How to Become a Freelance Writer in 6 Steps
With freelance writing in high demand, now is a great time to become a freelance writer.
Writing has always been an in-demand skill for many professions, but with the major shift to freelancing in recent years, freelance writing has also become a career that many people want to pursue. In fact, one recent survey found that 82% of all freelancers in the US are freelance writers.
If you want to join this growing subset of freelancers and forge your own path as a freelancer, let’s dive into the steps you can follow to be a freelance writer and make it a full-time career.
What is freelance writing?
Freelance writing is a type of independent work where you offer writing services to clients on a contract basis. A freelance writer is considered self-employed because they typically work with multiple clients at once rather than committing full-time to one company.
Freelance writing is an umbrella term for a wide range of writing services. Here are some common services you can offer as a freelance writer:
Copywriting
Blog writing
Ghostwriting
Journalism
Grant writing
Technical writing
Fiction writing
Freelance writers can choose to specialize in one of these areas or offer a mix of services. They can also focus on a specific niche within an area, such as technical writing for software companies or copywriting for beauty brands.
How to Be a Freelancer Writer: 6 Steps to Get Started
No one prepares you for going off on your own to become a freelance writer. But luckily, you can follow the footsteps of many successful freelance writers who have paved their way in the industry.
If you want to be a full-time freelance writer, follow these steps to get started.
1. Choose an area of focus
To get started as a freelance writer, you first have to choose an area to focus on. Start by deciding what type of writing you want to pursue. Do you have experience as a copywriter from your last job? Or perhaps you have been ghostwriting on the side of your 9-5 and now you want to pursue that service full-time.
Choose which writing discipline you want to focus on, then you can start exploring different industries or types of clients you want to work with.
And don’t forget: you can always change this later after you’ve had a chance to experiment — everything is in your hands when you’re self-employed!
2. Research the industry
After you’ve chosen the area you want to focus on first, start researching the industry to see what types of clients are out there, learn about other freelancers’ experiences, and gather an insider’s perspective.
You can start by searching Google, following relevant people on social media, and reading blogs to absorb the advice of other freelancers in your chosen industry.
There are also some great podcasts, YouTube series, and newsletters launched by freelancers that provide actionable insight into building a freelance business and improving your craft. Here are a few resources:
Freelance Writing Coach: A podcast hosted by two freelance writers, Kaleigh Moore and Emma Siemasko. Each bite-sized episode covers a
The Cutting Room: A YouTube series and podcast hosted by Tommy Walker, founder of The Content Studio, where content leaders perform live edits on a subscriber's piece of content.
Dear Freelancer: In this newsletter, the founder of Beam Content, Brooklin Nash answers readers' questions about all things freelancing.
Kat Boogaard’s Weekly Newsletter: Kat is a longtime freelancer who sends out a weekly newsletter where she shares her perspective on a relatable topic such as what to do during a slow period or how to set boundaries with clients. She also shares a round-up of recent freelance writing gigs in each issue.
Kaitlyn Arford’s Weekly Newsletter: Each week, freelance writer Kaitlyn Arford shares a list of writing opportunities she discovers around the web. If you’re just getting started with freelance writing, Kaitlyn’s newsletter makes it easy to find a range of potential clients and projects.
The Writer’s Co-op: A podcast hosted by journalist Wudan Yan, The Writer’s Co-op addresses popular topics relevant to freelance writers such as project and time management, negotiating rates and contracts, and work-life balance.
3. Create a freelance writing portfolio
A freelance writing portfolio is essential, whether you have freelancing experience or not.
Your freelance portfolio is used to showcase your best work and give clients a preview of your experience and skills so they’ll want to work with you. One of the first things you should do as you’re setting out to become a freelance writer is to set up your freelance portfolio.
As a writer, your portfolio website can be as simple as a single page that links to articles or content you’ve written. As you get more projects under your belt, you can expand your portfolio and eventually create a website that better represents the services you offer as a business.
Start by adding any relevant writing examples you may have created in previous roles. If you don’t have any writing samples to include, you can even consider setting up a blog and writing about topics that are relevant to your target client or industry. You don’t need impressive clients or bylines to get started — simply showcasing your writing skills is enough to show clients that you know what you’re doing.
4. Set up your business essentials
When you’re just getting started with freelance writing, your focus is likely on all of the writing aspects, like what you’re going to write and who you’re writing for. It’s easy to overlook the fact that you’re also starting a small business.
To properly run an independent business, it’s important to set up a few things before you get started and as you scale. Some of the freelance business essentials include establishing a business entity, creating a separate bank account for business-related financials, and choosing an invoicing tool to help you track and manage proposals and invoices.
5. Promote yourself
As awkward as it may feel to talk about yourself online, promoting yourself is a must if you want to be a freelance writer. When you work independently, you are the face of your business which means you have to market yourself and your services — no one else is going to do it for you.
To promote yourself as a writer, share your work online, connect with other freelancers, and get yourself in front of potential clients. You can do this by directly pitching yourself to them or by being active in the communities where clients may hang out. For instance, if your target clients are business owners or thought leaders, they’re probably on LinkedIn. This means you should make sure your freelance LinkedIn profile is up to date and that you’re promoting yourself on the platform by regularly sharing recent articles or industry tips.
Promoting yourself might feel unnatural at first if you’re not used to it, but the more you do it, the more you’ll realize that that’s how you build your brand as a freelance writer.
6. Join online communities
Freelancing can be lonely — that’s just the reality when you work independently. But there are many ways to connect with other freelance writers and build your network, including joining online communities.
Communicating with other freelancers not only helps you feel more connected, but it also helps you better navigate building a freelance business. From swapping advice to sharing stories, and even referring one another, there are several benefits of being part of a freelancing community.
Here are some online communities to check out as you get started:
Wethos Freelance Slack Community: A free Slack community for freelancers, solopreneurs, creatives, and independent professionals who want to connect, collaborate, and learn from other freelancers.
Freelancing Females: While Freelancing Females is geared toward all types of freelancers, the online community is a great place to swap advice, ideas, and even referrals with other freelancers.
Peak Freelance: A global membership community for freelance writers that offers courses, workshops, a Slack group, and a job board.
Superpath: A Slack group for professionals in the content marketing industry. If you’re a content marketing writer, there’s a specific channel that focuses on freelance tips and opportunities.
The Copy Posse: A community started by copywriter Alex Catonni. The group offers a variety of programs that help you build a copywriting business.
How to Make Money as a Freelance Writer
As you’re considering starting a freelance writing career, a natural question to wonder is, “How much do freelance writers make?”
It’s a fair question to have whether you’re making the leap from a 9-5 job or scaling a writing side hustle. Knowing how much money freelance writers typically make can help you get a realistic picture of what you can make and how you should be pricing your work.
Here’s how to figure out your pricing and make money as a full-time freelance writer.
What do freelance writers charge?
The first place to start when figuring out your pricing is with other freelancers. See how much other writers are charging so you can get an idea of what a good writing rate would be. You can do this by asking around in any online communities you’re part of or asking any freelance writers you may know in your network.
Another great way to gain pricing insight is with Wethos’ scope of work templates that come with pricing recommendations. Each scope template also includes pricing recommendations powered by crowdsourced pricing data from over 50,000 other freelancers so there’s no questioning what you should be charging.
Here are a few writing-related scope of work templates to use:
Cookbook Creation Scope of Work Template (check out the pricing recommendations for writing and proofreading)
Grant Research Scope of Work Template (check out the pricing recommendation for writing grant applications)
Choose how you want to charge
Now that you have an idea of what you want your freelance writing rate to be, figure out how you want to structure your pricing.
Here are a few common ways to charge when you’re a freelance writer:
Project-based
Hourly
Per word
Retainer
For example, if you work with media and publishing brands, it’s common to charge a per-word rate. If you write blog posts for tech companies, then you could consider charging a project-based rate, e.g., four blog posts for $1,000 per month. Or, let’s say you offer a few different services such as writing, editing, and publishing content. Then you may want to put together a retainer contract so you can charge a flat monthly rate for a set of deliverables.
Diversify your work
At some point in your freelance writing career, you likely want to scale your business so that you don’t have to pitch new projects on a month-to-month basis. A good way to do this is to diversify your work instead of focusing on a single service.
If you focus on one type of service, experiment with a few related ones that you can offer on a smaller basis. For example, let’s say you primarily focus on writing long-form blog posts. You could consider offering blog post editing or content refreshes as either an add-on or standalone service since these go hand in hand with writing. You can also take on a mix of retainer clients and one-off projects for more balance and variety of work.
Becoming a freelance writer is a valuable way to build your own freelance career, whether you have previous writing experience or not. To become a freelance writer, research the industry you want to enter, focus on improving both your craft and your business skills, and put yourself out there. By following these steps, you can be a successful freelance writer in no time.
Looking for a way to scale your freelance writing business? Sign up for your Wethos account.