Did you know that individual tweets are indexed by Google? A healthy Twitter account is a great ranking signal and should be part of your SEO strategy.
Twitter is a big part of my marketing stack as many of you know. For a good SEO strategy, don’t leave Twitter out. Twitter is my favorite. And one of the reasons why it is my favorite is because it’s so accessible. It’s quick. It’s easy. It’s text-based. The culture on Twitter wants to read and learn. This means they will click a link to go to your website.
Now, one important thing that you should realize about Twitter is that individual tweets are indexed by Google. What does that mean? It means that Google reads tweets and may possibly show them in search results.
Tweets Show in Google Search Results
Over the years, I’ve seen tweets appear in search results. Frankly, I’m surprised more SEOs don’t talk about the importance of Twitter as a ranking signal. In what context do it happen in many different ways.
Google yourself. Set up Google Alerts for your name, products, and website. When you get those emails, you’ll see tweets that are trending. When I was looking up Lunar New Year, I saw tweets that showed up as a carousel in the SERPs.
The following screenshots show what may show up for searches that include, Bridget Willard, Spurs, Warren Laine-Naida, COVID, and Gatsby. Click on the image to open it up in a lightbox.
Local SEO Matters, Too
So, when you’re approaching marketing online, in order to be found in your local community, there is a bunch of things that you need to do. Okay? Make sure Google My business is loaded. If you’ve seen any of the videos with Warren Laine-Naida, you’ve heard us talk about that. Make sure that you have reviews sites, um, and claim your profiles. Not just Yelp and not just Google My Business. Go on TrustPilot.com. They have a free account. You can get and go claim your business there. Google wants to see that you’re active and participating. This is another reason why Twitter is a great way to get that feedback.
Twitter is Great for Research
Also, when you’re researching your community and your industry on what people are thinking, where are they talking about it? They’re talking about it on Twitter. They’re talking about Spaces on Twitter. They’re talking about Clubhouse on Twitter. They’re talking about TikTok on Twitter. Twitter is where everybody talks. It’s great for market research. It’s great for following people in your industry. It’s fabulous for following people who are local to you making those handshake business relationships in your community.
So what do you have to lose? If you want to learn to do that. Also on amazon.com is “The Definitive Guide to Twitter Marketing.” It goes through every single thing you need to know about how to use Twitter for your business. Um, how to gain followers the right way. How to list people. How to share your blog posts. I mean, this is really key.
One of my realtor clients finally agreed use Twitter in addition to Facebook, and the impressions alone were worth the move. The impressions alone were worth the move. How about Facebook reach of 400 and Twitter averaging 4000?
Start Using Twitter to Be Found Online
Twitter is a big part of your SEO strategy because individual tweets are indexed by Google. A healthy Twitter account is a great ranking signal. It shows them that you’re active. Why not try it? What could you lose?
Rebranding is always a tricky subject with legitimate risks to consider. Will people like the new look? (It’s more than that.) Will they know it’s still me? (How do I ensure they will?) Will I lose the brand awareness I’ve built up? Will they understand the renewed or new purpose? A rebrand also comes with rewards. With my rebrand, people will see me as a subject matter expert. Clients will be proud to say they work with me. My brand portfolio is the standard others look up to.
Should you take the time — and budget — to rebrand your business? How about I tell you a bit about my brand’s story.
Bridget Willard’s Brand Story
I began my marketing journey in 2009 while building the online presence for Riggins Construction and Management, Inc. Because so many people began asking me marketing questions, I started the persona “You Too Can Be A Guru” in 2011 with a blog (now this one) and social media presence, including the .
After I lost my dream job, I became a freelancer in 2017. I got a tattoo that was meaningful to me then and still strongly represents my core. (More on that later.)
The pandemic got me thinking about what really matters in life. For me, it’s leaving a legacy I’m proud of. Yes, blogging is great. Books are better. In 2020, I published several books and am working on the next book in the series with Warren Laine-Naida to help nonprofits with their marketing. I also moved to Texas in an effort to refocus my life. It’s time for me to be more than a widow living in the shadow of ghosts and the life that could have been. Moving away from the social circle of my past life allowed me to deeply think about both my business goals and my whole health. I left a lot behind but had more to lose if I stayed, like my own identity. A change of scenery and limited to no access to my former life meant I’d be immersed in self-discovery. Total immersion is scary but effective.
Why do I tell you this intimate side of my life? As solopreneurs, our personal lives deeply affect our businesses – and vice versa. Moving gave me the solitude I needed, the quiet, the clarity to distill my ‘why’–or my reason for being, being alive, being an entrepreneur, being a teacher, etc..
I am a teacher who loves empowering small business owners.
Now that my ‘why’ is clear, it is time to double down on myself and my goals. Yes, I love helping WordPress products and services. Yes, I love marketing and offer it as a service. But more than that, I love inspiring small business owners to accomplish y’all’s goals. This is my ‘why’ and my gift: teaching and encouraging people.
It’s important to me, as a teacher, to empower y’all with my services. I walk alongside you — not in front or behind. How does marketing empower my clients? It allows y’all to focus your efforts on closing deals and doing your work. It means more time for you to do what makes you shine and more business and clients for you to shine on! Y’all started your businesses for a reason, too — to help or leave a legacy for your families and communities. Pairing with another business owner who has the same why matters.
So, why rebrand my business? There are many reasons, but the short answer is this: I grew up and so have my clients.
“I’ve known Bridget only two years, but we’ve gone from cookies and milk to the smooth taste of bourbon in that time. Bridget has unleashed awesome books, WordPress products, YouTube content, and, most importantly, inspiration. She has also moved from sunny California to the local news of San Antonio Texas. The entire time Bridget has had her clients in mind, sharing and explaining the fast moving business that is Social Media. I wish I had met her twenty years ago.” Warren Laine-Naida
A Rebrand Recognizes Your Brand’s Story
Your journey, as marketing and communications people like to say, is more important than your destination. Like you, your brand has a destination and is on a journey to reach it. That journey makes you who you are and what your brand is.
And, the journey is the story. There’s the protagonist (the person we identify with), their goal (the end of the story), and all of the challenges they face on the journey there.
If Lord of the Rings wasn’t a trilogy and all you wanted was for Frodo to get to the point, you would have missed the great lines about second breakfast and elevenses, the powerful moment when Gandalf puts his foot down (stick but whatever), and the inner conflict Frodo has over the ring. Should he keep the ring or should he do the right thing? All of those conflicts with himself and his trusted circle, as well as their death-defying feats, make Frodo the person he is. We love him all the more for it.
This logo was drawn by the receptionist at my physical therapist’s office. This logo was created by Cheryl and Sherrie LaPrade based upon my tattoo. This is the first year of this tagline.2021 Logo Designed by Rhonda Negard
Our brand’s story isn’t finished either. Every decision we make in our living “Choose Your Own Adventure” book defines who we are and who we are not. The sum of our business decisions affects how our business is perceived. Our reputation is our brand. Are there a few bad cookies? Yes. Do we make mistakes? Yes. Does that end our story? No way. We have successes. We have a whole body of work. We have changed lives. Our brand has a legacy and impact in our circle of influence.Are we perfect? No. Should we give up? Never.
Your brand has a story, yes. All of them do. But how does your brand communicate your story in a way that creates a connection with past, current, and future customers? This is why a rebrand is more than just a logo.
“Many people confuse what branding is. It’s not a logo, product, or promise. Branding is a ‘gut feeling about a product, service, or company.’” The Futur
Where do you want your brand’s story to intersect with your customer’s story? That’s the moment when we make a connection. It’s that mystical friend moment that defines us. It’s difficult to quantify and impossible to measure. Instead we say “we just vibe,” “I like her style,” “she’s a go-getter.”
“Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, ‘What? You too? I thought I was the only one.”’
This is no different than the connection a client has with their partner, a baker has with a customer, and colleagues have with one another. Our business does not exist in a vacuum. We’re part of a community — business ecosystem if you will. Our brand stories interconnect with one another. We impact one another.
Going through Rhonda’s rebranding process forced me to think about my customers and who they are. We worked on the brand’s empathy, the intersection of our goals and desires, and how to best communicate the story with a new message, voice, logo, assets, color palettes, and icons. We also worked on clarifying website copy, prioritizing which content, and Marie Kondoing the rest. It is a project we’ve been working on for about two and a half months.
A Rebrand Reframes Your Brand’s Story
Rebranding reframes your brand’s story. If your business has jumped the shark, it’s a good time to reframe how people see you. My brand began as “You, Too, Can Be a Guru” which was tongue-in-cheek to begin — with sprinkled with a whole lot of snark. Snark is funny but off-putting; especially when it becomes sarcasm.
Sarcasm literally means to tear the flesh and is a destructive form of communication. It can be funny, when self-directed. Otherwise, it can cause quite a bit of trouble. In 2017, when I began freelancing, I used my tattoo as my logo. I still think it’s a badass logo, and it’s more than a logo for me. But that says a lot about empowering myself, not my clients. After spending the last year reflecting on who I am and who I want to be, I feel that version of my logo is too aggressive. My personal and professional outlooks on life are different now. Would this badass dragon and flower reflect that anymore? Are they even truly connected to my business goals? I didn’t go through a branding process when I did this.
I never allow my clients to use sarcasm online so why should I let myself do it? The hard truth is that I felt insecure about my knowledge. Now that I’ve been doing this work for twelve years, it’s time to put off childish ways. Yes, I’m a jokester. I love making people laugh. But there is a huge difference between making someone laugh at absurdities and making someone feel small.
My brand is all about community, hospitality, and encouragement. It’s about getting down to the roots of who we are as people — our behavior. How do we build relationships? It starts with creating an environment that is welcoming and comfortable. You offer someone a drink and facilitate conversation that is lively and fun. That’s Human Behavior 101 — online or off.
I teach marketing knowing that the tech changes, human behavior does not. This is the key premise to my process. It’s our job as businesses to facilitate and create a comfortable place for our clients to get to know us better. Why not carry that behavior forward online?
Should Your Business Rebrand?
Maybe the time is right for your business to rebrand itself. If you feel that your business lacks focus and needs to be reframed for the public, then rebranding a great idea. Perhaps you purchased a business and it’s time for reputation management. Yes, that’s a perfect time to rebrand. Did you lose your job and your side hustle is now your full-time gig? This is a great time to rebrand. Perhaps some of your own personal growth has caused you to refocus on your why. Maybe your business is shifting the ideal customer or target audience. This is a great time to rebrand.
When shouldn’t you rebrand? You shouldn’t rebrand if you don’t have a rebranding partner like I do with Rhonda Negard of FatDogCreatives.com. She asks the hard questions that cause you to spend time on introspection. If you don’t have the time to focus on the level of intimacy you’ll need with your marketing agency, then it’s not a good time. If you don’t have the budget, it’s not a good time. If you’re really just bored with your business, you run the risk of changing just to change. That’s never a good enough reason to rebrand.
Should your business rebrand? My answer is this — I don’t know. Are you ready for it?
Do you think Twitter is a waste of your time or marketing budget? I’m often asked, “what’s the ROI of a Tweet?” I have an issue with the term ROI; however, let’s go with it for the sake of this post, yes? This is a short case study of one tweet that won me $23k of work and is only growing.
The Redacted Backstory
In October of 2018, the unnamed client (I signed an NDA), tweeted out a generic photo at a conference with the hashtag #CouldBeAnywhere. I retweeted it saying, “This is why you hire professional content strategists who prep the boss for content ahead of time.”
The Redacted $23k Tweet
An old-school retweet quickly turned into a conversation in the DMs. We commiserated with each other in those DMs. Being a marketer in tech is a challenge enough. Additionally, it’s pretty tough to write an engaging social post, when the “on location” team sends generic photos without a description. (I remember training my co-workers to take selfies and text them to me.) Needless to say, we became fast friends.
How A Tweet Earned $23,000
Those direct messages on Twitter turned into emails. The prospect asked if I had room for another client. (I sure did!) They were wondering how could I help this “Marketing Team of One” with their tasks? After we met on Zoom, the seed was planted. Nine months later, they decided to get going and became a Twitter Lite customer for $250/month.
To date, that one tweet has earned me $23,000. Over the last 19 months of our business relationship, that customer has spent an average of $1200/mo. I’m happy to say that over the course of our relationship, this client has increased their scope of work. In fact, for 2021, this client is projected to hit $30k/year.
How did I get that business?I got it from one tweet. Yes. One Tweet. My client and I talk and laugh about it often. It’s funny and cool. And guess what else — it’s human.
Don’t Be Afraid to Be Yourself
It’s possible that not everyone will like your sense of humor, how you handle your company online, or your face in general (as one of my friends always says, “it must be they don’t like my face.”).
You know what? Be yourself anyway. Not everyone will like you. Certainly, not everyone likes me. Be the best version of yourself, sure. Reply to people. Engage. Add to the conversation. Don’t be afraid of small talk. You never know whose attention you’ll attract and what budgetary authority they’ll have.
With any software development, you have to take into consideration your technical dependencies. This is no different in WordPress plugin development. The caveat may be that in an ecosystem with 40-50% adoption and over 50,000 plugins in the directory, how can this process be more of a team effort?
“Here are a few things that might make this communication more difficult. If you can think of other communication challenges (or solutions to the ones below), please share them in the comments. We don’t have established communication channels with theme and plugin authors.”
In her article, on Make WordPress Core, Josepha Hayden explores options on how to make the best use of volunteer contributors. Managing a volunteer team is quite a lot of moving parts, without factoring in burnout, attrition, and the pace of the release schedule. Those are real issues. Maintaining volunteerism in the Open Source Movement is hard; it’s hard in church. Volunteers are unsung heroes.
Can We Make WordPress Releases Easier for Whom?
So the question I immediately thought of when I saw the title was, “for whom?”
For the volunteers? I don’t worry about that too much. Josepha is amazing at working with people and creating an environment for collaborators.
For the users? She makes a good point in her article.
“In my observation, our users see no difference between our nuanced guidelines around minors vs majors, and currently experience each type of release (~9ish on average) as “yet another thing I have to update.”
For Plugin Developers? Hmm. I’m not certain this has been considered to scale that the plugin ecosystem has become. (Not to mention themes.)
Now, I know from leading the Make WordPress Marketing Team for two and some odd years, that “users” is a persona with a complicated Venn diagram. I tend to think of users as people like me. Small businesses that have a website running on WordPress. I’m a user of WordPress. I also have plugins on my website. Additionally, I am now a plugin developer thanks to Media Ron, LLC. See where the waters of “who is a user” is easily muddied?
As a marketer who has been working with plugin shops since 2015, I can’t help but bring up the very small window of 14 calendar days between Release Candidate and launch of the major update. With four updates planned for 2021, that felt burdensome for plugin developers — regardless of how large their shops are.
Yeah, in my mind I hear Dr. Laura’s pithy, “you chose him so what do you expect” response to a wife calling about her toxic, cheating, abusive husband. (That always used to bother me.) Yeah, she chose him as the person she was twelve years ago. Now, that she’s evolved and the problem is scaled, what are her options?
Let me be clear: I’m not comparing WordPress Core to domestic violence. With that said, there is a power imbalance. That’s expected. Yes, plugin developers chose to become technically dependent upon WordPress. That’s true. So, should developers follow best practices and revolve their entire product development around WordPress’ schedule? Um. Yes and no.
What people should do and what they actually do is the middle ground that should be solved. WordPress should have a smaller schedule. Developers should subscribe to the core updates.
“Shoulds” — implied or otherwise — are the blameshifting language that divorcing couples use. It is a warning sign of an unhealthy relationship. So, I figured I would do my part and do a bit of outreach.
When Do Plugin Developers Test?
So the question is when do plugin developers test. Do they start testing at alpha? Beta 1? Beta 2? Or wait for the Release Candidate. Like most things in tech, the annoying “it depends” response is the answer.
The best case is nightly builds. But what if you have dozens and dozens of extensions that integrate with say, other dependencies a lot bigger than WordPress like PayPal and HubSpot?
“We test with the RC. And yes, 14 days isn’t very much time. We have some devs working with the nightly, but officially we test at RC.” Kevin Stover of Ninja Forms
“We run a full suite of automated tests against trunk and Gutenberg trunk every night and ramp up manual testing as soon as beta starts. We also run the Gutenberg plugin on our sites to test and work with it.” Joost de Valk of Yoast
“We have integrated automated unit testing with bleeding-edge WP for the most critical functionality.” Adrian Tobey of Groundhogg
“The beta periods last fairly long and ideally plugin devs should be testing against the betas. But there are so many “passion” projects on .org, so it’s a bit of a chore to test your free plugins.” Ronald Huereca of Media Ron LLC
“14 days feels reasonable? Can’t say I really test my free plugins and my premium ones depend more on Woo vs integrating directly with WP.” Kathy Darling
“We keep the bleeding edge versions on our dev environments and try to test related upcoming changes before the RC. Then when the RC comes out, that kind of marks the end of testing for us since things won’t change much.” Jason Coleman of Paid Memberships Pro
Plugin Developers v WordPress Core
Here’s my analysis. In the case of Plugin Developers (“devs) v WordPress Core (“Core), devs feel they have no voice on the schedule. This essentially goes against the philosophy of the Open Source Movement in their minds. Regardless of the dependencies that we choose while building the web, a healthy working relationship is important.
Core is dependent upon PHP, mySQL, Apache, jQuery, and a lot more I’m not even mentioning I’m sure. My knowledge of code only goes so deep; my specialty is strategic awareness and how that affects our ecosystem.
So, in this case of devs v core, who takes custody of the children (“users)? How do web hosts factor in? When a website is broken, the user doesn’t know what broke. Case in point, when 5.6 dropped, my Caldera Forms didn’t work. I went to my web host first (Pressable at the time), who installed the jQuery manager plugin. Support for WordPress websites will increase after a major release regardless of whose product broke or why.
Back in the days of the Growth Council, there were quite a few people chiming in on the project itself from a long-term strategic view. I think that was an important discussion to have.
Yes, WordPress Core writes about all that they do and they take feedback quite well, I’d like to add.
Here’s where I see the problem.
Even medium-to-large plugin shops don’t have a full-time developer who monitors, runs, and tests the nightly build. As far as I understand, the nightly build is the time when all of the code is done for the day and is tested against the source. This is like reconciling a cash register after someone’s shift. What broke? Where did it break? Etc.
“For Wordfence, we do some testing with alpha and beta versions, to try to catch any compatibility issues as soon as we can. I generally keep at least one of my test sites running the nightly builds, to watch for any new issues. This does get a bit more cumbersome when there are both a minor release and a major release in active development. Once the release candidates are available, we do more rigorous testing since they can contain significant changes or additional trac tickets that were not included in the earlier betas.A 14-day window does feel a bit short, especially if one or more team members is working on another project or has some time off during that period. Other factors like the PHP 8.0 release that was so close to a major WordPress release can add to the time crunch as well.” – Matt R
For my devs who are my clients, I highly recommend that they themselves get involved and subscribe to the Core Blog. This is why I’m always tweeting out when software changes. It may seem odd when a marketer is tweeting these things out except, breakage affects us all.
Ronald Huereca of Media Ron, LLC, for example, appreciates the emails that come out. They’re well thought out and helpful. He forwarded me the email he got for 5.6 and it explained all of the issues with jQuery, what plugins he has listed on the repo, etc.
For WordPress 5.6 the email was sent 23 November and 5.6 dropped 8 Dec. This is the 14 calendar day period of testing. Also, this happened during the holiday season in the States.
“IF we keep this short RC length, then we MUST be able to contact developers sooner with the Field Notes and details of changes. Anything less means plugins (and themes) absolutely will not be updated in time and we’ll have conflicts, which will lead to larger support queues for the volunteers here, as well as any webhost who automates updates.It also suggests maybe we need something better than the emails from the plugins team and instead have something automated when a Beta drops, which contains an overview of the changes, that goes to everyone with a commit bit to anything (plugin, theme, core). “ Mika Epstein
So, How About Shortening the Release Candidate (RC) Window?
The problem I see with shortening the RC window is that the window is already too short. There is also the presumption that plugin developers have fully vetted their products by the time the RC is out. Meaning, plugin developers are closely mirroring their own plugin development schedule around Core.
In an ideal world, sure. That sounds awesome.
Does it actually happen? Not really.
Many developers I reached out to don’t bother testing until the RC is out because they don’t want to duplicate work. Larger companies test against nightly builds but, as Matt from WordFence pointed out, that comes at awkward times when point releases are also being tested.
I love that you’re opening up this conversation, Josepha.
I’ve always believed it is burdensome on plugin shops to release Core Versions after 15 October. Most of the world celebrates holidays at the end of the year.
For example, PHP 8 dropped on American Thanksgiving and 5.6 dropped 8 Dec.
I’m also wondering if there could be more than 14 calendar days between the release candidate and launch.
Could this be changed to business days and/or extended by 5 days?
I’ve pinged some of my peers who develop plugins and I’m sure theme authors may have excellent feedback as well.
“I think with Francesca’s suggested realignment of the phases in each release cycle, the idea is that by the time we get to RC there are essentially no new changes left to manage. The experiment to shorten the RC window is pretty new and I’m committing to it all the way, but it’ll be interesting for us to look back on it at the end of the year!”
How Long Should the RC Window Be?
I would like to see Core do a better job reaching out to plugin companies to get a feel for how testing against Core is done in practice, rather than in a perfect testing scenario. Will this be realistic on every release? No, but from a social science and research standpoint, it is important. What are the trends? What actually happens? Outreach as research is important to get the data that matters.
To study the mountain gorillas, Diann Fossey didn’t watch them on Slack or expect them to come to her. She went to where they are. She observed them. Listened to them. Drew their faces. Now, that may be super odd for the Core team to start sketching a plugin developer in the wild, but you get my point.
How long should the release candidate window be?
What is too short?
What is too long?
What is the labor burden for these releases?
At what point will it adversely affect development shops and their users?
Who Loses When Windows Are Too Short?
My suspicion of how core releases affect dev shops is this. Keeping up with Core, especially if there really are four updates in 2021, comes at a cost to their own product development and updates. If their products aren’t at the cutting edge, then how does that ripple resonate in the WordPress ecosystem?
So, who really loses?
Without a healthy working relationship, like most dysfunctional parents, it’s the kids that suffer. The users lose. Something breaks. They don’t care what it was or whose fault it is. It comes down to a retention and branding issue. If their site is WordPress, then WordPress broke. It wasn’t Ninja Forms or Yoast. It’s not the slider plugin they insisted on installing. It’s not advanced custom fields. It’s WordPress. Regardless of the pieces of software that are assembled, it’s “WordPress.”
“WordPress breaks. We’re moving to Squarespace.” This is a direct quote from one of my large-business, non-WordPress clients. Even running their company’s website, which only changes as we publish content, has become expensive. WordPress isn’t expensive. The time managing an outside vendor is expensive. The invoices for management is expensive.
With our goal for WordPress to be the dominant CMS, we have to look at how we can set realistic goals that move Core forward at a reasonable pace that allows growth while also factoring in real-world scenarios from plugin shops.
If we don’t, at 40% of the market share, we will have a hard time getting to 51% of the market. As an ecosystem scales, its faults scale.
If we don’t achieve our 51% market share, who loses, then?
It will be plugin shops first, because they’ll lose end-users to Squarespace, Webflow, and Wix. (This is the time to think about a SaaS move.) Without users, there is no revenue. Without revenue, marketing folks and developers will lose employment. I personally know WordPress developers working for Shopify.
WordPress the Project will lose because plugin developers won’t have the time or money to sponsor full-time volunteers to work on the project. The web hosts will have to continue to do the heavy lifting as far as that goes, much as they are doing now. Last I heard, Bluehost has 8 full-time employees who work on Core. I imagine that number is larger in the 16 months since I’ve talked to them at a WordCamp. That doesn’t account for the employees that are full-time sponsors from Yoast and anyone else I can’t think off.
WordPress.com will lose, not to the same degree, but Automattic will have to pick up the slack from the attrition of companies who sponsor full-time employees to work on the project. Sure, dot com and Automattic, in general, have what seems like a bigger part of the pie, but they also have a bigger part of the overhead. Automattic is not only accountable to their product teams and employees, but their vendors and clients. Let’s not forget their fiduciary duty to their investors as well.
When “WordPress” the brand doesn’t work, it affects us all. Maybe not to the same degree, but it will affect our reputation.
“Oh you’re going to use WordPress? Doesn’t that break?”
We have to do better.
Shortening the Release Candidate window is not a good move for Core. The domino effect is too grave.
There are so many articles about how to become a freelancer or how to start. It’s crazy. We read stories from people like Ryan Robinson who kept his day job until his freelancing earned six figures. SIX. FIGURES. Swoon. I’m not even close to six figures.
“I grew my freelance business to over six figures in revenue on the side before quitting my day job in 2016.” Ryan Robinson
So that goal may be daunting. For me, I didn’t have a choice. I had to start freelancing. I also didn’t have a partner. I started freelancing full-time when I lost my dream job — as a widow.
I have mentored so many people in my 34+ years of working. I wish I had the courage to listen to myself as a thirty-something instead of doing it at 43 years old. With that said, you will be fulfilling every role of a business when you freelance.
“The buck stops with you. Always. There is no one to dump on. You can only blame yourself. Barry from Sales doesn’t exist anymore. YOU are Barry from Sales. And you’re Karen from Client Services too.”
Stop procrastinating by taking a dozen courses and buying every book there is. You don’t need it to start. The way you start is to start.
I mean, you may need to educate yourself on marketing, best practices in business, hire an accountant, and all of that. If you do all that first, you’re never going to get going. You have to start.
How Do You Just Start?
The key to just starting is believing that you have marketable skills. What does this mean? It means you have a professional service that people will give you money for. I know what you’re thinking, “Wait, how do they give you money?” We will get to that. There are so many ways to collect money. Don’t worry about all of those details yet. Find the need. Fill it.
I’ll tell you how. Do you really want to know? It’s not glamorous. Here is the no–holds–barred, no-bullshit way I started freelancing. You ready?
How Did I Start Freelancing?
I started freelancing in the early 2000’s because I had some dental work (surprise to those who know me) and needed extra cash.
Someone needed a website. Great. I built it. After two of those, I quit. Who wants to argue about orange when that’s the hex code they gave me? Whoosh.
Someone needed me to tutor their kid in algebra. Great. How does $20/hour sound? Perfect, I’ll be there. Does Tuesday work? Bring cash. Drop off your kid. Done. I did that for ten years.
Someone needed help with their social media. Great. I’ll set it up and teach you how to do it. Three years later, I was still managing their accounts for free. Oh sorry, one person gave me a gift card to a restaurant. Lesson learned.
Those weren’t all ideal situations. But, they gave me experience and taught me lessons. When I started charging for social media (I needed more dental work), I charged $250 a month. I later figured out that was way too low. No worries. Adjust. Change.
Why Continue Freelancing?
Usually, the reason to have a side hustle is financial need. Freelancing is a great way to make up those literal deficits. That’s reality. It’s not always a sexy story of an epiphany you have while picnicking on a hill overlooking the ocean with the love of your life.
I had a full-time job as the Office Manager for a general contractor. Why freelance? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, I needed money for (wait for it) dental work. Secondly, I realized (read: finally believed my peers) that I am intuitively good at marketing and should try to get a job in that field.
Great. I worked 16 hours a day — for six months — until I got hired full-time for a dream job at an advertising agency. Working those hours did not give me work-life balance. (Which is a privilege, by the way). It was hard. It weighed on my marriage. It kept me distant from friends. I was exhausted. But I knew my husband was getting older and I needed to work from home. Getting that job gave me time to be at home for the last six months of his life. That’s reality. Not sexy.
A little more than two years later, I began freelancing again? Why? That’s too long and sordid to detail. (I know I said there were no-holds-barred. But yeah. I got fired.) The point is that I found myself in a place where I a) needed to make money; b) wanted to control my destiny; c) continue being a remote worker.
Freelancing isn’t all about sitting on the beach and working for four hours a week. It’s as serious as you want to take it.
Okay. So, we covered, “just start.” Let’s go deeper.
Freelancer Step One — What’s Your Service?
Take out a pen and paper and write down services that you are good at. Freelancers are typically service providers. This can be anything from cleaning houses to dog walking, to building websites, to bookkeeping.
What are your marketable skills? Write them down. No, seriously. Write them down.
Freelancer Step Two — What Service Do People Want?
Okay. This may require a bit of a think. Almost a come to Jesus kind of think. Maybe you need to do this with a best friend. What are your marketable skills right now?Who do you know — right now — that would hire you for one of those services? Reach out to them saying, “I was thinking of offering this service. What do you think? Would you pay $1,500 for a website?” Get their opinions. Write down what they say.
I’m a big believer in taking notes in notebooks. Your brain works differently when you write notes than when you type. And for the love of God, don’t send the GenPop a Google Form. That looks like work to them. They won’t fill it out and if they do, they’ll be annoyed. You don’t want to annoy your potential customer base.
Freelancer Step Three — What Will People Pay? What Should I Charge as a Freelancer?
What should you charge as a freelancer? The answer is more than you think. When you first start, you’ll have to throw out pricing and see what sticks. Then you can go back and do some work. This includes covering your own sick days, vacation, and retirement. If you want the freedom of freelancing, then you have to be responsible like a business owner. Get out of the employee mindset.
Each customer will teach you something about yourself, your services, and how you want to do business. This is the process. You can’t really skip it too much.
Create a pricing sheet, even if it’s just a Google Sheet. A landing page on your website is better. Don’t worry about getting the price just right. It’s okay to change your prices. This is the beauty of a web page versus print. Print is forever. Websites are not.
This one is easy nowadays. Freelancers can get paid with Zelle, PayPal, Venmo, checks, and yes, paper money still works.
You can create an invoice in Google Docs with a template, keep your records in a Google Sheet, and boom. You’re in business with no money down.
When you’re ready, Freshbooks is a great option since they price by the number of clients you have. I started with Google Sheets and have used Freshbooks since October of 2017. Since I started my LLC this year, I will be transitioning to Xero which, ironically, will cost me less. But hey. This is how you learn.
Freelancer Step Five — Market Your Freelancing Services
This could mean direct calls or texts telling your friends you now offer dog walking on the side. It also means creating a website, Twitter, and other social accounts, and then using them. You have to tell people you’re taking clients and keep telling them.
If you already have a website, set up a landing page for your services and fees. Be upfront. This establishes boundaries with clients. Don’t worry about making mistakes. The more mistakes you make, the better you write your estimates. In construction, we write “good for 30 days” on our estimates for a reason. I adopted that quickly when I began freelancing.
Freelancer Step Six — Start a Budget
Why is starting a freelancing budget step six? Because you won’t know all of the SaaS tools you’ll use to market your writing, web development, or marketing skills. You may even be using these tools for marketing your dog walking, house cleaning, or lawn care. It costs money to be in business for yourself; even for a freelancer.
Freelancer Step Seven — Block Your Time
This is especially important if you have a full-time job. You will need to figure out times when you will work. This is best done with time blocking. If you have a partner, you’ll need to have that conversation with them, too. Set boundaries early. Your freelancing time will come out of your leisure time and maybe even family time — at first — until you can make freelancing your full-time job.
Freelancer Step Eight — Tax Paperwork
For a while, my “freelancing” was a “hobby” according to my tax accountant. You’ll have to chat with yours. If you’re not a corporation or LLC, you may need to have a W-9 ready to give to clients. The IRS has the W-9 form online. Easy peasy. Save it as a pdf in a place you can have on-hand for when you’re asked to send it.
As of the time of this post, any company that pays you over $600 in a year is required to send you a 1099. Those are due to you by January 31 each year. Some will be late. It happens. You’ll need these for tax prep. Again, it’s important to chat with your tax accountant. And don’t opt-out of the self-employment tax; you need it for Social Security and Medicare.
I use H&R Block Small Business Tax Filing which starts at $85. A professional tax preparer reviews my forms before they’re sent to federal and state. I’m fine with that. You can always hire a CPA or do it yourself. It’s up to you.
I’m a huge believer in outsourcing. The things that distract you from your billable time are things that should be hired out. Yes, I can do my own taxes. I did before. This is worth spending money on.
Freelancer Step Nine — Evaluate Your Client Work Each Quarter
It’s good to look back and reflect on the last three months. What worked? What didn’t work? This is when I realized I way under-charged for my social media services. I’m not going to lie; the first year was hard. I don’t write blog posts every year like some companies do, because nobody really cares and they’re super braggadocious like Christmas letters from people whose families are perfect. However, I did write about the first year. It will be hard. Very hard. If that intimidates you, you’re not ready to be a freelancer.
Freelancer Step Ten — Are YOU Really Ready To Be a Freelancer?
I mean it. Are you ready? Can you take the criticism? It will come. Can you step into the spotlight? Can you be yelled at by people for no legitimate reason? When you freelance you are the boss. And, more importantly, can you commit to doing the work on time every time. It’s not a job where no one cares if you miss deadlines. There is no probation. If your work is late or sloppy you will lose clients and — even worse — brand legitimacy.
“When it comes down to it, you have to believe in yourself, believe in your business, understand it might not pan out, and know you’re willing to stay the course to successfully start a freelance business.”
You have to want to be in business for yourself more than you want money. It will be a sacrifice. Your spouse will call it a “hobby.” Your friends will be mad that you don’t want to go out to the bars every night.
Being a freelancer is ultimately about being who you are — who you really are — and who you want to become.
If you can endure those very real obstacles, you can start being a freelancer today. Well, maybe tomorrow because, honestly, this article is super long and now your kid is asking you for help on their school project. Okay. Tomorrow then. Start tomorrow.
