3 Skills You Need to Succeed in Freelance Writing

Many look at freelancing as a hit or miss career. Some even don’t believe that writers can make a substantial income freelancing from their backyard. But the arrival of the Internet changed everything: there are now plenty of vacancies online, and the writing industry has picked up tremendously.

Granted, there are uncertainties in freelance writing. You never know when your next assignment will arrive, and freelancers have been known to have plenty of insecurities in their jobs. Plus, you need more than just writing skills to succeed in your freelance writing career, skills such as how to find topics that your targeted readers might be interested in and how to promote your writing services.

1. Weave a topic

Some writers are good at writing, but only when they are given a topic. There are tons of blogs with different themes, topics, and interests.

It’s never easy to find topics to write upon. You may be able to do it twice or thrice but to be able to do it day in and day out requires some ability to pull the rabbit from under your hat. Here are some tips.

Pluck ideas from thin air

You could be negotiating on a new smartphone, and while negotiating, you came across something new that you think would be interesting to other new smartphone buyers like you. Chances are what you have learned while buying your smartphone could be helpful to other buyers as well.

Writing a post like that will attract plenty of readers. Your ability to stay alert, pick up visible clues that have potential, and then turn them into something concrete is a valuable skill.

Give wings to your ideas

Experience is what life teaches you. It gives direction to your writings. A successful writer somehow knows how to interweave the experience he has gained to contribute to the newfound idea and still make it relevant to those who are not in the know.

Experience is also a good place to draw real-life examples from. This helps readers to visualize your ideas with physical analogs they can relate to.

2. Communicate your ideas

The way you handle your clients will eventually decide how successful you are in maintaining relationships with your clients. This is, perhaps, the most understated skill of freelance writing.

Many writers, even though they have a great reputation as a writer, fail to achieve their potential because they have failed in their public relations efforts in the past.

You need communication skills to pitch ideas, negotiate rates, and there is no one-style-fits-all method to handle clients. If you can’t convince your client to buy into your written materials and agree to publish them, no reader will be able to read what you wrote.

3. Promoting yourself as a writer

A freelance writer cannot stay introverted; he has to come out and be an extrovert. Promoting yourself may not seem like a skill to you, but it is an essential activity that requires interactive skills.

No matter how good you are as a writer, if others are not aware of your presence, then you will never get enough assignments to keep you going.

Rekated: Freelancers: 8 Awesome Reasons Why You Should Join Online Forums

Join forums

It is important that you join writer’s forums such as digital point, writers.net, or absolutewrite.com and interact with others. Speak your mind on goodreads, and answer back discussions on writingforums.com, show your wit.

Convince others how good you are

Freelance writers should go out of their way to let others know how good they can be. This is not about persuading someone with words but more about letting your actions do the talking. And it is also about being confident.

Confidence tells a lot about what you can do. Don’t forget that you will continuously be tested even if the clients have been working with you for some time. Not only do you need the confidence to get new clients, but you also need it to keep your current clientele.

Conclusion

The bottom line is your writing skills are not the only skill you need to succeed in freelance writing. Stay relevant, stay on top of things and stay connected with your clients to keep the projects coming in and your freelancing career afloat.

Further Reading

For more posts on how to improve your career in freelance writing, check out:

• Dealing With Criticism In The Freelancing World
• Dealing With Insecurities in Freelancing
• How To Work Better With Your Clients
• 5 Ways You Are Losing Your Clients