Your 5-Step Guide To Getting Your First Freelance Writing Gig

So you’ve decided that you want to be a freelance writer. You’re sick to your back teeth of your day job and you dream of being your own boss and spending your days working from a coffee shop, weaving wordy magic for clients all over the world.

Or if you’re a realist, you know that freelance life is less about coffee shops and more about working in your pyjamas and brushing your hair less often, but that still sounds pretty bloody appealing. Or maybe you just want to supplement your existing income on evenings and weekends with your passion for writing.

There’s a ton of things you could procrastinate with right now, like learning how to build a website, or reading books about freelancing, but they’re not going to get you to where you want to be in the quickest possible timeframe. What you really need is a plan of action that’s going to land you your first paying client.

Here are 5 steps to getting your first freelance writing gig – even if you’re brand new, have no experience, no contacts, and no clue…

1. CHOOSE YOUR NICHE

Your niche, in the simplest of terms, is the subject that you’re going to be writing about. There’s a natural tendency to think that if you’re willing to have a stab at anything and everything, there’s a bigger potential to find some work. What actually happens when you don’t pick a niche though is that you look like a Jill of All Trades, and a master of none.

So how do you choose? I suggest picking something that’s a good mix between your previous experience and what you already have a good knowledge of, and something that you’re passionate about. You’re running your own show here, so you might as well make life easier and go with something you’ll enjoy.

When I was first getting started with freelance writing, I’d recently left a career in corporate HR. It was a pretty natural step to start writing for HR businesses. I knew the subject inside-out, and because of this, it put me way ahead of 99.9% of other freelance writers competing for the same gigs. Even though I was totally new to freelance writing, I used my experience in the same niche to give me a head start.

I was also pretty bloody bored of HR by this point, too. I got plenty of work, but I did create a bit of a rod for my own back. A year or two later, I changed my niche. And you CAN do that, too. You WILL work a lot of this out as you go.

I’m not asking you to make a lifelong commitment to just one subject here. But choosing one for the time being is going to make the next steps in this guide a lot simpler.

Another way in which you might want to define your niche is by the TYPE of writing you’ll be doing. Blog posts? Emails? Sales pages? Website copy? All these things require a slightly different set of skills, and there can be massive value in setting out to build your reputation as that-freelance-writer-who-writes-killer-marketing-emails-that-create-a-load-of-sales, just for example.

The final question you want to be asking yourself about your niche is whether there’s actually a market for it. If it’s something ridiculously obscure, or something that there aren’t a good amount of businesses built around, you might struggle to find potential clients.

Ultimately, businesses, more often than not, will want to make money from the subject you’re writing about. Ask yourself if that’s viable. A little common sense goes a long way here, but you can also hit Google and freelance job boards to see what the market’s like in your niche, and just how much work is available.

2. SET UP A DEDICATED EMAIL ADDRESS AND PAYPAL ACCOUNT

Okay, this one’s easy. Organisation is essential as a freelancer, and so is getting paid. I’d highly recommend setting up an email address that you’ll use for your writing business, and then opening a PayPal business account.

Connect your PayPal account to your bank account, and you’ve got a safe and secure way to get paid. You can submit an invoice direct to your client, or if you’re using freelance job boards – which we’ll come to in a minute – then they’ll usually take payment from the client, then fire it over to your PayPal, minus a small middleman fee.

PayPal does take a small cut of your cash. If you’re receiving £1,500 into your account each month, it’s 20p per payment + 3.4%. But it saves you a lot of hassle, it keeps things professional, and there are no set-up fees or monthly subscriptions to worry about.

3. CREATE PORTFOLIO PIECES RELEVANT TO YOUR NICHE

Before clients hire you for your first freelance writing gig, they’ll want to see the kind of work you produce. As we’re talking about getting your first freelance writing gig here, I’m assuming that you won’t already have a portfolio. That’s fine, because we’re about to create one.

First of all, brainstorm some pieces that you’re going to write, to show off your style and what your work is going to be like. They could be blog posts, emails newsletters, or whatever format it is that you’re hoping to create for your clients.

Next, go ahead and produce five sample pieces. Obviously, they should be relevant to your niche. They should be your best work and you should be proud of what you’ve created and how it showcases your talents, but don’t get ridiculously caught up with it.

Create a deadline for yourself, and have them ready. You can do this in an afternoon, if you get down to business. Otherwise, you’ll spend months and months fussing and faffing, when you could be out there doing work that you’re getting paid for.

4. GET YOUR PORTFOLIO ONLINE

If you’ve already got a website or a blog, then you can use that to host your newly created portfolio pieces, so you’ve got somewhere to send your potential clients to show off your work. If you don’t though, don’t worry. There’s plenty of time to sort that out later once you’ve got paying work, and you definitely don’t need a site to get your first freelance writing gig.

You’ve got plenty of other options here. The quick and dirty option is to upload your samples to Google Docs, and then have the direct links ready to share. If you want a bit more of a polished finish, you can use a free portfolio platform like Contently.

5. CREATE YOUR PITCHING STRATEGY

We’ve got your foundations in place now, but there’s a big challenge that still remains… Your potential clients don’t know who you are. They’re not going to stumble upon your work by accident, so it’s time to get out there and pitch for gigs.

There are loads of options here, and I’m going to cover two of my favourites, which are the exact things that I used to get my first freelance work. What’s most important is that you pick an approach that you’re going to commit to – ideally for an hour a day, for a month. Then you can assess what’s working and what you might need to tweak moving forward.

1. Applying via freelance job boards

Freelance job boards like PeoplePerHour and ProBlogger are where I started my writing career. You simply search through what’s available, and you send your application to the relevant ones that you’re interested in.

You’ll put together a pitch that includes your portfolio, and details the reasons why you’re a great fit for that that project.

Demonstrate that you’ve read the brief properly, and if relevant, that you’ve done a little research on the company. This isn’t the place for a quick copy and paste job. Once I was firmly into the swing of doing this, I could comfortably send out around 4 good pitches an hour, and I was dedicating about an hour a day. By the end of the first month, I had a good amount of work booked into my diary.

Getting your first freelance writing gig is the toughest hurdle, but you quickly build up momentum.

2. Pitching to agencies who work with freelancers

During my first few months on PeoplePerHour, a lot of the clients that I worked with were marketing agencies. They had clients who needed content produced for them, and they outsourced that work to freelancers on these job boards.

I also realised that these agencies were usually a pleasure to work with. They had loads of projects available, they were organised and knew exactly what they wanted, they were often looking for ongoing and longer term relationships with reliable freelancers, and they paid quickly. I wanted a bigger piece of this pie.

So alongside the clients I already had, I started contacting marketing agencies directly. I looked for ones that operated in my niche, ones that had advertised freelance roles in the past (Google is your friend here). I’d fire over emails introducing myself and my work, and invite them to have a chat with me about my writing services.

I landed a few agency clients this way, and that was more than enough. Like I’ve mentioned, these agencies often have a high volume of work, so create relationships with just a few of them, and they could keep you as busy as you’d like to be.

YOUR 5 STEPS TO GETTING YOUR FIRST FREELANCE WRITING GIG

This is the exact process I used to start a successful freelance writing business, and you could get started with it today by making your way through the steps:

• Choose your niche
• Set up a dedicated email address and PayPal account
• Create portfolio pieces relevant to your niche
• Get your portfolio online
• Create your pitching strategy

Got questions about getting your first freelance writing gig? Drop them in the comments below.

I’m taking part in the Monday Money linky with Lynn from Mrs Mummy Penny, Faith from Much More With Less and Emma from EmmaDrew.Info

 

 

 

 

 

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