Freelance writing is one of the most sought after job in today’s market. But, becoming a professional freelance writer is not an easy task for a beginner.
Freelance writing jobs are available and you could start a brand new career as a freelance writer far more easily than you might think. But you do need to do some good preparation before stepping into the freelance writer world.
In order to become a successful professional freelance writer, you must be able to write in a way that is engaging, informative, and interesting. Some people are naturally gifted to write, while others learn how to be good writers by taking classes or attending workshops.
If you want to become a professional freelance writer but you are not sure about your writing skills and abilities, you might want to consider enrolling in some courses so that you can work on becoming better at your craft.
If you are considering launching a freelance career, you should know that there is much more to being a freelance writer than simply writing. You will also need to know how to operate and manage a business successfully, how to charge client, how to say NO to client when they charge below your writing fee etc.
If you want to top up your freelance writing game and become a professional freelance writer, these key steps will help you achieve that in the long term.
1.Choose a niche and stick to it
If you want to be consider or seen as a professional, you have to be known for a particular niche.While this is not absolutely essential for being a success in this field, it may help you to try to focus on one particular area of expertise.
Blog admins don’t just need someone who can write for them, but they need someone with experience in the particular niche they want. They want someone who can draw out content from their own experience than just relying on Google.
You should choose a niche that you are passionate about. Why do you think other freelance writers are able to charge client at a high rate and yet they still get paid? It is just in one word, ‘Specialize’.
When you specialize in a niche, you gain more experience in that niche. This makes you an authority in that niche and enable you to charge more because client knows that they are working with an authority with lot of experience.
2.You must have a blog
All professional freelance writers have a blog. Building your online present is very essential if you want to brand yourself as a professional writer. A blog gives you a platform where you can share your thought and let client see your style of writing.
Your blog is your portfolio where you can refer interested client to when they are in doubt if to pick you for a gig or not.
It doesn’t matter if your blog is beautiful or not, all client wants to see is the write-up. So, if you want to become or seen as a professional freelance writer, you need to go get a blog.
Please, don’t go and register for those free WordPress or Blogger (Blogspot) blog. It doesn’t show that you are a professional. Personally, if I see a blog url having something like www.domainname.wordpress.com or www.doaminname.blogspot.com, I will just take the person to be a novice.
Do you want your potential client to see you like that? I already know the answer. So, go invest in a blog and start publishing good content for your potential client and followers.
3.Avoid Plagiarism and Grammatical Errors
Professionals don’t do copy and paste work. If you do, you will be caught. To really write a professional article, you do not need to copy from any website because when you do Copy, the author will detect through the help of a software program that detects that you have copied someone else work.
Try to create original content and make it an habit. It will be very bad if a client finds out that you copied someone else’s work. It also spoils your image as a professional freelance writer.
Try to make sure that your English spelling is correct, if you do not have an English spelling software installed on your computer, you can search for free online spell check and paste your article to check for grammatical errors.
If there is any error in your spellings, the spell checker can highlight them for you and give you the correct options.
4.Be good with Keywords
Professional writers are very, very good with keywords. They know how to create content that are SEO friendly. SEO involves using particular words in a website's text to help the site rank better in the search engines for that keyword.
This type of writing is focused on the search engines and also on engaging the readers. Professional freelance writers know how to include high ranking keywords into their content. So, for you to be able to become a professional freelance writer, you need to learn how to use keywords.
5.Guest Posting
Posting on your blog is not just enough. You need to guest post on other authority blogs in your niche. Sometimes, clients want to know if you have published anything aside your own blog.
Aside that, guest posting is also one way you can use to win client who might be loyal reader at the blog you did a guest post in. so many freelance writers have gotten new high paying client through just from guesting, without pitching.
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