Writing content of various types for website owners and online publishers for a fee is big business on the internet. As a freelance writer, you can make a living online working from home on a daily basis if you understand the nuts and bolts of how to get writing jobs online. In this blog post, I am going to walk you through the basic steps to financial freedom and fulfillment offering content writing services for fun and money.
There is something you will learn from this web page whether you are a beginner without experience or intermediate freelance content writer without much success yet. First and foremost, you should bear in mind that you are starting a business online for the long haul. The value you can bring to the table in your content writing services will determine how much you will earn in the long run. To this end, there are obvious skills which you have to hone and improve upon as time goes by.
These online writing skills include good research skills, willingness and ability to solicit for writing assignments on a regular basis, internet marketing skills, search engine optimization (SEO) and keyword research skills, just to mention a few. Over the life of this blog, I will be writing and publishing articles on each of these topics extensively in order to equip you to become a successful freelance writer.
Meanwhile, let’s go through the steps on how to become a freelance writer and be successful as well.
1. Build a Website Blog for Your Writing Business
In case you don’t know, you are about starting a professional writing business capable of attracting potential clients who will be far and near. You need to create a virtual office or writer website where you will be able to publish essential information about you such as how to contact you, brief resume about you, uploaded writing samples to show your potential customers who may request it, and so forth.
Creating or building a website blog for this purpose is damn cheap or even free. You can create a simple website without all the bells and whistles using the free blogger blog site. It will not cost you a dime or cent except for the time to set it up. But the only downside is that you will register a sub domain name with blogspot.com included in the full URL address. It is good for a start if you want to test things out and see how it works.
However, if you are not comfortable with the long-winding sub domain name plus the blogspot.com domain, you can do the smart thing by investing about $10 to $15 to buy domain name of your own. You can then redirect the custom domain name to your free blogger account for free web hosting. This ten dollars investment in your own domain will give you unique identity for your web content writing business.
But if you want to go full throttle, you can invest less than $100 in a unique domain, website hosting and professional blog theme to spice up your online business office. This investment from the start will make your online writing business to stand out right from the get go.
2. Optimize Your Website Blog
The next step after creating a website is to optimize it so that you can easily be found online by those you hope to work for and get paid to write. By optimization, you are basically preparing your writing business outlet for the online marketplace. The goal of optimizing your website is to make it easy for your potential clients to find your writing services on the internet in your target niche market. Let me quickly run through the items which you have to consider and take care of.
(i) Create Essential Web Pages on Your Website
There are essential web pages which you have to create and upload, namely: contact me page, about me page, etc. You want to make it easy and fast for website owners and publishers who desire to hire you to reach you for proposed writing assignments. This is why the foundation and structure of your website are paramount in the beginning. If you are not sure of what and how to go about it, simply visit few content writing sites and study their different and unique styles of presentation.
(ii) Optimize Your Website for SEO and Keywords
Your website is actually the gateway to the world of words even when you are asleep. The smartest way you can be found online without spending money on advertising is through search engine optimization and keywords.
For example, if you are a business credit writer, you will certainly want to optimize your writing website for keywords such as business credit, business loan, etc. You can also write SEO articles and publish them on your website blog targeting these keywords and phrases. Sincerely, it is not as difficult to do as you may be thinking right now!
3. Write and Publish Writing Samples on Your Site
At this stage of setting up your online writing business office, you are almost ready to hit the ground running. How do I mean? So far, so good; you have already primed your website to start attracting clients who you can write for and make money online. But if you don’t have previous writing experience working for clients before now, you may find it difficult to get your first client. In most cases, having quality writing portfolio under your belt can go a long way to convince online publishers to hire you without vacillating.
This is what I suggest you should do to get started. First, research and pick 3 to 5 popular topics in your target niche market which should include keyword phrases with high volume. Write SEO articles around these topics and publish them as your writing samples. You can convert these articles into a PDF document to make it fast for you to mail out when required by a potential client.
You are actually preparing yourself as ready online freelance writer willing to take up clients as they give you briefs on topics and subjects to write on. You don’t want to be caught off guard and ultimately lose a potential client for good.
4. Start Soliciting for Writing Assignments in Earnest
You cannot make money on the internet as a freelance writer without finding website owners and publishers to write for in the first place. In order to get a handful of them to start with, you have to ethically do massive and aggressive marketing of your content writing services on a regular basis.
There are many creative ways to get writing clients online. But if you are a greenhorn in freelance writing business, you can do yourself a world of good to subscribe to online writing jobs website for a comprehensive guide and instructions on how to get writing jobs and get paid online and on time.
You can also create accounts with LinkedIn.com, Facebook.com, Twitter.com, etc, for social media marketing of your services. It is absolutely free to sign up with these social media websites. As a freelance writer, you must not be timid and cold in marketing your services. In addition, you have to be prepared to receive rejections in droves.
You may only find one from every ten publishers you contact who may be willing to ask further for your services in detail. And he may not even hire you in the end! It is one of the hazards of the trade. For instance, cold pitching through emails of up to 25 potential clients per day is not outrageous if you want to be in the business of freelance writing. Always send out pitch letters with confidence and expect the best as an optimist.
To call a spade a spade, finding clients to write for regularly is the hardest knot to crack in this business. You will always find better writers with superior experience than you vying for the same writing jobs online. But don’t let that deter you because I know and I am convinced that your ideal customers are waiting to do business with you somewhere on the internet if you market your services wide enough!
It doesn’t matter whether you are non-native English speaker or writer; you will always find the right client to work for and get paid to write online. The bottom line is that you have to look long and hard to really find clients who will be willing to hire you. Please don’t be over ambitious and set reasonable expectations from the beginning and you won’t be disappointed!
You can click here now to learn more on how to get writing jobs online with certainty. You’ll succeed!
