5 Critical Steps to Become A Successful Freelance Writer

Freelance writing is an interesting work-from-home hustle. Since I started, I enjoy how flexible this side hustle is. Freelance writers can make money in various ways, and they need to take these critical steps to become a successful freelance writer. Before you look at the job board, take a moment to run down these steps and prepare yourself for success.

1. Choose a niche –

To become successful in anything you need to passionate about what you are doing.  It does not exempt freelance writing.  Choose your passionate area where you can write non-stop and this becomes your niche. A niche is something you know and can research more about.

Choosing a niche helps you become an expert in what you do. I have always talked about how choosing a niche is highly profitable. You stop being a generalist, but you become a specialist. When I started freelance writing I read a lot about other writers and I learnt one common thing about them: they have niches they write about.

This why I chose to write about teaching online and freelance writing because this is what I know best. This is something I have been doing for some time, and I can surely share one or two ideas from an expert point of view. Choosing a niche allows setting higher rates, there is no doubt about that.

2. Network –

There is so much power in networking. This statement is accurate, especially with freelancers. Successful freelance writers network a lot. So if you want to become a successful freelance writer, mix and mingle with other like-minded writers. I am one person who has benefited a lot from networking in Facebook groups and  LinkedIn connections.

It is very normal to feel stuck when you are just starting out and you always reach out to your network for help. At one point I didn’t know what to charge. I went to one of the Facebook freelance writers networks to ask. I got help through various ideas, which I later used to determine my charges for each writing work I do. This was before I took the Write With Us course. After taking it, it equipped me with the skills to know my worth.

LinkedIn is a significant way to connect with potential clients. You deliberately ask to connect with editors and company Public Relations personnel. I call this process warming up so you prepare to send warm emails as opposed to cold emails. The result is always great.

LinkedIn is also a very effective platform to ask for referrals. Like I could send messages to my connections and ask them to refer me to any of their friends if they need a blogger or writer. This is so much better than cold emailing, and you don’t sound too desperate.

Even as a freelance tutor, I have found networking critical to help me navigate unfamiliar zones. This shows that networking is a critical step to become successful in freelancing.

3. Learn how to pitch and pitch every day

Pitching everyday exposes you to the world. Remember the internet is just so so big and everyone is out there to make money with it. Get yourself noticed, maybe no one even knows you exist. You need to be accountable for your goals. For me, I set weekly goals. I usually do 6 pitches a week.

You may ask what is pitching? This is writing to an editor, company or magazine suggesting what you can write for them or responding to an advert on a job board. There are basically two ways of pitching. The first is cold emailing, and the second is responding to job adverts. As a newbie, you may find responding to job adverts easier. As you grow, you will start cold emailing and land high paying gigs, that’s when you realise huge profits in your writing business.

Cold emailing is sending a random email to companies or editors of magazines and newspapers suggesting what you could write for them. It is sending your ideas to companies that are not actively seeking writers. The best way is sending a story framework and convincing them how their readers will enjoy your writeup.

4. Invest in learning –

I can never stop emphasizing how critical this is if you want to become a successful freelance writer.  It’s almost obvious that what you are struggling with someone faced the same and overcame it, so why not learn from them and save yourself dozens of hours?

Take courses that equip you to become better in your writing.  Invest in writing more and honing your skills. I took this course by Kristin Wong and Alex Webb, Come Write With Us.  Their course helps you escape these worst freelance writers’ nightmares: Pitching editors and never hearing from them, writing “opportunities” that are just unpaid gigs, applying for full-time writing jobs and competing with a zillion other writers. It cost me an arm and a leg, but I don’t regret it at all. This course showed me the ropes to use in freelance writing.

5. Write sample content –

Writing samples is a significant way to help you improve your writing. If you read my first posts, you can see that there is an improvement in what I write now. Writers mature with more writing.

Writing samples also give you flesh to always refer to in your pitches.  It serves as your portfolio. This blog post is my way of writing samples. I take my time to research and then put all my ideas down in a post. The more I write, the more I add flesh to my portfolio.

My greatest tool that has helped me perfect my tone, grammar and spellings in my samples is Grammarly. Every writer will find this tool very beneficial in their work.

Another significant benefit of writing samples is it helps you get clients. Samples give your prospective clients a reason to hire you or not to. Writing is a creative art, which is best when expressed.  There were many days I doubted my writing until I started receiving positive compliments about my writing. That helped me pitch more confidently. So get down to writing!

I want to assure you that taking these critical steps to become a successful freelance writer will help your business dynamically. It is easy and with a small budget, you can improve yourself.

I would like to hear from you. I am kinda addicted to email so just send me one and tell me how your freelance writing is doing.