Many people out there are bored with their daily routine of 9 to 5, if you’re one among them and want to start something new then freelancing is a perfect option for you. A freelancer is someone who offers their services for a fee and usually with no expectation of a permanent single client, although the working relationship can be ongoing. It’s a form of self-employment. Moreover, if you’re interested in writing and want to pursue and build a career out of it then freelance writing is an adequate choice. You can make from $10 per hour to $100 per hour depending on your writing quality and expertise.
All you need to do is sit at home and write. It seems easy right, but it’s not. Before deciding to be a freelance writer one must take into consideration its prerequisites. For building a profitable business out of freelance writing, one must plan at every stage.
Following are certain tips on how to become a freelance writer-
1. Research About Freelance Writing
If you search on the internet about ‘How To Become A Freelance Writer’, the first search result you will see is ‘research about it’. But obvious, one must know thoroughly about the job or career which they are about to pursue. You think you may know everything and that writing is a mundane job but you may be wrong. You can start researching by firstly searching more and more about writing. You can also search freelance writers, check out their profile and their work. You will get to know about their consistency and efficiency in their work, through their write-ups. They are written eloquently and to reach that level you might need certain preparation and practice. You can even ask your questions on online forums or directly to the freelance writers. Learn more about blogging and presentation. Once you’re done with your writing part, search, and decide about your rates. Setting your charges early might help you in the long run.
2. Become Familiar With Writing Skills And Required Tools
It might seem easy but you need to prep a lot, not merely with just writing skills. To build a successful freelancing career in writing, one must take into consideration the skills required for it.
• Organizational Skills
You don’t need to have a degree for it. All you need to be is well organized in your professional life. Keeping up with deadlines along with managing the payments through clients might turn a little bit hectic. You also need to develop a writing routine. As well as your research and writing pattern. You can also make use of different systems to not forget even minute things. You can set reminders for yourself. You can also jot down your ideas in your notebook.
• Blogging Skills
Unless and until you start writing a blog yourself, you won’t understand the importance of effective headlines or subheadings. You need to have an eye-catching introduction paragraph, your article should not monotonous, also the titles should be catchy. There are many things which one needs to consider in terms of blogging. Try to discover whether you can be creative enough or not.
• Confidence
The incipient stage of your career graph can be a bit shaky, but you shouldn’t be afraid of it. Have confidence and faith in yourself. Pitching clients may turn out to be lethargic sometimes as well as your work might get rejected a couple of times, but don’t lose hope. Furthermore, you need to keep on trying and applying to jobs as much as you can.
•Task Management Programme
Since you would be managing your business all alone, you need to manage things smoothly to avoid goof ups at the last moment. Keep a record and track of your work for you and your business’s growth.
•Image Editing
Some of your clients may want you to do images suitable for your work. You can’t say no at such times and hiring someone else to do it is such a waste of your money. Moreover, editing images is not that hard. Apps like Canva can help you out easily.
•Editing Apps
You might miss certain goof ups in your article. Even after re-checking, certain mistakes go unnoticed. Also, you don’t have ample time for it. In such cases, you can make use of Grammarly or Hemingway or other such apps to help you out with grammar, spelling corrections, or punctuations. The answer to your question ‘How To Become A Freelance Writer’ is right here.
3. Practice Writing
If you want to ace at your job, you must keep practicing it to get better. In terms of writing , you can practice daily. Over the course of time, you will realize that your writing has improved gradually. Reading more and more would make you acquainted with a new word and would strengthen up your vocabulary game. If you are a fairly good writer and want to improve more then start a blog. Starting a blog is quite easy and you might end up getting clients through your blog content.
Recommended Read – A step by step guide on how to start a profitable blog on WordPress.
Even if English is not your first language, you can learn it and progress in it with the help of blogging. To build a blog with WordPress, you will need a domain name. You can get your domain directly through Bluehost and make the whole process very easy. Bluehost is one of the top recommended WordPress providers by WordPress.org Enjoy hassle-free WordPress installation on all accounts. By signing up for a minimum of 12 months through Bluehost hosting services, you will receive a free domain name, lower pricing and you won’t have to deal with an expired website after each month. Once you install WordPress, you’re ready to start blogging. Bluehost makes it very easy to create a WordPress Blog and it’s absolutely free. The free version is available standard to all Bluehost customers and includes all the core feature most users need to create a fully-functional website. If you want to get a website up and running quickly and be able to update it easily, Bluehost hosting services are the way to go.
4. Create Your Portfolio
It is but obvious that you will be asked to show or send your writing samples, once you apply for a job anywhere. It’s not a big task for you unless and until you have a blog. But even if you don’t there is no need to worry. You can save your write-ups in Google Drive and later on send the link to the recruiter. Another way to create samples is with guest posting. These are blogs that accept guest writers. Get posted on these blogs means you will have a link to show prospects someone thought your writing was good enough to be published.
5. Start Pitching On Jobs
Once you’re done with your research and writing part, you need to step out in the market. Stepping out in the market means searching for Jobs while sitting at home. It might seem as less hectic as you don’t have to wander outside in scorching heat. But instead, you need to sit at your work table, go through various job profiles and land on one as per your niche. You can search for Problogger or Freelance Writing Jobs online where you will see new and fresh jobs daily with a good pay scale. When you find a job you are interested in the important thing to remember is to be one of the first few to apply and make sure your pitch stands out. Furthermore, you can show your credibility with guest posts or testimonials. Before learning ‘How To Become A Freelance Writer’ , learn how to pitch effectively.
6. Keep Hustling
You’re never done, keep it in mind. You need to keep hustling to bring more and more clients to you. An effective work always attracts more clients, however you shouldn’t only depend upon your writing skills and put into action certain marketing skills of yours. The job profiles or the clients out there must know about your work and your job. In order to do that you can take help of social media. The internet is considered to be a boon when used properly, so try to bring out a positive outcome of it. Use sites like Facebook , Instagram or Quora to show off your writing skills and testimonials. Also you can set up your profile on apps like Linkedin which will help you search for quality jobs. Also, you can try guest posting. Guest posting is not only a way to build your portfolio. It’s also a way to get your name out there. For every guest post, you write and is published you receive an author bio with links back to your writer website, portfolio, or social media profiles. To know ‘How To Become A Freelance Writer’ level up you socializing game.
7. Continue Learning
Most of the people making the same mistake , which is after establishing a successful venture they give up learning something new. This is the main reason why individuals can’t make their business last. In terms of freelance writing , even after you’re getting regular clients, have set up your name in the market or even if you’re getting big gigs, you need to keep on learning. Learn some new marketing strategies or presenting skills or advance your writing skills and so on. It would only enrich your work thus keeping you on the peak of your success for a longer period of time. The answer to your question ‘How To Become A Freelance Writer’ is right here: Keep Learning.
Now Read: How to make money online as a freelance writer? Make money online
Loved this? Share it now.
As we have completed the basic of freelance writing and how to get start, read the next post to find out how to make money online.
