Freelance writing is an ideal job for stay-at-home parents. It provides independence and freedom, while allowing us to pick up our kids from school. But how can bloggers get paid to write?
It’s not easy to completely change careers. From working in finance, I started a French travel blog five years ago and loved it so much that I never stopped writing. Because I didn’t want to have to chase up payments, I signed up to a freelance site, Upwork. And nothing happened… for a long time.
But one day, someone took a chance on me.
They left me some great feedback. And feedback is magic dust. I now have long-term clients and write reviews, blog posts and landing pages. I’m earning money on my own terms.
What You Already Know
If you love writing, you are probably blogging already. And if you’ve been blogging for more than a few months, you already have some excellent skills:
You know how to organize your thoughts
If you’re anything like me, you lie awake at night with your thoughts swirling. If you can somehow wrangle that mess of ideas into blog posts, that is a skill!
You know how to tell a story
You can lead the reader from a beginning, through a middle and to a satisfying ending. Things in real life do not necessarily happen like this but good writing means you can structure a moment into a story. You can find the twist, the moral or the hopeful ending.
You know how to write clickable titles
You can create a hook
This may be an interesting anecdote or controversial statement to hook the reader in the first paragraph.
You can find supporting examples
You can structure online content
Subtitles and short paragraphs with lots of white space and varied sentence length mean that your content flows and is clear. This is often done naturally.
You know how to market yourself
Bloggers have to do this, otherwise we might as well be writing a diary. From writing your ‘About Me’ page to sharing links on social media and writing captions, it is all marketing. Blogging is often as much about the story of who you are as about the stories you write.
You know how to deal with rejection
Sad but true! Sometimes you can craft the best blog post ever and no one reads it. However, the one riddled with errors ends up being popular. This is part of the reality of writing as a job. Your writing style won’t be for everyone and you will get rejected.
You can edit your work
You may know how to optimize for SEO
You know to add a call to action (CTA) at the bottom of the post
Did you know you had all of these skills? Bloggers are amazing and often so undervalued for the work they do.
What is better than being paid to do something you love?
How to Take the Plunge
Choose your site
I would recommend starting through a Freelance website since there are lots of clients looking for assistance on these sites. Fiverr is a great site to build up your reputation on but a lot of the gigs are really low-paying (starting from $5). Upwork is the largest freelance site with many opportunities but has high fees at 20% for the first $3k earnt per client, then 10%. All rates are in USD. Jobs are posted as either fixed price or hourly. Hourly jobs are easier to start with (until you can accurately cost your services!).
After building up a portfolio of work, you can start to apply to brands directly, offering to write for them. You can then send through some work you have completed as an example of your writing that converts. You can also use your networks as referral sources. Gently remind people that your clients are loving your work. They might just give you a try.
Be business-savvy
Yes, you will need to start out charging lower rates for content writing until you build up your reputation and portfolio. Then slowly build it up. But there are some really low rates out there, like $5 for a 1000-word blog post. That is just not worth your time. So be picky, wade through the rubbish and choose which jobs to apply to based on what you want to write.
Take into account that you will need to pay tax and other home office expenses. For some reason, people often think creatives will be happy with just ‘exposure’. Don’t work for nothing.
Use your blogger network
Direct clients to your highest-ranking blog posts on your website. Show them you have a following. Have you guest posted before? Link to the guest post and let clients know about the feedback you got from it.
Be professional
Treat it like any other job. Return calls and messages promptly. Be realistic about your skills. Ensure that you have the required tools for the job before you agree to do it. (As a minimum, you will need a great internet connection, a reliable computer and common software that you know how to use, such as Microsoft or Google suite).
Think of yourself as a product
What are your particular strengths? Are you nitpicky? Are you slow but extra careful? Then you can market yourself as a writer with great attention to detail who won’t give up until it is perfect.
Think about your point of difference. Do you have a background in retail? Then you may be better at writing product reviews or paid promotions.
Good luck with taking the next step! Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments.