Branding Yourself as a Freelance Writer

How you show yourself and expertise as a freelance writer means a lot and should never be taken for granted. Just like every other business, your freelance writing career is a brand and promoting it counts a lot. This means that you must never take little things for granted.

From experience in my career, I’ve realized that the first impression your client has of you determines whether you get that job. You don’t have to write a sample article first before you can lose that job. I’ve had various potential clients in the past who never contacted me again after the first email I sent them.

What do I mean by first impression?

As a freelance writer, your first impression comes in two ways- your advertisement about your freelance writing services and the first email you send your client.

1.       Your Advert

I once placed an advert on Tradestable.com.ng and within minutes, I received a reply to my ad. I thought I had just landed myself a job until I read the message. The client wasn’t hiring my services but was correcting my advert placement. The message read, “Advertise your services neatly”. I was surprised and cross-checked my ad. I then realized that it was choked up and there was no adequate spacing. I corrected this immediately and I started getting new jobs instead of ad corrections.

Without even contacting you, your advert about your services tells a lot about you. It shows your expertise and professionalism even before your potential client sees your sample article. When you advertise your services, advertise neatly.

Read my article on: Understanding Article Specifications as a Freelance Writer to know how to write a sample article.

2.       Your First Email

Never take your email messages for granted. As a writer, you have to obey the simple rules of punctuation, language structure and grammar in every thing you write, whether it’s a Facebook status update, a tweet or an email message. Unlike Microsoft Word where every word after a full stop begins with a capital letter, mail services like Yahoo are not the same. Starting every new sentence with a capital letter is part of good grammatical structure. When composing a mail, the letters after the full stop don’t automatically change to a capital letter. Show that you can write well by observing the punctuation errors and correcting them. This tells your client that you know what you are doing and that he/she can be sure quality from you. I know, you can’t be too perfect in English but try your best because your client might notice.

Your brand determines what you earn, how you earn and who you earn from. Take your freelance writing career as you new business and you can be sure of new jobs all the way.

How else do you think a new freelance writer can promote and protect his brand? I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments.

Lanre Solarin is a freelance writer and author. Start on the path of succes through the use of your mind with his Deep-Think blog and get your online writing business started with his deep-think hubpage.
Interested in making money online? Get started.