There are over 1 billion freelancers in the world right now. This means as the year goes by, more and more people are embracing the new normal of working remotely.
Freelance writing is one of the commonest skills offered by freelancers worldwide. This is no surprise, as many businesses are taking their business online. A minimum of 7 billion blogs is published on the internet daily. So freelance writers will always remain in demand.
Alexandra Fasulo, a famous freelance writer on Fiverr, makes over $36,000 every month as a ghostwriter. As a writer, you can make an average of $1247 every week.
In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about becoming a freelance writer. I also included tools and other helpful resources to aid your freelance career. Let,s get started.
Who is a freelance writer?
A freelance writer is someone whose job is to write contents that clients need.
While content writing is the process of writing, editing, and publishing content in a digital format.
People pay freelance writers to create everything from books and novels to articles, website pages, news articles, social media posts, in-depth reports, white papers, etc.
How to become a freelance writer
Before I start sharing the tips, For those who are not WRITERS, Writing is not the only Freelance skill or niche. There are other niches, writing is just the highest in Quantity
I talked about this in one of my articles explaining why Freelance writing is common. You can read it here. Also the barrier of Entry to Freelance Writing is low compared to other skills
Almost everyone did one form of writing or the other while studying for different degrees, but not professionally. This makes it easy to transition. Here are 7 tips you need to know before starting your career as a freelance writer.
#TIP 1: Start with a NICHE
Writing is very vast and wide, and you can’t be a Top writer in all categories. You need to have a Niche or Topic you are best at. For example here are some subcategories under WRITING:
- E-book writing
- Blog writing
- Magazine writing
- Technical writing
- Ghostwriting
- Travel writing
- Copy editing
- Proofreading
- Translation
- Transcription and Captioning
- Research and Summaries
- Video Scriptwriting
- Speech writing
- Business Proposal & Grant writing
- Web Content writing
- Greeting Card writing
- Resume and Cover Letter writing
- LinkedIn profile writing
- Legal writing
- Sales Copy
- Professional Press Releases & Newswire Services etc
You can also be a writer by Topics. There are different writing Topics you can specialize in
- Sport writing
- Health
- Travel
- Fitness
- Startups
- Business
- Lifestyle etc
Each of them needs in depth knowledge, and You can’t be the best at everything. You can focus on one, two or more different categories. This is because when clients are looking for writers, they prefer Specialists over generalists.
#TIP 2:You need writing tools
There are also materials for you to learn and improve your writing. Use them. There are lots of tools/apps to help you as a writer. Most of the popular ones are:.
- Grammarly
- Copyscape
- WPS (if you are writing with your smartphone)
- Google doc
- Hemingway app
- Google keyword planner for SEO
- Atlas for graphs
- Evernote
- WordPress, etc.
Leverage them
There are also different platforms where you can learn and improve your Freelance writing skills
For example here are 100+ FREE courses to improve your writing skills. There are a variety of free online courses (MOOCs) available for all types of writers and aspiring writers to improve their writing skills
#TIP NO 3: Keep your work error-free and plagiarism free
This is the barest minimum criteria you should meet as a writer. Your write up must be error free and plagiarism free.
Grammarly and Copyscape (and similar platforms) can help you with this. They can help you proofread your work or check for plagiarism. Nobody likes a write up full of errors or a copy and paste (plagiarized) final work.
#TIP 4: Be reliable:
You need to read instructions, and ask questions. You should also know your audience. There are a lot of unreliable writers, who don’t read job descriptions, respect a client’s time, and don’t meet deadlines. You don’t want to be that kind of writer. So ensure you read the job descriptions and ask questions. Don’t just make assumptions, confirm with your client.
Also, you need to know your Audience. Know who you are writing for, your readers. Know your demographics, tone and approach that works best for your audience.
For example, don’t mix up US English for UK English audiences (they are different).
#TIP 5: Be a reader
READ! READ!! READ!!!
To be a better writer you must be a better reader. You will read materials to improve your writing. You will also read other people’s work. This will improve your skill, style and also expand your vocabulary.
As a copywriter, you should be reading the best copies. As a Travel writer, you should be reading the best travel blogs. As a resume writer you should be studying resumes.
You have websites like HubSpot and Copyblogger where you can consume different articles. Look for the best websites or blogs in your niche, consume their work. Read as much as you can. Read because you’re interested in a topic, read with an eye for the intricacies of writing. You need to answer questions like:
- What perspective does the writer use?
- What tone have they adopted?
- How long are their sentences, their paragraphs, and their posts?
You can learn a lot just from reading.
#TIP 6: WRITE! WRITE!! WRITE!!!
Build your portfolio. To improve as a writer, You must WRITE. The more you write the more you get better at Writing. Your 100th article would be better than your 1st. Your 1000th would be better than your 100th.
Part of successful content writing is just practice. The more time you spend writing, the more familiar you’ll be with the process. The more details you’ll be able to stick in your mind as you write. The better you’ll be able to formulate posts as you go along
Also, build your Portfolio. As you write, you can save your work as samples for prospective clients (best to save in PDF). There are different ways to build and display your portfolio, the best options are:
1. Google Drive
2. Create a Blog
3. Substack
4. Medium
5. Contently
6. Clippings etc
And Finally,
#TIP 7: Monetize your writing skills
Make money with your writing skills, via freelancing, outsourced jobs remote jobs, social media, blogs etc. There are ways to make money with your writing skills:
- Freelancing
- Outsourced gigs
- Remote gigs
- Social media
- Blogs
- Websites etc
You can earn with your writing skills via Freelancing websites like Upwork, Fiverr, Flexjobs, Peopleperhour, Guru, etc. Your blog can be a money generating source for you. You can write for major websites etc.
Join my mailing list and learn more about monetizing your skills.
