Freelance

📲 90-second Reels

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Happy Monday! Welcome back to The Gig, the morning paper for freelancers looking to acquire high-income skills and build a lucrative client business.

Mentioned in today’s newsletter: Facebook Reels, LinkedIn, and cover letters. Plus 3 ways to grow your freelance business, and the 5-part storytelling framework behind Hollywood movies.

Read time: 3 minutes and 39 seconds

Making the Rounds

  • Max length for Facebook Reels increased to 90 seconds. The move follows a similar length increase for Instagram Reels, as Meta, YouTube, and TikTok continue to copy each other in the battle for short-form video supremacy.
  • LinkedIn launches new collaborative articles feature powered by AI. The surging social platform wants more people to write articles, so it’s attempting to jumpstart the article creation process with AI-powered conversation starters.
  • Freelance writer reveals unusual cover letter that landed him a gig with The Motley Fool. Despite having no writing experience, Tony Dong managed to land himself a freelance gig with a major financial publisher thanks to his unusual cover letter. Pattern interrupts for the win!

Working With Clients

3 Ways to Grow Your Freelance Business

If you’re looking to grow your freelance business…

There are only 3 ways to do it:

1) Get more clients
2) Get each client to spend more per project
3) Get more repeat business from existing clients

That’s it.

Most freelancers tend to focus exclusively on getting more clients and raising their rates.

But don’t forget…

The easiest sale to make is always to a previous client or customer.

Why?

Because they’ve already worked with you and are (presumably) happy with what they got.

So make a point to check in with past clients 30-60 days after you complete a project.

Ask them how things are going and see if they need help with anything.

Sometimes, landing another gig is as easy as that.

Even if they don’t need help in that moment, this keeps you top of mind and demonstrates proactivity.

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From The Copywriting Gig

The 5-Part Storytelling Framework Behind Hollywood Movies

You may be familiar with traditional copywriting frameworks like P-A-S and A-I-D-A.

But here’s another proven framework you can use to tell stories that sell:

I-P-C-C-R.

This is the exact same storytelling formula used by almost all Hollywood movies.

This is how it works:

I – Inciting Incident

Think of this as the hook.

It’s the ONE event that sets the rest of the story in motion.

In the case of a product or service…

It’s usually a high-stakes “trigger moment” that brings the problem to the forefront.

– getting dumped
– losing your job
– having your card declined
– ripping your pants in public
– etc

P – Progressive Complications

The inciting incident creates an imbalance in the hero’s life…

So they try to restore balance (aka solve the problem).

But, ironically, this only takes them further from their goal.

This is where the prospect explores other solutions, but continues to fail.

– tries keto, atkins, IF and whole30 but doesn’t lose weight
– tries trading stocks, crypto, and FX but loses all their money
– tries paid ads but doesn’t get clients

C – Crisis

This is the hero’s “do or die” decision point.

Should they continue? 

Or are they finally ready to give up and abandon themselves to their fate?

– being overweight
– being broke
– being single
– going back to their 9 to 5
– etc

C – Climax

The climax is the OUTCOME of the crisis decision.

This is typically the “moment of discovery” where they stumble across the new solution.

– new diet / training program / special nutrient
– new trading / investment strategy
– new approach to landing clients
– etc

R – Resolution

The climax brings the story’s conflict to an end.

The resolution is what follows.

The prospect achieves their desired outcome and all the benefits that come with it:

– getting the body of their dreams

– generating consistent income

– landing top-tier clients

– etc

If you’re writing a story-focused ad, email, landing page, or video script, give this storytelling framework a try.

Based on the $26 billion dollars in global movie sales last year, it’s safe to say it works.

Gig Alerts

Looking for clients? These freelance jobs were posted on Upwork in the last 24 hours:

NOTE: We only share job postings from Upwork. We’ve found it to be the most trustworthy platform with the highest-quality clients. 

Furthermore, job postings must be for high-income skills like copywriting, media buying, funnel building, graphic design, remote closing, etc in order to qualify.

Quote of the Day

“Money doesn’t bring happiness and creativity. Your creativity and happiness brings money.”

— Sam Rosen

Top performers focus on inputs, not outputs.

Prioritize the process and the results will take care of themselves.

(Share this on Twitter)

Tools of the Trade

Looking to upgrade your toolkit? Here are some of our favorite tools we use to powerful our freelance business:

  • ConvertKit — Email marketing for creators. Simple, easy to use, and very cost-effective.
  • ​Kinsta — Super fast website hosting trusted by 25,000+ small businesses.
  • Fireflies — AI note-taker that can record client calls + create searchable transcripts.
  • ​Krisp — Eliminates echoes and background noise on calls and meetings using AI.
  • ​Wise — Unbeatable rates on currency conversions. Saves you a ton of money if you’re an international freelancer.

* Some of these are affiliate links. This means we may receive a small commission if you sign up for a paid subscription (at no extra cost to you.)