When you work freelance, the biggest thing on your mind from day to day should be the quality and execution of the work already on your plate. But for most freelancers, it quickly turns into where the next payday will come from.
It’s not greed. It’s simple survival. No matter how good of a month you have, the next one can be a dud and the successful freelancers are those that plan for those dud months, or better yet, ensure they never happen.
One of the most effective ways to ensure you can relax and enjoy the work you are doing is to create recurring income streams from clients for monthly work. Here are a few tips for how to do it.
Create Monthly Add On Packages
Most freelance projects are big one-time things, but what if you could get someone to pay you ever month to add posts to their blog or keep track of their social media profiles? These are small things, but if you charge $100/month, the income starts to add up fast. Here are a few examples of monthly add-ons we charge for:
- Blog Management – $100-$300
- Social Media Management – $100-$200 (per account)
- Guest Post Submission – $50-$150
- Press Release Submission – $100-$200
- Newsletter Creation – $250-$500
Those are just a few examples of small monthly projects we work on for our clients that are recurring – you can probably think of many others that will create recurring income as well.
Offer to Manage Content You Create
Don’t stop once you’ve created content for a client. See it through to completion, even if it is not in your job description. Not only can you train that person to use the content you create, but you can offer management services.
Created a blog post? Offer to promote it, manage comments, submit it to various social media sites, and turn it into a video. Created a software program for a product launch? Offer monthly support and bug fixes for a set fee.
Create a Training Program
You can take this even further and create a training program that shows your customers how to use what you’ve just created. A video training program walking someone through the process of adding a blog post, uploading it to their website, linking to it through social media and more can be a valuable asset to your business, especially if you make it available only for those who pay a small monthly fee.
Recurring income can come from just about any source, but the easiest is from clients who already pay you, know the quality of work you do, and trust you to maintain that quality of work in future projects.
If you can replace a percentage of your income every month with recurring, passive income, it will be much easier to keep your business running smoothly month to month.
