Being a service provider can be an extremely rewarding career. You get to work with people you like and get to make a living on your own terms. However, being self-employed can also be challenging, particularly if you are short on customers. There are many ways you can increase your customer base as a virtual assistant. Let’s explore some of the tried and true customer base boosters.

Offer Memberships

Memberships offer a win-win for both you and your client. With most memberships, members receive a benefit that others do not receive. The most common example is a discount on services. For example, a membership might offer a twenty percent discount on ten hours of virtual administrative services. Your client receives a sizeable discount on services and you receive a promise of repeated income and predictable cash flow.

You can set up recurring automatic payments through PayPal and other invoicing systems so you don’t have to lift a finger. The cash goes into your account and you get predictable monthly work. Consider creating a tiered system so you can appeal to various budgets and needs. For example, a five, ten and fifteen-hour membership program.

Create a Referral Program

Word of mouth is one of the best ways to gain a client base that is full of ideal clients – people you want to work with. A referral program is a nice way to reward your existing clients for sending new business your way. Referral rewards can be in the form of free or discounted services or cash. Spend some time calculating the value of a customer. You may find that a $100 referral payment is just a drop in the bucket compared to what a client is worth.

Embrace the Power of the Opt-In

Service providers around the globe have found great success by creating an email newsletter and sending it on a regular basis to their clients and prospects. This works well because regular email messages connect you to your prospects on a consistent basis. Quite often, you will remind them that they have been meaning to hire a Virtual Assistant. It’s about being in the right place at the right time.

Additionally, you can provide information in your newsletter that offers value to your prospect and clients. They will begin to turn to you for information, insight, advice and, of course, service.

Motivating website visitors to sign up for your newsletter is as easy as offering a compelling giveaway. For example, you might write a report about how to hire a technically savvy virtual assistant. Or a step-by-step “how to” report on how to create a social networking campaign that sells. You might then offer a discount on your personal social networking campaign management skills and services at the end of the report. So the report then serves two goals – it builds your email list and it helps sell your services.

Growing your virtual assistant customer base doesn’t have to be a matter of knocking on doors and visiting freelance websites. Take a strategic and proactive approach. Motivate the customers to come to you. You will have a full schedule and an ideal client base in no time.

If you have a knack for photography, you can turn your passion into profits. There are many businesses, organizations, and resources online that want to buy quality photos.

#1 Research Your Niche

Most photographers have a niche. There is a specific type of subject or photograph in which you specialize. For example, Ansell Adams was a nature photographer. He took many popular photographs of America’s National Parks, including several notable ones at Yosemite. Other photographers specialize in portraits, cars, animals…the list goes on and on.

If you have a specialty, spend some time researching people, organizations, websites, businesses and publications that may need your specialty photographs. For example, travel websites and publications are often looking for travel photographs.

#2 Sell to Stock Photo Websites or Create Your Own

Stock photo websites are always an easy way to earn money. You simply create a profile, upload your photo and you get paid every time someone downloads your photo. Some stock photo sites pay more than others. Do your research so you know what to expect.

You can also create your own stock photo website that caters to your niche. Generally when you sell photos on a stock photo website, you sell limited rights to publish the image. This means that the customer can buy the photo at a reduced rate. However, you can also sell the photo an unlimited number of times. It’s not unheard of for a stock photo to have been purchased several thousand times.

#3 Market to Website Designers and Graphic Designers

Partnerships or relationships with designers in your niche can be a great way to make extra money. For example, a website designer that caters to the health and wellness industry may be in regular need for photos and images for their client’s websites. Likewise a graphic designer tends to work with stock images when creating headers and simple graphics. Your photographs can help them develop original designs.

#4 Create an Etsy Storefront

Etsy.com is a website that enables artists and vintage retailers to sell their wares. You will find many handmade items on the website. You will also find artwork. You can create a storefront at Etsy and sell your photos through the store.

#5 Wallpaper

You can also sell your photographs as wallpaper for people’s computer monitors, mobile devices and tablets. Everyone wants to customize their electronics and your original photos may be exactly what they are looking for.

There are many ways to sell your photos online. Begin by defining your niche and looking for opportunities within that niche. Don’t forget to market your photographs. A great way to do this is to participate in social networking and photo sharing websites.

Freelance web design is a rewarding way to make a living. You work independently, can work from your home, and work as much or as little as you wish. This means there is no cap on your income. You determine how much you earn each day, week, month and year. So how do you get started and how do you build a sustainable freelance web design career?

Step One – The Research Phase

The first phase will be your research phase. During this phase you will research what it takes to start a freelance business. This includes common expenses, tools required to make a living as a web designer, and how to start your own business. For example, what licenses, certification and permits do you need in your locale to operate a business? Do you need insurance? How will you report your taxes?

You will also want to begin researching your audience. Who needs your services? What can you offer that will differentiate you from your competition? Who is your competition? You might consider specializing in a type of website or in an industry. For example, WordPress customization or the Health and Wellness industry. As you can see, there are many aspects to research.

Step Two – The Planning Phase

In the next important phase, you will begin planning your freelance web design business. It will outline your brand, your services, and your systems. For example, when someone contacts you with a need, how will you respond? What system will you follow to work with your new client? Also, how will clients contact you for business? How will they find your business?

Create your work for hire agreements, your questionnaires and your customer inquiry and feedback forms. These forms will simplify your business and help customers communicate with you effectively.

Step Three – The Action Phase

During this phase you are going to start implementing your plans. You will create your website, and remember that this is a direct sample of your work. You will also start marketing. The most effective means for getting a business off the ground is social networking, email marketing and content marketing.

Start getting active in your industry. Share information and resources on how to build/design an effective website. Become an industry expert people can turn to. Ultimately they will turn to you to design their website, too. Of course, you will also want to have a portfolio of websites to share with prospective customers. You can create a portfolio by creating mock websites. Once you have clients, you can add them to your portfolio. Also consider doing a bit of non-profit work to get a few samples in your portfolio.

Finally, once your business is up and running, continue to be active in your industry. Create incentives to work with you. For example, you might create a referral reward program or a membership program that offers discounts to customers who utilize your services on an ongoing basis.

Making a living as a website designer isn’t difficult. Making a great living takes a goal, a plan and action steps to achieve that goal.

With a bit of hard work and determination, even beginning copywriters can be crafting sales letters that convert quite well in a short period of time. Here are a few tips to help you learn the art of good copywriting quickly.

Read Sales Letters for Fun

Make it an obsession and get absorbed in copywriting. Read everything you can about great copy. Read record-breaking ads for fun. Just as an art collector admires art, so a great copywriter admires copy. Read good copy over and over, and absorb all the nuances of what really made it convert.

Why did the writer choose this word instead of that? Why did the headline work? What kind of emotions did the piece of copy invoke? How did the copywriter structure the call to action?

Read both the classic ads (i.e., “They laughed when I sat down at the piano, but when I started to play …”) and high-converting modern ads. Then, take it a step further. Write out winning ads by hand. You will absorb a lot more of what the author was thinking by penning a letter by hand than by just reading it with your eyes.

It may seem to be unnecessary hard work, but almost every world class copywriter today started their career by handwriting past successful ads. If you truly want to become a great copywriter, this kind of training is really required.

Build Your Power Words Vocabulary

Start paying more attention to words and phrases that paint pictures and invoke emotions. These words and phrases are the bread and butter of any good copywriter. Anytime you come across a word, phrase or technique that you might want to use in your own writing, write it down. Keep a file of these words. As the list grows over weeks and months, you will soon have a powerful library of words at your disposal.

Start Writing and Ask for Reviews

As much as you can learn by studying others, the only way you can really learn to write copy is to just start writing. Write your first piece of copy. If you are working at a small company or website, see if you can get them to split test your piece. If you are a freelancer, see if you can find a free client or two to start with.

Ask for reviews from other copywriters. Sign up to different copywriting and marketing forums to meet other copywriters to compare notes with. Finally, look at your actual results from live sales letters. Were they what you would have expected? Why or why not?

Learning to Write Great Copy

Learning to be a great copywriter isn’t easy, but it is incredibly rewarding. Start studying successful past letters, build your vocabulary and get writing. You will have both successes and failures; study both. Figure out what is working and what is not in your writing and move forward from there.

Becoming a successful business consultant involves first executing strategies to acquire initial clients, then using those clients to get referrals and even more clients. The first few months are the most difficult, but once you have your first few satisfied customers, your success will escalate from there.

Identify Your Market

The more specifically you can identify your market, the better. For example, if you narrowed your target market down to home-based mothers, you will have a much better shot than if you were targeting everyone. Whatever your passion or specialty is, identify that market and target that market specifically.

Though it may seem counter-intuitive at first that narrowing your market will bring you more business, consultants all over the world have found that working with a smaller, more specific market produces far superior results to trying to serve everyone.

Start with Courtesy Sessions

Unless you already have years of industry experience, you will probably want to start off giving away free consultation sessions. This could just be a free initial session where they can then sign up as a paid client afterwards, or they could be an entirely free client you take on just to get more experience.

If you deliver results for these clients, chances are you will either get them to sign on as paid clients, or you will get referrals to people who may become paid clients.

How to Ask for Referrals

One of the most powerful ways of asking for referrals is to be specific.

For example, instead of “Who do you know who might benefit from my services?” a much better question would be “Do you know any stay-at-home mothers who might benefit from creating a second income source from home?” Be specific. Highlight the main benefit of your services when you ask for referrals, and target one specific group of people.

The average person has 400 Facebook friends, a very large network compared to just a decade ago. By identifying exactly the kind of person you want to meet, you help them mentally sift through all their contacts to find the few people they know who could potentially help you.

Delivering Results

To be a successful consultant, you need either phenomenal coaching skills or phenomenal personal experience, or both. For example, Dan Pena, who started and sold a $480 million dollar company, charges $20,000 per day for coaching. People gladly pay this fee, because they know he has the experience to back it up.

On the other hand, world-class NLP trainers can also command astronomical rates, even among business clients. That’s not because of their business experience, but because of their knowledge and understanding of how to create change in people and organizations.

To succeed as a coach, you need to either have the background or phenomenal coaching skills. If you have either or both of these, you stand a great chance of being able to create results for others that they will rave about.