When you’re first dipping your toes into the world of freelancing, you’ve got a bit of a chicken-and-egg style situation on your hands.
You need a freelance writing portfolio to show your work off to your potential clients. But you haven’t actually had any paying work just yet, so that portfolio is looking a bit too thin on the ground.
Like we’ve covered previously here on the blog though, you definitely don’t have to – and definitely shouldn’t, for that matter – sit around and wait for a paying project to land in your lap before you get down to business. If you do that, you’re probably going to be waiting an awful long time.
What you’re going to do is take the bull by the horns, and create around five pieces of content that are going to wow your prospects and show them exactly what you’re capable of, and why they should use your services.
The good news here is that it’s simple to do, and you could realistically have your portfolio ready to go within a couple of days.
It’s true that your freelance writing portfolio will improve over time, once you’ve built up experience and a range of clients, but that’s not particularly helpful right now. To maximise your chances of landing clients sooner rather than later, you need to make sure that your samples have that extra edge, and are going to get noticed for all the right reasons.
Here are four tips for creating an awesome freelance writing portfolio – even if you’re brand new and have had no paying clients so far…
1. MAKE SURE YOUR PIECES ARE RELEVANT TO THE JOBS THAT YOU’LL BE APPLYING FOR
In my 5-step guide to getting your first freelance writing gig, I explained why you should a choose a niche. If you’ve done this, then you’ve probably realised that you’ve made your life ten times easier. Because if you don’t have a niche, it’s extremely difficult to create a portfolio that isn’t just a random mash-up of various different and unrelated subjects.
And if you’re pitching for a job that involves writing content about online marketing, and you have sample pieces that are about pet care, fitness, and parenting, then you’re not doing yourself any favours. Put yourself in the shoes of your client. It’s not going to wow them.
Your chosen niche should be your starting point, and then you need to do a little research into the exact subjects that you’ll tackle. Now isn’t the time to attempt to write a definitive guide to your subject… It’s all about doing some research and picking out a few specific areas to create your content around.
In practice, you’ll be checking out popular blogs in that field, establishing what the hot topics are, and putting your own spin on them. You’ll be looking at sites like People Per Hour and working out what your potential clients are requesting. You’ll want to show that your knowledge is up to date.
So let’s say, just for example, that you’ve chosen that online marketing niche that we just mentioned. Your future clients are likely to want content that shares advice and guidance that positions them as experts in their field, so their potential clients are wowed into whipping out their credit cards.
After your research, your portfolio might end up consisting of blog posts with titles like these…
- 3 Insider Secrets For Doubling Your Instagram Followers Within 30 Days
- The Email Marketing Trends That You Can’t Afford To Ignore In 2018
- 5 Blogging Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Small Business
Those subjects might make absolutely zero sense to you, and if you’re not hoping to write about online marketing, then that’s fine. In fact, it’s the whole point. The pieces you create should be specific, and demonstrate that you know your stuff when it comes to your niche.
You may well have a couple of niches that you’re keen to pursue at this stage. If that’s the case, then you can realistically straddle a few subject areas in your portfolio. But creating a portfolio that does justice to just about everything under the sun? Not so easy. Embrace your niche!
2. USE FORMATTING SO YOUR CONTENT IS DIGESTIBLE AND EASY ON THE EYE
Over the past few years, I’ve done a load of content critiques for clients and budding writers who have taken my courses, and there’s one particular comment that I’ve made over and over again. That they need to break their paragraphs down and make things much easier on the eye.
See, the internet has turned us all into skim readers. It’s slashed our attention spans. When we’re faced with massive bodies of text, our brains find them overwhelming and we just skip on past. So if you want to make sure that your potential clients are actually going to read your work – and that they can see that their audiences will do the same – you need to be mindful of how your work is presented.
Use the return key to make your paragraphs shorter – ideally, no more than four lines of text. Use headings and subheadings to organise your points. Craft your titles so they make readers stop in their tracks and read more. Use short, punchy sentences, and vary sentence length. Doing just these things can really polish your content and give it an extra edge.
3. INCLUDE A CALL TO ACTION
Okay, so this is a tiny tweak, but it’s an important one. If you were to create a list of reasons why businesses would want to have blogs written for their websites, for example, then you’d probably include things like informing and entertaining their audience, positioning themselves as experts in their field, raising awareness of their products and services, and so on.
You’d be right, but ultimately, those things are just part of the journey towards an end goal.
What your future clients really want is for their readers to take action once they’ve consumed that content. This could be in the form of their audience signing up for an email newsletter (so they can continue to build a relationship and market to them), or even going ahead and making a purchase or booking in a consultation call.
As a freelance content writer, you play an important part in the process, so it pays to show that you understand that. It demonstrates that you can be a real asset to their business, and that you recognise that your services should have a return on investment.
Luckily, It’s really easy to do. At the end of each of your portfolio pieces, tell your reader what the next steps are, and spell out exactly what action they should take.
For this, I’ll often use the ‘If/Then’ formula.
So something along the lines of… ‘If you [are struggling with this issue/need help with getting started/etc], then [book a free call with us today to discuss how we can work together/sign up for our free checklist/etc]’.
4. GIVE YOUR PIECES A PROPER ONLINE HOME
You could simply upload your pieces to Google Docs or Dropbox and send the links over to your potential clients. It’s an option, but if you really want to go the extra mile and show some credibility and professionalism, it makes sense to get your samples published online.
You’ve got a few options here…
Start a blog based around your chosen niche
These days, it’s pretty easy to set up a blog, and you don’t need to be a techy whizz-kid. You can use it as a place to house all your writing samples, and it could also be something that you want to monetise in its own right further down the line.
Do not though – and I repeat DO NOT! – fall into the trap of procrastinating in the form of spending months trying to create the perfect blog. You can get something that’s good enough created in a weekend.
Write guest posts
Whatever your niche is, there’ll be established blogs and websites out there that accept guest submissions. You supply high quality content for their audience, and in return, you get your work published on a credible site, and a link back to your website, if you have one. Some places even pay their contributors a fee.
Use Medium or LinkedIn
This one is probably the quickest win. With platforms like Medium and LinkedIn, anyone can sign up for a free account, create a profile, and publish their work. It’s less of a headache than creating your own blog from scratch, and there’s no waiting around for other website owners to give you the green light and agreeing to publish your content.
It’s ideal if you’re completely brand new to the world of freelance writing, and it can be a great way to quickly get started whilst you’re planning a longer term strategy.
SO YOU’VE CREATED YOUR FREELANCE WRITING PORTFOLIO… WHAT NEXT?
If you put these tips into action, then you absolutely can create a freelance writing portfolio that’ll help you to get those first paying clients – yep, even if you have no prior experience and you’re pretty much brand new!
Your next job is to get your portfolio in front of the right people, and start pitching for work. If the nerves are starting to kick in and you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed? Make sure you check out my guide to overcoming the fear of pitching for freelance writing jobs.
If you’re keen to kickstart your freelance writing career, how are you getting on with creating your portfolio? And which of these tips will you be implementing today? Leave a comment and let me know!
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