• Develop strong consultative skills. Besides selling your freelance services, also offer consulting services. Clients pay you to explain ideas, concepts, recommendations and turnkey solutions as to best way to achieve results they desire. Consulting with clients can lead to securing freelance work, since clients realize you have skills and expertise to undertake task.

• Know future needs of clients. Clients come with present needs — and future needs. A client may hire you to write a newsletter now, but they'll also consider you for future work if you know what their future needs are and how to fulfill them. The company may be ushering in a new product line, creating a new division within company, sponsoring a charity event, or creating a website. All of these future events need a freelancer to do promotional writing and freelance work. That's you. Your job is to show clients how you'll address their future needs with solutions that'll increase their profitability and/or productivity. This is usually accomplished with a proposal through which you pitch yourself as freelancer who has solutions to undertake future tasks.

• Use proposals to secure work. Proposals are an inclusive persuasion tool to convince prospects that you can increase their profitability and/or productivity with your freelance services. Proposals specifically show client how you intend to achieve desired results, time and costs involved, and why you and your solutions are best choices to boost company's profits.

• Adaptations. Any of your freelance writing services can be adapted for websites, turning a single assignment into two assignments. Get paid to write a press release or brochure, and then get paid again to adapt copy digitally.

• Add-on services, such as desktop publishing services, marketing consulting, compiling and selling media lists, and project coordinating can help multiply your work and your income.

In all seasons, and at specific times of year, there are articles needed on issues like retirement planning, education funding,savings, tax filing and brackets, insurance, estate planning,family finances, and more.

But what if you don't know anything about any of these topics? If you're willing to do some research and learn a few things, you'll not only be armed with knowledge you've gained, but you will also be poised to make some great money. Try going to a search engine like Google, and you will find thousands of articles on money, investments, and all types of insurance. Spend some time learning ropes and your study could pay off big time.

In fact, many websites even hold contests to promote themselves and build a crop of writers. These sites are looking for interesting articles that teach, entertain, and inform on money, finances, investments, and insurance. The major prizes can be worth thousands to writer, making a few hours of research and time spent writing well worth it. As sites build a list of writers, they will typically increase number of writing contests they hold, making it easier and easier to get in on action.