Where to Start Your Freelance Journey? Right at the Beginning
Over the last few months, I’ve received a few emails from new writers just starting on their freelance journey. It’s been wonderful to hear from these people letting me know they’d read some of my work and freelance tips/articles online and found them helpful.
As I chatted more with these individuals, they asked some questions and wanted further advice on their journey into freelancing. It was interesting to discover that for almost all of them, the single biggest question they had was, where do I start?
One fellow writer wanted to know, in detail, exactly how I got started with my freelancing. I had to be straight up honest and advise them: it was pretty much a fluke.
Getting started for me involved nothing more than talking about the industry I was passionate about. At the time, this was within careers education and youth employability. As I worked in the sector and got to know people, shared advice on Twitter and delivered workshops, I started getting asked if I would be interested in writing some advice and guidance blogs for a couple of websites. I said yes, and everything else grew out naturally from there. My first blogs on career guidance went up on the internet sometime in 2012, and I’ve never looked back. As I’ve shifted and grown more confident (and competent!), my writing has shifted and grown too. I still write a lot in the careers education space, but a lot of my writing is behind the scenes now, working on resources, workshops, online courses and career guides (with the occasional blog in there). It’s still a sector I love, and it’s great I can stay connected through writing, even if I’m no longer in the classroom as I forge ahead with a different path.
So, when people ask me that crucial question - where do I start? - my answer has started coming from where I started. Start where you’re passionate:
What are the things in life that you absolutely cannot shut up about?
What sparks that little fire in your gut?
What are the topics that when you meet someone new who is more knowledgeable than you, you find yourself hungry to learn everything you can from them?
What topics do you find yourself googling and losing hours over as you get absorbed in reading and learning more?
It can be absolutely anything. Figure out what those topics are, and that’s the place you start from. Don’t worry about pitching. Don’t worry about publications. Don’t worry about anything else right at the start.
Find your passion topics and:
Start a list of possible article titles you’d love to write based on your passion topics.
Think about people in the area you’re interested in who are doing new or exciting work: these could be potential interview candidates.
What have you learnt about the topic that’s new and exciting? How could this be shaped to engage an audience?
Create two lists; one list of core ideas you want to write and another list of ideas that you feel are the creme de la creme of the topic/s you’re interested in writing about; the ones you know haven’t been oversaturated in the market and that you feel you’ve got a unique angle on to explore.
Then start writing.
Your blog or website is a great place to start honing your craft, or you could get started on a platform like Medium, which gives you complete creative freedom to publish your work. Write from the list of core ideas you’ve drafted together and use this as a way to start carving out your writing routine. Aim for one piece a week and get it published. Share it on socials but don’t worry about engagement/reads/likes/comments/shares too much. That’s not the reason you’re doing this right now. The reason you’re doing this is because you’re creating a portfolio.
Because the next biggest question I get asked by writers wanting to start a freelance journey is how to build a portfolio. If you follow the steps I suggest above; you’ll start building one. Here’s my general guidance on developing your portfolio in the early stages:
It’s OK to write a range of topics but if you want a more robust looking portfolio, try to narrow it down to 2-3 core focuses that showcase your talents as a writer.
Consider the range of articles you write: Try to develop something with a few different styles, such as interviews, blogs/opinion pieces and well-researched articles.
Use this opportunity as a chance to get core things like editing, referencing and citations right. Do your research and build your skills in this area.
Go one step further and research the publications you’re most interested in getting your work into. Align your formatting and style with theirs, even in your portfolio pieces.
Some steps come after this, of course, but if you’re one of those writers is sitting there pondering the ‘where do I start?’ question - this is where you start.
The good news about freelance writing is that no matter what it is you’re passionate about or want to write about, there will be a home for your writing, and there will always be time to find those homes. THIS is the beginning and my best advice if you want to grow as a freelancer is to create a solid foundation - one you’ll keep building on as you keep growing.
Growing my career as a freelancer involves one core component: doing the work. The guidance I’ve set out above about making lists of potential article ideas is something I still do now. The only difference is, I no longer put them on Medium or my own blog. I now have several publications and editors I partner with and whom I pitch those ideas to.
How do you go about finding those publications? Well, that’s the next piece of the puzzle. First you need to start at the beginning and build that foundation.
If you are interested, view freelance accounting jobs here.
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