How to Become a Successful Freelance Writer
Being a successful freelance writer is today’s reality for everyone who’s familiar with the Internet. I bet all of you once dreamed about getting cash distantly while sitting at home in a comfortable chair. Alas, writing skills are not enough to become a successful freelance writer! To sell your services for an adequate price you have to be an entrepreneur and have the correct mindset. And if you feel too week, you can always get help here.
But do not despair! Apply to practice the tips given by Lucy Adams, an online essay writer, and courageously start your freelance writing career.
1 Take Freelancing as a Business
I think that’s the first and foremost thing you should understand. Being a freelancer, you’re also an entrepreneur, even if you don’t realize it. Stop taking yourself as a freelancer!You have a product (your writing services), customers, and profit – three main signs of every business! And you’re facing the same kind of challenges as Google and McDonald’s with the only difference that these challenges are smaller. So why do almost all freelancers limit themselves to blogging, reading the same books, and repeating the same conventional truths?
2 Evolve
Evolution is a worthwhile endeavor. It’s a constant improvement. It impresses and fascinates. Each and every day polish your writing style, trying to be at least as effective as the previous day. Self-development contributes to the increasing of self-esteem. That means sooner or later, you will feel that your work costs more.
Don’t just write with earning money as the only purpose. Write to write better. That’s the only way that leads to success. Compare yourself and your previous self. If the last version was better it means you’ve been doing something wrong at recent times. It is an occasion to re-think the approach to work and adjust the writing process. Ask yourself provocative questions like “what is my goal?” and “why am I doing these and those things?”
Evolution is something that gets you up in the morning. It’s something you can take a look at in six months and say, “wow, this half-year was really productive! I’ve done an awesome job!”
3 Get Rid of Bad Clients
Look for the customers of your dreams. It sometimes happens that it’s too difficult to end collaborating with the job you’ve been working on for a long time. Well, the key question here is: is this job a final point of your career? Does it give you enough to stay put? If yes, I bet you’re an aged person with a lot of experience. Otherwise, your dreams are quite small.
If you are working for eternally frustrated customers whom you want to throw out of the window, that’s entirely your fault! In most cases, nobody but you can decide on the clients you work for.
When building your professional image, try to cooperate with thankful and pleasant people. It often happens that the less the customer pays, the stricter the requirements. Build your relationship with customers relying on a long partnership rather than on a single job. Make them spend their money by hiring you again and again! As I said, money mustn’t be your priority, but it brings safety, comfort, and confidence.
4 Focus on a Single Task if Possible
Freelancers are always trying to do everything for everyone. They perform dozens of tasks simultaneously – they are responsible for sales, marketing, communication with customers, production, accounting, etc. It’s exhausting. Being a writer, you won’t meet with mentioned activities, but take it as an example of unnecessary responsibility.
Don’t take too many orders at once! You haven’t dreamed of being an octopus, have you? Are you sure you’re the best person for writing that book? Will this task increase your profits? Could you pass these things to someone else who is able to devote more time than you?
5 Use Social Media
I bet you realize the power of social media. Your blog, your website and your pages on social networks must be the three starting points of your success. Updates should promote your services and be of a deep meaning.
Find more tips on how to promote your brand on social media here.
You have to decide whether to remain in a gray mass of freelancers or to achieve something greater. If you look like millions of other professionals, sound like them, and communicate only with them, you do not have a different perspective but to be like them! Only you can change the situation. You must collect all the factors, values, and promises that will help you to stand out from the crowd.
If you are a writer, do you think people care that you type 10, 000 words per minute? The answer is no! But what you have offered them in their language? What differentiates you from competitors? Millions of other freelance writers are also “writing experts.” Such statements are almost invisible to the customer. When too general and disconnected from reality, words won’t serve for the good of you.
Try to come up with an original idea. At least, point to your competitive advantages and uniqueness. It may be a partial moneyback for mistakes in the paper, free second order or anything else that makes your offer really attractive.
Lucy Adams
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- How to Become a Successful Freelance Writer - September 25, 2016
