The Benefits of Having a Blog in 2024 to Get Freelance Clients

You know how hard it can be to be known for a specific skill: competition is fierce, and it can be hard to emerge from the mass, especially if you’re focused on making money.

There’s a way to strengthen your position as a freelancer: starting a blog, a platform where you can showcase your expertise, be seen, and gets clients.

Every freelancer should have a blog! If you think that this only applies to people in digital marketing or, even better, writing, you’re making a big mistake.

The benefits of having an online presence are many. In addition to getting more clients, it also helps you build your brand and stay top-of-mind with past customers

Every freelancer, in every niche, with any skill to show, must have a platform to express ideas and expertise.

Despite the rise, shine (and sometimes fall) of social media, articles are more relevant than ever, and people keep reading and sharing them, helping freelancers to be known in a specific industry.

Many people think of blogging as a dream job, and it can become one, but in the case of freelancers and self-employed, it’s the best way to show you’re an expert on something in particular. And this can lead to getting new clients inspired by your expertise, story, portfolio, and style.

Check out these three easy-to-understand stats by Hubspot, that can help you figure out the benefits of blogging for your work, no matter your industry:

• 55% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority;
• Marketers who prioritize blogging efforts are 13x more likely to see positive ROI;
• 70% of marketers actively invest in content marketing;
• Professionals who blog receive 97% more links to their websites.

Sharing your knowledge can become a significant asset for your freelancing business; it shows prospects that you are a professional in what you do, and that you know how to do things.

Have a look at these powerful numbers by DemandMetric:

• 60% of people purchase a product after reading a blog post.
• 47% of buyers read three to five pieces of content before making a purchase decision.

Now apply these statistics to prospective clients: if someone is looking for a highly-skilled professional in a specific niche, the first thing they would do is scan the Web to select candidates. If you show this person your expertise in what they’re looking for, you have a competitive advantage over other candidates.

Showing Your Freelancing Expertise on a Blog

The expertise in one topic is what makes a blog tremendous, and it works for every niche and industry: whether you’re a plumber or a writer, you have something to say, and if you start putting your expertise out there, you’ll give people a reason to hire you.

Your goals with a blog should be to give answers to the following questions:

• What problems can I solve for people?
• How can I anticipate people’s needs in my industry?
• What problems did I have in the past that I couldn’t find a solution to?

If you know how to answer these three questions and have a blog, you can become a valuable asset for companies looking for a freelancer with your expertise.

Blogging is a great way to promote your work!

Promoting your work and becoming a recognized expert in your niche may bring you in touch with many people, both professionals and not. Blogging as a professional will help you in networking and boost your creativity: showing people you know something will build and boost your confidence.

If you know how to channel all of this, you will genuinely enjoy having a blog, and your freelancing career will definitely benefit.

Things You Need to Know Before Starting a Blog as a Freelancer

I don’t want to sugarcoat that having a blog is time-consuming. It requires a lot of effort, and it can be disheartening to put so much time and energy into something and not see it “pay off.” Blogging is not easy, and before you embark on this journey, you need to be sure you can commit.

On average, it takes 3 hours 57 minutes to write a blog post of 1000+ words long (source: OrbitMedia), and at least at the beginning of your adventure, you should plan on publishing every other day to get more substantial results.

According to Hubspot, companies and professionals that publish 16+ blog posts per month get nearly 3.5X more traffic than those that publish 0-4 monthly.

16 posts per month equal almost one a day. It’s a lot.

Having a blog doesn’t only mean you’re going to write: blogging is a mix of words and visuals, and you need to have the right content mix in your blog posts.

In fact, according to OptiMonster, articles with images get 94% more views.

In-depth articles attract more links and rank better on Google (source: Hubspot).

Let’s talk about getting traffic: part of your job is making sure your ideal clients read your content when starting a blog for your freelancing business.

To make sure this happens, you need to have a strategy in place in terms of the content you’re going to produce; you’ve to have your keywords’ research nailed down, your site has to be optimized, and you’ve to promote your content to get them ranked.

Most of all, you need to be patient because an average of 5,760,000 blog posts are published daily, and 4,000 blog posts are published every minute (Head over to Internet Live Stats to see how many blog posts have been written just today).

According to Traffic Generation Cafe, once you publish 24-51 blog posts, blog traffic increases by up to 30%: this may happen quicker but also slower. Hence, you need to have realistic expectations in terms of outcome.

If you don’t have a lot of time or are in a hurry to make money, you have to prioritize, and starting a blog may not be your top priority. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this!

What about social media for freelancers?

Social media marketing requires a different article, but to keep this consistent, it’s worth noticing that not all social networks are created equal, and not all social networks are useful for freelancers.

According to Statista, there are 2.05 billion social media users globally, and this number will increase to almost 3.43 billion in 2023, but how many of them can avail of your services and your knowledge?

As a freelancer, you need to understand the real value of every social network and go for the one(s) that can bring you a better ROI.

One of the most effective exercises to do is defining the following:

• an idea of the results you want
• who is your target demographic (age, but also budget)

Your social channel selection is also affected by whether you operate in the B2B or B2C industry.

Evaluating the above is key to selecting the right social media channels for your brand and will save you a lot of time!

After analyzing your business and your goals, you may also decide you don’t need social media to promote your name and content.

It’s totally fine: to flourish as a freelancer, you don’t need to be famous, but you need to be an expert. Redirect your efforts to something else, whether paid marketing or more SEO.

Should Freelancers Have a Blog?

Based on all of the above, does every freelancer need a blog? Is blogging worth it for a freelancer?

Yes, if you do it the right way.

You need to be ready to invest time in it, be consistent, and engage with the right audience: it may take time, but it will give you a competitive advantage, strengthening your position in the freelancing world. Also, if you blog regularly, your traffic will grow, and you won’t have to spend much in adv.

No, if you don’t have time to maintain it or are looking for quick results.

In this case, it is better to have a highly curated website to showcase your portfolio and expertise and eventually plan some paid campaigns to reach your ideal clients.

Are You Ready to Take on the Challenge?

Read our guide on the best blogging courses of 2024 for more insights

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