If you are looking to become a freelance writer, your best prospects could be agencies that produce content for businesses, and/or finding individuals that own websites that need content production services. You can also look in SEO or in Affiliate orientated facebook groups for new writing gigs and client prospects.
Do you have a knack for writing, a flair for words, a talent in story-telling?
These skills are actually highly sought after in the world of content marketing. Content marketing generally refers to content in the form of written words; like in articles, blog posts, white papers, social media captions, and so on.
Thankfully there are a range of different places and websites that will help you to break into the freelance market. We’re going to cover four of them in the article below.
Look at Facebook Groups in the SEO and Affiliate Space
Facebook Groups are a great place to look for freelance writing opportunities.
If you look in the right places, you are likely to find an abundance of work. I’ve written as a freelancer for several individuals, larger companies, and even as a guest on other websites.
There is also great collaborative potential since other group members might share new and relevant opportunities. Facebook groups can be a great place for a sense of community, learning, and support.
To find quality employers, or individual writing gigs that can turn to long-term relationships – check out groups that are geared towards people who are in the SEO or affiliate website space. These people have a consistent need for quality original writing. SEOs and affiliate site owners push a lot of content out – as their content is the the bulk of what drives their income.
On top of that, it’s a place to network with these people. The working world revolves around building contacts, and building professional relationships with other niche site owners and freelancers can pay-off in the future.
For example, a contact might specifically come to you with an opportunity one day. It’s happened to me a number of times, and there has been a significant amount of ROI from building those relationships.
You can also practice “warm pitching”, where you warm up potential clients before sending them your pitches. This can improve your success rate, because clients become more receptive.
To find these groups search for “SEO”, “affiliate”, “content” or “Niche Website” Groups, or any keyword that has to do with building sites for profit. Below are some recommendations for groups that provide a supportive freelancer community.
Good Freelancer groups are: Creative Freelancers Unite, Ladies Copywriting & Content Writing, The Write Life Community, Freelancer & Content Writers.
Agencies that Specialize in Content Production
A good idea to get solid, regular work as a freelance writer is by joining a writing agency.
These are large organizations that will take freelance writers on board and link them up with clients and jobs that they think are appropriate for them.
The existence of agencies can take a lot of the stress out of freelance writing, at least the part where you have to spend valuable time looking around for new clients and new opportunities.
It can be stressful not knowing where your next job will come from, and an agency at least removes some of that worry.
Textbroker is a website similar to an agency, who vet your work and then give you access to jobs that their customers post. Contently is another one, which offers big brand clients, but requires an impressive portfolio to join.
Alternatively you can find these agencies on facebook as well – they will likely have their brand names followed by “Content Agency”, or “Seo Agency.”
Blogging Groups that have content-based websites
Finding other blogging groups, and what I mean by this is looking for groups where bloggers come together to talk about their goals in blogging as a business.
There are plenty of different blogging groups to choose from, each with different ways that they can help you. I actually joined several different groups that high to medium-tier cost memberships. In those groups I was able to rub elbows with other bloggers that understood the blogging business and that needed help with various projects including and not limited to writing.
However, be careful when you pick the one that is best for you. You want to target a group that has a lot of people, is not very high cost, and can present an opportunity for you to work for others and learn the ropes along the way.
You should know how to use several CMS systems
WordPress is one of the most well-known blogging sites with over 200 million users. This is what bloggers typically use when building their online assets. It would also be a benefit to learn how to use the WordPress interface as it’s likely to help prepare you in writing for the internet and learning how to properly format your content in general.
Other CMS systems like Wix, and Square Space, although incredibly easy to use are not designed for scaling as a content based businesses. Another platform where you can write and get feedback is Medium, you will need to join a cheap plan (bonus: other members can tip you).
ProBlogger or other freelance writing job boards
ProBlogger is a site that helps bloggers to learn the skills that you’ll need to have a successful blog, as well as share their own experiences with other like-minded bloggers, and overall promote the blogging medium and themselves. There is also a very popular Job board that has many writer jobs available.
ProBlogger has over 8000 articles, tutorials, case studies, and tips on how to blog.
It’s a massive resource that covers almost every aspect and should help anybody to become a more successful, well-known blogger.
The case studies in particular will help users to see where other blogs have succeeded or failed, so that they can copy or improve upon them.
Freelance writers can use ProBlogger in order to make their own writing blogs more successful and consistent, increasing their audience and potentially attracting plenty of new clients.
They can implement tips and tricks learned from ProBlogger in order to make their own blog bigger and better, in a shorter amount of time.