Building a Successful Freelance Writing Career

As discussed in the previous chapter that the internet revolution has transformed freelancing into a prospering industry. With hundreds of avenues for freelancers to explore, „Freelance writing‟ is the most promising one. The following case study highlights the success story of a freelance writer:

Case Study

Dr Alice Jane Lippner the CEO of Info briefings LLC (an information marketing and seminar business), was professionally a physician and attorney. But she never got utmost satisfaction from her work as her creativity was always hindered by tight work and personal schedules unless she began freelance writing for a pharmaceutical company in 1989.With the ultimate freedom of work, she successfully expanded her business into a lucrative info-empire. She sees freelance writing as a rationale behind her success and says:

‗My only regret was that I didn‘t do it sooner. Freelance writing is the perfect career to escape from the ―rat race.‖ I love it. I can‘t believe how I ever survived before I found the solution to achieving balance (sanity)?‘

But the question is how can we build a successful freelance writing career? In this chapter, we will discuss a few tips and see how we can build lucrative business empires as developed by Dr Alice Jane.

Freelance Writing

Freelance writing today is a lucrative business opportunity. As online medium has become a major source of information sharing, more and more businesses are going online. This has eventually increased the demand of content writers as any website developed for whatever purpose, must need some content in it. Also, to save costs and get focused to their primary business many people outsource content writing, bringing an opportunity for freelance writers.

Various types of freelance writing are creative writing, eBook writing, sales and marketing writing, newsletter and editorial, magazine writing, SEO writing, web blog writing and many more which we will discuss in later chapters.

How to build a successful freelance writing career?

Although, for writers to break into the freelance market, there are many opportunities it requires skills and correct strategy to achieve success. Let’s find out some smarter ways to success in different phases of your freelancing career.

Start-up Phase

• Evaluate your skills and interests: It is imperative to evaluate your own self before offering your services to the market. Freelancing is flexible and you can choose jobs that suit your interest, education, skills and background.
• Preliminary search: Actively search online for freelance jobs available and get yourself registered with various good freelance writing sites on the internet.
• Introduce your services to prospects: A well designed “Bio-sheet‟, is a best resource to offer yourself to the prospective client. It is a document similar to a resume carrying a brief description of your education, skills, experiences and interests.

Growth Phase

• • Beware of the single-client trap: As freelance work is job-based and generally no contracts are signed, it is crucial to work for a number of clients rather than stick to a single client, but ethically, you must avoid giving services to clients who might be each other’s close, competitors.

• • Improve your writing skills: In order to retain your jobs, it is essential to keep improving your writing skills. In later chapters we will discuss in detail how can you improve your writing skills and be persistent.

• • Take criticism positively: Take criticism and comments from your clients as guidelines for future success and never get discouraged on rejections.

Maturity Phase

• • Be consistent: Consistency is crucial for long term existence. It is generally observed that freelancing is considered as a source of second income and people take it very casually and get bored too quickly.

• • Stay in touch with old clients: Relationship building is considered as a key to success as market is flooded with masses of freelance writers from all over the globe.

Hence freelance writing is an open platform for anyone anywhere in the world, but long term persistence is not every ones cup of tea. One should take it is a passion and it requires skills and intense hard work to get success.

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