Do you wonder how to make it as a freelance writer? I’ve been a professional freelance writer for many years now. I’ve worked 50 hour weeks and 50 hour months. These ebbs and flows are the result of client budgets, not ability. It’s the kind of flux that is often super rewarding or downright challenging. Resilience, in other words, is a freelancer’s middle name.
5 Tips for Freelance Writers
To navigate the world of a freelancer writer, there are five things I find crucial. Here goes. Bullets first for the skimmers.
- Create a Productive Workspace
- Manage Your Time
- Be Receptive to Feedback
- Research and Develop
- Have a Bottom Line
Create a Productive Workspace
If you work from home as a freelance writer, you’ll need a productive workspace. Clean and de-cluttered works for me. You show up at work and get right down to it. After all, if you don’t meet or come in ahead of deadlines, good luck getting a recommendation on LinkedIn.
Wise Freelance Writers Manage Time
The wise freelancer uses gaps in contracts. I’ve used mine to prepare invoices, re-write my resume, develop new business, blog and write forward.
Writing forward is about getting ahead. Yes you need a day off. But, writing for next month when you have time puts you in the position where you can accept new projects.
Blogging is obvious. You need to craft a writer identity. It can be different from what you write for others. In fact, many writers get their feet wet with a blog-on-the-side. I did. As a yoga therapist, I wrote about what I knew, then others asked me to write for them. Some initial gigs were free. Others paid.
Also, a blog is useful to drive traffic back to you (SEO 101). It also provides content for your social media feeds.
Be Receptive to Feedback
As freelancer writers, we work both for ourselves and for clients. Working for clients you may or may not get feedback on your submissions. Feedback is your metric, so if you don’t receive it, ask for it. The purpose isn’t to make you feel like the best writer in the whole world. It is to help you achieve optimal performance.
Research and Develop
Many freelancers stress the need to create a niche. Others speak of diversification. My feeling is that freelancer writers have to be in research and development mode. Maybe you are flipping a finance career into writing about finance. You’ll need to follow up on compliance, credible sources etc.
In my own case, my liberal arts background has fueled a strong interest in research. I’m also curious, inquisitive and love to learn. And I’m versatile. I can write for many industries. From education to yoga, mortgages, home decor – pretty much anything. Why?
I like to learn. Learning is vital to digital writers because search is changing. Searchers type and talk. Whatever you write about, just make sure you put in some legwork.
As the programming behind voice search gets more refined — in 2012 the word error rate was over 20%, but now it’s as low as 8% — it’s getting much better at picking up our speech quirks. This means that marketers interested in voice search SEO will need to reflect this in their strategies.
Forbes
I also follow up on any platforms and tools that I read about. I may not use them now, but it helps me to develop insights. To have conversations with others that might lead to new business. This means I can pitch to a wide variety of potential clients.
Have a Bottom Line
As a freelancer, I work to help clients achieve their bottom line. This could be higher conversion, social engagement etc. At the same time, I have a bottom line.
For instance, I will not write other peoples’ term papers. I mistakenly signed up with VIP Writers thinking it was all about high quality writing. In fact, it is a platform where professional writers (or students) write (Master’s) theses and so on. Not for me. You need to decide where you draw the line. This also goes for your wages.
How much do freelance writers make per year? Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual wage for writers and authors was $61,820 in May 2017.
Yet, there is no clear cut answer to how much freelancer writers make per year. Some writers invoice at a flat rate, or per hour. A platform such as Upwork allows you to submit proposals with either terms. It does take a certain experience to calibrate how many hours each project needs.
Other freelancers bill per monthly retainer for frequent work and may thus extend a volume-based discount. If you are doing any social media, or routine blogging, subscriptions (rolling retainers) are the way to go. Great article by Stanford Business on why subscription services are taking over.
Some jobs pay per word but I am not sure this is favorable to writers. Fluff is out and usable is in, so using fewer words to sell a message is a skill that should pay higher (my view).
How Do I Get Started as a Freelance Writer?
Many freelance writers (I am one) started writing on the side for the pleasure. Do what you love, love what you do – right?
But enthusiasm aside, you need to treat yourself as a business. So get out there and be fiercely professional, creative and curious.
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