You have a way with words. You write compelling copy, meet deadlines and are professional at your work. That’s all you need to be a great freelance writer, right?
Yes, and No because unlike any other business, establishing yourself as a brand takes a good amount of time, effort and intelligence too. With so many budding writers in the market, why (and how?) should one turn towards you?
Being a writer myself, I have been through a lot. I have had days where I delivered high quality content in exchange for peanuts, where deadlines were unrealistic, and clients – painful. It took me a long time to have a regular flow of assignments. Today I am going to let you know some friendly tips for you to start your writing career, and to establish yourself as a freelance writer.
NETWORKING – BOTH ONLINE AND OFFLINE
If you are still waiting to update your LinkedIn profile, do it now because that is the place to find your new clients. Ninety percent of my freelance writing work actually came from LinkedIn and that is why it is the only social network I am pretty active on. Connecting with right people is also important. Do not go around sending requests, and do not just spam someone’s email with your CV and writing samples, that’s a wrong strategy.
Update your profile, use the heading section to mention that you’re available to take up freelance writing projects, mention your email address so people do not have to go through PM/DM and they connect with you directly.
PREPARE A RATE CARD
It’s important to have a rate card with fix rates to show to your clients so they understand that you’re a staunch professional and even though you’re debuting, you have an idea about the industry. Decide rates as per the difficulty level of the content you’d be involved in writing. For instance, plain re-writing (sometimes clients just wish to get a text re-written) rates would be different from original writing. Similarly general content writing rates would be different from technical/health/medical content writing. Keep all of this in mind before making your rate card.
HAVE YOUR SAMPLES READY
You need to define your niche and become an expert in it. Doesn’t matter if your work is not published in a renowned magazine, try to prepare your portfolio by collecting all that you’ve written at one place so if anyone asks you for samples, you don’t have to think twice.
DO NOT WORK FOR FREE
I know some would argue that it’s a great idea to work for free in order to add some experience to your resume. If you wish to build your portfolio, start your own blog but do not take up assignments for free. It not only demeans your hardwork but also affects other freelancers in the market because those looking for ‘freebies’ would always find someone or the other to work without compensation.
ASK FOR RECOMMENDATIONS
When you work for someone, do not hesitate to ask for recommendations. These testimonials would help you earn more clients because the truth is that people rely on other people’s experiences before giving it a try. On LinkedIn, you may simply keep your profile’s testimonial section to ‘public’ so your future clients may read good things that your previous clients have written about you.
BE PREPARED FOR CRISIS SITUATIONS
Remember, it’s not your nine-to-five job that will give you a definite salary at the end of the month. Freelancing is uncertain therefore you need to prepare yourself for late payments, or no payments, client dissatisfaction, revision of work multiple times, etc. Prepare yourself in advance because it isn’t all that chilled-out after all.
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