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📉 Bank collapse

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Happy Tuesday! Turns out losing money chasing yields isn’t just for crypto investors anymore: Silicon Valley Bank announced it lost $2B last week after chasing higher yields in the bond market, leading to the second biggest bank failure in U.S. history. Woops! More details below.

Also discussed in today’s newsletter: Facebook, WhatsApp, and the U.K. government. Plus 5 ways to make more money without raising prices or finding new clients, and how to avoid this hidden conversion killer.

Read time: 2 minutes and 46 seconds

Making the Rounds

  • U.S regulators step in to save Silicon Valley Bank depositors in attempt to avoid further financial crisis. Silicon Valley Bank, the banking partner for many U.S. startups and tech companies, collapsed after clients attempted to withdraw $42 billion in one day last week. The federal government responded by offering to cover depositors’ funds, hoping to avoid a widespread loss of confidence in the banking system. It remains to be seen how much this will affect the gig economy, as the fallout continues this week. Stay tuned.
  • Facebook tops list of most-hacked sites. According to a study by VPN Central, Meta’s crown jewel is #1 in hack-related Google searches, followed by Instagram, Twitch, and Spotify.
  • WhatsApp could be banned in the U.K. The messaging app said it will not adhere the rules outlined in the new Online Safety Bill, which would require them to moderate all user content.

Working For Yourself

5 Ways to Make More Money Without Raising Prices or Finding New Clients

The most common way freelancers try to increase their income is by finding new clients.

But is this the fastest way to do it?

The answer may surprise you.

In the video below, 7-figure copywriter Alex Cattoni reveals 5 ways to make more money without finding new clients… or even raising your prices.

Click below to check it out on YouTube:

[WATCH]: 5 Ways To Make More Money (Without Raising Prices Or Finding New Clients)

Tools We Love

Avoid This Hidden Conversion Killer

Slow page speed is a hidden conversion killer.

Every additional second someone has to wait between clicking on a link and actually landing on your site increases the chance they won’t stick around.

A few of the conventional tricks to improve page speed are…

  • Compressing images
  • Eliminating unnecessary scripts
  • And minimizing redirects

But one you may not be aware of is changing your hosting provider.

Now, low-cost hosting solutions like Siteground are great if you’re just getting started with your side hustle…

Except they come up in the page speed department.

Like with most things, you get what you pay for when it comes to website hosting.

That’s why we’re big fans of Kinsta.*

Not only does it make our pages load super fast…

It’s also got the most intuitive and easy-to-use interface we’ve ever seen.

(If you’ve ever played around with other hosting providers, you know how confusing they can be.)

This is probably why companies like TripAdvisor, Hootsuite, and Unicef trust Kinsta to host their websites.

To learn more about making the switch, click here:

Start your free trial of Kinsta today.*

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

“People don’t buy what you make, they buy what you believe.”

— Ernest Lupinacci

Everyone wants to do business with those who share their values.

Embrace yours.

(Share this on Twitter)

Tools of the Trade

Looking to upgrade your toolkit? Here are some of our favorite tools we use to power 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.)

♾️ The next decentralized Twitter?

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Happy Monday! Welcome back to The Gig, the morning paper for A-Player freelancers.

Discussed in today’s newsletter: Meta, Twitter, and TikTok. Plus 13 things successful freelancers do differently, and why cost-per-acquisition goes up as you scale.

Read time: 3 minutes and 3 seconds

Design like a Pro

Canva Pro is the design software that makes design simple, convenient, and reliable. Create what you need in no time! Jam-packed with time-saving tools that make anyone look like a professional designer. Start your free Pro trial today. *

Making the Rounds

  • Meta working on decentralized Twitter alternative. The company confirmed they’re working on a “decentralized social network for sharing text updates.” Mastodon is another decentralized Twitter alternative that gained traction after Elon’s acquisition. But it sounds like Zuck and co could have the bird app in their sights.
  • Twitter planning to enable 10k character tweets. After recently lifting the character limit on tweets from 280 to 4,000 for Twitter Blue subscribers, the platform is reportedly now planning to bump the max length up to 10,000.
  • TikTok continues to pitch big agencies on search ads. Select advertisers have been testing search ads on the platform by invite-only since March 2022, but now the company is ramping up the program before potentially unveiling to the public later this year.

Working With Clients

13 Things Successful Freelancers Do Differently

Success leaves clues.

So if you want to become an A-Player service provider with the fees to back it up… 

The best place to start is studying what they do differently.

Here are 13 things that set successful freelancers apart:

1. They work fast

2. They never miss deadlines

3. They’re highly-responsive

4. They’re enthusiastic about client work

5. They invest in themselves

6. They’re always managing expectations

7. They focus on one niche

8. They specialize in specific tasks

9. They pay attention to trends in the market

10. They build relationships with other service providers

11. They’re not afraid to step outside their comfort zone

12. They practice radical accountability

13. They actually get results

Producing results for clients is key if you want to climb the ladder…

But as you can see, that’s only one piece of the puzzle.

The elite freelancers who have the clients and income you want embody every item on the list.

From The Paid Ads Gig

Why Cost-Per-Acquisition Goes Up As You Scale

The default setting on ad platforms like Facebook and Google is “lowest cost.”

In other words, you’re telling the algorithm to find the cheapest conversions possible.

This is great for testing…

Or if you’ve only got a small budget to commit to paid traffic…

But what happens when you increase budget?

Cost-per-acquisition goes up as you scale because the algorithm has found all the cheapest conversions.

So the more you want to spend, the wider it has to cast its net to get you more conversions.

This can be a little counterintuitive, especially for clients…

Who often assume that because the campaign is “optimizing” the longer it runs, costs will go down.

When usually, they do the opposite.

Keep this in mind with any clients who are running paid traffic so you can better manage expectations.

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

“Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
— Epictetus

Leading by example is the only true form of influence.

No one likes being told what to do.

And not everyone wants to get better.

Demonstration is the most persuasive action you can take.

(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.)

💬 SlackGPT

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Happy Wednesday! Today is International Women’s Day. So, to all the women making moves and building businesses in the freelancing world, thank you! We salute you 🫡

Discussed in today’s edition: Slack, ChatGPT, WhatsApp, SMS marketing, and Facebook. Plus 4 competitive advantages that cost you nothing, and 3 ways to scale an ad account.

Read time: 3 minutes and 45 seconds

Making the Rounds

  • ChatGPT is coming to Slack. Parent company Salesforce announced Slack users will soon be able to ask ChatGPT to summarize meetings, draft replies to colleagues, and fire annoying clients search for answers on any topic, directly from inside the app.
  • Study finds 38% of customers buy after receiving abandon cart text messages. Data firm Validity surveyed 1,200 respondents and found SMS and WhatsApp messages were highly effective at recovering lost sales from abandoned carts.
  • Meta reverses course by allowing users to access Messenger from within Facebook mobile app. The company split Facebook and Messenger into two mobile apps back in 2016, but now it’s testing a new version of the original Facebook app with Messenger integrated. Yay! More cold DMs — our favorite.

Working With Clients

4 Competitive Advantages That Cost You Nothing

Want to make your freelance business stand out?

Here are 4 ways that have nothing to do with your experience or track record:

1) Work fast

Most clients are looking to launch ASAP.

But most freelancers work way too slowly.

Speed up your production time by:

+ Using templates

+ Systematizing your workflow

+ Specializing in a specific task (logos, emails, etc)

If you can turn around quality work faster than Speedy Gonzales, you’ll attract a lot of clients.

2) Don’t miss deadlines

This goes hand-in-hand with number one.

It sounds cliche, but most freelancers fail to get deliverables in on-time.

So here’s a tip to help you avoid this ugly fate:

Build in a few extra days of buffer when you’re setting deadlines with clients.

It’s always better to underproject and overdeliver than vice versa.

Nothing will scare off clients more than missing deadlines.

3) Be responsive

One of the most common fears clients have is that you’ll ghost them.

Always respond to messages in a timely manner.

(assuming they’re within work hours or whatever boundaries you’ve set with the client)

You don’t necessarily have to have the answer immediately, either.

You can simply acknowledge their message and tell them you’ll get back with the answer as soon as you can.

4) Be enthusiastic

This is probably the most underrated of the list.

But enthusiasm is magnetic.

If you’re legitimately excited about your work, clients will naturally be more attracted to you.

Everyone wants to do business with people they like.

One productivity tool to rule them all

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From The Paid Ads Gig

3 Ways to Scale An Ad Account

If you’re running paid ads that are converting into leads and sales at a profit…

Whether for yourself or for clients…

There are only 3 ways to scale up to $100/day, $500/day, or $1k/day and beyond.

Here they are:

1) Vertical scaling

This is where you increase the budget on winning ad sets or campaigns.

Super simple.

But there’s always a limit on how much you can spend on any one ad, ad set, or campaign…

Depending on your offer and ad platform, of course.

That’s where the next type of scaling comes into play.

2) Horizontal scaling

This is where you begin testing new audiences to find additional winners.

Sometimes this means hitting the same avatar from a different direction…

Like going after 18-25 year olds who are interested in making money online by testing influencer interests, trading interests, and AirBnB interests…

And sometimes this means hitting an entirely different avatar by repositioning the offer with new targeting as well as copy…

Like repositioning a biz opp offer from 18-25 year olds to stay-at-home moms.

3) Spherical scaling

The last type of scaling involves circling back to carve out a different slice of the same audience.

What does this mean?

Let’s use Facebook for example:

If you launch an ad set targeting someone who’s interested in Entrepreneurship…

You’re not reaching everyone within that interest segment.

Even if you’ve got a massive budget.

Instead, Facebook will only show your ads to a specific slice of that audience.

But if that interest is converting well for you, it stands to reason that reaching more of them would probably yield even more conversions.

How do you do this?

By duplicating ad sets or campaigns with the exact same targeting, copy and creatives.

Now, these duplicate ad sets or campaigns will eventually compete with each other…

But only once you reach a certain level of scale.

Often, the result is an increase in conversions and an ability to spend more on your ads profitably.

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

“We’ve all heard that the unexamined life is not worth living, but consider too that the unlived life is not worth examining.”

— Julia Cameron

Don’t overanalyze self-sabotage.

Put yourself in the arena and start building something.

(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.)

📲 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.)

👀 Privacy-focused ad attribution

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Happy Friday! Welcome to the 35 new subscribers who’ve joined us this week.

Discussed in today’s edition: Anonym, Advantage+, and TikTok. Plus how to simplify your offer to close more clients, plus why TikTok videos make great ads.

Read time: 3 minutes and 2 seconds

Making the Rounds

  • Former Facebook execs launch privacy-focused startup to tackle ad attribution. Graham Mudd and Brad Swallwood spent 10+ years building out Meta’s advertising platform. Now they’ve launched Anonym to improve tracking for advertisers without sacrificing user privacy.
  • Advantage+ shopping campaigns saw 32% increase in ROAS. According to new Q4 stats released by Meta, campaigns using their AI-guided Advantage+ feature enjoyed a major boost in conversions.
  • TikTok rolls out Sounds For Business. With it, the platform is making licensed music available to creators for both organic and paid content.

Newsletter Shout Out

Write better copy and get more customers from
your website, in 2 minutes a day

Learn what makes people tick and write higher-converting copy for your SaaS, Ecommerce or service business with Conversion Alchemy – in 2 minutes a day. Subscribe here.

Working With Clients

Simplify Your Offer To Close More Clients

A confused prospect never buys.

The simpler you can make your offer to understand, the easier it is for clients to say yes.

So aim to distill what you do into 1-2 sentences:

  • I write daily emails to make sales and keep your list engaged.
  • I produce unlimited ad creatives for you to test on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok each month.
  • I build funnels from end-to-end. This includes copy, design, and setting up all tech automations.

Don’t worry if you can’t nail it on the first go-around…

Just treat it like your Tinder profile and keep rewriting it until you feel like it’s converting well.

And this doesn’t mean you can’t offer additional services to clients on the backend.

But when it comes to prospecting and front-end marketing…

Simplify to multiply.

From The Paid Ads Gig

Why TikTok Videos Make Great Ads

TikTok is the king of short-form video.

Why?

Because their algorithm optimizes for one single variable: watch time.

Nothing else.

If you watch it, they’ll show you more of it. If you swipe past it, they’ll show you less of it.

So simple, and yet so powerful.

While Facebook and Instagram are trying to synthesize a million different data points so they can better understand what you watch, engage with, and buy…

TikTok isolated the one variable that rules them all when it comes to stopping the scroll.

What does this mean for you as an advertiser or designer?

TikTok-style videos often crush it as ad creatives.

So if you or your client have videos doing well on TikTok organic…

Try running them as ads.

We’ve seen 2-4X higher CTRs on these types of creatives compared to typical lifestyle images or sales videos.

You can also implement these same principles if you’re producing new creatives:

  • Captivating hook
  • Lots of quick cuts
  • Copy & emojis appearing on screen w/ colorful backgrounds

Bottom line:

If you need high-performing ad creatives, model what you see working on TikTok.

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.

In Case You Missed It:

Quote of the Day

“If you go dark on vacation, you will be ready for the light when you return.”

— Brian Scudamore

You can’t be switched on all the time.

If you want to perform like a top athlete, you’ve got to learn to recover like one.

(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.)

🧬 The DNA of a perfect freelance client

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Happy Wednesday! Welcome back to The Gig, your daily morning memo on how to build a thriving freelance business.

Discussed in today’s dispatch: Instagram, Spotify, TikTok, and Microsoft. Plus the DNA of a perfect freelance client, and why A-Player marketers never start from scratch.

Read time: 3 minutes and 31 seconds

Making the Rounds

  • Instagram announces new broadcast chat feature. The platform’s new Channels feature lets creators send out one-to-many broadcasts with text, images, polls, and more to communicate with followers.
  • Spotify planning TikTok-style swipe feed. The audio platform is the latest to copycat features for fun and profit. They’re is reportedly set to announce a vertical swipe-based feed similar to TikTok at their upcoming Stream On event in L.A.
  • Microsoft previewing potential new Bing ads for agencies. With chatbots quickly displacing traditional search, one big question is how companies like Microsoft and Google will integrate paid ads into chat-based search. According to Reuters, Microsoft has already started talking to agencies about what those ads might look like.

Newsletter Shout Out

Don’t Have Time to Listen to All Those
3-Hour Podcasts? Check Out
Best Business Podcasts

⏳ Save 10+ hours a week… and discover the Best Business Podcasts. Get quick summaries of must-listen episodes covering a range of fascinating topics – without enduring hours of audio.

Working With Clients

The DNA of a Perfect Freelance Client

The temptation to take on anyone with a pulse and a credit card as a client is hard to resist sometimes.

Whether it’s because you’re brand new…

Or simply because you need the scratch…

Learning to trust your gut is tough.

So let’s break down what a perfect client looks like.

#1 – Past experience hiring freelancers

Working with freelancers is different than having an in-house team member.

Clients can’t lay claim to 100% of your bandwidth.

You want someone who respects boundaries.

#2 – Validated offer

No matter what service you offer…

The best clients always have validated offers.

“Validated” means they’ve successfully sold their offer to other people.

This proves there’s a hunger for it in the marketplace.

It (usually) translates to a healthy business too.

#3 – Solid social proof

A common byproduct of validated offers is social proof.

Having lots of: 

– testimonials

– screenshots

– and case studies 

… to work with always makes your life easier.

#4 – Reasonable marketing budget

When it comes to paid traffic, everyone likes to say…

“Well if it’s converting, I’m happy to spend as much as possible!”

… No duh.

That’s obvious.

The more important question is: 

“How much are you willing to spend if it’s NOT converting?”

Not everything converts right out of the gate.

So it’s important to have a reasonable testing budget based on the offer, price point, campaign goals, etc.

Which ties in with our last point.

#5 – Understands asymmetrical bets

This applies more to cold traffic.

But a perfect client understands the asymmetrical tradeoff of testing new funnels, offers, or marketing channels.

In other words, one winner pays for a lot of losers.

It’s just like angel investing.

Most of your tests will fail, but that’s often what it takes to find a winner that will scale.

From The Paid Ads Gig

Why A-Player Advertisers Never Start From Scratch

You don’t need to be a creative genius to consistently crank out winning ad copy or creative.

You just need a solid swipe file.

This is one of the things that separates A-Players from rookies…

A-Players never start from scratch.

Instead, they model what’s working right now and put their own spin on it.

So if you’re working to become a high-performance advertiser…

Start building your swipe file.

Here are a few of our favorite tools:

When you see a good ad on Facebook or Instagram, you can also ‘Save’ it by hitting the ribbon icon on the lower right-hand corner of the ad.

This lets you circle back to grab it later.

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

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”

— Albert Einstein

Intellectual curiosity is a superpower.

Go down the right rabbit holes and you’ll often find money at the bottom.

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.)

🔧 Old school fix for ad attribution

by

Happy Friday! Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicks off this weekend with the new Ant-Man movie hitting theaters. It’s tracking for a $95M domestic debut, and while reviews have been mixed, it sounds like the new villain Kang may have what it takes to fill Thanos’s size 14s.

Here’s what’s on the docket as we head into the weekend: TikTok, Uber, and You dot com. Plus what to do if you’re tired of sending a gazillion cold DMs, and the old school fix for ad attribution.

Read time: 1 minute and 49 seconds

Making the Rounds

  • TikTok considering paywalled videos. Creators could soon be able to set a fee of $1 or more to view their content.
  • Uber projecting $1B in ad revenue for 2024. Since launching in-app ads last October, the company’s ad business has exploded to a $500M annual run rate.
  • You dot com announces multimodal search. The search engine, which actually beat both Microsoft and Google to AI-infused search, can now respond with other forms of media besides text when answering a user’s question.

Working With Clients

SPOTTED: New Freelancer After Sending a Gazillion Cold DMs

If you’re a freelancer looking to land clients, make sure you’re fishing in the right pond:

Freelancing platforms.

That’s where you’ll find paying clients with high intent who are looking to hire ASAP.

So focus on them…

And you’ll see results much faster.

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From The Paid Ads Gig

The Old School Fix For Ad Attribution

Apple’s iOS 14 update brought the Golden Age for paid ads to an end.

Ad tracking will never be the same.

But here’s a low tech fix:

Build out separate funnels for each traffic source.

Attribution is easy when each funnel is only getting traffic from one place.

Share this on Twitter 🐦

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.

In Case You Missed It:

Quote of the Day

“Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.”

— Jim Rohn


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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.)

🔥 Why hot takes make the best cold ads

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Happy Monday! Welcome to the 17 new freelancers who’ve joined us since the last edition. 

Each morning, we send out a short email with news, tips, and tricks to help you build high-income freelance skills that pay the bills.

Mentioned in today’s memo: Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, and podcasts. Plus one easy way to upsell existing clients, and why hot takes make the best cold ads.

Read time: 2 minutes and 9 seconds

Making the Rounds

  • Bing search engine now powered by GPT-4. Microsoft’s forgotten search engine is suddenly in the spotlight, as they test an updated version backed by OpenAI’s latest large language model, GPT-4. And according to this report from The Verge, it’s pretty freakin’ good. Meanwhile…
  • Google’s AI chatbot makes a mistake in public demo. Bard, Google’s eagerly anticipated response to ChatGPT, said the James Webb Telescope “took the very first picture of a planet outside our own solar system.” Spoiler alert: that photo was actually taken by another telescope almost 20 years ago. Woops.
  • New podcasts launched in 2022 dropped by 80%. It’s not the only sign the industry is slowing down, either: U.S. weekly and monthly listenership declined for the first time ever in December, according to new data from Edison.

Working With Clients

One Easy Way to Upsell Existing Clients

Send out a short summary after you finish a client project.

This should include:

  • The goal
  • Quick breakdown of the work you did
  • Results (was the goal met? why or why not?)
  • Potential next steps

Easy way to show accountability + upsell them on the next project.

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From The Paid Ads Gig

Why Hot Takes Make the Best Cold Ads

Need a winning ad angle? Create controversy.

How?

By challenging mainstream wisdom.

Find out where you (or your client) disagree with commonly held beliefs of the audience…

Then turn that into your hook.

Controversial ideas are almost impossible to ignore.

Share this on Twitter 🐦

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


“If hard work is the key to success, most people would rather pick the lock.”

— Claude McDonald

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.)

🤑 Improv artist’s secret to stacking high-income skills

by

Happy Friday! Forecaster extraordinaire Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow yesterday, predicting colder temperatures for the next six weeks. Boo. Luckily for us, he’s only right about 39% of the time — so right on par with your local weather person.

Discussed in today’s newsletter: ChatGPT, TikTok, and LinkedIn. Plus the improv artist’s secret to stacking high-income skills, and why sacrilege pays at the Temple of Zuck.

Read time: 3 minutes and 40 seconds

Making the Rounds

  • ChatGPT begins to monetize. The viral chatbot has begun to sell subscriptions for $20 a month that come with priority access, faster response times, and early use of new features. It’ll take more than a couple to defray their estimated $100k/day operating expenses.
  • TikTok beefs up DM options. The surging short-form video platform has expanded who you can receive DMs from to better compete with Facebook and Instagram.
  • SEO options for LinkedIn articles. Authors can now customize SEO titles and descriptions when they publish articles on the platform.

Working With Clients

The Improv Artist’s Secret to Stacking High-Income Skills

The fundamental principle of improv is:

“Yes, and…”

What does this mean?

Instead of rejecting what’s been said, you learn to go with the flow and build on it.

And this doesn’t just apply to the stage — it also applies to your freelance career.

If you’ve developed a solid relationship with a client, they’ll often ask you if you can (or want to) tackle another project before they look elsewhere…

Even if it’s outside your wheelhouse.

Now, it can be tempting to refuse out of fear that you’ll bungle it…

But so long as they’re not asking you to build a rocket…

It’s often better to say “YES!”  and then figure the rest out later.

Opportunities to learn on the job are worth their weight in gold…

And if you’re still in the early stages of your freelance career…

Meaning you’re still working to stack high-income skills so you can raise your rates, land better clients, and create more freedom in your life…

Then make “yes, and…” your new life motto.

Aim to capitalize on every chance you get to demonstrate your resourcefulness, expand your skill set, and learn more about what you enjoy doing.

From The Paid Ads Gig

Why Sacrilege Pays at the Temple of Zuck

What makes Facebook ads so powerful?

The almighty algorithm.

Its ability to optimize ad targeting over time is second to none.

Even in this post-iOS 14 hellscape.

Problem is, the Facebook algorithm needs 50 conversions per week, per campaign, in order to optimize properly…

… Or so it says, anyway.

Now, the more data you can feed it, the better it will do, naturally.

But this conversion volume benchmark creates a dilemma for advertisers…

Should you optimize for an earlier conversion (like Leads) or the end conversion (like Purchases)?

For example…

If you’re selling a high-ticket product or service…

One lead might cost you $20, while one sale might cost you $2,000.

So to hit 50 conversions per week, you need to be spending $100k a week… which comes out to just over $14k per day.

Now, if you’ve got the budget — great!

But what if you don’t?

Well, on the one hand, optimizing for Leads means more scrumptious data for the algorithm to snack on.

But like any campaign, a lot of those Leads won’t be a perfect fit for your product…

Which means your results (in terms of sales) could actually get WORSE over time…

As the algorithm focuses more on finding people likely to become leads, not buyers.

That’s why you should always experiment with Purchase-optimized campaigns… 

Even if you can’t hit 50 conversions per week.

Ultimately, Facebook knows who the buyers are.

So we often find this conversion objective yields better results than Leads, Registrations, etc…

Even when we’re *not* spending enough to hit 50 pixel fires a week.

Now this doesn’t mean it works every time…

But if you or a client worship at the Temple of Zuck, don’t be afraid to challenge assumptions.

Sometimes crime sacrilege pays.

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.

In Case You Missed It:

Quote of the Day


“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”

— James Clear

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.)

💪 The future-proof freelancer

by

Happy Monday! Welcome back to The Gig, your daily email on how to build a lucrative and location-independent freelance business.

Mentioned in today’s edition: BuzzFeed, OpenAI, Twitter, and remote work. Plus ignore this at your peril, and micro split-testing your way to massive profits.

Read time: 3 minutes and 7 seconds

Making the Rounds

  • BuzzFeed plans to lean on OpenAI for content creation. In an internal memo, CEO Jonah Peretti said they would focus on creating AI-generated quizzes with personalized results.
  • Twitter launches Search Keyword Ads beta test. Advertisers can now choose Keywords as a conversion objective when creating a campaign. Ads will only be shown to users who are actively searching for specific keywords, as opposed to Twitter’s original keyword targeting, which acts more like a general interest targeting on Facebook.
  • Working remotely saved commuters 72 minutes per day over the past 2 years. The findings came from a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. We spent all that extra time watching panda Reels on Instagram. How about you?

Working With Clients

Ignore This At Your Own Risk

Digital marketing is a dynamic industry.

Things change fast.

New tactics, trends, and technologies often burst onto the scene in a flash.

Some last and some don’t.

(remember Clubhouse?)

But the fact is, it pays to have your finger on the pulse…

Because these sudden shifts in the marketplace create huge opportunities for freelancers like us.

TikTok is a perfect example.

Plenty of people wrote it off because of a few goofy dancing videos.

And now?

It’s a top-tier acquisition channel for all kinds of brands.

In fact, ad spend on the platform is going up as the rest of the industry slows down.

That’s how dominant it’s become.

And by extension, how valuable TikTok expertise is to the marketplace right now.

So here’s the tip:

If you want to future-proof your freelancer business…

Take the initiative to learn new skills and technologies whenever you can.

Not only can this knowledge help earn you and your clients a sh*tload of shekels…

But it makes the work a hell of a lot more fun too.

On that note, if you’re interested in trends…

Check out the free Exploding Topics newsletter.

They do a great job covering new trends and shifts in the marketplace before they go mainstream.

From The Paid Ads Gig

Micro Split-Testing Your Way to Massive Profits

One of the keys to producing big results is knowing which levers to pull.

Because no matter what kind of work you do…

Some things are more important than others.

Like a thumbnail on a YouTube video…

The headline on a landing page…

Or the first image in a carousel.

When it comes to Facebook ads, one of the most powerful levers to increase performance is the first 125 characters.

This is how much ad copy appears “above the fold” on mobile…

(i.e before the ‘See More’ button)

And split-testing different variations of this copy can be a game-changer for your campaigns.

Now these can be totally different variations of course…

But they can also be “micro split-tests” where you’re only swapping out a few words.

For example, let’s say this is our control hook:

Freelancers — here’s how to land your first client on Upwork with no experience…

We could create a handful of NEW hooks just by rewording the desired outcome:

V1: Freelancers — here’s how to land your first paid gig on Upwork with no experience…
V2: Freelancers — here’s how to land your first paid project on Upwork with no experience…
V3: Freelancers — here’s how to land your first paying client on Upwork with no experience…

We could do the same thing for the avoidance of pain:

V4: Freelancers — here’s how to land your first client on Upwork with no portfolio…
V5: Freelancers — here’s how to land your first client on Upwork with no samples…
V6: Freelancers — here’s how to land your first client on Upwork with no track record…

See how that works?

We’ve found these micro split-tests can produce huge differences in performance.

And can often be the difference between an ad that fizzles and one that can scale.

So next time you’re writing ads for yourself or for clients…

Make sure to write up a bunch of extra hook variations to test.

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


“Either you run the day, or the day runs you.”

— Zig Ziglar