How I Turned $0 into $18.5k in 5 Months—Steal My Secret!

How to Scale Your Freelance Business to $10K and Beyond

Looking to hit $10,000 a month with your freelance business and then push that to $25,000? Grab a coffee and get ready—this guide will change your game.

The Big Problem Most Freelancers Face

Let's cut to the chase: most freelancers struggle to get clients. I see people out there who are way more talented than me, yet they make a lot less. Why? Because they haven’t figured out how to consistently land clients. Instead, they rely on job boards, referrals, or bugging friends on Facebook. Here’s why that’s a problem:

1. Competition: You’re constantly competing with others on price.

2. High Standards: Direct response companies expect top-tier work, and if you’re not up to it, you're in trouble.

Why Listen to Me?

Last year, I hit six figures online as a fairly new copywriter. In just five months, I was averaging $18,500 a month, and honestly, my copy wasn’t even that great. What made the difference? A killer outreach method I’ve been perfecting and teaching to others.

The Traditional Approach Won’t Cut It

Most freelancers are stuck competing on job boards or for direct response gigs. The problem with direct response companies is that they expect flawless copy, and if you’re not up to scratch, you’re going to struggle.

The Secret Sauce: My Unique Strategy

I avoided all that by targeting content creators and coaches on Instagram and YouTube. These folks have great relationships with their audiences but usually suck at marketing. So, I swoop in, make a few tweaks, and suddenly I’m their hero—and I’m getting paid well for it.

How to Find the Right Clients

Here’s how you find the right coaches to work with:

1. Use Instagram Desktop: Start by checking out your favorite coaches.

2. The “Rabbit Hole” Method: Find out who they follow—now you’ve got 100-300 new prospects.

3. Create a Google Sheet: List the Instagram URLs, brand names, and websites of these prospects.

Phase 2: Get Those Emails

Now, open that Google Sheet on your phone and click on each profile. Instagram has a handy "email" button—grab those emails and add them to your sheet.

Phase 3: Crafting the Perfect Cold Email

Most cold emails fail because they’re generic and impersonal. But if you spend hours crafting each one, you’ll never get anything done. The trick? Find the sweet spot between quality and quantity. Here’s how:

1. Write a Unique Compliment: Make the first line of your email so specific that they’ll never think it’s auto-generated.

2. Be Sincere: Mention something specific from their latest post to show you’re paying attention.

3. Remember you need to include the unique reference in the subject line or the first line of the email. It should be something that convinces the recipient that you are not just blasting this email out to everyone.

Phase 4: Automate and Scale with Streak

Now it’s time to send those emails. Use a tool called Streak (it’s free!) to set up email sequences with follow-ups. You can even personalize each email with the recipient’s first name and your unique compliment, all automated.

The Final Step: Make Them an Offer They Can’t Refuse

Your pitch needs to be irresistible. Most freelancers blow it here, so I’m sharing my old email template for you to model (not copy, mind you).

The Email Template:

"Hey FIRSTNAME

I’ve been enjoying the weekly free calls you’ve been doing and love how much value you give like when you said to always end the date when the chemistry is really hotting up. It’s been really helpful for my dating life (<--- this is unique compliment. Could be better).

However, I couldn’t help but notice you aren’t reaching as many people as you should be. Your content is powerful but it’s not reaching the largest audience to have true impact.

…and that got me wondering why? So I had a few minutes between client calls today and decided to take a quick peek at your website.

That’s when I realized immediately what was happening. There are a few issues on your page that could, if improved, really increase your AOV and LTV by a lot.

The most glaring being [insert little intrigue seed].

We used this same approach with another client of mine which helped him increase his sales from $85k per month -> 202k per month in just 60 days.

So I’ll keep this short being that it’s an email, if you’re interested then let’s chat briefly and I’ll break down everything I did to drive sales for my client above and give you feedback for improvement.

You can easily take it yourself, have your guys implement it, and run off (totally fine). But I have a feeling your team is already swamped and will want help driving this home.

Sounds good?

Shoot me a reply to this email saying “interested” and we’ll set something up.

Wish you the best,

Daniel

P.S. This call will take less than 20 minutes, I know you’re a busy guy and don’t want to spend your days on numerous calls. "

(The reason for mentioning AOV and LTV is that everyone is talking about getting them more sales or doubling their business or some bullshit. Talking about increasing AOV shows that I'm a real marketer and know deeper layers... which would only happen if I've worked with clients before or experienced... so a lot of this game is saying little things that hint at stature/status without saying it outright).

Wrapping It Up

That’s the method I used to hit $18.5k in one month. There’s a lot more to it, but this should give you a solid foundation to start crushing it.

Hope this helps,

Nathan

P.S. You can use this method on YouTube too. Just find the creator, go to the "About" section, and click to get their email. Easy as that.