What You Need To Get Started

You wouldn’t need all the resources in the world to get started. You’ll only need to put a few things in place, in the following order:

• Workspace And Equipment

  You wouldn’t need a lot of money to get the required equipment. A good investment in a laptop and workspace is vital. If you choose to work from home, set up a space that allows you to focus, with the right equipment and setting that fuels your passion. As much as possible, choose an area that’ll keep you away from distraction, keep your body in good shape, and focused enough to know when to attend to other things.

• Motivation And Structure
  It’s essential to stay motivated in your writing and build a structure that ensures it. You’ll do well to set a specific time and several tasks to do within a timeframe. It’ll be handy when it’s time to sort your papers and balance accounts.

• Create A Payment Account

  You’ll need it to get payment from clients, and some may have preferences like PayPal. You could use a multi-currency account that allows you to take cash in different currencies. You could choose to spend, keep, or transfer it to your regular accounts. It’ll also come handy if you love to travel to different places.

• Professional Online Profiles

  Update your existing social media accounts by adding professional touches to it. That would include your Linkedin and Skype accounts. Make sure you have a professional email address, and your online posts are filtered for unprofessional posts. It helps you position yourself aright for your clients as they begin to reach out to you.

• Portfolio And Pitch

  Get your written samples together as your clients will request them before entrusting their work to you; others may ask for links to published works. Be intentional about it, and put your best out there. You could also craft a pitch to bid for tasks or use it to seek the audience of companies.

Establishing Yourself as a Freelance Writer

The first thing to consider in this part is to pick a niche of interest, where you’ll find your skills until you become a sought-after specialist on the subject matter. You could start a blog to help your online presence.

Writing a guest post on authority blogs will help you to gain a tangible readership on your blog, driving traffic via your blog link in your bio. Your online presence, website, online portfolio, and social media pages are other great ways to drive traffic to your new blog.

Write more on topics related to your niche to help your readers focus and drive the right audience to your blog. Publishing your work on different platforms, like Medium or Linkedin, will also help to enlarge your audience cycle.

Check out Linkedin, BloggingPro, Contenna, and ProBlogger for different freelance opportunities that might interest you. You could also make some money selling digital products, writing email content, and video scripts. Just go online and search out areas where these services are needed.

Freelance writing full time or as a side-hustle requires these major building blocks and a good deal of hard work and patience. It’ll pay off, especially in financial rewards, in the long-run.

Writers vary in skill. Some good writers charge high, and some poor writers charge low and vice versa. With competitors, you may want to pitch your price at such a level that you do not chase away your clients, and you do not lose them either.

Setting the Rate for Your Work

The right rate differs from writer to writer. Some freelancers write for ridiculously low prices, and there are those whose charges are very high. The choice is yours. Here is what you need to do to set the right rate for your work.

• Consider your experience: Your level of expertise goes into charging your client. Professional writers do not write for peanuts because it is their work. Unlike other freelancers who are there to take whatever they give them. This consideration may seem like you are swimming against the tide, but it is the right thing to do.
• Consider your area of specialization: Some freelancers are out to serve everyone, but some have specialized areas. If you are part of the latter, it will influence your charges.
• Market rate: While it is good to consider your area of specialization and years of experience, you don’t want to go overboard. You should have an idea of the market rate. For instance, the price for a web news article can fall within 15 to 50 dollars per page, and it would be fair. An e-book can go for 15 to 25 dollars per page. For a magazine article, a price between 600 to 2,000 dollars is okay, and so on.
• The time frame: Usually, there is a reasonable time frame for you to deliver your work. However, some clients will want you to produce their task within a short time. The urgency of the work may make you want to reject it because you will not have ample time to turn in a great job. If your manuscript does not meet your client’s expectations, it will not be suitable for business. If the deadline is tight, you can raise your charges.
• The kind of work: The type of article you are writing will influence the amount you charge for it. A radio commentary may cost higher than a web article. Whether the work is an e-book, a novel, or an ad, goes into determining your price.

To thrive with the competition in the business, you should be professional. Have a fixed price for your work. If you have to vary your rates, it should be necessary and reasonable. Also, you should have a website that details your business.

Before writing, you should take a retainer upfront. If your client requests a re-write, he/she should have paid in full. These tips will help you set the right rates and protect you and your client’s interest. In a nutshell, know your worth and don’t work for less than you deserve.

Anyone can venture into freelancing, especially bloggers, those seeking to quit their 9-5 jobs, and stay-at-home mums. You don’t need a degree or formal training to be a freelancer like most people say.

Working from Home as a Freelancer

Most people would typically sign up on freelance platforms, which I also did, but regretted. Most of them dole out work for ridiculously low amounts, and you might want to avoid that.

I started a writing website, and I’ve worked with high-paying clients over time, after putting in the required motivation, persistence, and working hard. Check out these steps, if this is also your goal:

1. Research

   Research the business from other freelance writers, going through their websites, blogs, and emailing them your questions on grey areas. You could check out freelance websites like The Writer life, FreelancerFAQSs to learn more.

2. Skills And Tools

   You’ll need to hone your skills in certain areas and learn to use specific tools if you must succeed at what you’ve started. You’ll need to learn to organize yourself pretty well since you’ll be your boss.

   You’ll be monitoring your projects, client information and billing, your blog content schedule, and that of your client’s, and the pitches you send out. Developing a writing routine, time for research, and a blog’s outline is necessary to avoid missing any detail.

   Your writing skills are essential as well. You need to pay attention to formatting and keeping online readers captivated. You’ll need to have a catchy headline, introduction, subheadings, bullet points, actionable steps, and good sources to validate your claims.

   You have to be confident, because you’ll face rejections at the beginning and all sorts of behavior from clients, but you must not allow it to stop you. Excellent skills in trading and marketing will help you when pitching.

   Finally, you’ll need tools to manage your tasks. You could use a planner or tracker line Google sheets and Trello for a start. You’ll need to master the use of image editing apps, as some tasks would demand images along with your written content. Grammar editing tools like Grammarly would be necessary to keep your work error-free.

3. Practice

   You’ll get better at what you do overtime, and it’s important to keep doing that. You might need some extra effort if English isn’t your first language, but if you’re fluent at it, you’re good to go.

4. Portfolio

   Your clients will need to see samples of your work, so you need a portfolio. As a fresh starter, you could draft examples, upload them on a drive, or publish on Medium. You could also write as a guest on other blogs, and you could add it as a link in your portfolio.

5. Start Pitching

   You’ll need to put yourself out there to get your first writing job. Check out freelancing job listings on sites like Problogger and pitch yourself in a way that stands out. You’ll need to put yourself out there. You could be a guest blogger or network on your social media pages to reach out to your clients. Keep at what you do, and don’t stop learning.

You can become better at what you do, honing your skills and putting yourself out there. Don’t forget to ask questions from those who are ahead of you when you’re confused.

Narrow Down on the Type of Creative Writing Jobs

As a beginner, you might be tempted to work on anything that comes your way. It is a good way to start making inroads but there’s a risk of not gaining relevant experience in any field. If you have always loved storytelling, it is advisable to narrow down your search for creative writing gigs to someone you like. You can choose from among script writing, story writing, creative blog posts, video script writing, and comic writing among other areas. This helps you to focus your search on relevant jobs and presents a greater chance for success.

Start Pitching for Jobs

There are two ways of pitching for creative writing jobs from home. You can choose to cold pitch whereby you contact anyone you think might have a job to offer. It is an arduous way of looking for creative writing gigs but you might be lucky to find someone who needs your services. Warm pitching, on the other hand, entails nurturing relationships with potential employers over time. If you are an avid reader of an online magazine, for instance, you can contact them and share your story or include your contacts in comment sections.

Share your Work

Creative writing is all about uniquely telling a story. To get started as a creative writer online, you need to share your stories on relevant platforms to build a reputation. If you love poetry, look for poetry platforms and share your pieces and include contacts.

Sharing your work online gives you an opportunity to show what you can do. You can create a blog to share your work and use social media to share every post on social media. Internet readers love interesting content and with time, you will start getting requests for creative writing jobs home.

Stay Consistent

If you want to succeed as a freelance writer, consistency is one of the most important qualities you have to achieve. You have to keep offering interesting content for your readers if you expect to start getting a constant stream of jobs. If you create a blog, keep posting fresh content and when the order starts flowing in, make sure you provide quality work consistently.

Network With Other Writers

To succeed in freelance writing, you have to network with other writers in your niche. Make sure you join forums bringing writers together as this is where you will learn about industry trends, new creative writing jobs entry level among other things. Get contacts of the best writers in your niche and share your work with them. Ask for referrals from other writers and this way you will continue getting new writing orders.

Are you looking for creative writing jobs? Use these tips and make sure you remain aggressive and innovative in your search for writing gigs.

Online Job Boards

As a beginner, you have little choice but to work hard when looking for writing jobs. Online job boards provide a great option for anyone seeking to find their first content writing jobs from home. On these platforms, you will find a variety of freelancing gigs with content writing among the most popular.

While the available gigs on job boards pay lower than on other platforms, it is a good place to start for a beginner as it gives you the opportunity to gain experience and confidence in the industry. Some of the best job boards include Contena, ProBlogger, Freelance Writing Job Board, BloggingPro to mention a few.

Referrals

If you have an interest in content writing jobs for beginners, it is advisable to seek out a few experienced writers in your niche. Many successful bloggers today say they grew their career due to mentorship from experienced writers. In content writing, you can fast-track your growth as a dependable writer by working closely with an experienced writer who can offer referrals to the best available writing gigs.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the only professional social media networks where you can grow a career through networking. Serious clients are looking for professional content writers and this is one place they visit for the best talent. If you create a good profile and share links to some of your previous works, it is possible to start getting content writing jobs in Kolkata directly from website owners. It doesn’t matter whether you have experience in the industry as many website owners want to work with people who possess technical skills to in their line of work.

Writing Services

When beginning out as a freelance writer, it is advisable to learn the ropes from more experienced content writers. The best place to find such teams is WritingJobz. Such websites are in constant search for highly motivated writers and they offer content writing jobs for freshers. You will get writing gigs based on your experience and with time, it will become easier to choose what type of content to work on.

Facebook and Other Social Media Networks

Social media today is not only about family and friends networking but also for building business relationships. Businesses now know that social media platforms offer the best source of skills. With billions of people now on social media, it is easy to get the word out about your skills and land the best content writing gigs in your niche. There are Facebook groups for freelancers but you can also try other social media networks such as Reddit, Google + among others to find the latest content writing gigs.

Other good places to search for content writing jobs remote include Craigslist and website design companies. Remember you have to remain proactive in your search for writing gigs by aggressively pitching for content writing gigs.