A lot of freelance writers are introverts who dread negotiating.

Even after 10+ years of freelancing,

Asking for $$$ still gives me the heebies.

Here are 3 principles I used to raise my prices from $75/hr to $150/hr on Upwork with zero awkwardness: Principle 1: Your Personal Floor

For several weeks, I used @toggltrack to review two things:

-How much I was charging each client
-How much time I spent on the client that week

Using simple division gave me an hourly rate per client.

Five sons dead.

In the 1860s, the War Department alerted Abraham Lincoln that a Mrs. Bixby had lost FIVE SONS in the civil war.

So he wrote her a sympathy note.

Here's what Lincoln, our best presidential letter-writer, said: Dear Madam,--

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

CarDealershipGuy is an anonymous Twitter account with a highly specific niche...

...and 300k followers.

How'd he climb to mainstream success with a niche like that?

Here are 8 types of tweets that make him a success: 1. "Mission statement" Tweet

Your mission statement is your unique way of looking at the world.

It's why people come to you instead of Google.

A strong opinion separates you from generic, AI-style content.

My homework: summing mine up in one tweet.

Here's CarDealership's:

https://twitter.com/1475231323480543232/status/1628491251157803008

"Star Wars" (1977) is a masterclass on "hero's journey" storytelling.

But it's not the *plot* that sells the story.

The appeal of Star Wars hinges on THIS shot.

Here's why. (And what might be missing from your story) First, a brief background on the "hero's journey."

The basic format is this:

* Ordinary world, ordinary person
* Called to great destiny
* Refuses call
* Meets mentor / Assisted by supernatural element
* Put through "ordeal"
* Final confrontation

Writing a snappy blog intro can be excruciating work.

But it doesn't have to be.

Use this cheat sheet of 7 creative intro templates

(+ live examples from professional content writers:) 🧵 1. Curiosity Gap - Context - What's Next?

Great for: Anything in first person

Author: @kat_boogaard

Open with an intriguing, out-of-context image. Do nothing else. Just pull the pin and toss in the grenade.

THEN do context.

Here, Kat starts with the image of $300k:

99% of people scroll past your tweets.

But not @ItsKieranDrew 's tweets.

He's used startling hooks to gain 1000,000 followers.

Here's how his writing stops you in your tracks: @ItsKieranDrew ✏️The "First-Act Disturbance" Approach✏️

Kieran has read a lot about storytelling, and it shows.

How do you start a good story?

With a DISTURBANCE.

Here's his most viral Tweet: "You're destroying your body."

He puts us on our heels off the bat, which earns our interest.

https://twitter.com/ItsKieranDrew/status/1576190456689577984

Early on, if Upwork clients didn't hire me, I didn't make money.

So I got good at sending proposals.

Here are the freelance proposal rules I use to land repeat clients:
🧵 First: why can I tell you about this?

I made my living off of Upwork for many years.

Though I don't use it as much anymore,

it's still the place I go when I need to find people who are hiring.

After about a dozen proposals, I know I'll have legit leads.

Ever notice that writers always seem burned out?

Sadly, it's inevitable.

Writing is craft. Craft is hard to scale.

So I searched for lessons in mass production in history.

Here's how medieval Venice produced one new warship with their hands...

..EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.🧵 Warning: this was originally a blog post. It's a long one.

If you don't have time right now, bookmark it instead.

But if you like...

✅Productivity lessons
✅A few takeaways for outsized production
✅Historical junk 'n' stuff

...it's more relevant than Chrome extension tips.

The worst feeling in email writing:

Being ignored.

The best way to avoid that:

Subject line frameworks that hint at delicious intrigue.

Here are 10 formats I used to help a client get 70% of their emails opened:

🧵 THREAD 🧵 #1: FOMO + [content].

Easiest to incorporate.

Automatic scarcity.

Think:

✉️Last chance for [discount]!
✉️The season's almost over for [promotion]!
✉️[Promotion] ending at midnight: [content]!

The key:

Use sparingly, or you'll spend all of your credibility fast.

Every time I want to give up an endeavor, I think about the Borg.

It's silly, but here's the thing.

This framework always works for me.

8 inspirational lessons from Star Trek's greatest villains: Some context for the non-nerds.

The Borg are the key villains in the ST universe.

They first appear when Q flings the Enterprise at the Borg.

His goal? To teach us humility against what lurks out in space.

The lesson works.

In a rarity for TNG, Picard has to beg Q for help.

5 facts that will make you feel better about where the world is heading: 1. Life expectancy

Since 1900, life expectancy has doubled.

DOUBLED.

"No country in the world has a lower life expectancy than the countries with the highest life expectancy in 1800."

I write and share Google Docs for a living.

If you don't know what it can do,

you will waste a LOT of time.

Here are 14 animated tips for squeezing more out of Google's greatest contribution to civilization: 1. Repeat last command.

Ctrl (or Command) + Y

This will repeat your last action, whatever it was.

Absolutely essential for scaling complicated formatting changes.

Is your writing feeling "stuffy"?

You might be leaning on one of these seven "red flag" words.

Do a Control + F for any of the following,

and your content will sound more confident. 👇 1. "However."

However is just "but."

And it sounds like you wrote it in the 1800s.

You can start with "but."

In many cases, you can just cut it altogether.

Master psychology and you've mastered content.

Here are 7 psychological effects you can use:

1. Von Restorff Effect
2. Hot-cold empathy gap
3. Priming effect
4. Progressive Disclosure
5. Self-serving bias
6. Framing effect
7. Open loop effect

A thread explaining each🧵: 1. Von Restorff Effect

People remember the item that is most different than the others.

Read Aaron Bleyaert's "How to Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps."

Steps 1, 2, and 4 are ordinary diet tips.

But Step 3 is unforgettable.