Everyone’s born with a creative spark, but freelancers put it to the best use. Becoming a writer – even with no experience – can be easily achieved with the right sources needed to build your portfolio.
You don’t need to go through dusty pages in libraries, or consult professionals – all you have to do is sharpen up your skills and learn how to present yourself in the best light.
To become a freelance writer with no experience is not that hard. Freelance writing does not require one to provide a diploma or certification but relies more on their skills, agility, and knowledge.
Charging clients, finding them, reaching out, building a viable relationship with them – freelance writing sure is a piece of work.
From building the perfect portfolio to showcasing your fortes and standing out from the crowd even without the experience at hand – here is an immersive guide to help you write it right – every time and for every client.
Over 71% of US citizens turn to freelance jobs because of their freedom and flexibility. Freelance writing is an innovative job and requires a deep commitment to execute the right content for the client’s needs.
Freelance writers are self-employed individuals, who mainly earn their paycheck from writing all kinds of projects – papers, blogs, articles, guides, resumes, and more.
Because of the flexibility freelance writers have, alongside the freedom to work from just about anywhere, the profession has grown in popularity over the years.
The difference between having a regular versus a freelance writing job is that, usually, freelancers get paid according to the amount of work provided for the client. Writers usually put a price for each word they’ll write, though some may even charge by the hour rather than by word volume. Freelance writing projects can be both short-term, one-time, and long-term projects, depending on the client’s particular content needs.
To succeed in the freelance writing field, writers ought to be able to compose content in a wide range of topics and subjects, regardless of their experience.
By encouraging self-motivation, developing proper communicative skills with clients,
as well as planning the project accordingly, professionals in the field can experience great success and earn high profits from their knack for the written word.
If you’re thinking about diving into the world of freelance writers but have zero previous experience, here are some tips to make your efforts worth it:
To become a freelance writer with no experience and deliver top-notch articles, you need to follow a few steps before becoming part of the big writing league.
Writing is strictly mind-work, and the writer needs no distraction to maintain focus.
A freelance writer with no experience also needs to find a comfortable position and enough motivation to help boost their creativity and productivity.
If you have a family or live in a noisy home, noise-canceling headphones might become your new best friend.
Make sure you also have a comfortable seating position as writing freelance can take hours on end!
Punctuation, preciseness, and clear-mindedness are some of the key components a freelance writer with no experience needs to have, experience or not. This is crucial if you’ve forgotten about your past tenses, double negatives, and other grammar rules.
Your writing should be a reflection of a professional, whereas your sentences should read clearly and offer enough details on the topic.
One of the first things you need to do before dabbling into freelance writing is to revise your grammar, so as to avoid basic mistakes when pitching your portfolio.
Here, Grammarly can be a good choice in checking your content for accuracy, precision, and structure.
In recent years, content writing has overtaken the market, which is why large networking platforms hire freelance writers to prepare their content on a wide variety of topics.
These platforms can help you reinvent your style or perfect your writing abilities.
Look at it as a preparation course for what’s yet to come in your writing career. Putting yourself out there with other writers is also beneficial as it teaches you how to be competitive, consistent, and work with a wide range of tasks.
Content writing platforms sound fine, but the best advice you will get as a freelance writer without experience will be from advanced your peers or your editor.
A more experienced writer will be capable of giving you constructive feedback, and they might even show you ways to improve your content and deliver a better piece.
If you don’t have a professional someone to guide you through your writing process, you can always turn to professional freelancers online and compare their finished pieces with yours. There’s lots to learn there!.
One of the most important things you can learn as a freelance writer is SEO.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and uses relevant keywords to rank a website higher on the Google search list. Knowing SEO means you’ll get more likes, shares, and attributes to your writings.
There are tons of plugins you can use, most specifically SEOPress, which can help you attract as much traffic as well as optimize your sample with the perfect SEO structure.
This handy tool will help you better advance your SEO skills, and understand how it actually works.
If some members of your family or your friends need a piece of content written – this is your chance to prove yourself before a familiar audience. Plus, by practicing with your closest ones, you will get real feedback on your work and can work on improving your skills thereafter.
Some of the things you can help your loved ones with, writing-wise, include writing an essay, a professional resume, a contributing blog, a motivational letter, or else.
Consider sharing your samples written for friends and family in your personal blog. Everyone starts somewhere and having your own platform where your work can be recognized, is a good start.
Your blog can also be a safe haven where you can share personal ideas, outside of client requirements – and where you showcase your freestyle writing skills.
Everyone knows that the future lies in digital freelancing, and gaining a following on your blog is a good start. You might even have a past or even a new client visit your page, check your samples, and decide that, yes – you are the kind of freelance writer they were looking for.
Blogs can also help you make money later on, as your audience grows.
The number of freelance workers in the US has risen dramatically compared to a few years ago, with 6 million professionals turning to freelance as their primary source of income.
No one needs the experience to become a freelance writer – but it does take time for their professional portfolio to build and get traction among interested clients.
Although becoming a freelance writer requires some training, you don’t have to spend so much time on it. If you think you’re an expert in a given language, have a creative spark, and know how to put words to paper – the lack of experience can never stop you.
To become a suitable freelance writer, you also need proper research skills. A great part of writing – freelance or not – requires research, and no one becomes a writer without it.
You might also need to sharpen up your communication skills as these will make you more open to working with different lines of clients who need a professional writer.
Without experience or solid communication skills, it is fair to expect to be turned down a few times before you can put your freelance efforts into full motion.
If you are not a talker, you can always communicate via email. But, since only 10% of emails are actually read by clients, make sure that your content is sharp, witty, and helpful to your clients.
Freelance writers make approximately $63,200 per year. This was estimated for 2019 alone, back when freelance writers charged $30.40 per hour. Although this might be more true for experienced writers, who have become editors later on, when it comes to newbie freelance writers, they can earn up to $23 per hour. Not bad.
Newbie freelance writers might find it difficult to get the proper professional recognition – all because of their lack of experience. However, as your experience grows and so does your versatility as a writer, your reputation as a top freelancer will grow as well.
Great reviews from clients can help a great deal here, and as weird as it may sound – elevating the cost of your services after you grow your skills a bit can make you seem like a more attractive and quality option.
Becoming a freelancer means becoming your own boss, choosing your own projects, earning your own money, and managing your own time and duties. All in all, freelance writing is just as worthwhile as it is a fruitful option to consider.
If you are prepared to do your due diligence, give 120% to every written piece you tackle, and accept constructive criticism and feedback – you won’t need to think about your experience at all – it will build itself.
If you are still unsure about your level of writing experience, you can always see how the trained professionals do it and turn to a freelance writing website to create any content piece for you.
Although this will come at a cost, the knowledge you will get on how a completed written piece ought to look like will be a stimulus enough to, next time, write the content yourself – and nail it!