When you first decide to go freelance, it can often be on a whim. You like the idea of working for yourself and being able to do the kind of work you want, so you take the leap. Sometimes, it’s a little more thought out than that. It can be something that you’ve been thinking about doing for a long time.
And suddenly, you realize you have to do it. Either way, it’s easy to find yourself longing to do this for quite some time. However, at the same time, it’s easy to not really know what you’re doing when you first get started too.
You kind of take what you’re doing in your regular job, or you start writing out of passion, and you kind of stay there. And it’s super easy to stagnate.
But when you stagnate, you’ll soon become bored. It’s just what happens. And it’s usually around this time that you’ll then need to be able to up your freelance writing game.
Because when you care about your career and you want to be able to do something fun and interesting with it, you definitely need to think about challenging yourself, trying something new, and growing. So let’s take a look at how.
1] Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Now, this is the first one for a very good reason. Because growth does not happen inside of your comfort zone. In order to grow, you need to step out of your little bubble – the reality that you know – and you need to do something different. Something new.
Because this is going to allow you to get out of a routine, out of the habits that you already have, and actually start to make waves with your freelance writing career.
And now, in each of the other points, we’ll consider the tactics that will allow you to do that.
2] Change Up Your Writing Style
Then, as you’re looking to start pushing your career and finding more success, one of the first things that you could look to do is to consistently work on your writing style. Maybe you’re getting a little too samey? Or you’re not unique enough? The more you work to establish your voice here, the better.
3] Write A List Of Dream Publications
You should also think about the websites and magazines, newspapers and blogs that you’re dying to write for. No matter how out of reach they can seem. Because then, you can start pitching to them or at least connecting with them and thinking about the stories that would be perfect for them in the future.
4] Pitch In A New Way
Then, you’re going to want to think about your pitching technique. Because there are new ways that you can do it. And be better. If you don’t know how to pitch for the best, then this is where you start.
But if you already pitch relatively confidently, it’s time to up your game with new ideas. Try to make your pitches stand out more, so that you can start winning those bigger and more exciting commissions.
5] Network
You’re also going to want to start networking too. And yes, this is something that does push you outside of your comfort zone if you’re not used to mixing with other writers, or even meeting new people at all. But this can help you to find new opportunities, and it can help you to make friends in the industry and get advice and support too.
6] Challenge Yourself
You do also need to start challenging yourself. So try new deadlines, speak to new people, try to interview more people and in different ways. Just try to push yourself to continuous do new things, and develop your pieces.
7] Redesign Your Website
Then, from here, you’re going to want to think about working on your website to make it a little more professional. If you know that you want to start writing for bigger and better publications, you might want to look the part.
Here, you could even think about going mobile and looking into QA testing best practices for a future app launch too. If you are going to work on the next point (and even point ten), this could be really useful. So think about working with a designer to represent yourself more effectively, and brand your site better too.
8] Start A Blog
Now, the next thing would also be to make room for a blog on your new site too. This is going to help you to establish yourself as an authority, and allow you to create content that will help you in marketing too.
You can write about the craft of writing, you can write posts within your niche, and each post is also going to help your SEO, and give you content to share on social media too.
9] Speak
You might also want to think about speaking at events too. Sure, this may seem as if it has nothing to do with freelance writing, but it can help you to open up opportunities. It will help you to build your personal brand and to be noticed by the right publications.
Because the better your profile, the more in-demand you might be as a writer. You could also connect with people that are going to add value to your career too.
10] Sell Products
Then, when it comes to making more money from freelancing, something you could look to do here is to sell products. If you’re aiming your blog at other writers and the freelance writing community, you could look to develop your career in this area too. Selling ebooks and courses related to writing can add another string to your bow.
11] Try A New Niche
Next, you could think about stepping into a new writing market. Is there something that you’ve always been fascinated with and you’d love to write about? Or a new kind of writing style? Then why not give this a go to try and develop yourself further as a freelance writer.
12] Investigate
Something that will always help you to up your game is good old-fashioned investigative journalism. As long as you’re sticking to journalism ethics, you could get some great stories here.
And even if you’re not going undercover or anything of the sort, just being more inquisitive, interviewing more, and looking to get as much information for the stories as possible, is going to really help you here.
13] Travel
Finally, you might want to think about how you can start traveling more for your work too. Sure, it can be great to travel and write at the same time. It’s something that you will find helps to broaden your perspective, give you new ideas on stories and provides you with inspiration.
You don’t have to write about travel either. But you will find that the more you travel, the more stories come to you, and the more you’ll be able to write and pitch.
And there you have it. Because now, you’ve started to think a little more outside of the box. Away from what you’re used to.
And sure, it’s super easy to think about what you might like to do on a day to day basis, but it’s just so easy to get stuck in a run and caught up in your comfort zone. So now that you’re full of inspiration, it’s time to take your freelance writing game to the next level.
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