101 ways to elevate yourself and demand higher fees

# 1

Say “No” to initial client meetings.

Say “No” to co!ee and lunch requests from start-ups.

Say “No” to requests for quotes.

Saying “No” sends a clear message that you are in demand and that you do business on your terms.

Say “No”

# 2

Set up a simple form on your website or on wufoo.com and ask your incoming leads questions about their project.

This simple step will eliminate a large number of tyre kickers who are just "shing for quotes.

If they have not thought about their business enough to be able to "ll in a simple form then they are not ready to work with you.

Qualify Your Leads

# 3

Ask better quality questions than the average web designer and you will immediately be perceived as an above average specialist.

Asking questions about their business, their industry, their clients and their competitors shows that you take your work seriously.

Ask Quality ?’s

# 4

Nobody expects you to ask why they need a new website.

So when you do, it shows that you care about their project and you are not desperate for work.

Ask Why?

# 5

Ask your prospect what a successful online strategy looks like for them in 12 months time.

Ask them to describe the impact this will have on the business and how important it is that the online strategy is a success.

Ask them how the website "ts into the overall strategy.

Define Success

# 6

The single biggest thing you can do to save yourself wasting hours writing proposals that will never get read and to start attracting bet-ter quality clients is to ask your incoming leads about their budget upfront.

This positions you as a serious business instead of a needy freelancer.

You will be surprised how many people will tell you the truth if you just ask.

Ask About Budget

# 7

Rebranding the WordPress login screen with your prospect’s logo is a two-minute job that goes a long way to showing them how easy you are about to make their life.

Most clients have a horror story or three about their previous web de-signers. This simple act will put their mind at ease.

Show them this rebranded login at your "rst meeting once you have quali"ed them as a serious prospect.

Rebrand Login

# 8

We all love the WordPress dashboard, however if you have never seen it before it can be a little overwhelming. Most of it is also useless to the average business owner.

Customise the dashboard to show them what it will look like if you decide to work together.

Include a Google analytics chart and a welcome video.

Useful Dashboard

# 9

When you "rst meet with a prospect let them know that you only have 45 minutes to spare.

This highlights to them that you are busy and that you value your time and theirs.

We all know that if you want something done you should ask a busy person to do it.

Value Your Time

# 10

Use a plug-in like Testimonials by WooThemes to show them how easy it is to manage di!erent types of content using WordPress.

Show Ease of Use

# 11

Do not meet in cafés, restaurants, bars or any other public place that might be noisy and full of distraction.

If you do not have an o#ce then go to your prospect’s o#ce or hire a meeting room for an hour at the local council or a serviced o#ce facil-ity.

Meeting in a café will be very distracting and sends the message that you are a laid-back freelancer therefore your rates must be match that perception.

No Cafés

# 12

Insist that all decision-makers must be in the initial meeting.

There is no point getting boy wonder all excited about the project un-less Batman is prepared to foot the bill.

Decision-Makers Only

# 13

Let your prospect no that you have another meeting directly after theirs.

This allows you to get out after 45 minutes and it lets them know that you are in demand.

Tight Schedule

# 14

It’s one thing to make a bit of small talk to build rapport, but it impor-tant to avoid excessive chitchat at the beginning of the meeting.

Your time is valuable and dissecting the latest sporting scandal is not going to bene"t anyone.

Avoid Chit-Chat

# 15

Dress like you mean business.

That doesn’t mean you need wear a suit or even a collared shirt with nice trousers.

Just try and avoid board shorts and thongs.

I’ve seen it and it’s not good for anyone.

Dress Well

# 16

Do not mention any plug-ins in your initial meetings with the client.

First of all, it will not mean anything to them and second of all if you are secure enough in your process and the value you add you should spend all your time talking about the bene"ts they are going to re-ceive instead of the technology you are going to use.

No Plugin Talk

# 17

Do your homework before you meet with your prospect so that you can talk to them about the speci"c problems they may have and any particular quirks within their industry.

Do Your Homework

# 18

Ask your prospect what superpower they think you bring to this project.

If they decide for themselves that you are above average it is much easier to charge above-average rates.

Try and do this with some light-hearted humour.

Claim SuperPowers

# 19

Busy people do not need business cards.

Make sure you get a business card so that you can follow them up with your process and on your terms.

Again, busy people do not need business cards.

Don’t Do Cards

# 20

Record the initial client meeting on your iPhone so that nothing falls through the cracks later.

I promise you other web designers are not doing this so this will dif-ferentiate you immediately.

Record Meetings

# 21

Email your prospect a summary of the meeting from your iPhone re-cording outlining the success factors they spoke about and the an-swers to the high-quality questions you asked them.

Mention the superpowers they gave you during the meeting.

Email Summary

# 22

Reiterate the success factors they spoke about when you submit your proposal.

This demonstrates you are a good listener but it also gets everyone on the same page from the get go

Reiterate Success

# 23

Avoid writing functional speci"cation documents unless it is a deal-breaker for the IT department.

Try and avoid dealing with the IT department altogether if you can.

A website is a marketing activity not an IT activity.

Don’t Bore Them

# 24

Read “Rework” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.

Enough said.

Read “ReWork”

# 25

Use bidsketch to create beautiful and consistent proposals in a quar-ter of the time.

Your client can electronically approve the proposal or leave com-ments for clari"cation.

Use Bidsketch

# 26

Re-read your proposal and tighten it up before sending it to the cli-ent.

Take out anything that is $u! and that doesn’t spell out the bene"ts of working together.

Tighten Up

# 27

Build checkpoints into your proposal so that your client must sign o! on wireframes, design and development and must pay you through-out the project.

Avoid the usual 50% upfront and 50% on delivery.

Paying you throughout the project gets greater buy-in from the client.

Checkpoints

# 28

I know this is obvious, but I recently received a proposal from a multi-million dollar software company who repeatedly referenced my com-pany as Uber the town car service.

I do not work for Uber.

Fail.

Check Grammar

# 29

This may go against everything you have ever learnt but I suggest you do not call to follow-up after you have sent a proposal.

We all know after you’ve been out on a date that it comes o! as a bit desperate if you call the next day.

Besides, you should be too busy to follow them up.

Do Not Call

# 30

Instead of calling, drop your prospect into an email sequence that includes a couple of testimonials from past clients or preferably refer-ences from people in their industry.

Email Proof

# 31

Do not negotiate on your process.

A little bit of knowledge is dangerous and your prospect may suggest you use a certain plug-in to speed up the process and save money.

You cannot negotiate with a doctor or your mechanic about their process.

Keep Process

# 32

Show the client timeframes and milestones.

Avoid compromising on these timelines just because the client needs things quicker.

Use gantto.com to show the milestones and dependencies for the project

Keep Time Frames

# 33

Do not discount your price just because the client asks you to or indi-cates it does not "t within their budget.

If the client really is out of budget then take something out of the project as a compromise.

Discounting your original price just lets them know that you had add-ed too much fat in the "rst place.

Do Not Discount

# 34

Drop your prospect into an email sequence that includes articles on latest trends and technology in the web design space.

This is much more e!ective than calling them and asking them what they thought of your proposal.

Keep ‘Em Informed

# 35

Email your prospect and article that you disagree with and tell them why you disagree with it.

Write up your opinion piece as a blog post or better still should a vid-eo to explain.

Have An Opinion

# 36

E1mail your client articles from Smashing Magazine to show that you are at the top of your game and following best practices.

Show Credibility

# 37

Email your client links to inspirational talks at ted.com by in$uencers and entrepreneurs from around the world.

They will love you for it.

Show TED Talks

# 38

Email your client case studies.

If you don’t have case studies read the book by Jonathan Kranz and create some case studies that will help you attract new clients.

Case Studies

# 39

Let your client know that the window of opportunity for you to work on their project in the next three months is closing becasue there are other projects on the slate.

Be prepared to walk away.

Window Closing

# 40

Make a great product such as a WordPress plug-in or a design UI kit like Blaz Robar did with the layout lab.

Email your client and show them what you’ve been up to.

It’s kind hard to argue on price with a designer or developer whose products are being used by hundreds of other designers or develop-ers .

Make Product

# 41

Use Gather Content to collaborate with your client on the content for their site.

The earlier you can get buyin to your process from the client the eas-ier there will be to manage throughout the project and the safer they will feel in your hands.

Content First

# 42

Design as much as you can in the browser.

Seeing a website come to life in the browser is a much nicer experi-ence for your client and helps you manage their expectations.

Tools like easel.io make this a pleasure

Design In Browser

# 43

Present clickable prototypes to your client early in the process and see how fast decisions get made.

Using something like solidifyapp.com can rapidly increase the speed of implementation.

Clickable Prototypes

# 44

Use the canvas theme from woothemes.com to show your client what you are talking about rather than trying to explain it in a document.

Proof of Concept

# 45

Show your client the deadlines for the project right from the begin-ning.

This includes your commitment to them and also outlines they com-mitment to you in terms of providing content, approvals \and most importantly payment.

Show Deadlines

# 46

Collaborate with your client throughout the project using something like basecamp.com

Having all of your milestones, "les, discussions and to do items in one place keeps everybody on track and shows you are a professional.

Collaborate

# 47

Refuse to launch anything on a Friday.

Refuse Friday Launch

# 48

Find somebody within the client’s organisation who can champion the project and you.

This person will be the one to help you get the project and start when it inevitably starts to derail .

Client Champion

# 49

Premium plug-ins save you time and give you the peace of mind that you will have premium support and a healthy development cycle moving forward.

Gravity forms is a great example of a premium plug-in that really is a game changer.

Use Premium Plugins

# 50

Document your processes and work$ow so that you can produce con-sistent results and share your methodology with your team, whether they be local or remote.

Cloud-based services like box.com make this a breeze.

Document Processes

# 51

Suggest specialised WordPress hosting and explain to your client why it is more expensive than Bluehost or GoDaddy.

There really is no excuse not to use wpengine.com

Premium Hosting

# 52

If you need to use their existing hosting environment make sure you check that it is compatible with WordPress.

Check Environment

# 53

Tell your client that you are adopting best practices throughout the project and email them links to the resources you are using to devel-op your best practices

Best Practices

# 54

Avoid scope creep.

Adding new features throughout the project is a disaster and will destabilise the relationship.

Exercise mutual respect and politely say “no” - unless the project budget expands accordingly.

Avoid Scope Creep

# 55

Show your client the development site at early stages so they can see you are pro actively working on their project.

You can have a lot of fun with lorem ipsum and placeholder images.

Preview Early

# 56

Advanced custom "elds make WordPress even easier for your clients to use to manage their content.

If you are not using it, you should be.

If you are, well done.

Use ACF

# 57

Check the website in all modern browsers even if your client has not requested it.

Using browserstack.com is easy and fast. You can then let your client no their website is cross-browser compatible.

Cross Browser

# 58

Use the proposal as a constant reference guide throughout the project to make sure everyone stays on the same page.

This is the project that everyone agreed to.

Stick To The Proposal

# 59

Send chocolates and champagne when the website goes live.

It’s the little things that count.

Just make sure they are good quality.

Celebrate

# 60

Send an email to the client congratulating them when their website is launched.

Tell them how much you have enjoyed working on the project and how proud you are that it is now live.

Send Congrats Email

# 61

Say “thank you” when your client pays you.

Say “Thank You”

# 62

If you do nothing else from an SEO viewpoint for your client make sure you use WP SEO by Yoast.

It does so many great things out of the box your client will think you are a genius.

Use WP SEO by Yoast

# 63

Verify your clients website with Google’s Webmaster tools.

It takes less than two minutes and ensures that Google knows about the website and will come visit.

Verify with Google

# 64

Give your client the details of their host and make it perfectly clear who they need to call when their website or email’s crash.

If you host a website then set up a support desk and show them how to use it.

Give Host Details

# 65

Don’t send your client and invoice the day after their website goes live.

Schedule your emails and invoices so that there is at least 72 hours between a deliverable and a bill.

Eager for $$$?

# 66

Install Google Analytics on the website and show your client how to log into Google Analytics and check their stats.

Even if they never do it (which they probably won’t) they will appreci-ate it nonetheless.

Install Analytics

# 67

Use managewp.com to manage all of your WordPress websites from one dashboard.

Updating core installations, plug-ins, running security checks and scheduling backups is easy and adds massive value to your client.

Use ManageWP

# 68

Tweak the caching of your clients website for maximum speed.

Search engines and users love fast websites and with the number of plug-ins and services are available there is no excuse for slow ones.

Tweak Caching

# 69

Do not use “admin” as the admin username and use strong passwords.

WordPress may be secure out-of-the-box but it is extremely vulner-able to hackers once plug-ins and clients get involved.

Premium hosting will help.

Secure WordPress

# 70

Type “site:domain.com” into Google and check whether or not your client’s website is in the index.

Of course, replace domain.com with the web address of your client’s website.

Check The Index

# 71

Schedule regular backups of your client’s website and have been stored in third-party storage services like Amazon S3 or Dropbox.

Schedule Backups

# 72

Provide video tutorials to show your client how to use WordPress.

Juat because you know how to use it doesn’t mean they will.

The Video User Manuals plugin allows you to set this up in two min-utes.

Provide Video Tuts

# 73

Submit your client’s website to digg.com and email them a screen-shot to show them you are sharing the love.

Digg The Site

# 74

Shoot a quick welcome video that explains the dashboard to your cli-ent and embed it in the dashboard so it’s the "rst thing they see when they login.

Embed Welcome Vid

# 75

Show your client how tou se the Google URL Builder tool so they can tag their links and track what’s working and what’s not when they share links to their website on the internet.

If you don’t know how to use this tool, learn. It wil take you 5 minutes.

Link Tagger

# 76

Schedule reminders in your calendar to follow your client up 30, 60, 90 and 120 days after launch to make sure everything is running smoothly and they are on track to achieve the success goals they told you about in the initail meeting.

Set Follow Ups

# 77

Ask your clients for feedback on how you could improve your process and approach.

Get Feedback

# 78

Read “The Referral Engine” by John Jantsch.

It’s available at amazon.com for ten bucks.

Read This Book

# 79

Plant the RSS feed for your blog in the dashboard so everytime your clients login they get your latest posts with your awesome, helpful content.

Oh, make sure your blog is full of awesome, helpful content.

In Dash RSS Feed

# 80

Add your clients to your email list so you can continue to nurture them with your value-adding emails.

Make sure you write value adding emails.

Add Clients To List

# 81

Send your client the Beginners Guide to SEO from SEOMoz.

Read it yourself "rst.

It’s awesome.

SEOMoz Beginners

# 82

Suggest content experiments and ideas for split testing on your cli-ent’s site.

A small tweak could have a major impact on your client’s business.

If you don’t know how to do this, learn.

Suggest Split Testing

# 83

Send your client the Beginners Guide to Social from Mashable.

Read it yourself "rst.

It’s awesome.

Mashable Social

# 84

For less $100 per year you can give your client all the videos they will ever need to teach them how to use the internet for business.

From Google Analytics to search to social to email marketing and eve-rything in between.

You can get it at grovo.com

Give Premium Grovo

# 85

What? Who? Where?

Make a video explaining how to use Google Analytics Multi Chan-nel reports and send them a mobile friendly version of the video to watch.

Elevation.

Give GA MC Video

# 86

Use visual.ly to send your client a beautiful infographic outlining their Google Analytics main metrics and movement every week.

Boom goes the dynamite.

Beautiful Analytics

# 87

Setup a campaign using myseotool.com and send your client a brand-ed report every week showing them the movement of their website in search engine rankings for their top keywords.

They’ll think you built the internet.

Branded SEO Reports

# 88

Make a note about theior website in evernote.com and send it to them out of the blue.

Better still, set a reminder in your calendar to do this 34 days after they launch so you don’t forget.

Send Them Evernote

# 89

Showcase their site on your portfolio and send them a link showing them what you’ve done.

If you are not proud enough to put it on your portfolio ask yourself why you’re working on this project.

Portfolio Piece

# 90

Find a great book at Amazon that you know would bene"t them and send it to them in the post as a gift.

You wanna put your fees up or not?

Post Them A Book

# 91

Use pingdom.com to track the uptime of your client sites and their competitors.

Of course, theirs will win, right?

Use Pingdom

# 92

Introduce your clients to the wonders of HubSpot.

Their free content is amaaaaazing.

It will not put you out of a job.

It will elevate you.

Intro To HubSpot

# 93

Continue to ask good quality questions about your client’s business so you can learn how you can better serve them.

Continue Asking ???’s

# 94

Find an awesome local event on eventbrite.com that will bene"t you and them and invite them along.

Pay for them.

Invite To An Event

# 95

If you believe they are worthy, nominate them for a local business award.

If you do not believe they are worthy, see slide #89.

Nominate Them

# 96

Discover useful apps that will bene"t your client and email them links.

Easy.

Send Useful Apps

# 97

Just because you have a great relationship with them doesn’t mean you should say “yes” to everything.

Challenge them, say “no” and ask “why?”

Say “No”

# 98

Nine months after launch, schedule a reminder to check their site for broken links and email them a report outlining the issues.

Broken Link Check

# 99

Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to check the page speed of their site and let them know where they’re humming along and where they could improve.

Explain that Page Speed is a factor the in$uences search engine rank-ings.

Check Page Speed

# 100

Twelve months after launch remind them of their initial goals and suc-cess factors and see how they’re doing.

Remind Goals

# 101

The easiest way to get referrals is to give them.

Refer THEM A Client

# 102

There’s more.

Here’s the bonus.

But Wait!...

# 103

I promise you.

The quickest way to increase your fees and elevate yourself above the pack is to lose your hourly rate...

because everyone else is too scared to.

Lose Your Hourly Rate

# 104

Troy Dean is a digital strategist, online marketing coach and co-found-er of the Video User Manuals plugin.

You can connect with him at troydean.com.au

You can get the plugin at videousermanuals.com

Now go Elevate!

About The Author