Do you want to know how to start freelance writing with no experience? Is it your desire to work from home and make money online? If your answer to the preceding question is yes, then you are in for an exciting journey of turning your skills/talents/services into a profitable business without leaving the comfort of your own home. But here is the caveat! Reading through this blog post and giving it thumbs up is not enough to make you money. Applying the tips and secrets shared here will be the turning point to your financial freedom.
Paradoxically speaking, making money online with freelance writing business is as easy as it is difficult. You must put your foot in the door in order to have a taste of success. With that said, let’s get started.
What is Freelance Writing?
Freelance writing, in my simplest definition, is the business of prospecting and fulfilling writing assignments of clients for agreed fees within a specified period of time as an independent contractor. In other words, you are willing to offer content writing services to anybody or company as a freelance writer and not as a full time writer or employee of an organization or publication.
You can become a freelance writer in the following areas of specialization: copy writing, ghostwriting, creative writing, technical writing, book review, article writing, SEO writing, press releases, blog post, newsletter writing, and so on. Depending on your passion and ambition, you can offer two or more services in any of the areas mentioned above. Freelance writing business is very lucrative if you have the knack of it because you are actually selling your services or talent and nothing more. The more value you are able to command and it is appreciated by your clients, the higher you will be able to charge them per hour/word of work done.
Because this article is showing you how to start freelance writing with no experience, you must be prepared to learn the trade of word craft from expert writers in the industry, do a lot of research cum practice writing and ask for critique. You may not appreciate this simple tip which I am revealing to you now until you come across some online freelance writers who charge as much as $500 to $1000 per article of just about 1,000 words. But run-of-the-mill content writers cannot charge more than $10 to $20 for the same article.
How Much Money Can You Make as a Freelance Writer?
It depends! That is the simplest and closest answer to the above question. It is difficult to put a ballpark figure on how much money can you make as a freelance writer at the beginning of your writing career. For instance, if you are a non-native English speaker and writer, you may not be able to ask for high rates from the get go until you prove your worth to your clients.
You should not be surprised to see some online freelance writers charging as low as $5 per 500-word article. So, you have to write 20 articles in order to make $100 a day. You will find such meager rates from free-for-all freelance writing jobs websites. This is because they pay less to content quality. However, if you are charging even as low as 20 cents per word, you only need to write an article of about 500 words to make $100 a day as a content writer. There is a lot of difference between writing for content mill sites and soliciting premium clients who value your services.
As you can see, lots of variables are at play when it comes “how much money can you make as a freelance writer?” Do you have superior portfolio to enable you charge higher rates for potential clients? Are you a gifted or trained wordsmith? Do you have the confidence to charge high rates? Can you find the right clients who are willing and able to pay what you are worth? These are few of the many questions which you have to provide spot-on answers to.
How Do I Get Freelance Work?
There are many ways to get freelance work online but some are quite obvious to implement while some are creative. But the bottom line is that it involves hard work, working smart and being patient. You cannot get it right the first time or overnight. I will discuss two ways to solicit for freelance work in this blog post.
The first and easiest way to find your first clients is to subscribe to Online Writing Jobs website. It is a third party site which match makes you to your ideal clients. They have done all the research and dirty work to establish relationship with online publishers and organizations who are ready to hire you right away. It rules out the idea of facing constant rejections or no-reply from potential clients who don’t know you at all.
The online writing jobs website also took it upon itself to provide you with comprehensive freelance writing guide and instructions on how to succeed as an online content writer. Click here to read more about this website and you will thank me later.
Secondly, you can get writing clients using search engines like Google.com. All you have to do is to enter a keyword phrase related to your niche market and add “write for us” or anything close to that. Get a list of these websites as many as you can which appeals to you. Next, go to their individual websites, search for an email address of possibly the digital marketing manager or simply fill out their contact forms if any.
The above exercise is really a numbers’ game. The more contacts you can reach, the merrier it becomes. You never can tell who is ready to hire you as a freelance writer straight away. In other words, you have to cast your net far and wide. You have to be are ethically aggressive and massive when you are prospecting for clients online. You are not looking at the ninety-nine percent of potential clients who will not reply to your email but the one percent clients who will hire you.
So far, I have given you two ideas to answer your question, “How do I get freelance work?” In due time, I will publish full-blown article on how to prospect for freelance writing clients and get hired.
Good Habits of Successful Freelance Writers
It is not just enough to know how to become a freelance writer online and stop there. No! You have to cultivate good habits which will sustain your online business in the long run. For instance, the habit of meeting deadlines is critical to your online business success. Also, delivering quality content to your customers all the time is important as well. You must not compromise on quality service offering because it is the fastest way to lose a client to a competitor i.e. a fellow freelance writer who is frantically soliciting for the same client you are working for.
To tell you the truth, there is always keen competition among freelance writers on the internet. You will find writers who are willing to do the same writing job which you are currently handling for lesser rate and maybe with even better quality. My candid advice is that you just have to be on your guard until you are fully established as a content writer with hundreds of retainer writing jobs.
Meanwhile, I will be publishing an article to answer your other question, “How do you become a freelance writer?” It will be a step-by-step guide on how to get started and succeed as a freelance writer. You will succeed!
About the Author
Mr. Oseremen Aigbokhae is a vast online content writer. You can hire him for your writing jobs by clicking here now. He will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you!
