Many people want to become Freelance writers, because their are many advantage attached to it. Some of these include the freedom to work from the comfort of your home, work anywhere as long as your laptop is with you. Freelancing also gives you the option to choose your own working hours.
Considering the above reason many have the notion that freelance writing is an easy career to go into and earn a living from. But there are many writer who are trying to make a living with freelance writing. What are some of the challenges they face?
Challenges attach to Freelance Writing
The first challenge with freelance writing is that it is not a full time job.This means that you might go a long period of time without getting a gig, you might also have a hand-full of job within a month. While trying to grow your career as a freelance writer, it might take a while before you get enough client to run your business.
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Also, because of the glamorous lifestyle and ease of work that writers enjoy, their is a lot of competition in the industry. So you will need to put in much work to earn a living.
Their are some tips and tricks that can help you fast track your writing career to help you earn a decent living as soon as possible. Below are 10 ways you can get writing gigs.
1.Start Pitching as soon as possible
As you begin your freelance writing career, contact bloggers, entrepreneurs, companies, small businesses or startups. When you get a reply from them (which might not be easy) show them how you can be of benefit to there organisation.
So go online and find these businesses especially on social media. Make sure to introduce yourself as another expert in the field, and keep an eye on their activities. When you notice something of interest or want to start building a relationship, engage with their posts.
In your pitch make sure to include:
- How you found out about them
- Who you are
- How you can help them
2.Guest Post for free
Am sure you already wondering how writing for free will profit you. But think of it this way, if you cannot write for free, how will you get exposure? When you write for popular blogs, you are putting yourself out there for the world to see. Apart from the owners of the websites you write for, even some of your readers can become potential clients.
In addition to helping you get acknowledged online, guest posting is allowing you to practice. Writing freely on topics you enjoy instead of being assigned specific ones can be very productive. As a writer, you must make sure to learn ways to stay productive at all times.
3.Network with other Freelance Writers
You know, the best thing you can accomplish for your new freelance writing business is to connect with other writers. Keep in mind, we are all in this together and is anything but a challenge!
Most freelancers will reveal to you that the most ideal approach to figure out how to be successful in the field is to address the individuals who have experience with doing as such. What’s more, they’d be correct. While other freelance writers are likewise your competition, you can surely help one another and benefit from your talents.
In this way, start stalking a couple of freelance writers whose ideas you like. On the off chance that they are sufficiently cordial, they will offer you their input on your journey, share a few hints about outsourcing, and even answer those endless inquiries you have if you are new to freelancing.
Who knows? Possibly you will even get other freelance writers to refer work to you, or request that you assist them with some gigs. Many successful writers offer their training and work with others to expand their pay!
4. Join Facebook Groups
Some Facebook groups offer you a lot of writing opportunities if you know the right groups to join. But a note of warning is that it take a while to get familiar with the online community and start getting writing gigs
Some Facebook groups to join are:
- The Smart Passive Income Community
- The Business Lounge Mastermind
- Christian Entrepreneurs: Building Your Business With Purpose
5.Create your blog and use it
Having a professional website helps you to attract high-paying clients, so add a website to your to-do list if you want to earn a living with writing. But if you cannot afford a website now, it is fine, just plan towards it.
In case you have a personal blog that you’ve built during your spare time. You can definitely use your site to offer your freelance writing services. With your website up and running, here are some of the advantages attached to it.
- Makes you look more professional in front of clients
- Allows you to organize your services and avoid confusion for potential clients
- Convinces more clients to hire you by allowing them to gather all the information they need
- Catalogues your portfolio or samples of your work
- Is a long-term source of clients even in times when you are not cold- or warm-pitching
6.Visit Local Printing and Design Companies
Another incredible method to land steady gigs is to contact your neighborhood printing and website design organizations. Of course, you can go to your business area and let the nearby dental specialist or neighborhood pet retailer realize that you’re a writer for hire, however this take a lot of time from your day.
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A faster route around this is to visit just website design companies and let them know there’s a writer accessible. These organizations have a full list of customers that need web content.
7. LinkedIn Jobs
Did you know LinkedIn has a job board? I never did up to this point. I have no clue why since I do invest a lot of energy networking on LinkedIn.
Go to their job board and everything you do is placed in your job(“writer”) and see what springs up.
From here you can choose how you need to move toward these companies – utilize a warm pitch or a cold pitch. If you have the opportunity to put resources into building a relationship and you have customers as of now, I would utilize a warm pitch approach. Be that as it may, if you are tingling to land a gig immediately, feel free to add these spots to your list to cold pitch.