How to Become a Freelance Writer with No Experience

A freelance writer is any writer who works for companies or clients on a contract or individual-project basis.

There are many different types and subspecialties of freelance writing. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of what you can get paid to write as a freelancer:

• Academic papers
• Resumes
• Fiction
• Social media copy
• Video scripts
• Blogs
• Newsletters
• Press releases
• Marketing content

Freelance writing vs. contract writing

Whatever kind of writing you do, you can expect the freelance experience to differ from an in-house writing job in a few key ways.

Freelance work is usually solo

One of the biggest differences is that when you’re a freelance writer, it’s just you. There’s no one else on your team.

While some writers love this, it’s a struggle for others. It’s up to you to take on all the work, including:

• Managing your own projects
• Editing and proofreading assignments before turning them in
• Invoicing your clients

By contrast, if you work as an in-house writer for a publishing company or agency, your workload will probably be entirely focused on writing. Other staff members will likely handle the administrative work, calendar juggling, accounting, and so on.

Freelance assignments can be more varied

In a full-time, in-house role, you’re stuck writing whatever you’ve been hired to write—all day, every day.

Conversely, most freelancers keep a varied roster of clients and work on different types of assignments. This can make for a more interesting workday, and can also provide extra stability for your finances and career.

The main contributor to this article was Holly Riddle, a freelance writer and journalist who has written for several globally known publications. Riddle elaborated on how varied work can add to your career stability.

“Take my experience during the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said. “At the time, my work was 75% focused on travel marketing content, PR, and journalism; the other 25% was spread across food, lifestyle, and business-focused clients. Because I already had that other 25%, when the COVID-19 pandemic started and most travel clients scaled back, I was able to scale up my work in other areas to balance out lost income in the travel sector.”

Freelancing gives you more control

Ultimately, the biggest difference between being a freelance writer and an in-house writer is all in the name: you’re free. You can work on what you want and pass up the work you don’t want, set your own hours, and work wherever you please.

What are the job responsibilities of a freelance writer?

Freelance writing can be a mixed bag, with varying responsibilities and expectations depending on the client and their needs. However, you can expect the bulk of your work to be writing.

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of what you’ll do for a freelance writing assignment:

1. Receive the assignment: In most cases, when you receive an assignment from a client, they’ll also give you a deadline. From there, it’s up to you to decide how you manage your time so that you meet it.
2. Review the guidelines: Make sure you get all the necessary details on each assignment before agreeing to take it; this includes info on absolutely everything that the client expects you to deliver as well as any processes, style guides, or formatting guidelines they expect you to follow.
3. Do pre-writing preparation: Most freelance writing jobs require some initial preparation before the writing stage. For a journalism article, you might need to interview a few sources. If you’re ghostwriting a blog post for a health supplements company, you’ll need to research the topic they want you to cover.
4. Write: After completing your prep work, you can move forward with actually writing.
5. Edit/proofread: Afterwards, you’ll usually need to do a few rounds of editing and proofreading. Some freelance writers step away from their work for a few days and then come back with fresh eyes. Others use tools like Grammarly, and some do both. Whichever approach you choose, the most important thing is that you do it—clients don’t like to receive sloppy copy.
6. Submit the assignment: Turn your work over to the client. Some will just request the work in a Word doc, while others will ask you to upload the content to a content management system (CMS) like WordPress. They might also ask for additional deliverables, like photos or meta details.
7. Get paid: Some clients will pay you on their own, but most will require you to write up an invoice. You can make one using a template in whatever word processing program you use. It should reflect what you turned in to the client, how much it cost, your rate (whether it’s per word or hourly) and how you’d like to be paid (direct deposit, PayPal, check, etc).

It can be hard to get any type of work without experience, and freelance writing is no exception.

However, the good news is that you probably have lots of relevant experience you don’t even realize you have. If you’ve written anything, you can use that to land jobs.

For instance, you might have experience with:

• Academic work: Were you a top-tier student in high school? That could qualify you for academic writing jobs.
• Resume/CV writing: Are you the person who always gets called upon to help your friends with their resumes and cover letters? Freelance resume writers are in high demand.
• Hobby fiction writing: Do you dabble in short story writing or fiction of any kind? Fiction ghostwriting could be a good fit for you.
• Social media: If you have an amazing social media following, just about every brand needs a social media copywriter.
• Vlogging/YouTube: If you have experience on YouTube, scriptwriting is another in-demand freelance writing niche you can fill.
• Blogging: If you have a blog, even if it’s just a personal diary, you can clean up a couple of posts and use them as portfolio pieces, which could be enough to land your first SEO content writing job.

What to do if you have absolutely no writing experience

Even without any writing experience at all, it’s possible to find the occasional freelance job that you can do—albeit with a caveat.

Without experience, you probably won’t be able to get work that pays very well, at least not at first. However, if you can prove yourself with that first, low-paying job, then you can get better pay for your next job, and so on.

When discussing her beginnings as a freelance writer, Riddle said “When I first started freelancing in 2015, I had a content marketing internship under my belt and a degree in English Lit and Creative Writing. I had a little bit of experience but no true, paid work experience.”

Even without that, she was able to turn her content marketing internship into a regular freelance blogging gig for a nonprofit in the same vertical (sustainable agriculture). She continued to look for other work as well.

“I turned the English Lit and Creative Writing degree into a freelance project ghostwriting an entire children’s novel,” said Riddle. “Did I get paid well for these jobs? No, not at all.”

“I believe it was $0.01 per word,” she added. “Ouch! But I used the very little leverage I had to get better and better work as time went on.”

Building a writing portfolio from scratch

We reached out to Alina Bradford, another veteran freelance writer, for comment, asking her what advice she’d give to new freelancers with no contacts or reputation in the industry.

Her advice was simple: just start writing. Even if you’re not getting paid for it, write and publish anyway.

“I say your best bet is practice, practice, practice,” she said. “Write articles even if you don’t have a customer. Write articles that you think a potential client would find value in. Post your articles on your own blog, LinkedIn, Medium, and Authory, and use them as clips.” (Authory is a website that many writers use to host their portfolios.)

Once you’ve built up a respectable body of work, Bradford said to start pitching your services to websites and magazines. “Don’t mention that you’re new in the pitch. State that you specialize in whatever you’ve decided your niche is and jump into your idea.” She said to include links to your portfolio—”three links to your best work is plenty”—and to “keep doing it until someone bites.”

“Rinse and repeat,” she added. “That’s how I built my career, for the most part.”

Are you feeling good about getting the necessary experience? Know you can take on all of the job responsibilities listed above? Have an idea in mind of what kind of freelance writing you’d like to do?

If so, you’re well on your way to freelance writing success. Here are a few tips to help you land your first gig.

1. Study your niche

Before you advertise your experience to clients, make sure you understand the conventions and requirements expected within your chosen freelance writing niche.

For example, freelance writers in the field of journalism are expected to be familiar with The Associated Press Stylebook and uphold the standard values of journalism. If you’re not clear on those standards, you could end up in hot water with a client (or even face a lawsuit).

If you want to get into freelance fiction ghostwriting, you’ll be expected to know the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) conventions, as well as how to properly format fiction work (i.e., with Times New Roman font, font size 12, double spaced lines, a title page, headers starting on the first text page, etc.).

If you want to get into SEO freelance writing, you need to know basic SEO best practices.

Whatever you want to do, study how it’s done. You can find podcasts, blog posts, and other free online resources dedicated to every freelancing niche out there. Start paying attention to them and learn the tools of your trade.

2. Build a portfolio

Your portfolio doesn’t have to be huge. However, it should thoroughly show off your experience in your niches.

Again, this doesn’t need to be anything fancy. It can just be a few pieces you’ve written for a personal blog or mock pieces you created for a fictional or real brand.

If you’re still not sure that you have any relevant experience or you want to do some freelance writing that requires experience you don’t have, there’s only one thing to do: just start writing.

A personal blog equals experience, and you can start a blog today, right now. Alternatively, volunteer to contribute written pieces to community or organizational newsletters.

You can also write mock press releases or marketing content and show that to potential clients.

Just ensure that you create enough samples to give interested clients a real feel for your style and quality of work.

3. Create your own website

Your portfolio needs a convenient place to live, like a website.

Just like your portfolio, your website doesn’t need to be anything fancy. It can be a single page with links to your portfolio examples, plus a brief description of what you offer and your rates.

Riddle says she built her freelancer website in WordPress and didn’t upgrade to a paid domain until she began freelancing full time in 2018. “You really don’t need the paid domain unless you plan on making a career out of freelancing,” she told us.

“I included a home page with information about what I offer, and then I included a separate portfolio page, rate/quote page, resume page, and contact page, plus a link to my blog and information about my separate work as a fiction author.”

4. Learn SEO

These days, many freelance writing clients want content with some level of search engine optimization (SEO).

The only instances where your clients are unlikely to request SEO work will be if you’re working for a serious news publication, writing fiction or academic texts, or creating content not intended for online consumption.

There are tons of online resources that you can use to learn SEO best practices. You can also find SEO tools that will help you optimize your work, such as Yoast, Surfer SEO, and Clearscope.

Learn how to use these tools  and let your clients know that you use them. Additionally, consider earning an SEO certificate through an online educator. It’s simple, usually affordable, and will show your clients that you truly understand SEO, setting you apart from other freelancers who only know the basics or whose knowledge is out-of-date.

5. Market yourself

Marketing yourself is key if you want to keep up a steady stream of writing work. There are lots of ways to do this as a freelance writer, and every writer has their own preferences.

You might choose to promote your work and expertise on your social media channels. Alternatively, you might attend networking events for freelancers and embed yourself into a freelance community, which can often lead to referrals or partnerships. Ask your existing clients for referrals, too, and let your personal connections know that you’re getting into the freelance game and are open for business.

Riddle says her favorite way to market herself is via cold outreach—“literally just sending off an email or LinkedIn message to someone I think could possibly use my services.” She says it’s easy, quick, and typically leads to new professional relationships and freelance writing opportunities, whether right then or in the future.

6. Be persistent

Lastly, you have to be persistent as a freelancer. In the freelance writing game, rejections are all too common—even for well-seasoned, long-time freelancers. Clients ghost you. Clients fold. Just remember: rejections say nothing about you or your value and talents.

Because rejections are so common, it’s all the more important to be persistent and always be on the lookout for new ways to grow your business and skill set.

If this is something you struggle with, try integrating regular cold outreach into your work schedule, such as by setting a goal for yourself to send out one cold email per day.

There are near-endless places to find freelance writing jobs, but not all of these sources are equal.

Freelance job boards

Freelance job boards are arguably the easiest places to find work. You can find boards that are simply a compilation of job listings from other websites (like ProBlogger and Qwoted), as well as freelancer-targeted job platforms. These include:

• Upwork.
• Fiverr 
• Freelancer
• PeoplePerHour

While you can easily find work on these sites, it’s worth noting that the jobs are usually a mixed bag. It’s possible to find really fantastic freelance writing jobs, but you’ll have to weed through a lot of low-paying gigs.

Content-writing platforms

There are several websites that exclusively advertise freelance writing jobs (as opposed to being general job boards for all freelancers). These include:

• Constant Content
• ContentWriters
• ContentGather
• Contently
• Crowd Content
• Compose.ly
• Toptal

According to Robert Jellison, a writer who previously worked as an in-house editor for a content-writing platform, these websites can be a good place to look for jobs when you’re just starting out.

“The catch is that the pay on them is often quite low,” he said. “In the beginning, it can be worth trawling them for work that you can use to build up your portfolio, but try to take your business elsewhere as soon as possible.”

Social media

You can often find freelance writing jobs on social media platforms by searching for the term “freelance writer.” LinkedIn and Twitter are the best places to start looking, but don’t stop there. Try:

• Joining freelance writing groups on social media platforms like Facebook
• Following large companies that often hire freelancers
• Poking around on forums like Reddit

This can help you stay in the loop and snag new writing gigs before they’re widely advertised.

Content writing agencies

A content writing agency is a company that provides the same services that you would provide as a freelancer but on a much larger scale. These agencies are made up of full-time employees and often work with freelancers to handle their extra work.

If you can establish a relationship with a good content writing agency, you can often expect a steady stream of work as they build up their business since they’ll need more outsourced assistance.

Your own freelance business

Lastly, once you’re a more established freelancer with lots of referrals and reviews, you can rely on getting freelance writing work through your own business. These leads can come in through your website, social media profiles, or from your other marketing efforts.

At this stage, many freelancers actually start their own content-writing agencies.

Ultimately, there’s no wrong way to find work and no wrong way to be a freelance writer. As mentioned, the greatest part of being a freelance writer is simply being free to do the work you love—however you want to do it, and for the clients you choose. How you accomplish that will be a process that’s uniquely yours.