Step by Step: How to Start Freelance Writing in 2022 (Make $5k/Month)

 ABOUT THIS BLOG 👇

This is literally the only BLOG you need if you want to start freelance writing in 2022. It shows beginners how to become a freelance writer, even if you have no experience.

In it you'll learn:

-How to choose a freelance writing niche, and if it's something that is even necessary for you to do

-The different types of freelance writing jobs, and which one is the best fit for you

-The big step that most people miss when starting out freelancing, that keeps them from ever having success.

-The best places to look for freelance writing jobs online

-The most effective strategy for getting freelance writing clients QUICKLY.

-And a whole lot more

 This may be my most important BLOG of the year:

 

This is an important Blog this might be  the most important blog writen all year   and that is how to become a freelance writer  plain and simple freelance writing is the  easiest way for most people to make sustainable  long-term money on the internet and in today's video i'm going to show you exactly why that  is but more importantly we are going to show you exactly how to get started step by step  over the course of the next 15 or so minutes we are going to give you everything you need to  know to build a successful freelance writing business that you can get started with right  now and then over the course of just a couple weeks you can actually start bringing in money  on the internet that sounds good to you. 

 Not sold yet? Here's why you should take action:

Before we go into  the how-to you may still have que you may be like you know what i'm not sold on freelance  writing that is that's not for me i don't think well let me tell you let me give you three reasons  why i think you should consider freelance writing the first it's a skill you've already got.

If  you're reading this blog you know how to write on some level you might be a good writer you're  not maybe not such a good writer but you can write and there's all sorts of different types of  freelance writing out there so whether you're a great writer or just an okay writer there's going  to be a type for you we're going to cover those here in just a second all right second reason  i think you should consider freelance writing is because it's the best bridge business that i  know of yes so that's a bridge and you might be thinking what the hell is a bridge business bridge business is the thing that's gonna get you  from point a to point b if you're watching this  chances are you're not like totally stoked on your life you may need more money you may you know want  to quit your job you may just want more free time to spend with your family or kids or on hobbies or  whatever it is so you're looking to make a change well freelance writing is the best way to get to  that kind of dream life down the road why is that because it's going to help you build the skills  you need to be successful with any online business you can start making money quickly and you can  start building momentum finally the third reason i think you should consider freelance writing is  because there has never been a greater demand for freelancers there are all sorts of reasons why  this is first off let's look at search traffic everybody's trying to get free traffic these days  when ads are starting to become less effective due to like algorithm changes and laws people  aren't seeing the results they were seeing with ads so how are they going to get search traffic  by creating more content and so businesses need content writers to continue churning out a steady  stream of new content so that they can get search traffic to their website and get new customers  and make more money so that's that's one example another example is think about all of the content  creators out there people that are full-time content creators whether it's bloggers youtubers  you know influencers tick talkers whatever it is all of these people that are now trying to  treat that as their livelihood they're going to need more content as well and so who are they  going to turn to to help them grow that content  freelancers. 

How many times are there?

what's freelance what types of freelance writing are out there. so there's basic freelance content writing  a business or a person needs a blog post written about a certain topic they can hire a freelance  writer to do that there's also b2b writing that's where you're writing content specifically for  businesses that market to other businesses there's copywriting this is kind of like the pinnacle of  freelance writing copywriting is any time you're trying to be persuasive with your words and if you  know how to be persuasive with your words you're never going to hurt for money ever again that's  why copywriting is probably the most highly paid type of freelance writing because that's where  all the selling happens and so if you can create content that is going to make other  people money they're going to pay you well for  

that there's also technical writing so let's say  you're in a field where you've got some knowledge that other people don't necessarily have around a  technical topic there is an opportunity for you to go freelance within that field and make a bunch of  money in the process so my point with all this was just to say that regardless of what your skill set  is and where you're at in your own writing journey there is a type of freelance writing out there  for you and before we get into the step by steps i want to talk about mindset most freelance writers  think cool i'm going to be a freelance writer i'm going to throw up a website i'm going to get on  up work and all of a sudden jobs are just going to start coming my way i'm going to be rolling  in freelance writing jobs and you know what that's not how it works you have to have the right  mindset if you want to be a successful freelance writer and in order to do that you have to take  consistent action you have to be the one that's going to reach out to build relationships with  those people that are going to hire you and we're going to talk about exactly how to do that but  if you're not in the right mindset and you're not prepared for that you're going to get frustrated  you're going to give up and you're not going to have any success so one of the best pieces of  advice i can give you is to take consistent action every single day and also prepare yourself for a  lot of knows at first you are going to get a lot of people that say no you're a lot of people that  say leave me alone you're going to get a lot of people that are just not even going to respond  to your outreach in the first place and you know what that's all part of the process because  every no gets you that much closer to a yes all.

Steps for building a freelance business:

• Step number one for building your freelance writing business take stock of your current skills  and interests so sit down take 10 or 15 minutes  and just write out a list of all of the unique knowledge you've got all of the unique skills  you've got the hobbies the interests all of the stuff that you know something about and maybe  you've got an interest in so for me i know i have really unique knowledge when it comes to golf i  have unique knowledge when it comes to teaching people out of freelance. whatever it is so what you want  to do is? you want to create that list and try to  figure out what your unique angle is that might  be different from the freelance writer down the  street because all of those unique skills that  you've got and that unique knowledge that is all  going to give you a little bit of a leg up over  other people that might be vying for the same jobs  all right so there you go make a list of all the  things you know how hard can that be.

• Step number two which is choose a niche i like to say niche when we said niche so now we have to say niche and we sound like we are trying to pretend to be european or something by saying niche we are like friend i digress you choose  a niche real quick one note on that you might not have a niche you might not have a specific set  of knowledge that you think you can build a whole freelance writing career around no problem you can  become a freelance writing generalist that's where  you basically say you know what i can write about  anything i'm going to look for different clients and honestly you can look at being a generalist  as a little bit of a niche within itself so let's say somebody comes to you you find a potential  client they're like i need you to write you know 10 articles about pelotons and you may say i know  nothing about peloton i don't have a peloton i don't want to have a peloton i don't even own a  bicycle but if you are able to hop on the internet spend half an hour do a little bit of research  learn a bunch of things about peloton and then write a cohesive article about that or in this  case 10 then that is a skill that is in demand if you can take a topic learn about that topic and  then write a good quality piece of content around it then that is going to give you a huge leg up  over other people and as a generalist that's kind of a niche within itself like i said but let's say  that's not you let's say you do have a specific set of knowledge that you think there's going to  be a market for that other people don't have so examples of this might be do you have a health  healthcare background do you have a technology  background do you have a finance background do you  have a legal background is there a specific hobby that you know something about that a lot of people  don't so for me i have a background in finance i know that i can  write better more in-depth content about certain finance topics when  compared to the average writer so for me i decided  to niche down my freelance writing and i know direct response marketing which makes me a really  unique person within that world so if you have a  unique background you might consider choosing  that as a niche and really narrowing in to go for clients within that industry so just to bring  this whole concept of niching down home a little bit so that's why niching down can be so beneficial you want to become the no-brainer hire for all of those people  within your industry now don't get me wrong that's not to say you can't have success as a generalist  because so often a lot of these marketing agencies and businesses they're not so niched down that  they need someone with that level of technical expertise so don't let that discourage you  if you're starting as a generalist but know that if you are going to niche down there's  probably going to be a big opportunity for you.

• Step number three: By doing a quick search that's just freelance writer in whatever your industry is  you're gonna start to get a sense of who is out there looking for freelance writers but then i  want you to go a little bit beyond that i want you to figure out what are all the blogs what  are the businesses what are the magazines what are the trade publications what are all of the  outlets within your industry that you might be able to write for and start making a huge list  of all of those different places because those are going to be the people you're going to start  building relationships with to try and get your first jobs the more you know about the industry  the more you know about the players the more you know about the landscape the more knowledge you  just have about that particular topic the easier it's going to be to communicate with people and  to prove that you know what you're talking about and get the job so if you're not totally confident  in your niche  

• Step number four: you're gonna need a portfolio because what's gonna happen you're  gonna start reaching out to all these people that you just made a list of and we're gonna talk about  how to do that outreach here in just a second but what's the first thing they're gonna do they're  going to look you up they're going to be like this guy actually know what he's  talking about and what do you want them to find you want them to find your portfolio website  where you make yourself look like a badass and someone who is very confident and has  personality and knows what they're talking about because that's what people do they look up other  people because they want to make sure that you are reputable and you are who you say you are  so linkedin can do that a little bit you want  to have a good linkedin profile if you're going to  become a freelance writer but having the website can give you a leg up so what i recommend is if  you can't come up with like a clever domain name  don't worry about it do a version of your name rights.Go to bluehost  you get a hosting account it's gonna be less  than like 50 bucks for the first year  you  install wordpress they have one click wordpress  install wordpress is called a content management system a cms all it is is an easy way for you to  create a website and manage the back end of it you can go get a premium theme .you click that and click install you add some words you add some  images away you go all right

• Step number five: step number five is you're  gonna go start signing up for some sites that are looking to hire freelance writers so the first one  that's going to come to your mind is going to be up work and sign up for upwork because it's actually not a great place for freelance writers especially people that are just starting out there are so many people on the website that  for one it's hard to get approved as a freelancer on that site but it's also a race to the bottom  people that are there are usually trying to find the cheapest person for low quality work and  that's just not a game that we need to play  

• Step number six: is the step that i have been touting that is the most important part of the process all of  different freelance sites. you should sign up you should try and get work on  them but those are probably not the places you're going to get all the work how are you going to  get all the work through cold outreach and step number six is all about creating your system for  cold outreach that is how you're going to find clients you're going to build relationships with  people and you're going to make money by learning how to reach out to people that might be needing  freelance writing work and positioning yourself as the perfect person for that freelance writing  work okay that makes sense i think that made sense . so how do you do it you gotta create a spreadsheet  so we're going to create a list of as many people as possible that might be good people to reach  out to a good starting point is when you're  doing your research on your niche and you started  creating a list of all the different publications and blogs and businesses and people create a  spreadsheet with uh the name of the publication their website the contact person so you might be  looking for editor editor-in-chief content manager different titles like that find their email  address and their name if possible then maybe have a notes section and so what you want to do is  you want to make as big of a list as possible if you're starting with the generalist no problem you  can start reaching out to agencies. Those agencies that are going to have clients  that are going to need content and the great thing is there is literally an unlimited amount of  agencies websites businesses out there that need help with this stuff so create your list it's  not fun it's not sexy it's gonna take some time but sit down plow through it and get to  the point where you have a few hundred people and then what are you gonna do here start sending  emails a lot of people call this the cold pitch the best way to start is not to actually pitch  you want to send what's called a letter of  introduction so this is just saying hey how's it  going my name is _____ i really love the work you do at ________i've been following it for  a while i'm a freelance content writer and i just  wanted to reach out and introduce myself to see  if there might be an opportunity to have more of  a conversation see if i might be able to help  you out if not totally no big deal i love what  you're doing i'll keep following along hope to  talk to you soon goodbye that's a that's a very  cursory example of this.we've got a whole blog that goes into some more of the details about it but what you're doing is you're just trying  to open up the door you're just trying to build a relationship with people you're not trying to  force the hard sale on them you're just trying to say hey uh i think that we might be a good fit  i've got the service you may need it if not no big deal uh but if so then let's talk let's see  where we can take this so if you want to get real serious and go beyond just using a spreadsheet i  recommend streak for gmail basically streak is a service that turns your gmail into a full-on crm  customer relationship manager so it enables you to enter all your you know potential leads in  there track when you last reached out to them  track what their responses were they've got a free  version which works really well.
  So i personally use streak for a lot of my sales stuff when i'm  doing it with like 80 club and things like that so it's one that's definitely worth checking out  and looking into doing this outreach is the single  most important part to building your freelance  business this is where most people fail. so when people say i'm not getting any clients freelance writing just isn't working it's not possible uh the first  thing i say is how many outreach emails did you send last week and normally they'll be like uh  well most of the time they'll say i didn't send any and then maybe they'll be like well i spent  like i don't know three on one day and then one on thursday and that was it you should be sending  five to ten personalized letters of introduction every single day if you do that within weeks  you will have leads you will have prospects and chances are you're going to have some clients as  well one very one very important thing to remember when you're doing this is you want to make this as personalized as possible what most people are going to do is they're going to create  a template they're going to take their spreadsheet and they're going to take all those  email addresses they're going to hit mail merge and they're going to send it out and send the  exact same thing to everybody and you know what people can see through that there's real they're  real people that are reading these pitches they're reading these letters of introduction these  emails and so if they can tell that this thing was mail merge they're just like nope you're  wasting my time but if you send a thoughtful personalized pitch that shows you're a real  person that makes an opportunity to potentially build some rapport with the person that you're  emailing at the very least you're more likely to get a response it might be a hey thanks for  reaching out we're not interested right now but  it's at least a response and that opens the door  for a future collaboration or future communication .so be personal this is the thing that will set you apart.  

So just to summarize step number six real quick because if you take one thing from this blog take  step number six you could not do everything else and still build a successful business if you  start doing these things right here so build a spreadsheet of people you can potentially write  for send five to ten personalized pitches a day follow up with those pitches every few days until  you get a response and be as authentic as possible do not use mail merge ever do that every day  for the next month and you will start getting leads and you will start getting clients it's as  simple as that there you go that was a lot but  

i truly believe that if you're looking to build  a freelance writing business all you have to do is do the stuff we just talked about and within  weeks you are going to start seeing things happen you are going to have a real freelance writing  business you are going to get clients that are going to pay you money to write for them which is  then going to open up all kinds of doors and all kinds of opportunities. 

If you did get value out of this blog you know do the things give it the thumbs up hit the subscribe  button below if you're looking to make a living with your words on the internet that's what we  do here at location rebel and we've spent over a decade doing it so with that . If you're looking for another blog to read i  recommend you go check out this one right here and  we'll see on the next one have a great day peace!