When you’re a freelance writer, you need to make the leap from starving artist to gainfully employed. There are countless ways to build your freelance writing income so that you can not only pay your bills but thrive. This is something I’m quite familiar with, as I’ve built up my own internet marketing from scratch and now have a flourishing business today. This is quite similar to the path of a freelance writer in that it will be tough in the beginning, but if you are willing to put in the time, work and effort — you can end up with something pretty amazing a few months or years down the road.

With more than a billion active sites on the internet today, there are opportunities available but you also need to become savvier. Every website and blogs need to have new content, and if they aren’t creating it themselves, they are using freelance writers or premium content platforms to get the job done. This also means that there are millions of dollars being spent and paid out to those who can provide quality writing services.

To this end, read on so that you can become a better freelance writer, and allow your earnings to reflect that.

Set Up Your Own Blog to Display Your Work

Having your own blog is great for a few different reasons. For one, it’s a great way for you to get better at writing by penning entries a few times per week. This keeps your skills sharp so that you can keep providing for your customers.

It will also act as a portfolio so that you’re able to show the public what you’re capable of. Since they’re able to stop by your blog and check out your posts, it acts as a calling card for your brand.

Today, people are building blogs that pay, and this gives even more leverage to sell products, ad space or guest posts.

Of course, owning a blog is also great for search engine optimization, making your brand more recognizable and easy to find. This opens you up to more freelance writing income and helps you find gigs that pay well.

Write Gigs That Pay Residuals

Your first thought might be to get paid by the hour or per project. However, with Amazon and other outlets, you can write ebooks that sell like hotcakes and pay you every month. The same is true for other freelance writing platforms like iWriter, TextBroker and FreelanceMyWay. While each of these is great to picking up new writing jobs, it’s also important for freelance writers to communicate with whoever might be buying content writing from them as well. This back and forth engagement can dramatically increase the likelihood of more articles to be ordered, while also building a long-term relationship as well.

It’s not just about engagement, it’s also about making sure your client is happy and that they are getting their money worth. Whether you’re writing about topics that you are passionate about or ghostwriting content for other people, you’ll be in a great position to expand your income by leaps and bounds.

Charge What You’re Worth

You’re already a great writer, now it’s time to start thinking like a businessperson.

Many writers undercut themselves and end up robbing themselves of valuable income. Instead of setting your rates to get quick gigs that pay the bills, have the patience to only work with clients that pay you what you are worth.

Check the going rate for freelance writing gigs so that you can set your rates and build a nice client base. This way, you won’t have to do as much work to get the same rate.

Also, be sure to start with a higher premium rate so that you can also go lower if the client would like a discount with any bulk orders. This is something I always look for when working with a premium writer that continually produces great content.

Continuously Hone Your Craft and Build Your Credentials

No matter what, you have to keep getting better at your craft. This way, you’re better able to bring in new clients and keep those that you have.

This can be as simple as creating a website or blog to show off your best work, history within the industry, and also any certification or rewards that you might have received. Testimonials from previous paying clients can also go a long way as well.

Travel to networking seminars and do all that you can to build your credentials, and the work will begin taking care of itself.

Build Your Visibility To Improve Your Freelance Writing Income

Finally, do all you can to build your brand and connect with the public. People need to be able to find you whenever they’re looking for a credible writer. At the same time, it’s a huge benefit for your pricing and value to clients if you have a good understanding of how SEO and social media works.

Being able to throw in some extra SEO research, on-site and off-site SEO tips, and social media shares within your content writing services is also a great bonus. You can learn more about this by reading through this link building and social media strategy guide. As you can imagine, with so much competition in the world of content writing and freelance services, if you can offer any type of bonus material or promotion in reference to SEO, social media, and improved branding for your clients, that could really seal the deal when being compared with other freelancers bidding on the same work.

While all of this is happening, you can also build your band through photos and videos and learning more about marketing. Build your presence on social media as well so that you are always connecting with customers.

Always Strive to Get Better While Increasing Earnings Monthly

When you run a business on the internet, there are many way to further optimize and scale your business. The same holds true for anyone looking to make money with freelance writing services. Following these tips helps you build your freelance writing income by leaps and bounds. You are now on a neverending journey of learning and becoming the best professional you can be.

To get the most out of your career, keep learning the tips that will help you out. Be sure to check out my other articles on Freelance Writing Gigs to learn more about how to make more money as a freelancer, while also branding yourself as a premium writer and expert in the process.

More and more people are leaving conventional, full-time traditional employment and becoming freelance workers and independent contractors. This offers a ton of benefits for businesses of all sizes; you’re able to pay talented, trained experts to complete work or projects based on your need. You don’t need to hire them as an employee and pay taxes or have a set amount of work a week, and—best of all in the eyes of many—you don’t have to train them.

Finding truly talented and exceptional freelance workers, however, can be a major challenge. People have been lying on their resumes for decades, and it’s all too easy to hire someone who looks good online and pay way too much money for work that doesn’t even come close to meeting the mark. One of the best ways to find a high-quality writer is to find one with real history, customer feedback, author profiles and especially if they have a website or blog of their own.

With so many resources online for how to start a blog, it would be rare these days to find article writers that don’t have a site of their own. However, don’t let that be the determining case on whether you are going to hire someone or not. To help with this complicated decision process, we are going to highlight five of the best ways to find a high-quality freelance writer for your site. It’s just a matter of knowing where to look, and what to look for.

Amazing, hardworking freelancers are out there; you just have to find them and do your best to keep them once you do.

1. Know What You Need

If you’re going to hire someone, the best thing you can do is determine what exactly you’ll need them to do. If you’re looking to hire a freelance writer, for example, are you going to want them to write ebooks, blog posts, or email marketing campaigns? Some can do all three, but some can’t; each has separate skills required. Good blog post writers have an understanding of SEO and keywords; email copywriters should know about that particular branch of marketing.

In addition to knowing where and how to find different freelancers, it’s important to know where most of the freelancers are in the world today. Thanks to this article from CEOWorld, we can see that Hong Kong, United States, South Korea and United Arab Emirates are four of the best countries in the world to start your own freelancing business. As a brand or someone looking to hire a freelancer, always consider your options for hiring outside of where your business is currently based.

Understanding, to the best of your ability, what your needs are and how it will impact your business (are you creating a blog to increase traffic, or to drive sales, or both?) will help you find someone with the necessary skill set to complete the job, and do it well.

2. Be Willing to Pay More

The top talent in any field will almost certainly get paid more; their work offers more value, and they’re in more demand. While you can find a large number of freelancers online who will do the work for very cheap (particularly in the digital marketing/design field), you’ll often get much better results if you’re willing to pay more for someone with more experience. By being willing to pay more, you’ll automatically have an easier time finding the best freelancers.

You might be lucky and stumble onto a worker who is new to the industry and isn’t charging a lot for their services yet while they build a resume; that’s great at first. Keep in mind though that if they’re really good, other businesses will see it, too, and you’ll likely have to pay more to keep them on board.

3. Ask People You Trust for Referrals

A big fear of a lot of businesses or business people when it comes to hiring freelancers is that they can be unpredictable and unreliable. They don’t want to pay that upfront deposit in case the freelancer takes off without doing the work, or they don’t want to pay a hefty hourly fee to someone who may waste their time. A good solution to this is to ask the people you trust for referrals.

Asking a friend, colleague, or industry peer if they have a freelancer they use and recommend can be a great way to connect with a worker who you already know has produced solid work at least once.

You can even ask the freelancers or contractors that you’re already working with if they have recommendations. A blogger or copywriter, for example, may have a great relationship with other types of writers, a website designer, or a graphic designer that they’ve worked with in the past. Because they know their reputation can be impacted by their recommendation, they’re a lot less likely to make one rashly.

4. Pay for a Short “Test” Project

Plenty of employers will ask prospective employees to demonstrate their abilities before offering them a job; hiring a freelancer doesn’t have to be any different. Especially for large (and expensive) projects, asking freelancers to complete a short, paid test project can help you decide if they’re right for your business. Even the best freelancers out there won’t be the right fit for every business.

Test projects give you the opportunity to determine not only that the quality of their work is high and that it’s what you need, but several other factors, too, including:

• Whether or not they meet their deadlines. If they don’t meet their deadline on the test project, where they’re supposed to be strutting their stuff, they probably won’t meet the deadlines later on, either.
• How they communicate. Communication is so important, especially when you’re looking to have the work done right. Are they clear about what they need from you? Do they ask for help or clarification when they need it?
• How often they communicate. If the person you’re looking to hire as a freelance worker doesn’t check their email or their phone as often as they might need them to, the working relationship won’t work. Some projects need constant communication, and if you need someone who will be open to that, it’s good to find out early.

Keep in mind that even the best freelancers out there won’t be the right fit for every business; if you find a seemingly amazing freelancer that doesn’t have a communication or work style that meshes with yours, they’re probably not right for you, even if they come highly recommended. That’s the point of the test project—to see who will and won’t work.

5. See How They Respond to Feedback

No matter what business you’re in, we’ve all experienced a coworker, boss, or even a friend who is incapable of accepting feedback of constructive criticism. When they receive it, they point fingers at everyone else and get angry. This is the very last thing you want when hiring a freelance worker or independent contractor.

If at all possible, keep an eye on how a freelance worker responds to feedback and criticism. A good way to do this is by asking them to complete that test project discussed above, and then asking them to edit it with your notes. If they’re willing to do so, that’s a good sign. If they’re not and have no good reason as to why, cut your losses and run.

This is someone you’re paying for a service or a product; if they are unwilling or unable to give you exactly what you want, it’s just not going to work.

Finding success with freelance writing is all about making a name for yourself and building out your portfolio of client and work. An excellent way to speed up this process and make yourself look more professional in the process is to rank for your name in Google. There are many ways to accomplish this, but I’m going to provide you with three of the best working methods I’ve been using for a while now. Keep in mind, it’s not just about ranking number one for your name in Google, it’s about ranking as many times as possible and trying to own that whole first page.

Each of the methods highlighted below should be possible for nearly any freelance writer out there. The same can be said for anyone simply trying to rank for their name as well. Of course, this will also come down to the popularity of your name and who you have to out rank in the process.

Creating Your Own Blog and Foundation Like I did with ZacJohnson.com

For anyone wanting to grow a personal brand and rank in Google for the name, one of the first things that should be done is starting a website or blog of your own — preferably with your personal name as your domain name. This is what I was able to do with ZacJohnson.com and having it rank #1 in Google for “Zac Johnson”. In addition to creating the site, I continually produce new content and have a thorough “About Me” page which helps the site rank as well. In the screenshot above, you will also notice my Twitter updates are shown right at the top of the search results as well. The good thing about having a main website or blog of your own is that you can always refer to it whenever you might be mentioned on other websites or even sharing content through social media. I also have an interesting case with my name, as I share it with a pretty famous professional golfer named “Zach Johnson”, which Google commonly meshes in with my own search results.

Using Powerful Bio and Author Pages to Rank in Google Like Mark Dubowitz

In addition to having a website or blog of your own, it’s highly recommended to make use of other third party websites or blogs that you might be able to gain an author or bio page from. A perfect example of this can be seen for Mark Dubowitz (Medium profile), who is the Executive Director at the Foundation For Defense Of Democracies. We can use him as an example in this scenario because not only does he write for his own web sites, he also writes for other big media sites and has profile pages on high authority sites as well. When searching for his name through Google, you will see that each of these profiles rank extremely well for his name in Google. Being an Executive Director, Mark Dubowitz (CrunchBase profile) also has the benefit of being able to create such profiles on sites like CrunchBase, Wikipedia, Wall Street Journal and other big name sites — all of which are ranking quite well for his name in Google. This is a method that works well for both professionals and freelance writers as well. The more publications and citations you can get under your name, the better chances you have for ranking multiple pages within Google.

Relying on Social Networks to Gain More Rankings Like Gary Vaynerchuk Is

If you have a name that is somewhat competitive to rank for and is shared by many others, an excellent way to improve your chances of ranking multiple times in Google is to rely on social networks like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. This is something that can clearly be seen if you perform a search for “Gary Vaynerchuk” in Google. While many sites like Forbes, Entrepreneur and the New York Times continually write new articles around Gary and use his name in the titles, they still don’t have a chance of outranking his main social profiles — thus allowing Gary Vee to pretty much own the whole first page of rankings for his name. While this is just an example of how well this is working for one individual, there is no reason why the same can’t be done for you. Be sure to create as many social profiles on the main networks as possible, while also linking back to them and using your name whenever possible.

The More You Rank for Your Name, The Better Your Reputation

At the end of the day, Google is going to act as your first impression for whenever someone searches for your name online. While you can’t control what ranks at the top of Google, you can influence where you rank and the chances of outranking other websites. The best way to accomplish this is to have a content marketing and link building plan that includes each of the methods above. Be sure to always link back to your main website and social profiles using your name. This will allow Google to see the reference between the anchor text and the social profiles you are linking back to. Since Google loves social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google, they are extremely easy to rank in comparison to other sites. Make sure you are using not just your own site properties to rank higher, but also other established sites that already have established authority and link juice passing through them.