Prepare yourself as a freelance writer
You’ve always loved writing.
Right from childhood when you were an underling, you loved writing. Be it writing fake leave applications for your friends to bunk classes or writing a dictation for your father, writing short stories for school magazine to writing your own speech for a debate competition, you’ve done it all.
But everything looks stalled now that you’re out of college and working towards your career.
To top it all, Unemployment sucks & asking your parents for money is a mini suicide everytime.
However, the dream to be a writer, etched somewhere deep inside your heart, still lives on…
What if there was a way to pursue your love for writing AND earn a part time income in the process?!
Well, lucky you are since it’s 2021 and now its possible to Work From Home and write stuff for people against a decent amount of money.
Yes, we are talking about working as a freelance writer!
This article would, in the following paragraphs, explain how you can embark upon your journey as a freelancer-writer and secret tips and suggestions to be a pro at it.
First things first. You would need to choose a freelance platform to start working. Freelancer, Fiverr, Upwork, Toptal, Guru are some of the famous freelance websites one can sign up with and get started.
● Build your profile. As basic as it sounds, but a clear, descriptive and well rounded profile would attract more employers and thus earn you more gigs. Do not forget to upload a clear photo. Remember clients associate a visible face to a trustworthy person.
● Put up samples of projects you’ve accomplished, even if not in a professional capacity. Employers would like to take a look at your previous work to assess your reliability over lack of experience.
● Make your portfolio versatile. Every business in this capitalistic era requires some form of writing. Be it writing to promote a product/service, promotion over social media, writing content for blogs/articles, writing a medical journal, drafting a legal agreement or writing scripts for youtube videos/web series, the opportunities are endless. Present yourself a jack of all trades with your diversified samples, if not a master
That’s it. That is all you can do as a novice writer in the world of freelancers. However, here are a few tips you might find useful in this journey.
- Promote yourself and your services. Use social media to let people know you’re up for solving their writing issues, for a some of money.
- Earn a name for yourself in social circles by doing a few free gigs. As a fresher, people would find it difficult to trust you with their important assignments. Offer them one free gig and let them see your skills. They’ll definitely hire you if you present yourself as a valuable asset.
- Maintain an online presence by writing blogs/articles on your own website. Use Quora, Reddit, Wordpress etc. and keep posting interesting content for your readers. Interact with them via comments and emails to get feedback on your writing. Also ask them about popular topics they’d like to read about in your blogs.
- Update your skills. For a writer it is indispensable to continue learning new styles of writing, and this would come only with reading.
Swapnil Saurav, Author of the best selling book “The Journey Beneath The System” says… “To be a good writer, one needs to be a voracious reader!”
5. Be Patient. Freelancing is a competitive business and many a times it takes months for someone to secure their first gig. But the road to success eventually smoothens after you land your first project. Never lose hope and certainly never give up.
Best wishes to all budding freelance writers out there. Keep writing!
