Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Getting Started in Freelancing

How do you get started when you want to earn money as a writer? I've given plenty of advice in some older posts such as: here but this morning read a thread on a wahm forum about writing courses for over $1000.00 that some women are taking. While I think it's admirable to get educated and some day do plan to go back and get my BA in English, I want to share that I got started in this business without investing a dime.

Here are a few things I did that got me started:

-Started a blog.
Start a blog under a name you'll use as your online trademark and start writing about something that interests you. If you create a niche, you will find that your blog can be used as clips to get writing jobs about that niche. Start many blogs if you want to diversify.

-One your blog meets criteria for paid blogging, apply to sites like Blogitive, payperpost, blogvertise and others to monetize your blog.

-Find mentors. My first mentors were Sharon Hurley Hall and Suzanne James. I read every advice blog they both wrote and joined their writer's group at InspiredAuthor.com. I started writing for Suz's magazine doing book reviews and attending weekly chats on InspiredAuthor.com and learned a lot of insider information from a group of about 1/2 a dozen writers who did freelance writing and novel writing

-Start applying for jobs. There are countless jobs online on craigslist and forums for freelance writing.

There, that should get you started and it didn't cost you a dime.
If you find a great course, by all means sign up but you can get started at writing for free.

Cheers,
Dana

2 comments:

Sharon Hurley Hall said...

Great tips, Dana. They have all worked well for me. I have also had a lot of inspiration from other writers.

Dana Prince said...

Thanks, Bloggingwriter. You continue to inspire me a year after I've found your blog :)
Cheers,
Dana