If research and writing are things you enjoy, freelance writing can be a great way to make some extra money or even earn a full-time income. 

While some clients may require that you have extensive experience as a content writer, others may be willing to consider writers with far less writing experience. Not that you are ever going to tell a client that you are inexperienced. 

In this post, I will give you some sound tips on how to become a freelance writer, even if you have no experience. And by the time you have read through this article, you will know how to position yourself as an expert freelance writer (without lying). 

Before we dive in, let’s quickly discuss what freelance writing is.

What is Freelance Writing?

Freelance writing is a writing service where you work for yourself rather than for a company or publication. You sell your services to individuals or companies, which provides a level of freedom that you would not have if you were employed full-time. 

You are free to work as much or as little as you want and to choose your clients and projects. It also allows you the flexibility of working from anywhere and setting your own work hours. 

As a new freelance writer, you could be asked to write articles, blog posts, web copy, or even books. If the idea of some of these tasks seems a little overwhelming right now, remember that you only need to take on the type of jobs you prefer. 

So, if you are only comfortable writing blog posts for instance, then only offer this service.

How to Get Started as a Freelance Writer?

When it comes to freelancing as a writer, there are several things that will help you to be successful. I am going to cover what I believe to be the most important tips that will help to ensure your success as you embark on your freelance writing adventure.

1. Explore the Freelance Writing Industry

Before starting your freelance writing career, it is important to understand how the industry works and what you can expect as a freelance writer. 

There are a number of ways to learn about the freelance writing industry. You can read articles and blog posts, listen to podcasts, or join relevant online communities.

Podcast.apple.com is a great place to discover some really helpful podcasts for freelance writers.

2. Join Freelance Marketplaces

One of the easiest ways to find clients as a beginner freelance writer is to join freelance marketplaces. These are websites or online platforms that connect freelancers with clients who need their services. 

Joining these marketplaces will give you access to a wide range of clients looking for writers just like you. It will also help you to build your credibility as a freelance writer.

Most freelance marketplaces have a rating system that allows clients to rate the quality of the work of the freelancers they have worked with. This system is beneficial to both the client and the freelancer. 

For the client, it allows them to quickly and easily identify top-quality writers from the rest. For the freelancer, it allows you to showcase your attractive portfolio of writing and build up those 5-star ratings we spoke about earlier.

Here are 3 of the most popular freelance marketplaces that you can join for free today:

Fiverr

Fiverr.com is by far the best freelance marketplace for beginners because it is a non-traditional marketplace. A non-traditional marketplace means no bidding wars, and you can easily get work by offering your freelance services on Fiverr at a fixed price. 

Freelancer

Freelancer.com is another popular freelance marketplace that has been around for a long time. It is similar to Fiverr, but the only difference is that it follows a traditional marketplace model where you have to bid for projects and compete with other writers to get work.

Upwork

Upwork is a freelancing platform for the more experienced writer where you can land high-paying freelance writing jobs. Here, even a single client can turn into big paydays and regular, ongoing work.

There are a good number of other freelance marketplaces, including Guru.com, PeoplePerHour.com, and iWriter.com, to name a few. it is worth looking into a few of these and then choosing the 1 or 2 marketplaces that you believe will work best for you.

3. Do Some Pro-Bono Writing

The most difficult time to convince someone to choose your services is when you have no evidence of past work or satisfied clients to convince them that you are the right person for the job. At this point, you are going to need to invest in your business by doing some writing work for free or at a very low fee. Think of it as your initial marketing costs.

Now what is super important is that you treat each of these free freelance writing jobs in the same way you would treat a high-paying client. Put your best work forward. 

The reason for this is simple. Each one of these pieces that you write needs to wow your clients so that they will give you a 5-star rating. This will help to jumpstart your credibility as a writer. 

4. Build An Attractive Portfolio

Your portfolio is in essence a collection of your best writing samples that you can show to your potential clients. Along with 5-star ratings, it is one of the most important assets you can build when starting your freelance writing business.

So, you are then going to take all those masterpieces that you have written pro-bono and add them to your portfolio so that you can use them to help convert prospects into clients. 

Don’t underestimate your portfolio. As a beginner freelance writer, it can give you a much-needed headstart. It serves to demonstrate the quality of your work to your prospective client and establish in your prospect’s mind that you are an experienced writer.

5. Establish Great Communication Skills

Freelancing is all about communication. You will need to be able to communicate effectively with your clients to understand their needs and deliver the results they are looking for. 

Delivering great results leads to satisfied clients who are likely to order your services again. So, it goes without saying that good communication skills are essential for the longevity of any freelancer.

6. Use Proper Grammar and Spelling in Communication

If you were offering a service other than writing, clients may ignore poor spelling or grammar in your communication. However, as a writer, you are expected to be proficient in the language you are writing in and most clients will notice the smallest grammatical error you make in your communication. 

Your language skills can either go a far way in establishing credibility with your prospective client or, if poor, in losing the client. 

7. Start Writing in Different Niches

Some freelance writing ‘gurus’ will say that you need to focus on a single freelance writing niche to be successful. It is true that focusing on a specific niche will help you to become an expert in that niche. 

However, in my opinion, there is a benefit in exploring different niches. It will not only help you broaden your writing skills, but it will also increase your scope to earn through taking on diverse writing opportunities. 

As you do this, you will discover which niche or niches you are most comfortable writing for and you can then focus on these niches if you choose.

How to be a Successful Freelance Writer?

Now that you know how to get started as a freelance writer let’s look at how to become a successful freelance writer.

1. Find your Target Clients

When you start as a freelance writer, you will likely need to take on any client wanting your services so that you can build your credibility and earn some money. 

However, as time goes on you are going to discover that there are certain niches or styles of writing that suit you better than others. You will also find that there are certain types of clients that you prefer working with over others. These are your ideal freelance writing clients that you will want to target. 

Find out where your target clients are hanging out, and start engaging with them. If you can build good relationships with your target clients, they will be more likely to hire you over other writers when they need a freelance writer. 

So how do you go about doing this? There are a number of ways:

• On Freelance Marketplaces.
• Social Media – LinkedIn is a great platform to find freelance writing clients, build credibility, and connect with target clients.
• Attend industry events where your target clients are likely to be present. 
• Connect with businesses in your target niche. Many businesses need regular, fresh content for their websites or blogs.
• Get involved in online communities related to your niche. Share your expert knowledge and connect with potential clients.
• Guest Posting – Write informative guest posts on blogs that your target audience is likely to frequent. Only write on blogs that will include your Author Bio.

2. Get Ongoing Testimonials and Reviews

I touched on this a little earlier. Don’t be shy to ask your clients for testimonials and reviews. These are extremely important, especially when you have only been in the game for a short time. In fact, no matter how long you have been a freelance writer, past and recent reviews remain vital to your success.  

When you have positive testimonials and reviews from happy clients, it’s much easier to close new clients. 

These reviews demonstrate that other satisfied clients see you as a credible writer who delivers quality work. After all, clients only give positive feedback and recommendations if they get quality work. 

So, make sure you are providing quality work to your clients and stack up those 5-star reviews.

3. Make a Habit of Reading

I am sure you have heard the saying, “If you want to be a writer, you need to read.” It is true. To become a successful freelance writer, you need to make a habit of reading.

Reading will not only improve your writing, but it will also help you understand the different styles of writing and forms of communication. It’s also a great way to learn about the various topics you may be asked to write about.

4. Master your Niche

When you are in the initial stages of your freelance writing career, you will want to experiment with different niches and styles of writing. But, once you have found your niche or niches you want to focus on, it is important to master them. You should focus on writing in that particular niche/s, and become an expert in it. 

Becoming an expert in a niche will help you stand out from the other freelance writers, which could lead to attracting better-paying clients. It also offers the added benefit of speeding up your writing on related topics because of your knowledge and understanding of that niche. 

Writing faster means you can take on more freelance writing jobs and make more money or have more free time to do other things.

5. Hone your Writing Skills

It doesn’t matter what field you are in, if you want to stand out above the rest, you need to continually hone your skills. Writing is no different. 

The worst injustice you can commit against yourself is to believe that you know everything about writing and become complacent in your skill development. Never forget that there are other writers out there competing for your clients. A handful of these writers are working hard at their writing skills. Don’t let them outshine you.

Also, some clients are willing to pay a premium for writers that can produce content that meets their high standards. This is why you find one writer charging $15 for a 1,000-word article while another charges $800 for an 800-word article in the same marketplace. And the more expensive writer does not lose sales to the cheaper writer because they can produce superior work.

6. Use Writing Tools

Grammarly

Grammarly is a must-have tool for every freelance writer. It helps you to find and correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. After writing your content, you can run it through Grammarly to check for errors and then make the necessary corrections. 

This tool has a free version which may be all you need to get started. It is available as a browser extension and also has a desktop app, allowing you to use it in your preferred writing applications. 

Keep in mind that it is an AI tool and while it will help you to find overlooked errors, its suggestions should never override your understanding of the language and ‘voice’ that you are writing in. Many beginners make the mistake of blindly implementing the suggestions given by Grammarly and end up making more mistakes.

Hemmingway Editor

Here is another great tool for freelance writers. It is similar to Grammarly but has some unique features. Hemingway Editor highlights adverbs, passive voice, and complex phrases. It is common for beginner writers to create a wall of text with complex sentences and Hemmingway’s interface helps you visually identify this. 

Using Hemingway Editor, you can make your writing more concise and readable. You can either use Hemmingway for free online or purchase the desktop app.  

Google Docs

When I first started publishing articles, I used MS Word. There is nothing wrong with MS Word. I believe both MS Word and Google Docs have their place, but I find Google Docs to be a better alternative for freelance writers for these 4 reasons:

• It offers real-time collaboration
• It is easy to share documents with clients
• Articles keep their format when copying from Google Docs into a WordPress site, saving time.
• You can access it from any device

As a bonus, Google Docs is free.

Copyscape Premium

Few things can hurt your reputation as quickly as giving your client your finished article only for them to discover that part of it was plagiarized. 

Even though you may be writing an original article, never assume that all the content will be original. You want to check that all your work is free from plagiarism by running it through a plagiarism checker.

Copyscape is an effective plagiarism checker that is trusted by many writers and clients alike. As a writer, you will want to use the premium version. It is not free, but at a cost of 3c (US) for the first 200 words and 1c (US) per additional 100 words thereafter, it is a small investment to ensure that your content is original.

7. Focus on Personal Branding

As a freelance writer, you want to be known for your skills, the quality of your work, and your ability to get the job done right – on time and within budget. However, to achieve this level of notoriety and success, you need to focus on personal branding.

Personal branding is the process of creating a unique identity for yourself as a writer. It involves developing a strong online presence, being active on social media, and cultivating relationships with other writers and editors. 

When you focus on personal branding, you send out the message that you are an expert in your field and that clients can trust you to deliver high-quality work.

By establishing yourself as an authority in your niche, you will be able to command higher rates for your services and attract your ideal clients. In addition, personal branding allows you to build a loyal following of ‘fans’ who will recommend your services to others. 

5 Popular Types of Freelance Writing?

Freelance writing is not just about writing articles or blog posts. There are different types of freelance writing, and you can choose the one that best suits your skills and interest. Here are some of the more popular types of freelance writing:

1. Articles

If you are a good researcher and have strong writing skills, then writing articles may be the perfect type of freelance writing for you. Articles can be anywhere from 500 to 5,000 words and are usually written for magazines or websites. 

Articles require in-depth research and often include interviews with experts. As a result, they tend to be more time-consuming and therefore may pay more than other types of writing.

2. Blog Posts

Blog posts are shorter than articles, typically ranging from 800 to 2,000 words, but can be a good bit longer, depending on the type of post. They are written for blogs, and as such, they tend to be more informal in tone. 

While blog posts do require some research, they are not as in-depth as articles and usually do not include interviews. 

3. Website Content

If you have experience writing for the web, then you may want to focus on writing website content. Web content, or website copy as it is often referred to, can include informational content, product descriptions, or anything else relevant to the website you are writing for. 

Web copy is generally shorter than other types of writing, but this does not mean that it will take a short amount of time to write. You may need to spend a good bit of time with the company to clearly understand how to best convey their ‘message’ in their voice. The upside is that you can charge a good bit more for this type of content than you could charge for a blog post, for example.

To write web content, you need to understand both SEO and the target audience. Depending on the project, you may also be asked to include graphics or other multimedia elements. 

4. eBooks

If you have extensive knowledge of a particular topic and have an appetite to write a large amount of content for a handsome fee, you could consider ghostwriting eBooks. eBooks are usually between 10,000 and 50,000 words and are typically sold on platforms like Amazon, included in training courses, or given away as lead magnets. Many people and companies outsource the writing of ebooks to freelance writers.

To write an eBook, you need to be able to plan and structure your book, as well as do the necessary research. In addition, you’ll need to have excellent writing skills, an understanding of the optimal flow of content, and ensure that your work is proofread and edited.

5. Copywriting

Copywriting is the art of writing persuasive, compelling copy that sells. As a freelance copywriter, you would write sales letters, web copy, email campaigns, and more. 

To be a successful copywriter, you need to understand both the product or service that is being sold and the target market. In addition, you need to be able to write clearly, concisely, and persuasively. 

Final Words

There you have it, my detailed guide on how to become a freelance writer with no experience. Follow the tips given in this guide, and you will start your freelance writing business the right way and with the right mindset. 

Getting started is always tough, but know that you are not alone. Many successful freelance writers also started their freelance writing services with no writing experience. If they could succeed, so can you. You just need to start and keep going.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much can freelance writers make?

While there is no definitive answer to this question, freelance writers can potentially earn a good amount of money. If you put in the time and effort, you can earn a full-time income as a freelance writer.

The amount that a writer can make will depend on a variety of factors, including the type of writing they do, their experience level, and the market they are writing for.

How hard is it to be a freelance writer?

The hardest part about being a freelance writer is getting started. It is tough to build a client base when you don’t have any samples or previous work to show potential clients. 

However, once you get a few clients, it is easier to get more work because you will have created a portfolio of work done and some 5-star ratings.

Even then, it can be hard to find consistent work as a freelance writer. The key is to maintain good relationships with your clients and consistently deliver high-quality work, on time. Start building your personal brand as early as possible to attract your target clients.

Why do freelance writers fail?

Most freelance writers fail because they don’t have a solid plan in place. They don’t set goals, they don’t market themselves, and they don’t have a system in place for getting paid. Without a plan, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and give up.

Another reason is inconsistency. Many freelance writers start off strong but then fizzle out after a few months. Freelance writing is a business, and like any business, it takes time to build up a client base and start seeing consistent income. You need to consistently put in the work, to be successful as a freelancer.