What’a VIP day?

Technically speaking, a VIP day is a time-based productized service.

What does that even mean? Imagine instead of selling your services as services, you packaged them as products. Forget about per-word or per-hour fees, and instead sell the end result – a blog post, a new LinkedIn banner, a web page, or whatever your freelance service is.

Now imagine that for your VIP days, you only packaged together the result you can actually produce in one day. And then you started selling them to potential clients, maybe those that don’t have the budget to afford your full project price.

That is the beauty of VIP days, and the reason why freelancers in all niches absolutely love them.

How to structure a VIP day

I have no idea who came up with the idea, but “VIP day” is a pretty smart name. 

Yet, a VIP day doesn’t have to be an actual day. If it fits your work day better, you can set it up so that you do part of the job on one day, and part of it the following one. (when time zone differences are involved, this may become a necessity, rather than a preference).

You are a freelancer – freedom is the name of the game.

So here are two sample structures you can use:

1-day VIP day

9 AM: you set up a call with the client so you can discuss the job beforehand

10 AM to 12 PM: you take care of the preliminary phase – if you are a writer this might be the research phase, if you are a web designer it may be the wireframe of a web page

1 to 5 PM: you tackle the bulk of the project, complete the editing part and make sure everything is ready for delivery

5 to 6 PM: you send the deliverables and wrap up the project, either via email or Loom video or with a call

2-days VIP day

Day 1, 2 PM: you set up a call with the client to outline the work you are going to do

Day 1, 3 to 5 PM: you start doing some work so that you have everything you need in day 2

Day 2, 10 AM to 1 PM: you do most of the actual project

Day 2, 2 to 4 PM: you apply the finishing touches, then wrap up the project

How to offer a VIP day

There are 3 ways you can offer VIP days:

• With a dedicated page on your website or featured post on your LinkedIn profile, so that clients interested in getting one can decide by themselves if it fits their needs
• Pitching it in preliminary calls with potential clients, when you feel the scope of the project is small enough – or that they can’t afford the price of your full packages
• As a way for existing clients to get extra rounds of revisions or additions that were not included in their original project

You can use them to fill gaps in between larger projects, or as a way to generate extra income all year long. 

If you are running a freelance side hustle and time is limited, you can even offer VIP days only. While this strategy helps you keep full control over your schedule, I wouldn’t recommend it – you risk ending up getting VIP days only where you could pitch a full-sized project. And that’s no bueno – unless you like leaving money on the table.

To avoid that, you could also pitch a number of VIP days (consecutive or not, depending on your schedule and the client’s needs), up to a VIP week. These are less common than VIP days, but they do exist, and can be a powerful tool to make even more money.

And about money…

There’s an even better way to make more money with your VIP days – using them as a way to show off your skills, so that the client keeps coming back for more… over and over again. But how do you turn one-off projects into a recurring source of revenue? By tying recurring VIP days to specific goals. 

Here are a couple of examples:

Get my full attention for a whole day once per month so that over the next 6 months you can:

• Publish 6 SEO-optimized blog posts on Y topic and develop topical authority in the eyes of Google
• Create a 12-email sequence for your new email subscribers that boosts conversion by X%
• Redesign your top pages, including the Home page, About me page and Product page
• Coach you on Z topic so that you can finally get from where you are now to X, Y and then Z
• Integrate your current systems with 2 of the external tools you are already using so they share data

This way, clients always know what’s next, and you don’t have to pitch them over and over again. 

(plus, it creates predictable revenue, which is amazing for budgeting)

VIP Day examples

Different freelancers apply different strategies to their VIP day offering.

Some offer VIP days and weeks only – which is a terrific business model, if you have enough demand. Others incorporate them as upsells or downsells. I have seen VIP days with fixed offers (“I’ll write 2 emails in a day”) and VIP days where clients can choose what they want.

Regardless of the formula, here are some that I truly like.

Copywriting VIP day

If you want a template for your VIP day sales page, look no further than VIP days from copywriters themselves.

There are so many that I like, but one stands out from the rest, and that’s the Buy My Day page from Leanna Patch at Punchline Copy.

Why does it stand out?

• The copy (text) has personality
• The key selling points are clear
• Has client logos + testimonials

As you can see from the image, this is not a single-offer VIP day – but the author didn’t leave the client guessing ‘Huh, how could I use this.’

Instead, she provides a few different options. This also helps potential clients to better understand what could fit a single day and what needs more time and a different project package.

Website VIP day

VIP days are not only popular among copywriters, though!

Web designers also use VIP days as part of their service offering. Here is a pretty cool example of what you could offer your web design clients in a single day.

There are a lot of things that I like, in terms of both design and copy:

• Perfect explanation of who this service is for
• Clear yet friendly web design VIP day policy
• Half day option available for returning clients