1. Gather your resources
To work as a freelance writer, you will need to have your own PC, a reliable internet connection, and some time to spare. You will use your PC for writing articles and other pieces as required by clients. With a reliable internet connection, you will be able to communicate with clients, submit completed articles, and conduct research before or during your writing tasks.
And you will need at least 3-4 hours of your day for handling writing assignments. You may not spend up to that when you are just starting, but the time you will need will increase with time as you attract more clients and land more writing assignments. If you don't have any of these three resources, you will find it hard to start your freelance writing career smoothly.
2. Write and publish some samples
Virtually all clients will request to see samples of your writing before hiring you. If you don't have any samples to show, you won't get clients easily. So, try to write at least five sample articles on any topics of your choice. Most preferably, write on topics that will be of interest to most clients, such as “how to increase blog traffic quickly,” or “how to hire the right freelance writer.” You are free to write on any topic.
In order to add credibility to your written samples, try to upload them on article directories or on a simple blog. If you show unpublished samples, most clients may doubt if they were really written by you. But by sending them links to published samples that reflect your name as the author, your clients won't doubt the authorship.
3. Start hunting for clients and marketing your services
No one would hire your article writing services if they don't know you have the skills. So, you will need to spend a lot of time on trying to attract clients and promoting your article writing services.
One of the ways you can attract clients is to register with freelance outsourcing sites like Elance and Freelancer. These websites connect clients with freelancers with various skills, including article writing. The challenging part of working with these sites is that you will need to compete with others to get writing projects.
And whether you will win these projects or not will depend on many factors such as your bid price, your skills (as shown in your samples ), the number of projects you have handled successfully (a disadvantage for newbies ), nationality, and so on. However, once you start winning projects, chances are that you will keep winning more of them. Alternatively, you can set up your article writing gigs on sites like Fiverr, where you get paid a specific price for each article you write for clients.
You can also get writing assignments by registering with content mills such as TextBroker and iWriter. You will be able to choose from a large pool of freelance writing assignments, complete and submit them, and get paid.
Other ways to promote your article writing services include telling your Facebook friends and Twitter followers. You can also market your services on forums and online communities such as WarriorForum, NairaLand, etc.
4. Work hard to retain your clients
If you are really keen to make a full-time income from freelance writing, you will need to retain your clients as they come. There’s only one way to make this happen and that is to satisfy them with your services.
Keeping your clients satisfied requires more than writing stellar articles. It also requires meeting deadlines, showing concern about their business, communicating effectively with them and responding quickly to their mails and calls, being willing to effect changes when demanded by clients, being ready to address client complaints and adjust as necessary, and so on.
Although there are much more tips to learn about making money by writing articles online, this post has covered all the basics you need to know and implement. If you follow the steps explained so far, you will be able to kick-start a successful article-writing career.
