Freelancing for Beginners
A very well-known term of the 21st century is indeed “freelancing” this is the most frequently used terminology in this reference whereas we can use other words too while talking about this specific subject such as; contract work, contract job, independent work or self-employed work.
Now, just to clarify the concept and refresh it we will define freelancing as a work a person does without any restrictions of a boss, time, company or any organization. We call it self-employed work because when a person feels like providing his services to another person in return for money and wages, without a certification of any company is called Freelancing.
Freelance jobs have several fields such as; graphic designers, musicians, voice-over, etc. but the most well-known and popular one is “writing.” For instance, more than 50% of people present in a company or a class of the students will be recognized as part-time freelance writers. But the question arises is how these people find these jobs or how do they start their career as a paid writer. So, in this article, we will be talking about the tips the writers must follow at the beginning of their careers.
5 Tips to Start Freelance Writing
Online Presence
The first and foremost step that must be followed by a newbie is to create an online presence, that means, making your presence on different social media platforms which let you publish your articles for free and this will help you set up a portfolio, we will come back to that shortly. Your online presence helps you to appear in online research for “content writers” or “writers” that increases your chances of getting a new job. Following is the list of a few platforms:
· Medium
· Wordpress
· Soup.io
· Hubpage.com
· LiveJournal and
· Bloggers.com
Writing Portfolio
Writing portfolio means a series of all the work done by the writer; all the previous work done in the past or the freshly done work. It becomes a record and experience for the writer which helps him a lot for getting the job. For instance, after setting the online presence what one has to do is to start writing articles on intriguing topics and publish them online that will increase one’s chances of getting a good job.
Select a Niche for Writing
Initially, when you start publishing your work on different blogs, make sure that you have already decided a niche for you. Niche is defined as an area of expertise of a writer, for instance, we see thousands of videos on youtube on Make-up or Philosophy and those people only do videos on that specific thing and that is called their Niche. So, to start your writing career you must select a niche for you such as; health, lifestyle, beauty or fashion, etc. How can we get benefited from this?
· This will help you get an experience in a special area
· When you see a client looking for a writer in a health niche then you can easily apply there and can even be approved because of your exposure.
Publish Guest Posts
Once you start writing on your niche, a pro tip that a newbie must follow is to pitch the sites which offer free guest blog posts. Free guest posts’ procedures happen through e-mailing the blog sites and telling them about your innovative and creative ideas that can intrigue them to reply to you or hire you a writer. You can also talk about your area of expertise or your niche. You can mention your experiences and mention a link to your blogging website.
If you want to pitch through email, click to read the procedure.
Clients instead of Platforms
The last but the most worth it tip is to start your career from a client-based source and not from any paying sites such as; Upwork or Fiverr. Now, what does it mean? It means that when you have settled your profile and portfolio and you have started writing and publishing your work under a specific niche or two what you have to do now is to find jobs through your LinkedIn profile or join various groups and companies on Facebook instead of Fiverr because Fiverr and Upwork pay so less, their wages are not half the effort you put to complete an order and secondly the tax they take halves your money and it is not that good an idea of working on these platforms.
Whereas, if you apply for a job through a person, these jobs mostly pay you the price per word (PPW), through which you can earn a handsome income with less effort and if you show your samples to you there are more chances that you get paid high and will be considered as an experienced writer.
These are a few, best tips so far for the newbie to have a great impression and to earn more in the freelance writing field. Because one always needs guidance and sometimes, we get misguided and that wastes our time and we end up working as a less-paid writer. Follow these tips and become a great writer and a highly-paid writer. A lot of people say that writing doesn’t have money and it is the least-paying department but that is just a myth because if you are a dedicated person and you follow appropriate instruction, you can earn $300 to $1000.