How to Become a Freelance Writer New freelance writers will leap at that short term project with a juicy price tag attached. However, when they open it there are forty other people who’ve bid on it with twenty years of experience and portfolios massive enough to crush any newbie. How did they become a freelance writer? Are they better? The sad answer is that if you’re new to freelance writing, you won’t be better or more in demand than someone who has been at it for ten years. Fortunately, you can get there, something that most aspiring freelance writers will never do. The most successful freelance writers will often tell you that their first big break came much sooner than they thought.
Decide What You Want To Do The beauty of freelance writing is that you will eventually be able to write what you like and get paid for it. Depending on the market, your talent may be in the highest demand while you learn how to become a freelance writer. Before you start to look for the jobs that will let you rake in the most cash, decide what your best skills are. Are you good at article writing? Creative writing? Scholarly work? A mistake some freelance writers make is to go only for the work they enjoy and never get it because it’s in low demand. But a mistake freelance writers make far more is taking the work they know they won’t enjoy, don’t enjoy, and burn themselves out.
Create a Portfolio Making a portfolio is crucial to landing serious jobs and it can be fun. A portfolio is a fancy way to show off. A good freelancer will make an online portfolio on the freelance site they signed on up for. A great one will make a website. One or both of these may seem like daunting tasks, but there are plenty of free online tips to making your portfolio, and it doesn’t hurt to look at the portfolios of more successful freelance writers. A successful freelance writer will always have a good looking portfolio. At first, I was daunted at the thought of making an entire website. But since it’s for one thing— showing that I was a writer—it only took a couple hours, one to write it and the other to make it look as good as possible. In that time, I had a site (a little empty of experience) that was just as polished or even more so than other freelance writers with years more experience than me. Best of all, there are many places to create a website for free. If you’re wondering how to make a portfolio when you have nothing to put in it, there are hundreds of how-to’s that you can find online so that you can learn how to become a freelance writer.
How to Become a Freelance Writer Online Don’t sign up on just one freelance site. How to become a freelance writer depends on putting yourself out there. Find many sites that interest you and sign up for all of them, and create profiles (or link your website) for all of them. Look at lists of top freelance sites to see if one description fits what you’re looking for. If you want feedback on jobs that match you create new
folders in your e-mail that will divert different updates to different files so they don’t get jumbled. Check them regularly.
Create a Bid Creating a bid for a project isn’t just about writing a line, clicking a button, and crossing your fingers. Some sites will ask you to write out a line or two, like an advertisement selling what you have to offer. It’s important in that time, in the least few possible words, to grab their attention and stand out. Avoid writing vague lines like “I’m the best writer for this.” But far worse is writing, “I think I’d be good enough for your job.” I’ve seen that…more than once, which is not how to become a freelance writer. What employers want is to hear promises that the writer will be able to follow through with. Even a newbie can promise fast service with strict deadlines. Something overlooked but very important is not to fake it. Making a promise you can’t keep is a sure way to get no return call and a poor review. Trying to fulfill a deadline you set too short on that forty page essay will only make you and your employer miserable. You can finish reading this article on our website about how to become a freelance writer.