Sometimes, you get in touch with a prospective client who has a great idea or a cool product, but not enough money to pay the price of your high quality services. This leaves you two options.

1. gently send them on their way
2. take a risk and propose a profit sharing partnership

In the pas few years, I’ve helped several budding entrepreneurs with search engine optimized web copy (in Dutch) on a no cure no pay basis. In several cases, this meant I worked for free. The company didn’t fly, or the website was never put online. Or it was, but it never made enough money to pay me. Some businesses however, have blossomed. They found an interesting niche, quickly nestled in the top of the Google results and started yielding a profit. This helped me make some serious money.

A good example is ‘broodxxl.nl’, an initiative of a Dutch promotional products company, pipol.nl. The owner, Vincent, decided to start selling XXL raisin bread, filled with sweet almond paste. A traditional Duth holiday bread, especially sold around Christmas and Easter (aptly named ‘Kerstbrood’ and ‘Paasbrood’). The usual size of a loaf is about 30 cm but he can delivers bread up to 1.50m.

I liked the idea (and the guy) and a quick search told me I could probably get them in the Google top 10. So I jumped at the opportunity to share the risk, writing for a commission. I wrote the web copy, created some back links on my own sites, and used my Facebook and Twitter accounts to get the word out. We are now in the second season, and we are all making a lot of bread.

Well, it is very good bread.