How to Write A Freelance Article Outline to Win More Clients
Allan Calder
Content Writer
Table of Contents
How to Write A Freelance Article Outline to Win More Clients
If I told you that writing freelance article outlines is the key to landing the biggest clients and making more money as a freelance writer would you do it?
Well it’s 100% true and it’s not as hard as you think.
I’ve heard time and time again from freelancers that think writing outlines just slows them down and they work better just diving right into writing that first draft.
Don’t do that!
Not only is creating a freelance article outline essential to writing faster and staying on track — it’s they key to landing those high powered clients you’ve always dreamed about.
When I first started out as a freelance writer 10 years ago I never gave a second thought to article outlines. It wasn’t until I started writing clear outlines every time that I started to land those big gigs from better paying clients.
In this article you’ll learn:
I’m also going to let you in on some little known but powerful tricks to enhance your outline as you go that you won’t want to miss.
Let’s dive in!
Why You Need A Freelance Article Outline
First things first — do you really need an article outline?
Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!
It helps you organize your thoughts, increases the odds you won’t leave out important details resulting in content holes, it breaks up the writing process into manageable chunks and many clients demand it!
When I first started out my articles had content holes all over the place. I had clients constantly sending my work back because I’d forgotten to include an important section. All because I refused to use an outline.
I could have saved myself hundreds of hours of work in my first year as a freelance writer if I’d just used content outlines!
You know one of the best, but little known reasons for using outlines to write your articles though?
It allows you to break an article up into manageable chunks.
You can focus on one section at a time.
Writing 100 words on a sub topic is sooo much easier than wrapping your head around writing a 3000 word article!
If you want to jump ahead to an easy to write section and go back to a tougher topic later, go ahead!
No more writers block and far fewer wasted hours spinning your wheels.
At the beginning of this section I mentioned one more great reason to use outlines every time you write.
The best clients expect you to send them an article outline. If you don’t, there’s a good chance they’ll have second thoughts about moving forward with the project.
Now that we’ve established the importance of using article outlines when you write, how do you go about writing one that exceeds client expectations?
Write A Freelance Article Outline That Exceeds Client Expectations
So you’ve sent an amazing proposal off to your dream client and it worked!
You grabbed their attention with an article pitch and they’re ready to move forward, but they want to see your article outline before you start writing.
Gulp!
How do you make sure the outline you send back not only meets, but exceeds their expectations?
Well for starters, make sure you include every important point that was in your proposal that earned you that response in the first place.
Review your proposal carefully and don’t leave anything out, but don’t stop there!
Always expand on and improve upon what you mentioned in the proposal. When you send them your outline for approval, you want their reaction to be “Wow I never thought of that! This article is going to be epic!”
You want to clarify the scope of the article — help your new client get inside your head. This is essential, especially when it’s a client you’ve never worked with before.
If there’s anything they want added or omitted, they’ll let you know.
Better to know before you write the article than after you’ve poured hours of effort into a project that’s going in the wrong direction!
Good clients appreciate that you’re doing everything you can to make sure you’re not wasting their time. They don’t want to send back revision requests anymore than you want to write them!
Providing a comprehensive outline that covers every angle of a chosen topic — even some components they would never have thought of — will wow them every time!
We’ve talked about why you should be writing article outlines, some key advantages of using them and pointed out that it can really impress your clients, but what about the how?
Just how do you write an effective outline and what should it include?
Let’s take a closer look at that next.
The Key Elements in an Article Outline That Wins Clients
In every article outline I write for clients I use the following formula in this order:
Freelance Article Outline Step #1 — Titles
An article that doesn’t include a great title in today’s online world is dead in the water. It might be the best piece ever written, but if you can’t convince searchers to click, no one will ever discover your masterpiece.
If your headlines aren’t grabbing attention and your articles perform poorly because of it, your clients won’t hire you the next time.
Never settle on the first title that comes to mind — write 3 to 5 and ask for your clients input on which one they like best. They know their industry better than you do, why wouldn’t you want their input?
With a great title, your article has a much better chance at success.
I know many writers that spend almost as much time crafting great title ideas as they do on writing their actual articles! Never skip this step.
Freelance Article Outline Step #2 — Research
Next, you need to spend some quality time on research. It’s impossible to know everything about a topic. There’s always some new tidbit out there waiting to be discovered!
I start by choosing the most relevant keyword phrase. How do I arrive at that decision?
They’re great tools and they can provide great insights, I just find the free keyword planner provided by Google Adwords is just as effective.
For example, let’s say your client makes breakfast bars.
In the example below you’ve used Google Ads Keyword Planner to search for breakfast bars and discovered that oatmeal breakfast bars have a decent amount of searches per month (100 to 1K) and there’s low competition for that keyword phrase.
Based on this initial research you’ve decided to pitch you client with an article outline on oatmeal breakfast bars, but what’s your angle?
First you have to understand the search intent of people that are typing that phrase in the search engines.
As you can see when you search for “oatmeal breakfast bars” in Google, the intent is clearly informational. People are looking for recipes, but how can that work for your client that’s selling their own breakfast bars?
Well you need to take a look at the People Also Ask section as well as the People Also Search sections for further clues.
As you can see below, people also seem to be looking for meal replacements and healthy breakfast alternatives.
An article about why your clients oatmeal breakfast bars are a healthy and easy alternative for busy families has a lot of potential here.
Now that our article topic is coming into focus we can throw a more refined search into Google such as “are oatmeal breakfast bars a healthy alternative?”. See below:
Our results are a mix of informational results and recipe based results, but none of them really answer the search intent well.
There’s a clear opportunity here for a great article that does and one that has a great chance to rank at the top of the SERPs!
Start by reading through the first 3 to 5 articles in your search results and try to include all of the relevant information from those articles in your outline.
The idea here is to cover everything your competitors are covering plus a whole lot more. Because we’re actually going to answer the question the searcher had in mind when they typed their query in Google!
Time to move on to step 3.
Freelance Article Outline Step #3 — Major Points to Cover
We’re making real progress now.
You’ve found a great topic and you’ve done the research on what the competition are writing about.
It’s time to add in tentative headlines for each major topic you’re going to cover. These headlines will be formatted as H2’s. If you‘re not sure what the heck that is, it’s a good idea to brush up on online headline architecture before you move on.
For a comprehensive article that covers all basis you’ll need at least 5 to 7 topic categories in your outline.
In my experience after lots of trial and error in my years of writing freelance article outlines, I’ve found this to be the magic number for good coverage of most topics.
Freelance Article Outline Step #4 — Subtopics
Remember back at the beginning of this article when I mentioned that I would share some little known but powerful tricks to enhance your article outlines?
Here’s another one — subdivide each main topic into three sub topics.
I call this “The Power of 3”.
You’ll find this is a common tool for content creators in all categories. That includes blog writers, podcastors and video creators.
Why?
It’s simple.
Three points on any subtopic are fairly easy to remember. If you add more, people may have trouble recalling everything later. If you don’t include at least three points for each topic, it’s doubtful you’ll be able to cover it comprehensively.
This is the sweet spot to keep your readers attention and to cover the topic in depth.
On to step 5!
Freelance Article Outline Step #5 — Introduction
It may seem counterintuitive to wait until step five of your article outline to think about your introduction, but there’s some pretty sound reasons for leaving it until this point.
Let me explain.
First off, how can you write a great intro if you don’t know what your article is about yet?
Sure you may have some idea about your major points before you begin to write your outline, but they may change as you go.
An intro is much more effective if it speaks directly to the sections you’re about to cover in your article.
By leaving it until later in the project you’ll also be better prepared to write a powerful hook that grabs the attention of the reader, because you know exactly what you’re going to write about.
Remember when you were back in highschool and you were told how important it was to write a good thesis for your research papers? Well the hook is better than a thesis. It’s an attention grabber that draws in your reader and leaves them wanting more.
It might be something like:
“Have you ever wondered what it would be like to wake up in paradise on a tropical island every day? In this article I’m going to show you how to do that without spending a penny!”
Bet that got your attention right?
The hook keeps them reading on into the next section. Now you just have to keep the momentum going.
The third thing you should try to include in your intro, if it makes sense, is a bullet point summary of what you’re going to cover.
It’s hard to keep and hold people’s attention these days. Giving them a quick preview of what they can expect in the full article will make it easier for them to decide if your article is worth investing time in.
Do your job right and they’ll stick around!
Freelance Article Outline Step #6 — Conclusion
Don’t just wait to write points for your conclusion until you write your first draft. Include it in your outline!
This doesn’t have to be a large section. All you want to do here is to jot down a few points that will reinforce your article, tie up any loose ends and keep them coming back for more.
Always include a Call to Action (CTA) if it makes sense for the type of content you’re creating. You’re client has hired you for your amazing writing skills and your ability to convince potential customers to take a desired action.
The Importance of Structure in Your Article Outline
As you write your article outline you should always be thinking about the overall structure of you’re finished article.
Where can you include important elements such as bullet points and numbered lists? Study after study has shown that bullet points and numbered lists are highly effective techniques for keeping readers on your page.
You’ll also want to make sure you use H2 and H3 tags to give your article a clear structure. H2’s are headlines for your main topics and H3’s are sub headlines that fall under each H2 when you’re including more than one sub topic.
One final thing to consider under structure is the target length of your article.
Yes you need to have some idea what this should be when you’re writing your article. It will help to decide how many different sections you need to cover the topic. Remember, to make writing easier you’re targeting 100 words per each section or possibly subsection.
If you’re trying to write a 2000 word article, that means you’ll need to include a total of 20 sections and/or sub sections.
How do you know how many words your article needs to be?
A good rule of thumb is to look at how many words the top 3 to 5 articles in the SERPs have and try to meet or exceed their word count.
Any less and you’re probably not covering the topic as well as you should be.
If you don’t want to count the words manually in your competitors articles, there are simple browser extensions that can do this for you. Here are 3 I recommend:
Create a Freelance Article Outline That Meets Your Clients Needs
We’ve already touched on your clients expectations, but needs are a different animal. I’ve worked with many clients over the years that wanted articles for a blog just because all of their competitors were doing it.
They had no clue how content marketing could actually help to grow their business — their hope was that they could just throw enough content up on a blog and hopefully something would catch fire.
Yes they wanted more traffic and they had a vague idea that more site visitors would be good for sales, but they expected me to figure out what their actual needs where.
Phew! Talk about pressure!
This isn’t an unusual experience.
You’ll probably experience similar things on your freelance journey, if you haven’t already.
That’s why it’s so important to do your research on your own client before you submit any outlines or articles.
Visit their website and blog, check out their social media posts, get a feel for the tone and style of their content and match that in your outline.
You won’t understand your clients needs until you understand their business and what they’re trying to achieve.
Armed with a better understanding of their needs you can adjust your outlines to match. Even if you do your homework on your client, they may still ask for adjustments to your outline after you submit it to them.
That’s okay!
You can’t think of everything.
Always exceed their feedback goals. You don’t just want a satisfied client — you want a client that’s blown away by your insightful ideas!
You want them to know you get them.
If the thought of writing an article outline still has you breaking out in cold sweats at this point, you’ll enjoy the next section.
Streamline The Article Outline Process With Tools
You know what the single biggest secret to better and faster freelance article outlines is? Tools!
I’n not talking about a screwdriver or a wrench of course — these are digital tools that automate the outline process.
It might be as simple as a Google Doc, a PDF or a Word document template you use as a starting point for every outline. Or it might be something a little more sophisticated such as a project management tool or an AI based assistant.
Here are 4 of the best tools you can use for outlines that are not based on AI technology. These are more planning tools — you still have to provide all of the input:
If you‘ve fully embraced the AI revolution and you’d prefer to work with tools that will help you fill in more of the dots. Here are 5 great AI based digital tools you can use for creating outlines:
Frase (Free Plan)
Ryter (Free Plan)
Copy.ai (Free Plan)
Personally, I prefer to use a simple outline I’ve created myself and saved as a Google Doc. If you’d like to check it out and use it as your own template, you can find a free PDF version here.
Now that you’ve done your research, you have a great idea of your clients needs and expectations and you have the right tools to create great outlines, is there anything missing?
Well, there are some common mistakes you’ll want to avoid in your outlines at all costs.
Let’s take a closer look.
Avoid These Common Mistakes In Your Freelance Article Outline
If I was asked to come up with the three biggest mistakes people make when writing article outlines it would be these — I call them the 3 I’s of article outline mistakes:
Information Overload
Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t get too much of a good thing. You can!
Stuffing your outlines with every piece of information you find on a topic will quickly turn it into something unmanageable.
Remember this is an outline not an article! Don’t overstuff it with information.
It’s a framework — you’ll be able to fill out the details and expand upon your points when you write the first draft. Save your wordiness for then!
Ignoring Feedback
You’ve done your research, you’re confident you’ve written a great article outline and you’ve submitted it to your client for review. The next thing you know they’ve sent it back with 3 or 4 suggestions for changes.
Don’t get offended!
That’s one of the main reasons you’re using article outlines for every article you write. It’s better to make sure that your covering the topic in tone, style and with a depth of content that matches or exceeds your clients wishes.
You want to figure all of that out BEFORE you write the article. That’s what feedback’s for. It’s a good thing!
Inflexible Approach to Writing
Good freelance writers aren’t afraid to stray of the the original path they had envisioned for an article.
As you conduct your research and communicate with your client, you’ll think of things you need to add or subtract as you go. Do it!
Your original plan might have been a good one, but it’s not the only one.
Be flexible.
Be willing to make adjustments to your project whenever they make sense. Flexible writers have the most success in the freelance marketplace.
There’s one more thing to do before you submit that article outline or outline revision after feedback to your client.
Putting The Finishing Touches On Your Freelance Article Outline
It’s tempting to hit send on that email with your article outline proposal attached to your client, but I suggest taking a step back before you do that.
Create a mental checklist for everything you had wanted to include in your article outline, review the outline you’ve created and add anything that’s missing.
Don’t forget to polish it up as well.
It might only be an outline, but you still want to check for spelling and grammar mistakes. Yes structure is still important — even at this early stage in the writing process.
Think about that old saying You only get one chance to make a first impression. Make it count!
It’s also a good idea to think about how you want to communicate your vision to your client. Provide them with a brief overview of how you structure your outlines if you think there’s anything that needs clarification.
Avoid assumptions, being prepared means being able to clearly communicate your vision to clients.
That’s how you avoid misunderstandings and win their repeat business!
Final Notes on Freelance Article Outlines
A freelance article outline is without a doubt the best way to win over new clients and make more money as a freelance writer.
Using outlines will help you write content faster, write content that’s more structured, more comprehensive and more powerful. The better your outlines, the better your articles and the better chance you have of ranking at the top of the search engines.
If you want to win that next big client, start using article outlines today and don’t forget to download your copy of our free article outline template here!
Looking to learn more about how to become a better freelance writer? Check out the articles below for more must read tips and strategies!
