A career as a freelance writer can be very rewarding. Getting paid to write is a writer’s dream. But it’s one that requires hard work and dedication.

If you’ve got a passion for writing and you want to turn it into a full-blown career, you first need to learn how to build a freelance portfolio that will generate business. Here’s how.

Build your website

Before you start writing, you’ll first need to a website to display your work. WordPress is the most popular choice for creating an online portfolio, as it’s free and easy to use. But if you’re more tech-savvy, you might find creating a website from scratch preferable instead.

As a general rule of thumb, your freelance portfolio should include:

• About page: be clear and concise with who you are and what services you provide.
• Contact page: this could be a simple form, or you might offer your email address or social profiles.
• Blog: as well as being good for SEO, blogs also display your value and expertise to potential clients.
• Portfolio: a collection of your most recent work, with samples and links to live posts.

It’s important to be discerning when you’re choosing which pieces to display on your portfolio. It can be tempting to post every bit of work you’ve ever done, but as is often the case, quality is better than quantity.

Takeaway tip

Select 5-10 pieces of your very best work and display them prominently. While you can certainly link off to other work you’ve done, ensure your best work is placed front and center.

Find your writer’s niche

Most freelance writers, while certainly talented enough to do so, don’t write for any and every industry out there. Instead of casting a wide net, you can catch more fish by being super-specific with the kind of work you do.

Finding your niche is important because it helps potential clients determine whether or not you’re a good fit for them. Zeroing in on a specific industry show that you’re authoritative in your subject, rather than possessing only a shallow knowledge.

Potential clients will often want to see an example of your previous work before signing you up. For example, providing a healthcare brand with a sample piece on digital marketing (no matter how well written) won’t cut the mustard.

Takeaway tip

Once you’ve identified your niche, do some keyword research around it and optimize your site accordingly. This will help your portfolio appear in search queries from clients looking for writers in your niche.

Editor’s note:

Deliver authority and value

Potential clients will view dozens of writing portfolios as they search for a freelancer. To make your freelance portfolio stand out from your competitors, you need to go the extra mile.

As well as displaying a collection of your best, most recent work, consider offering something extra that prospective clients won’t find anywhere else.

Every portfolio should include a blog. It’s a chance for you to pass on knowledge and convey your authority on a subject. But go beyond the blog and offer something no-one else does.

For example, you could set up a basic e-commerce store and sell an online course or product related to your niche through it. Alternatively, buying an existing business and revamping the stock is a simple trick to save you time. Or you could host webinars on your chosen niche and charge a nominal fee for attending.

Integrating these with your portfolio doesn’t just provide you with an extra source of income. It’s also a chance for you to display industriousness and authority in your given industry too.

Takeaway tip

Go beyond simply displaying your work on your portfolio. Dazzle prospective clients by offering value and authority to make your portfolio stand out from the crowd.

Related: 5 Things Your Freelance Portfolio Website Should Include

Implement a guest post strategy

Perhaps the easiest and most popular way to build up your portfolio of written work is through guest posting.

In a nutshell, this involves emailing websites, blogs, and digital publications and asking if you can write for them. You might already have some sites you want to write for in mind already. But if not, a quick Google search can help you find potential opportunities.

Simply enter your industry keyword and “+ write for us”, and you’ll find dozens of possible options:

Before pitching your ideas, read their guidelines and existing content thoroughly to get a feel for the kind of thing they want to publish.

Regularly writing for sites in your niche doesn’t just build up your portfolio either. Getting your name in industry publications helps build visibility for your work and your services too.

Takeaway tip

With guest post outreach, it’s important to be open about what you want. Politely request a backlink to your portfolio to help potential clients find you. And for outreach at scale, use email automation to coordinate your efforts with ease.

Editor’s note: For guest blogging outreach, I suggest you use Ninja Outreach*. You can find relevant contacts of bloggers, create a drip email campaign to submit to  them, and automate the sending process so you can just wait for their replies.

Did you learn how to build a freelance portfolio?

Going freelance as a professional writer is a big step, and requires enormous effort and commitment — but it’s doable. Create and build up a strong online portfolio, and put a regular guest post strategy in place. In doing so, you will get visibility for your work and your services. You’ll soon build up a strong client base that will form the basis of a successful career as a freelance writer.

Victoria Greene

Brand Marketing Consultant

I love working with brands and businesses, as well as running my own ecommerce stores. Big advocate of social media storytelling, and I’m also a huge animal lover.

We all know just how important email newsletters are for businesses these days.

Even if your company is just made up of yourself working from home, sending out regular newsletter campaigns is a great way to engage customers back to your company. It’s also a fantastic marketing strategy as well! Readers who enjoy your newsletter will no doubt forward it onto their friends.

Even for freelancers, it’s crucial to build an email list if you want to engage with your blog readers and filter through the list to find potential clients. During the middle of this year, I’ve made more effort to send out regular emails and grow my list during different tactics.

To be honest, the jury is still out whether this campaign will rake in more money to my business in the long run. But looking at the trend so far, a more profitable freelancing career via email marketing is still on the horizon.

However, your emails won’t be as effective if they aren’t written well. There are also important elements and features that you need to include in your newsletters. If you forget, the ones you send out might not bring you the benefits you expect.

Key to making your email campaign work is to learn how to make email newsletters that people open. Therefore, make sure to implement the features below the next time you launch an email campaign.

How to make email newsletters the right way: 8 tips

1. Use a reliable email platform

I know most of you would claim their love for MailChimp. After all, it’s one of the most trusted email tools with an easy-to-use interface and drag-and-drop email and landing page builders. Most importantly, you get to enjoy its core features for free (until you hit the 2,000 subscriber count).

I have been using MailChimp for years to build my list. It’s been a fun ride and helped me collect emails from interested readers and client. However, I feel that I could do better with my email strategy.

The thing I liked the least about MailChimp is how it’s more geared towards e-commerce than bloggers and content creators like myself. I appreciate that they offer Google remarketing and Facebook/Instagram ad features, as well as abandoned cart emails and more. However, they don’t apply to my business. While MailChimp’s core features remain useful, I still feel the need to find another platform to help me with my email needs.

And I think I found my platform with ConvertKit*.

As an email platform, ConvertKit is what I wanted and needed from the very start. It’s arguably more intuitive and easier to use than MailChimp thanks to its effortless UI and UX. However, below are the reasons why I chose ConvertKit over other email tools I’ve tried so far:

• Beautiful forms – Build high-converting opt-in forms and customize its behavior. Make them appear before visitors exit your page or after their scoll up until the certain part of the page. Track the conversion rate on the dashboard and find ways to improve its performance.
• Ability to create incentive emails – From the form, you can attach content upgrades that people will receive after filling out the form and confirming their subscription. Incentive emails makes list building much easier because it gives them a good reason to sign up to your list in the form of a freebie.
• Tag-based subscription – You can append tags to each of your subscribers to represent their interests. Refer to the tags to send them emails they want to read, thus decreasing unsubscribers and increasing engagement.
• Easiest marketing automation for me – Build an automation workflow from the campaigns you’ve created using its visual builder. Send emails to subscribers automatically and engage with them even while you sleep!

Now, I’m not saying that you should go for ConvertKit. My point is you need to find an email platform that you’re comfortable using. Whether that’s MailChimp or some other email tool, the important thing is to find one that works best for you. The email tool will make your job much easier so you only worry about the message you want to impart to subscribers.

2. Write a click-bait headline

You need to ensure that everyone who receives the email in their inbox is going to click on it. There’s one way to make sure they are persuaded to click on it – you need to add an enticing subject. Ideally, the subject needs to be punchy and, if possible, include a very short summary of the subject of the newsletter. To try and be even more persuasive, you might even want to add something that is click-bait-y, such as a pun or a cliffhanger that will be answered when the reader checks out the email.

I’m not the biggest fan of click-bait headlines, but if it’s part of the bigger message you’re trying to communicate to readers, then might as well use it.

For example, I used the headline “”I’m tired of f*cking writing for you.”” to share my experiences of writing for clients and that I need to create different revenue streams for me so I won’t feel overworked all the time. In hindsight, it was a very risky headline that will offen some of my clients who subscribed to my list. But I sent it anyway, just to see how it works.

To my surprise, it’s my highest converting email so far among my newsletters:

As mentioned, click-bait headlines have its pros and cons. Therefore, you need to weigh all those factors before clicking the “Send” button so you know what you’re doing.

3. Communicate a clear, singular message

There needs to be a clear focus to your newsletter, such as a topic or subject that is discussed in it. If you don’t have one, then the whole content might not seem to have any real purpose and the reader might come away frustrated that they didn’t learn anything or receive any benefit from reading the email. So, make sure the email has an overall theme and a specific purpose that will be beneficial to all readers.

A great way to start is by coming up with a single call to action. For instance, if you want people to click on a link, then make sure it’s the only thing people can click on the body of your email.

Below is the email body of my “”I’m tired of f*cking writing for you.”” newsletter:

4. Write engaging copy

Next, you need to concentrate on the actual words you use in your newsletters. Your copy needs to be interesting and engaging or else your readers will simply switch off and they won’t take away the message that you have for them.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”The reason they signed up to your list in the first place is that they liked what they read from me. By simply maintaining consistency in your writing, you will be able to build better relations with them.” quote=”The reason they signed up to your list in the first place is that they liked what they read from me. By simply maintaining consistency in your writing, you will be able to build better relations with them.”]

If you struggle with writing engaging content, you might want to outsource this part to a professional copywriter. There are some easy ways you can improve your writing and make it jump off the page, such as by writing in the active voice and talking directly to the reader.

Personally, it works to just be yourself especially since you’re already a writer. The reason they signed up to your list in the first place is because they liked what they read from me. By simply maintaining consistency in your writing, you will be able to build better relations with them.

5. Add a link to your site (or any site)

This is a very important part of any email newsletter. If you don’t include a link that takes readers back to your site, you might find that your newsletters don’t convert many leads into sales. That’s because readers won’t be that likely to try to get to your website manually

So, make sure you add a link to your target page. It all goes back to having a clear focus on your email newsletter. By establishing your purpose which in this case is getting subscribers to click to your site, you can maximize the number of clicks to it.

I advise having more than one link to the same page on your email. This way, you can get more people to click on it too. Just make sure that the anchor text inspires action, i.e. “click here,” ” read more,” “visit this page.”

I personally don’t advise any other links outside your call to action on your email. Some would include links to their social media pages and whatnot. Doing so takes away the attention to the focus of your email, thus potentially lowering your click-through rate. Also, having lots of links may cause deliverability issues to your email. There’s a chance that some of your subscribers won’t see the email because it went straight to the spam folder, no thanks to the volume of links you included.

6. Add your business contact information

Don’t forget to also add all of your business contact information. This should include your phone number, email address, and physical address. Most email marketers place this at the bottom of the newsletter. Then, if a reader wants to contact you for any reason, they have easy access to all of your information and don’t have to go to the brother of navigating to your website for it. As a result, they may be much more inclined to contact you.

It’s also a good idea to allow replies to your newsletter so that readers can email you directly. After all, they might have something trivial that they want you to know, but don’t want to go to all the bother of calling your business about it.#

Also, you might want to leave an option for readers to leave you feedback. You can always use net promoter score software to add a survey to the end of your newsletter. You can edit the survey so that your readers can leave you feedback on a range of topics, such as how informative they thought the email was. Using all of the data that you collect from these surveys, you can then make necessary improvements to keep your customers happy.

7. Bullet points

When writing your email content, it’s usually a good idea to try to break the content up as much as possible. Writing short, one-liner paragraphs is one way of approaching this.

Another is to use bullet points.

Some of your readers won’t have much time on their hands and will only be able to skim-read your newsletters. Formatting them in bullet points makes it much easier to skim-read as all of the important information is easier to pick out. You will probably find that more people are inclined to read the newsletter in full too, as bullet points aren’t quite as daunting as large chunks of text.

8. Incorporate Mixed media

One further way to make your email newsletter as engaging as possible is to format them with plenty of images and photos.

These can help to illustrate your points and can be used to break up all the text. However, you shouldn’t stick with just photos. It’s advisable to use as much mixed media as possible, as this will make your emails even more interesting. You’ll be able to embed videos from YouTube, as an example. Or, why not go one step further, and start filming your own videos!?

Do you now know how to make emails newsletters the right way?

Let’s face it -writing effective emails are hard as nails. It’s one thing to get subscribers to click on your email from their inbox. It’s another for them to read your email and commit to your call to action.

To ensure that they follow through with your call to action, you need to ensure that all parts of your email are firing on all cylinders. Not to mention, all elements should act towards a single focus to squeeze the most engagement from your emails.

Therefore, including all the elements mentioned above may not be enough to encourage people to engage with you via email. You must use the elements that will produce the most value for your subscribers consistently. From here, they will seek out your emails over time so you can engage with your readers and clients in the way you want them to!

Thanks for reading my post about how to make email newsletters! Please feel free to comment below if you have questions or reactions about the post you want to share. Also, if you like to receive more of these articles straight to your inbox, please fill out the form below.

Everyone thinks they have a novel in them. And they are probably right. However, only a handful tried to get the story out of their head and into cold hard writing, and even fewer made it beyond the first chapter.

Writing is a passion for many that begins in childhood, and life gets in the way, and the burning desire to write diminishes to nothing but an ember.

Fast forward to decades from now, and the monotony and stress of a nine-to-five job of sitting behind a desk and staring at a laptop screen all day answering emails and number crunching has made the pull towards writing all the stronger once again.

Writing for a living is something that many aspire to, yet very few people achieve. The regular wage of a full-time job, promotion prospects, and job security make it difficult to venture into the world of writing to earn a living. However, if you’re keen to explore writing as a career, you first need to think about how to make money from writing.

Not all writers can be J. K. Rowling and earn untold billions from a good hook and film rights. Becoming an author is one avenue down which you can travel, but there are many more. Look how to flex your literary flair and earn money from your writing talent.

1. Author

Ok, so we’ve touched upon becoming an author. If you are adamant about going full steam ahead with this ambition, you will need to keep your full-time job for the time being.

If you give up your role in the corporate world to dedicate your time to your dystopian sci-fi trilogy, you may be in for a rude awakening when your cash flow stutters and you fall into debt. If your plot, character development, and writing style are strong, you will need to commit to writing your novel in your spare time. While you might wave goodbye to your social life for six months, the result will be worth it.

Self-publishing is an option although it remains the least lucrative way of earning money from your talents. Instead, look for a literary agent who will read your first novel, make edits, give you time to tweak your book, and then approach publishing houses to enable your finished hardback to be on the shelves down at your local bookstore.

While the chances of you making millions are slim, you will follow your passion, maybe secure an advance for another novel and enjoy making the move into writing full time.

2. Content writing

Ah, content writing. This is my specialty as a freelance writer so sit back as I explain to you how to make money writing on the web.

Becoming a writer doesn’t mean flexing your literary muscles. Instead, you could slip into the marketing field. While it might not get your creative juices flowing, writing content for websites, blogs and ghostwriting for companies can pay your bills. If you understand SEO and keyword research from your previous jobs, you might get your foot in the door a little quicker than most.

Most marketing campaigns rely on writers to generate content that is readable, relevant, and of the highest quality. You may get the chance to produce product descriptions, generate blog posts for external websites, and create social media postings. Finding a tone that matches a brand can be tricky, but succeed at this, and you could help a company or startup to expand its readership and customer base, driving traffic to its website and increasing sales and revenue.

Companies may ask you to produce content for trade shows or off-site at industry-specific events. Often, gift fair exhibitors may need top-quality writers to produce marketing materials, adverts, witty slogans, and taglines.

If you have the gift of the gab, can produce pun-tastic one-liners, and enjoy using your wit and charm that is evident from your writing portfolio, you may find yourself in high demand. As a sideline, you may even write content for comedians and coming up with a joke or two for a greeting card company.

I have been well-entrenched in the world of content writing. I’ve met a lot of great writers along the way. Freelance writers like Eden Fried not only works as freelance writer but also earns money on the side from her blog. Established bloggers like Adam Connell and Ashley Faulkes also help clients with their SEO needs, showing that they are opportunities for writers to diversify their skills and offer them additional services.

Some writers like Minuca Elena, who specializes in expert roundup posts, have found a niche that works for them. As a result, they become well-known for that one writing skill they specialize in.

If you plan on becoming a content writing, figure out what you want to write about and specialize in. It will help you determine the clients you want to attract. By finding out your identity as a content writer, you will become much more profitable.

3. Copywriting

A copywriter is one of the most sought-after writers by businesses. Their goal is to help business owners make more money by writing laser-focused copy meant to convert their target audience into clients.

Copywriting differs from content writing. The latter aims to inform and educate readers about a specific topic. Copywriters help businesses generate more profit.

There are different copywriters in the market. Some work in advertising and create compelling taglines and one-liners for the marketing materials of their clients. Others work in the online space as they write copy for landing pages or email. The goal of both remain the same: nurture relationships with visitors and make the sale.

The focus on copywriting has always been about quality. You can manage as few copywriting clients as possible as still generate more income than an average content writer could. Copywriting requires a different set of skills compared to content writing. If you’re serious in becoming one, you need to learn psychology and persuasion with your copy. You must get into the head of your target audience so you can write copy that resonates with their needs and wants. It is difficult to create content that your audience will positively respond to but the rewards are great.

On average, almost half of freelance copywriters in the US expect to earn more than $50,000 a year. That’s equivalent to  $4.17k a month which is nothing to scoff at.

4. Scriptwriting

If you adore movies, love going to the theatre, or enjoy watching and analyzing sitcoms, you may feel you have a natural flair for writing scripts. If you commit to enroll in an evening class or part-time college course, you can learn scriptwriting.

You will need to learn how to format your script, develop character arcs, and maintain the pace within a piece of drama. Often, people prefer writing scripts for short films and sending off showreels to production companies and bypassing the whole “picking up a script” process.

While narrowed down and a little less common than writing a novel, choosing to develop a script could be one way of using your writing talents.

Scriptwriting may involve writing for a company that wants to produce a radio advert or TV commercial for their brand. It will be your job to sell a product and carve out a niche for the company.

If you have marketing experience, this could be an ideal way of making money from your writing. One slogan can identify a brand instantly. If someone were to tell you to taste the rainbow, you might say to them that Skittles aren’t ideal for your diet at the moment. Do you know anything that is finger-lickin’ good? Of course you do. That is the power of the tagline.

5. Content mills

Although this might be the most mundane way of earning money from your writing prowess, writing content mills are always on the lookout for people who are good with words. You may get paid pennies per word, but if you can write top-quality stuff at breakneck speed, you could earn a few bucks.

While no one wants to make a career out of content mill writing, it can be a nice sideline while you write a novel or develop a script. Content mills allow you to earn a basic wage while facilitating your ability to dedicate your time to your real passion.

You may write ten articles, blog posts, or product descriptions daily, and the work varies. You could be writing five hundred words on the joys of a new style of ball-bearing, another one thousand words on Sri Lanka’s latest five-star hotel, and another two thousand words on why outsourcing is often the best strategy for small startups looking to expand.

Some days will be boring, others will be mildly enjoyable, but essentially, this job will not be forever and will empower you to focus on your real passion for more creative and personal writing.

In fact, I started out my career as a writer for content mills on the side. As mentioned, it’s not a high-paying job, but it’s a good way for me to improve on my craft and harness more experience. I eventually had to leave because I’ve outgrown this type of writing. However, if I had the chance to do it again, I would still write for content mills back in the day and won’t change a damn thing! It’s not always about the money. For me, it’s about developing my skills and making the most of the opportunities to become the writer I am right now. And I’m happy with what I’ve achieved and how much I’m earning right now.

Which types of writing is best for you?

Just because you are good at writing doesn’t mean you can make money from it. You need to have a business plan, be able to maintain a cash flow while you are trying to get your writing business off the ground and you need to work through the inevitable periods of writer’s block.

Writing isn’t the most social of professions, and you could go crazy. However, if you adore syntax, love nothing more than experimenting with grammar, and cannot get enough of vocabulary, then you should embark on a literary journey and make a living from your passion for writing.

I’ll end this post with an anecdote.

I promoted my post about tips on how to improve your writing. I promoted it by sharing my earnings as a freelance writer throughout the years. While I was starting out, I was earning peanuts which is naturally the case with neophyte writers.

A member from the Facebook group I shared the post on messaged me. He was aghast about the rate I was earning approximately 12 years ago. He said I shouldn’t be charging that rate (I no longer do), and I should charge higher rates (which I am). He even suggested that I should become a journalist instead (thanks, but no thanks).

Judging from his messages, he missed the point of why I’m sharing my earnings in a Facebook post to introduce my article. I started out from low-paying jobs but worked my way up the ladder to bag higher-paying jobs. I sought to improve my craft and used my experience as leverage to attract clients who paid much better rates than the ones before. The goal was to never stick to the same income as a freelance writer – it is to find ways how to become a better writer, which leads to better jobs.

I share this because there is no step-by-step guide on how to become a successful writer. You can start by writing for content mills or drinking and smoking your way to the Next Greatest Literary Novel. It will be painful – you probably won’t make enough money to justify your career in the beginning. People will question your life choices.

I’ve had lots of people, even my family, constantly question my freelance career. It sucks, and it made me question myself and who I really am.

However, if there’s one thing you need to know about becoming a writer, you need to have determination. You need to believe in yourself in the face of adversity because no one else will. All you have is yourself and your writing skills, and it’s up to you to go against the flow and do the right thing.

Just write. There’s no other way for you to survive and determine your life’s path unless you type or scribble the words in your head. By then, the words will point you to the right direction.