5 Ways to Get Your Freelance Writing Career Moving

What makes a person a writer? Twenty years ago writing was a bit of a niche profession. Publishing came with a very specific set of rules involving an agent, an editor, and usually a lot of paid postage. In many ways writers today are lucky. I remember listening to an interview with Anne Rice one afternoon in my car. She said, â€Å"If you take the time to write something chances are there’s someone out there that will want to read it.† I may be paraphrasing a little bit, but I think that it’s true of today’s culture. We’ve become a society of voracious readers. New websites are created every day, and every day there are business owners scouring writer’s boards, hungry for new content. For freelancers with a little training, the opportunities are limitless. That’s the upside, now for the downside. â€Å"If you take the time to write something chances are there’s someone out there that will want to read it.† Anne Rice Freelancing takes guts, you have to put yourself out there week after week, asking strangers to judge who you are and what you have created. It’s trying, to say the least. Here at FreelanceWithUs we are trying to make the process a little more inviting, and dare I say fun? Below I’ve laid out a few a few of the steps I’ve taken that have made my life a little easier- a top five that helped me to get out of my own head and move forward. I hope one or two of them can help you too. 1. Find Your Niche It may be simplistic, but I guarantee that knowing your own strengths here will save you a lot of headaches. If you are struggling to find an audience or are facing some self-doubt, having a topic that you feel qualified to write about can be the one thing that pushes you to send out your next query. Fear of rejection can cripple a writer and learning to cope with rejection is a part of freelancing. 2. Be Patient Its important to understand that you are dealing with busy people. You may have sent out your best proposal, you may have found the perfect gig. This doesn’t mean that you will walk away with the contract. Editors for popular websites can see several hundred proposals for a single job. Put yourself in their shoes for a minute. What would catch your eye? Most content editors will welcome the chance to make their own lives easier, show them how you can do that. Pay attention to what the posting is asking for and be sure that you’ve explained how you and only you can provide it. 3. Get Busy Send out 2 proposals a day until you get hired. I found UpWork to be a great resource here. While you will pay an agency fee of 10-20% (see more on our Upwork Fees post), you may find, like I did, that the legwork it saves you in connecting with employers is worthwhile, at least until you’ve built up a portfolio. Upwork also gives you the security of an escrow account. For those new to freelancing, we hope you never experience the angst of having an employer pay you late or worse, not pay you at all. Upwork eliminates this risk so you can focus on your work. 4. Find a Community While the competition in this industry can be fierce, the camaraderie and can be too. There are associations for writers that not only offer support, they offer tools. Take a look around these sites and find a community of writers that you can connect with. Here at FreelanceWithUs  our writers strive to provide freelancers with more than just content; we aim to offer a safe place to share your experiences. We invite you to take a few minutes and ask us some questions or tell us what else you would like to learn about. 5. Invest in your Business One of the best things that I did for myself was buying a few how-to programs for freelance writers. I discovered some great tools and learned how to pitch more effectively. What would have taken me weeks to research on my own had been laid out by industry veterans. In fact, the SEO advice in PJ Aitkens  book, â€Å"The Online Writer’s Companion† helped me land my first gig! Remember that while breaking into the freelance writing industry can take time, people just like us are doing it every day. The best advice I’ve ever received came from another freelancer who had just landed a great blogging job. She said, â€Å"There are no professionals and non-professionals anymore, there are just the people that do it and the people that don’t.†