Freelance Writing 101: First Steps to Getting Started as a Freelance Writer

Many who visit this blog are experienced freelance writers. However, this economy has created a whole new group of talented professionals who may be considering freelance writing for the first time. If this describes you, the following article describes the initial baby steps you need to take to get started.

Once you've digested this information, spend some time tooling around this blog's companion site where you'll find hundreds of articles on every aspect of freelance writing. Good luck -- and welcome to an exciting career!

Launching Your Freelance Writing Career
by Holly McCarthy

With the current state of the economy continually shifting from bad to worse, it’s no wonder many people are trying to find new and improved ways to supplement their income. The need for fresh content and new ways of conveying information online is still a growing market online and there are many ways to break into the freelance writing community. What follows is a brief list of tips to help you get your freelance career started right away.

Launch Your Own Website or Blog

One of the best ways to get your name out there is to have your own space in the virtual world that showcases your abilities and connects you to those who may need your services. Continually update your blog or site with fresh content that demonstrates your abilities. Link to any articles that you may have published online so that your content can be viewed in its proper context as well.

When setting up your own site or blog, work hard to show that you are a professional in every way. Customize your site and keep it strictly professional. It’s great to have followers and make sure that you moderate comments on your postings to ensure that anything unprofessional is not allowed to stay posted beneath your hard work.

Produce Plenty of Content

Work hard at creating content on a wide variety of topics that are being viewed by readers all over the web. Keeping yourself busy writing will help ensure that you are ready to write what’s needed when big requests and assignments come down from clients in the future. Once you have gotten a good amount of work completed, you can begin compiling your portfolio.

Maintain a Quality Portfolio

As a freelancer, you will come to learn that many who purchase content are more about quantity over quality. While these types of assignments will keep you busy and make sure that some money is coming in, you need to make sure that you have some high-quality pieces that are polished and ready to demonstrate your ability to go beyond the call of duty and create outstanding content.

Having this in place will ensure that your communications with potential clients will be efficient and effective; you won’t have to scramble to look for your best work if you maintain a portfolio of your best work.

About the Author: Holly McCarthy writes on the subject of the top online colleges. She invites your feedback at hollymccarthy12 at gmail dot com.

Feel free to submit a guest post.

Yuwanda (Wanna know what I'm up to? Check me out on Twitter)
Contact: info *at* InkwellEditorial.com
P.S.: Where are all the freelance writing jobs? Find out in the 2008-2009 Freelance Writing Jobs Report
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