Hi Reader,

Happy Friday!

Two things to talk to you about before we get into the meat and gravy of today's newsletter.

Firstly, I've created a new tool (yes, another one) to help you figure out who to connect with in your niche, including job titles to search on LinkedIn and relevant adjacent niches you can dip your toes into. It's free and you can try it here.

Secondly, my good friend Vicky at Happy Freelancers is hosting two awesome tips to Morocco for freelancers this October.

I went on the Marrakech trip last October and it was honestly such fun. Good vibes, good people, and a great opportunity to talk shop with other badass freelancers in a beautiful new place. If you're interested in more info, just let me know and I'll hook you up! You won't regret it, I promise!

P.S. In this week's Instagram post, I shared a playbook you can use to make the most of Q4. Check it out here. And don't forget to give me a follow for regular tips and tricks!

Here's what I've been up to this week work-wise:

👉 I refreshed 2 pieces for Shopify

👉 I worked on some social content for a client

👉 I had a check-in with a client I'm doing LinkedIn content for

👉 I started a new Substack (which I'll be running Friday Freelance Tips through from next month)

👉 I landed 2 new clients, one starting in Oct and one in Nov

⏱ Approx hours spent on client work this week: ~16

⏱ Approx hours spent on non-client work: ~8

💰 Total revenue from client work this week: £2,075

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They won't write back to tell you; they'll move on to the next applicant instead, and you never learn why.

​Authory checks and backs up every piece you publish, so the links you send keep working.

Worth sorting out before a dead link costs you a gig.

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Friday Freelance Tip​​ ✨ ​

Most freelance advice about social media says you should post content for your target audience. Y’ know, speak directly to the people who might hire you, answer their questions, show up in their feeds, and eventually some of them will get warm enough to reach out.

That advice is v solid, by the way - I’m not here to tell you to ignore it. Building a name for yourself in your industry and turning cold prospects into warmer ones is exactly what consistent, targeted content is meant to do, and I still do plenty of it myself.

But there’s a second thing that’s happened, almost as a side effect, from how I’ve used social media over the years, and it’s brought in a huuuge amount of referral work I wasn’t expecting.

So, most of you probably know, I share a lot of content aimed at other freelancers (I mean, duh, you’re reading this newsletter!), not just at potential clients. And it turns out that’s been one of the best, most consistent sources of new work I have.

Where my referrals have really come from

I’ve had referrals from past clients over the years, and I’m super grateful for every one of them. There was actually one client, at one point, who was sending me about three new companies a year. Thnx so much, Nate. That kind of client referral is gold, and it’s absolutely worth nurturing (a whole separate topic for another post).

But if I’m honest, the majority of my referrals haven’t come from past clients at all. They’ve come from other freelancers.

Ever since I started using coworking spaces and actually mingling with other freelancers, rather than working in total isolation, I’ve had a constant stream of work come my way through them.

Sometimes it’s overspill from a writer who’s fully booked, or who doesn’t focus on the type of writing a particular client needs, passing the work on to me instead of turning it down completely. Sometimes it’s work from designers or developers, whose clients need writing done alongside the design or build work they’re doing.

It’s mad that none of these came specifically from a client searching for me directly (which is what we’re told is the holy grail of freelancing). Instead, they came from other freelancers who happened to know I exist and what I do and, crucially, who I’ve built real relationships with, even in a friendly, just-passing kinda way.

Why I post content for other freelancers

I get asked this fairly often, usually by people who assume I should only be posting things aimed at businesses who may or may not hire me. There are a few reasons I do it, none of which were part of some grand master plan from day one.

Firstly, it’s really easy content to come up with. I’m living the freelance life every single day, so I’ve got an endless supply of real, lived experience to draw from. I don’t have to manufacture insights or guess what freelancers want to know because I’m one of them, dealing with the same questions and problems as they are.

Secondly, people kept asking me the same questions, so I started… answering them. This is actually how Freelance Magic came about in the first place. When I was freelancing and living abroad, I got a steady stream of emails from people who wanted to do the same thing I was doing.

I started a newsletter just to answer those questions, and that newsletter eventually grew into everything else, including the products, the resources, the coaching etc. So, for me, posting for freelancers isn’t a separate strategy I bolted on, it’s actually where this all started and is well and truly baked into my ops (for want of a less corporate word).

Thirdly, and practically speaking, it’s good for my business. Showing up consistently among other freelancers means that when they get asked if they know anyone who writes, I’m often front of mind. It’s a very simple mechanic, but it works: visibility is still visibility, regardless of who you’re visible to. If a designer sees my posts every week and then a client asks them for a copywriter recommendation, guess whose name comes to mind first. Lil ol’ me.

Why this works better than it sounds like it should

On paper, post content for people who are never going to hire you sounds like a strange use of your time and energy. Other freelancers aren’t your clients (unless, of course, they are). They’re not the ones paying your invoices. So why spend any content energy on them at all?

The answer is that freelancers talk to each other, and freelancers get asked for recommendations constantly. Clients ask their existing freelancers all the time of they know a copywriter, a designer, a video editor, or anyone who does X?

And in that moment, the freelancer being asked isn’t thinking about a directory or a Google search. They’re thinking about whoever’s been top of mind recently, which is very often whoever they’ve seen show up consistently, whether that’s in a coworking space, a Slack group, or their social feed.

So, to boil it back to basics (that’s a legit term, right?), you’re not trying to convince other freelancers to hire you.

You’re trying to be thatperson that comes to mind when they’re asked for a recommendation. It’s a completely different kind of visibility to the client-facing content you’re used to being told to post, but it compounds in exactly the same way.

And unlike a lot of client-facing content, which can feel like shouting into a fairly crowded, competitive space, the freelancer-facing side of things tends to feel a lot less noisy. There’s less competing content, less pressure to be perfectly polished, and a lot more goodwill floating around generally, which makes it a surprisingly low-effort, high-reward place to spend a even just a teeny bit of your content energy.

How to put this into practice

I’m not saying you should overhaul your entire content strategy and start exclusively targeting other freelancers, that would be v bad advice from me. But I’d strongly encourage you not to dismiss this as a content bucket entirely, wherever it is you happen to be building your presence.

Here are some ways you can weave this into your existing content cal without abandoning your client-facing content:

• Share the real, unfiltered version of freelance life. What’s actually going on for you this month rather than only polished tips aimed at clients. Other freelancers relate to this instantly, and it’s some of the easiest content you’ll ever create because… well, you’re living it.
• Answer the questions you keep getting asked. If people keep DMing you or asking you the same thing at a coworking space, that right there is a solid gold content idea. Make a note (I have a page in my Notion dashboard to collect all these ideas as they come in).
• Show up in freelancer spaces as well as client-facing ones. Coworking spaces, freelancer Slack or Discord communities, local meetups… basically anywhere freelancers gather. And chat to people. Freelancers are friends not foe!
• Be downright useful to other freelancers. If you have overspill work, refer clients back when it’s not a fit for you, or simply help someone out with advice. Reciprocity is the don in freelancing… or in any part of life, really.
• Don’t treat it as a separate, lesser strategy. Fold it into whatever you’re already doing. You don’t need two completely different content plans, just have a think about who’s actually reading your content. You can talk about two things on your socials, no one’s going to vilify you for that, I PROMISE.

Referrals from other freelancers have, quite surprisingly, become one of the steadiest sources of work in my entire freelance career. Mind-blowing, really, when I didn’t deliberately set out to build it as a channel. It just kinda… grew.. out of being generous, visible, and honest about what freelance life looks like from the inside.

So, a little pstpstpst for you… if you only ever post to attract clients directly, it might be worth leaving a little room for the freelancers watching too. You never know who they’ll be talking to next 😉

As always, happy freelancing 🙂

Lizzie ✨

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As always, happy freelancing :)

Lizzie ✨

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