FrugalPinoy Q&A: How do I start as an online freelance writer?

Several readers sent me a note this week, asking me how they can start an online freelancing career.  Here’s one of the emails I received:

Hello, I’ve been writing professionally for quite some time, and I’m trying to augment my income by trying out freelance writing online. I’ve only had a couple of projects, which paid about a dollar per article.

If it isn’t too much trouble, I was hoping you might help me in trying to find good writing gigs online, and maybe give me some tips on how I can start out.

Thanks very much!

- Tim

Thanks to Tim and the other readers who wrote in with their questions.  I’m going to answer it in simple, concrete steps so that everything is clear.  Regular readers might note similarities between this post and my previous post, “How to Make Money Blogging (Part 1)”. If you haven’t read that post yet, click here to read it, because it contains some points and definitions that aren’t found in this post – especially a needed introduction on online writing.

Without further ado, here are the steps that you can take to start your online freelance writing career:

Steps you should take TODAY:

1) List 5-7 topics you want to write about.  Anything from travel, sports, music, movies, business, marketing.  If you can think of a topic, odds are there’s a blog out there for it.  You need to do this so you’re aware of what subjects are your forte.

2) Get an account at WordPress.com and explore the features.  Even if you don’t plan on really blogging there.  You just need to be familiar with WordPress, how it looks, how it works, what buttons to click – because this is what most professional blogs use.  If you accept an online writing gig, odds are it’s for a blog, and you’ll be asked to place the articles into the blog yourself – and you can only do that if you’re familiar with WordPress.

3) Bookmark or subscribe to the following job boards:

• Performancing forum – You’ll need to register so you can communicate better with the companies posting ads.
• ProBlogger Job Board
• SitePoint “Looking to Hire” Thread
• Online Writing Jobs – Lots of low-paying gigs here though. Rule of thumb on this site: the shorter, the more vague an ad is, the more likely they are to scam you or pay you an obscenely low rate.
• FreshWebJobs
• Freelance Writing Gigs

If you have PR/copywriting experience, you should also subscribe to the Copyblogger job board.

Bookmarking generally means you click on “Bookmarks” on your browser’s menu bar (Internet Explorer or Firefox) and save these websites there.  Subscribing means using a reader like Google Reader or even using your email to read updates from the websites above. The subject of blog subscription is outside the scope of my website, so click here to visit a tutorial on subscription yourself.

4) Bookmark or subscribe to the top 5 blogs in the niche/topic you want to write about. How do you do this?  Use Google. If you want to write about personal finance, type “best personal finance blogs” into the search engine, odds are you’ll find that someone’s actually compiled a list.  The same goes if you want to write for a gadget blog, travel blog, etc. Learn from these blogs, as the success of their writers can serve as an example and inspiration for you.  Be active in finding out which articles work and which don’t – because someday, you might be writing for them.

Steps you should take THIS WEEK:

1) Set up a PayPal account, if you don’t have one yet.

Here’s a tutorial from Pinoy Money Talk to help you get started.  However, note that the tutorial was written when PayPal Philippines accounts were limited – now we can send and receive payments like most users can.  If you can’t confirm your PayPal account today via credit card or debit card, set a schedule to do it within the month.

2) Submit a guest post to a blog, preferably if it’s within the topics/themes you want to write about.“Guest posts” are free posts that are placed on a blog, usually when the regular writer is busy, ill, or away on vacation.  These can be a good way to promote yourself, since you’ll be allowed to link to your portfolio, and your guest post is always something you can link to as part of your job applications.  Simply search “need guest post” or “looking for guest post” via Google,and you’ll find blogs looking for guest writers.

3) Apply to at least two (2) writing gigs.  You can start by applying to any attractive ads you see in the job boards I linked to above.  It doesn’t matter what they are, and what you think your chances are, as long as there’s pay involved. Some tips when applying for the job:

• Follow instructions.  Read the job ad and follow the instructions to the letter.  If they ask for 2 writing samples, send 2 writing samples – not 3, not 1.
• Research the company/blog you’ll be writing for.  Odds are, you can see existing articles they have on their website.  Use these existing articles as a basis for your samples, so that you can write something close to what they’re looking for.  Also, this can show you if the company is legit, so you won’t worry about being scammed.  (Based on my experience, small-time modeling agencies and religious organizations are usually the ones who tried to scam me.)
• Don’t reply to the company within the forum itself saying “I’m interested, PM me!”  Why?  Because they have no time to PM you.  You’re the one who’s supposed to make the first move, and they’re just supposed to sit back and wait.  Directly send them a PM or email of your application, depending on what the instructions say.
• Don’t apply for jobs that pay anything less than $5 per article.  It is just not worth your time and effort.  Also, the $5 should be for less than 300 words.  Actually, many entry-level blogging jobs start at $8, but if it’s hard to find those, just remember you shouldn’t go less than $5.

If you get rejected, that’s fine – it happens.  I still get rejected sometimes.  Don’t think about it too much, just keep on applying.  I used to spend one day a week just applying to jobs.

But please, let me know when you do get your first online writing job.  I’m sure that the other Frugal Pinoy readers will be inspired by your progress.  I, for one, will be glad to hear that more Filipino freelance writers are starting to monetize their skills online.

I hope this post answers the questions of those readers who wanted to know more about writing online.  If you have further questions, simply comment on this post or send me a note via the Frugal Pinoy contact form.