It is very clear that written content, in particular, for websites and other types of digital media isn’t going away anytime soon. The internet is made up of a vast variety of written content created with the idea of achieving one or more of the following goals: educating, entertaining, warming up an audience or making money online. Ideally, a website is able to achieve several of these goals at the same time. For individuals who are new to freelance writing OR are long-time freelance writers who can’t seem to break out of content mill co-dependency I have some tips that might be helpful when looking for your next freelance project.
It might surprise you to hear that I’ve never used a content mill to find work. In fact, I began writing in 2012 and publishing on my own blog. The blog that you’re currently reading.
My writing sucked.
Seriously, my writing was awful. But, like most things, I needed to put time and energy into learning the craft of writing. What I didn’t realize at the time was that those bad posts on my website were helping me learn about many of the important aspects of freelance writing.
- Finding your writing voice-Each writer has a “voice” that resonates throughout their writing. But, when writing for a client, you have to be able to emulate the voice of their website and be able to confidently speak to their community via the written word. It takes time to truly learn this skill.
- Consistency-Showing up consistently on my blog helped me understand the importance of consistency in building my freelance business. That content that I was writing on my blog were the foundational pieces to my portfolio.
- Writing Niches-As time when on I recognized the writing niches that I truly enjoyed and excelled in. These became my core content niches that I focused on and now am considered an “expert” in those spaces. Curious about which niches I enjoy writing in? I also write about these topics on my website.
- Personal Finance-Earning more, debt-off, creative money hacks
- Social equity and public policy
- Digital Entrepreneurship-I don’t just make money freelance writing. I’ve built out an entire personal brand.
- Normalizing Black and Brown faces in outdoor spaces-I create content about the outdoors!
I avoided content mills because they always felt random and I wanted to be intentional with the content that I worked on. I didn’t want to write about stuff that I wasn’t interested in, took too long to write and was underpaid. If that’s what you’re dealing with right now-read on.
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Freelance Writer Academy
If you’re looking for a course to help you build your freelance business faster, the Freelance Writer Academy, might be a good fit for you. It’s the only course that I currently refer people to who are looking to build freelance businesses and are looking for a resource designed by prolific and well-paid freelancers who have been doing the work for years. I know the co-creators of the Freelance Writer Academy course and connect with them on a weekly and daily basis. They are six-figure earners who are tired of seeing freelance writers getting nickel and dimed in their careers.
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How to Create an Impressive Freelance Portfolio
When I began writing professionally, my website was my primary portfolio. While my writing was solid, it wasn’t where it is today. Even though from a website monetization strategy I made a lot of mistakes, I did a lot of things correctly when it came to building my freelance writing portfolio.
- Write about what you would like to get paid for-On your own website, design content that you would love to get paid to write and be recognized as an expert in. Be intentional about the content that you’re working on for yourself. Don’t be random. I had the opportunity to co-author a wonderful piece about historic African-American recreational spaces. I was able to share the story of Lincoln Hills, an historic vacation space in the foothills of Denver. Many people are unfamiliar with it and it was a wonderful project to work on.
- Pitch your friends guest posts-I know a lot of people who run websites. They are always needing content for their projects. Some will pay and some won’t. But, before you pitch your friends let them know what your goal is. I pitched one creator who is building out a website about the outdoors. Their mission is very aligned with mine around equitable access to the outdoors. They said “yes” to all of my pitches and it was a really fun week of work. And, they even paid me $100 a piece even though I actually would have done the work for free. Why? Because the intention around working on the content was to build out my portfolio (even though I always prefer to be paid). Writing for your friends is a wonderful way to get helpful feedback, professional support and shout outs.
- Write in More than One Niche-This is actually very important for several reasons. Depending on the time of year, demand for certain types of content can decline. Personal finance content declines during the holiday season because no one is interested in reading about economizing, debt-repayment and bills. But, in January interest in personal finance content shoots through the roof as interest in paying off holiday related debt, higher heating costs and other winter related issues rear their ugly heads. Writing in 3-4 niches max, is a great way to balance out your business.
How to Become an Expert in a Content Space
Many people struggle with the idea of being referred to as an expert. Does this mean that you had to go to college to learn about the topics you’re writing in? Or, do you just have to establish a deep and ongoing level of interest, passion and curiosity about the topics you would like to write about? Establishing a website, podcast, or even a TikTok feed about your interest is a great way to do this. There are a few other strategies that are easy to use that will help you establish that you actually know what you’re talking about in the spaces that you’re in.
- Establish an online presence somewhere that you actually own–What does this mean? Create a simple website, podcast, vlog, etc. Where you can share your expertise. Keep it simple. You could literally publish one or two good pieces a month in order to keep that space active. Highlight the following in that space: awards won, any workshops that you’ve hosted on the topic, sessions that you’ve run at a conference, etc. Take pictures of you in those spaces with the branding of the event in the photo. EVEN, if it’s just 3 other people who are in attendance. True story, that happened to me years ago. I flew to Chicago to speak at a conference and there were only 3-5 attendees for the entire weekend. That included the other speakers. One now lives in Denver and we often joke about that weekend. But, we both were establishing our businesses at that time and had no idea that would happen. You want to own your small corner of the digital content space because social media platforms die out, or shut down like Facebook and Instagram did in 2021 for a day. Also, no one can highlight YOU like you can.
- Speak at conferences-I speak at local conferences as often as I possibly can. I love local conferences because I don’t have to pay for travel or attending the event. I can meet and connect with people who are local to my community at the same time networking with people who are coming in from out-of-town. I also speak at out-of-state conferences as well and digital events.
- Establish a verifiable record of focus in the content space that you’re in-I’m in the personal finance space and have written content about all aspects related to personal finance since 2012. Many of those posts have been linked to by other websites as a way to validate their content, deepen a conversation about a topic or share an opposing view about a subject.
How to Find Freelance Projects without Content Mills
Now that you’ve learned how to create a great portfolio and know how to establish your expertise, it’s time to find projects to work on. I’ve never used content mills so here are the top TK ways I’ve found freelance projects.
- Branding clarity-Make it easy for people to understand what your brand is and the type of content you enjoy working on or have an interest in. Branding clarity could be the tagline that you use on your podcast, a hashtag that you’ve created or branded video project that you’ve designed to highlight who you are and what you do. Clarity makes it easier for people to refer projects to you. It’s hard to get referrals if people don’t understand what you do.
- My network-I cannot overstate this enough, networking is one of the top 3 most impactful strategies to attract freelance projects. Your network could include the following:
- Conference community-Maybe you attend one specific conference that is “the” conference in your space. You volunteer at it, are a speaker, etc. Or, perhaps you host meetups in your hometown to foster connections.
- Mastermind Group (Free or Paid) I’ve only ever been in free mastermind groups. My mastermind groups have been an integral part of growing my brand and GETTING ME PAID. I’m currently in a closed mastermind that has 27 people in it. We have a private Facebook group and we spill the tea on: payment terms, projects, and great editors to work with.
- Create your own community-Yes, you can do it. Create your own community to support other creators in the space that you’re in. Then, you could have a day each week where people share opportunities.
- Ask around and announce that you’re looking for projects-A closed mouth doesn’t get fed.
- Follow Editors on Social Media-This one is HUGE. My most important freelance hack is following editors on Twitter specifically. They are on other platforms, but Twitter is my favorite platform because of the speed of connections and the ability to see an editor’s call for posts. This is what I do:
- Follow editors when they post that they’ve accepted a new editing job.
- SCREEN SHOT the announcement-This helps me to know how emails are set up in that company because editors don’t stay forever in their roles.
- Subscribe to opportunity curation lists-There are people who literally scrub the internet for freelance opportunities and publish those opportunities each week. Most of those resources are pretty affordable, around $10 a month which is the equivalent of a coffee and scone here in Denver. You can find these lists via social media, Substack and general searches via Google.
- Follow job project announcement days in online communities-Spend time researching which online communities are a good fit for the content that you would like to create. Many communities share opportunities daily, weekly or monthly. Create a spreadsheet and design a sustainable system that helps you get in front of those leads.
And, in case you’re wondering, I didn’t add LinkedIn because I don’t actively use it. However, it’s a great resource for a lot of my freelance writing friends.
How Often Should You Pitch
Now that you’ve figured out a system for finding leads and establishing your expertise it’s now time to begin pitching. I’ve observed that most people WAY UNDERPITCH and that’s why they don’t have enough consistent work. You have to be pitching everyday a minimum of 5 well-crafted pitches a day…for awhile. Think of it as planting seeds in a garden. You need to pitch a lot more often than you think you do.
Remember that it will take time to get a “yes” and there are a few other things to keep in mind.
- It takes some organizations a while to onboard new writers-I had one client that took almost 4 months to onboard writers. Well-paid project but if I hadn’t been focusing on other revenue streams this would have hurt me financially waiting for this client to move forward.
- Some organizations will onboard you and it won’t work out-This literally happened to me while working on this post. You can’t take it personally. This is why you have diversified niches and several clients.
- Know your preferred payment terms-I won’t work on any projects that extend beyond Net30 unless it’s a unique one off well-paid project with Oprah or some other well-known brand.
Hopefully, this was of help to you and I’m crossing my fingers that you’ll start finding more projects that pay better without dealing with the content mill churn.
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