What Skills are Needed for Freelance Writing?

 


If you want to dip your toes or in this case fingers into the field of freelancing, you are not alone. While you might be afraid to leave your comfortable yet inconvenient day job, there might be this nagging voice in your head telling you, “I wish there were better ways to earn money than sacrificing my life to the corporate gods who want me to work, work and work more from nine to five.” This was my situation when I started freelancing. While it was not at all a smooth path paved with marble, I do love the freedom freelancing offers. With freelancing, you are not tied down to a single job or a single boss, which means that you have the freedom to explore and perhaps even earn more.

But a word of caution, I believe you need to have a good reserve of finances to start freelancing, because when things go wrong, there won’t be a paycheck waiting for you, no matter the level of toxicity at your workplace and despite you might be having to deal with in your workplace environment, you still get your paycheck. Mastering the art of freelancing is, I must confess, a very steep learning curve, which means you might want to start freelancing on the side and transition into a fulltime profession if you love it. If not, you can always go back to grinding at your 9 to 5. Your choice! If you have made up your mind you want to give freelance writing a try, this article focuses on the skills you need to have to get started with freelance writing. 
 

1.    Writing

Well, you must be saying, really Dulee? Well, it is true. You need to be able to write well if you want to earn well as a freelancer. Don’t believe me, well, you are most welcome to prove me wrong. Jokes aside, if you have mastered your writing skills, the chances are you will be able to write great pieces, be it a blog post, an article, an email, or even social media copy. If you are wondering how, you can do that, well there is no other way than practicing. Practice makes perfect, and now that you know what it takes, I suggest that you get started. The sooner you get started the faster you are likely to earn an income from writing as a freelancer.
 

2.    Editing

Editing is an excellent skill to help polish your writing. Think about your writing as an unpolished gemstone, the polishing is done with editing. Editing will help you fix the flaws of your manuscript and help it be the best it can be. Remember the difference between an edited piece of writing and just a draft will likely be the defining factor when it comes to the quality of your writing. There are plenty of free courses available online related to editing which will help you take your writing to the next level.
 

3.    SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization, and I cannot overemphasize the importance of it. SEO is the lifeline of creating content that your target audience is looking for and will like, share and ultimately become fans of if they like your content. SEO involves keywords, which are words that your ideal end user or client might be searching for online during different stages of the buyer’s journey. If you don’t know what it is, I will write an article about it soon, until then, you can always Google it. Google is truly a treasure trove of content ideas, if you know how to spot these ideas. 
 

4.    Digital Marketing

We live in a world where most people spend most of their free time online, which means online, or the digital space is where most the attention goes. If your ideal client or customer is spending more and more time online, then it makes sense that you should try to create content, ads and messages with the aim of getting their attention. Writing plays a major role in digital marketing, and it will also help you promote your freelance writing services on digital spaces like search engines, social media and applications, then you might want to check out digital marketing and learn more about this field.
 

5.    Branding

Branding is very important when it comes to building your name in different online spaces. Branding will help imbue your writing and content with a unique and distinct personality, you can use colors, logos, your choice of words and tone to help you stand out as brand. If you establish a strong online presence and create content that resonates with your audience, you will increase the chances of being noticed by a potential lead who might turn into a customer and finally a loyal consumer. 
 
The main thing about freelancing is that it is rough at the start, but if you spend time working at becoming more skilled and your chosen skill and marketing yourself online using digital marketing, chances of you becoming successful will be higher than you might be thinking. If you are looking for a writer to help you out, please feel free to reach out to me and discuss your requirements. 
 
 
 

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