How do you get started as a freelance writer?
Freelance writers can make a great deal of money working at home. There are male and female writers and there are professional technical and copywriters that are single, are Moms, are stay at home Dads and also Grandparents.
I know single mothers that went from poverty to owning their own homes and having successful businesses. Some writers get their start and quit their day job and others get started when they are unemployed thinking it’ll get them through lean times. Many of those writers never go back to a traditional job because of how lucrative and rewarding writing for yourself can be.
Whether you want to work at it part time or full time, freelance writing is a great gig to get into. The Internet has opened up a world of writing opportunities and you can write about just about any subject you’re interested in and get paid for it. If you’re willing to write about boring or very speciality subjects as well, you can get paid even MORE.
How do you get started?
Here are tips to get you going. It’s not an easy job but there are a lot of opportunities available and while it takes time to get started, you can be earning a full time wage within a few months if you’re motivated and talented.
Get some samples together
You’ll need to get samples together to show prospective employers. There are two great ways to do this:
- Open a blog at blogger.com and make a blog about a subject you can write well on. Write lots of articles in that subject and promote your blog.
- Submit article to free directories. These can help you promote your name online so people who are thinking of hiring you can find you. Sites like this include: http://www.ezinearticles.com, http://www.articlealley.com, http://www.articledashboard.com, http://www.ehow.com, http://www.helium.com and http://www.Squidoo.com.
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While many of these sites accept articles for free, sites like ehow, helium and squidoo will help you make residual income while you’re looking for work and creating samples!
Look for Jobs
Now that you’ve got samples and perhaps a resume together, there are a lot of online classified sites that you can find jobs at. Some are specialised for writers (http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com) and some are more general (www.craigslist.com) but having writing gig categories.
You can also join job bidding sites like http://www.elance.com and http://www.rentacoder.com. These sites allow you to create an online portfolio and apply to jobs. The beauty of sites like these is that you can be a bit more relaxed about being paid. If you want to be a freelance writer, you’ll need some serious scam radar because there are rip off artists and scammers and plagiarisers out there.
There’s a lot more to it and you’ll want to learn about search engine optimisation, SEO writing, self promotion and develop niches to increase your income. If you’re interested and motivated, you can learn as you go while you’re earning.
Concluding thoughts:
Freelance writing is a very lucrative and rewarding work at home career! Find a mentor to follow. I have a freelance writer blog that offers mentoring and tips and there’s a writer mentoring site at http://www.inspiredauthor.com that provides writer chats and plenty of tips. The more you can learn, the faster you can get some great writing gigs!
You can also read the 6 Figure Freelancer – A valuable resource providing detailed information about getting started in writing for the web.