How to Make Money as a Freelance Writer

Faster than you think!

One of the questions that I get asked the most and see on writing forums all the time is “where do you find clients?”

I’ve talked about this before, discussing ways to start making money right away as a writer, how to work with a retainer business model, how to make money as a blogger, or as a book author.

But something I keep seeing even more of recently is this: “I got my first client! The pay is terrible, but it’ll be a professional piece for my portfolio!”

It’s awesome that you got your first paying client, but you have to get out of the mentality of doing something for low to no money just for your “portfolio.”

Even worse would be to work for free just to add things to a portfolio. Pro tip: Don’t work for free.

I am a full-time professional writer and editor, and I do not have a dedicated portfolio. I have writing samples and links I can send people, and even PDFs.

Instead of focusing on needing pieces for a professional portfolio and spending the time and energy even making a portfolio, start with having a couple of articles completely written, edited, and finished. Even if you’re just posting them on your blog, your Medium page, or holding on to them as PDFs.

Write a couple of samples. That is IT. Once you have a couple of articles, you can use those as samples when marketing yourself to new clients.

Things that are a waste of time before you have any clients: a professional website, a fancy portfolio, a marketing budget, and professional headshots.

Most important thing: Jumping in headfirst and finding paying clients.

Pitching Yourself to Prospective Clients

It is free to pitch yourself to potential clients and respond to job ads.

I recently wrote a post detailing exactly how I pitch myself (with examples!) for different types of freelance jobs, both as an unpaid guest blogger and for paying jobs.

Pitching yourself, marketing yourself, sales, whatever you want to call it, it’s extremely important.

I spent exactly $0 before getting my first 4 clients.

I spent $0 getting the next several clients after that, too. In fact, the first money I actually spent on being a writer was getting a new laptop once it was clear that I could make money as a writer. And I only got a new laptop because I was using my husband’s old computer and he wanted it back.

Marketing and a professional website are useless at first because no one is searching for you or knows who you are. Don’t spend your time (or money) on that yet. Eventually, you’ll want and need a website, I’m not saying it’s useless! You just don’t need it yet.

Respond to job ads on Craigslist, Reddit, ProBlogger, FlexJobs, and Indeed. Give them your writing samples. Same goes for reaching out to your contacts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or other social media.

I’ve written more detail about how I find clients on social media, even more specifically on Instagram.

Here is one style of message I send:

“Hi, I’m Jyssica Schwartz and I am a full-time writer and editor based in NYC. I am currently available to take on 1–2 new clients. My 10 years of sales experience plus 3 years as a professional writer means I write copy well-suited for marketing materials and websites, and can work with you to create your website or ads, update and maintain your blog, edit your book manuscript, and more.

I noticed your website’s blog has not been updated in 6 months. Did you know putting out original content regularly helps with SEO and encourages site visitors to stay longer and come back more often? I have a few ideas for new blog posts on your site and would love to show you some of my writing samples. Are you available this afternoon between 2 and 4 pm Eastern time to jump on a call?

Bam.

• I have introduced myself,
• given an example of why I am an expert,
• identified a specific area I can help them with,
• offered writing samples, and
• asked to set up a call.

Sales 101. Identify a specific need and offer a solution that directly benefits them.

I send variations of that message directly to businesses over social media, especially LinkedIn and Instagram, and get a good response rate. Most people respond with a simple, “What are your rates?”

My response is ALWAYS that the rate depends on their needs, as I can charge per-word, per-project, or monthly rates, and rates also depend on the scope of the work and their budget. My next sentence was always “Do you have 15 minutes today to talk? I can get an idea of your needs and we can discuss prices.”

By giving people individual attention and focusing on their needs, I find new clients quickly and for free.

Don’t undervalue yourself just to make $10. Spend an extra few days finding clients and marketing yourself and make more money.

Market yourself.

Most writers who use them don’t make their entire salary from content mills. Instead of signing up for a content mill (such as Upwork) and calling it done, do that as only one tiny part of an overall strategy for finding clients (if you choose to use content mills. I personally do not and don’t like their seeming focus on quantity over quality).

Making money as a freelance writer is absolutely possible, and it can be a sustainable career choice. But if you decide not to market yourself or actively search for clients, you will find it will be a much slower process to making a decent living.

I’m not just throwing words around for no reason. This strategy worked for me.

I was making just about the same salary from when I was in corporate sales by my fourth month of being a freelance writer.

I want you to feel comfortable marketing yourself and using many different strategies to market and sell yourself. As an entrepreneur, it is very important to know your worth and to have a marketing strategy that works for your business. And don’t forget to ask every client for referrals!

As an end note, here is some information on relationship building and relationship selling.

What marketing and sales strategies are you using right now? Are they working? Share them so we can all continue to learn and grow!

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