Are you thinking of becoming a freelance writer? Have you always wanted to write and be your own boss? Maybe you’re a complete newbie to the world of freelance writing, and you’re terrified to get started? If that’s the case, don’t panic – that’s natural. When something is new to you, and it seems lucrative and exciting and completely out of your reach, you’re often going to be intimidated – that’s just how life goes. Because to you, it’s the ultimate. It’s something that you’d love to do – it’s the dream. And so your glorify it in your mind. It suddenly becomes something so special and precious, that you’re afraid to go anywhere near it. But that’s just because you’ve made it seem so unapproachable in your mind. So now, you need to change that.
Freelance writing has a bad wrap. Years ago, writers were seen as struggling artists. And sure, you can be a struggling freelancer – but if you’re struggling, that’s a decision that you’ve chosen to make. Because in this day and age, the opportunities for success are greater than ever. If you’re ambitious, passionate, and you’re excited to give writing a real go, you can make it work for you, let’s take a look at how. Here are seven steps to help you find freelance writing success.
1. Decide What You’re Going To Do
So first of all, you’re going to want to decide how you’re going to approach this. So think about the kind of writing you want to do and what sort of niches you want to cover. You may even want to get yourself organized with your laptop, software programs, an enterprise document management system to help you get started. That way, you’re getting off on the right foot with everything you need to get set up.
2. Set Up Your Own Website
However, it’s not just your laptop, documents, and templates that you need – you also need a website! This sounds more complicated than it actually is. You can get a simple domain and hosting program for a low cost, and then use a Wordpress template to create a fun site!
3. Get Some Experience
And now that you feel all set up and ready to go, what you need to do here, is to get some experience. Because if you have never written before, then you have nothing for your portfolio – and this may stop you from landing work. It’s a catch 22, but there are ways that you can get your first clips. Sometimes, you’ll have to work for free or send out samples you’ve written for yourself. But it’s so exciting when you do get those first clips.
4. Brand Yourself
At this stage, if you want to look as professional as possible, then you may find that you need to brand yourself as best as you can. This means seeing yourself as a brand or business, not just as a person. You can also use your web design, logo, and tone of voice to create a brand around your writing too.
5. Send Out Pitches
As a freelancer, you absolutely need to make sure that you’re able to send out as many pitches as you can to get the work that you want. Because when it comes to landing the work you want, you just won’t get it unless you’re banging down doors. Sure, you’ll sometimes get the odd piece, but you need to think about sending out a ton of ideas all of the time, in the hope that you’ll get some back. Say you get 5% of the things you send out, then you’ll need to send more and more. For this, think about where you’re going to pitch. Make sure that you know the publication and that you’ve cleverly thought of a suitable article that the editors might love!
6. Market Yourself
But that’s not all, because you’ll want to make sure that you’re marketing what you’re doing too. Choose social media platforms that you like and that you know you can target the right audience with. Also look to start an email newsletter as early as possible, as this can be a great way of building a client base.
7. Aim For Consistent Growth
Finally, if you want this to become a long-term success, then you’ll want to think about how you can grow as consistently as possible. And that’s the key – consistency. If you only work on things sporadically, it’s going to take you a little longer to grow and find success. For this, you’ll find that have a schedule is going to keep you on track. As long as you’re showing up and doing the work, then you’ll find that you start to get the growth and success that you’re looking for.
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