Your Freelance Writing Career: Getting Started

You're ready to take the plunge towards living your freelance writing dream, but what now? How do you turn your commitment into reality?

What you need is a workable plan.

Before any jobs searches are performed, before any proposals are drawn up, there is some serious prep work to be done.


Step One: Goals

Whether you're freelancing on the side for a little extra cash, or planning to support yourself solely on freelance contracts, you need clear goals. This will not only give you something to work towards, but also give you a way to measure your level of success at any given time.

Determine your bottom line - how much do you need to make (including overhead) in order to continue? Whatever that amount is, use that as your first goal.


Step Two: Set out a realistic time frame

There are no overnight successes in the freelance world, just committed, hard working individuals carving out decent careers for themselves. They started with nothing, and built a reputation with skill, perseverance, high quality product, and great communication skills.

And you can too.

Take your goal and give yourself a deadline to reach it. Six months is a realistic, workable number for a new freelancer just starting out. If you are looking for a high cash flow very quickly, freelancing probably isn't for you. To do it right, you need time to research the market, create a profile, learn the ins and outs of landing contracts, and build a reputation as an independent contractor. That will not happen overnight no matter how good you are or how long your resume happens to be.

I've seen some people reach their goal by the three month mark, and have known others who took over a year. But six months is a good working number. It gives you time to do your research, test out the market, adjust your strategy and put out some good solid work. And at the six month mark, you will have enough perspective to determine if the freelance life is working for you.


Step Three: Do Your Research

Jumping into the market and going for every job that looks good is a one-way ticket to frustration and disappointment. You need to invest some serious time into studying the market in order to compete and succeed.

The first thing to do is to look through current job postings and study the different types of writing that are in demand. Then hone in on writing jobs that meet your skills and watch them for a few days. See how many bidders they attract, the high and low bid amounts, and what amount each job closes for. This will give you a good idea of what other providers charge for similar work, and how much the award rate varies.

Now you have a good idea of the high and low end of what you can make.

Next you need to take a look at the providers who are successfully winning contracts in your field of expertise. Go through their profiles and see how they present themselves. What is it about their profiles that makes them stand out and screams 'you need to hire me!' What is their hourly rate? How much experience do they have?

Use this knowledge to gauge your own rates and get some insight into how to craft a winning profile.

Once you done this, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. But wait!

If you've done the research, you probably have more questions now than you had before! Things like, "Why do some jobs get awarded for peanuts while others seem to have a high rate of pay?" or, "How can one job get bids that range from fifty dollars to three thousand?"

Don't panic!

I'll take a look at these in my next blog, then we'll move on to signing up and taking the leap.

Image by TuTuWon