What are freelance writing jobs, and how do you get freelance writing jobs for beginners? In this post, I will show you everything you need to know about freelance writing jobs and how to get started with your writing career. I will also list some freelance writing websites you can register with and start making money today.

Who is a Freelance Writer?

A freelance writer is a self-employed writer who earns money by writing for magazines, newspaper companies, blogs, article writing platforms (Fiverr/Upwork), and other publications. As a freelance writer, you earn money by writing on diverse topics and for different companies or brands. Most importantly, you are in control of your time, and you can decide the nature of your job. 

Skills Required To Be a Freelance Writer

Although some people think you need professional skills before you can become a writer. But really, all you need is a laptop, an internet connection, the ability to write, and the zeal to do the work. The rest are self-developed skills. And I will list them below. 

The most important thing about writing is to deliver value to your client and leave them satisfied at all times. 

Here are some of the skills you will need to be a great writer. 

• Motivation and Inspiration

Even though working from home is a great and comfortable way to earn a living, it can be challenging, especially for beginners. A lot of people struggle with starting a work-from-home job, and most quit halfway. This is where self-motivation and inspiration are needed. 

Also, as a freelance writer, you may struggle to stay focused from the beginning. You’ll need some level of motivation to get through the stage. – making sure you are able to get your client’s jobs done and deliver within the deadline. 

You will also need a great level of inspiration to be able to write a great article on some niches that you may find difficult. 

• Ability to Sell Yourself

When you get started, you may find it difficult to get clients at first. Here is where you need the ability to confidently convince clients to trust you with their articles. 

If you don’t have the confidence and the skill to sell yourself, you won’t be able to get clients. 

When writing your pitch or cover, ensure to highlight how your style of writing and your knowledge would be beneficial to the project.

As a beginner, use your prior experience to highlight what skills you have and what you are able to give.

Most importantly, make sure your pitch fits the needs of the job you are applying for. Once you show the ability and confidence that you can complete the project, your client will give you the jobs and have confidence that you’ll also deliver.

• Pay Attention to the Details

Writing is never an easy task, it is complex and time-consuming and always requires a lot of attention and complete concentration. 

This is why you need to pay strong attention to detail, — so you don’t miss simple spelling and grammar errors that could easily have been seen. Doing this will help you write better articles, and deliver great jobs to your clients while avoiding returning clients for revision.

• Grammar and Spelling Skills

Freelance writers don’t need to be told about the importance of having competent skills in grammar and spelling. It is the core of your writing career. No matter how great your article idea is, if it is full of grammatical and spelling errors, it will surely be awful. 

So, you need to ensure you have some level of skill in this area, and also do well to make use of some writing tools like Grammarly. This will help take your writing job to a new level and enable you to deliver well-written content. 

• Good Research Techniques

Whether you are an expert in a particular niche or not, you will still need to do some research if you want to write better content. 

Writers are always researchers. As a freelance writer, you should be able to carry out research on your topic without issues. Especially if the topic is not in your area of specialty. 

You should efficiently research your topic, get the best resources on the given topic and curate the information needed for your new article. All this should be done effortlessly. 

• Be Able to Adapt

Being a freelancer means adapting to clients’ requests and demands. 

Since you are serving different clients with a variety of needs, topics, and demands, you should always prepare yourself and be able to seamlessly adapt to each of your client demand.

You could be writing for a blog, a magazine, newspaper publication as the case may be. And your clients may give you topics that are way out of your niche, however, once you can adapt to every client’s working conditions, you will be able to do well and make more money. 

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Start Your Freelance Writing Career With no Experience

As stated earlier, you don’t need professional experience to start your freelance writing career. All you need is your passion, zeal, and the skills listed above. 

You can always start your freelance writing career as a beginner and upgrade your professional skills as you keep working. This will help you climb faster and also land higher-paying clients.  

As a beginner, no specialized training is needed to start writing. All you need is your command of the English language, proficiency in grammar and spelling, and some grammar-checking tools, and you are good to go.

Once you are confident that you are able to write a well-organized article that’s error-free, — then go ahead and get a laptop/desktop with a stable internet connection. These are the requirements needed to become a freelance writer. 

How Much do Freelance Writers Make?

Freelance writers get paid in different ways, the earning power of writer A may be different from B, or C. and this depends on so many factors. Some of these are listed below. 

• The nature of the article required
• Type of research needed
• Number of word count
• The level of your experience and
• Demand

As a freelance writer, you could earn per word, per hour, or per project. 

According to statistics by Glassdoor, a freelance writer earns around $50,000 per annum. While another report, by PayScale, claims a freelance writer could earn around $30,000 – $120,000 in a single calendar year. While these are all possible earnings, you could also earn around $29.89 per hour, especially if you work full-time.

In general, how much you earn is dependent on your level of experience, — the more experienced you are, the better opportunities you’ll have. 

Getting Your First Freelance Writing Job

When you start your freelance writing career, getting your first job always comes with some high expectations. But how do you really get that first client to give you the job? 

Well, clients want who they can trust with their jobs, — especially when time and money are involved. This is why they look for professionals in the field. This doesn’t mean you won’t be able to get jobs. 

You need to make clients trust you and to do so, you need to show them what they want to see. Create samples of your previous works. If you don’t have any, create one, — by writing some articles on different topics, either for friends or yourself. 

Use a blog, create a portfolio with your blog, showcasing samples of works you have done in the past. Your blog posts alone are enough to sell your skills, and if you have a portfolio, that’s an added advantage. 

Once you have a blog and a portfolio, you can sign up on freelance sites and offer writing services. This will make it easy for you to get writing jobs.

Top 10 Freelance Writing Jobs for Beginners

Alright, with all that said, let’s take a look at the top 10 freelance writing jobs for beginners. 

If you have been struggling in the past to make it as a freelance writer, – well, maybe you have been doing things wrongly, or you are yet to spot the right writing category for yourself. 

There are several freelance writing categories, and you may not be able to avail yourself of all the categories. However, choosing the right category/niche is very vital if you must succeed. 

That’s why I have put together the best freelance writing jobs for beginners, all here for you. Hope you enjoy going through them and picking the right fit. 

1. Website Content Writing

Website content is what makes most websites rank on the first pages of search engines. There are websites that don’t have a blog, however, they still have a way to make their sites show on search engines, — this is where they look out for static content for their business. 

This content could be about the company, its products/services, or just general information for their clients. 

Being a content writer is a great way to make money with your writing skills, — especially if you are able to land a big brand. 

You could be hired by these companies just to write articles that will fill up their website pages. This content doesn’t need to be market-centric and/or customer-centric, however, it needs to help the pages improve their SEO rankings.

Always make sure you are writing for a company with the nature of content that you are conversant with. 

2. Copy Writing

Copywriting is about writing an article for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. The article in this case is called copy or sales copy and it is aimed at increasing brand awareness and ultimately persuading a person or group of persons to take a particular action.

A copy can be used for Google Ads, marketing calls to action (CTA), or even sales and promotion, with the goal of a good return on investment (ROI) for the company. 

Your copywriting should always convey a focused message and be short, and concise but convincing enough to make customers take action. 

You need to provide content that’s difficult for any reader to ignore, — this should be accompanied by a great CTA that will enable the company you are writing for to reach its goal. This goal could be to either boost traffic or increase sales. 

3. Email Marketing Writing

Every successful company knows the importance of an Email list and email marketing. In fact, most companies pride themselves on the number and quality of lists they have acquired in previous years. 

This is one thing that can never be taken away from them, — no matter the changes that take place in the digital space. Email lists have proven to be a huge way to monetize businesses, and email marketing writing is one notable way to provide the content needed.

Clients know the value of compelling Email marketing writing, — this is why they can spend the right amount of money to get the best article written. To do this, they will need the help of great freelance writers to create this content for them. Email marketing writing may include launch emails, sales funnels, and newsletters.

Ensure you know the nature of Email writing and be familiar with how the type of email and writing style engages with customers before taking the job. This will help you deliver better content. 

4. Blog Writing

Blogging is one of the lucrative ways to make money online. Bloggers also have a way of making real passive income, — this is why lots of people love blogging. However, one of the tedious aspects of blogging has been about producing unique and regular content for their readers. 

This is of utmost importance to every blogger, they know this as well, — which is why they won’t hesitate to hire a proficient writer to always write for them. Producing content for their readers on a daily basis. 

As a blog writer, you stand a chance to have a stable writing job that can pay you for a longer period of time. Once you are able to secure a blog writing job with 2 or 3 blogs, you are sure to make even more money. 

However, always make sure you find a niche that is in line with the kind of content you want to be creating. It makes you an authority, and you will be able to easily engage with the audience. — This will help you become successful as a blog writer.

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5. Ghostwriting

Ghostwriting simply means, you are ready to write on any topic of your choice for any company, or blog without having any credit or bylines. 

There are ghostwriters everywhere, and they make lots of money writing for several clients. 

As a ghostwriter, you can write content such as blog posts, website articles, bios, books, case studies, email newsletters, manuals, musical lyrics, or even literature, and you receive zero credit for your work. All credit will be given to the client or company that hires you.

This is why ghostwriting gigs always come with higher pay. To be successful as a ghostwriter, you need to be niche specific. This is because clients want a ghostwriter who is more detailed, focused, and very knowledgeable about their niche. And most of them even give you a detailed guideline of what they really want and expect nothing less from you.

One of the shortcomings of ghostwriting is that you won’t be able to build a writing portfolio, — since all credit goes to the client or company. The only good thing is that you get paid higher. So, it is important you weigh your need for credit/bylines or get better pay for your writing.  

People who hire ghostwriters usually prefer and enjoy long-term contracts, except your work is not meeting their requirements.

6. Grant Writing

Grant writing is the process of creating article content in the form of a proposal in other to seek funds from a donor. Grants are used to secure crucial funding from government agencies and other well-known bodies to support non-organizations and their mission.

As a grant writer, you will be responsible for making in-depth research for the grant and also coordinating and developing a well-written grant proposal ready for submission to funders. 

This type of writing requires an in-depth knowledge of the organization you are writing for, what they stand for including their mission and vision, and most importantly, — it also requires you to know the nature of the people they seek out for their grant. This will help you write in line and with a better understanding. 

It is important to note that in a grant proposal, you will be developing article content that describes the applicant, their intentions, and their expected breakthroughs. You need to make this detailed and compelling enough to attract funding. That’s not all, you may also need to do follow-up and basically handle every process of the grant till it has been released. 

Although this can be negotiated before you accept the job, depending on how far you are willing to go. Many grant writers use this means to get a full-time position, — but then, it’s all up to you and what you really want. Full-time or freelance work. 

7. Technical Writing

Technical writing comes in different forms, some may be about a company’s report, organizational manual, software manual, how ToS, or instructional materials for a specific product.

As a technical writer, paying attention to detail is very vital if you want to become successful. Your writing should also include breaking down processes for better understanding. 

Your main focus will be to come up with a better and more detailed explanation, — breaking down expert-level processes and simplifying them for ease of use. Technical writing is very lucrative and can earn you a stable income online. But you need to be very focused and deliver your best. 

8. Creative Writing

Creative writing is a bit different because it has to do with more imaginative writing, — fiction or poetry content. This may not be a good fit for many. Except you are passionate about creative writing. It is one of the freelance writing jobs for beginners that requires talent. 

Although creative writers may find it difficult to get a long-term contract, they still do have handsome pay when they get hired.  Also, many organizations and companies are looking for good creative writers to work with. 

There are several types of creative writing jobs you can apply for, — poetry, short stories, screenplays, greeting cards, songs, fiction, movies and TV scripts, memoirs, speeches, and even personal essays. You should choose your part carefully if you want to succeed. 

With that said, if you have the ability to captivate an audience, or readers and bring them joy, you have a chance of doing very well in it in this type of freelance writing job.

9. Product Descriptions Writing

Another great freelance writing job for beginners is product description writing. I have done this several times and can tell you, it is indeed a great way to make money online. 

Product description writing is unique and very easy to tackle. Especially if it is a product you know too well. Another good thing about this writing job is that it enables you to know a lot about different products out there. 

In this type of writing, you will be required to take the product of your client and optimize its descriptions in other to improve engagement, click-through rate, and sales. 

The product description should also help the product appear on searches of the eCommerce platform for similar products where there are a thousand of them. 

The good thing is that you can model a similar product’s description since the descriptions are almost interchangeable. However, just make sure yours stands out and is easy to read and understand. 

One mistake that most product writers make is that they focus more on the features of the product instead of the benefits. As a product description writer, understand that customers are looking for benefits, so, focus on its benefits and keep the description short and on point. This makes it very clear and easy to read. 

If your product descriptions are long, make them short by dividing them into bullet points.

10. News Writing

If you love journalism and have been looking for a way to work as a publisher with news media outlets, this may be a great place to start. 

Lots of news publishing websites are looking for competent writers who understand the nature of news writing and can deliver in their niche. 

News writing is just like blogging, but this time, you will be working with a more established news publishing company. There are several niches that can be found on these news publishing sites, and they may be looking for writers for a specific niche. You need to be niche specific, as this will boost your chances of working with a news publication site. 

As a news writer, keep in mind that you will be writing journalistically, — this means you have to consider the audience, the tone of your writing, as well as the rules of news writing. Your content should show accuracy, brevity, and clarity. Always try to connect with the news publishing community and network with others in the field. 

Most importantly, be always in the know and keep up with what’s happening around you and in the world — this will help you report the latest scoop quickly. News writers are researchers. They always dig deep, gathering facts and figures before publishing their content. 

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Conclusion

Article writing has become a vital part of the digital space. Almost everything on the internet revolves around articles. Whether you are creating video content, infographic, or image content, you will still need a script, to make the process smooth. 

This is why article writers are highly valued in every industry. So, if you are looking for a way to start your article writing journey, this list of 1o freelance writing jobs for beginners is a great choice for you. 

All you need to do is to pick a niche that will be favorable to you and work your way up as you grow. There are several ways to get freelance writing jobs and I will be discussing that in my next article. I hope you follow and enjoy it as well. 

However, I will leave you with a few of the places you can get these writing jobs below. 

Fiverr, Upwork, Flex jobs, People Per Hour

Alright, let me know which of the freelance writing jobs you will be interested in the comment box below.