With the unemployment rates still rocky throughout the country, many people are turning to work-from-home opportunities. One of the more popular careers that can be done from the comforts of home is freelance writing. There are two ways to start a freelance writing career, the conservative way to start freelance writing and the Jump Right into Freelance Writing way. Both of these are acceptable ways to break into the writing industry.
There are many people who may feel nervous and would prefer to take it slow when beginning a new profession. It may be a good idea to start out part-time before taking the plunge to make freelance writing a full time career. The main point to the conservative way to start freelance writing is to move at your own pace and advance when you feel comfortable, even if it is months between writing application submissions.
No Samples Required
For those looking for the conservative way to start freelance writing, start out with How-To articles at FireHow. This website does not require writing samples or a writing resume to become an author, which eliminates most of the stress a new writer may feel when applying for a position that has the possibility of not getting hired. Simply go to the website and sign up.
A writer can post any How-To article of their choice on FireHow, preferably on a topic that has not already been written by someone else, and receive comments and ratings on the article. The more articles you have, the more page views you’ll receive, and the more you can make.
Samples Required
Once you feel you are ready to take the next step in the conservative way to start freelance writing, choose your best FireHow article and use it as a sample to apply to Textbroker. If you prefer, you can write a new article that is not in the how-to format to use as your sample. Keep it to about 400 words and write it on a topic that you are very familiar with. Make sure there are no grammatical errors when you submit the sample.
Textbroker is a content mill where many freelance writers start out, and many continue to write there because of their great reputation. Textbroker will review your application and your writing sample. If approved, you will be given a rating between 2 and 4 stars. There is a 5 star rating too, but writers must apply for that after they have some experience under their belt. All Textbroker writers choose articles from a giant list, broken down by topic categories and rating. A writer can only choose one article at a time, but there is no limit to the amount of articles that can be written.
Yahoo! Contributor Network is the next step in the conservative way to start freelance writing. Use the same sample that you used to apply at Textbroker to apply at Yahoo! Contributor Network, formally known as Associated Content. Here, writers have the opportunity to earn up front pay, as well as residual income. Once approved, go ahead and sell that writing sample to Yahoo! Contributor Network. If you are using one of your FireHow articles, you must indicate that the article is published elsewhere and you will only be able to earn residual income on that piece, but not up front compensation.
Experience Required
The more you write, the higher your self-esteem will be, and the better your writing will become. You should now have quite a few articles online, on a variety of topics, to use when applying for higher-paying writing jobs. At this point, you want to take note of your writing experience and create a resume. It may be small at this point, since you only write for a few places, but it is important to get one started. As you are approved to write at more places, it is easy to simply add the information onto your existing resume.
Once you have a resume and you feel ready for more advanced writing jobs, apply to Demand Studios for upfront pay and Suite101 for residual income. You may also want to search through Craig’s List for private clients. Private clients are usually businesses that require the services of a freelance writer and typically pay higher than content mills. It may be a one time project or a lasting working relationship.
Build Page Views
To build page views on your articles listed on residual sites, Facebook and Twitter are great tools. Post the links to all your articles on Facebook and Twitter so that your friends and followers can access them easily. You want to generate as much traffic as possible to your articles to earn as much money as possible. You will also build your reputation as a writer as more people become aware of your work.
Another great way to build page views is to add your article links to your signature line in any forums or message boards you participate on, as well as in your email signature. Don’t forget to send emails to family and friends to let them know you have a new article published and send them over to check it out. Seeing good ratings, page views, and comments is a great confidence booster for a new freelance writer working the conservative way to start freelance writing.
Janis Bennett - Janis Bennett has been writting for over 10 years. She enjoys writing about a variety of topics, especially diabetes, ADHD, and travel.
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