When you are a freelance writer, you’re really not always going to get it right. That’s just the way life is. Whether you go to school, work for a big company, and then decide to go it alone, or you’ve done something completely different for years but you know you really want to write, and then decide to go it alone, there’s no actual right or wrong way for you to do it. Instead, you should really think about how you approach starting something up for yourself. Although deciding to go freelance and set up your own business can seem scary, it really doesn’t have to be. You can make this work and wildly successful on your own terms.
While there’s no set way of finding success as a freelance writer, there are things that you can do to ensure that you find the successes you’re looking for. And that’s what we’re going to talk through today.
The first step is very much to decide that this is what you want to do, and then work out how you can take the steps you need to get some results. But no one route will work wonders for everyone. Instead, you need to be able to handpick the steps that will allow your journey to be successful. And the right way to do things will very much depend on how you want your freelance writing ventures to pan out. To help you, let’s consider some key things you could choose to get started.
Find Your Why
To start with, before you begin anything at all, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re able to work out why you want to do this. So figure it out. Why do you want to go freelance? Why do you want to write? When you know the reasons for doing this, and you can find your why, it’s easier for you to stay focused and make this work out for you.
Research The Freelance Way
Now that you know where you’re going with this, the next thing you need to do is work out how to get started. Whether you’ve worked in this industry before or not, going freelance is completely different. So it’s handy to prepare yourself on what you need to do, and what the foreseeable future will be like – even if you’re not going freelance full-time to start with.
Consider Your Niche
When you’ve done your research and you know a bit more about how freelancing works, you’re then going to want to firm up some ideas on your own approach. The most important place to start is with your niche. Now, you don’t overly have to define your writing niche as narrow as choosing one and one thing only to write about. But, you need to work out what you are going to cover so that you are able to position yourself as an expert in those areas.
Read Up
If you really are keen on doing this the right way, then you’re going to want to think about reading as much as you can. Because to be a great writer, you know that you need to be reading and reading and reading! Whether this is fiction or nonfiction, books on writing, or anything else, reading is going to help you to grow as a writer.
Learn As Much As You Can
If you have no experience at all, then it’s important for you to think about learning as much as you possibly can, before you get started. There’s no need to spend a ton of time on this, but you can find that there are courses for writing and marketing, and even tools for things like SEO, that are an agency must have, that you can benefit from too. Because it’s important for you to be as knowledgeable as you can be if you want to get this right.
Create Your Own Website
The next thing you need to do is making sure that you have a website set up for your freelance ventures. Because when you’re looking to pitch for work, you need to have somewhere that people can come and take a look at what you can offer. And not only that, but you can also start to think about encouraging your site to get some inbound interest, with SEO and advertising too.
Get Social
You’ll also want to think about getting yourself a few social media accounts. But don’t just set yourself up on every single platform. Instead, you need to be thinking about which platforms are going to be the best for your business and will allow you to reach your audience. Pick those platforms and set up your profiles.
Get Some Clips
You also need to start building your portfolio up. When you don’t have any work, you may feel as if you won’t even be able to get the experience, but you should be able to land some pieces of work – even if you do them for free. It’s important to get the right clips that show off what you can do so that you can continue to grow what you’re doing. So really try here to get the key pieces you need.
Pitch As Much As You Can
The next thing that you need to keep doing, is for you to make sure that you’re constantly pitching as much as you can for new work. Whether you are looking to write articles online, work with clients or a mix of both, you need to be pitching in order to get that work. So make sure that you’re sending out pitches in order to get the work you want.
Build An Email List
One of the best things that you can do for your marketing, is to start building an email list as soon as possible. This may mean that you don’t overly have any email subscribers at the beginning, but you should always start early so that you can grow. And then, you can start sending out a newsletter that you’re able to build and use as a key marketing tool as time goes by.
Market Like Mad
And when it comes to the rest of your marketing, you need to choose the marketing tactics that will allow you to land your dream clients. So think about the best ways to interact on social media or advertise or the kind of content that you can produce, but the more engaging you are, the more successful your marketing will be.
Consider Other Avenues
Another thing that you can do, is thinking about the different ways that you can make money other than freelancing for clients or publications. The way to do that is for you to look at making passive income. There are many products you can make, such as ebooks, courses, or even affiliate marketing, to help you generate money throughout the day without having to do anything.
Get In The Zone
Alongside the work that you can do on your business and growing your income, you’ll want to think about how you can be the most productive with getting your work done. Because when it comes to freelancing, you’ll want to think about feeling motivated and ensuring you get as much done as possible. How you set out your office can help you here. Along with different systems and processes to help you streamline your work.
Keep On Going
The last part of this process and the key to really get it right is for you to just keep on going. Sure, times will be hard and you’ll feel frustrated or stuck or set-back, but you need to just keep going. This is the key to making your career really work out for you. If you really want to make sure that you find success, you should always work on improving your writing, and growing your client base and income sources. When you do, you’ll find that you really are getting it right.
And that’s all there is to it. Sure, the idea of getting it right is complicated and makes you feel as if you need to know the secret, or you have to be an experienced expert, but that’s just simply not true. Instead, when it comes to making freelance life work for you, then you really need to think about why you want to make this work, and the steps you can take for that to happen. Not every single thing will work for you, but the idea is to pick out the steps that will, work on them, and see where they can take you.
Above all else, just remember to believe in yourself, to enjoy what you do, and be confident that you can make this work. If you’re always looking to improve your writing and do the best possible job, it will. So keep working hard and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
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