Very interesting details for those of us needing some encouragement.
First 3 Steps as a Freelance Writer
The Decision
The most important part in any career you may choose it’s definitely the decision itself of performing in a specific domain. It might seem the easy part but, trust me this is the hardest for most people except for those very rare who are discovered as natural talents and who follow their one and only way. For usual people like me and you things are different. We love to write but we are afraid to consider this as our destiny, we feel unsafe and doubtful but most of all, we are not lucky enough to be free. Being constrained by circumstances, we tend to let us chosen by the profession instead of choosing and this makes us society’s slaves. How many of us have wanted to become bank clerks, insurance agents or to work in a call center and how many have the courage to risk?
If you feel the need to write from time to time, if you feel a desperate necessity to tell about your experiences, if you have the ability to describe in details places and characters or to create stories, than you should definitely proceed in this career.
Even if you’ll remain at the blogger stage or you’ll get to write for online magazines, newspapers and websites, you will always have the freedom to choose, you will be the one who decides what topics should cover, what publications should contact, what prices should negotiate.
You can be a freelance writer in any possible field or you can choose more areas in the same time if you believe you master the subjects enough.
By freelancing you force a society that doesn’t need you or require you, to accept you and to respect your work.
The Beginning
Once you’ve decided to be a freelance writer, you have to begin by building a professional presence on the web, create a portfolio and of course you’ll need an office and your office will be the blog.
The blog will be your business card, your reference point, your portfolio so make it professional. Even if you write about anything that crosses your mind, even if you tell a story or write an article, don’t ever lose your personality, be yourself but always maintain a balance between originality and professionalism.
Be efficient or creative, funny and smart, entertaining or scheming in order to gain popularity. Be organized, write constantly and focus on quality!
There are many methods used for bringing traffic on a website but the most important in this situation are: Twitter, Google+, Linkedln, Facebook and an AboutMe page. The secret is to connect with people in your niche, not to waste your time for nothing. By doing that you’ll be surprised to find out how many persons are in your situation, you will hear so many useful things, you will learn from their mistakes and you will progress.
The internet is full of writing websites and some of them are quite amazing, reserve at least one day to select the best of them and to create some more accounts.
The most important thing in this profession is to be serious, conscientious and focused. Being a freelance writer requires discipline and time. Remember that you have to be a good manager for your work, an even better administrator for your time, your blog and other accounts and you have to write every post like it would be the last oneJ.
The jump
So you’ve already written several articles on your blog, you twitted them to your followers, you have a Facebook page and people who like you, you’re proud of your AboutMe profile and you have joined a few groups on Linkedln, then it’s time to jump!
You are in a situation in which you can start to contact online magazines and websites that might be interested in publishing your articles and even pay for your work.
From now on it will be up to you to gain their appreciation, to uphold good relations with your employers, to be serious and to make yourself irreplaceable.
There are 3 things you should consider when jumping:
1. You may fall but you have to get up!
2. You may fail but you have to reinvent yourself.
3. You may succeed but keep looking for better places to land.
Posted by Miruna 9/11/11.
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