6 Steps to Become a Successful Freelancer in Article Writing

As people are getting more and more success with their blogs there is a good demand for quality articles. It is necessary for site owners to keep the content recent and up to date. This needs publishing lot of articles to keep the readers and customers engaged.

But it is really not possible for the site owner to manage the blog single handedly when it grows big in size. One of the easy parts for outsourcing is to get articles from third parties and guest authors. Though there are many websites offer freelance writing services, the content or article writing sector is still an unorganized area. Freelancer with good writing skills are in huge demand and can make decent money for their living with writing articles for popular blogs.

6 Steps to Become a Successful Freelancer in Article Writing

In this article we will discuss 6 steps to become a successful freelancer in article writing. It always take some time to establish your name. Don’t get frustrated without trying sufficient and working hard. Remember the gold might be just feet away under the ground, so never gives up digging.

1. Choose Your Niche

Be clear on what is your area of strength and keep it within three areas to focus. Though it looks million of writers are available, the truth is completely different. More than 90% of writer bid for a project on freelancing sites are simply under qualified for that task.

We have tested this on the popular Freelancer.com site by creating project for getting WordPress tutorials. Out of the 18 received bids none of the bidder knows WordPress. No point of blaming the freelancing sites or the employer when you don’t have enough stuff. Remember no one will be interested in paying you for practice writing on his or her site.

So first build up your skill and practice structured writing. Focus only on the area of your interest and never bid for the projects out of your scope.

2. Have Your Own Site and Blog

Preparing web content is different than preparing assignments in schools and colleges. Do it yourself to understand how difficult to convert a though process into a writing and provide an attractive format to it. The best way is to have your own site offering content writing services and a blog. This will not only help you to practice writing but also helps to win customers over the period of time.

3. Prepare Your Samples

This is simple when you have your own blog. Choose the best articles from your blog and showcase while bidding for the article writing projects.

When the project owner observes that you are running a blog they will understand that you know how to write web content. Otherwise providing simple word document will not take you anywhere other than quoting $5 per article or even lower.

If you are not in a position to run a blog then create a plagiarism free article for showcasing. Generally article with data driven approach always get attention compared to plain articles.

4. Submit Guest Post for Showcasing

Site owners accept guest post due to large amount of time required for creating content. Search for the popular sites accepting guest posts and try your articles get published. Ensure to read the terms and conditions and create content  that adds value to the site owner and readers. Initially you may need to give it for free only with the objective for getting an entry. Once you have couple of links it will add huge value to your freelance article writing career.

Avoid quoting unnecessary third party links in your article. Most of the site owners will not accept the articles with unnatural links.

5. Contact Site Owners Directly

All the above points are focusing on preparing yourself as a freelancer writer. These steps are definitely required and need lot of time. But this is like a initial investment for a prosperous career. We strongly recommend not to work on chargeable projects without solid preparation. Once you have a own blog, couple of guest post links and sample articles then start working on getting article writing projects. The first approach is to be proactively contact the site owners.

Mostly site owners do not publicly advertise they buy content from freelancers. But there is no harm in approaching them with a quote. Prepare a email with key points like area of your niche, sample articles link and the rate card. You can find out the sites of your niche and send your email to the administrator or owner.

There are also freelancer job portals where business and site owners advertise for writers. For example, sites like Upwork and Freelancer offers a classified job portals primarily for recruiting freelance article writer.

6. Create Profiles in Popular Freelancing Sites

Unfortunately creating profile in all sort of freelancing sites is the first step freelancers do. We recommend doing this as a last step at least after a year in the career as it has two main problems for beginners. One is that all freelancing sites offer low quality services and you will get lost in that. Second is site owners go to those portal for getting low priced articles, so your hard work may not be paid properly.

So, once you are ready with showcasing material then start creating profiles in the popular freelancing sites if necessary. Below are some of the guidelines when doing freelance article writing job through the portals:

• Ensure to have an attractive profile with sufficient details. Employers look at the profile for checking reviews, sample articles and your expertise in the area.
• Avoid spelling and grammar errors in your articles.
• Bid only on your area of niche.
• Contact the project owner to get clarifications before bidding.
• Never copy or use article spinning tools.
• Keep positive attitude when discussing with employers.

Conclusion

Skill, practice and time are three major factors decide your freelance article writing career. In our opinion, put all your effort in getting customers through your own site. This will give you an opportunity to build your own business with article writing instead of working as an independent writer for life long. Assume after a year of starting your site, it is getting thousand visitors per day. With a mere 1% conversion you should get 10 quotations per day. You need to start an agency to handle 10 quotations per day especially if the projects are big and continuous in nature.

On other hand, working on freelancing sites is risk free as your investment and effort are comparatively lower. Also you can completely focus on article writing without getting diverted on other things. But you will get less money and always need to rely on the portal for getting projects.