How to make money freelance writing.?

 I share loads of tips on how to start and grow your own profitable online writing business. In this blog, we're talking about how to make money with freelance writing so you can work from anywhere, set your own hours and do what you love. Now if you're new to my channel, welcome. I got started in freelance writing about three years ago and I never knew that I can make this much money as a freelance writer because I bought into a lot of the myths saying that you can't make much money as a freelance writer and that you're gonna have to compete with other writers for really low rates. But in my first year of business, I actually made six figures in revenue and I've been hitting that mark ever since. Of course, there are many benefits to starting a remote income source from being able to ditch your regular nine to five job to being able to pursue a digital nomad lifestyle, to being able to create your own career doing what you love and making a lot of money. 

Since starting my freelance writing business, I've traveled to loads of countries including Thailand, Cambodia, Spain, Costa Rica and Cuba. I've met countless other business owners, gone to speaking events, launched my own freelance writing course, and been featured in major publications. So having a freelance writing business doesn't just stop with making a remote income, you can certainly grow a full on business where you are well known in your industry, meeting lots of other professionals and being able to pursue a career of passion. 

But enough about me, let's talk about why you might wanna start a freelance writing business as well as the five steps to getting started so you can have a profitable online income, attract new clients to you and grow your own freelance writing brand. Know that I break down all of these steps in detail in my free "Remote Writer Workbook", which I'll link to in the description of this blog that will help you get started to land your first high paying client and be well on your way to growing your own freelance writing business. So the first thing to consider in starting your freelance writing business is to ask yourself if you actually enjoy writing. Obviously if you're gonna pursue a career in freelance writing, you're gonna have to love what you're doing otherwise you're gonna feel burnt out really quickly. So when I started my freelance writing business, I already had a little bit of experience in marketing, but I really wanted to know more about blogging and SEO content writing. 

I thought about all the different times that I had to write articles in college, the short stories that I wrote as a kid and the articles that I liked writing for my own little travel blog. Through those experiences, I already knew I had a passion for writing, I just didn't have experience in doing it for clients quite yet. So think to any experience that you've had that might've shaped your interest in writing because that will help motivate you to pursue having a freelance writing business because you'll enjoy what you're doing and it will help you scale your business to the next level. If you're just starting a freelance writing business for the sake of making money online, just know that you might face a situation where you get burnt out and then it's going to be really hard to continue doing your work and making money with it. 

There are lots of different ways to make money online so I recommend that you pursue the path that you're most interested in that you can see yourself doing for years to come. My second tip when it comes to starting your own freelance writing business is to launch your own blog or website. So let's assume that you have zero writing experience and you're starting completely from scratch. Having your own blog or website will allow you to publish your own work so you can showcase to clients that you actually have some writing ability. As well as give you some practice writing content for yourself where the stakes are a little bit lower. If there's no pressure to create paid content for clients you have a little bit of freedom to write your own content, get some practice in and attract clients to your online portfolio.

 You can certainly get started with your own online portfolio for free, in fact I just created a blog talking about how to build your own online portfolio from scratch. So I'll be sure to link to that in this blog and in the description. There are a lot of platforms that you can use for free to showcase your work, but I do recommend at some point investing in your own blog or website because you own that platform and you can brand it suiting to how you want to represent your own business. Whether you actually launch an official website or choose one of the free platforms, your portfolio or your blog is an important marketing tool to attract potential clients and represent yourself online. Having a professional platform that showcases your work will help you stand out from other writers and market yourself effectively so you can charge higher prices. If you wanna make money with freelance writing, then you'll also need to establish your unique selling proposition which is my third point in this process. Your unique selling proposition is basically what helps you stand apart from other generalist writers. 

So there are lots of writers out there that write a lot of different types of content for different industries but you need to determine what makes you unique and how you're going to stand out to be the obvious choice to potential clients. Even if you don't have any writing experience, you certainly have unique skills that you bring to the table that will provide value to your clients and help you stand out from other writers. So think about any work or volunteer or school experience, that you know you have really excelled at and that might be able to provide value to potential clients. So for me, having worked at a marketing agency, I had some knowledge of SEO and I knew SEO, Search Engine Optimization would be a good value add to potential clients, because it would help them attract traffic and leads to their websites. 

So as I brushed up on my skills, I began marketing myself as a professional SEO content writer, which helped me stand apart from other blog writers and the larger pool of writers who might not be specific about the kinds of content that they focus on and the kinds of clients that they've worked with. I talked about choosing a profitable freelance writing niche which I think is highly valuable when it comes to setting yourself apart from other writers and charging specialist rates because you are specializing in a particular type of content. You're unique selling proposition will define what you bring to the table and what unique value you provide to clients. This unique selling proposition will then be used in all of your marketing content to help you stand out from other writers and attract your ideal clients to you. 

For example, I used my unique selling proposition as a tagline in my LinkedIn profile on Facebook and in my bio when I submit guest posts, so I tell my audience exactly what I do and what I can help them with. So in starting your freelance writing business think about what makes you unique and what's gonna help you stand out from other writers to make you the obvious choice to your potential clients. Now obviously step four in this process to growing a profitable online writing business is to create a marketing strategy. 

Now this marketing strategy will look different for different types of writers, because different writers are targeting different audiences, and creating different types of content. So it really comes down to determining where your unique audience is online and where they're searching for potential writers. So for my audience I was working with marketing and SEO agencies which I found out were mostly using LinkedIn and Facebook in order to find SEO content writers. But for other industries, your audience might be using Twitter or Instagram or Upwork to find potential writers. You really just need to do your research and ask your target audience what platforms they're using to find writers and then focus your energy there. When you've determined one or two platforms that your audience is mostly using then you want to create a value based content writing strategy to attract clients to you, what this involves is basically posting content that's valuable to your target audience. So for my audience, they're interested in learning more about SEO content writing, how to attract more traffic, how to optimize their content for search engines and stuff like that. So I post lots of posts related to these topics, so it proves to my target audience that I know what I'm talking about and that I can provide value to them that other writers can't. So for another example, if you're a travel writer, you're gonna want to be posting content related to travel. 

And how your content helps travel companies get more bookings, generate more traffic, and drive social shares. You want to focus on what your unique audience is looking for in sourcing content, and post valuable content that highlights your expertise and helps you stand out from other writers. This is what's called an inbound marketing approach because you're publishing content that attracts clients inbound to you without having to do any outreach, or applying for job postings on other websites. This approach is a great way to position yourself as a unique type of writer online, grow your personal brand, stand out from other writers and attract your ideal clients. I also want to talk briefly about charging rates as a freelance writer because this is a big question that a lot of writers have. Obviously there's this misconception that writers don't make a lot of money, but you can make a lot of money if you market yourself effectively. That's why I recently posted a blog on how to set your rates as a freelance writer, cause there are a lot of different factors involved that determine how much you should charge and how to market yourself accordingly.

 I also provide some tips in that blog on how to attract high paying clients because different clients from different industries will have more or less money to spend on content marketing, and you need to be able to find those types of clients in order to charge higher prices. My main recommendation is to not look to other writers in determining how to set your rates, but basically you wanna determine what your unique value is and how much money you want to make as a freelance writer and how to attract clients that are willing to pay that much. So again, be sure to check out the blog I'll link to it in the description, if you need help setting your rates as a freelance writer so you can actually make a profitable online income. My fifth and final tip when it comes to making money with freelance writing is to network. A lot of writers kind of recede behind the scenes trying to attract clients to them but they don't really put themselves out as a personal brand, what this does is close you off to a lot of awesome opportunities.

 If you are the face of your brand and you're publishing content behind your name, in your photo, being active in social media and going to networking events then you can generate a lot of publicity for your online brand and attract even more clients. So for me if I just decided to, you know, work with my clients and not be publishing new content then I would've never landed these speaking opportunities, guest posting opportunities, conferences and stuff like that. All of those things have really accelerated my brand, earned me a lot of recognition and helped me attract even more high paying clients. 

So even if you're an introvert like me, don't fall victim to hiding behind the sidelines because there are loads of opportunities out there to connect with other industry professionals, attract high paying clients and even land speaking opportunities. And believe me there is lots of potential for you to grow, even if you're hesitant to put yourself out there online. Just keep your mind open to lots of different possibilities because the opportunities are nearly endless when it comes to growing your freelance writing business.

 Like I said, I have even more in-depth resources on each of these steps as well as a complete guide on how to start your freelance writing business which I'll link to in the description of this blog. That's called "The Remote Writer Workbook" and it outlines how to attract your first paying client and grow your business over time by charging what you're worth and establishing your unique selling proposition, so be sure to download that free e-book if you're interested in starting your freelance writing business, as well as the other links in the description of this blog where I talk about how to set your rates, how to choose a niche, establish your core value statement and market yourself as a freelance writer.