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Last updated on May 02, 2022

How to Become a Writer: 7 Practical Steps

If you’re dreaming of turning your passion for writing into a full-time career, you’re in the right place. In this post, we’ll go through a series of actionable steps that you can take to start writing professionally. 

Here are 7 steps to help you become a writer:

1. Create a solid writing routine 

Here are a few tips for establishing a writing habit:

Make writing a priority. If you want to be a professional writer, set non-negotiable writing time in your calendar and arrange your other commitments around it. 

Define your writing goals. Whether it’s a daily number of words or completing a task in a set number of days, goals help break larger projects into manageable chunks — so you’ll be less overwhelmed and more likely to knuckle down and write.

Identify your ideal writing times . Do you tend to get the most done right after waking up in the morning, or during the quiet hours of the evening? Figure out your windows of productivity and capitalize on them.  

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However, no matter how watertight your writing routines are, every author can benefit from a helping hand to perform at their best and become an even better writer. Thankfully, there are some apps for that.

2. Use writing tools to improve your output 

Different tools can impact your output in different ways: for example, online whiteboards like Miro can help you visually sketch out your book’s outline and character bios, and help you define the mood of your world-building. Tools like Grammarly can identify and fix typos and grammatical errors, whereas browser blockers like Cold Turkey can help to minimize distractions and stay productive. 

When it comes to using professional writing software, you could use tools like Reedsy Book Editor to enjoy smooth collaborative editing, keep track of your word count goals, and format your book for distribution. 

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Finally, workspace tools like ergonomic chairs and standing desks can also largely influence the quality and proficiency of your writing (we also hear that houseplants can boost creativity, but don’t quote us on that).

But, before you get too comfortable in your writing nook surrounded by all your lovely tools, you may want to consider going back to class…

3. Take classes to pick up credentials

• Journalist — write for newspapers and magazines. Requires top-notch research skills, the ability to be objective, and to meet strict deadlines.
• Columnist — write for newspapers and magazines. Unlike journalists, columnists offer their subjective opinion and insight on current events.
• Travel writer —  chronicle your adventures across the globe to give advice and inspiration to other travelers.
• Copywriter — write marketing copy for brands, companies, or organizations.
• Technical writer — turn complex jargon into concise information that users of a product or clients of a company can clearly understand.
• Web content writer — write online blog posts and articles for brands, companies, or organizations.
• Ghostwriter — write content on behalf of other people or organizations. Learn more about becoming a ghostwriter here!
• Grant writer — write documents to help organizations seeking grants.

The options are plentiful. But if you think you’ll need academic credentials, let's take a look at your choices in closer detail. 

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You needn't look too hard to find authors who emerged from MFA programs to establish glittering literary careers. For example, both Flannery O’Connor and Rachel Kushner are MFA babies.

Then again, you can find just as many authors who didn’t study anything related to writing and worked in completely unrelated industries before becoming bestsellers  — like Charles Bukowski (a postman), Haruki Murakami (a jazz club manager), and even Harper Lee (an airline ticket clerk). After all, life experience is a key ingredient of any good fiction.

Becoming a novelist doesn’t require any specific credentials beyond the ability to write (and market) a great story. Pursuing an MFA can certainly help you develop your craft, network with established and aspiring writers, or lead you to some creative writing gigs, but it’s not a shortcut to success. In addition, the majority of MFA programs focus on literary fiction, creative nonfiction , and poetry . So if you want to become a fiction writer, an MFA is likely not a necessary stepping stone for you.

Bachelor’s Degree (BA)

While higher education is not a required credential for becoming a novelist , academic qualifications can be more important for nonfiction writers. In many cases, success as a nonfiction author relies upon your subject authority and often necessitates the relevant credentials as proof. That might include a degree or other relevant experience in the field. Imagine yourself picking up a nonfiction book and turning it over to read the author's bio : what kind of credentials would assure you this is someone who knows what they’re talking about?

In terms of journalism, most news outlets will require applicants to have completed a Bachelor’s degree before adding them to the payroll. While majoring in journalism is certainly a sound option, many news outlets require a literature degree or similar, as you’ll have many of the same skills but no biases in your journalistic practices. It's also typical to double-major or major-minor in a combination of journalism and the field you’re interested in writing about.

Doctorate (Ph.D.) 

A Ph.D. in literature or creative writing is often preferred by people who want to teach literature or writing at college or university levels. Overall, a doctorate may also be appropriate if your writing draws extensively from academic research or scientific findings — as it will give you more subject-matter authority. 

Associate Degree

An associate degree typically lasts two years and can be more industry-focused than a BA. If you’re hoping to become a copywriter or web content writer, pursuing an associate degree in media, marketing, or writing might be a good way to lay the foundation for your career.

Certificate

Certificates are short-term programs that provide foundational education and skills-based training. They typically last a few weeks to a few months, and, as with the associate degree, it’s a good option for aspiring freelance writers .

4. Seek opportunities to publish your work

If you’re an aspiring fiction writer, follow the likes of Ursula K. Le Guin and Ernest Hemingway, and get your foot in the door by submitting your short stories to magazines and contests . Here are a few places where you can do just that:

• Literary magazines accepting submissions
• Vetted writing contests and their deadlines
• Reedsy’s own weekly short story contest
• Publications accepting short story submissions

To ensure your t’s and i's are all properly crossed and dotted, here is a submissions checklist that’s sure to keep you straight!

Make the process of writing your first novel easier by using a story template like the one below.

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Use this template to go from a vague idea to a solid plan for a first draft.

Nonfiction writers have ample opportunity to get their byline out in the world too. If there’s a particular niche you’re interested in, start by putting together a list of relevant publications. Most websites will have a submission section with guidelines for submitting a piece. 

Follow specific editors on Twitter to keep up with when magazines are accepting pitches. They will usually tweet when their inbox is open (and what they’re looking for in a pitch) — plus many of them are open to questions. If you don't know where to find them, look for names via magazine websites, the publication’s LinkedIn page, or simply use the Twitter search function. Editors of magazines usually tell you who they are in their Twitter bio!

Put your pitches and deadlines in a calendar

Next, get your ‘pitching calendar’ organized by listing the outlets you want to write for, your premise for each pitch, and any deadlines to keep in mind. You might also want to make note of any feedback you receive. For instance, an outlet might let you know that your piece wasn’t right for them “at this time,” or they might clarify what they’re looking for in more specific terms. 

Here are a few resources that connect writers with publications looking for submissions:

• Authors Publish Newsletter
• NewPages Classifications
• Funds for Writers Newsletter

Consider self-publishing

If you have a book idea you can’t stop thinking about and your goal is to see it materialized, then you might want to consider self-publishing. Getting your book out into the world is easier than it’s ever been, and we’ve detailed the whole process in another guide . Plus, you can do it in your own time. 

Though some traditionally published household names nab hundreds of thousands in advances, those are the outliers. Many more self-published authors make a living from their writing than their traditionally published counterparts: this report found that the number of indie authors earning five to six figures per year from book sales was much higher than the number of Big 5 authors earning the same. 

If you’re still on the fence about which publishing route to take, why not take this one-minute quiz to find out for sure which option is the most viable for you?

Is self-publishing or traditional publishing right for you?

Takes one minute!

Once you start to get a few publications under your belt, it’s time to put them together in a nicely bundled portfolio that shows the world (and potential clients) what you’re capable of. 

5. Create a strong portfolio 

Create a website

To create your own website, you must first register a domain name on services like GoDaddy or Namecheap (e.g. authorname.com), or sign up for a free site with services like WordPress, Wix, or SquareSpace (e.g. authorname.wordpress.com) 一 although the first option is more professional. If you're not too confident in your tech skills, consider hiring a professional web designer who can help you build a website that stands out.

Use a portfolio site

If you don’t want to spend too much time designing a website, you can always turn to a trusted portfolio site. All you need to do is create an account with them and input your personal information. Here are a few popular options:

• MuckRack: a popular platform for journalists and PR professionals.
• Contently: a useful site for content writers.
• Clippings.me: provides a clean-cut design for every kind of writer.

Perfect your website

Your author website should reflect your personality, list your credentials, and most importantly — show your work. 

There are different ways to present your portfolio: you could divide your writing into different niches like Jennifer Fernandez , or you could go for a concise bio that packs a punch in terms of insight into your professional background as in Alice Driver ’s portfolio. For author websites , it’s key to give visitors a clear route to buying any books you’ve published (check Austin Kleon ’s example). 

Once your website is live, it might take a while for word of mouth to spread and for job opportunities to come your way. So, while you get the ball rolling, consider reaching out to organizations that could help you support your dream (read: paying the bills!).

6. Apply for writing grants 

Here’s a reliable list of grants for you to peruse — some will have no stipulations regarding what the money is spent on, and others will be for specific reasons, like traveling to a writers’ retreat or conference. There are also many grants specifically intended to help marginalized communities get a leg up in the industry. Make sure you check out our video guide for some helpful advice on making a successful application.

Whether or not your career will benefit from scoring a grant, you’ll soon learn that if you want to reach new literary heights and establish yourself as a writer, you’ll need the help of other professionals in the space.

7. Collaborate with professional editors

An editor’s bread and butter is to revise your work so that it’s ready for the big stage, from spotting plot holes, improving text quality, and examining your manuscript for inconsistencies before its release. More than that, working with an editor will teach you about the ins and outs of the publishing industry — including the all-important standards and best practices of the literary world. 

Finding a good editor is always a type of collaboration worth investing in if you want to speed up your development and make a leap forward in your journey to become a professional writer.

Hopefully, this post has shown you how to get things going so that you can make writing a financially viable career. To wrap things up, there’s nothing quite as inspiring for budding writers as words of wisdom from those who have achieved writerly acclaim. So tuck into these brilliant books about writing , and then pick up your pen and get going. We look forward to seeing your name in print!

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How to Become a Writer: Our Complete Guide

Krystal N. Craiker

So, you want to be a writer. Welcome! You've come to the right place.

Writing is a fun, dynamic career, and it can be a lucrative field. But writing isn't a get-rich-quick scheme, no matter what personal-finance and side-hustle blogs will tell you. It's hard work, but the freedom and creativity make it worth it.

If you're passionate about the written word, you want to leave a legacy through writing, and you're looking for a career that's always needed and always changing, then a writing career is perfect for you.

Today, we'll take a look at the different types of professional writing. Whether you want to be a top-earning freelance writer or the next bestselling author, this guide will explain exactly how you can break into the writing community.

How to Become a Successful Writer (or Author)

Types of professional writer careers, how to get into freelance writing, how to become an author, how to get into writing: conclusions.

Anyone who writes is a writer. I stand by this. If you're writing fan fiction or poems no one will ever see, you're a writer.

A professional writer is someone who earns money from their writing.

Professional writers make writing a career, but that doesn't mean you need to quit your job and become a full-time fiction writer! You can be a professional writer alongside whatever else you do.

Professional writers who become successful and earn a full-time income dedicate time and energy to building their career. They understand the importance of quality writing, and they know their worth. Most importantly, successful writers write. They write consistently and always seek to improve.

The first step in learning how to become a writer is to know what type of writer you want to be. You don't have to pick just one niche! Let's start by understanding the difference between a writer and an author.

What's the Difference Between a Writer and an Author?

All authors are writers, but not all writers are authors. This sounds like the start of a logic problem! The definitions of author and writer vary from source to source.

An author is someone whose work has been published. While some sources say that this includes anyone who has published an article, most people assign the title of "author" to someone who has published a short story or book. Nonfiction authors who publish books are still authors!

Most professional writers who do not write books or publish any fiction do not use the title of author. For the intent of this guide, we'll use author to mean one who publishes fiction writing or nonfiction books.

Brush up on Your Writing Skills

A professional writer understands the importance of high-quality writing, and they will use any tool at their disposal to improve their writing skills.

Brush up on the mechanics of grammar and style. Books like Dreyer's English and The Elements of Style are a great starting place. There are also great blogs and online courses to help improve your skills.

You can also use an editing tool. Even the best writers need to run their work through an editing program to catch typos, strange wording, and obscure grammar mistakes.

ProWritingAid is more than just a grammar and spell checker and will offer style feedback through our twenty reports.

For these eight popular reports, and many others, sign up for ProWritingAid .

There are many types of professional writing paths you can take. We're going to cover some of them here.

You might find that you want to write in more than one niche. That's okay! Keep in mind that it's easier to build a successful career the more specialized you become, but there's no rule that says you can't write grants and short stories.

We're not covering journalism or news writing and reporting in this guide because that field has its own requirements and code of ethics.

The writing careers in this guide are open to anyone and many don't require experience or a specific degree to break into.

Technical Writing

Technical writing is a great niche for people who have backgrounds in specialized fields. A technical writer conveys complex information in a specialized industry. This might include writing guides or support documents or even journals.

Within technical writing, there are countless subfields. If you have an interest in healthcare, you can become a medical writer. If you're passionate about the law, you might consider a career as a legal writer.

Technical writing jobs can also include the tech and software fields, engineering, and more. A bachelor's degree in English or work experience in a related field is helpful but not required.

Business Writing

Business writing is another broad niche, and it is often the most lucrative writing career. We can break this niche into a couple of broad categories.

First, there is business-to-business writing, or B2B. This type of writing focuses on the interactions between businesses. Then there's B2C, or business-to-consumer, writing.

Under both the B2B and B2C umbrellas, there are two other broad categories: copywriting and content writing.

Copywriting focuses on sales and conversions. This includes website copy, ad copy, email marketing, and more. Copywriting is persuasive and encourages the reader to take some sort of action.

Content writers focus on information and education. This might include a business's blog, product guides, social media, ebooks, or other informative content. Content writing helps build a brand and develop relationships with the target audience.

Grant Writing

Quality grant writers are always in high demand for businesses and nonprofit organizations. Grant writing is a specialized style of writing with the goal of obtaining competitive funding for an organization.

It's harder to become a grant writer than other types of writer because the stakes are high and the writing style is so specific. If you're interested in becoming a grant writer, find a grant writing course or certification program.

It might be harder to break into grant writing, but it's a stable career path. Plus, you can really make a difference by helping amazing nonprofit organizations get much-needed funding.

Creative Writing and Fiction Writing

It's possible to build a successful writing career with creative writing, but it's much harder because you won't be hired by companies with a writing budget.

There are many different types of creative writing. Personal essays fit well on many blogs and websites, and they can pay very well. But the work is less consistent and requires lots of pitching. We'll talk more about pitching later.

Fiction writing includes short stories, novellas, and novels. Independent publishing has opened many doors for fiction writers to have lucrative careers and reach a wide audience.

Traditional publishing is a slower process, but some people still build solid careers on this path.

Narrative nonfiction writers can author long-form essays and books as well. Even poets can find success in the creative writing field.

Other Types of Writing Careers

There are plenty of other fields you can enter as a writer. There's entertainment writing, video script writing, blogging , and e-course development . You can get hired as a ghostwriter to write books for other people.

It might not be your own writing, but it's a viable career option. Resume writing is another great option.

Online writing has opened the doors to infinite opportunities for budding writers.

There are several steps you can take to become a writer. The order of these steps isn't important.

Some people will tell you to choose a niche first. Others will tell you to take unpaid jobs to build your portfolio. You can make the steps to become a writer work for you.

A freelance writer is someone who is not an employee of a company. They might take long-term contracts with a company, but freelance writers are self-employed. Be mindful of tax laws, healthcare benefits, and how to read a contract before pursuing freelance writing.

Take a Writing Course

A good writer in any field is dedicated to becoming a better writer. An online writing course is a great way to learn how to become a writer, learn a new skill, or get a certification.

Many online writing courses created by successful freelance writers outline step-by-step how to become a writer. Every freelance writer has their own personal recipe for success.

You can take a writing course to improve specific aspects of your writing, such as grammar, copywriting skills, or pitching.

There are also courses and certification programs for more specialized writing niches. There are certifications for medical writing, grant writing, resume writing, and more.

Build Your Portfolio

To become a writer, you must have writing samples . This gets easier as your career progresses, but there are ways to build your portfolio when you're just getting started.

Here are some things you can include in your beginner portfolio:

• Personal blog posts
• Editorials for college newspapers
• Academic writing samples
• Fake samples of your niche
• Free samples for a friend or family member

Early on, you want to prove that you can write. You might pull from a neglected blog or a paper you had published in an academic journal.

You can also create fake samples within your chosen niche. Did you write a practice grant in a certification course? Could you craft some fictitious ad copy?

There's a great debate about the merits of taking unpaid writing gigs for exposure. They can be beneficial for building a portfolio, but time is money.

As a freelance writer, I am generally opposed to unpaid writing gigs. The unpaid "exposure" jobs I, and many of my colleagues, took early on did little to actually help us get good writing gigs.

If you are willing, however, offer to spruce up website copy or take on an email newsletter for someone you know and trust.

Don't overextend yourself and only write for someone who won't take advantage of you. You can't make money or find well-paying writing jobs if you're spending all your time on unpaid labor.

Start Pitching

There are many articles on how to become a writer that make it sound easy to find writing jobs. They downplay the time it takes to find open positions and pitch for them. However, pitching is a numbers game, and a good pitch can open doors for long-term writing positions.

Anyone who has ever been unemployed knows that job hunting can be a full-time job. Freelance writing requires a large amount of time spent pitching or applying for writing positions, in addition to actual paid writing positions.

Search job boards for freelance writing positions. Update your LinkedIn profile and make connections. Watch for calls for pitches from your favorite websites and blogs.

You can also cold-pitch companies and blogs you want to write for. The worst they can say is no.

A good pitch is friendly and gets straight to the point. Don't aim for too-formal language like a cover letter. You need to show off your voice in your pitches. They're hiring your writing skills, after all!

Include a link to your portfolio or a relevant sample. Run your pitch through an online editor and proofread it several times. It doesn't look good for a hopeful writer to make writing mistakes in a pitch.

Also, carefully read pitching guidelines for the position. Editors get dozens of pitches a day. Some will have you include a specific phrase to weed out the less serious candidates. There might be a specific format for the subject line or other guidelines on pitch ideas, format, or samples.

Choosing a Niche

There's a well-known phrase in the freelance writing world: "the riches are in the niches." In other words, the more specific your niche, the more money you can make. This is a catch-22 for a new writer.

You aren't a specialist in your niche yet, so being too narrow can severely limit your jobs. However, being too broad could lead to low-paying and unsatisfying writing gigs.

Budding writers also may not know what they want to niche down in. You might think you're interested in grant writing and, a few months down the road, decide you hate it after significant investment.

I believe in finding a happy medium at the beginning of your career, then letting your niche find you. If pitching is a numbers game, start by casting a wide net. Apply for positions that sound interesting and may be something you want to niche down in.

For example, I started with a broad niche of blogging and B2C content writing. Eventually, I found gigs that turned into consistent jobs with niches in entertainment and the writing field.

Perhaps you have a biology background and want to get into medical writing? You can start by looking for technical writing positions, healthcare blogs, or web copy for healthcare providers. Who knows which of those you'll love best?

You might think that the first step in how to become an author is to write a book. Surprise! While you should be writing, there's another step that is important to do concurrently.

Build an Audience

You can't sell books if no one knows about your books. Whether you choose an indie publishing or traditional publishing route, you must build your audience first. It's much harder to build your audience after you've published because you sound sales-y. They don't know you, so why would they read your book?

Traditional publishers look for writers who have a social media following. It doesn't have to be a huge following, but they do want to see an active social media presence. Even a couple thousand followers with regular engagement is enough.

You don't have to be on every social media site to build your audience either. Decide who your ideal reader (that's author-speak for "target audience") is and research which social media platforms that group spends their time on.

You also want to curate a newsletter mailing list. Those are the people who are a step away from buying your book.

What do you talk about if you haven't written a book yet? Here are some ideas for content to build an audience before you publish:

• Books you love
• Your writing process
• Behind-the-scenes
• Writing struggles
• Writing memes and book memes
• Themes you discuss in your books
• About the author facts
• Quotes from your work-in-progress

Follow other new authors and see what they posted before they published for more ideas. Interact with your followers and your ideal readers. Remember, building an audience is about building a connection, not sales.

Write a Book

You can't be an author if you don't write. Whether you're writing short stories, novellas, novels, or nonfiction books, you have to get those words on the page.

Writing can be a lonely field. Find a writing community to commiserate with. Critique groups, book coaches, and accountability partners can be crucial to your success as an aspiring author.

If you've never written a book, it takes time to find your process. You might be more of a "pantser" or discovery writer who flies by the seat of your pants. These writers sit down in front of a blank page with an idea and just write.

Plotters spend time developing characters and plot lines before they ever write a line of the story. Most people fall somewhere in between.

I always recommend writing challenges like National Novel Writing Month (NanoWriMo) or Alan Watt's 90 Day Novel to new writers who are intimidated by a blank page, but not everyone likes these time-bound approaches.

Read books about how to write a novel, like our Novel Writing Training Plan or Ready, Set, Novel by Chris Baty, Lindsey Grant, and Tavia Stewart-Streit.

Then sit down and write that story!

Traditional Publishing vs. Self Publishing

Traditional publishing involves pitching to a literary agent who will then sell your book to a publishing house. This is generally done after you have a completed manuscript.

Literary agents have specific submission guidelines, so read them carefully!

Some want only a certain word count of the beginning of your novel, while others want the whole manuscript.

Some agents prefer to read a synopsis and will ask for your manuscript if they are interested.

Self publishing is a larger investment. An indie author is responsible for hiring their own editors, sensitivity readers, cover artists, and more. It's a lot of work but that doesn't mean a book isn't good.

There are great books and terrible books in both strands of publishing. What are some of the reasons an author will choose one path or the other?

Traditional publishing comes with clout. It's easier to get into libraries and bookstores. It's possible to get a significant monetary advance when a publisher picks up your book.

Some of your marketing will be done for you by the publisher. If you perform well, you can get multi-book deals.

However, traditional publishing requires you to give up some creative control. The publisher looks for trends that they think will sell. You might be forced to change something significant in your novel, and you don't usually get much say on cover design.

You're still required to do most of your own marketing and promotion unless you hit the bestseller list.

Self publishing allows you to retain complete creative control, but that requires more work. There's a stigma that self-published books aren't as good, even though that's not true. It's faster than pitching, but it's also a larger up-front investment.

What about earnings? Traditional publishing might help you sell more books, but the royalties on each sale are significantly lower than self publishing. You can make more per book going the indie route, but it can be harder to sell enough copies.

Choosing your publishing route is a cost-benefit analysis. Decide what is most important to you.

Becoming a writer isn't necessarily easy, but there are infinite career paths you can take within the field. For people who are passionate about writing and using their words to impact people, it's a fun career that is rarely dull.

Know your worth, but don't expect to get rich quick. Learn what you can to be a better writer. And keep your passion for writing alive no matter what — it will shine through everything you write.

Now is a wonderful time to be a copywriter. Download this free book to learn how:

Turn Yourself Into a Prosperous Copywriter

With the advent of the internet, the copywriting industry is exploding. content is now seen as critical for all online businesses., this guide breaks down the three essential steps you must take if you think copywriting is the career for you..

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Krystal N. Craiker is the Writing Pirate, an indie romance author and blog manager at ProWritingAid. She sails the seven internet seas, breaking tropes and bending genres. She has a background in anthropology and education, which brings fresh perspectives to her romance novels. When she’s not daydreaming about her next book or article, you can find her cooking gourmet gluten-free cuisine, laughing at memes, and playing board games. Krystal lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband, child, and basset hound.

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How to Become a Freelance Writer

R.J. Weiss, CFP®

• Updated December 06, 2023

In this beginner’s guide to making money as a freelance writer, you’ll learn how to go from a complete beginner to a highly-paid and sought-after pro.

Our step-by-step approach is based on our team’s decades of combined freelance writing experience.

Beginners will want to read this guide from top to bottom and then work their way through each step. For those with paid experience as a freelancer, the table of contents below will take you directly to the stage you’re at.

Table of Contents

How Freelance Writing Works

If you’re considering a career as a freelance writer, it’s important to have a good understanding of how both freelance writing and the freelance industry as a whole work.

It’s common for beginners to think that common freelance writing niches like creating blog posts for a website are all the opportunities that exist within the field. In reality, there are many different ways to make money as a freelance writer.

The simplest way to define freelance writing is the act of getting paid to write for others as an independent contractor (a.k.a., as a freelancer). The writer’s job is generating the text that is asked for by the client.

But what many beginners overlook is why clients need written text in the first place. After all, they’re looking to achieve a result of their own. Your job — whether you’re working with a Fortune 500 company or a small local business — is to discover and deliver that desired result.

This may sound basic, but a common mistake many freelance writers make is focusing on what they want. Beginners hear about the flexible hours, the good pay and the opportunity for steady work, and that’s all they focus on.

The correct mindset, and the one adopted by the highest-paid freelance writers, is to focus on the results their clients want first.

This is the reason why it’s important to pick a quality niche.

The 8 Steps to Start Making Money as a Freelance Write r

Step #1: research markets and niches.

A niche is how a freelancer defines what they do. Take the example of a writer who writes how-to articles for how-to websites; this would be the niche they write in, and it’s how they’re known in the industry (as well as how they market themselves to prospective clients).

Without a niche, you become a generalist. The problem with being a generalist is that you’re competing against niche experts. And since clients want results, they’re more likely to want to work with someone who has proven they can deliver that result.

One of the best pieces of advice I can offer freelance writers is to be very intentional about your niche. 

The niche you select impacts:

• The amount of fulfillment you get from your work.
• The amount of money you can make.
• The type of clients you work with.

What I can’t stress enough is that you get to pick your niche! Choose well and you open up the opportunity to nearly limitless amounts of work that fulfills you.

As a beginner with no experience, your goal is to choose the best niche available as of today. Start by examining your existing skills and knowledge, and consider how that can be applied to a specific niche — keeping in mind that you’re not limited to only your writing experience. Instead, look at specific areas where you have above-average knowledge on a particular topic.

For example, suppose you’re an avid exerciser and you’ve been going to CrossFit religiously for a few years. You’re passionate about fitness, and you understand the language, the people, the brands and the spaces, because you’ve been living in that world. This has certainly resulted in you having above-average knowledge of this topic, which can help you secure a job writing about it.

There are likely around five to 10 areas where you have above-average knowledge like this.

Focusing on topics where you do have above-average knowledge is a great place for beginners to start.

For an in-depth guide on niche selection, you’ll want to read our article “ How to Choose a Freelancing Niche .” This guide walks you through niche selection, offering four tips for those just starting out. Also, read up on what we feel are the best freelance writing niches for beginners . 

One last note on niche selection: your niches can and should constantly evolve the more you learn and grow your skills. Without experience, you’re operating on a limited knowledge base.

For this reason, it’s good to start with a broad category and then drill further down into subcategories. The initial broad category is how you’re able to get paid work and experience as quickly as possible while discovering better opportunities.

For example, you may start writing informational content for blogs in the CrossFit space. But as you learn more about the type of work out there and what pays well, you may see that there’s a need for quality copywriters in the space. ( Becoming a freelance copywriter , as opposed to a generalist, can significantly increase your earning power.)

Step #2: Establish Credibility by Building Your Portfolio

Freelance writing portfolios come in a variety of forms.

Some freelance writers have their own website, where they share information about their services while providing reasons clients will want to work with them. 

While this is something you’ll want to do long-term, it’s not necessary for absolute beginners (although it can surely help land you work).

Others may want to create a resume or a credible profile on a site like Upwork that stands out.

The end goal, no matter the type of portfolio, is to establish your credibility as a writer and earn the respect of potential clients. Remember, clients are looking for results and they’re likely to hire the freelancer that seems most likely to deliver those results to them.

It’s here where having a niche is so important. Even without a client to your name, you can still establish credibility. 

Going back to our CrossFit example, here are some things you can do:

• Create a writing sample of the type of content blogs in the CrossFit space are looking for (more on this in Step #4).
• Include proof that you have above-average knowledge in this space. For example, photos of you working out at a CrossFit gym.
• Post a video of you talking about how CrossFit has impacted your life and why you’re choosing to work in this niche.

Notice that none of these credibility builders require you to have worked as a freelance writer before.

For more information, see our article “ How to Create a Freelance Portfolio From Scratch .” Also, check out our guide to writing a resume with no experience ; a resume is helpful for writers considering using job boards to apply for a job (more on where to apply for jobs below).

Step #3: Create Freelance Writing Samples That Stand Out

The best credibility indicator freelancer writers have is work samples. After all, what better way to convince a client you can do the job they want than by showing them you’ve done it before?

Furthermore, the vast majority of people looking to hire freelance writers will not hire you unless they see a sample of previous work.

Many beginners hold off on showcasing samples of their work because they think they need to have clients first.  

However, there’s no requirement that the samples within your portfolio be paid assignments.

More so, your goal here isn’t to hide the fact that you haven’t done paid work before; it’s to provide proof that you’re capable of doing the work a client wants.

In fact, many clients will be impressed that you took the time to create and showcase a writing sample of your own, seeing that it was unpaid.

As you’ve done your homework regarding the type of niche you’re wanting to work in, now go ahead and create a sample of what your ideal client is looking for.

This sample should showcase your existing knowledge in the field. So, pick a topic that only someone with above-average knowledge like yourself can create. 

For example, an article with a title like “7 Things You Should Know Before Starting CrossFit” would help display your knowledge in the space. You could even add a personal story or two based on your own experience.

Step #4: Set Your Freelance Writing Rates

Setting your initial rates gets you one step closer to a paid assignment.

We talk about all the details in our article “ How to Set Your Freelance Writing Rates ,” but the big takeaway for beginners is that you shouldn’t overly focus on the rates you’re being paid for your first one to three assignments.

In the beginning, it’s more important to get some projects and positive client feedback under your belt.

Long-term, it doesn’t matter that much whether you price yourself at four cents per word or eight cents per word when you’re getting started. In fact, my first gig as a freelance writer brought me a whopping $50 for an assignment that took me 10 hours to complete. 

But I was fine with that; I had strategically priced my services low because:

• It was the exact type of client I wanted to work for.
• I knew I had the skills to deliver what the client wanted.

As I got the job via Upwork, this client then left very positive feedback. Needless to say, that was the last time I ever worked for $5 per hour. My next assignment was at a much higher rate, and it wasn’t long until I was making over $100 per hour.

To summarize, you want to set an initial rate that allows you to gain experience as quickly as possible. When you have a few clients under your belt, then you can start charing more.

Step #5: Find a High-Quality Freelance Writing Job

Not all freelance writing clients are equal. While it’s important to gain experience as fast as possible, this doesn’t mean taking on any and all client work. The truth is there are many overly-demanding clients, and you definitely want to stay away from them.

Fortunately, because you’ve done the work of selecting a quality niche and establishing credibility within that niche, you’ll be able to avoid the lowest of lows in the freelance writing world (cranking out articles for a penny per word for an article writing service).

When choosing clients, beginners should focus on finding short-term jobs within their niche. The benefit of shorter-term work is that it aligns with your goal of gaining experience as fast as possible. It also doesn’t lock you into below-average rates for very long.

It’s also important to consider the type of person you’re working for. You want to work with someone trustworthy who will treat you with respect. This is where evaluating the communication before the assignment is vital. If you see red flags — e.g., the client is messaging you every two hours wondering whether you’re going to take the job — stay away!

The best-case scenario is finding someone who already knows and trusts you, as well as who you know and trust, to get your first paid assignment. For example, you could ask the owner of the CrossFit gym you go to if they’re looking for any writing work.

A close second is getting a referral from someone who already knows and trusts you — e.g., asking the owner of the gym if they know of anyone looking for a freelance writer in the community.

If you’re not fortunate enough to have a connection to someone looking for writers within your niche, there are plenty of great job boards online for finding freelance writing work.

Learn more here : The Best Freelance Writing Job Sites For Beginners and Pros .

Step #6: Deliver High-Quality Work

The ability to deliver high-quality work begins long before you open up a blank document. It even begins before the research process.

An important principle for beginning freelancers to understand is that it’s your client that determines the quality of the work, not you!

Here’s what I mean : you can deliver your client an in-depth, well-written article that you feel is best-in-class, but that doesn’t matter if the client wanted something short and punchy. 

In other words, good freelance writing is content that aligns with the client’s desires and expectations.

So, you have to learn how to effectively communicate your client’s needs back to them to make sure you’re on the same page. This is best done by asking a lot of questions before the job even starts. You want to make sure you understand how long the article should be, how long they’re willing to wait for it, what they expect to pay, and what their revision process looks like.

Summarize these important points in writing to the client.

Most importantly, you want to understand the client’s goals. What exactly is the purpose of the article and why are they creating it? (In other words, what result do they want?) This allows you to over-deliver on what’s most important to them (not what you think makes an article good).

One tip is to give your client an unexpected and value-added surprise when handing in your assignment. This surprise should come from understanding what the client’s goal really is.

For example, say your client’s goal is to gain organic search traffic for an article. When you deliver your assignment, you can say something like, “After I completed the first draft of the assignment, I ran it through an SEO checklist to make sure it was optimized for Google.”

This shows that you not only listened to what your client had to say but really cared about the end result — i.e., whether they get the results they’re looking for.

For more information on defining your deliverable, check out: How to Write a Freelance Proposal to Win More Jobs and Get Better Clients .

Step #7: Start Building Credibility Indicators

Over-delivering to a client doesn’t just make that person happy; it can and should be leveraged into better and high-paying jobs in the future.

When you’re charging low-end rates, potential clients tend to overlook you not having a website, having limited feedback on your profile, or having a lack of experience on your resume.

But the more you want to be paid, the more important these credibility indicators become. Every job you complete offers another opportunity to build trust with potential clients.

This trust can come in many different forms.

Some examples of credibility indicators to focus on include:

• Making sure you’re getting a byline for the article you turned in, which you can showcase to other potential clients.
• Adding the article to your published pieces on your website, freelancer profile or resume.
• If working on a site like Upwork, getting good feedback on your profile.
• A testimonial you can place on your website.
• Verified results of the article produced, such as page views, organic ranking, conversions, etc.

The work of building your credibility never stops. Every assignment offers a new opportunity to establish yourself as someone to trust within your niche. You want to take full advantage of it.

Step #8: Maximize Your Earning Potential by Thinking Like a Business Owner

Freelance writing can be very lucrative. I know many writers who earn six figures. It’s rare, but there are writers who earn seven figures.

How do these writers make so much money? It comes down to the value they bring to their clients.

As an example, copywriters are among the highest-paid freelance writers because what they produce directly correlates to a company’s sales. The right words can increase sales, and for some companies, that can add millions in revenue.

Increasing the amount of value you can provide to your clients starts with choosing clients where your work is highly valued. Remember, your niche (and therefore the type of freelance client you’re willing to work for) should always be evolving.

After your first few assignments, you’ll better understand the opportunities within certain niches. For example, you may find that the CrossFit blogs you work for make most of their revenue by writing in-depth product reviews. So, moving forward, you’ll want to focus on taking on assignments that involve writing about products, as well as increasing the value you can deliver for your reviews.

It’s here where you might consider taking a freelance writing course to level up your writing skills.

No matter the path, the end goal should be to constantly find clients where you can maximize the value you deliver (in most cases, this means revenue generated for the client) — in addition to increasing your own writing skills to deliver that value.

How to Become a Freelance Writer: Summary

Freelancing writing is certainly one of the best ways to make money from home . But while this article offers a step-by-step approach for getting started, understand that your path to becoming a successful freelancer will probably not follow a straight line.

You may find that there isn’t any demand for the niche you thought would be perfect for you, that your skills as a writer are not where you want them to be, or that you’re terrible at sales and can’t close a prospect.

Here’s the thing : everybody — even the most successful freelance writers today — failed miserably at the beginning.

How you deal with those failures will determine whether you’re able to build a successful and prosperous freelance writing career.

After all, it’s not really a failure if you’re learning from these mistakes and using them to improve yourself going forward.

Read Next : 5 Freelance Writing Sites That Pay Daily .

Nice article

We appreciate that, thanks Jackie!

Well explained and good article. Please i have a question. I have articles written down which I believe it can help many people especially the young generation. The article is about self life experiences/Mistakes which I decided to use the opportunity to write an article or book about it to save the lives of some young people especially girls/ladies from be a victim of such mistakes. But the problem is how to get it published on line. I need help?

I’d look to publish on Medium.

While in most cases I prefer someone to publish on their own site, Medium is a good way to get your ideas out in the world as fast as possible and start getting feedback.

Thank you for this amazing and informative piece! I saved it and have been told to be a writer by several. So, maybe I will!😉👍 Jill Richards

Are there “niches” where you get to do fantasy fiction writing? Do those exist or is it all just boring real world experience, marketing and how to such and such and blah blah blah?

There certainly are. A lot of fiction writers hire ghostwriters as well, which could be a lower barrier to entry.

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13 steps to becoming a freelance writer in 2024

Find out how to become a freelance writer and build your professional writing career — in 13 simple steps.

What if you could have a writing career on your own terms with complete freedom over who you choose to work for? There’s no definitive formula for finding success, but these 13 steps will give you momentum in launching your own career as a professional freelance writer.

Have you been thinking about becoming a freelance writer?

Maybe you need a change from the confines of the cube life and would like the freedom that being your own boss brings.

Or perhaps you just want to make a bit of extra money outside of your day job, while putting into practice your love for words and exploring those things that excite you.

Whatever is pushing you toward the pursuit of copywriting, figuring out where to get started can be overwhelming.

The good news is that you already know how to write. You may not know everything about it, and you may not even be the best writer. But learning to be a good copywriter comes from experience and having skilled writers and editors guide you along the way.

Being a writer means that your craft will continually evolve. One never achieves a state of mastery. Each project builds upon another. You'll discover new ways of saying things, refine your work, and develop a voice that’s all your own.

When we first start out as new writers, we often pause between typing each word. We hesitate as we scan the scattered orbits of our thoughts.

As you develop your writing skills, you'll be able to get down your ideas faster. Instead of a slow plod of a single word at a time, your fingers will move like lightning, hitting the page with prose that captures what you want to say.

13 steps to starting your freelance writing career

Ready to begin your freelance writing career? Here’s a step-by-step guide to making that a reality.

1. Know what freelance writers do

Most professional copywriters work for a variety of writing clients in creating many different types of media. The beauty of being a freelance writer is that you get the opportunity to create content across different industries and work on a wide range of projects. If you get bored doing the same thing day after day, freelance writing gigs keep you busy with new challenges and things to learn about.

Freelance writing jobs may include such work as:

• Website copy
• Social media posts
• Video scripts
• Whitepapers
• Content marketing
• Press releases

Being a freelancer means defining your own writing career. You get to do the type of copywriting you enjoy, find the kind of potential clients you want to work for, and ultimately create a unique full-time job for yourself that’s all your own.

2. Develop the skills required to be a professional writer

You need to have the writing skills to put words, sentences, and paragraphs together cohesively and know how to splash the text with a dash of creativity. But there’s so much more than just writing pretty sentences.

As a professional writer, you should understand:

• The basics of grammar
• How to research
• Incorporating feedback
• Using brand voice
• Maximizing ideas with a minimum amount of words
• What plagiarism is and how to avoid it
• How to ask your clients the right questions
• Common style guides, like AP and Chicago

Not only are you practicing the craft of writing as a freelance writer, but you’re also running a small business. If you’ve never been in charge of managing your own finances, you’ll also need to learn how to do this.

Like any business owner, you need to know:

• Writing a contract
• Putting aside money for taxes
• Invoicing and bookkeeping
• Marketing your services and finding new leads

3. Find your freelance writing niche

Starting a blog about something you love is a great entry way into writing. For example, this dessert blog Jen’s Favorite Cookies is an ode to all things sweet.

As an aspiring writer, start with what you know.

Maybe you're a computer programmer a bit burned out on coding. Why not start writing tutorials or blogs about topics related to programming? The tech industry always has a need for writers who can break down complex concepts into accessible guides. Being a programmer who can also write puts you in a class with a very specialized set of skills.

Or maybe you’ve had a long career in the field of healthcare. Start writing about topics within that realm that you have the expertise to speak to. Healthcare is a huge industry, and if you show that you have in-depth knowledge and the ability to communicate it effectively, a vast number of potential clients in the healthcare industry may need your writing skills.

Whether you know it or not, you are an expert on something. Use what you already know to start writing, submit your work, and build up your portfolio.

Authenticity matters. Readers can sense when an author has a personal stake in the words that they've put down. It's what separates clickbait articles from ones that have meaning. Writing should form a personal connection with a reader, and the best way to do that is to care about your subject matter.

Write about what you find interesting. This isn’t to say to just stick with what you know. As you progress in your career, you’ll write about new subjects in different industries, and you’ll discover things you like that you had never considered writing about. You may end up becoming an expert in a field that you never thought was possible.

When figuring out your own freelance writing niche, consider these questions:

• What excites you?
• What do you love talking about?
• What knowledge do you have that you’d love to share with others?
• What topics would you enjoy spending hours reading about?

Take some time to give all of these questions a good amount of thought. Let what’s in your heart lead you in making that decision to become the type of writer you want to be.

4. Find sources of freelance writing work

One of the biggest challenges when you start your freelance career is finding work. There are tons of freelancing websites out there, but here are a few that are great for landing your first client.

Upwork has a long list of potential jobs, but a lot of writers are after the same work on the platform.

With a long scroll of job postings that are continually updated, Upwork offers plenty of freelance writing gigs. They attract many different clients, with job posts such as writing product descriptions for CBD products and landing pages for air conditioning repair companies. Whatever you’re interested in writing about, you’ll most likely find something on Upwork that catches your attention.

Upwork consumes quite a bit of your time in the beginning. It’s competitive, and it takes effort to write a decent proposal. Bidding on dozens of projects only to receive zero offers can be discouraging.

The best route is to bid on smaller jobs for lower rates at the beginning. You’ll build up positive reviews and a reputation that will help you land those bigger, better paying gigs.

Upwork is just one of many job boards you’ll find out there where new freelancers have the chance to land their first client.

The Freelancer by Contently

The Freelancer by Contently puts many beneficial features in one place for freelance writers. They give you space and a straightforward template to set up a portfolio of your work, and they match you with jobs that fit your skill set. They also include a time tracking and invoicing tool to make managing your work and billing your clients easy.

Contently may not be a good entry way if you don’t have any writing samples for your portfolio, but if you’re a more established writer and want to take your freelancing career up to the next level, Contently is a great resource.

LinkedIn provides a place to show off all you do and to connect with people you may want to work with.

Find companies in industries that you're interested in and connect with people in roles like content manager or marketing manager who may be responsible for hiring freelancers.

Build a rapport with your connections. Ask them questions about their businesses and what type of content needs they have. Pitch your skills and how you could help their companies grow. Just don't be annoying or spammy, but let honest intentions guide all of your interactions.

LinkedIn also lets you write and post your own articles. Writing an article that gets likes and shares puts your work in front of a wider audience — sometimes thousands of readers. This broadcasts your writing talents even further, bringing in new connections and potential new clients.

5. Tell everyone that you’re a freelance writer

There are many ways to find new work. And you’ll learn which job boards are legit and which ones are just low-paying content mills. As a new freelancer, you’ll face a bit of a learning curve, but with a bit of research and common sense, you’ll find good resources for freelance work.

The most important thing as a budding freelance writer is to broadcast through every medium possible that you’re available for hire. Whether it’s word of mouth or a post on Facebook or another online presence, tell everyone what you’re doing. There’s bound to be someone out there or someone who knows someone that needs a writer.

6. Find a suitable workspace

Working from home is a romanticized notion for freelance writers. You can work in your pajamas and wake up whenever you want. And a refrigerator of snacks is always just steps away.

But the reality of working from home can mean distractions like your neighbors’ barking dogs, the temptation to watch Netflix, and other things that can affect your productivity.

Working in coffee shops is another romanticized idea of the freelance life, but that can fall short too. You have less control over the environment. You never know where you’re going to sit, which chatty people will decide to join you, or whether the Wi-Fi is going to go down. If you’re someone who can get work done in the noisy din of a coffee shop, great — but many freelance writers may need a more stable work environment.

A dedicated workspace keeps you on task and focused on what you need to accomplish.

A dedicated workspace can be a room or quiet corner of your apartment dedicated to writing, just as long as it feels like a separate area of your living space insulated from potential distractions.

Coworking spaces are also ideal for many freelancers. Having a desk that you go to every day as a part of your daily routine helps with productivity. Freelancing can also be a lonely pursuit. Going to a coworking space puts you among other like-minded people all blazing their own entrepreneurial trails. They’re a great place to network, and you may even have some projects come your way from the people you meet there.

Introducing The Freelancer’s Journey: a free course that teaches you how to succeed as a freelance web designer — from getting clients to launching their websites.

7. Put together an online portfolio

Even if you haven’t published anything outside of your own blogs, putting together an online portfolio is essential for landing writing clients.

You don’t have to pay someone a bunch of money to design an online writing portfolio for you. Webflow offers a number of portfolio templates you can use to get you started. For example, the online portfolio for Mighty Fine Copy — built with Webflow — combines equal parts visual dazzle with information about her writing talents.

An online portfolio lets you put together a showcase of your best work. It’s much easier (and way more professional) to send someone a link to your own personal website rather than sending your work as email attachments. Along with writing samples, you also get the chance to tell potential clients about who you are, link out to work of yours on other websites, and to post your resume.

If you don’t have any work that people have paid you for, no problem. Write landing page copy for an imaginary business, include that best man’s speech you wrote for your friend’s wedding, or write a TV commercial for a well-known brand. Display something on your portfolio that communicates your voice and talents.

8. Get organized

Being a freelance writer means also being your own project manager. As your freelance writing business grows and you’re working with more clients, you’ll need to structure your workflow so that you know all the tasks that you need to complete and never miss a deadline.

Project management tools like Evernote , Asana , Trello , monday.com , and Bonsai , as well as a host of others, are instrumental in helping you manage your assignments, meet goals, and get all your tasks done on time.

If you don’t want to deal with a project management tool, simply use a planner or notebook to keep track of your tasks if you have the discipline to keep it accurate and up-to-date.

Whatever you choose, find a system that makes it easy for you to document all the steps of a project, mark them as complete, and never forget about what you need to get done.

9. Learn to accept rejection

The pursuit of writing is one of vulnerability. It’s scary to have people read what had once only been thoughts in your head translated into text for the world to see. It’s hard to not take it personally when people don’t like what we’ve written. Every writer struggles with this in the beginning, taking every rejection and editor’s note as proof that they’re a total fraud.

Getting your writing out there is an act of courage. The only impostors are those who never hit publish. Completing any piece of writing is a personal victory.

There are so many reasons why someone might not want your writing. Sometimes it’s not a good fit for what their audience is currently interested in. Or they may have published something too similar in the past.

And sometimes what you wrote just isn’t working.

Don’t take rejection as defeat. Instead, view it as an opportunity to sharpen your writing skills. And while we’re on the topic, let’s talk about something else that might be a pain point for new writers — edits.

10. Be open to edits

“To write is human, to edit is divine” — Stephen King

Stephen King’s words capture the essence of the writing process. Rough drafts are the labor of one human mind, rife with mistakes, miswordings, and other flaws. An editor takes this raw material and, through the alchemy of editing, turns it into gold.

Editors are not the enemy. They are an ally to transform your writing into something more.

Don’t think of an editor’s marks as personal insults. Take the edits for what they are — advice. Editors make your work better by smoothing out complicated sentences. They ask you to clarify incomplete ideas. And they point out those bad habits you may not even realize that you have.

Good editors are there to help you out. Accept their gifts of feedback gracefully, and ask questions if you don’t understand why they changed something. And remember to put their feedback into practice the next time you sit down to write something new.

11. Get feedback on your writing

Editors are one way to get feedback on your writing. But getting feedback from people who’ve been writing for a while can give you more in-depth perspectives on what you need to do to improve your work.

Find a writing mentor. They once started where you’re at. They know what it’s like to work with fussy clients and editors, and they have done their time in hustling for work. And many writers would love to share what they know to help others have an easier time than they did.

You can find a writing mentor a few ways. Sign up for a creative writing class. Go to writer meetups. Connect with authors you like on social media. Build a rapport with those that you respect, and ask them if they can help you out.

12. Use writing apps to improve your work

Feedback from skilled writers and editors can help you with your writing struggles. Writing apps are another way to fine-tune your craft.

Many writers use Hemingway . The free in-browser version points out grammatical mistakes and rates the readability of your work. If you fall into the passive voice, abuse adverbs, or pepper your writing with overly complex sentence structures, Hemingway will point these out. All it takes is copying and pasting your work into their browser window.

Grammarly offers another great option for self-editing. This app gives a bit more information about grammatical mistakes and stylistic preferences and how you can improve them. Many more features are opened up with the premium paid version of Grammarly, but the basic free version offers enough functionality to help you get over common mistakes you may be making.

However, writing apps like Hemingway and Grammarly are no substitution for having your work edited by a professional editor. The apps’ suggestions are not set to a specific style guide, so you may end up changing things that don’t need to be changed or taking the creativity and uniqueness out of your writing. Use these apps as a helpful tool to catch common mistakes and bad writing habits, but continue to sharpen your writing skills through being edited and reading. 

13. Never stop reading

You should be absorbing all of the content you can. If you’re a blog writer, sitting down first thing in the morning and reading articles on Medium should be part of your daily routine. If you’re a web writer you should be navigating through websites and paying attention to the copy, how it’s structured, and the calls to action. Familiarize yourself with the style of writing you do. The more you look at examples of this type of writing, the more your own creative output will resemble it.

Read articles, watch videos, and listen to podcasts about writing. Learn the proper way to structure articles, write headlines, and implement best practices for SEO . Educate yourself in what you need to know to be a professional writer.

As a writer, you have to know how to put words together — and you must have the ability to analyze their effectiveness. As you read in your daily life, pay attention to whether the words work for what they’re intended to do.

Listen to movie dialog. Does it flow like natural conversation, or is it stilted and awkward?

Or look at a billboard. Can you identify the call to action, or is it lost in a jumble of words?

And in the book you’re reading, pay attention to things like the voice, structure, and emotional feeling it evokes.

The same elements that make an intriguing screenplay, effective advertisement, and great novel apply to all writing. Everywhere you look, you’ll find lessons to be learned that you can apply to your own work. The more you read with a critical eye and the more you understand what separates good writing from bad writing, the better you’ll be at your own craft.

Read books about writing like Stephen King’s On Writing , John McPhee’s Draft No. 4 , or Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird . Though these cover different areas of writing from nonfiction to novels, you’ll find takeaways for your own work — and inspiration.

There’s no single way to find success

Being a freelancer means that you have complete control over your career path. One of the hardest parts is that you need to figure out how to get there on your own.

What matters is that you take the initiative to seek out new opportunities, connect with like-minded people, and keep writing to improve your skills.

You’ll find success in being a freelance writer with a road map all your own.

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How to Become a Freelance Writer: 6 Tips From a $200K Earner

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Our ultimate goal is to educate and inform, not lure you into signing up for certain offers. Compensation from our partners may impact what products we cover and where they appear on the site, but does not have any impact on the objectivity of our reviews or advice.

Becoming a freelance writer can be a lucrative career path with the right attitude and a little training. Uplevel your freelance career with these tips from a six-figure writer.

Our mission at DollarSprout is to help readers improve their financial lives, and we regularly partner with companies that share that same vision. If a purchase or signup is made through one of our Partners’ links, we may receive compensation for the referral. Learn more here .

Content marketing is in high demand and businesses all over the world are in constant need of new and unique content.

This presents a great opportunity for individuals looking to learn how to become a freelance writer or start an online job with the freedom to work wherever they want.

Blog posts and other short and long-form pieces are good ways to use writing talents to make some extra cash. But how does one start a freelance career and how does it become a lucrative source of income?

Most people learn how to become a freelance writer — or, in many cases, how not to become one — the hard way: through trial and error.

They start a website (often using platforms like WordPress), throw up a few samples, pitch jobs on Upwork to prospective clients, and maybe even land a few projects.

However, they quickly realize that being a part-time blogger doesn’t quite make enough money for time spent on projects, and certainly not enough to take their freelancing career full time. This is where many new freelance writers throw in the towel.

They begin to believe “you have to have a degree in journalism” or “know the right people” to become a successful freelance writer. Some even convince themselves that freelance writing is not a viable career option. Turns out, many people with these attitudes never properly learned how to become a freelance writer.

Holly Johnson’s story, on the other hand, shows aspiring freelance writers exactly what is possible with this flexible profession.

Meet Holly Johnson, a Six-Figure Freelance Writer

Holly is a wife, mother of two sweet girls, and a freelance writer who makes a six-figure income online.

In 2018 alone, Holly earned over $225,000 creating content for sites like The Simple Dollar, LendingTree, Bankrate, U.S. News & World Report, and other well-known publications. Her success led her to create a course, Earn More Writing, to teach other freelance writers how to grow their income online.

Holly’s husband, Greg, runs their own personal finance blog — ClubThrifty — which also brings in a six-figure annual income.

While it may sound like the Johnsons are living the dream these days, that hasn’t always been the case.

Life before freelance writing

In 2011, Holly’s days looked like the average worker in corporate America: wake up, dress to impress, rush out the door, drop the kids off at daycare, head to work.

Nine hours of misery.

Head home, throw together a quick dinner, catch up on chores, put the kids to bed, read/relax/breathe for a moment, go to bed.

Rinse and repeat.

Holly knew there had to be a better way; a way to be there for her kids, spend more time with her family, and do work she not only enjoyed, but that supported the lifestyle she desired. One that offered more than 20 days of paid time off and the occasional 3% annual raise.

From zero to six figures freelance writing

After years at an unfulfilling job that stole the majority of her time and energy, Holly decided to make a change. She turned to the world of online business for a way out and started researching work-from-home jobs .

“When we started our website in 2011-2012,” Holly says, “I was looking for a way to make some extra money. It takes time to build a considerable income with a blog, so I turned to freelance writing while we built up our readership.”

During her first year as a freelance writer, Holly built her portfolio on the side of her full-time job. That meant her writing had to be done in the evenings and weekends. While her new writing career took up the bulk of Holly’s already scarce free time, she kept the bigger picture in mind.

“My initial goal was earning $3,000 per month freelancing so I could replace most of my income and quit my job,” Holly shares. “I wanted a way to work at home so we would have a better quality of life, even if that meant earning less.”

Little did she know, becoming a freelance writer would not only be her ticket out of corporate America, but it would also propel her family into financial freedom. Within the first two years of her freelance career, Holly broke the six-figure income barrier.

Related: 25 Online Jobs That Are Legitimate, Easy, and Flexible

Life today (as a full-time freelance writer)

Since taking her writing business full time, Holly’s income and lifestyle have improved substantially. In 2016, ’17, and ’18, she brought in over $225,000 creating content online. That figure doesn’t include income from her blog or online writing courses , which Holly says have surpassed what she makes as a freelance writer.

Whereas Holly and Greg were lucky to receive a 3% annual raise in their previous jobs, freelance writing and blogging allow them to earn as much as they want to support their ideal lifestyle. In Holly’s words, “This money allowed us to pay off our beautiful home and pay for a $100,000 remodeling project in cash last year. We are also investing large sums and on a path toward very early retirement.”

Beyond income, the Johnsons’ quality of life is greater than they ever imagined. Holly graduated from 20 days of PTO to traveling with her family 12 to 16 weeks per year. “We’ve taken our kids all over Europe and the Caribbean mostly,” says Holly, “although we’ve been on quite a few other international trips.”

For an upcoming excursion, they plan to explore Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Italy, with additional trips scheduled in Hawaii, England, Scotland, France, Spain, and the Caribbean later in the year. “We could never live like this before,” Holly says, “because we didn’t have enough vacation days.”

With limited funds and capped vacation days, trips like these were once a pipe dream. Now, they’re the Johnsons’ reality.

Related: 51 Freelance Job Websites with Great Remote Work Opportunities

How to Become a Freelance Writer in 6 Easy Steps

After building a six-figure freelance writing career, Holly received thousands of questions from aspiring writers looking to build a career online. Armed with years of experience and lessons learned through trial and error, she created her course, Earn More Writing, to help writers uplevel their freelance businesses and blogging careers.

Since her course launch, she’s helped teach hundreds of people how to become a freelance writer so they could make money online when they were away from home. If you aspire to make an income as a freelance writer, here are six steps you can take to get started.

1. Narrow your focus

Before you dive deep into how to become a freelance writer, decide what type of freelance writer you want to be.

The better you define your passions, hobbies, interests, or areas of expertise, the easier it will be to find freelance writing jobs that match your skill set.

To be clear, you don’t have to confine yourself to one specific topic. However, in Holly’s experience, “it can help if you have some expertise in a specific area.”

For example, if you’ve worked in marketing for a decade and can authoritatively speak on various marketing topics, it will be easier for you to land freelance writing clients in that niche as opposed to something you have no personal experience with.

2. Learn what you don’t know

As a new freelance writer, you’ll have to answer a lot of questions. For example, how much will you charge for your work?

Don’t be afraid to research successful writers and borrow a page from their playbook. For example, Holly suggests that new freelance writers “set a minimum hourly rate they’re willing to work for and set their per-piece rates from there.”

“This doesn’t mean you’ll write hourly,” she explains. “It just means you will only take on assignments that result in your hourly minimum rate or more.”

Say you want to make a minimum of $50 per hour. You estimate it will take you three hours to write a 1,500-word article. Using this idea, you would charge $150 per 1,500-word article, which comes out to $0.10 per word.

“This works best when you are able to estimate how long a project will take you,” Holly admits. However, your predictions will become more accurate with time.

Related: How to Get Paid to Write: 13 Sites to Find Paid Writing Jobs

3. Create an online portfolio

Even as a new freelance writer, you’ll need a portfolio to share your work with potential clients.

“After all,” Holly says, “it will be more difficult for people to hire you if they cannot read some of your writing samples online.” A simple portfolio website will do the trick if you’re not interested in becoming a blogger .

In order to showcase your work to potential clients, you’ll first need to create some samples. You can do this in a couple of ways. One option is to write and publish a few articles on your own website. WordPress is a fairly simple way to start building out an online portfolio.

While that can be a great start, prospective clients may feel more comfortable hiring you if they see your work has been published on other sites as well.

As a new freelance writer, one of the best ways to get your work out there is to reach out to websites in your niche and offer to guest post for free. Not only is this a great way to build your portfolio, but it will also help get your name out and put your work in front of prospective clients.

4. Find your first client

Don’t be discouraged if the majority of your pitches go unanswered at first.

“It’s not too difficult to get more ongoing work when you have a few clients,” says Holly. “What’s difficult is getting your very first writing job…You have to find that one person willing to give you a chance.”

Often, finding that first paying client is a challenge for new freelance writers. But the good news is, you can send an unlimited number of pitches for free using online job boards. Many beginner freelance writers turn to sites like Upwork for those first few clients. However, the majority of those writing jobs are low-paying. Not to mention, there are so many people competing for jobs, you could send in dozens of pitches without hearing from a single one.

Two of the best freelance writing job boards are at ProBlogger and FreelanceWriting.com . Both sites post new opportunities each day, and you don’t have to pay to join and start pitching your services.

5. Improve your writing (and other) skills

One of the best tips when learning how to become a freelance writer is practicing your writing.  Just like with any skill, the more you practice writing, the better you become. The better your writing, the more you can charge for your services to help you make cash fast.

That doesn’t mean you have to be perfect or even a great writer to be successful. However, it should encourage you to spend some time honing your craft. In addition to improving your actual writing, figure out what other skills can set you apart from the competition and devote time to learning them.

For example, according to Holly, “SEO content is probably the most in-demand type of content right now. Many websites are competing to rank for various keywords on Google, and they need qualified SEO writers to create content that fits their guidelines.”

Explore job postings in your niche to find out what companies are looking for in their writers. That way when you go to pitch a new client, you can highlight how your experience makes you a perfect fit for the job.

Related: How to Get Paid to Write Reviews

6. Invest in yourself

Perhaps the best way to launch or up-level your freelance writing career is to invest in yourself. There are two main ways to invest in your new writing career.

Time:  This one is a given. As with any new skill — especially one you want to make a decent amount of money with — you should plan to spend a significant amount of time researching, reading, and improving your writing.

This includes reading books and blogs, listening to podcasts, setting your rates, learning content marketing, pitching new clients, learning new in-demand skills, and anything else required to get your freelance writing business off the ground.

Related: 12 Steps Freelancers Should Take During the Coronavirus

If You Want to Become a Professional Freelance Writer, Persistence is Key

Persistence is often what separates successful freelance writers from those who never land their first client.

Growing a freelance writing business is no easy feat. It takes time, patience, and a little bit of hustle. However, Holly and many of her students have found the hard work well worth it.

“Writing full time has impacted my lifestyle in many ways,” she tells us. “The most important of which is the freedom I’ve gained.” For Holly, that freedom means traveling the world, setting her own hours, and, most importantly, being there for her family. Through her freelance career, her life today is far beyond what she ever imagined working at her full-time job.

When you learn how to become a successful freelance writer, there is no limit to how much income or freedom you can create. However, it’s up to you to create it.

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How do you become a writer? The short answer is: anyone who writes is a writer. However, becoming a writer who’s serious about their professional career requires lots of work, and if you’re wondering how to become a professional writer, you’re ready to start the journey towards a productive and successful literary career.

You don’t need a degree to be a writer, nor do you need to be a certain age. Becoming a writer simply requires an admiration for—and a longing to create with—language. So, don’t worry about becoming a writer later in life or lacking a formal education. (That’s what Writers.com is here for!)

No one can teach you how to admire the written word, but the instructors at Writers.com are experts at turning longing into language. That’s why this article covers everything you need on how to become a writer. From the personal to the professional, let’s dive into everything writers need to build a successful literary career .

Everyone Can Become a Writer

Even today, there’s a persistent myth that writers are elite, born-with-it Ivory Tower folks who possess some ineffable gift of the Muses. Yes, some great writers were born with greatness, but anyone who calls themselves a writer does so because they labor with the written word.

Becoming a writer simply requires an ardent exploration of language.

In others words, you don’t need an MFA from the University of Iowa to call yourself a writer. Becoming a writer simply requires an ardent exploration of language. If we had to boil a writer down to three requirements, it wouldn’t involve age or degree. The 3 traits for becoming a writer are:

• Passion for the written word,
• Desire to expand the boundaries and possibilities of language, and
• Willingness to grow and learn continuously.

Many writers who have these traits stop themselves from writing, because they’re wondering how to become a writer without a degree. Now, writers certainly benefit from a university education or a family legacy in literature, but countless writers have acquired respect and success without a degree or name recognition.

Ernest Hemingway never went to college, but he still won a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize; neither did Maya Angelou attend university, yet she’s celebrated as the “black woman’s poet laureate” and later accepted a professorship with Wake Forest University. Degrees are just paper; it’s words that matter.

It’s Never Too Late to Become a Writer

Becoming a writer has no age restriction; the act of writing is rated G for the General Public, and those 3 aforementioned traits are found in writers from ages 2 to 99+.

Many writers discover their writing talents in their later years. Why, exactly? Neurology reveals there are two types of intelligence : fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. “Fluid” refers to creative and adaptive thinking, including activities like writing and problem solving. “Crystallized” refers to the solidified body of knowledge people draw from—all the words, definitions, and experiences that build a foundation for the world.

Generally, younger adults have more fluid intelligence, whereas life experience builds one’s crystallized intelligence over time. The two intelligences tend to converge in a person’s 40s, since this is an age where the faculties for fluid intelligence haven’t declined, and crystallized intelligence abounds. Not-so-coincidentally, many writers see their careers flourish in their 40s and 50s!

Many celebrated writers didn’t put pen to paper until middle age or later.

In fact, many celebrated writers didn’t put pen to paper until middle age or later. Laura Ingalls Wilder didn’t start writing until her 40s, and her Little House series didn’t start printing until she was 65. Likewise, Most of Wallace Stevens’ work was published after he turned 50; despite being a poet, he worked at an insurance company, and most of his coworkers were shocked when he won a Pulitzer at 75. Nobody knew that he wrote!

Finally, many university students return for a writing degree after establishing a career elsewhere. BFA and MFA programs around the world educate students in their 30s and beyond; in 2017, the average age of a low-residency MFA student in the U.S. was 35.4, according to LitHub and AWP .

Whether you’re 19 or 90, you’re never too old to write. The best time to write is yesterday; the second-best time is today.

Where to Begin your Writing Journey

Rather than an If-Then structure, the writing profession follows a Became-Because structure.

How do you become a writer? Where do you begin? The writing profession is unlike most professions, which follow an If-Then structure. If you get a bachelor’s degree, Then you can work as a nurse, computer scientist, or accountant; If you join a worker’s guild or apprenticeship program, Then you can find work in a number of trade jobs.

The writing profession follows a Became-Because structure. Zora Neale Hurston became a writer because she obtained degrees from Howard University and Barnard College, encouraging her to dissect the African American experience through a literary and anthropological lens.

Conversely, Haruki Murakami became a writer because of a baseball game .

The qualifications for becoming a writer are unique to the individual, and every writer is formed by personal interests and experiences. As a result, no one can tell you where to begin your writing journey; however, if you’re wondering how to become a writer, you’ve already started your journey by thinking about it.

If you’re wondering how to become a writer, you’ve already started your journey by thinking about it.

How to Become a Professional Writer: What “Professional” Means

One distinction to help you think about your writing journey is the difference between amateur and professional writers. If you’re not sure what you want to become, start with the following question: what does “professional” mean?

There are, generally, two classes of writers: amateurs and professionals. Before describing the professional writer, let’s be clear: “amateur” is not derogatory, and professional writers are not “better” than amateurs. Amateur comes from the Latin amator , “lover.” An amateur writer loves the written word just as much, sometimes even more, than the professional; amateurs simply have less pressure, deadlines, and financial dependence on writing. It’s a pastime, not a career.

If you want writing to be a significant portion of your income, then you aspire to being a professional writer.

If you want writing to be a significant portion of your income, then you aspire to being a professional writer. Professional writers have to approach their writing as a business, building a literary audience and keeping a regular writing schedule. Professional writers need to understand the ins and outs of the publishing industry—which they often learn through obtaining a university degree—and it also helps to have formal training in the publishing world and experience operating literary magazines.

How do you start to work toward becoming a professional writer? Below are resources to get you started.

Some Resources for Becoming a Professional Writer

At some point, the professional writer needs to know the ins and outs of writing as a business. This list covers the essentials of how to become a professional writer.

How to make money as a writer

• Explore freelance writing opportunities (updated weekdays at F.W.G.)
• 6 writers explain how they make money (NY Mag)
• Self-publishing versus traditional publishing (Self-Publishing School)
• Writing to market (Funds For Writers)

Taxes as a self-employed creative

• Taxes on freelance writing and royalties (TurboTax)
• Tax tips and unique situations (The Balance Careers)

Resources on publishing

• Poetry journals
• Fiction journals
• Creative nonfiction journals
• How to get published in a literary journal (Reader’s Digest)
• Book: What Editors Do by Peter Ginna ($25 at UChicago Press)

Becoming a writer online

• Basic guide to each social media platform (Kindlepreneur)
• Building an author’s website (The Write Practice)
• Free website template for authors (Copyfolio)
• Running a mailing list (Your Writer Platform)

Things to know before taking writing classes

• Poetry courses
• Fiction courses
• Creative nonfiction courses
• Why take a writing course?

Additional resources for learning how to become a writer

• Setting SMART goals
• Reading like a writer
• The golden rule: show, don’t tell
• Overcoming writer’s block

Becoming a Writer: Developing a Writing Habit

How do professional writers spend their workdays? Perhaps the trickiest part about becoming a writer is establishing a writing habit. For example, Haruki Murakami runs a 10K every morning to support his writing, and Charles Dickens wrote (and slept) facing north to improve his creativity.

Perhaps the trickiest part about becoming a writer is establishing a writing habit.

What works for one person rarely works for another, so experiment with writing habits—and when you find one that works, stick with it.

Generally, you can parse the writing business into 3 separate components:

• The writing life—putting pen to paper at regular intervals.
• Scheduled time for “the business of writing”—literary submissions, applying for grants, etc.
• An active media presence—blogging, tweeting, emailing, etc.

You’ll want to schedule time for each of these elements in your daily writing habit. Of course, this is easier said than done. Budding writers often overestimate their ability to work: they think they can spend 3 hours writing, 2 hours replying to emails, and 2 hours submitting work to journals. Then they spend the afternoon watching reruns of BBC quiz shows. (Yes! I did do this recently.)

That’s why forging a consistent writing habit is essential—for amateur writers as well as professionals. Writing at the same place at the same time encourages your brain to write every day. And, if you can’t keep yourself focused on writing, try experimenting with different writing rituals. If a 10K helps Murakami write, something equally unique could help you, too.

Take Your Next Step with Writers.com!

The classes we’ve curated in our upcoming schedule will take your writing life to the next level. Whether learning a new writing style or mastering the business of writing, becoming a writer feels a whole lot simpler with Writers.com.

Sean Glatch

11 comments.

Brilliant review Misty

I hope, I can be a better writer with your support.

Yeah. Same thing as with all other fields. Practice, practice, and once again, practice! It’s like a sport, you should always find new ways to practice.

This really helped me out. Thank you so much!

I’m 14 and i hope to become a writer someday. Thank you so much for the info.

Thank you for the information About to start my writing journey and thus really helped.

I’m a senior that would like to turn my love of writing into a profession. The information you have presented here has inspired me to continue moving towards that goal.

I live in a rural area of Uganda with very little education but always aspired to write a book on families. I am much encouraged. started it but got stuck ..

I love writing and thank you for information you have given meand am obliged to say thank.

i am very eager to become a writer be that script know how or fiction. i am a sponge for knowledge so i learn as i work. i treat everyday as a school day. i want to learn every single part of the writing career-be that if the editor drinks tea or coffee and how they like there papers folded. i soak information as i do a task. i love to build the bullet points for a story because everything needs a beginning. if you are baking a cake the eggs and flour are needed before you think about putting anything in the oven. to prepare a cake you need a tray to put it in-before you build a story you need a starting and then ingredients to put in along the way. i really love to build a story from different snippets of things. i have a thirst for many different aspects of life having spent a majority of time in hospitals and then being taken advantage of my my family because of my brain injury. so i know more than most in a lot of different subjects and matters in life, i have lost more than most in life but i am here telling my version of it to the big bright world. 0874762400 is my contact number

Discovering the path to becoming a writer is both exhilarating and daunting. It requires a blend of passion, persistence, and honing one’s craft. From mastering the art of storytelling to navigating the intricacies of the publishing world, the journey demands dedication and resilience. Embrace every word written, every rejection faced, for they are stepping stones on the road to literary success.

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Home / Book Writing / 16 Best Online Courses for Writers in 2024 [Free & Paid]

16 Best Online Courses for Writers in 2024 [Free & Paid]

Table of contents.

• Best Overall Online Writing Courses: MasterClass
• Best Course to Help Finish Your Book: The 100-Day Book Program
• Best Writing Course for Beginners: Writing With Flair
• Best Course for Children's Book Writers: Children's Book University
• Best Course for Amazon Self-Publishers: AMS Ads for Books
• Best Online Memoir Writing Course: Memoirama
• Best Course for Indie Publishers: WCU's Publishing MA Program
• Best Online Course for Bloggers: Freedom Machine
• Best Course for Sci-Fi Writers: Writers of the Future Online Workshop
• Best Course For Writing a Novel Step-by-Step: A Fearless Way to Write Novels
• Best Free Online Writing Courses of 2023

What is the best online course for writers in 2024? In this article, I’ll cover the highest-quality online classes that are free…and not so free. How can I improve my writing skills online? You can improve your writing skills using online classes that push your creative writing, business writing, and academic writing skills to their maximum potential.

A writer needs to keep improving his or her craft. Online writing courses aren't just for amateurs or writing hobbyists; they're for all writers. However, all online writing courses are not created equal. Some courses available are a waste of money, while others are the best money can buy. (Some of the best courses are free .) When looking at the prices, try not to think how steep the cost is. Think of the money you will make if you take the course. Think of how much it would cost to earn an MFA for a specialization in creative writing. These are (often tax-deductible) investments in your career. I've devised a comprehensive list of my favorite online writing courses in 2024, including their cost and what type of course they are. This way, you'll know exactly what you're getting into when you enroll.

• Best general online writing courses
• How much each course costs
• Best genre courses for writing sci-fi, children’s books , memoirs
• What free , high-quality courses Kindlepreneur offers
• Best free online classes (in case you're on a tight budget)

Links in this article may give me a small commission if you use them to purchase products. There’s NO extra cost to you, and it helps me continue to write handy articles like this one. This does not detract from the quality of the courses; there's a reason I affiliate myself with them. It's because they're awesome!

If you’re specifically interested in self-publishing courses, check out my article on the Best Self Publishing Courses .

MasterClass is a massive archive of online courses providing training in specific subjects by titans of that particular industry. MasterClass features the biggest names in writing, such as Neil Gaiman, Joyce Carol Oates, and Dan Brown. What course should I take to become a writer? MasterClass is the best use of your money as an online course to become a writer . Learn from the best. MasterClass courses are the best overall online writing courses because bestselling authors teach them. Plus, your monthly subscription fee gives you access to all of the fantastic MasterClass courses. The courses are self-paced, comprehensive, insightful, geared toward an “intermediate and above” student, and undeniably invaluable. How much does MasterClass cost? MasterClass costs $180/year ($15/month, billed annually). You can also pay $90 for a single class. They seldom offer discounts or coupon codes. MasterClasses features big-name authors, such as:

• Malcolm Gladwell
• Joyce Carol Oates
• James Patterson
• Neil Gaiman
• Margaret Atwood
• David Sedaris
• Shonda Rhimes
• Aaron Sorkin (for screenwriting)

Which writing MasterClass is the best? I recommend Malcolm Gladwell’s writing MasterClass. It is the best course for finding the story you need to convey, instead of just telling the reader what to believe. Bonus: If you sign up for MasterClass, you not only gain access to incredible online writing courses, you can listen to all the MasterClass courses, like Gordon Ramsay talking about cooking, RuPaul talking about self-expression, and Hans Zimmer talking about film scoring. Check out my in-depth MasterClass review for more details.

The 100-Day Book Program by The Write Practice gives you a proven process to actually finish your books. Starting a book isn't all that tough. But finishing one — that's a different story. How many unfinished manuscripts are tucked away in desks and forgotten file folders? Although it’s easy to get distracted and difficult to get motivated, the 100-Day Book Program helps you stay on task and gives you the resources you need to finish that book. How much does the 100-Day Book Program cost?

• $49/month for 12 months, OR
• $490 as a one-time payment

It’s worth noting that you get a $100 incentive if you meet all your deadlines and finish your book by the end of the course, which (in 2023) runs from May to September. Utilizing over 100 daily lessons (video, audio, and written lessons), this course covers everything you'll need when putting together your story, including:

• How to structure your novel or non-fiction book
• Character development
• World-building
• Point of view
• Tone and voice
• Editing and revising

It's not just a technical course; it's also highly motivating. The Write Practice teaches you how to keep writing when writing gets hard, how to beat writer's block, and how to manage your time. If you've ever found yourself struggling to finish your book, you should try this course.

Writing With Flair: How to Become an Exceptional Writer is a perfect course for writers of all skill levels, but it's especially beginner-friendly. This course is taught by an ex-Wall Street Journal editor with one goal in mind: how to write with style, confidence, and impact. Over 240,000 students have enrolled in this course on Udemy by Shani Raja. He teaches you how to master 4 basic principles of writing:

• Evocativeness

How much does Shani Raja’s Writing With Flair cost? This writing course costs $94.99, but Udemy often offers discounts, as you see in the screenshot above. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee. Buying the course gains you lifetime access to the 7 hours of on-demand video training. His basics form what he calls his “secret sauce” of writing. As stated above, this course is for writers of all types and skill levels. Even those learning to write English as a second language can form great writing habits with this course. This isn't the only writing course on Udemy. Check out my in-depth Udemy review for more course info.

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Children’s Book University by award-winning, bestselling author Eevi Jones takes a welcoming, comprehensive, and shrewd look at the children’s book self-publishing world. Not only does Jones guide you through the writing process for a children’s story, she even helps with the business side of things. I love reading with my kids, and that's only possible because of dedicated children's book authors like Eevi Jones. Writing a kid's book is more complicated than you would think. Often, books for kids are full of vibrant illustrations, creative fonts, and simple yet gripping storylines. Now imagine getting all of that ready to publish. It's a lot of work. There's a good chance beginners will get lost. That's why Jones’s course is so valuable. She carefully breaks down her process for you from start to finish. It's a critical resource for aspiring children's book writers. As an added bonus, you can go through her online writing classes at your own pace. According to Jones:

“I have interviewed more than 100 aspiring children’s book authors to ensure that this program covers and addresses every single burning question you may have.”

How much does Children’s Book University cost? This course costs $497, as long as you use Kindlepreneur’s link to enroll. This gains you immediate lifetime access. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee. Typically, Children’s Book University costs $997 — and it's worth every single penny. However, Eevi has given Kindlepreneur an amazing 50% discount on her program! This is a special deal that you can only get here. If you're looking to take your children's book writing to the next level, now's your best chance. Be sure to read Eevi Jones’s guest post on How To Write a Children’s Book , here on Kindlepreneur.

AMS Ads For Books is Kindlepreneur’s free course on how to sell more books with Amazon ads . (AMS stands for Amazon Marketing Services.) This robust course is free , on-demand, and easy to follow. Are you a writer wanting to sell more books on Amazon? Enroll today! Now, I'm not looking to boast here, but I honestly believe that my AMS Ads course is an absolute must if you plan to run ads on Amazon. AMS ads aren't very user-friendly. While they have the potential to send your book sales into the atmosphere, they can also eat up your advertising budget while you get them figured out. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't use them. You just need to learn how to set up your ads, manage your campaigns, and make necessary adjustments. How much do Kindlepreneur’s courses for authors cost?

• Kindlepreneur’s AMS Ads for Books course is free .
• Kindlepreneur’s MailerLite for Authors Email course is free.
• Kindlepreneur’s Mastering Keywords and Categories costs $49.99.

There’s no credit card required for either of the free courses and no hidden fees, ever. Check out my in-depth look at Amazon Ads for Authors if you’re still considering whether to take this free course. AMS campaigns aren't just set-it-and-forget-it. In my free course, I show you how using Publisher Rocket can help you construct your book’s best possible ad campaign. If you're looking to create an AMS ad campaign or even self-publish on Amazon, I highly recommend you head over and check out my course.

Memoirama is the brainchild of Marion Roach Smith — an author featured in The New York Times and on NPR and a professional memoir coach. Smith's approach to teaching memoirs has been likened to a precise mathematical formula. She literally teaches you her writing algorithm. Writing a memoir might seem like an easy undertaking at first. You lived through the facts. It can't be that difficult to write them down. Right? Wrong. Navigating these life events can be overwhelming, confusing, and difficult to fully explain to a reader. That’s where Marion Roach Smith comes in to ease your mind, guide you through the process, and equip you with the necessary tools to write a memoir. Unlike other click-through courses, Marion teaches her course live. Seats for her class are limited to 30 people. That way, everybody gets to ask questions at the end. How much does Memoirama cost? Memoirama costs $59. It is taught live mostly on Fridays, with a few Tuesdays thrown in for good measure. This is the first of a 4-part series for learning how to write memoirs. It's highly recommended that you take the courses to get the maximum effect. These courses are broken down into easily digestible parts — with the first only 90 minutes long. Whether you're a beginner to memoirs, need a refresher, or looking to have some fun learning, this course is the one for you.

Western Colorado University’s Publishing MA Program is one of the only comprehensive master’s degree programs in the US that offers hands-on experience in the publishing industry, (mostly) from the comfort of your own home. Let me preface this course by stating that it is not entirely held online. You get to spend two weeks in the gorgeous Colorado mountains for summer orientation. After that, you can complete the rest of the course online. Or in the picturesque Rockies, if you decide to move there — your call. Seriously, this is the best course for indie publishers available today. For the first 2 in-residence weeks, you'll go through an intensive training regimen on the basics of publishing. Once that's done, you'll be put to work. Literally. You'll work for a small commercial publishing company, getting paid pro rates to:

• Develop a concept for an anthology
• Solicit submissions
• Read the slush pile and choose what gets published
• Issue contracts
• Edit the piece
• Design and produce the book and book cover
• Publish the book
• Market the book

How much is WCU’s tuition? WCU’s tuition for graduate students is $17,371/year. Like most master’s degree programs, WCU’s Publishing MA Program is a 2-year program. Of course, you may qualify for student aid. Also, great news for any of you Sci-Fi guys and gals out there looking to take this course — it's taught by Kevin J Anderson, a legend in the Science Fiction genre with over 56 national and international bestsellers. This includes his work on Dune , the Star Wars canon, the Seven Suns series, and so much more. Anderson’s personal publishing company, WordFire Press, has released over 350 titles from 95 different authors.

Freedom Machine is a great tool for bloggers who want to make a living by guest posting . If I had to pick just one online course for bloggers, it's this one. Created by one of the world's best bloggers, Jon Morrow, this course is the real deal. I make all of my new hires take this course as part of their on-boarding process. This course covers blogging from start to finish — from how to choose the right opening line to pitching a guest post idea. Morrow really drives home some extraordinary fundamentals of blog writing and guest posting. He also provides you with his “little black book” of websites for guest posting, sites that meet his criteria as great places to guest post. At the end of the course, you get a certificate of completion that carries some weight as a blogging qualification. Morrow makes it abundantly clear that if you don’t put the time and effort into his course, you won't go anywhere with it. You need to buckle down and get motivated, as well as do your daily assignments and homework. This is not a course for quitters or those looking to breeze through nonchalantly. How much does Freedom Machine cost?

• $99.45/month for 12 months, OR
• $999/one-time payment

Freedom Machine’s content and resources are valued at $10,000. For all the value it provides, the company even offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

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Writers of the Future Online Workshop is an amazing course if you're a science-fiction writer or looking to become one. Mind you, this is an intermediate course, not necessarily for writers who are just starting out. How much Writers of the Future Online Workshop cost? This course is completely free. The course is 11 lessons long with 13 videos chock full of priceless information. You also gain access to personal essays from the workshop founder, L. Ron Hubbard. This online writing workshop features 3 top-notch teachers:

• Orson Scott Card
• David Farland

If you're a sci-fi fan, you've heard of at least one of those names, if not all 3. They're legends in the sci-fi community. This is like the ultimate masterclass for science fiction. One of the coolest parts of this course is its associated contest. The Writers of the Future contest is open to beginning writers only — meaning you can't have published more than 3 short stories or any novels or novellas. By the end of the course, you'll have already written your submission. And since this course is free (along with the contest entry), you may actually win $5,000 just by learning and participating.

A Fearless Way to Write Novels is taught by award-winning, 7-time New York Times bestselling author Alessandra Torre. She uses her experience to teach simple, step-by-step methods to write a great novel. Novel writing is a lot more than simply throwing a story on paper. There’s social media, equipment, software, idea generation, outlining, writing scenes, cliffhangers, copyrights, book blurbs, book descriptions, etc. It can get overwhelming if you don’t have an experienced guide. What I love about Torre’s course is the breadth of topics she covers. From generating story ideas to perfectly typing up a book’s conclusion, this course covers it all with over 75 video lessons. Besides step-by-step lessons, there are also practical writing assignments and bonus content interviews with other bestselling authors. Course lessons include:

• Finding Your Story
• Developing Your Idea
• How to Actually Write
• Your First Chapter
• Rewrites and Final Steps

How much does A Fearless Way to Write Novels cost? This course costs $297, or 3 monthly payments of $100. You gain immediate, unlimited, lifetime access, including future updates, at no extra charge. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Sometimes the best things in life are free. When it comes to the best online writing courses, free does not have to mean bad. Here are a few free online writing courses you can consider:

• Coursera : Founded by Stanford professors, Coursera offers many free creative writing classes, such as creative nonfiction, on top of many other subjects. These free video lectures and online assignments are on-demand at your leisure. Just search “free writing” at the link.
• The Crafty Writer's Creative Writing Course : This course is for anyone interested in creative writing. Discover your personal writing style and how you can use it to build vivid worlds . This course even touches on the basics of publishing and marketing.
• Brandon Sanderson’s lectures : Much revered in the writing community , Brandon Sanderson has made some of his lectures free-to-view on YouTube . They cover sci-fi writing, worldbuilding, and even a little bit of publishing.
• The Non-Sexy Business of Writing Non-Fiction : Offered by Reedsy’s Azul Terronez, this 10-day email course gives you the lowdown on high-quality non-fiction writing. He teaches you how to avoid writer's block, hit word count goals, and stay focused while writing.
• Start Writing Fiction : This free class teaches you everything you need to know about the basics of fiction writing, including journal keeping, plot development, and dialogue. Over 350,000 people have joined this 8-week course. Once 8 weeks pass, you lose access to the lecture materials. However, you can upgrade for $64 to keep the course material for future reference.
• Arizona State University's Introduction to English Composition : Great for all skill levels, this class is about building the fundamentals of writing. Although this course is free, you can pay an extra $499 to get a verified certification. But the course alone is just fine for most.
• Finally, check out my Book Marketing Show Podcast , mainly covering — you guessed it — book marketing . It’s free, fun, and informative (if I do say so myself!).

What’s your favorite online writing course?

Let me know what your favorite online writing courses are. Did I miss any excellent ones? Remember, these courses aren't just for those who don't know how to write. Don't be afraid to go out there and expand your knowledge base, no matter how much experience you have. I believe my breakdown of the best online writing courses will guide you to make the best decision for your individual situation. What's the best online writing course you've ever personally taken? Was it cheating to list all MasterClass courses under one umbrella? Let me know down in the comments below. I keep up with comments long after posts are published.

Dave Chesson

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

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Titling your book can be hard…really hard. As you go through choosing your book title, use this checklist as your guide and make sure you have a title that will sell!

6 thoughts on “ 16 Best Online Courses for Writers in 2024 [Free & Paid] ”

What about academic graduate writing courses online?

Haven’t come across one yet. But if you do, let me know.

Thanks Dave … the Marion Roach Smith Webinar was AMAZING. Packed full of information, tips, and advice about getting a memoir off the ground. Thanks for hosting .. and I hope all went well with getting your daughter from college …. crazy times indeed!

You bet…and no kidding!

Hi, I am going through Holly Lisle`s writing classes – in particular her How To Write A Novel class – at the moment and I am finding that she is one of the most thorough teachers in writing craft that I have found on-line. She is a published author with around 30 books and has moved from traditional publishing in the 1980`s/1990`s through to self-publishing today. She has many paid short courses for a small price and also much larger classes. She offers a short (3 week) flash fiction class for free called “How To Write Flash Fiction That Doesn’t Suck” so you can test out whether her teaching style suits you and learn new skills at the same time. As a satisfied student I highly recommend her courses to anyone wanting to learn writing craft. Cheers Fae

Yes, my sister took Holly`s class and said it was tremendous. If you get a chance to take a dialogue class from Kristen Higgans, that is all you need for dialogue.

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Home » Make Money » How to Become a Freelance Writer (From 0 to $30,000+ per Month)

How to Become a Freelance Writer (From 0 to $30,000+ per Month)

The journey from novice to earning $30,000+ a month as a freelance writer is both challenging and rewarding. How can you transform your passion for writing into a lucrative career?

Holly Johnson

Holly Johnson is the founder of Club Thrifty, a personal finance and travel resource geared to families who want to...

Jeff Rose, CFP®

Jeff Rose, CFP® is a Certified Financial Planner™, founder of Good Financial Cents , and author of the personal finance...

• Updated: October 23, 2023
• 12 Min Read
• This page features 1 Cited Research Articles

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If you’re interested in learning how to become a freelance writer so you can earn an amazing income from home, this post is for you.

Imagine being your own boss, having nearly unlimited income potential, and being able to work in your pajamas if you want to. Instead of slaving away in a cubicle all day, you rely on your creative talents – and your rigid work ethic – to build the life of your dreams.

Without an employer to answer to, you’re free to take as much time off as you want.

While that freedom paves the way for countless family vacations, it also makes it easy for you to be a better mom or dad – the type who shows up for parent breakfasts and waits patiently at the bus stop each day.

You’re grateful, but you work hard. Because, no matter what, you cannot fathom working for anyone else again.

Failure is not an option. You will succeed, or you will die trying!

• How I Became an Online Freelance Writer

Table of Contents

How to become a freelance writer, the bottom line – becoming a freelance writer.

I’m a 41-year-old mother of two, and this is my life. But, I wasn’t always so fortunate.

Before I learned how to become a freelance writer, I worked in a thankless professional job that imposed countless demands on my time and my health.

I worked long hours, weekends, and holidays, watching my life (and my children’s lives) tick away while I sacrificed everything for around $40,000 per year.

My kids were in full-time daycare, but they only got the scraps of a parent even when I was home. Our daily routine was pure misery. Wake up, dress to the nines with full makeup and hair, get the kids ready, scramble to get to daycare then to work by 8:00.

Hate my life until 5:00, throw together a sad dinner, bath time, laundry, chores, read a few books, then melt into a pile of disgust and despair.

Eventually, my husband and I decided we wanted more out of life – more freedom, more money, and more time for ourselves.

Since we weren’t sure what to do, we started a blog – ClubThrifty.com – in 2011 as a way to document our financial lives. We weren’t sure where it would lead, but we hoped it would lead somewhere. 

In the meantime, I began leveraging my online presence (and my scarce free time) to pursue my passion – writing. For a long time, my husband and I worked full-time and built our online business during our spare time.

That often meant getting up at 5:00 a.m. to write before heading to our real jobs, blogging, and writing on weekends and holidays, and sacrificing all our free time.

The ordeal was absolutely draining, and I wanted to give up all the time. Fortunately, my husband never let me give up my dreams. I took a few weeks “off” here and there, but I always jumped right back in.

Fortunately, our hard work eventually paid off. These days, my husband is a full-time blogger who finally makes six figures running our website. I write online content for a living, earning an average of $20,000 – $30,000 per month writing articles, book chapters, and slideshows for a variety of websites and individuals.

I work extremely hard, but my new life puts my old one to shame. Instead of schlepping by with 15 PTO days per year, we now travel around 12 weeks annually. With more money at our disposal, we max out our retirement accounts and invest in real estate .

Most importantly, I am the type of parent I have always wanted to be – the type who is always home and available for my kids. While the money is great, this is the best part of our success.

Over the years, thousands of people have asked me how I transitioned from a 9-5 office jockey to a freelancer who barely gets dressed and earns six figures.

With that in mind, I created a course specifically for writers who want to build online careers – EarnMoreWriting.com .

Since my course launched several years ago, thousands of writers have begun building online freelancing careers of their own.

While much of the advice I offer is common sense, I share a lot of the lessons I learned the hard way. Many course participants with writing skills or even untapped talent have benefited tremendously from hearing “what not to do” and having a freelancing roadmap to build off of.

If you’re angling to build a freelance career from home, it’s easy to spin your wheels without ever knowing where to start. Here are 13 steps anyone can take as they start on the path toward freelance success:

Step 1: Start a Blog

While I don’t credit all my freelance writing success to my blog, I will say that starting a blog makes building a freelance career considerably easier. After all, your blog can serve as your “online home,” or a place potential clients can easily find you on the web. Trust me, that’s a lot better than having no online presence at all — especially when you’re first starting out.

In the meantime, having a blog shows anyone who cares that you have a very specific set of skills you probably need in most freelance jobs anyway. For example, having a blog shows potential clients you can:

• Write, edit, and publish your own posts
• Use WordPress to schedule content
• Add photos and links to the article
• Perform basic tasks to increase SEO for the content you write

Having a blog also shows clients you know how affiliate marketing works, which is important for freelance writers who have clients who monetize their content.

Separately, there are also many ways you can earn extra money with a blog . This can help you diversify your finances, meaning you can use your blog income to supplement your freelance writing income. 

Step 2: Find a Profitable Niche

One of the biggest roadblocks new writers face is figuring out who they are and what they should write about. If you can nail down your passion, an area of expertise, or your areas of interest, it’s a lot easier to find writing jobs in your niche.

Roshni Gandhi is an attorney who signed up for EarnMoreWriting.com because she wanted more freedom in her life and her career. She took the advice in my course to “find herself” quite literally, choosing to leverage her lawyer skills to find writing jobs that apply to her area of expertise. Gandhi also does a ton of ghostwriting, mostly because it pays well and lets her leverage her professional knowledge.

At the time of this writing, she was earning between $3,500 and $5,000 per month creating online content, and that’s on top of the income she earned as an attorney. When it comes to finding your “passion,” her advice is similar to mine:

“Pay attention to the topics and niches that pique your interest,” says Gandhi. “There is a good chance that your interests align with paid writing gigs, and that will be your ideal match.”

What are you obsessed about? What are you already reading about? What skills from your day job can translate into a writing career?

Answer these questions and you’ll be one step closer to finding where you belong.

In the meantime, you should be aware that some niches in freelance writing are more profitable than others. For starters, you’ll earn more money if you’re willing to write about products and services within industries that have the budget to pay you. 

Examples of profitable niches in freelance writing include:

• Personal Finance
• Higher education
• Health and beauty
• Politics and government policy

If you are hoping someone will pay you to write a personal diary, on the other hand, you may earn $0 as a freelance writer.

Step 3: Find Your Ideal Client

Finding your freelance writing niche is important, but this step goes hand-in-hand with finding the type of client you want to write for. Generally speaking, you’ll likely start out writing for smaller publications, businesses, and even other bloggers, but the goal should ultimately be moving up to more established, better-paying clients.

You might be surprised at the sheer number of companies that hire freelance writers over the course of any given year. Examples of people who have hired me to write content include:

• Major publications with millions of readers
• A campground owner who wanted me to write a 2,000-word application for an award she wanted
• Financial advisors who hire me to ghostwrite
• A medical device company had me write their product pages
• An author who had me write a few chapters for his book

These are just some of the unusual examples I have encountered, but there are plenty of others. In reality, your freelance writing clients could be:

• Small business owners who need blog posts
• Major corporations
• Online businesses
• Magazines that want new content
• Non-profit organizations
• Busy professionals who need help
• Start-up companies who are building their online presence

Over time, you’ll probably find you like working with some types of clients more than others…and that’s perfectly okay! At the end of the day, a client is a good fit if the pay is great and you truly enjoy the work. If you’re getting paid to write something unusual but you’re pretty happy with the arrangement, that’s really all that matters.

Step 4: Build a “Starter” Portfolio

When it comes to getting started as a freelance writer, many aspiring writers struggle with what steps to take first. It’s hard to get writing jobs when you don’t have a portfolio, yet you cannot build a portfolio without writing jobs.

New Freelance Writers

One of the most important “first steps” for any freelance writer is building a “starter portfolio” with a few online samples potential clients can read. Most of the time, you can start building a beginner’s portfolio by guest posting for free.

Don’t know where to guest post? The easiest way to get a guest post is to reach out to bloggers in your niche.

One of my first “big writing jobs” was with a website called GetRichSlowly.org. They finally hired me after I sent a handful of guest posts they could publish for free. While you don’t want to write for free forever, writing for free (for a short time) can definitely pay off!

LEARN HOW TO MAKE YOUR FIRST $1K BLOGGING

Step 5: Create Samples in Your Preferred Writing Niche

Once you have an idea of your ideal client and the niche you want to write in, getting the type of jobs you want can be a tricky endeavor. This is especially true if you are more experienced writing other types of content, and if most of the work on your portfolio is totally unrelated to the work you want to do.

In this case, I suggest creating writing samples in the niche you want to work in with the goal of getting them published somewhere….really, anywhere! 

When you’re first trying out writing in your preferred niche, it can help to land guest posting gigs that will be published online. You can also try setting up an account with a platform like Medium, which will allow you to write and publish work you can add to your portfolio without anyone’s permission.

Once you have some published work in the writing niche you’re hoping to end up in, getting more paid writing gigs becomes much, much easier. Make sure to add this work to your portfolio where potential clients can find it, and you’ll improve your odds of finding good-paying work in your niche in a major way.

Step 6: Become a Better Writer

Building a freelance career that stands the test of time requires decent or good writing skills. The best way to become a better writer is to constantly hone your skills – as in, write all the time whether you’re getting paid or not.

Eric Ridenour is a course participant who has grown his income from $1,000 per month to $1,500 per month since he got started. His secret? Ridenour reads and writes all the time in an effort to improve his skills.

“Write every day no matter what,” says Ridenour. “If you have no jobs, then write pitch letters. If you are tired of writing pitch letters, then free-write.”

Tired of that? “Make some creative posts on Facebook or write Amazon reviews,” he says. 

When Ridenour first got started, he says he used some of his best Amazon reviews on his writing portfolio. Apparently, it worked.

The good news about writing online is that, no matter what, you will get better with time and practice. I know for a fact I’m a better writer now than I was just a few years ago, and that’s mostly because I sit at my computer reading and writing for at least six to seven hours every weekday.

Step 7: Invest in Social Media

Like it or not, most freelance clients really like it when their writers have some sort of professional social media presence. I’m not talking about your personal Facebook page; I’m talking about a professional social media handle on major platforms like Instagram and Twitter.

Why do clients like it? They absolutely love it when you are willing to share your articles on your social platforms from time to time. You don’t have to do this all the time , but a social share or two can definitely endear you to your clients!

At the very least, a professional social media presence shows clients you’re a real person in the weird, impersonal online world we’re all trying to work in. 

Fortunately, starting professional social media accounts is absolutely free and you’re probably building them anyway if you’re a blogger. If you’re not a blogger, just make sure you set up separate accounts from your personal accounts, then take steps to grow your following. 

For example, you can build followers by adding your social media handles to your professional writing byline, and by following others in your niche and sharing their articles when you can.

Step 8: Invest in Yourself

Ben Luthi started blogging several years ago, landed a writing job with Nerdwallet, and then took my course once he was ready to become a freelancer. He now earns well over $5,000 per month writing in his spare time.

Luthi’s key to success? “Relentless self-improvement,” he says. Since he didn’t have any writing experience when he started blogging, he faced quite a large learning curve at first.

“After a few months of that, I started getting freelancing gigs and I had some great editors who gave me candid feedback,” says Luthi. “I soaked it up and implemented the feedback immediately.”

In addition to listening intently to any feedback you receive, you can also take a course that packages everything you need to know in an easy-to-digest format. You’ll spend money, but it can easily pay off.

When Luthi started his blog several years ago, the initial $300 he spent hurt quite a bit. But, looking back four years later, he says that initial investment launched his career as a writer, leading to tens of thousands of dollars in additional income.

“The same goes with Holly’s writing course and other investments,” says Luthi. “It may seem like a lot up front, but if you’re disciplined and passionate about writing, the return on investment can be amazing.”

Step 9: Get a Professional Headshot

To work as a professional writer, you absolutely need professional-looking headshots. This doesn’t mean you have to pay a professional photographer to take them. It just means the picture you use for writing jobs needs to look clean and professional and present you in the best way possible.

As an example, here is an example of one of my professional headshots. This is one I use all the time because the lighting is good and I think it actually looks like me.

Now, check out this headshot that was taken by my husband with his iPhone last year. 

Both of these photos are perfectly okay because they look clean and present me in a positive light. The second one set me back $0, which is pretty great if you ask me!

With this in mind, don’t feel like you need to rush out for professional photos if you don’t have the cash right now. With a decent camera, you can easily come up with a photo that works.

Step 10: Learn the Art of the Pitch

When you’re trying to build a portfolio that pays the bills, you have to find ways to score new clients. Most freelance writers accomplish this goal by “pitching” clients who might pay them for work. For this strategy to work, however, you have to know what to say and be willing to pitch often enough to land meaningful work.

Professional writer and course participant Aja McClanahan says she spends quite a bit of time pitching and trying to get new work.

“I try to pitch at least 3-4 times a week,” says McClanahan. “I also have my own blog with a social media following.”

For McClanahan, this strategy has paid off in spades. She is currently earning $3,000 – $4,000 per month with her freelancing efforts but hopes to double that amount soon.

Step 11: Network, Network, Network

While you don’t have to network in person as an online freelance writer, you have a lot to gain by reaching out to other writers and website owners in your niche. The more people you know, the more jobs you can learn about.

I always suggest creating portfolios on websites like LinkedIn and joining online freelancing groups. Writers on EarnMoreWriting.com share tips and job leads in a dedicated Facebook group as well.

Step 12: Track Your Earnings and Set New Goals

In my opinion, all writers need a daily, weekly, and monthly income goal. Without a goal in mind, your freelance income is flying blind. With a daily goal, however, it’s much easier to achieve your income goals.

Imagine you want to earn six figures as a freelance writer. That sounds like a lot and, without a goal, you might be hard-pressed to earn anything close to $100,000 per year.

But, break it down further and you’ll see it’s not that crazy after all. Earning six figures per year requires a monthly income of at least $8,333. If you can work 20 days per month, you need to earn at least $416 per day.

That’s a lot, but it’s not unattainable. I typically earn between $600 and $2,000 per day, after all.

Step 13: Never Give Up

If you want to be successful at anything in life, being able to weather numerous storms without giving up is key. Building a freelance career takes time and effort. You’ll experience a lot of setbacks and hear a lot of “no’s” at first. If you want to break through to the other side, you have to focus on your “wins” and ignore your losses.

Ben Luthi may be earning well over $5,000 per month now, but his first writing client paid him $10 per article. It wasn’t great, he says, but he used the opportunity to improve his writing skills and process. Over time, he found more clients that paid better and moved up the ranks.

That’s exactly how I built my career, and how you’ll probably build yours, too. While I earned around $75 per article at first, I kept improving my skills and moving up the ranks until I was finally at the top. I experienced a ton of setbacks and stressful moments, but I never let the struggle stand in the way of my goals.

If you want to be a freelance writer, you need to develop a thick skin and decide you’ll never give up.

Those who never give up are the ones who succeed – even if it takes a while.

Building a freelance career isn’t easy. If it was, everyone would do it. It takes a strong-willed personality to build a career out of thin air and then keep going even when success seems out of reach.

But, the payoff is worth it for those who find the courage to pursue their goals to the very end. Not only can you achieve the kind of job flexibility and autonomy most people only dream of, but you have nearly unlimited income potential, too.

For a mom like me, the lifestyle is addictive – so addictive that I will do whatever it takes to maintain our high standard of living.

The same can be said for Aja McClanahan, who writes for a living while homeschooling her two kids.

“I like being able to work whenever and wherever I need to,” she says. “Plus, no one can fire me or put a cap on my income.”

Unlimited income and the freedom to live life on your own terms? Once you learn how to become a freelance writer, your income is only limited by how much you want to work.

1 Cited Research Article

Upwork.com. Find the best Freelance Writing jobs https://www.upwork.com/freelance-jobs/writing/

About the Author

Holly Johnson is the founder of Club Thrifty, a personal finance and travel resource geared to families who want to make the most of their incomes while seeing the world. She is also the co-author of budgeting book Zero Down Your Debt: Reclaim Your Income and Build a Life You'll Love. The book explains the step-by-step process behind zero-sum budgeting, which is the type of budget Johnson and her husband used to pay off debt in their 20's so they could begin building their investment portfolio in their 30's and 40's. Before beginning a career in personal finance, Johnson worked in the funeral industry alongside her husband Greg. She attended Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and she was given the Best Contributor/Freelancer for Personal Finance at the 6th annual Plutus Awards Ceremony in 2015. Johnson is an investment expert who built and manages her own seven-figure portfolio, and she frequently writes about various investment strategies as a result. She also covers credit cards, loans, insurance and other banking topics for publications like Forbes, CNN Underscored, U.S. News and World Report, Bankrate, and more. Highlights: *Award-winning personal finance writer *Author of budgeting book, Zero Down Your Debt: Reclaim Your Income and Build a Life You'll Love *Owner of finance and travel site ClubThrifty.com *Owner of freelance writing course, EarnMoreWriting.com *Regular contributor to CNN, Forbes, Bankrate, and more

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16 comments.

I like to write

Nice article. I’ve always wanted to become a freelancer and this article is just on point. I’ll follow up your blog and see ways I can improve. Thanks for sharing .

Hello, I am very well interested in freelance writing myself, reading yuh our article you explained alot about the hard work and dedication it takes, also the amount of money that one could possibly make but no real information on how to start a portfolio and to really get your feet off the ground and running or walking rather. I just wish you’d really explained more about that, but thanks for the info you did provide

Dear Holly Hi, Very informative article on online writing. However, it is not an easy work. It sounds honest and to the point. I am just a beginner and do not know how to start. I would love to learn professional writing skills.

Thank you for sharing.

Regards Maria

Thank you very much for all the advice. I never knew one could earn this much working part time. As I approach my mandatory retirement age of 60 here in Malaysia, I would still want to share my experience and contribute to companies or individuals that certainly may need my advice. I work in a fairly large Oil and Gas Company and am the Head of Contracts. I have no doubt that my knowledge and experience could be marketed properly to the world if I only knew how to go about it. How will I be able to charge for my services providing contractual advice based on real situations rather than from a purely academic approach? Thank you.

Searching for translation job work from home

I liked writing and shots stories

I want a home work job

Please email me. I love to write poetry and short stories. What is the process on how to begin.

Doing what?

Thank you for the information.

I am interested in becoming a Freelance writer but getting paid to do it.

Really informative article and incite on online writing, I like the fact that it does not give the illusion of easy work. It is honest and straight to the point.I am just getting into this and honestly do not even know what to write about and would love further insight on where to develop professional writing skills.

Regards Joseph

Good day how are you. I just wanna say that I appreciate your story and numerous advice up above it was very encouraging. I am a creative writer that is currently looking to network with a few freelance writers so that I can learn how they started off doing things to become their best at their freelance writing businesses. I am very passionate about writing and have been for many years and I’d love to become self employed at freelance writing because writing itself brings me peace and joy which drives me to write down what’s on my heart and mind and to share it with others. Even I’m not currently getting paid to do freelance writing yet I still just love how therapeutic it is for myself, my mental and to be the flexible person that I am and to enjoy my life to the full without getting a regular of 9 to 5 job having bosses standing over me and breathing down my neck. Hopefully I hear from you soon and thanks again for sharing. Have a great day ????

Mtayari Umoja

I have taken Holly’s course and it was excellent. I am quoted above as increasing my income up by $500, but what she did not say is I had upped it by that amount the first month I took the course. I am currently at $1800 as a target for this month and have a $4k/mo target for the end of the year which I think I will make thanks to Holly after years of just writing on the side here and there.

That’s awesome! I’m glad you had a good experience with Holly’s course. She’s a class act!

How to Become a Writer in 2024: 10 Steps to Jumpstart Your Writing Life

by Joe Bunting | 35 comments

So you want to become a writer.

Perhaps you write because it makes you feel alive. Perhaps you once read a book that made you think, “It must feel amazing to write something like this. Maybe I could be a writer.” Perhaps you feel like you can't not write.

So then, how do you do it? How do you become a writer ?

Get the Free eBook : 10 Steps to Becoming a Writer contains the best wisdom I've learned on how to become a writer. This post contains the steps from the full eBook. Click here to download the eBook .

Several years ago I became a writer. I'm not talking about the moment when I quit my job to write full-time. That happened much later. No, I became a writer when I started writing .

I still remember making the decision to write and publish one article per day on my blog. It wasn't much, but this small habit was the beginning of my life as a writer.

Since then, I've written numerous books and more than a thousand articles. I've been published in national magazines and became a bestselling author. But that one decision changed my life.

No one is born a writer. You must become a writer. In fact, you never cease becoming, because you never stop learning how to write. Even now, I am becoming a writer. And so are you.

Why do you want to become a writer? Share in the comments section .

10 Steps to Becoming a Writer

Below are the best pieces of wisdom I've learned about how to become a writer. To read more about becoming a writer, get the full guide below.

Really? Step number one is to publish?

It’s strange to begin a list of writing tips with a tip to publish. In fact, as I read books and articles about how to become a writer, most of them don’t even mention it. They usually say, “Just Write!”

However, writers write things other people read, and so the act of publishing is essential to being a writer.

What is stopping you from publishing something today?

Seriously. What is stopping you?

Think you need a writing degree or a formal writing background? You don't.

Think you need years of writing experience or a letter of introduction from Stephen King? You don't.

Let's rethink publishing for a minute.

Like most people, you probably think of publishing as the process of getting an agent who will attract Harper Collins or some other New York publisher to pay you a small advance and a portion of the royalties so they can print and sell your book.

However, publishing can also look like posting your articles on a blog or emailing your short stories to a friend. It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking, and it doesn’t have to be perfect.

If you want to become a writer, you need to get used to writing for others. You need to practice taking feedback and dealing with rejection. You also need to start earning some fans.

You do this by publishing: publishing small and regularly.

What is stopping you from printing out one of your writing pieces and giving it to a friend? Or publishing it online as a blog post or even a Facebook note?

Do you have one friend who would be interested in reading your writing today? I’m betting you do. Why not send them one of your writing pieces now? (Yes, now.)

Think of it as practice for when you publish with that big New York publisher. (It could be a while, so you may have a lot of time to practice.)

This one step of sharing your work stops so many writers from meeting their goals. Successful writers publish.

2. Set deadlines, or better, get someone else to set them for you (and then keep them)

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. —Douglas Adams, author

Deadlines are meant to induce stress. I know none of us really wants more stress in our lives (do you?), but most writers I know struggle with two things: discipline and focus. A good deadline helps with both.

A little bit of stress focuses you. A good deadline can keep your butt in the chair and your fingers on the keys much better than “inspiration,” that fickle muse, ever could.

How, then, do you set good deadlines so they don’t whoosh by as they did for Mr. Adams?

The best deadlines are set by others, by editors or freelance writing clients or even your fans.

The most effective deadline I ever set was to write one article on my blog every day. I did this while maintaining a full-time job. What made this deadline especially effective was the people holding me accountable were my readers, a small group at the beginning but eventually a large, clamoring audience.

When you know people are waiting for your writing, you become a much more disciplined writer.

People are waiting for your writing. When are you going to give it to them?

3. Learn how to tell a great story

Writers tell stories.

If you want to write novels or memoir or short stories, this is obvious.

What if you're writing self-help or reference? You still need to learn to tell a good story. When firefighters hear stories about the close calls of their friends, it activates the same part of the brain as if they were going through that experience themselves. Then, when they experience a similar situation, they’re better prepared because of the stories they’ve heard.

Stories are the best teachers.

What if you’re writing marketing or sales copy? What is marketing but telling a story of how a consumer’s life could be different if they bought your product?

Whether you're a content writer or you do other business writing, fiction or creative writing, you will always tell stories.

All writers tell stories. Great writers tell great stories. Learn to tell great stories.

4. Read widely

I wanted to become a writer because I read a few books that made me feel like someone finally understood me.

I became a better writer because I read books that I didn’t fully understand and kept reading them until I did (some I’m still reading).

Professional writers are readers. If you want a writing career, add reading to your list of writing goals this year.

Read inside your genre. Read nonfiction in your area of expertise. Read the types of writers you hope to emulate in your own writing. Read outside your usual interests and genres to get a sense of how other talented writers see the world and use words to capture that reality (even when it's fiction!)

5. Commit to learn

Writers are learners.

When I’m writing an article or a chapter in a book, I often have ten or twelve tabs pulled up on my browser as well as a few books open in front of me, all of them research and resources to make my writing better, more detailed, more lifelike.

Writers bring information to people who have never heard it. We can turn a few words on a page into a whole universe inside our reader’s imaginations. We can look into the souls of our characters and share their story in a way that our readers fully understand them.

We do all of this through learning, learning about politics and current events, craftsmanship and science, about emotions and spirituality.

Writers should never become experts. Once you become an expert, you can no longer learn anything new, and if you don’t learn anything new you will become stale and uninspired. Be a novice in everything and you will never run out of things to write about.

“Good artists copy, great artists steal,” Steve Jobs liked to say.

He was “quoting” Picasso, but this quote has also been attributed to James Joyce and William Faulkner and Stravinsky among others.

But the quote actually originated with T.S. Eliot, the great modernist poet, who wrote, “ Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.”

When Ernest Hemingway was first beginning as a writer, he would type out whole sections of books by writers he admired just to get a sense of the flow and rhythm of their writing.

When I was working my first job as a freelance writer for a local newspaper, I printed out ten of the best articles I could find from the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, and then carefully read through each one, taking notes and asking, “Why did the writer say this here? What is the purpose of this sentence? How does this word move the story forward?”

Whenever I begin a new writing project, I read something that I admire to inspire and motivate me.

Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road and All the Pretty Horses , once said, “The ugly fact is books are made out of books.”

There is nothing new under the sun. The question, then, is which books are you going to make yours out of? And how are you going to turn them into something better (or at least something different)?

I once read a short story about a boy who wanted to become a writer that stuck with me (although, I’m forgetting the title, so if you know it, email me!).

The story begins with the news that a man in their small ranching community had been killed. To help with the body, the boy and his father and uncle leave late at night and walk through the wilderness.

It would be the boy’s first time seeing death, and when they came upon the body, he was terrified and looked away.

“You want to be a writer?” his uncle asked.

The boy nodded.

“Then don’t you look away. Don’t you ever look away.”

I’ve seen things I have wanted to look away from. I’ve seen legless boys pull themselves around on a cart to beg for coins from passing cars. I’ve seen hillsides covered with slums, people living amidst trash and human waste with just cardboard and tin for shelter. I’ve seen death.

If you want to be a writer, you must know death and pain and evil and injustice, know it as intimately as you know your soul. A writer’s job is to bring the bad to life just as well as the good.

Don’t look away.

8. Become acquainted with boredom, comfortable with writing-induced misery.

At some point, I've wanted to quit every major writing project I've ever worked on, and most writers I know have similar experiences.

When I was finishing my first book, I became so frustrated and hopeless with my writing that I knelt on the floor, put my face in my hands, and cried (a very macho, manly cry, of course).

“I don’t want to do this anymore,” I thought. “I don’t want to write this book. I don’t want to be a writer at all anymore. I never want to feel this stupid again.”

But after a little while, I got up, and I wrote a few more words. The next day, I wrote a few more. A month later, the book was finished and sent off to the editor.

That moment on the floor was the turning point, the beginning of the end of writing my first book, and now I remember that moment every time writing is at its most frustrating and hopeless, and I know I’m nearly finished.

Write through the mess. Write through poor grammar and awkward tense changes and switches in POV. Keep writing even when you know as you’ve known nothing else before that what you’re writing is worthless. When you’re in the middle, good and bad are meaningless. Just keep writing.

9. Surround yourself with a writing community

We think of great writers as silent, brooding geniuses, but the truth is no one becomes a writer on their own. It takes a team, a community, to sustain the passion, creativity, and sheer willpower to become a writer.

The truth is, the best writers have always had a community. Ernest Hemingway had F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and the expats in Paris. Jack Kerouac had William Burroughs and the Beats. J.R.R. Tolkien had C.S. Lewis and the Inklings. Virginia Woolf had Leonard Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with,” said Jim Rohn.

If you aren’t spending time with creative people and fellow writers who inspire you and challenge you to do your best writing, perhaps you need to make a few new friends.

Don’t know where to find one? Join ours! thewritepractice.com/join

10. Oh, and don't forget to write

Let me close with one last story.

Several years ago, I did something that changed my life. I started writing. In fact, I finished one writing piece every day.

I had, of course, written before. I had even started a few novels (that were soon abandoned). I had written essays for school and a few bad poems for fun. I had haphazardly practiced my writing skills.

However, when I started finishing one writing piece per day, something happened to me. I started to think of myself as a writer.

A real writer.

This led to getting small jobs as a writer, freelancing for a local paper, editing books for friends. It took a while (and a lot of practice), but eventually, I was able to quit my job and support myself and my family full-time through my writing.

It all started by finishing ONE writing piece regularly. That small habit changed my life.

I’m passionate about helping other writers go from being aspiring writers to becoming daily writers. If you’re ready to step into your writing habits, start with practice exercise below.

No matter what you do next, know that I’m rooting for you and your success.

Are You Ready to Become a Writer?

Some people will tell you it's easy to become a writer. They'll say, “Just write!”

But if you're like me, “just writing” isn't enough for you. You want to write something important, something that touches people at their very core, something that changes the world.

That's not too much to ask, right?

Writing like this is hard. But of course, if it's so important, it should be hard. Let's do it together.

Download the full eBook, 10 Steps to Becoming a Writer .

Today, set a timer for fifteen minutes and write one small section or post you've had burning inside you. Here are some ideas in case you get stuck:

If you're writing fiction or memoir, write a scene about a choice one of your characters made that they regret, and have the character justify their choice.

If you're writing nonfiction, omplete the sentence: Everyone thinks _____ when really _____. Explain what you mean. If you've just finished reading something, spend the fifteen minutes writing a review of it. Who would love it and why?

When you finish, post your practice in the comments below, and give feedback to a few other writers. When complete, give yourself a high-five because in just fifteen minutes, you'll have completed at least four of the steps above. Come back tomorrow and let's do it again!

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

35 Comments

It was strange getting published as the first step to being a writer, but it makes a lot of sense. We have to put ourselves out there; be willing to be vulnerable and show what we can do. One of my goals for the upcoming year is to submit more stories to journals and blogs. There’s a blog I follow that posts short story and flash fiction contests. As such, there are opportunities to get published and, at the same time, refine my craft.

Thank you for sharing these steps. It certainly takes discipline and dedication to be a writer. But the reward is worthwhile, even if it isn’t instantaneous.

Indeed, George! It is absolutely worthwhile.

And regarding publishing, I think we need to start looking at publishing differently. We need to stop looking for approval from some corporation in New York (not that there’s anything wrong with them or they’re approval), and start sharing our work through whatever means we have. It really is the best and fastest way to improve.

Being a “writer” is easy. It’s fun to get inspiration and drift away into meandering stories. It’s so easy to put words together when we know that no one else will ever read them. Sure there are times when writing is for my eyes only, but what you have said is so true and encouraging: writing is meant to be shared. Being a writer that shares her work is definitely something I’m not as comfortable with, but it’s an area that I want to keep improving. Oh! And thank you for the new e-book! I’m looking forward to reading it!

For some reason, I don’t run into not wanting to share, unless I truly think something I’ve written is terrible. I love to write, edit, and share. It seems that most writers dislike some part of that process, but I enjoy all three of them. It is a wonderful feeling to be able to stand next to something that you’ve created with two hands, and say, “I made that!”

It is usually more than the next guy can say. More over, it is probably inspiring to the next guy. Why not share it?

You should be proud of yourself. Look how much time you spent actually doing something, as opposed to how many people came home from work and plopped down in front of the tube?

James I can relate so much to your statement about standing next to something you’ve created with your own two hands. For me writing is like art work, you start with a blank canvas – your blank piece of paper- (or a mound of clay for a sculptor) and create then when you edit you chip away words you don’t need as a sculptor chips away and smooths out sections of their finished piece. It can be so rewarding- especially when the finish product is what we were aiming to create.

That is so cool, James. Thank you for sharing that!

Oh, I figured it was going to be: 1. Write. 2. Write some more. 3. Keep writing.

I could also go for: 1. Write 2. Revise 3. Share

I wanted to keep you on your toes, James. Anyway, I think that post has already been written a few times. 😉

cried (a very macho, manly cry, of course).

If there were tears it can’t be very macho. You might should use a better verb. 😛 Cry baby! 😀

I just need to FINISH my first novel, it’s at 150k and still not done. It is quickly becoming the never-ending story. Where the heck are the bounds of Fantasia!

I started a NaNoWriMo book and I’ve almost finished it. My second novel looks like it will be my first.

Haha. Real men cry, James.

150K is a lot of words James! You should break it up and make it into a series.

Congrats on winning NaNo!

Joe thank you for this post, and the e-book I was at that place last night as I was finishing a story ( with a deadline). For this assignment for class we had to write a 1,000 word story and I could not first finish the story and second figure out how to write this piece so it not only mattered to me but also would matter and touch someone else as well.

Sitting at my computer I had moments of saying” I quit, forget this, I don’t want to write anymore”. But another part of me wouldn’t give up- writing for me is like breathing, if I don’t do it I don’t exist, so I kept writing and eventually I did finish with 10 more words than allowed, but that can be fixed during editing. My final project became a cross between it’s a wonderful life and scrooge. My secret if it is a secret is to see and keep the end sentence in mind – And I did.

Now on to the next project.

Congratulations on finishing your story, Debra! If you’ve written seriously at all, you’ve been in that “I quit, forget this” place before. Good job powering through (although for me, wimpering through would be a better way to put it.) And great tip to keep the last sentence in mind!

Hey Joe….

Thank you for sharing your heartfelt insights with us!

Your post did make me smile because – in my opinion – the best article that I have ever written was titled: “Just Write”, and I wrote it while waiting for my husband to finish his racquetball session! My argument was simple: you can either wait forever for inspiration – and the ‘right’ setting – to write or JUST WRITE!

I get what you mean though. I do believe that writing SOMETHING is a prerequisite to creating meaningful work. If you never write, you will never evolve and can never offer any value. But even if your writing sucks (initially), just putting out your words consistently will make a difference in the future. I have read some random ramblings that are far more empowering than structured posts written by the elite writers. So trust your passion and PUBLISH 😀

Thank you so much for making me think 😉 Kitto

I absolutely agree with, Krithika. Too many people believe the myth that you have to wait for inspiration to write. I hope you didn’t read this post as me disagreeing with you!

Becoming a writer, to me, is an identity shift. We may be “writing,” whatever that looks like, but we still don’t feel like a writer. This post is about getting to a place where you not only feel like a writer, you KNOW you are one at your core. I think publishing in small ways is an important step.

This is SO COOL, Joe. Congratulations. The book is beautiful…you give great advice, and I look forward to seeing this new community unfolds.

Thanks Marcy!!!

I’ve enjoyed writing since I was 7. Now I’m half a century old, and I’m still writing, but more seriously, and improving my craft by leaps and bounds.

I think I came to The Write Practice in 2011. I don’t contribute very often, but I’ve read every post. This blog is a big part of the above mentioned “improving my craft in leaps and bounds”.

In 2011 I also started keeping a “goals” journal that stared with “write every day”. When I look back at my entries I see “I want to quit”, “why am I putting myself through this”, “I’m not good at this”, etc., sprinkled in almost every other entry. And I almost did quit. But for some reason I didn’t (or maybe couldn’t).

Fast forward to 2014, and my goal was to submit one work/quarter to a contest or writing website. I know, not much, but I’m a slow writer. Well guess what, one of my stories was published on the Every Day Fiction website (one was rejected), and two weeks ago I submitted another story to a contest. In all, I submitted 5 stories this year. (1 over the goal!). And I write deliberately every day. My journal entries are so much more ebullient than they were 3 years ago. I’m so glad I didn’t quit. Thank you Joe, and the Write Practice community for helping me improve my craft and becoming a writer!

I love this so much, Wanda. It’s amazing how much practice can change your life. It’s such a gift to see how far you, one of our earliest readers, have come. Thank you for sharing this with me, Wanda. 🙂

LOVE THIS JOE! I so needed this today. You have spoken to me in a way that has rekindled my fire and desire to write. Writing is a struggle for me but I know I will not quit till I’ve become, and keep becoming, a writer. Thanks so much for this post!

Hint: You are a writer, Miriam! But someday, I think you could definitely be a professional writer, if that’s what you want. You’re on your way. Thanks for your comment.

Thanks for this. The post was a nice pick-me-up as I’m trying to gather the courage to write my first short story (via your short story eBook).

I’m nervous as heck and I can’t seem to get over “planning” to write: bullet points, charts, lists, brainstorming session and I feel a lot more at ease with these than writing the first sentence. How can I just let go and let the pen flow?

Good luck with your short story, Harvey. I think planning is great but it can become a avoidance mechanism, a way to replace the fear of uncertainty (which is present in all writing) with busywork. Here’s what I think you should do: pick one part of your plan (your favorite bullet point, index card, chart, etc), and then trash the rest. Seriously. Throw it away or delete it from your hard drive. Then start writing, and if you need to, you can use your one piece of plan for help. But you’ll be free to be imperfect and uncertain, and most of all, free to have fun!

I have a “mini” blog and have written letters to editors on a few subjects over a 30-year period, but I want to do memoir writing (lots of stories to tell), but lack confidence. I recently finished my first piece (2,000 words) and am submitting it for possible publication in a literary magazine. I hope it’s the beginning of a chapter, then a book.

What a timely post. I wanted to give up this morning. It’s my editor’s birthday, and someone asked her clients to contribute pithy phrases from her editing so they could be organized into a poem. I found some funny ones from the first draft–but they were all negative. “This book has the potential to whisk readers away to another time in another place. But it doesn’t.” Or, “He’s an old warrior, not an old fart.” Or, the worst, “Her son is dying. Why would she give a shit about your protagonist?” And I said to myself, Yeah, really. Why would anyone? So I’ll put it down, like you said, and see if my interest resurges tomorrow.

Honestly, it sounds like you need a new editor Nancy! I’m all for giving tough feedback but only if it’s slotted between encouragement. Maybe your editor is doing that but it doesn’t sound like it. Don’t give up!

So you are right again. Today I’ll pick up my pen and set a new goal: to make sure someone gives a shit about my protagonist!

I just want to become a writer because I need to put all the imagination out of my mind. Write to expurge sadness, feelings, dreams and finally feel better with myself.

I am from Brazil and being a writer here is difficult. I have read all the articles and i purchased your book to learn how can I be a writer. I just want to write in english, because I know I will have more chance. Next week I will post my first short story here. I have no problem to be criticize. All I want to do is becoming a writer.

Thanks Joe for your support.

Best regards,

André Valle

I put a number of these blog posts away for a rainy day. (Saved them ‘unread’, in an email folder) I read this one today and it resonated big time with my writing at present. Through reading and doing 15 minute writing practice on here and replying to yet another blog, I have begun to put my writing out there for others to read, and my writing self us grown at the same time.

I agree wholeheartedly that deadlines are good and a needed part of my writing. I began with Nanowrimo two years ago. I didn’t make my goal of 50,000 words but it got me started. Last year I made it and continued to write.

When the short story contest email came in I decided to join in and once there I found the critique, camaraderie and all round general support was where I wanted to be. Every Friday post is great, posted my first last week, and I am collecting posts for a writing blog of my own. I plan to start publishing them when I have a few to spare, though likely not the best idea, it is in my comfort zone at present.

I’m currently writing a travel blog which I have lots of friends eagerly awaiting each day (or so they tell me), so writing each day is becoming easier to do; I have lots of incentive.

I even have an idea for Nanowrimo this year which will provide yet another deadline.

To being a person m very great full to u that u share your thought with us but by dyeing hart I really will became a writer I wish u always encourage those people who loved writ….

Hi Joe! I don’t know if you’re going to read this because it has been two years since the last comment, but anyway, I just want to tell you “Thank you for this article”, it made me feel a little of confidence about starting my life as a writer. It’s not I haven’t felt secure about it, it’s just that while I was reading your article I was thinking “He’s right, I feel the same way, if he could make it I will too.”

I have to admit it, I usually (if not always) get into panic in front of my computer when it’s the moment to clic on the “publish” button. Actually, I thought the last step of the process “becoming a writer” was *publishing*, but I think you’re right, no matter what you’re writting, or if you think it would be better… DON’T WAIT, JUST PUBLISH IT, if it would be better, it will get better while you’re in the path of becoming a writer.

So often I start writing and then feel that what I’ve written isn’t good enough. I have so much to say and convey, but when I start to get it all down on paper it just doesn’t seem to convey what I’m thinking in my head. But I love reading and writing, always have. I want to tell a story that no one else can tell. So I preserver. thanks for the opportunity to vent !!!

Came back here after the email reminder about giving feedback.Thank you :). I have published in academic journals, blog, and on FB. I have yet to cry because of writing induced stress, mainly due to a flexible approach to deadlines. I write because I love too, I have tried to build audience for my timid writing in blog and FB, but I seem to lack feedback. I am in absolute joy to have found this site and the owner who’s ‘forcing’ me to write 🙂 English is my second language, so forgive my grammar oversights. Thank you.

…”If I hadn’t grown up on Latin and Greek, I doubt if I would know so well how to draw the very subtle line between what I call a vernacular style and what I should call an illiterate or faux naif style. There’s a hell of a lot of difference, to my mind.” precisamente esse,,,

Though am studying college 1st year.my aim is to become a writer.so that i can motivate students.there are many students who are hiding the talents.so I thought to become a writer.i need your help.i don’t know how to make a perfect quote.totally I have wrote 22 quotes. I need your help so that I can become a perfect writer.i want to let out my talent outside so that I can my post my quotes in magazines .

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How to Become a Freelance Writer, Plus Tips for Success

F reelance writing is a booming industry, and it could be a great way to enjoy remote work and set your own schedule. Yet becoming a freelance writer can be difficult and confusing, especially in the beginning.

Today, let's explore how to become a freelance writer step-by-step, plus break down some extra tips to ensure success in this field.

1. Decide what kind of writer you'll be

No freelance writer can do it all, so you need to decide what kind of writer you'll be before starting on this career path.

Here are some examples of freelance writing niches and focuses:

• Technical writers : have technical expertise or in-depth knowledge about a specific subject, like manufacturing, finance, programming, etc. This type of writing is the most profitable side hustle. However, it's also the hardest for new freelance writers to break into as small businesses.
• Content writers: create blog posts for a variety of websites, often retail or affiliate websites. Content marketing includes high-qualitycontent writing. Such content might include guest posts for bloggers and business owners. It might also include other freelance content, like creating social posts or email copy. Helpful skills to know are how to use WordPress, Slack, Google Suite, Asana and similar.
• Copywriters : create content for brands by mimicking brand voice, tone and language rules. This freelance writing work means providing writing services to a brand's own blog. Such purposes typically revolve around SEO/search engine optimization purposes.

Of these types of freelance writers, you can further specialize. For instance, you can be a retail content writer exclusively, a finance technical writer and so on. In many cases, you should choose your freelance writer niche based on your previous experience, interests or specializations.

Consider your working schedule, too. Full-time writers will have more access to freelance writing jobs. However, you can still build a writing portfolio with stellar writing samples to attract potential clients, even as a part-time writer.

There are lots of online writing clients to attract. In any case, you'll build up a byline reputation after you get your first client and start flexing your creative writing skills.

Related: How Much Should You Charge as a Freelance Writer ?

2. Learn your niche's writing conventions and strategies

Next, you'll need to learn and master your niche's writing conventions and strategies.

As an example, if you become a copywriter for retail brands, you need to understand typical writing conventions like:

• Reading through your clients' tone packages or portfolios (sometimes called brand guides). These will give you the information you need to mimic your client's voice appropriately.
• Writing in streamlined, short sentences without a lot of fluff. These days, most online readers skim written content rather than reading it word by word, so you need to know how to create compelling, attractive headers and content blocks.
• Using bullet points frequently (just like this.) to convey key informational points quickly and succinctly.

Many of these skills can be learned and practiced as you hone your writing skills and as you determine your ultimate freelance writing niche or focus. Outside of learning by pursuing writing opportunities and building an online presence, many good writers have positive experiences with writing courses designed to build professional writing skills for different types of content.

3. Build a portfolio and join freelance job sites

No one will want to hire you as a freelance writer without seeing some samples of your work. This can sound counterintuitive, as at the beginning of your career, you won't have any work to showcase. However, you should create a portfolio of sample or trial blog posts, copy and more. Even if you come up with this content from scratch, it can serve as a good example of the work future clients can expect.

Once you have your portfolio, put it up on your personal website and your social media pages (particularly your LinkedIn profile). Then add to freelance job websites like Upwork. Make profiles on all the freelance job boards you can.

In the earliest days of your freelance writing career, you'll be pursuing as many jobs as possible. The more places you have to advertise your skills, the better.

Related: Leaving a Steady Job to Start a Freelance Career ? Here Are 5 Things You Must Know

4. Start looking for work

Now it's time to put your nose to the grindstone and begin looking for work. As a freelance writer, the initial months of your career will be filled with proposals and requests for work. Don't expect to get a lot of clients initially. In fact, you'll probably spend most of your time seeking out clients instead of writing.

This isn't a bad thing. During this time, you'll learn how to write effective, persuasive proposals to your clients and how best to represent yourself as the ideal freelancer for their needs. In time, you'll get a few jobs, then use those jobs to open further doors and new professional opportunities.

5. Request good reviews

Each time you get a job from a client, do it to perfection. Then, at the end of your contract, request an excellent review or testimonial. Many freelance job board websites allow you to post reviews or automatically calculate a review or star score based on your performance.

The better your review score is, the easier you'll find it to acquire new, high-paying clients. In this way, your freelance writing career will start off very slow, then quickly pick up speed.

Related: The 9 Skills it Takes to Succeed as a Freelance Writer

6. Market your writing aggressively

As you earn initial success, you should market your writing aggressively. There are a few different ways in which you can do this:

• You can create a personal website for your freelance writing business, showcasing your best samples and reviews or testimonials.
• You can make online ads promoting your skills as a knowledgeable copywriter, particularly in a specific industry or niche.
• You can and should market yourself on social media by regularly posting that you are looking for work or new clients.

Don't feel bad about announcing your skills in this way: You have to hustle to make it in this industry, a truism that holds for all freelance professionals, in fact.

Other tips for freelance writing success

You now know the basics about how to become a freelance writer. But even with the step-by-step process above, you might not see initial success unless you keep some key tips and strategies in mind.

Pick a niche to excel at

First, and perhaps most importantly, you should pick a niche or specialization at the earliest opportunity. Generalized freelance writers don't make nearly as much money as specialized writers. That's because specialized writers can provide more raw value to their clients.

Imagine a situation in which a programming company needs a writer to create some in-depth blog posts for B2B clients. They can hire a generalized content writer or a specialized technical writer who knows the ins and outs of programming languages and computer science. The latter choice is always the better option for that client.

To that end, find a niche in which to excel based on your previous schooling, your interests and more.

Price your writing properly

Many freelance writers struggle with getting a living wage, partially because they price their writing too low. True, in the earliest stage of your career, you'll probably earn about one cent or two cents per word. However, as you earn your first initial reviews, you should counterintuitively increase your price to five cents per word or more.

Why? If you price your writing too low, clients will think that you aren't worth their time. By pricing your writing sufficiently high, you show that you are confident in your ability to deliver results to those clients.

Always be looking for new clients

The life of a freelance writer involves constantly looking for new clients and work opportunities. Even if you have a handful of solid clients who send you work consistently, don't rest on your laurels.

Always be cultivating new contacts and finding new professional clients who you can approach for work. You never know when your current jobs or projects might dry up, leaving you in desperate need of new income streams.

Always improve your writing skills

Similarly, always work to improve your writing skills by learning new words, practicing your grammar and so on. As a writing craftsman, it's up to you to make sure that your skills are as sharp and desirable as possible. Don't let your writing skills fall by the wayside just because you have achieved some initial success as a freelance writer.

Related: Examples of Writing Business Ideas

Start your journey as a freelance writer

As you can see, you can become a successful freelance writer in a variety of ways and niches. But keep the above tips in mind, and you'll be sure to land high-paying clients and master your new business in short order.

Check out Entrepreneur's other guides and resources for more information on this topic.

Why Become a Scripted Writer?

Scripted is the best place for freelance writers. Find out why below.

Scripted has opportunities for beginning and experienced writers. You may have tried other online platforms that didn't impress you. Scripted strives to do better. Why should you submit an application to become a freelance writer on Scripted? Many writers respond to the following reasons.

Scripted writers made over $1,000,000 in 2020. We offer competitive pay and writer rewards that rival any writing platform in the industry.

Scripted has clients across 37 different industries so you can find work within your expertise and on your terms.

From small businesses to large corporations, find the perfect clients and build long-term relationships.

Host samples of your work in your Scripted profile. Build your portfolio and diversify your writing skills to help grow and expand your career.

Control your workload and set your own hours. Scripted writers work all over the world on their own schedule. What could you do with that freedom.

Don't worry about chasing down payments or organizing projects and deadlines. Scripted's project dashboard and payment management makes freelance writing easier than ever.

Specialize in the Industries You Know

Scripted constantly looks for new partners that need professional content writers. If you have experience in a certain industry, you can use your previous work and education to start writing for companies in areas like:

That long list of industries continues to grow as Scripted brings more writers and clients to its online platform.

Attract Clients with Your Writer Profile and Reputation

Scripted has room for new and established writers. If you don't have much publishing experience, you can start building your profile by bidding on projects focused on topics you know well. When you impress your clients, you get excellent reviews that improve your reputation score. Keep adding content to your portfolio and exceeding your clients' expectations. It won't take long before you have a steady stream of companies requesting your ideas or hiring you directly through the Scripted marketplace. If you already have published articles, you can add them to your writing portfolio immediately to display your skills and areas of interest.

Form Long-Term Relationships with Clients and Account Managers

Content writers often feel underwhelmed by online platforms because they get assigned random projects that they don't really care about. Scripted takes the opposite approach. When you join Scripted, you get opportunities to develop long-term relationships with the clients and account managers you enjoy working with. Take a moment to send clients positive messages when they accept your projects. Ask them for feedback that will help you perfect your pitches. A little extra communication shows that you want a long-term working relationship instead of a quick job. Scripted's account managers can also help you find projects that match your skills. Get to know the people who manage accounts on the platform. When they know they can trust you with priority clients, you will get work that pays well and pushes your abilities.

Accept Smart Match Jobs Instantly

Scripted developed SmartMatch to help match customers with the perfect writer instantly. When a customer submits a request for a SmartMatch order it gets offered to a pool of writers that match the order criteria and all writers in that pool have a chance to pick it up. If you match that order, you’ll be notified and can pick it up instantly. The SmartMatch system saves you the time of creating unique proposals for each potential job and allows you to instantly pick up jobs that match your skills and experience.

Pitch Ideas That Pique Your Interest

Do you like coming up with unique ideas for blog posts, video scripts, ebooks, and more? Scripted allows you to reach out directly to customers and pitch your own ideas for them to order instantly from you. This feature allows you to research and write about a topic that interests you rather than wait for a content order to come along. As you grow your relationship with customers you’ll be able to learn what kind of content they need for their business and approach them with your unique ideas.

Set Prices Your Knowledge and Experience Deserve

When you pitch an idea on Scripted, you get to set a price that you believe is fair to the client and your experience. Clients can even send you an additional tip to reward you for excellent work. Every project has a minimum price that ensures writers get paid a fair amount. You always control how much you charge, but the minimum prevents writers from drastically undercutting each other for jobs.

Work as Much or as Little as You Want

Some writers at Scripted use the platform to earn a little extra money. Others rely on it as their main source of income. You can use Scripted to write as much or as little as you want. As a freelance writer, you control your schedule.

Quick Payments for Accepted Projects

Scripted partners with Stripe to get money in your bank account quickly. You can usually expect payments to reach your account within three to five days after your client accepts the project, depending on your Writer Tier . Scripted's platform lets you track all of your projects and payments through a convenient dashboard.

Manage All of Your Clients From One Dashboard

As a freelance writer, staying organized can be a big challenge. As a Scripted writer you can manage all your customers, jobs, and pitches in one dashboard so you know what to prioritize and what stage every job is in. Each job is placed in one of these four stages:

• Proposals – pitches that clients are still considering.
• Writing – assignments with upcoming deadlines.
• Editing – projects in the editing stage before they get sent to clients.
• Ready for Review – jobs now in clients' hands ready for acceptance.

You can also use the Scripted dashboard to manage your Writer Portfolio, writing samples, payments, and job invitations.

Support From Scripted Team of Professionals

At some point, every writer runs into a situation they don't know how to handle. Perhaps a client demands something outrageous, or you're not sure how to answer a question about billing. Scripted has a support staff of professionals waiting to address your issue as quickly as possible. Just reach out to Scripted Support to get your question answered. You'll get a friendly, helpful response ASAP.

Become a Scripted Writer

Start your application to begin finding writing jobs on Scripted. Once you create an account and submit your application, an editor will review your credentials to determine whether you have the skills necessary to join a platform of talented, hard-working writers. You don't necessarily need a lot of experience. Show that you're an excellent researcher and writer to get started. We look forward to welcoming you to the Scripted team!

Work with Great Companies

All Scripted writers have the opportunity to work with all these great companies (and many more!)

Earn Writer Rewards

The more active you are on Scripted the more you earn and the more opportunities become available with the Scripted Writer Rewards Program.

Frequently Asked Questions

We can't wait to open up Scripted to writers of every language, but unfortunately Scripted is English language only at this time.

Applications are reviewed every Friday. So if you've submitted on anytime before Friday, you'll hear back from us that week. Applications submitted on Friday are reviewed with the next week's batch.

Right now, Scripted is only accepting applications from the US and Canada. In March 2021, we'll be opening up to Europe. We intend to continue opening up the application process to the rest of the world throughout the year, so be sure to check back with us often!

You'll receive an email from us notifying you of the results and welcoming you aboard! From there, we'll help you with getting started on the platform, updating your portfolio and matching you with clients. In March 2021, all newly accepted writers will be required to attend a webinar on best practices on the platform. From there, you're free to start working on content and earning money!

We're not currently accepting reapplications at this time, due to high volume. But that may change in the future, so please check back with us from time to time!

You can always reach out to us with any questions here. We're happy to help!

Hear From Scripted Writers

Scripted is by far the best freelancing platform out there. The account managers take care of their writers just as well as their clients, making sure that everything that comes through the pipeline matches my areas of expertise. Thanks to the Scripted staff, I've expanded my list of clients ten-fold and written hundreds of five-star articles. I'd be happy to stick with Scripted for as long as possible!

I've been with Scripted for over 8 years. In that time, I've been able to hone my craft thanks to the amazing clients and account managers at Scripted. If you're looking for the best content - or a place for your writing to call home, this is it. (I was able to leave my full-time job!)

Scripted is THE place for writers who wish to prove their mettle. If you're a beginner, you'll gain the confidence to score clients of your wildest dreams. If you're a veteran, Scripted expands your clientele with quality projects. Clients can look forward to working with some of the most diligent and dedicated writers on this planet. There's truly something for everyone and I'm blessed to be part of this solid community.

I have worked for Scripted for seven years. Based on my experience, I have nothing but respect for the Scripted team. They have remained committed to the success of both their clients and writers, ensuring a seamless experience. Scripted has developed a platform where everyone shares the same goal. Each piece of content produced must be of the highest quality. This approach has allowed me to grow as a writer while providing clients with content that fuels their success. With Scripted, everyone wins — and I love that!

Finally, freedom for freelancers! Flexible work, super-fast payments, awesome support, and lots of opportunities. Content writing has never been this straightforward.

Ready to Become a Scripted Writer?

Discover top guides, trends, tips and expertise from AIO Writers

How to Become an SEO Writer in Simple Steps

Julia McCoy

So, you’ve got a passion for writing and a keen interest in SEO? Mixing these elements could really send your career soaring to new heights. The journey on how to become an SEO writer is filled with learning curves but incredibly rewarding. From understanding keyword research to crafting compelling content that ranks, this path offers a blend of creativity and technicality unique to digital marketing.

The first step? Dive head-first into the basics of search engine optimization. Yes, those A’s you earned in college writing are about to get tested on a whole different level!

Table Of Contents:

What is seo writing, why is seo writing important, how to become an seo writer, key elements of seo writing, best practices for seo content writing, faqs – how to become an seo writer.

SEO writing is all about creating content that’s optimized for search engines. It’s not just about throwing in a few keywords and calling it a day. SEO content writing is an art and a science.

The goal? To create written content that not only reads well for humans but also ranks well in search results.

Whether you’re writing website content, blog posts, or product descriptions, the principles of SEO content writing remain the same. It’s about finding that sweet spot between what search engines want and what your readers crave.

Now more than ever, in this digital playground we’re all navigating, mastering the art of SEO writing is absolutely crucial. Why? Because search engines are the gatekeepers to online visibility.

Think about it: when you’re looking for information online, where do you turn first? Chances are, you head straight to Google (or your preferred search engine). We know that over 90% of online experiences begin with a search engine .

That’s where SEO writing comes in. When you write content that’s optimized for search engines, you’re boosting your odds of climbing higher in those search results. And the higher you rank, the more likely people are to find and engage with your content.

But SEO writing isn’t just about driving traffic to your website. By creating high-quality, keyword-rich content, you establish yourself as an authority in your industry, build trust with your audience, and ultimately drive more conversions.

Ready to dive into the world of SEO writing? Here’s how to get started.

Develop Your Writing Skills

First things first: to be a successful SEO content writer, you need to have solid writing skills. This means having a strong grasp of grammar, punctuation, and style. But it also means being able to write engaging, informative content that resonates with your target audience.

If you’re not confident in your writing abilities, don’t worry — like any skill, writing can be improved with practice. Start by reading widely in your niche, studying the writing styles of successful content creators, and practicing your writing regularly.

Learn SEO Fundamentals

Next up for content writers: learning the basics of SEO. This means understanding how search engines work, what factors influence rankings, and how to optimize your content for maximum visibility.

Some key SEO concepts to familiarize yourself with include:

• Keyword research and optimization
• On-page optimization (e.g., title tags, meta descriptions, header tags)
• Link building and backlinks
• Site structure and navigation

There are plenty of free resources available online to help you learn SEO fundamentals . Take advantage of them.

Build a Portfolio

As with any creative profession, having a strong portfolio is key to landing SEO content writing gigs. Kick things off by building a website or online portfolio where you can flaunt your best pieces of writing.

If you’re just starting out, consider writing for free or at a reduced rate to build up your portfolio. Reach out to blogs or websites in your niche and offer to contribute guest posts or articles.

Gain Experience

Finally, the best way to become a successful SEO content writer is to gain hands-on experience. Look for opportunities to write for websites, blogs, or businesses in your niche. As you build up your skills and portfolio, you can start to take on higher-paying projects and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Remember, becoming an SEO content writer takes time and effort. But with dedication and practice, you can turn your passion for writing into a lucrative and fulfilling career.

So, what exactly goes into creating SEO-friendly content? Here are some of the key elements to keep in mind.

Keyword Research and Optimization

At the heart of SEO writing is keyword research and optimization. This means identifying the words and phrases that your target audience is searching for, and incorporating them naturally into your content.

But it’s not just about stuffing your content with keywords. Google explicitly warns against keyword stuffing , as it can actually hurt your rankings. Instead, focus on using keywords strategically and in context.

Some tips for effective keyword optimization:

• Use long-tail keywords (more specific, less competitive phrases)
• Incorporate keywords into your title, headings, and throughout your content
• Use variations and related keywords to avoid repetition
• Don’t sacrifice readability or user experience for the sake of keywords

Meta Tags and Descriptions

In addition to the SEO copy itself, SEO writing also involves optimizing your meta tags and descriptions. These are the snippets of text that appear in search results, giving users a preview of what your content is about.

Your meta title and description should be compelling and informative, enticing users to click through to your content. Plus, weaving in those keywords you’re aiming to rank for can give your rankings a nice little boost.

Some best practices for writing meta tags and descriptions:

• Keep your meta title under 60 characters and your meta description under 155 characters
• Use action-oriented language and include a call to action
• Make sure your meta tags accurately reflect the content of your page
• Use unique meta tags for each page on your site

Content Structure and Formatting

Finally, the structure and formatting of your SEO copy can also impact its SEO-friendliness. This includes things like:

• Using header tags (H1, H2, H3) to break up your content and signal its hierarchy
• Keeping paragraphs short and easy to read
• Using bullet points or numbered lists to break up long blocks of text
• Including internal and external links to relevant, high-quality sources
• Optimizing images with descriptive file names and alt text

When you lay out your content clearly and logically, it becomes a breeze for both people and search engines to understand. And by including relevant links and optimized images, you signal to search engines that your content is valuable and informative.

Now that you know the key elements of SEO writing, let’s dive into some best practices to help you create content that both users and search engines will love.

Write for Your Target Audience

One of the most important things to keep in mind when writing SEO copy is to always write for your target audience first and search engines second. While keywords and technical optimization are important, your content should ultimately be focused on providing value to your readers.

Before you start writing, take some time to research your target audience. Dive into what bugs them, catches their eye, and gets them up in the morning. What kind of content are they looking for? Getting to know your audience means you can whip up SEO copy that hits the spot, making them eager for what’s next.

Focus on Readability and Engagement

In addition to providing answers and solutions, your content should be a breeze to read and interact with. This means using clear, concise language, breaking up long paragraphs into shorter ones, and using formatting elements like headings and lists to make your content more scannable.

You should also aim to keep your readers engaged by using storytelling techniques, asking questions, and encouraging them to take action. The more engaged your readers are, the more likely they are to share your content and come back for more.

Incorporate Relevant Keywords Naturally

As mentioned earlier, keyword optimization is a crucial part of SEO writing. But it’s important to incorporate keywords naturally into your content, rather than forcing them in where they don’t belong.

When researching keywords, look for phrases that are relevant to your topic and that your target audience is likely to search for. Then, use those keywords throughout your content in a way that feels natural and flows well with the rest of your writing.

Remember, the goal is not to stuff your SEO copy with as many keywords as possible, but rather to use them strategically to signal to search engines what your content is about.

Optimize for Featured Snippets

Featured snippets are the short, concise answers that sometimes appear at the top of search results, providing users with a quick answer to their query without having to click through to a website.

To optimize your content for featured snippets, aim to provide clear, direct answers to common questions related to your topic. Use formatting elements like lists and tables to make your content easy to parse, and include the question you’re answering in your content (ideally using the exact phrasing that users are likely to search for).

By optimizing for featured snippets, you can increase your visibility in search results and drive more traffic to your site.

Want to Become a More Efficient SEO Writer? Try AI.

AI has revolutionized the SEO writing landscape with tools and techniques that enhance efficiency, accuracy, and effectiveness. One fine example is the AI SEO writer Content at Scale . With this multi-LLM content generation platform, writers can now produce high-quality SEO content at a much faster pace.

This app utilizes natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to analyze search engine trends, keywords, and user intent, enabling SEO writers to create content that is not only optimized for search engines but also resonates with their target audience. More than just a simple writer, Content at Scale can also help with generating topic reports, optimizing metadata, and even providing real-time feedback on readability and engagement, empowering writers to refine their content for maximum impact.

Below is a screenshot of the Content at Scale text editor. From a simple keyword, the app will create a 3,000-word blog post for you that’s 100% original, well-researched, undetectable, and Google-friendly.

The biggest benefit of AI in SEO writing is significantly improving the scalability of SEO writing efforts. With Content at Scale, writers can create 10x more SEO content without compromising quality. And unlike other AI writers that produce generic-sounding pieces, Content at Scale allows you to train the AI in your writing style so that every blog post sounds just like you.

AI has truly transformed SEO writing from a time-consuming and labor-intensive task into a streamlined process that allows writers to focus more on crafting compelling narratives and building meaningful connections with their audience, ultimately leading to better search rankings and increased online visibility.

How much do SEO writers make?

SEO writers can earn from $30k to over $70k yearly. It swings based on experience and the gig’s complexity.

How do I become an SEO content writer?

To start, hone your writing craft, dive into SEO basics, build a portfolio online, and then snag some gigs.

Are SEO writers in demand?

Absolutely. As long as digital content reigns, companies will hunt for skilled SEO writers to boost their online presence.

Is SEO writing a good career?

Sure thing. It blends creativity with tech savvy. Plus, it’s versatile—perfect for freelancers or full-time pros alike.

Learning how to become an SEO writer isn’t just about putting words on paper; it’s about connecting the dots between search intent , search algorithms, and engaging storytelling. You learned here that stepping into the shoes of an SEO content writer means embracing both its challenges and triumphs.

As you embark on your SEO writing journey, remember that learning is an ongoing process. The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and staying up-to-date with the latest trends and algorithms is essential to staying ahead of the curve. Don’t be afraid to experiment, test new strategies, and refine your approach based on what works best for your unique audience and niche.

Most importantly, never forget the power of quality content. While SEO tactics are important for getting your content noticed, ultimately, it’s the value you provide to your readers that will keep them coming back for more. So, focus on creating engaging, informative, and relevant content that truly adds value to your audience’s lives.

And once you’ve mastered these techniques, you can start planning for a scaled-up marketing strategy and implement AI into your work to boost your efficiency. An SEO AI writer like Content at Scale can help you produce 10x more SEO content so you can take on more writing projects or even grow your own business.

Written by Julia McCoy

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The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Marketing

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the marketing industry. Marketers can leverage AI-powered tools to automate tasks, personalize their messages for higher engagement, and generate content at remarkable speed. According to a 2023 Mailchimp report, nearly 90% of marketers believe their organizations must increase AI use to stay competitive and meet customer expectations. 1

Where exactly should marketing teams implement AI? This article explores AI applications and ways in which they're reshaping the industry.

Understanding AI in Marketing

AI marketing tools simulate human intelligence and problem-solving capabilities. 2 Experts who combine artificial intelligence and marketing can generate promotional content faster, get more accurate results in customer data analysis, and improve prospect experience. 3

Two key components of AI are:

• Machine learning (ML): ML algorithms enable computers to learn from data and make predictions without being explicitly programmed; machine learning in marketing can be used for customer segmentation and predictive analytics tasks 4
• Natural language processing (NLP) : NLP algorithms enable computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language; in marketing, NLP is mainly used in content generation, including images, videos, and text 5

The Purpose of AI in Marketing

Consider four ways marketers can implement AI in their work.

Minimizing Manual Tasks for Marketing Automation

AI enables marketers to automate tedious, repetitive tasks, such as manually sending promotional emails to hundreds or thousands of prospects multiple times a week. By scheduling and sending emails in bulk at once with AI-driven email automation tools, they can reach a broad audience efficiently. 6

Additionally, conducting customer research through traditional methods, such as manual consumer data analysis, can be labor-intensive and slow. AI for marketing automation offers a solution to these challenges. Sophisticated NLP algorithms quickly process large amounts of data from customer survey responses, focus group transcripts and customers’ social media posts. As a result, marketers can identify patterns and trends in consumer behavior faster than relying on human analysis. 7 For example, an AI-driven social listening tool such as Sprout Social allows marketing teams to analyze about 50,000 customer messages per second and up to 600 million daily. They can automatically sift through multiple data points and get key customer insights quickly. 8

Brainstorming and Writing

Before generative AI models like ChatGPT emerged, brainstorming topics, creating outlines, writing content and editing could take hours, if not days. Today, the process is as quick as asking AI tools to write marketing copy, such as promotional emails, ads, and articles. Users get output in seconds or a few minutes. This saves time for marketing experts who create content in bulk and regularly. Marketers can also use AI to create images, videos, and audio. 9

Some AI writing tools show users what input to provide to get a more personalized output. For instance, HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant allows marketers to specify the campaign’s goals, writing style, target audience, and calls to action (CTAs). 10

Content generated by an AI marketing tool provides a starting point for most marketers—a source of inspiration. Like any other technology, however, AI writing solutions are not perfect. Their output may be inaccurate and requires a human touch. To ensure the quality, accuracy, and veracity of their content, and to see to it that it aligns with the intended marketing strategy , brand voice and style, marketers must thoroughly fact-check, proofread, and edit AI-generated content.

Analyzing Big Data and Making Reliable Predictions

Predictive analytics leverages ML algorithms to analyze consumer data and identify patterns that may not be readily visible to the human eye. The insights it yields help marketers anticipate future trends and customer preferences. They also enable marketing experts to predict the most suitable time to send offers, the messages likely to resonate with the target audience, and the best platform to use to reach customers. 11

While marketers have used predictive analytics for as long as businesses have gathered information, the rise of digital media has generated “ big data .” 12 Sifting through this vast amount of information quickly to extract timely insights can be overwhelming without the right technology . That’s where AI in predictive analytics becomes useful. With traditional techniques, marketing teams may require hours or days to obtain valuable information from small datasets. With AI predictive analytics, it takes just several minutes to analyze millions of data points and reveal information businesses can use to improve marketing campaigns. 13

Personalizing Marketing to Boost Engagement

According to the management consulting company McKinsey, over 70% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions . 14 AI marketing tools help businesses improve customer engagement through personalization. AI-powered segmentation tools can gather information about prospective customers autonomously from different sources, including website analytics and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. 15 The tools then use the collected marketing data to segment an organization’s audience based on:

• Demographics such as age, gender, location, income level, education, and occupation
• Behavior including purchase history, interactions with emails or ads, and actions on a company’s website
• Preferences such as interests, values, lifestyle, and personality

With this information, marketers can create campaigns that connect strongly with each individual, as they address specific needs, desires and pain points. This customized attention can motivate customer engagement and increase brand loyalty.

The Future of AI in Marketing

Gartner, an American tech research and consulting firm, predicts that by 2025, marketing teams using AI will spend 75% of their efforts on strategic activities rather than content production. 16 That’s because AI will handle content creation processes and other manual marketing tasks, allowing marketers to focus more on strategic marketing operations, such as interpreting analytics and implementing insights.

Gartner also predicts that AI-powered marketing processes will become more data-driven, highly responsive to change, and capable of overcoming setbacks or disruptions. Moreover, since AI and ML algorithms can analyze large amounts of customer data to reveal hidden insights, they’ll be fundamental in audience segmentation and marketing personalization. 16

According to Forbes, artificial intelligence today helps marketers make smarter, data-driven decisions . Beyond 2024, however, AI will be key not only to decision-making but also to staying competitive in an ever-changing business environment. 17

Become a Leader in Marketing AI

Transformative innovations, such as AI-powered automation tools and AI content writers, are reshaping the marketing industry. Mastering these can help you stay on top of AI trends and lead the field.

Gain expertise in AI and other marketing technologies through the cutting-edge curriculum of the Online MS in Marketing from the Leavey School of Business . Led by industry authorities and world-class educators , the flexible online program accommodates your personal and professional commitments. Further, SCU’s powerful alumni network connects you with Silicon Valley insiders and career opportunities.

To learn how SCU can prepare you for success at the executive level, speak with an admissions outreach advisor today.

• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from mailchimp.com/intuit-mailchimp-finds-vast-majority-of-smb-marketers-are-bought-into-ai/
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from ibm.com/topics/artificial-intelligence
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from ibm.com/blog/ai-in-marketing/
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from ibm.com/topics/machine-learning
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from oracle.com/ke/artificial-intelligence/what-is-natural-language-processing/
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ai-marketing-automation
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/08/30/harnessing-ai-for-market-research-opportunities-and-challenges/
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from sproutsocial.com/insights/ai-automation/
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ai-marketing
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from hubspot.com/campaign-assistant
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from snowflake.com/guides/predictive-analytics-marketing/
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from salesforce.com/in/resources/guides/role-of-ai-in-marketing/
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from mailchimp.com/resources/ai-predictive-analytics/
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-personalization
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from upwork.com/resources/ai-for-customer-segmentation
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from gartner.com/en/marketing/topics/ai-in-marketing
• Retrieved on March 16, 2024, from forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2024/02/13/embracing-the-future-of-marketing-with-ai/

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Non-Credit Certificate Program in Clinical Trials Management and Regulatory Compliance

Accelerate your career in the field of clinical research with hands-on training in every step of the clinical trials process.

At a Glance

The online Clinical Trials Management and Regulatory Compliance certificate program, designed and delivered by experts in clinical research, gives you the skills and knowledge you need to jumpstart your career in the growing clinical trials field. 

Become a Better Clinical Researcher 

In six core courses built around real-world clinical trials, you will master the procedure cycle and administration of the entire clinical trials process, learn to navigate stakeholder interests, and implement up-to-the-minute regulatory compliance practices and ethical standards. You will finish the program with the ability to initiate clinical research studies, apply monitoring methods, and write exemplary documents and reports.

Designed For

Designed for early or mid-career professionals who want to work in regulatory compliance, medical writing, site management, or data analysis in the pharmaceutical industry, at a clinical research organization, or with an academic institution.

You Value Your Career, We Value Your Time.

Staying up-to-date on your career skills doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Our Clinical Trials certificate program is competitively priced and takes as little as nine months.

Learn with clinical research experts

Scientists and pharmaceutical industry executives, consultants and project managers, our instructors know every angle of the clinical trials process. In live classes informed by their considerable professional experience, Clinical Trials certificate instructors give feedback, support, and expert insight into the field.

The UChicago edge

Our professional courses take innovative learning approaches that uphold the University of Chicago’s distinct brand of academic excellence while driving career advancement.

• Synchronous class sessions engage students with instructors and peers. 
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• Professional development services include resume review, access to exclusive job listings, and more.
• Program administrators support students throughout the certificate and beyond, from individual advising sessions to alumni services.

Career benefits

The global clinical trials market has been projected to grow  to $84.43 billion dollars by 2030. The field is thriving. Key drivers like the globalization of clinical trials and new, personalized treatments continue to impact market growth, while demand for skilled professionals widens the job market: the need for clinical trials professionals will continue to outpace that for similar roles. To learn how our Clinical Trials management certificate can boost your career, please visit our career benefits page for more information.

The estimated total pay for a Clinical Research Associate is $71,868 per year, according to Glassdoor .

Triple your medical writing skills

The University of Chicago Professional Education offers certificate programs in Clinical Trials, Medical Writing and Editing , and now Regulatory Writing . Our programs feature a blended learning model comprising of live synchronous sessions, real-world case studies, and writing exercises that work to elevate your medical writing skills. These part-time programs are tailored to develop your skillset so you can apply to your career immediately.

Explore how you can become an expert medical writer in three leading areas:

• Clinical Trials Management and Regulatory Compliance :   Learn to use real-world clinical trials to reinforce your foundational knowledge and boost your career in clinical research.
• Medical Writing and Editing : This program will provide the foundation for mastering the fundamentals and best practices of medical writing, editing, and communication.
• Regulatory Writing : Building on the strengths of our Medical Writing and Editing program, Regulatory Writing courses will provide students with high-demand, professionally valuable skills to write submissions to the FDA and other regulatory bodies.

Clinical trials management offers a real spectrum of career paths. Students who complete the certificate have options spanning the pharmaceutical industry, clinical research organizations, and academic institutions, where they can consider careers in medical writing, site management, regulatory, and more.

Offered by The University of Chicago's Professional Education

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NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

David Folkenflik

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust.

NPR's top news executive defended its journalism and its commitment to reflecting a diverse array of views on Tuesday after a senior NPR editor wrote a broad critique of how the network has covered some of the most important stories of the age.

"An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don't have an audience that reflects America," writes Uri Berliner.

A strategic emphasis on diversity and inclusion on the basis of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, promoted by NPR's former CEO, John Lansing, has fed "the absence of viewpoint diversity," Berliner writes.

NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, wrote in a memo to staff Tuesday afternoon that she and the news leadership team strongly reject Berliner's assessment.

"We're proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories," she wrote. "We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world."

NPR names tech executive Katherine Maher to lead in turbulent era

She added, "None of our work is above scrutiny or critique. We must have vigorous discussions in the newsroom about how we serve the public as a whole."

A spokesperson for NPR said Chapin, who also serves as the network's chief content officer, would have no further comment.

Praised by NPR's critics

Berliner is a senior editor on NPR's Business Desk. (Disclosure: I, too, am part of the Business Desk, and Berliner has edited many of my past stories. He did not see any version of this article or participate in its preparation before it was posted publicly.)

Berliner's essay , titled "I've Been at NPR for 25 years. Here's How We Lost America's Trust," was published by The Free Press, a website that has welcomed journalists who have concluded that mainstream news outlets have become reflexively liberal.

Berliner writes that as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence College graduate who "was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother ," he fits the mold of a loyal NPR fan.

Yet Berliner says NPR's news coverage has fallen short on some of the most controversial stories of recent years, from the question of whether former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, to the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19, to the significance and provenance of emails leaked from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden weeks before the 2020 election. In addition, he blasted NPR's coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

On each of these stories, Berliner asserts, NPR has suffered from groupthink due to too little diversity of viewpoints in the newsroom.

The essay ricocheted Tuesday around conservative media , with some labeling Berliner a whistleblower . Others picked it up on social media, including Elon Musk, who has lambasted NPR for leaving his social media site, X. (Musk emailed another NPR reporter a link to Berliner's article with a gibe that the reporter was a "quisling" — a World War II reference to someone who collaborates with the enemy.)

When asked for further comment late Tuesday, Berliner declined, saying the essay spoke for itself.

The arguments he raises — and counters — have percolated across U.S. newsrooms in recent years. The #MeToo sexual harassment scandals of 2016 and 2017 forced newsrooms to listen to and heed more junior colleagues. The social justice movement prompted by the killing of George Floyd in 2020 inspired a reckoning in many places. Newsroom leaders often appeared to stand on shaky ground.

Leaders at many newsrooms, including top editors at The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times , lost their jobs. Legendary Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron wrote in his memoir that he feared his bonds with the staff were "frayed beyond repair," especially over the degree of self-expression his journalists expected to exert on social media, before he decided to step down in early 2021.

Since then, Baron and others — including leaders of some of these newsrooms — have suggested that the pendulum has swung too far.

Author Interviews

Legendary editor marty baron describes his 'collision of power' with trump and bezos.

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger warned last year against journalists embracing a stance of what he calls "one-side-ism": "where journalists are demonstrating that they're on the side of the righteous."

"I really think that that can create blind spots and echo chambers," he said.

Internal arguments at The Times over the strength of its reporting on accusations that Hamas engaged in sexual assaults as part of a strategy for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel erupted publicly . The paper conducted an investigation to determine the source of a leak over a planned episode of the paper's podcast The Daily on the subject, which months later has not been released. The newsroom guild accused the paper of "targeted interrogation" of journalists of Middle Eastern descent.

Heated pushback in NPR's newsroom

Given Berliner's account of private conversations, several NPR journalists question whether they can now trust him with unguarded assessments about stories in real time. Others express frustration that he had not sought out comment in advance of publication. Berliner acknowledged to me that for this story, he did not seek NPR's approval to publish the piece, nor did he give the network advance notice.

Some of Berliner's NPR colleagues are responding heatedly. Fernando Alfonso, a senior supervising editor for digital news, wrote that he wholeheartedly rejected Berliner's critique of the coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, for which NPR's journalists, like their peers, periodically put themselves at risk.

Alfonso also took issue with Berliner's concern over the focus on diversity at NPR.

"As a person of color who has often worked in newsrooms with little to no people who look like me, the efforts NPR has made to diversify its workforce and its sources are unique and appropriate given the news industry's long-standing lack of diversity," Alfonso says. "These efforts should be celebrated and not denigrated as Uri has done."

After this story was first published, Berliner contested Alfonso's characterization, saying his criticism of NPR is about the lack of diversity of viewpoints, not its diversity itself.

"I never criticized NPR's priority of achieving a more diverse workforce in terms of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. I have not 'denigrated' NPR's newsroom diversity goals," Berliner said. "That's wrong."

Questions of diversity

Under former CEO John Lansing, NPR made increasing diversity, both of its staff and its audience, its "North Star" mission. Berliner says in the essay that NPR failed to consider broader diversity of viewpoint, noting, "In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans."

Berliner cited audience estimates that suggested a concurrent falloff in listening by Republicans. (The number of people listening to NPR broadcasts and terrestrial radio broadly has declined since the start of the pandemic.)

Former NPR vice president for news and ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin tweeted , "I know Uri. He's not wrong."

Others questioned Berliner's logic. "This probably gets causality somewhat backward," tweeted Semafor Washington editor Jordan Weissmann . "I'd guess that a lot of NPR listeners who voted for [Mitt] Romney have changed how they identify politically."

Similarly, Nieman Lab founder Joshua Benton suggested the rise of Trump alienated many NPR-appreciating Republicans from the GOP.

In recent years, NPR has greatly enhanced the percentage of people of color in its workforce and its executive ranks. Four out of 10 staffers are people of color; nearly half of NPR's leadership team identifies as Black, Asian or Latino.

"The philosophy is: Do you want to serve all of America and make sure it sounds like all of America, or not?" Lansing, who stepped down last month, says in response to Berliner's piece. "I'd welcome the argument against that."

"On radio, we were really lagging in our representation of an audience that makes us look like what America looks like today," Lansing says. The U.S. looks and sounds a lot different than it did in 1971, when NPR's first show was broadcast, Lansing says.

A network spokesperson says new NPR CEO Katherine Maher supports Chapin and her response to Berliner's critique.

The spokesperson says that Maher "believes that it's a healthy thing for a public service newsroom to engage in rigorous consideration of the needs of our audiences, including where we serve our mission well and where we can serve it better."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.