Many people are intrigued by the idea of becoming a freelance writer but many of them also are stopped by the fear of not having any experience and of not knowing how to get started. These are important questions, but it is equally important to understand that fear is the enemy. One important thing that all beginning writer should know is that there not been a ruing their whole career because they mess up something on week one. A major part of the process of becoming a great freelance writer is learning from experience and that includes mistakes. In fact there are many writers who believe their most valuable lessons in their most valuable growth came from major mistakes. Take this to mean that it’s okay to mess up when you’re getting started. While you always want to do the best job that you can, you are going to make mistakes. That’s just part of being a freelance writer.
In modern times there are actually two ways to break into the writing market. There are still the traditional print publications and occasionally you still find in-house writers for certain types of businesses. However more and more often many writers are beginning their careers online, and many very successful freelance writers do nothing but online writing. Even those writers who ghostwrite or write pamphlets and other print materials will often be found by employers online work through an auction site, professional blog, or professional networking site. In fact, it would be remiss of a modern freelance writer to not have an online presence of some kind. This is often one of the first pieces of advice when you look up blog posts on how to be a freelance writer.
If you need money quickly one of the best ways to start is by writing for content mills. Many online websites pay their writers on a per article basis. These websites will often pay $10, $15, or even $20 an article. For gaining quick confidence and some decent money in your pocket this is a great place to start. However in the long term you will want to find private clients. Many writers start out with auction-based websites like Guru.com or Elance.com and eventually find clients who just deal directly with them after enough positive experience. Other writers go with the traditional and classic cold calls and look for work from employers in a field that they may have some expertise in. If you write for a wide number of people and do good work you might be surprised how often that you eventually leads to referrals and how clients will introduce you to more clients.
Early on if you need money from writing you should definitely concentrate on the freelance writing and don’t worry about passive income until a little bit later. On the other hand, if you have many months of savings or you have a job I just looking for something else then you’ll definitely want to study the many different passive income models online. From acting as an affiliate for Amazon to putting Google AdSense on a high-traffic website, or even writing and publishing popular Kindle e-books, there are many different methods you can use to make a full-time passive income. If this part of writing online seems a little bit overwhelming and alien and I strongly recommend taking a look at the Keyword Academy in signing up for our monthly program which teaches you all you need to know about setting up websites, ranking in the search engines, monetizing your websites, and everything in between.