HOW TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL FREELANCE WRITER
Becoming a freelance writer is the best career decision that I ever made. It’s given me an enormous amount of personal freedom and professional satisfaction. And, it’s allowed me to show up in my own life when it’s mattered the most.
How can I get started as a freelance writer?
I actually got into freelance writing by accident. I had just quit my full-time job and was taking a sabbatical to figure out my next move. During that time, I blogged about my current journey and started learning about online business.
A few months in, I wrote a short guest piece for a major website in the personal finance space. When they contacted me about where to send my payment, I was very pleasantly surprised. I had no idea I was getting paid. I just thought it would be neat to see my name in front of a large audience.
That’s when it dawned on me: I can make money doing this! This happened in the late spring of 2018. By summer, I secured my first long-term client. And the rest is history -- Every Day by the Lake, LLC was born! Since then, I’ve replaced my previous corporate earnings and I have absolutely no plans to return to cubicle life!
While everyone’s freelance writing journey is going to look different, I’d like to share what helped me. I hope the following tips help you, too.
Determine Your Goals
In order to be successful at anything in life, you need to decide what you want to get out of doing it. Becoming a freelance writer is no different. You’ll need to consider things like:
Do I want to write full-time or for side income?
How much money do I need or want to make?
How much time can I reasonably expect to dedicate to writing?
Knowing the answers to these and other questions will help you determine where freelance writing fits into your life. It will paint a clear picture of where you want to go so that you can make decisions accordingly along the way.
Start a Website with a Blog
Starting a website is crucial for any business owner. Remember, as a freelance writer, you own a small business! Your website is your online base of operation. It’s a platform that you own (unlike social media), and exists to introduce the world to you and your work.
Having a blog on your website is super important to jumpstart your freelance writing career -- especially if you’ve never been published before. Your blog posts should showcase your expertise and your writing style. They become the foundation of your portfolio and are your best advertising tool until you get published elsewhere.
A word on niches:
Your blog posts should have some kind of theme, or defined niche -- even if it’s broad. Some examples include personal finance (where I got my start), parenting, cooking, gardening, etc. There are lots of topics and subtopics to be explored under any theme, so you shouldn’t run out of things to say! The reason why a theme can help is because it demonstrates your deep expertise, which will be attractive to paying clients down the line.
If you want to write in more than one niche, that’s OK, too. You can organize your posts to group like content together. The key is to avoid being haphazard with your blog. Everything you write should be intentional so readers (and potential clients) know what to expect from you.
Become Visible Online
While you’re blogging, you should also start to become visible online in other ways. Create social media profiles and pages for your business and post regularly. Your posts should help followers get to know you and your work. It’s also a great opportunity to share what you’ve written on your blog and drive visitors to your website!
The key here is to become recognizable in your niche(s). Remember, people can’t hire you if they don’t know that you exist!
A great way to increase your visibility online is to interact with other people in your niche(s). Comment on and share their blog posts. Follow them across the different online platforms. Like, share, and comment on their social media content. They’ll notice -- and they’ll likely return the favor. You’ll simultaneously increase your network and your reach!
Write Guest Posts
After you’ve got several blog posts published on your website and you’ve built up some rapport with the online community, it’s time to write a few guest posts. Guest posts are exactly as they sound -- they’re posts you write for other bloggers’ websites. Though these are typically unpaid, writing them helps you become more connected in your community. More importantly -- they give your portfolio a big boost. You’ve now been published somewhere other than your own site!
Your goal is to write guest posts for sites that are more established than yours. They’ll have more traffic so your writing will be seen by a larger audience. Plus, chances are good that they’ll be more well known than you, so you’ll get a bit of community clout by association.
How to get guest post opportunities as a freelance writer?
To get guest post opportunities, you can:
Post on social media that you’re available to write guests posts on x, y, z topics
Respond to other bloggers requesting guest posts
Reach out to bloggers that you respect -- and have an existing relationship with -- to offer a guest post
Befriend Other Freelancers
Despite what you may think, freelance writing doesn’t have to be cutthroat. In fact, most freelancers are helpful folks who remember what it was like when they were new. So, start making friends with other professional writers - stat!
You’ll pick up new insights and tips to help you avoid mistakes and be successful faster. Your new freelancing pals may even refer you to prospective clients or make you aware of opportunities in your niche!
Offer Your Services
I know this sounds pretty obvious, but if you don’t make it clear that you’re open for business, you’re missing out on opportunities! Create a page on your website that advertises your services. Post your availability on social media often. Get on podcasts. Hang your shingle wherever you can, whenever you can.
Use Freelancing Platforms Sparingly
You may have heard of online freelancing platforms like Fiverr and Upwork. While they can be useful for finding gigs, I’m not a huge fan. That’s because they take a cut of your earnings for the privilege of using their platform. In addition, the gigs available don’t always pay the best. You can make and keep much more dough if you find clients on your own.
However, accepting a few gigs this way can help you beef up your portfolio. Just be sure that you focus on getting work off of the platform as soon as possible.
Consider Job Boards
Responding to job postings can work, but you’ve usually got a lot of competition going this route. Consider setting up job alert notifications on your favorite job boards (I know FlexJobs and Indeed both do this). Then, only spend time applying to the opportunities that you really, really want. If you don’t see exciting gigs posted, your time would be better spent creating content for your blog or growing your network.
Leverage Your Connections
I’m a firm believer in building a business by forming and nurturing relationships. I’ve never been big on reaching out to people cold (though some people do really well with this!).
Now’s the time where all of the interaction you’ve been doing on social media and other blogs can pay off. Don’t be afraid to offer your services directly to the folks you have solid connections with. If they say no, they may know someone who will say yes.
Don’t hesitate to do this with current or former clients, either. Let them know you really enjoy working with them and have additional bandwidth to take on more work. If they don’t have anything for you right now, ask them for a referral to someone they know. Or, if you’ve done a good bit of work for them (and they’re really pleased with it), ask them for a testimonial.
What is a testimonial?
Testimonials can be showcased on your website and on social media. They tell other prospects that you’re experienced and you do good work. If you’re still waiting to get your first paid client, you can ask folks that you’ve written guest posts for to provide a testimonial. You can also ask other people who are familiar with your professional expertise.
Watch Your Pricing
Writing for free on your own blog or for a few strategic guest posts is OK. It’s even OK to accept peanuts for your first couple of paid gigs -- especially if you get a byline. But! Please, please, please, don’t stay in the low pay pile for long.
Your time, effort, and knowledge are valuable!!
So, try to increase what you charge every time you bring on a new client -- especially early on. And, once you’ve been working with a satisfied client for a while (I do this at the one year mark), consider raising your rates with them, too. (Of course, they can say no, so be sure to think through how you’ll respond if that happens.)
Personal preference: I like to charge per post rather than per word. For example, I may offer to write up to a 1,000 word blog post for $300. That guarantees me a minimum of 30 cents per word. If I write less, my per word rate goes up.
The bottom line: Freelance writing has to be a financially worthwhile endeavor -- unless you don’t need the money. But even so -- strive to make some serious cash and then donate it!
Understand getting a byline versus ghostwriting
When you get a byline, the publication you write for will credit you as the author. This is especially helpful when the client is a big name. Writing for them gives you some bragging rights.
Ghostwriting, on the other hand, is when you write a piece and someone else gets the credit. Accepting these gigs can be very lucrative, but they don’t help build your portfolio.
Personally, I’m open to both. I won’t turn down work solely because it’s ghostwriting. I like making money. But -- getting a sweet byline is pretty awesome, too.
Rinse and Repeat
You now have a basic framework for building your freelance business. You need to continually create your own content to showcase your expertise and remain in the public eye. You also need to keep forging and nurturing relationships.
Yes, my process is slow. But the beauty is -- it lasts. And it builds momentum. Every new person you reach has the potential to help you, be helped by you, or both. People buy from people they know, like, and trust. Remember that when things seem a bit slow going. You never know when a seed you plant will be ready for harvest.
Other Things to Be Aware Of
Remember how I said that being a freelance writer makes you a small business owner? Well, that means you’ll need to deal with more than just finding clients and writing. Though it’s beyond the scope of this article, I want to point out several things that you need to be aware of and prepare for.
For the most part, an accountant should be able to guide you through the following:
Federal Taxes. Your clients aren’t going to withhold taxes like your employer does. You’ll need to save a portion of your earnings and send them to the IRS on a quarterly basis.
State and local taxes. Depending on where you live, you may need to remit a portion of your earnings to your state or local tax authority.
Registering your business/determining a business structure. You can operate as a sole proprietor forever. But, there can be advantages to going a different route, like forming an LLC.
Business expenses. Tracking the money you invest in your business can really help you at tax time. Your website hosting fees, related training costs, and business cards are all examples of valid business expenses. (There are loads more, by the way!)
Business systems. You need a way to send invoices, track your expenses, manage your calendar, and more. The good news? There are free options out there! You can even start by using good old Microsoft Office, creating invoices in Word, and tracking expenses in Excel.
Final Thoughts
Freelancing changed my life for the better so I’m super passionate about it! Everything you see online is written by someone -- with an unfathomably large amount of new content being created by the minute. So, why don’t you get in on the action? You can make money writing and have a lot of fun doing it.
If this article has been helpful, consider learning more from me. My private coaching program Before You Go Freelance is open for enrollment now. Special beta pricing is available for a very short time!
Author Bio
Laura Gariepy is the Owner of Every Day by the Lake, LLC, a freelance
written content creation company that helps busy business owners stay
top of mind with their target audience. She is also a coach to aspiring
freelancers and has recently launched a signature private coaching
program called Before You Go Freelance.
You can learn more about her by visiting her website:
and her blog