You do not need a long, comprehensive resume in order to become a freelance writer. Unfortunately, many aspiring writers never follow their dream because they think they don’t have the necessary background. The fact of the matter is that you do not need a long resume in order to get started. Even though I studied journalism in college, my resume was not full of tons of relevant experience when I decided to look into freelance writing.
Here are three details that prospective clients consider important. They may look at your resume as well, but if you can perform in these areas, you will be in a good position to succeed.
1. Even if you do not have formal writing experience, your past work experiences can put you in a good position to succeed as a freelance writer. For example, I worked in the background check industry for a couple of years before becoming a writer. With this experience in tow, I began to contact publications catering to human resource professionals. Soon enough, I was landing feature article assignments because these editors were interested in my past industry experience. Believe it or not, many of them never asked to see writing samples.
2. There is no denying that some clients may ask for work samples. But guess what? In many cases you will be able to get away with sending them anything. This can include an article that you wrote for a college newspaper, or a sales letter that you put together at your last day job. Generally speaking, prospective clients just want to make sure that you have a good grasp on the English language. If you can prove this through one sample, that may be all that you need. In other words, a long resume is not the end all.
3. If you are a good sales person, you may be able to talk your way into a job. In other words, once you get a prospective client on the phone, you can talk yourself up until you get what you want. Of course, you need to be careful when doing this. You do not want to annoy a potential client, or come off as a used car salesman. If you talk a good game, you may want to use this skill to obtain work. Just remember, you are going to have to perform for the client sooner rather than later.
As you can see, having an impressive resume is not the only way to break into the freelance writing industry. Try the three tips above when attempting to land freelance writing jobs.
As of late, I have been receiving a few emails a week from freelance writers who are frustrated with the work being offered on bidding sites such as GetAFreelancer, Elance, etc. Although I do not bid on nearly as many jobs as previous years, I still like to keep up with what is going on within this industry. From what I can gather, the majority of jobs being posted are of low quality and those that seem promising are being awarded to those offering the lowest rates.
If you are not finding any jobs on these sites, there is no point in spending a lot of time on them. Instead, you should rethink your marketing plan so that you can begin to increase your freelance writing workload. Believe it or not, there are other ways to find work. This is not to say that you should do away with bidding sites altogether, but you should definitely consider other options; especially since these services seem to be going down the tubes.
The main reason that many aspiring writers stick with bidding sites instead of other options is because it is the easiest thing to do. In other words, it is much easier to bid on jobs than to write a query letter or cold call local businesses. But guess what? If you want to achieve a high level of success, you need to break out of your comfort zone and begin to search for jobs in other ways. Soon enough you will realize that bidding sites are good for nothing more than finding small jobs from time to time.
The bottom line: if you are relying on bidding sites and nothing more you are probably going to find it difficult to earn a decent living as a freelance writer. You can still check these sites everyday for new jobs, but do not rely on them to make or break your career. Instead, revamp your marketing plan so that you are generating new leads in many different ways.
No matter how much you love your career as a freelance writer there is a chance that you will burn out sooner or later. The fact of the matter is that this happens to everybody; no matter what career path you choose. And in my opinion, freelance writers are more prone to burning out because they work from home and do not have as much personal interaction as others.
If you are worried about burning out, keep in mind that there are many ways to protect yourself against this and deal with this situation if it does occur.
1. Do your best to talk with like minded professionals day in and day out. You can do this via email, instant messenger, phone, or in person. While it may not be feasible to meet with clients on a daily basis, you should attempt to leave home for a work related purpose at least once per week. Take a lunch break with friends, head to the store for office supplies, or go to the bookstore or coffee shop. No matter what, you should try to get out from time to time.
2. There is nothing wrong with taking a day off. When I first started working as a freelance writer I never wanted to leave my computer. Of course, I learned over time that this was a mistake. This does not mean that you should take a day off every week, but you should not feel guilty if you do so every once in a while. Personally, I do not take off many days, but if I begin to feel burnt out it is something that I consider right away.
3. Start a new project that will break up your day to day freelance writing tasks. This is one of the best ways to avoid burn out, and something that I definitely endorse. I have several projects in line that are not the same as my usual freelance writing load. These projects give me the chance to make sales calls, meet other people, and forget about my writing work for a few hours per week.
Freelance writing burn out is something that you will have to cope with at some point in time. As long as you take care of this problem so it does not linger, it should not have any long term negative effects on your career and/or income.Â
