Making money as a freelance writer is always tricky; it doesn’t matter if it’s in the year 2020 or beyond. The one thing that has remained consistent throughout the Internet’s history is the need for written content.
As a writer, you will always be in demand regardless of the year or the current economic situation. Remember that your talents are much-needed, and you can profit from them if you seek out opportunities to do so. This article hopes to guide you toward the best ways to cash in on your written word gift. Also click here to see companies that offer freelance writing jobs.
Let’s start by talking about a few ways you can make money as a writer that may be easier to get work, but expose you to more risk. The risk is that you may take on work from someone else, and they don’t pay you. You minimize the risk by making the customer pay at least half of the agreed amount before you begin to work.
If you have a rock-solid reputation, you might be able to get your customer to pay for the entire order in advance. Later on, we’ll talk about some methods to make money with your writing skills that do not require you to risk not getting paid.
Social networking sites and forums are old school methods of finding freelance writing jobs
People still visit forums within the industry, and you can get quite a bit of work from them. It would be best if you made a list of forums or bookmarked each one to quickly check to see if any people need writing done.
Facebook and other social media platforms are probably the best places for a freelancer to look for work. Facebook groups are loaded with online entrepreneurs who are seeking out writers just like yourself. It takes a little work to get to know which Facebook groups to invest your time in.
There are also places like Twitter and LinkedIn where you can find customers. The main obstacle you will encounter is that you have to comb through social media to find customers consistently. You might find that the time spent searching for customers is greater than the amount of work that you get.
If you work hard and try to build a reputation, eventually people on forums and social media will recommend you and help you get customers.
Sites like Fiverr and Upwork are loaded with customers
The great thing about using sites such as Fiverr and Upwork is that they are loaded with so many customers that you will never be without work. Fiverr alone can deliver you enough orders to keep you busy every day of the week.
The downside to using freelancing sites is that they take a percentage of the money you earn. However, they do all the hard work and get customers for you.
Another great thing about these sites is you are protected from people who will try to rip you off. A customer who uses a site such as Fiverr must pay for the order before you begin working on it.
People can still find ways not to pay you using these freelancing platforms, but it is a rarity since customers usually don’t want to harm their accounts.
Building a website and driving traffic to it is another way of getting customers
To get customers for your freelancing business utilizing a website, you first must create your site. After your site is created, now you must consider how you’re going to get traffic. You can buy advertising, wait for search engines to send you traffic, or promote it using social media or other outlets.
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The downside of getting social media and search engine traffic is that it will take quite a while to build up a profitable customer base. If you buy traffic, some of that money you spend will eat away at your profits. You might find that your profits are less when you buy advertising than it would be if you used a freelancing platform and allowed them to take a cut of your money.
The real sweet spot in freelancing is building up a regular customer base
No matter what method you used to get customers to your new freelancing writing business, the bread and butter of your business will be repeat customers. If you must rely on single orders, you will never make much money. You will have to continuously search for new customers, and that will eat up your time and profits.
Also, you will find out over time that one-off customers usually have small orders. To be profitable as a freelance writer, you must get orders that are big enough for you to live on.
It will take you a matter of months before you had a reliable customer base who continually places orders with you. Your regular customers will come to you when they need something written. All of your time will then be spent writing and not searching for customers.
It’s always difficult in the beginning to get customers
No matter what route you go, you will have a difficult time getting freelance writing jobs in the beginning. At times you will feel like nothing is going your way. Some will tell you that you should try all methods of getting customers at the same time. You will quickly discover that it is a mistake because you will not be an expert at any of those methods.
Choose a way of getting customers and learn all about it that you can. If you choose to find customers on freelancing sites, spend all of your free time watching videos and learning from others how to get customers.
You will notice that no matter what method you use, the customers do not come pouring in right away. Don’t allow yourself to get depressed to the point that you give up.
If you are a writer, you have something in you that needs to come out. A writer knows that this is their passion and purpose in life, and if you’re willing to stick to it, there are plenty of customers and money just waiting for you.
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