Want To Be A Freelance Writer? Let Me Make It Easy.

5 steps to launch your freelance writing business in a day, then grow it.

Jan 23, 2024

Freelance writing rocks.

There are writers making millions on freelance platforms, writers charging 5 figures for ghostwriting on social media, and even writers who charge 6 figures for a single landing page.

With a freelance writing business…

You can make a lot of money. I made $80K from freelance writing in 2023.
You can choose the clients you work with.
You can focus on industries you’re interested in.
You can design your schedule.
You can work from anywhere.
It’s easy to find clients — content is still king.

If you’re considering starting your own freelance writing business, but don’t know where to start, I’ve simplified it for you in the next five steps.

But first…

Let’s address the elephant in the room.

AI.

Is freelance writing still a lucrative career with AI in the picture?

The short answer: yes.

The long answer: AI still lacks the creativity and the human perspective to create high-quality content that is relevant, meaningful, emotional, and powerful.

Let’s take SEO writing, where AI supposedly trumps all. It can incorporate keywords and best SEO practices with simple commands.

Yet, SEO experts say ChatGPT written content does well for a few days and then disappears into the void. Why? Because it’s generic and unhelpful. It doesn’t offer new information, and it’s not interesting to read.

Because of that, people either don’t click the result or close the page quickly, which signals to search engines that the writing isn’t relevant.

Long-term, AI-generated content could hurt a website’s ranking, not to mention Google and other platforms announcing they’d take measures against AI-generated content.

But what if it’s not for SEO purposes? Let’s take copywriting. Can AI write a great website copy or a sales e-mail? It certainly looks that way now that AI models have been integrated into website-creation platforms. Soloist.ai, for example, creates new websites along with the copy. Now, any solopreneur can have a website in minutes.

So why would people need a copywriter? Two reasons:

They’re not happy with their fast-generated AI content and don’t have the time/skill to play around with prompts.
They know the value of good copy and want help from a professional.

So, while freelance copywriters, have experienced a drop in orders over the past year, now, we work with better clients. Clients who understand the value of what we offer.

So, can you still start a thriving freelance writing business in 2024? Yes! And here’s how.

Secret to Success: Launch Your Freelance Writing Business In a Day

In this newsletter:

The niching down myth most solopreneurs believe and how to niche down so you attract a bigger audience.
Why “trying” to start a freelance writing business will get you nowhere and what to do instead.
The one simple decision that will make it easy for you market your business.
How to outsmart the competition even if they have more experience than you do.
Two simple strategies to get the clients you want; broken down to manageable steps.

Choose what you want to do.

What made me a copywriter was writing about pages on Fiverr.

Not website content. About pages.

That was my first ever successful online offer.

Of course, I’ve expanded my offers since then to get as much work as possible. But if you want to get your first few clients, choose one thing you like to write.

Articles
Website Content. Better yet, a specific type of page or website content for a specific industry.
Landing pages
Ads
Social media content
E-mails. It could even be specifically cold e-mails.

If you have something else in mind that I haven’t listed, go for it.

(To get success on Fiverr within 2 weeks, look into my Fiverr Launcher course here.)

Does niching down always mean a smaller pool of clients?

Most solopreneurs are afraid of niching down because they exclude a lot of potential clients. That’s a valid concern.

When you’re choosing your niche, consider the pool of people who’d be interested. Notice that I specialized in about pages. This helped me reach two types of clients: people who need website copy because they’re building their website and people who have a website already but aren’t happy with their about pages.

In reality, my target market was bigger than the market of people offering full website content.

Become an expert in that one thing.

Looking back, it’s easy to see why my About Page gig was so successful.

I used my background in coaching to create a powerful, easy-to-fill-out questionnaire. It allowed my clients to share the most important parts of their business while letting me read between the lines to find their voice.
I used two specific About Page structures I had learned in a copywriting course.
I took the time to write a powerful gig description on Fiverr, instead of just half-assing it and calling it “trying.” (Note: Have you noticed how we approach things differently when we say we’ll “try?”)

My About Pages offer was my first successful offer because it was my first legit offer. So stop trying and decide to build your business now.

If you want to make it easy for potential clients to buy what you have to offer, you have to become an expert at it.

This requires taking two specific steps.

Step 1: Use your experience

Consider your education, your work experience and your interests.

If you've had any writing experience or training, consider this too.

See how all this makes you closer to the status of an expert. How can you use this to be a better writer of (fill in the blank)?

Step 2: Dive deeper

Now that you know what you already know, it’s time to build on it. Start digging and find specific useful information.

Examples:

For an article writer, learn how to write attention-grabbing headlines.
For a social media writer, learn how to write unignorable hooks.
For a sales copywriter, learn how to research & analyze the target market and use that in your copy.

Do you want to work with big or small companies?

Most marketing experts make targeting more complicated than it needs to be.

For now, just choose what size businesses do you want to serve. This will allow you to adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

If you choose to work with big companies:

You’ll get regular work
Your per-word rate wouldn’t be high, but you’d get a lot of work and make good money.
You’ll be good with just 2–5 clients.
You’ll work closely with the MK teams and probably participate in regular meetings.
Services these types of clients usually need: ghostwriting for blogs and social media, e-mail writing, and writing landing pages & ads if the company constantly comes up with new offers.
The risk: if you lose a client, it will affect your business. You also have to be very flexible and ready to react as your clients need you.

If you choose to work with micro/small businesses:

You’ll charge a higher per-word rate.
You can create productized services and streamline delivery.
You have more freedom to choose the projects you like.
You can create your own rules. Example: no-meeting policy; payment in advance; two revisions included etc.
The risk: you need a constant stream of new clients to make your business work. You need to learn how to deliver fast & high-quality work, because bad reviews can ruin your business.

Make this one decision now and your business & marketing difficulties will disappear.

Create an irresistible offer.

Most beginners don’t understand the difference between your service and your offer.

Your service is what you sell. Your offer is what you sell + all the specific features and benefits that make it different.

Creating a powerful offer is the ultimate way to stand out from the crowd. In fact, my irresistible offer is what saved my business in the first day of ChatGPT, when everyone still thought writers (and other creatives) are already obsolete.

After I noticed the sharp dip in messages in sales, I updated my web copy offer to include a grey-scale mock-up for all websites.

This way, my clients didn’t need to send a word file to their designer or developer, who’d then wonder how to position the copy on the page.

Instead, there is a ready layout with the copy. Sure, that layout could change a little based on what a designer wants to do, but it makes everyone’s job easier.

That is just one example of how creating an irresistible offer can help you stand out and get (more) work.

To create your own irresistible freelance writing offer, consider the following:

What is the marketing process around your piece of content? How can you optimize it? Example: e-mail writers can use online tools for subject line assessment, then screenshot the results when they deliver the finished project. This way, your client knows you’ve really put some thought into writing a subject line that will make people open the e-mail.
What are your natural skills/interests? How can you use them to create a unique offer? Example: Joanna Wiebe is extremely data-driven. She’ll track the analytics of sales pages and update parts of it, if necessary. Note: look for something that would be easy for you to deliver.
What would your ideal clients appreciate? What would they like, even if it doesn’t really make sense?

Here are a few more examples of offering extra value so you can build an irresistible offer:

Offer keyword research for SEO writing.
Offer links to articles you’ve written that your clients may find useful.
Offer fast delivery time or an extra revision.
Offer a mock-up or design help.

Creating an irresistible offer is how you outsmart your competitors even if they have more experience than you do.

Get the clients you want.

Now that you know what you’re offering and who you want to work with, it’s time to talk marketing.

There are so many ways to get clients online, but if you’re a beginner, I recommend you focus on these:

Freelance platforms. My personal experience is that Fiverr trumps all. Great if you want to work with small clients.
LinkedIn. This is the place to be if you want professional opportunities. Great if you want to work with big clients.

Big clients strategy.

If you want to work with big clients, focus on LinkedIn.

Create a professional LI profile. Have a look at what your competitors are doing and steal some ideas.
Write a powerful one-sentence bio. Typically, it should include 3 things: why you’re great, what you do, who you do it for. Since you’re a beginner, you probably don’t know why you’re great yet, so just include the other two. Example: Copywriter for E-mails | Helping $1M+ businesses boost e-mail conversion rates and sell more to their existing audience.
Connect with people. Actively follow and send connection requests to other copywriters and marketing professionals in the companies you want to work with. Comment on their posts.
Create content that would be relevant to your ideal audience. Try to post 1–3 times per week to showcase your expertise or share an interesting read/research.
After you create a trustworthy profile, you can start pitching to clients. Don’t go the pre-written message route. Better pitch fewer clients better than more clients in a silly way.

Small clients strategy.

If you want to work with small clients, focus on Fiverr.

Note: you can absolutely choose a different freelance platform. I’ve made money on Upwork as well, but I still find Fiverr to be the best place for creating a thriving freelance business working with small clients.

Create a profile on Fiverr.
Research other freelancers in your industry. Look at their gigs.
Create a few gigs. Even if you sell only one service, you can create a few offers around it. Example: someone who writes about pages could also write bios for LinkedIn.
Observe the stats of your gigs. If you’re not getting work, iterate. Fiverr usually gives an initial push to new gigs, so you should be getting some messages or orders.
For more information, read this in-depth piece about how to make $1000+ per month on Fiverr.

Start now.

I’ve been a freelance writer for over 10 years now. The first years, I made less than $10K from it per year. Currently, I’m making ±$80K per year freelancing.

Here’s a summary of how you can start your own business as a freelance writer in 2024:

Choose what you want to do.
Become an expert in it.
Choose the size of businesses you want to work with.
Create your irresistible offer.
Start marketing your services.

This is how you start a successful freelance writing business in 2024.

Which I hope you do.