Latest / The Daily Writer / Making Money as a Writer: Freelance Writing

Transcript

Making Money as a Writer: Freelance Writing · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, as you know, we've been working our way through a series on making money as a writer.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And on today's episode, we're talking about one of the most familiar and straightforward ways to make money as a writer, which is freelance writing.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what is freelance writing?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's basically writing for hire.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is opposed to writing because you're a staff member of an organization or you have writing responsibilities as part of your overall job.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you're a freelance writer, it means you're getting paid to write a specific piece of content or maybe pieces of content, and it can be a one-off thing or it can be part of an ongoing contract.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of writers make fantastic money creating articles, blog posts, and other content for an endless array of different industries or special interest publications.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: My freelancing experience has been in a few basic areas.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a quick rundown of four of those areas where I have freelance.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Number one is I've written a few articles for traditional print magazines and journals for payment.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, these are all for payment.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, for several years, my primary side business income was writing podcast show notes for a few clients.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, I wrote a lot of articles for the Goodman Project, which is a large online publication with millions of views per month.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I do want to add the caveat though that I was paid as an editor, not as a freelancer.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Then finally, number four, I wrote a lot of what's called pillar posts for a ministry-related website for uh for a year or two.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: This has been two or three years ago.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And a pillar post, which is by the way, is a term I had never heard of until I started working with them.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: A pillar post is a long article, typically a few thousand words, that's designed to be an authoritative post on a topic.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's also usually packed with keywords and phrases designed to maximize SEO, which is search engine optimization.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Freelancing comes in all shapes and sizes.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: However, I don't want you to get overwhelmed with all the possibilities that are out there.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, I encourage you to stay focused on doing a few things well.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to get into freelance writing, here's what I would recommend that you do to get started.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, and very first, set up a blog and start writing there on a regular topic.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's really important for you to build your writing resume and to show potential clients, publications, or magazines that you have some writing chops.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, writing regularly on your own blog is a really good way to develop SEO and to begin building some authority around your topic, whatever that topic is.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Next, I encourage you to write for free in some publications like the Goodmen Project, for example, which accepts articles on lots of topics, both by men and by women, as long as it pertains to men or manhood.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, after all, the site is called the Good Men Project.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, about half the readers there and half the writers are actually female, but the main topic is men and manhood.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I would suggest writing for places that feature the same kinds of content or topics that you write or that you want to write.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: The more of your writing that's online and larger the publications that you write for, the more your credibility within that topic will grow over time.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, once you've done these two things, then start pitching paid publications and be sure to strictly follow their guidelines.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Editors at publications are really busy people who will most of the time just ignore you if you don't play by their rules.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you want to write for clients, which means things like regular blog posts and articles, for example, you're still going to need that blog.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd also recommend writing for publications if you can, even if it's for free for a while to build up your writing resume, but then you'll want to connect with potential clients on an individual basis.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one final tip when it comes to freelancing, which is I strongly suggest that you don't refer to yourself or promote yourself as a quote unquote freelance writer.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: The reason is that freelance writers are a dime a dozen.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And this is no offense to anybody, but I'm just, you know, I just kind of tell it like it is.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And freelance writers are a dime a dozen.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if I go outside of my office building right now and I pick up a rock and I throw it, I'm probably going to hit four freelance writers in the process.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to give yourself a more authoritative and specific title, like content writer for the automotive industry, or business and personal development writer, or ghost writer for business and personal development, or whatever it is.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Better yet, combine it with titles like an author or a coach.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Titles mean something, and the way that you refer to yourself is the way that people will think of you.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, this is okay, let me give you a little side tip here.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is, you know, your coach Kent giving you some little advice here.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you get to define yourself, you get to define the way that you show up in the world.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of us have gone through life and maybe we're a little passive or we're kind of introverted, and maybe we'll feel a little socially awkward.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we're used to everybody else defining us.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: But the deal with this is that if you want to build a writing career, you have to start defining yourself.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you get to choose what people think of you by virtue of the way that you show up in the world.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: So give yourself a cool title to begin with.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just call yourself a freelance writer.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's lame.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Call yourself something else that refers to you as a person who has value to offer to a specific kind of industry or a niche.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, like when I talk about my ghostwriting, I say that I'm a ghostwriter for memoir, business, uh, and personal development, something like that.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: It depends on who I'm talking to.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: But generally, I define myself by those categories.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't say, hey, I'm a writer for hire and slink off into the corner.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Define yourself.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, be bold, be assertive, call yourself something that sounds cool and that means something.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And for goodness sake, okay, a little 10-second rant here.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: For goodness sake, if you're on LinkedIn and you're looking for work, please take off that ridiculous open-to-work badge that everybody has on their LinkedIn profile.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: It looks awful.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: It just screams desperation.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Every time that I see that open-to-work badge, I know LinkedIn thinks they're doing people a favor.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: What they're actually doing is like they're they're giving people ways to broadcast their desperation to the world.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I promise you, this is not to sound harsh, but putting that open-to-work badge on your profile or or whatever the current iteration might be, that doesn't actually make people respect you, it makes them disrespect you.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: So please take that off.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, because basically what that means is that hey, I'm not busy with client work.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking for client work.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so instead of that being the way that you tell people that you're looking for work, just connect with people individually.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of stuff I've done here on the podcast about networking and relationship building.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Do those things rather than kind of broadcasting to the world through those ridiculous badges and other kinds of things.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so if you have one of those, don't get mad at me and send me an angry email.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Just take it off and you know, start connecting with people personally and individually rather than using things like the open to work badge.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, back to our regular scheduled programming.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I feel passionate about this topic.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: So when it comes to freelancing, like most of the things that we've discussed in this series, it can take a lot of different forms.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't want you to be afraid.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I just want you to take the steps that I've outlined here, and I think that you're gonna make pretty fast progress when you do these things.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: So again, my intention is to help you, not to be critical or make you feel bad or anything like that.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I do want you to be really successful, and one of the ways to do that is, again, to choose how you show up in the world.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, you get to define yourself.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let other people do it for you.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: You choose the terms by which other people define you.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that means we've got to make a big change in our lives.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to show up with more confidence, we've got to maybe dress differently, we've got to uh show up as a professional.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Recently I went to a prospective client meeting in Nashville, and I literally went and bought a whole new outfit just for that one singular meeting.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think I spent a couple hundred dollars on clothes, actually, which is really, really unusual for me.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: But this was a really important meeting.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: I bought a really nice like uh blazer suit jacket type of a deal, some new pants, a new shirt, and um I thought it looked good.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, do whatever you need to do to kind of show up in the world in a different way.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that'll really, really help.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's question: what specific topics for industries interest you the most when it comes to freelance writing?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And is freelancing something that you have considered?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be curious to know.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, you can always shoot me an email and uh bounce some ideas off me or uh just say hello or whatever you wanna whatever you want to talk about.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's cool.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can do that by sending an email to Kent at DailyRiderLife.com.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear from you as always.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, my friend, as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you on the flip side.