Don’t Read This, And You Won’t Be A Successful Online Freelance Writer
You love to express yourself by crafting sentences and paragraphs that tickle the mind or poke through human emotions. Because of this, you tap into publishing businesses that are available nearby so you can publish your writings and let them out into the world for people to behold and read.
But it’s easier said than done. Most aspiring writers are rejected by the villains that own those massive publishing companies. You find out that getting your name etched as an established author is actually a difficult thing to achieve.
What you’ll learn here:
- Effective steps for online writing success
- Most popular online writing jobs
- Skills to learn in becoming a good writer
- Marketing your writing skills to earn money
Thanks to the digitization that the printing industry has adapted into itself, anybody can now be his or her own new kind of writer or even publisher. You can just write and have your unique brand of notoriety, armed with nothing but a computer and a few typing skills.
If you have a deep passion for being a wordsmith, specifically in being one who provides people with something to read from online publications, you should absorb the following steps and put them into action.
Effective Steps to Online Writing Success
Let’s simplify the steps that you should take into just 4 undertakings.
1. Acknowledging the benefits of being a freelance writer
you might want to consider being an online writer and enjoy the following benefits:
You can have total freedom.
You work when you want to, where you want to… nothing ever beats this. Unlike working in an office, or working in an online job where you need to follow a certain schedule, being a writer gives you the freedom to work at your own pace, and at the time of your greatest convenience.
Professional writers are very much aware of this common recurring problem called “writer’s block.” If you don’t know what it is, it’s actually that strange moment when no stream of ideas flows from your head — you don’t know what to write and how to start writing.
The best way to deal with this is to write whenever the set of ideas kicks in. That’s why nearly all professional writers have an unusual writing routine: it could be during daytime or during night-time, or during those moments when they don’t exactly have some free time to write.
Thankfully, freelance writers can have total freedom to set their time schedules — it’s one of the greatest advantages of this job.
You can avoid the industry giants.
As stated in the opening paragraphs, being an online writer gives you the option of evading those authorities who hinder you from reaching your dreams of being a writer. By writing content and publishing it online, you don’t need to win the approval of publishing company owners who may not be any smarter than you are.
Although some online jobs require you to have certain qualifications and prompt you to pass some tests, most online writing jobs only demand one thing from you – hard work.
You can express your passion in unlimited ways.
Since the Internet is an ever-expanding dimension, its borders are impossible to measure. Therefore, the ways in which you can express your passion through writing is something that nobody can really quantify. Writing is a very broad artistic field in itself, as there will always be countless ideas to write about.
And if you write for the online platform, the avenue where you’ll be writing for will be even much wider. You can write for a variety of people and web businesses, and the kinds of writing jobs that you can grab are just plain endless.
You can earn more with lesser time.
There will be days when you will work with very long hours, but there will also be days when you will just be editing and polishing your writings, which could only require a few minutes. But even so, you could still earn great monetary rewards.
Most web companies who outsource content for freelance writers often give $50 – $100 per article, and that’s only for novice writers. If you get to work for such companies on a regular or seasonal basis, the pay could rise much higher.
Different companies have their own pay rates. Some pay per word, others pay per page, while others pay in accordance to project difficulty. To give you a rough idea, most beginner essay mill writers earn around $700 to $1000 a month.
Furthermore, it is fascinating to think that some bloggers who write for their own sites became very rich due to their talent and marketing skills. The simple answer to how much can you earn through online writing is… it depends: on how talented you are, and how hard you work.
2. Knowing about the most popular kinds of online writing jobs
The avenue of writing gigs to pick from is very wide, what are they? What kind of writers does the Internet need? Here are the most common ones:
Content writer – is the kind who writes content for websites. No website, no matter in which category it may fall can thrive within cyberspace if it has no pages that contain writings. In order for sites of all kinds to continue to exist, they need to be supplied with content. This is where content writers come into play.
Copywriter – is someone who writes compelling statements or paragraphs that can urge someone to buy something, try something, or click on something. This kind of writer often works for advertising companies or those that make brochures for a certain kind of product.
Technical writer – Writing manuals, tech guides, and instructional materials are the products of this kind of writer. Working as a technical writer means you have the talent of explaining complex procedures in the simplest manner so that they can be easily understood by non-technical readers.
Creative writer – If you love to create fictional stories, poetry, and other similar literature, then creative writing is for you. Writers in this category are often the most imaginative ones. They must have the talent of making words come to life.
Resume writer – This might come as a surprise, but some people do pay serious money just to get their resumes done. Resume writing is a bit similar to copywriting, they are both about urging to catch someone’s attention in just a few words and statements.
Blogger – This is very similar to content writing that it’s almost impossible to differentiate one from the other. The job of a blogger is mainly about providing content for blogs that cover a very wide range of topics about anything under, or over the sun. Topics could include hobbies, travel, tutorials, and product reviews. This job is closely related to article writing.
Academic writer – a.k.a. essay mill writer, is someone who helps students write research works, dissertations, essays, assignments, theses, etc. This is a very huge industry and it is discussed here.
This list could go on and on. What you just have to bear in mind about online writing jobs is that for whatever topic you could think of, there should be a company that demands writers for that. The ones mentioned above are just the most common that you can easily tap into and apply for.
3. Attaining the right skills for online writing efficiency
Becoming a writer whether be it in freelancing or in whatever category requires the following skills:
Wide vocabulary
A good writer is one who can come up with compelling pieces of writing, the kind that people find very captivating to read and behold. In order to achieve this level, there is one thing that you really must do – widen and broaden the avenue where knowledge of words flows.
A good fighter must know exactly when to attack, how to attack, and how to defend. Becoming a successful writer is like being a skillful martial artist who knows the most appropriate punch and kicks to be delivered at the right moment.
As a writer, you also need to be able to unleash the right words, the right synonyms, and even the right idioms, to make your writings as compelling as possible. The best and only way to be good at this, is to have a broad vocabulary. The good thing is you don’t have to spend a great deal of money to do it. All you need to invest on, is just time and discipline.
Knowledge about formatting styles
Knowing about the right words and terms to use in a piece of writing is undoubtedly, the best skill to have. But here is one thing that you really must attain as well, in order to make your writings as easy to read, and as comprehensive as possible – knowing how to format the text and sentences therein.
If you plan to become a writer for pieces of literature or academic papers, you need to have some knowledge about MLA, APA, Turabian, Chicago Style, and the likes of it.
In writing for blog sites and web content in general, you have to just attain some basic know-hows about desktop publishing guidelines. It can be simply summed up as knowing what text-formatting works best for desktop computers, and mobile devices.
In writing content meant for the web, you have to pay attention to the fact, that people will most likely read your writings via their cellphones. For this reason, you need to format your text in a mobile-friendly manner.
This means that as you type using a word processor, you need to set your sentences in not more than 4 to 5 lines per paragraph. This is because once they get displayed on a mobile phone or tablet, text will be presented in a compressed manner, making your paragraphs appear longer.
That will be harder for your readers to stare at your writings for too long. Consequently, they might want to stop reading, and look for other articles that are easier to read than yours.
Sharp proofreading skills
Like an excellent sculptor or furniture builder, you really must do your very best to polish your writings. Using the right words and formatting can greatly make your articles attractive for readers. But if you are not a good proofreader, your pieces could not get qualified by web-content evaluators.
Experienced and excellent writers are good proofreaders, and you must achieve the same in order to be successful as well. Thankfully, there are writing tools today like Grammarly that can really cut your proofreading tasks in half the time.
But AI software is no match compared to human common sense. The best writers are those that are great at proofreading their work using their high-level thinking, so make it your best effort to work on such a skill.
One of the best proofreading techniques is to read your article backwards, yes… literally backwards. By doing so, the reading ‘predictiveness’ that your own mind gives will be thwarted, presenting your writing word for word instead of sentence by sentence. In effect, you will detect some misspellings and typos in a more accurate manner.
4. Knowing the most effective steps in marketing your freelance writing services
You can apply for a variety of online writing jobs in these popular freelancing sites, Or you can focus on these sites which just focus on writing jobs alone.
Should you decide to take action on the latter, here’s what you should embark on:
Applying to online writing companies
This is often the beginner’s most preferred first move. If you Google the keyword “online writing jobs,” you can easily find directions about where to apply and how to apply. If you do apply to these sites, you will most certainly undergo this process:
- uploading your resume and portfolio
- taking a grammar/English proficiency test
- making a sample essay
- waiting for an email or phone call for application confirmation
The process usually takes place in just one sitting, though the essay writing part may allow you to finish it in days.
On average, a waiting period of 14 days is needed for most companies to review your application. Once you get accepted or rejected, you will be notified through email.
Building a portfolio and attracting clients
Another way to land an online writing gig is to find a freelance writing platform like Upwork and Fiverr and post your credentials there. By crafting a truly attractive online resume or a portfolio, clients who look for writers might just pick you.
Another way to land an online writing gig is to find a freelance writing platform like Upwork and Fiverr and post your credentials there. By crafting a truly attractive online resume or a portfolio, clients who look for writers might just pick you.
Of course, nobody would be interested in hiring your services if you appear to be someone who can’t deliver. In order for your profile to be clickable and something that’s work checking out, create a solid portfolio by putting links to your previous works that already appear on the web.
If you don’t have article posts that appear on other sites, now might be a good time to start posting. Many free blogging and writing platforms exist out there and you can just simply start putting some articles there so you can have a few followers that might vouch for you.
They might just give your clients the proof that you are a writer who must be taken seriously. You might not get paid by writing for such sites, but they could be the key to writing opportunities where you can get massive amounts of payments.
Direct pitching to online writing companies.
If you are a writer who’s just starting out, you can’t expect companies to come to you and commission you to start doing writing projects for them. You need to tell them that you exist and that you are capable of handling the tasks that they want to get done. To start your journey to success, you may opt to send messages to websites and online companies that you have the guts and the skills to write for them.
The key to being good at this is again, building a solid portfolio. With it, you can showcase your writing capabilities and your writing samples. It is your clients’ means of evaluating that you can walk the talk.
So to step on the first levels of success as a writer, compose an email message, attach a query letter to it, and include your writing ideas and outlines that might be of interest to the company you wish to write for. Notify a lot of them. Some of them may respond, most of them may not, but success will always be far from you if you won’t do anything to approach it.
Making your own blog
As what’s stated above, some bloggers become very rich with nothing but passion as their main driving force. If those guys are just ordinary people who did nothing but just wield their writing prowess and create a blog that they managed on their own, and eventually earned great piles of wealth in so doing, then the same thing could happen to you as well.
Blogs comprise a very big chunk of the pages that comprise the Internet, and they are responsible for huge amounts of revenues for bloggers as well as web business owners all over the planet. You could grab a huge share of that revenue too if you choose to write for your own blog instead of writing for someone else’s.
They say that the pen is mightier than the sword, but here in the digital age, keystrokes are more powerful than the pen. Do you want to be powerful? Be an online writer, and experience a kind of power that only your imagination is capable of grasping.
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