Online Writing Tips: When Am I Going To Be An Online Freelance Writer?

So you want to become an online freelance writer. You are reasonably good at writing and you wonder just how hard it can be to get a break into that world. Take it from me – very hard initially. I know a few lucky ones who’ve strolled into the virtual world and landed plum assignments without trying too hard. By and large, though, most people who want to make a break into this world find it extremely frustrating and very often just give up. Here are a few tips to make the going easier. Becoming an online writer is easier if you know how – and it can be infinitely satisfying. 

First, you need to gear up and here are a few things you need as part of that gear: 

-  Persistence

-  The ability to write if not very well, at least correctly

-  A thick hide

-  A sense of humour

-  A great work ethic

-  More persistence, with large dollops of patience

The first step is always tough. You might, at this point of time, be tempted to take the easy way out and fall a prey to scamsters selling you e-books that promise to make you a writer and find you jobs overnight. It doesn’t work. Just keep trying and you’ll get there. There is such a place as a freelance writing paradise – it just takes a pretty long walk to get to it. Once you get there however, you’ll have a blast.

Freelance Writing And Persistence

You’ll need to keep applying for those jobs. Don’t let anything get you down – not those reject messages, even worse, no messages. That silence can be killing but you have to move on if you want to make it. Keep your nose to your keyboard and keep posting those bids. One day, sooner or later – pray sooner than later – some kind soul who’s also a client (no, they’re not a mutually exclusive species) will give you a break. Hold onto that slender thread of hope and climb your way to a freelance writing paradise – it’s there all right, much as you might think otherwise sometimes.

Freelance Writing And Writing Ability

If you can’t write, don’t. You’ll be doing yourself and everyone else a favour. Seriously, if you don’t know the difference between ‘its’ and ‘it’s’ or ‘there’ and ‘their’, go write a blog and express yourself. It would be unfair to write for a client and expect him to pay. (That is not to say your blog won’t make you rich and famous – if you have something to say that people want to hear about, never mind what your grasp of the language is, they’ll come and read. Look at many of those technical blogs out there – they could maybe get someone to proofread and edit them but the fact remains that they have a hold on those virtual eyeballs.)

However, if you are going to get paid for your writing, make sure you can write. At least passably. No one’s looking for an Ernest Hemingway on the Internet - but you have to realise that bad writing can distract a reader from the actual content that needs to be communicated.

Freelance Writing And A Sample Kit

Pack up all those samples in your virtual sample kit bag and you’re all ready to go. You will need 3 to 5 samples – you do not need to include more – clients usually don’t have time to read. The ideal thing to do would be to write five samples - these could deal with a varied lot of topics – then take each first paragraph or maybe two paragraphs and put them together. What the client would like from your samples is to get a feel of your writing style. If you want to put your samples up online, go to HubPages and put them up. They have user-friendly tools and you’ll find it’s so easy to set up. Or search the Internet for any other sites that allow you to put a free website up. Then all you have to do is to add a URL to that site so the client can go take a look.

Freelance Writing And Scamsters

Do not allow yourself to be taken for a ride by scamsters. They do abound – even on the writing sites. They advertise and ask for bidders to do a test sample. Say they get 25 bids on the project they have posted. Five are rather bad so they are left with 20. They ask each bidder to do two samples, making sure they give all of them different topics. At the end of the day, they’ve gotten away with 40 well written articles while you’re left wondering where on earth the client has disappeared to!

And where is he? Gone to set up his website that deals with the latest ‘hot’ keyword with his spanking new articles. These scamsters rarely do it to the regular writers knowing full well that you can find out where they have been posted up – what they do is pick on the newbies. So if he asks you for a sample, don’t do it. Give him the URL to your free site and ask him to judge you by that.

Don’t fall for those ‘How to learn to write in a day/week/month’ e-books either. You’re much better off trusting your own instincts – and there are so many free online articles that talk about how to get there – so don’t waste your money. All you will be doing if you pay those smooth-tongued advertisers is have them laugh all the way to the bank while you wait for those dream clients to materialise – and wait… and wait…..

Freelance Writing And Being Too Sensitive

Or, the need to have a thick hide if you are thinking of getting into this business. I’ll club those together as they are really two sides of the same coin in this game. They are also absolute essentials in your freelance finding crusade. Don’t get disheartened – so many others have walked down that same path and they are doing so well today! Don’t let just a handful of crazy clients spoil your day. Don’t let snooty established online writers frighten you away either – there’s place for everyone who can write in this ever-expanding world of cyber opportunity.

Learn to laugh – at the things that happen out there on the internet and at yourself. Do that and you’ll survive – and well at that. The road to freelance writing can be tough but it always feels better if you walk along it with a smile and maybe even a chuckle or two. Just savour the thought that once you break into those hallowed ranks, you’ll have so much work, you’ll be saying No to people. Go join a few writing forums ad you’ll find that it helps to vent a bit about clients and low paid jobs – or maybe even the fact that you aren’t getting any. People are so helpful and I’ve had 19 and 20 year olds guide me to all the right places where you can find a lot of work. They still pop by to see how I’m doing – in return, I offer to proofread and edit their web sites for them – it’s the least I can do for these sweet young kids.

Freelance Writing And A Great Work Ethic

This is an absolute must. When you make a commitment, a week’s deadline is just that – a week. Better still, 6 days. Not 10 days, two weeks, maybe never? If you don’t honour deadlines, you are going to be leaving a lot of disgruntled clients in your wake – and that means so many fewer job opportunities. When clients feel they can trust you to be responsible, they will always come back.

Make sure you check your copy well before you send it off. Keep your Spell Checker on and run through it twice after putting your ‘Zoom into Page’ at 150%. That way, the errors will jump off the page. Then put your work through a plagiarism checker. There is a free one I use: DupliChecker. It has its limitations - you’ll have to put 300 words or thereabouts in at a time – it can’t take more – but, hey! It’s free! Of course, the ideal thing to do when you have started writing and making a few bucks is to go join up for the paid service of Copyscape.

Freelance Writing And Even More Persistence

I said it before, I’ll say it again – like Bruce, you try, try, try again and you’ll get there. Add a bit of patience to that and you’ll get there in a better frame of mind. And don’t forget to stir in a bit of that sense of humour to make the journey there much more pleasant.

Here are a few sites you can begin with.

Guru

Elance

Scriptlance

Freelancer

There are many more out there but these are great for making that first break. Start off with low bids – you need to build up that all-important feedback. Once a few clients are happy with your work and they post up feedback about you, you’re in. Then it’s up to you and what you can do to get to the next level. Being a big fish in a small pond is not a bad way to rise above the heap. There’s more about freelance sites in a later hub.

Freelance Writing And Remuneration

$1000 a month? An easy target in a couple of months after you make that break. With luck, it could be three times that amount. Much, much more for the great writers. With time and effort, the money will come. The thing is to go get a handful of clients who pay well and who you are comfortable with. Then stay loyal to them. Until of course, something really big that you just can’t say No to comes along. Even then, stay in touch with your clients. Find them another writer online if you have to move on. Trust me, they’ll never forget. And never mind what people might say about the impersonal nature of the Internet, about how it is an emotionless, faceless world bereft of a lot of the decency we grew up with, I beg to differ. There are wonderful people out there too – just like in real life. There are some fabulous clients out there – you just need to look, find them and then stick with them. You need to make sure you have clients who treat you right – and you need to reciprocate as well.