a technology, we will still need to do our 10,000 hours learning to be experts, but rather than know how to code up a solution, we just need to understand what a technology does, what it’s functions are.

A perfect example of this thinking happened yesterday, I was coding up a custom rewrite, in future I’ll not need to know how to code a custom rewrite, only that custom rewrites exist, what they do and how to use a custom re-write.

We still need techies with a deep understanding of the technology, but that knowledge will be used in a different way.

We’ll move away from being developers to managers of one, delegating tasks to our AI developer, then implementing their output.

Other Industries Will Need Prompters

This is not just the web development world that will need to adapt, another example that jumps to mind is my oldest daughter who is currently at University studying photography.

AI is pretty good at creating photorealistic images, but we’ll still need people to prompt the AI with focal length, composition and other techy photography stuff I just don’t understand that does into creating an amazing “photograph”, is that her future as a photography prompter?

I believe it is, humans that understand what a good photo is and can tell the robots what is required.

Human Creativity – AI Labour

We’ll start to use our innate human creativity to imagine and build things and the labour will be done by robots.

To me this feels like a step forward, we can use the technology to do the grunt work, and focus on the creative part of the work, what will the site do and what will it look like.

Wrap Up – AM I A Developer Or A Prompter?

I’m pretty optimistic about the future and AI, I’m jumping on this band wagon early and learning the tech behind it.

I’m going to be able to code more quickly, and focus on the big picture of site development.

I’ll use chat GPT to do the heavy lifting then my human brain refines, validates and implements the code.

What are your thoughts, are we heading toward a dystopian future or do we need to start building AI VAs to help us do our jobs?

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

I’ve got a bit of a gripe! When I start a new online conversation, I expect them to use the channel the conversation started on, not flip over to another medium of their choosing.

Picture the scenario, I’ve posted a job on Upwork or I’ve created a post on LinkedIn saying I need something. In my mind I want replies to come through to that channel. I can group all the replies together in one place and make up my mind, but oh no, some people need to move to a different mode of communication.

People will spend time jumping to my site, grabbing my email address (which is public) or hitting my up via my contact form. I don’t like it, can you kindly stop doing that.

I Get It You Want To Stand Out

I understand that you want to rise above the noise and be seen as a more responsive person. but it’s seriously doing you damage in my eyes.

There are no gatekeepers in my business, I’m a solopreneur, you don’t need to try that hard, you’ll be speaking to me when you reply on Upwork or on the socials. The same me that answers the emails or, God forbid the phone …

Don’t Get Me Started On Phone Calls

Dude, if you phone me out of the blue to talk about a job I posted on Upwork so you can circumvent the fees paid there, you are going straight on the naughty list.

I dislike the phone as a communication medium most of the time and I like to book calls into my diary so I’m well prepared for them.

Phone calls are synchronous and demand all of my time, don’t you think it’s a bit rude to demand my attention like that?

I much prefer asynchronous communication for my work, but when you intrude on my day and demand my attention via a phone call instead of replying where the conversation started you are probably not going to get anything from me.

If We Have A Connection Already, Disregard The Above

If we already have a connection these rules don’t apply to you, If I have already establish a relationship with a person, them I’m cool for them to email or communicate outside of the channel.

For example lots of my contacts will hit me up via email to discuss my blog posts after they are published or share on social , a great example is my recent LCA post.

I don’t mind this it’s just new connections I object to channel hopping.

Wrap Up – Stay On Target

If I start a conversation on channel X, it’s because I want to communicate on channel X it’s a simple as that, can we stay there please.

That’s my rant over, what are your thoughts on this type of channel hopping, do you think it’s a good thing or does it bug you too?

I’m lovely to work with really, I just like to get stuff off my chest 🙂

Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash

I’m tinkering with an idea for 2024 that I’m calling the Loosely Coupled Agency, let me tell you a little more about it.

I ran an agency called WP Dude as some of my dear readers will know. I built up the recurring revenue in that business and was able to sell it, but the things was I hated running an agency, the stress of bringing in enough work to cover payroll each month and the hand holding of team members was not something I relished.

So why am I talking about building an agency again? I want to build something new that brings together a bunch of people with my work ethic that will enable me to scale by taking on more work without the stress of a traditional agency where I have full time employees.

Enter the Loosely Coupled Agency (LCA)

This idea is based around concepts from a book that is no longer available to buy called Noded, an LCA is a group of freelancers that come together to work on a project as if they were an agency.

No-one member of the LCA is in charge, there is no boss, we are a collective of equals. But there is leadership on a project basis.

One person becomes the project manager when they win a project and parts of the project are sub-contracted to other members of the LCA.

The individual members of the LCA take on their work and deliver it with excellence.

We don’t hide the fact these people are not working for a traditional agency. They are trusted sub contractors.

There is no obligation for members of the LCA to accept a project. Thy run their own businesses and have their own priorities and availability. This needs to be taken into account so redundancy needs to be built into the LCA, have two web designers for example.

We don’t mark up other people’s time to make a profit. We add some project management costs at our own personal rate.

The financials are not hidden to members of the LCA, the books are open on a project by project basis.

Here are some pointers I’ve cut and pasted from the Noded e-book.

• Long term personal goals. Short term organisational goals.
• Individual values, vision and culture. The combination of them is put to the test in every project.
• Rotating leadership (Noded teams have structure and “hierarchy” but it changes from project to project)
• Equal team membership

The Skills I Need in my LCA

I’m a WordPress developer obviously and I get projects around building sites, but there are a bunch of skills I don’t have that go into building a site.

I get asked to refer graphic designers, web designers and SEO people all the time. There are also parts of WordPress dev projects I’m not that keen on doing and sometimes struggle tech skills wise. Those are the skills I need to bring into my network.

I don’t have these contacts (seo for example) so I’m looking to build an LCA that includes these missing skills

So my LCA will contain

• Back end developer – me
• Front end developer – me, and I would like to outsource this more
• SEO specialist – I don’t do this and I’m often asked about this.
• SEM specialist – A specialist in online marketing to raise the awareness of a site, think ads, social media marketing that type of things
• Graphic Designer – someone who can create images, logos and other graphic designs.
• Web Designer – someone who can create designs for websites and then hand them over to the back end / front end developer, note Graphic Designer and Web Designer could be the same person.

Wrap Up – The Loosley Coupled Agency

If you are interested in learning more I would be happy to “lend” you a copy of my Noded e-book for you to read, get in touch if you do. It’s not in print anymore and you can’t buy and download it so I can’t imagine the authors would have any problems with me doing that.

If you are a freelancer with the skills I need to refer also get in touch.

The popular opinion out there for freelancers is that you need to niche. Be more specific, create a very focused offer, target your marketing to your niche. I’m going against this perceived wisdom I’m De-Niching.

This all makes it easier to sell your services and is good advice but, it’s not working for me. Neil the contrarian will tell you why.

I niched about a year ago, and decided I would only offer WooCommerce services to new clients, I like working with eCommerce sites and I thought it was the type of work I wanted to offer.

Look back at that paragraph, what’s wrong? I, I, I, no mention of my client’s and their needs.

Why I’m De-Niching

So why am I going against the popularly held opinion that you need to niche, well there are a number of reasons.

My Client List

I’ve been working as a freelance WordPress developer since 2008. I have a large client list, many of the people on that list do no need WooCommerce service. I’m doing those people a disservice by not catering for their needs.

The word “client” comes from the Latin word cliens. This word is a variant of the word cluens. It means “hear or obey”

We need to listen to our client’s needs. My niching has estranged me from a large number of my long term clients. My marketing and blog posts were focused around WooCommerce, a lot of that hard work marketing was falling on deaf ears.

I had client’s coming to me asking “Are you still only working with WooCommerce stores?”, that was never my intention, I always wanted to work with my existing clients, my plan was to attract new clients who were interested in Woo.

I need to get back to serving my best resource, my existing list.

It’s Boring

The beauty of working in a more generic way is the breadth of different types of projects I get to work on.

Doing the same thing over and over again has no appeal to me, I was thinking about a very specific, high value offer (that’s what the courses tell you to do) but the idea of doing that over and over again does not appeal to me.

Writing about the very small niche in blog posts becomes dull as dishwater very quickly.

I love the idea that I don’t know what the next project will entail.

It’s Not Working

I was NOT getting a huge amount of WooCommerce work, the work that was coming to me from existing clients was generally not Woo, the referrals I was getting again, no Woo.

The projects I was getting for WooCommerce was coming from sources like Upwork, generally not the best place to find projects, they are a race to the bottom on price.

You Can Still Niche In A Way

I’m using a new way to niche without turning my back on my existing clients, I call it what I’m working on right now.

I’m really into integrating WordPress and Chat GPT, I can offer this to my clients and get the benefits of the I, I, I niching whilst still offering general development services

When I need a change and I’m enjoying working on the next shiny thing I can change the what I’m working on now section of my site.

Check out the “WHAT I’M WORKING ON RIGHT NOW!” section on my home page.

So What Am I Now?

I’m am what I have always been. I’m a freelance WordPress developer, I’m not a WooCommerce developer, I’m not a WordPress consultant (my client’s need a developer not a consultant) just a common all garden WordPress developer who is really good at his job, see my testimonials.

Wrap Up – I’m De-Niching

So if you need ANY help with you WordPress site, not just WooCommerce I’m available.

Hop over to the de-niched work with me page and let me know how I can hear or obey you (I’ll listen but I cannot promise to obey that’s a step too far).

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash seo dance I’m De-Niching.

Introduction – Audit Your Automations

I had a harsh realisation the other day that one of my most important marketing automations was not running.

It was an “Oh F@ck!” realisation. It’s an automation that I rely upon to keep my pipeline full of new projects.

The last few months have been much slower than normal so I was having a snoop around my marketing machine to see if anything was wrong, then bam! I saw it, my CRM automations were disabled.

I use a tool called One Page CRM to reach out to past clients every few months, I have an automation in place that does this for me on autopilot, I realised this has been switched off more than a year!

My internal post mortem

I took on a long term project that ended up lasting 18 months, I found that I was turning away clients that I had reached out to via this automation and offered to work with them, I didn’t have the capacity so this was not a good look. I disabled the automation and promptly forgot I had done it.

I thought those same people were in my email list and they were getting my regular content marketing emails, and that would serve as a way to be in contact with people on a regular basis. It turns about about 70% of my previous clients are not on my content marketing list, they have opted out of were never added to that email list.

My past client list are the most important people, they know like and trust me, they have paid for my services and usually come back for more. These people have not heard from me for more than a year. No wonder things were slow.

What’s the solution?

I’ll cautiously start to reach out to everyone on my list, I’ll do this manually at first making sure they still want me to contact them, then I’ll restart my automations.

Long term I’ll put a reminder in my calendar to review my automations every six months to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Wrap Up – Audit Your Automations

It’s all well and good to automate the processes in your business, it’s something I advocate, but I’m going to add a new mantra “always be auditing your automations”.

I’m furious with myself, has this ever happened to anyone else, they think they have a slick automated marketing funnel but it’s not running.

Onwards and upwards as they say.

If you are looking for a WordPress developer why not think about working with me.

Photo by Aimee Vogelsang on Unsplash

I’ve been running a paid advertising test on YouTube to see if it’s a good way to attract clients into my service business. Here’s a blog post on my results.

Big Fat Lonely Zero

I would love to say that I’m rolling in clients due to my ad spend on YouTube but I can tell you, dear reader I got nothing but a bill from Google.

No email signups, no leads, absolutely nothing. Wait! That’s not quiet correct, I got a lot of click throughs to my site that generate nothing. I don’t want to sound bitter about this experiment, because we need to test these things, but it was 100% a failure.

I know you are a little disappointed and were looking for that key to building a killer sales funnel, but YouTube does not seem to the traffic source you need to sell services.

My Thinking Behind Running YouTube Ads

YouTube can be thought of as a a search engine, it’s not just an algorithm throwing cute cat video at you.

How many times have you done to YouTube, how to I change the widget on my 2008 version of a car, and some expert has recorded a how to video.

I thought I could link with people searching for how to videos to build their sites and convince them to hire me instead. By was I wrong 🙂

How I Planned To Convert The Traffic

I used a series of different funnels to see if I could capture peoples email addresses from a click on YouTube and then convert them using an email sequence. Here’s what I tried

A webinar – I sent people to this webinar landing page to teach people about the 5 pillars of optimization so people can earn more money from their WooCommerce store, no signups.

My free code generator – I tried to sell the AI story that we can all code using AI, nope nobody wanted to enter their email address to get free code.

A squeeze page to VSL – I went old school and had a Video Sales Letter (VSL) to sell my service, no email addresses for me.

UPDATE – I was running YouTube ads as a more scalable way to try and attract new clients, in my mind it’s faster and more scalable than content marketing.

What I Found From This Experiment

I got loads of traffic, YouTube will give you that. My analytics showed people stayed for next to no time and clicked back to their videos.

I got loads of shite traffic from display networks. YouTube runs their ads on other people sites, and they can earn money via Adsense for clicks

There is no way to limit ads being shown on the display network and as a result I was getting people from sites like:

• https://animal.mamamath.net/
• https://www.poemhunter.com/
• https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/
• https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/

None of these are related to my services and it looks like I was probably getting bot clicked for ad revenue.

YouTube Is The Biggest TV Station In The World

Service providers, think of YouTube as a TV network, no one wants the ads just like traditional TV.

People are there to be entertained or find how to videos to do it themself, not find and hire people.

Wrap Up

I’m licking my wounds and moving on from YouTube advertising, it didn’t work for me, so onto the next shiny objec.. ooh look a squirrel.

As a side note I sent a single email to my list of existing client’s and generated loads of work, it’s easier to sell to people that know, like and trust you rather than selling to a cold person on YouTube.

I think YouTube will work with people selling how to training, I just don’t think it’s the place to sell services.

If you would like to work with me to build your WooCommerce store, let’s use the tried and test content marketing approach by adding a link to my hire me page at the end of my content.

Photo by Christine Roy on Unsplash

I’ve been pondering AI for some time since I first saw Chat CPT and Dal-e in action, and I was wondering how I could use these technologies in my own business.

It occurred to me that I could use AI to answer questions to people at scale and use that as a customised lead magnet, people supply me with their details and AI answers their questions.

I capture their details, the site visitor asks me a technical question and I use AI to answer it.  I then build my list of potential customers who need solutions to problems I have the skills to solve.

What Is A Lead Magnet

Traditionally a lead magnet is where someone will hand over their name and email address for access to a PDF download, a white paper,  a webinar or other video presentation.

They provide their details for value, with the understanding there will probably be sales messages down the line.  It’s up to us as marketers to strike a balance between ongoing value via blog posts or videos  and sales messages as another part of that deal is the unsubscribe button.

The traditional lead magnet is a single piece of information that all subscribers get.  What I’m proposing is that we use the power of AI to generate custom value for each site visitor.

What Have I Created?

So I’ve created an AI lead magnet for my Woo Ace business that supplies people with code snippets to solve specific WooCommerce coding problems.

They ask “change the label of the add to cart button to buy now” and I supply the code snippet and a quick video on how to implement that code as a lead magnet.  When I say I, I mean AI.

I offer to validate and implement the code for a fee as a back end service.

I’m using gravity forms to collect their details and their natural language request.  I then pass that to a back end script I’ve custom coded.  This interrogates the Chat GPT AI and returns the results it finds.

I present those results to my site visitor and also send them and email with the same results and a YouTube video on how to implement the code.

Their name and email details are saved in my email provider and I’m currently writing a follow up email sequence to market my services to them.

It’s All In The Prompt

What I’ve learned is that Chat GPT is a massive repository of information and the key to getting that correct info out is the right prompt, so mixing up a persons question and my own experience of building prompts we can get a decent outcome.

You are probably thinking a person could get the same results from the Chat GPT home page, that’s true but my experience honing the prompt to get the right code snippet is the value I’m adding here.

Video Demo

Here’s a demo of my WooCommerce Code Generator, you can trial it yourself over at https://wooace.com/woocommerce-code-generator

Why The Leads Generated Are Valuable

The leads I get from this are valuable in a number of ways:

• I’m finding people who have WooCommerce stores.
• I’m finding people who are not WooCommerce developers (developers don’t need AI creating code for them, they ask stack overflow 🙂 ).
• I’m finding people who don’t have in house developers, or they would ask them how to write this code snippet.
• I’m qualifying those leads by inviting people who don’t have the technical skills to implement the code (even after I’ve shown them a video how to) to get in touch.

These in turn are great prospects to upsell my WooCommerce webmaster plans to.

Is It Working?

The jury is still out, but my initial gut feeling is yes.

I’m running cold traffic to the page via YouTube ads and I’m seeing lots of clicks to my landing page and sign ups, so my list is building.

I’m not seeing any sales yet, but its’ early days and I’ve not built a decent follow up sequence yet.

Am I Worried I’ll Be Out Of A Job?

In short, no.  The current iteration of AI is only good enough to code up small solutions, it can’t handle big coding problems that require a lot of thought and development skills, in the future I can see future AI models replacing the grunt work of creating code but they will always need a developer to create the prompt to get that code.

We’ll be WooCommerce prompters not WooCommerce developers in future.  We’ll need a set of skills to understand how to prompt but not how to code, but that’s for another blog post.

You can use my AI tool to develop code, but if you don’t have the technical chops to implement that, then you will still need a developer, which is exactly the introductory service I’m offering to people who use the generator.

Would You Be Interested In Exploring An AI Lead Magnet

I would love to speak to anyone our there who sees the potential in this type of lead magnet, creating customised value at scale for site visitors is a great use of Chat GPT.

Perhaps we can work together to develop a lead magnet for another industry sector, please get in touch for a free consultation.

Photo by Maximalfocus on Unsplash

When I find that I have a recurring task in my business I like to do what I call a DSA test, to see if I can I DROP, SYSTEMISE or AUTOMATE that task.

Too often we unconsciously do the work without thinking “Are we doing it in the most efficient way”, OR do we even need to be doing that work at all, that’s where a DSA  test comes in.

In this post I want to explain my DSA test.

Drop

Is this work really important, do I even need to do it?

Perhaps I’ve been told I need to post on Instagram two times a day, I am religiously doing that and spending time away from my core business to feed the social media monster.

If I was doing a DSA on the grams (as the kids say)  I would ask myself has any business come from Instagram, if not this is an instant drop in my book, that activity brings nothing to the bottom line so I should stop doing it or DROP it.

If the answer was yes it is bringing value to my business, I ask can I DROP it onto another person, can I outsource it or delegate it to a team member.

This  ties in with the next step …

Systemise

I like to look at my recurring tasks and say can I systemise this task.

When I systemise a task I’m looking to do it in the most efficient way possible.  I’m looking to do it the same way each time so I have the same high quality on each cycle of the task.

Examples of systemising in my business are my quote process, and my service delivery process, I have a set procedure and email sequences to make sure I do that in the same way each time.

I can also use this system to train another person to do that work for me.  Delegation or outsourcing comes into play.

If we go back to the Instagram scenario, I can create a system to create a post, upload it, check metrics and respond to comments on the Insta (as the too cool for skool kids say).

When I’m systemising, I’ll grab a sheet of paper and knock out a flow chart of how the work is done, can I improve that process and systemise the whole thing.  I’ll include any software used, touch points where messaging needs to be sent for example..  If I’m outsourcing work I like to create screen sharing videos.

This is all packaged up as an operating procedure.  This might sounds grand and a bit unnecessary if you are a solopreneur, but I have processes on my wall, just for me, which are hand written flow charts just to remind myself how things are done

And yes is is spelled systemise, there is no zee in the UK thank you very much.

Automate

Probably my favourite part of the process, I’m an automation fiend, I love to complete or partially  automate parts of my process.

I like to look at a step in my process and say can I use software to automate that rather than do that manually.

Here’s an example in my quote process, rather than type in the name, company, email details for a new quote, when someone completes my “work with me form”, I send those details to a service called Zapier, where I have a zap that connects to my FreshBooks software and creates a blank estimate filled with the persons contact details ready for me to type in the costing.

That saves me five minutes per quote, multiply that by the thousands of quotes I have sent out over the years and that small piece of automation has saved me hours of work.  That time can then be converted to billable work or higher value tasks in my business.

Wrap Up – Drop Systemise Automate

I’m a tiny business.  There is me and and some VAs working with me, but using corporate standard operating procedure thinking can help to optimize the work done in your business.

What could you DROP, SYSTEMISE or AUTOMATE?

Need help with the automating part give me a shout.

Photo by Phillip Glickman on Unsplash

I’m thinking about starting a new remote work training community, it’s going to be called “Be The Best Remote Worker You Can Be”.

I think remote work will be the norm for some time to come due to the current erm “situation” and having the best skills to do that work will make you stand out.

Even when we are allowed out of lock down, people will have seen the benefits of remote work and there will not be a clamour to resume the daily commute to play office politics, remote work is here to stay in my opinion.

That’s why I think remote work training would be useful.

Why I’m qualified to build this community

I’ve been working remotely full time for more than 10 years (since May 2008 to be exact).

I’ve delivered thousands of projects to my clients, and I’ve only met one of them physically in all that time.

I’ve built a 100% remote team to deliver service to clients so I understand the challenges of managing a remote team.

I understand the mentality, tools and skills needed to be an effective remote worker.

What I think this community looks like

It’s a members only community with online training modules and a forum to ask questions.

I’ve brainstormed some of the training modules (see below) but this will evolve over time as I see the problems people are having.

• Building Your Workspace
• Communication touch points (probably the most important skill to learn)
• Managing Your Workload (covering overload and underload)
• The self discipline of remote work
• Tools for remote work
• Working in a shared space (kids, spouse)
• Remote work / life divide (not balance, divide)
• The remote manager

Who Is This Community For?

It’s for people working in a digital role that can be performed remotely, online over the internet.

It’s for people who have been told to remote work due to the pandemic.

Interested?

At the moment I’m judging interest in this community and I would ask you to complete this form if you are interested in learning to  “Be The Best Remote Worker You Can Be”.

[gravityform id=”140″ title=”false” description=”false”]

Photo Credit: trendingtopics Flickr via Compfight cc

Giving Upwork Another Go

I’m currently giving Freelancer job boards another go. This is something I have sworn off many years ago, so why am I giving Upwork another go?

Race To The Bottom

Freelancer sites always felt like a race to the bottom in my mind. Cheap clients looking to offshore to the cheapest possible service providers.

How can I compete on cost against WordPress developers in India or the Philippines where there cost of living is so much less than mine.

When I submitted proposals I got little response, my proposal was lost in the sea of other replies.

My Hiring Bias

I’ve recruited from these sites before and the deluge of cookie cutter and frankly shite replies really turned me off from the sites.

When I posted a job I would get hundreds of barely qualified responses.  These freelancers and agencies setup automated replies and treat prospecting like a numbers game.  The more proposals for low cost services I can sling out the more chance they will get a hit.

I don’t want to work in that infrastructure.

I have A Client Roster

I have my own roster of clients I can market to directly so why would I need to get new one? Simple my clients don’t always need WordPress support service from me and there are times (like now) where the top of my funnel is sparse.

There is a freelancer feast and famine cycle and I’m not in famine, but I need a little snack.

I don’t want you to feel sorry for me, I have Q1 2020 fully booked I have always enough reserves in the bank and I have enough work on my books to see me through, but I always like to have a full funnel.  It makes me feel more secure.

I need a constant trickle of new clients coming into the top of my funnel to keep my client roster full and that’s what I’m using Upwork for.  I’m trying to fill my books for the rest of the year.

Paid Advertising

I tried some paid advertising but that is notoriously hard and expensive to get new service clients.  You need to build long nurturing sequences and lead magnets.  It’s a lot of hard work and it’s expensive

I’ve got some work this way but at a cost.  I know this work is an investment, once I have a new client I can market to them for almost nothing but there is still a substantial up front cost.

Nurturing Exiting Clients

I have this down pat, weekly blog articles to keep me at the top of my clients minds. I have an automated email reach out every 90 days to check in to see if you need my help.

But if my existing client base does not have any requirements for me, then no number of emails will fill that funnel.

Why I’m Giving It Another Go

I read a book The Million Dollar Freelancer: Work From Home, Set Your Own Hours & Become Rich.  In it the author, Daniel Hall was advocating using freelancer sites and in particular the market leader Upwork (which was formed by the merger of two sites oDesk and Elance) to get new work.

It was at this point I shouted “effing bollocks!” at Daniel Hall via my Kindle (my wife looked up and gave me that has he eventually lost it look).  Everyone with a few weeks of freelancing experience knows these sites are rubbish, don’t they?

I was about to abandon his book then, but I decided to carry on to see what he had to say and I’m glad I did. His recommendation was to treat the prospecting process much more professionally.  Here are my takeways from Daniels book.

Go Where The Jobs Are

Freelancer sites are where the work is at.  Clients are actively seeking freelancers.  They have projects that need to be done.

My reluctance to go to these and being aloof is like a gold miner going to the Jewellers to get gold rather than grabbing his pick and shovel and starting to dig in the mine that is upwork.

Niche Down

I’m not searching for generic WordPress jobs, I’m looking to niche down on Upwork and solve the tricky problems that not many people can solve.

I’m looking for jobs on WordPress performance tuning.  One of my specialities.  It’s hard work, and as a results attracts premium prices.

I can stand out above the crowd by niching down like this.

Treat Your Proposal Like A Landing Page

I was also guilty of sending generic proposals, and that’s probably why I had little response.

But a take away I took from the book was to treat your proposal more like a landing page, answer objections, show social proof then tailor your proposal to each job.

Here’s what I’m doing:

1. Created a very flexible template I can modify to each job
2. Added a client testimonial to the proposal and link to my full range of testimonial;s
3. Show my expertise in performance tuning with links to my site
4. Create a video audit of performance tuning and upload that to YouTube
5. Create a custom response to their proposal

So this comes from a template but is highly customised per project.

How I’m finding Work

I’m approaching this like a professional sales process.  Leads come in that need to be qualified and then a detailed and tailored proposal is created.  From that a sales call is made.

This will take a lot of time. so I needed to add a little automation.

I’ve setup a search in Upwork for keywords that suggest someone needs help speeding up their WordPress site.

From that I can get an RSS feed

I’ev posted that RSS feed in Zapier so when there are new leads an automation is created

I created a new Trello board, the new leads are placed into that board and I movede them through the lists new lead, proposal sent, interview/sales call,  proposal won, proposal lost or rejected.

I can move my leads through a process much more smoothly.

Results When Giving Upwork Another Go

I’m impressed, this morning when I woke up I had 13 “leads” in my Trello board. I spent a good hour filtering and creating proposals for these leads, it has not cost me anything like paid ads, only my time.

I did the same thing yesterday and I have two sales calls setup.  I’m, happy with that result.

Filtering Is Important

A lot of the leads are poor.  They are bringing back hits that have nothing to do with my skills, a quick scan and I move these cards to my rejected column in Trello.

Then I looked at the prices and request, some were too low or the job too big for the payment offered. These were moved to rejected.

Then there are the job specs that make you spidey sense tingle, you can tell who will be a pain in the ass to work with “You will need to share your screen with me” or “I need pizzaz”.  go with your gut and filter those jobs.

For the rest I move them to proposal sent and create a custom proposal for the project.

Eating Sh1t While I Build  My Portfolio

Your work history is gold on these platforms.  I currently don’t have any feedback or portfolio and as a result Upwork is taking a big slice of my fees, there is a sliding scale when you are new to prove yourself which comes down as you do more work.

I need to build that portfolio and body of clients   Daniel talks about this and 10 jobs with 5 stars positive feedback is the goal, from there things get beter

Eventually I can move them out of the Upwork infrastructure into my standard client roster, but until that point it’s a little painful.

Resilience Is Key When Giving Upwork Another Go

Another thing Daniel Hall said in his book was this takes time.  You will need to send a lot of proposals at first.

Once you have built momentum then you start to get private invites to jobs and don’t need to jump through the proposal hoops.

Wrap Up – Giving Upwork Another Go

I’m quietly confident this new approach to prospecting on Upwork will help me fill my funnel.

The advice from the book The Million Dollar Freelancer: Work From Home, Set Your Own Hours & Become Rich. is well worth a look

Photo Credit: Alan_D Flickr via Compfight cc

Doing the SEO dance Giving Upwork Another Go

I’ve automated the way I collect social proof from a client I have completed a project with. I thought a post on how I automate collecting social proof may be of interest to you fellow online workers.

What Is Social Proof

Wikipedia has this to say about social proof:

“Social proof, a term coined by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book, Influence, is also known as informational social influence. It describes a psychological and socialphenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in an attempt to undertake behavior in a given situation.”

I’ll not re-invent the wheel you can read the full article here social proof, I’ll wait here until you come back.

My definition is a little less wordy, “Proof from real people to show potential clients you can do what you say you can do and that you are not mental to work with”.

What Social Proof Do I Collect?

I collect three types of social proof, case studies, testimonials and referrals.

Testimonials

These are self explanatory, I ask if people enjoyed working with me and can I have a small statement  on how working with me was, and the results we achieved together.

Case Studies

I don’t actual collect a case study, rather I solicit approval from my client that I can write up a case study for the project we have just worked on.

If they say yes, then I write up a blog post on the project we have worked on and publish that on my site.

Referrals

I ask my clients if they know someone who would benefit from my services and for them to make an invite.  I have a form that sends a message to the new potential client making an invite.

If someone recommends you to friends, colleagues or family, that is a high level of trust and great social proof.

My Automated Process For Social Proof

Here’s how I automate collection of the above types of social proof.

I’ve got a password protected form hidden on my site that is pretty simple, it asks for the email address of the client and there is a check box that says case study.  This is the only part of the process I cannot automate because of the way projects work.  I complete the form once a project is complete and the magic happens.

The form is connected to Mailchimp and it adds one of two tags to a clients profile.  Case study or social proof.  If the case study checkbox is selected then the tag is case study else it is social proof.

Tags in mailchimp are pretty powerful, when a tag is added you can automatically add a person into an email sequence.  Let me walk you through those tags.

When a person is added to the social proof tag, the email automation sequence looks like this:

• Wait 3 days
• Send email checking in on the project we have just completed and make sure there are no issues we have missed.  On all the emails I let people know it’s an automation, but a reply will come to “real Neil”.
• Wait 7 days
• Send an email asking for a testimonial on the project we have just worked on, this points them to a form they complete which automatically adds a new testimonial into my system as a draft, I review this and make it live.  The testimonial is added to this page.
• Wait 23 Days
• Send an email asking if they know anyone else that would be a good fit to work with me, invite the client to complete a form where I’ll send a message to the new potential client.  In exchange for this referral I give both current and potential client a discount on their next project.
• Remove tag from client

When a person is added to the case study they are added to an automation that looks like this.

• Wait 3 days
• Send email checking in on the project we have just completed and make sure there are no issues we have missed
• Wait 3 days
• Send an email saying this project was pretty unique and that I would like to write it up as a case study, is that okay with the client?  If they are okay with that I write up a case study
• Wait 7 days
• Send an email asking for a testimonial on the project we have just worked on, this points them to a form they complete which automatically adds a new testimonial into my system as a draft, I review this and make it live.
• Wait 23 Days
• Send an email asking if they know anyone else that would be a good fit to work with me, invite the client to complete a form where I’ll send a message to the new potential client.  In exchange for this referral I give both current and potential client a discount on their next project.
• Remove tag from client

Both types of tagged client are then moved into a 90 day recurring check in where I check to see if they need any help with their site.

The Why Behind This Automation

Why do I use this automation?  Two reasons, I’ll forget if I don;t automate it and I’ll not do it manually because I’m lay and always have too many other things to do.

This automation is improving my marketing by getting new referrals and adding lots of juicy social proof to my site in the.

Wrap Up – How I Automate Collecting Social Proof

I recommend building a series of small automation in your business like these, they stream line your processes and make you look professional in the eyes of your clients.

If you need help building these type of automation let me know, I’ll do the tech work required get in touch

 

 

Doing the seo dance –  how I automate collecting social proof