You can help others and get paid for it! You can help students’ complete academic papers.
You can help inexperienced writers get their work into print and prepared for publication.
You can provide useful content that can help others understand how things work.
If you are a talented writer then you have probably considered become a freelancer at one point or another. This profession offers plenty of flexibility, great pay, and a number of rewarding opportunities to the most dedicated professionals. There are plenty of writing agencies that make it easy to get started and grow a client base. But they aren’t all alike, so here are a few things you should know before getting started:
There are hundreds of thousands of freelance writers out there! That means there is a lot of competition. And since agencies have made it easy for writers to connect with clients, it means you’re going to have to make yourself standout in order to get the best jobs. This is easier said than done through an agency which, as a business, wants to keep as many writers on board so it can make profit.
Writing agencies often employ rating systems that help clients hire the best available writers. The rating system may work for or against your favor. The better you do as a freelancer the more likely it is you will be seen by the highest paying clients. On the other hand the worse you do the less likely it will be for you to get a job that pays more than a minimum wage.
Agencies will only work to connect clients with writers; the rest is up to you. It’s your job to create a compelling profile and write excellent bids to land writing jobs. There’s no easy shortcut and those jobs don’t fall out of the sky. A lot of your free time each day will be spent on composing and submitting bids. Make them count and target your queries to impress a prospective client.
A writing agency isn’t going to give you any warning about updating your profile. Again, all of this is on you. Your profile and your portfolio are important marketing tools that can be all the difference in landing the best jobs. Make sure you constantly update your content with your latest samples and summary of services. A profile that goes months without an update will begin to rank lower – all without the freelancer knowing.
Lastly, you should know that it’s not a good idea to choose and stick with just one writing agency. There are a number of companies out there that offer similar services, so it’s our best advice that you sign up for at least two or three of those. The more you broadcast yourself the better your chances for finding a great writing gig.
There are so many clients in need of writers it is ridiculous for any writer to say they cannot get work. You need to study the market carefully and know what to say when approaching potential clients.