The Best Freelance Writing Community You’ve Never Heard Of
Reddit’s Penchant For Creating Obscure Communities Is A Win For Writers
Mixing and mingling with writers through the medium of the internet may not seem like the most satisfying activity in the world. But it’s beneficial for many reasons.
For one, freelance writing can be one of the loneliest jobs on the planet.
There are no colleagues — minus, perhaps, the dog or cat or goldfish that you may keep close to hand. Clients are … well, clients. And few outside of the “profession” can understand what it is that we do and some of the challenges that we all face. Ghosting clients, downward pressure on rates, and long working hours are just some of the occupational hazards that freelance writers face.
Discussing writing with writers has more benefits than just alleviating loneliness, though.
For one, freelance writing is all about learning. On the surface, that doesn’t seem like the case. You don’t need to “know” that much — strictly speaking — to get started. But with freelance writing, it’s the details that can really end up making or breaking one’s progress.
How much should you charge for a white paper? Should you offer one round of revisions for your rates, zero, or two? These kind of questions are aired in writing fora almost every day and — after a while — you’ll be able to help those newer to the game out by offering some of your own hard-earned knowledge. There’s something satisfying about passing on the torch.
Additionally, “meeting” other writers — whether online or in real life — is a great way to build up a referral network. There’s a selfish aspect to this too. Prospects are often more likely to turn into good customers if you can point them in good directions when they need guidance.
Finding a writers’ community can be a daunting task, though. There are many such groups out there. And separating those that are likely to be useful from those that are likely to just blitz your news feed with spam isn’t an easy undertaking.
How To Find A Good Online Writer’s Community (And What To Avoid)
When looking for a writer’s community I recommend first asking “what motivated the admin/moderation team / group creator to put this group together?
Too often Facebook Groups are nothing more than thinly disguised advertising platforms in which the group owner tries to push members into buying his or her writing course.
My advice is to avoid such communities. While I don’t endorse the viewpoint that no communities facilitated by people with books or courses to sell can be valuable, I think that the fact that the owner or moderator is engaging in that activity should give you grounds to be cautious.
Secondly ask: “why are the regular members contributing”? The good reasons are: to share knowledge and “talk shop” with other writers. But sometimes these communities can attract those that are looking to promote their own vested interests. If that’s the case — and those posts are not at least kept in reasonable check — this might be another sign that this writing community isn’t the one that can offer you most value.
Online communities can also quite easily turn into groupthink-centric echo chambers. So consider asking: does the group owner promote a particular approach to freelance writing and expect the members to fall in line? Are members that hold contrary views ostracized or silenced? Again, this is something that you’ll probably want to avoid as the truth is that there is no one correct way to “make it” as a freelance writer.
My Top Two Freelance Writing Forum Recommendations
Reddit is a social network that I have mixed feelings about. Most Redditors post under pseudonym/anonymous accounts. That fact seems to be responsible for the fact that so much of Reddit is toxic and seems filled with angry, hateful, people.
Nevertheless, Reddit is incredibly community-dependent. The good “parts” (subreddits), if well-moderated, can turn into useful communities. /r/freelancewriters is one such forum.
My second community recommendation is for The Freelance Content Marketing Writer on Facebook. Although this group is moderated by somebody with a book to sell, the admin has been good about not saturating the community with promotion for it and not advocating an uncompromising approach to freelance writing.
On the other side of the spectrum, I have seen too many freelance writing groups to count that are nothing more than promotional fronts for the creators’ courses or books. But I’m sure that there are other worthwhile groups that I have not yet encountered.
Current recommendations:
- /r/freelancewriters (Reddit)
- The Freelance Content Marketing Writer / TFCMW (Facebook)
