Many mornings when I reach over to check my iPhone before climbing out of bed, I have an email from a potential customer that found me while I was sleeping, usually through my LinkedIn site or website. Sometimes they are low payers or asking me to place articles. But often, they are legitimate clients that pay professional rates.

I’ve gotten some great clients that have found me from the internet instead of me finding them  over the years. And if I hadn’t had my web presence set up so the clients that wanted my skill set could easily find me, then I would have missed out on considerable income. With print publications, it’s easy to know most of the potential gigs in your niche, but with content marketing it is impossible since every business in the world needs content. While it’s important to market yourself directly to clients, you also want to make it so clients can find you easily when they are searching for writers at 11 pm while watching the football game.

It’s also important to understand exactly how people are finding you, especially the great clients because every industry is a bit different so my advice may not be exact for your specific type of clients. When I talk to a client on the phone (and I always talk on the phone before taking a new client), I ask how they found me. If they tell LinkedIn or Google, I ask what they searched for. The client usually mentions that they made their way to my website and thought my clips were great. A few years ago I started asking, if there was a particular article that moved them to email me. After about the seventh person told me that they contacted me because they loved a profile of a woman that started a fancy porta potty business, I moved that clip to the top of the list. Otherwise I would have had no idea that this odd clip was one that was the one that prospective clients would use to make a decision to hire me. I think it’s really important to get as much information as you, without turning it into an interrogation, so know whats working with your marketing and what you can improve on.

Here are three things that every content marketing writer should have:

Website

Full disclosure: I got away without having a website for about three years of freelancing and used my LinkedIn profile as a stand-in. So yes, it is possible to not have a website. I have designed websites, so I kept telling myself I would do it to save money, but I never quite got around to it. But when I bit the bullet and hired someone to design a (very) basic WordPress website from a template, my income picked up. And because of this blog, my website landed the #2 unpaid spot on Google for the keyword “Content Marketing Not only does it help clients find me, it makes me look more professional when I approach potential clients. I kept my basic website until last year, when I was making enough money to justify investing in a customized website for myself. Your website doesn’t need to be fancy, but should include the five elements I detail out in this post on writer’s websites.

Twitter

I tried to pretend that if I ignored Twitter, it would go away. I would share a single tweet with a link to a story when a client asked me to. And I might live tweet a few times from a conference. But it was uninspired, sporadic and didn’t add anything to my personal brand. And then I realized that I was actually being passed over for gigs (or at least not standing out from the crowd) because of my pathetic Twitter effort.

So I worked hard and got less lame on Twitter. And the results have paid off – a $3,000 gig from Twitter, being picked to teach a Marketing Profs boot camp (and was told my Twitter presence was an important reason I was picked) and being selected as a Top 50 Content Marketing Influencer (which wouldn’t have happened without Twitter). Clients want writers who have a social media following. I personally think that every writer who is not moderately active on Twitter is missing an opportunity. You don’t have to have a million followers or spend 456 hours a week at it, but a regular, interesting and relevant presence on Twitter can make a huge difference in your career.

LinkedIn profile

Yes, most freelance writers have a LinkedIn profile, but when writers tell me that they aren’t getting much work from their profile I can usually tell exactly why in about 60 seconds. It’s usually because their profile makes the writer seem too much of a generalist and doesn’t include key words for niches. Check out these posts about how to create a kick-butt LinkedIn profile, and spend a few minutes making sure that yours appeals to the type of client likely to hire you.

I’m often asked how active I am on LinkedIn to get such good referrals – the answer is “moderately.” I always invite new contacts I meet at conferences or potential clients I have spoken with over the phone and try to accept invites quickly. I also look at my profile about once a month to see if there is anything to add or change. I have also had luck with this trick of following up with people who have viewed my profile.

What has been your experience with marketing while you sleep? Do you get cold emails from clients? Any particular secrets you have found with your website, LinkedIn or Twitter?