✅ GPT 4.5 initiated

Author

Jim Hamilton
March 07, 2025

In partnership with

Happy Friday! This is the Freelance Gig, where we share news, tools, tips, and tricks to help grow your freelance business. 

Mentioned in today’s email: OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, LinkedIn, T-Mobile, Perplexity and Digg. Plus 3 pricing tips for new freelancers and what to do when you hit a creative roadblock.

Read time: 3 minutes and 28 seconds

Together with HubSpot

Ready to level up your work with AI?

HubSpot’s free guide to using ChatGPT at work is your new cheat code to go from working hard to hardly working

HubSpot’s guide will teach you:

  • How to prompt like a pro

  • How to integrate AI in your personal workflow

  • Over 100+ useful prompt ideas

All in order to help you unleash the power of AI for a more efficient, impactful professional life.

Working With Clients

3 Pricing Tips For New Freelancers

TIP #1: Charge by deliverable (not by the hour)

If you’re a new freelancer, you may be tempted to start off charging by the hour.

But charging by the hour incentivizes you to work slower.

Instead, charge clients per:

- email
- image
- video
- landing page
- sales page
- etc

This way, there are no unexpected surprises for them if the job takes longer…

And you get rewarded if you can get it done quicker.

TIP #2: Ask for a 50% deposit.

Asking for a deposit helps weed out low-quality clients.

So if they’re not willing to pay you a portion of your fee up front, proceed with caution.

But if the idea of asking for money up front makes your palms sweaty, you could always reduce the amount to 25%.

One final caveat: 

If it’s a small project (like under $100-$200), just ask for the full amount up front instead.

TIP #3: Get approval on pre-work

Since you’re asking for a deposit, you want to make sure your first draft isn’t way off base so the client doesn’t feel like they’ve paid you for nothing.

The best way to do this is get pre-work approved.

In the case of copy, this could be an outline.

In the case of an image or video, this could be a creative brief

In the case of an ad campaign, this could be a campaign mockup.

Regardless of what your service is, getting the greenlight on pre-work will save you time and make clients happier.

Making the Rounds

POLL: How often do you use AI tools in your freelance business?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Working For Yourself

What to Do When You Hit a Creative Roadblock

It doesn’t matter if you work from home, in a coffee shop, or at a coworking space…

Your environment can influence your productivity in a big way.

So here’s a quick tip if you’re hit a creative roadblock:

Change the scene.

This could be as simple as taking your laptop out to the kitchen, living room, backyard, or balcony…

Heading out to your local Starbucks…

Or even going over to a friend’s place so you have some company.

New settings bring energy.

So don’t be afraid to switch it up the next time you’re having trouble kicking into high gear.

Side note:

If changing the scene isn’t in the cards but you’d still like some company, check out Focusmate.

It’s a virtual coworking space where you can jump on Zoom with someone and reap the rewards of coworking without going anywhere.

AI Prompts For Freelancers

Prompt of the Week: The Price Justifier

This AI prompt is designed to help you explain and justify your prices to a client for a fixed rate project.

Here is the prompt:

Create a script for a freelance consultant to explain their rates for a fixed price project confidently during a client negotiation. Make sure to highlight the benefits of fixed pricing over hourly pricing. Infuse the response with an empathetic tone to better connect with the client and ensure they feel understood.

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Tool of the Week

How to Score Mainstream Media Features Without a PR Agent or Inside Connections

Looking to set yourself apart from the competition?

Aside from the obvious ways…

Like a strong social media presence and professional portfolio website…

There’s another way to build trust & credibility with potential clients:

Being featured on other media websites.

This allows you to “borrow” the hard-earned credibility of the websites featuring you…

And display them in your “As Seen On” section.

Now, up until recently, the only way to land these types of features was through a PR agent or inside connections.

But not anymore.

That’s because Featured makes it possible to land them for free.

With it, you can get featured on sites like:

- Fast Company
- Entrepreneur
- HubSpot
- Fiverr
- Inc.
- And lots more

Sound too good to be true?

Here’s the thing:

These websites are always looking for expert quotes to feed the content beast.

So it’s a win/win.

In fact, we’ve already used it to land features on Entrepreneur, Hubspot, Fiverr and several other websites this year.

If you’re looking to establish credibility as a freelancer…

Bonus Points

💼 Careers: How to have the tough conversations you are avoiding (link)

🤝 Clients: How to get clients from social media (link)

🎧 Work Beats: The Future Beats Show Episode 340 - Complexion(link)