HOW TO GET STARTED WITH FREELANCE WRITING

I have seen A LOT of posts and comments lately asking how to "get started" with freelance writing. As much as I'd like to respond to everyone one by one, I figured I'd share my thoughts here in hopes of helping as many people as possible.

The short answer to "How do I get started?" is... it depends. It depends on the type of content you want to write, the kinds of clients you want to work with, and what you envision for your brand.

BUT, there are some general tips that apply to most writers and should help you get started on the right foot...

1) Figure out who your target audience is.

Many writers get caught in the trap of being a "generalist", which results in them competing with, well, a million other generalists. That means WAY more competition, often competing on price and not value.

Your first step should be some soul searching to figure out what types of clients you want to work with. What are your strong suits? What topics are you passionate about? What kinds of people/personalities interest you?

Then, go on to step #2...

2) Ask your audience what they want.

Once you've identified your target audience, survey them. Really. Make a Google Form and send it out to as many people *in your target audience* as you can and ask them a few key questions...

• What are you struggling with most when it comes to your content/copy?
• What is your #1 goal when it comes to having/creating great content/copy?
• What are you looking for most when hiring a writer?
• What services/solutions have you tried in the past? Why didn't these work for you?
• What platforms do you use to find writers?

Their answers will tell you A LOT about what their pain points are, what solutions they have tried in the past, and what platforms they are using to find writers like you (ahem, this will save you a lot of time compared to trying to be everywhere at once).

3) Create an online "portfolio".

I put "portfolio" in quotes here because it really doesn't have to be fancy. You can gain/create content examples using...

• Free gigs (offer content in exchange for a testimonial)
• Paid gigs (if you can find them, awesome!)
• Medium.com
• LinkedIn articles
• Guest posting
• Your own blog

What your audience is looking for is simply evidence that you know how to write and have experience doing so for their particular niche. Try to keep yourwort examples aligned with the audience you want to work with; if your examples are all over the place, you again fall into that "generalist" category and generalists don't get paid the big bucks.

4) Market yourself.

Remember that survey you sent out to your audience. They will tell you what platforms they are using to find writers. No use trying to be everywhere - especially if your target audience isn't even spending their time there. 1-2 platforms should be good to start.

Post about the topics your audience is interested in. You know what these topics are already because they told you what they were in the market research survey.

You can post about:

• Common issues they have and how to overcome them
• X tips for improving their content in Y niche
• What's wrong with Z solutions (ie what they have tried in the past)
• X things to look for when hiring a [ niche ] writer
• Y misconceptions about [ niche ] content
• etc. etc.

The better you know your audience - listen to and care about what they need - the easier it will be to come up with these content ideas.

If you are "speaking their language", they will be naturally drawn to you and will see you as the obvious choice for content in their niche. Then, you aren't trying to stand out in a crowd of other generalist writers - you've created a unique space of your own where YOU are the expert. And experts get paid $$$$$.

That's 4 things you can get started on this week. Who's ready to "get started"?