The Great Freelance Writer’s Handbook — 101+ Tips, Resources & Guides

If you’re good at writing then you can become a freelance writer and make money out of it. But if you’re totally new to freelancing then you may be confused about where to start and that’s the reason why I’m writing this blog post.

101+ Freelance Resources, Tips, Guides, & Tools

My goal is to organize some of the best resources for freelance writers to help you kick-start your freelance writing career or to make you a better writer and make more money out of it.

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Freelance Writing For Beginners
Freelance Writing Tips
- How They Started
- How To Become A Better Writer
- SEO Writing Tips
- Copywriting Tips
- Guest Blogging Tips
Writing And Publishing Ebooks
Reverse Topics
Freelance Writing Jobs
Must-Use Tools
Must-Read Blogs

Freelance Writing For Beginners

Here I’m featuring some blog posts that I find useful for beginners or those willing to work as freelance writers. They’re written by some of the best full-time freelance writers out there who are making over $5,000 a month from writing alone.

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Freelance Writing Tips

I’ve split the writing tips into different categories so as to make it more organized. It’s all about how some of the best freelancers started their writing business, how they’re getting clients, tips to become a better writer and make more money.

How They Started & How Well They’re Doing

It’s about how some of the most popular freelance writers started small and then made it a five-figure business. You can actually learn a lot from the failures and success stories of other people in your industry. For instance, read the story of James Chartrand about how she (yes, she) changed her name and tripled her income.

Taking a man’s name opened up a new world. It helped me earn double and triple the income of my true name, with the same work and service.

No hassles. Higher acceptance. And gratifying respect for my talents and round-the-clock work ethic.

Business opportunities fell into my lap. People asked for my advice, and they thanked me for it, too.

Tips To Become A Better Writer & Make More Money

Freelancers: Network BEFORE you need to. The reason so many of you are disenchanted is you try to apply a “fast food” model to relationships. — @JoelKlettke

If you’re a freelancer or even a consultant then it’s very important to have a blog so that you can showcase your skills. If you don’t have a blog then it should definitely be one of your top priority. Why? Because your blog is your personal brand, it makes you a better writer and brings instant credibility. The following resources will help you to become a better writer.

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SEO Writing Tips

Today, content marketing is more important than ever! So it’s more likely that your clients will ask you write search engine friendly content so you’ve to make sure that you’re delivering search engine optimized content (especially if you’re a freelance blogger). The following resources shows you how to make your blog posts more search friendly.

Copywriting Tips

Copywriting is all about writing content to sell a product or service. It’s the art of writing a copy that sells your product or service by convincing your potential customers. Your copywriting skills are as important as SEO writing especially when you’re pitching bigger brands.

Guest Blogging Tips

Guest blogging is all about writing a blog post on another person’s blog. In guest blogging, you write a guest post for another blog or someone else writes an article for your blog usually for free. When you become an experienced freelance blogger you can expand your portfolio by offering guest blogging services. So apart from writing content you’re going to offer placement as well on authority blogs.

Read: Over 30 Reliable Blogs That Pay $50+ For Your Guest Posts | Minterest

Writing And Publishing Ebooks

If you’re a freelance writer with a lot of experience then think about converting your blog posts and resources into e-books or podcasts, or membership programs. Out of that I guess writing and selling your own e-books is the best option for starters. Visit the blog of any professional blogger or freelance writer and you’ll see that they’re selling their own digital products – like e-books, webinars, podcasts, etc. It may be free or paid but what’s interesting is that 80% of the content is already published as blog posts. So basically it’s about presenting existing blog posts in a more organized and user friendly way so that beginners will find it more useful.

Reverse Topics

Put yourself in the shoes of your clients and think about the value addition.

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Freelance Writing Jobs

Think about the following marketplaces for freelancers as the starting point to make your first $100 as a freelance writer. I can’t say which one is the best but it’s going to work for you.

Think Big. Start Small. Scale Fast.

Don’t Miss: Freelance Writing Jobs: Over 51 Places To Find Freelance Writing Gigs

Tools

As you probably know the web has a lot of tools to increase your productivity and to organize your life. As a freelance writer you’re going to need a variety of tools so I’ve featured all of them as separate lists.

Blogs

You can learn a lot from other freelance writers out there and here I’m listing some of my favorite freelance blogs for freelance writers. Apart from tips and ideas they tell you how they started their full-time freelance writing business and how well they’re doing. There are a lot of other popular blogs by freelance writers but I’m not including any of them as I believe that they are more useful for bloggers and not freelance writers. But I have listed all of them in my favorite tech and marketing blogs.

Don’t Miss: 15 Blogs You Should Really Read If You Are A Freelance Writer

Closing Thoughts

“If you are trying to decide among a few people to fill a position hire the best writer. It doesn’t matter if the person is marketer, salesperson, designer, programmer, or whatever, their writing skills will pay off. That’s because being a good writer is about more than writing clear writing. Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. Great writers know how to communicate. They make things easy to understand. They can put themselves in someone else’s shoes. They know what to omit. And those are qualities you want in any candidate. Writing is making a comeback all over our society. Look at how much people email and text message now rather than talk on the phone. Look at how much communication happens via instant messaging and blogging. Writing is today’s currency for good ideas.” — Jason Fried

Have I missed any useful resources for freelance writers? If so, let me know as a comment below and I’ll be glad to feature it.

Happy Freelancing! 🙂

First Published: April, 2014; Last Updated: Tuesday, February 16, 2021.

The Great Freelance Writer’s Handbook — 101+ Tips, Resources, Guides & Tools