Jumpstart Your Freelance Writing Career

Without question freelance writing is an emerging and competitive market especially online.  In the past budding writers constantly struggled to build a portfolio of clips and had to spend countless hours searching for markets and querying magazine editors.  It took months to receive a response and most writers were rejected more often than they were published.  Today however the landscape is much different.  This is both good and bad.  On the positive side the opportunities are beyond imagination but the downside is that anyone with a computer can get published with very little editorial oversight.  It seems that everyone has a blog or webpage these days and the volume of internet content is growing exponentially.  How much of it is worthwhile and how much is garbage?  Just consider how many spam emails you receive on a daily basis.  All of that being said you can indeed launch a successful and lucrative freelance writing career. 

Whether you are a polished professional writer or a complete industry newbie your first step should be to sign up for a free blog.  A few sites to check out would be Blogger, Wordpress and Typepad.  Once you are setup start writing.  Share your thoughts and opinions and be sure to tell your friends and family.  This will get you in the game and help you get comfortable with having your work online.  Because blogs are an open format you are free to write about anything that you want so take advantage of that especially in the beginning. 

Next you’ll want to jump into the social media pool.  Sign up for Facebook, Myspace and Twitter accounts as soon as you can.  Add friends and post away.  Be sure to link back to your blog as you update it.  There is no better way to build your network than this.  The value of social media to a writer is incomprehensible.  If you don’t have one of these accounts then you aren’t serious. 

Along side your friend networks you will also want to join social bookmarking pages.  Sites such as Digg, Delicious, Reddit and Stumbleupon allow you to save your online favorites and share them with others.  This is a great way to find new content and writing inspiration as well as make new friends.  Used properly this can also be a great marketing tool for your writing down the road. 

Once you have a following, modest as it may be, you can then sign up for one of the many free content publishers.  These sites are divided into three basic categories.  There are sites such as Ezinearticles.com that pay you nothing but allow you to write articles and get published.  Then there are revenue sharing sites such as Triond, Helium, and Associated Content that pay you a percentage of ad revenue (based on web traffic) for each article.  There are also many sites that pay a flat fee for articles such as Demand Studios, Seed.com, Textbroker and Constant Content. 

How do you decide which site to go with?  In reality you should have a balance of all three types.  Ezinearticles and related sites are a great way to get your name out there.  They might not pay you but you have the ability to create a signature that is attached to every article you write and can link back to your other work.  These sites often get a lot of traffic and can be quite useful.   As far as revenue sharing, this is a long term investment.  You will not make a lot up front. Your earnings will literally be pennies a day but if you can drive traffic and gain exposure then these numbers will increase and you will see the value over time.  Sites that pay a flat fee allow you to choose predetermined assignments, write them and get paid.  The biggest difference here is that because these sites pay more up front they have a more stringent editorial process.  Your articles will be evaluated by professionals before they are accepted.  

So once you have all of these things up and running and have written a few articles then the real work begins.   The key to a career in freelance writing is to create a lot of quality content.  You need to consistently publish work while ensuring that you are writing well.  You don’t have to be Shakespeare but you need to at least have logical sentences and topics that people are about.  The higher quality work you produce the more traffic and therefore earnings you will garner.  You want to be seen as a credible source.  For sites that pay up front you should strive to make these clients happy and make yourself attractive for other potential clients.  You can get a fair amount of work if you can master your craft. 

Freelance writing is not rocket science but it does require some skill.  More than anything though you need to stay committed and stay connected.  Keep up with your social media sites and give yourself the best shot at success by continuously building a web presence.  The secret that successful writers know is this:  the more your do it the better you get and the more money you make.