How To Become A Freelancer Writer With No Experience

How to become a freelance writer with no experience

Most people believe that starting a freelance writing career implies that you need to have some experience as a writer. But that’s not true, there are thousands of well-experienced freelance writers who had no experience when they got started but today they are earning a living off writing. You will learn as you develop into the profession, however, we will share with you how to become a freelance writer with absolutely no experience.

Another misconception is that you need to be passionate about writing before you can exercise it as a profession. Passion does count and is necessary but there are others who were not so passionate about the profession, rather they adopted the mentality of a reporter or journalist, and today they are popular writers. What we are trying to tell you here is that you don’t need any experience to get started as a writer. 

How To Become A Freelance Writer With No Experience

Set Your Priorities 

As a freelance writer, there are many directions you can go and many angles to tackle, that’s why you need to set your priorities. The best way to go about it is to determine what your writing style will be. Do you want to be a content writer for websites/blogs, do you want to write press releases or poems, or do you want to be writing books and novels?

Do a lot of research on the various styles of writing and choose the one that you are most comfortable with. 

The next thing you want to do is to set a goal for yourself. Goal setting is very important especially when you are starting out as a freelancer. How much do you want to be earning, let’s say in the next 3 to 6 months? For example, if you decide you want to earn $5000/month, ask yourself how many projects you will need to take, and how much will you charge per project. Goal setting is very important because it will keep you focused and get you going when the going seems tough.

Goal Setting

So make sure that you have a clear income goal with a deadline before you get started.

Click Here To Land Your First Freelance Writing Job

Take A Training 

Some freelance starters just jump into the market without training themselves but that’s not the good way to go about it. Consider a child going to school for about 10 to 20 years just to master a profession. And here you want to start a career path that could literally change your life yet you don’t want to invest in the training. To be a professional you’ve got to learn the skills. 

We highly recommend you take up a course on Fiverr.com and learn how to be a professional writer. Click here to sign up for Fiverr.com and get some bonuses on courses.

Apply for Online Writing Jobs and Find a Writing Agency

This step is usually the hardest because you don’t have any experience. For beginners with no experience, we highly recommend that you Click Here to sign up for paid online writing jobs. They will facilitate the job-seeking process for you. Remember that freelance writing is very competitive, and joining a program that presents you with online writing jobs is better than having to set up a profile on various freelancer sites and waiting for your first client.

Get Paid To Do Simple Writing Jobs Online

Most of these sites require that you have a portfolio before you can land any job. And at this stage, we assume you don’t have any experience. So the best thing is to find a writing agency, who will facilitate the job-seeking process for you.

Click Here to Sign Up for Paid Online Writing Jobs.

Create A Portfolio

Most people will tell you to create a portfolio first but we don’t recommend you do that first when you’ve got no experience. After landing a few jobs on paid online writing jobs, and getting some customer reviews, you can now create a good portfolio to market and expand your business.

If you want to create a good portfolio consider buying a domain name and starting up a website. We advise you to host your website on Bluehost.com you can sign up using our affiliate link here and get a reduction on the price, together with a free domain name. 

It is important to have a website or a blog because it increases your visibility and enables potential clients to contact you.

After setting up your website, choose your best writing samples to portray on your website, together with some customer reviews. 

Join A Writing Community

Consider joining a writing community where you can publish your work and showcase your talent. Join Writing.com and publish your writing samples. This is a forum, where you can learn and get experience from other members.

Online writing jobs

Another forum you should join is Writer Digest Community. Create a profile, interact with members, take part, and get inspired by other writers.

Start Writing For An Online Audience

Given that you have a blog and website, there are no limits to what you can publish and write on your blog. The next thing that you should know is that writing for an online audience implies using another approach. Make sure you visit web content websites and see how they write. An example of a content website is parinonline.com.

Click here to read one of our articles on how to start affiliate marketing. This will enable you to see the structure that we use when writing for an online audience.

Another thing you can do is to apply for affiliate programs and promote products related to your niche. This is very important because it will enable you to earn through your blog. 

Moreover, you can publish articles, poems, and stories on content websites. Though they pay little because there are thousands of writers who publish hundreds of articles on these sites. However, it is still a good way to go about it and you will earn some money and gain credibility in the online writing space. This will also improve your portfolio.

Ghostwriting

At this stage we assume that you have set up your portfolio, you’ve gotten some writing jobs and you are making some money off writing. The next thing you should consider is ghostwriting. Here, you get paid for writing for someone. You could write a web article for someone and get paid for that. The only difference is that some will not acknowledge your work and claim it as theirs. The advantage of ghostwriting is that the pay rate is very high.

Consider joining sites like Fiverr.com and applying to be a ghostwriter. You could also search for private clients on different social media platforms and suggest to be their ghostwriters.

Online writing jobs

Write for Free

I am sure you are probably telling yourself that you cannot write for free. Fair enough. Probably you are already writing for free, consider your blog articles. There are many advantages that you get when you write for free. Long-term advantages. First, it enables you to better market yourself and your services, secondly you will gain a lot of readers because they will identify with your writing style, and thirdly you will make more money in the future. The next thing that you should do is to publish articles for free on sites like EzineArticles.

The advantage of publishing on these sites is that people will read your articles and some will contact you if they like your work. The other advantage of writing for free is that people love what is free and with time you will gradually attract new clients.

Market Your Business

At this stage, we assume you have gained some experience as a freelance writer. The next step is your marketing strategy because this is what will attract new customers and keep old ones. You could use flyers, postcards, and social media sites to advertise your writing services. 

When advertising, make sure that you portray your website URL. To enable potential customers to go to your website, and see the various services you offer.

social media marketing

Consider creating a page or profile on various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Connect with other people in various groups and market your services.

Don’t forget communities like Quora. Because you could get some potential clients on these websites. Build a profile and answer questions related to the freelance writing niche.

Diversify Your Income

At this stage, diversify your income source. You can do this by managing a website or a blog, or even starting a YouTube channel.

Many freelance writers own blogs and websites and some even start their YouTube channels to help other freelance writers. As mentioned above you don’t have to be an expert in anything before getting started. Just do your research and resolve to put up quality and relevant content. And with time your audience will grow and you will start making money off your blog, website, or YouTube channel.

Practice, Patience, and Perseverance

You want to be patient when starting as a freelance writer. Understand that every professional writer started off like you, with no skills, no experience but today they are leading the industry. Take your time to learn, develop and grow in the profession. The beginning might be tough but if you implement all the steps outlined here, you will become a professional freelance writer and there will be no limit to the amount of money that you would earn as a freelance writer.

Final Thoughts

Freelance writing is a career path that has its own ups and downs. Most freelancers who have succeeded in this profession have had their own fair share of trials before they could reap the benefits. My humble advice is to start writing on topics that fascinate you, read many books, visit libraries, and read online journals. This will enable you to expand your knowledge and develop new ideas to write on. 

Click Here To Land Your First Freelance Writing Job

Leave your comments below and share your journey as a freelance writer, if you need further guidance comment below and we will happily assist you.

Have a loveely day

To Your Success!

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