5 Best Ways to Start Career as a Writer | #3 is a must read

There are many people who want to turn their passion into a source of income.

However, not many of them manage to succeed when it comes to practice.

Why does it happen? Probably because they didn’t have a clear plan or they didn’t know where to start.

That's why if you want to start to make money from writing, you have to understand what to do the first.
5 Best Ways to Start Career as a Writer
And this article will help you with that 😀

Here you can find several useful tips that will help you to start your bright and brilliant writing career.
So, the advice number 1:

Prepare well

If you want to start writing, you probably know how to write 😇

However, not only strong writing skills are required for your transition from one job to another. Also, you have to be sure that you’re 100 percent ready to quit your job and to spend some time on looking for a new one without having to worry about what you’re going to eat and how you’re going to pay your rent.

That’s why you have to save enough money first, make your writing portfolio and maybe even start doing small writing tasks for others.

2: Choose a niche

This advice is very important because of different reasons.

Firstly, choosing a niche allows you to create a strong targeted portfolio; secondly, it helps you to understand where to start. Moreover, It doesn’t have to be a narrow topic, though: you can choose a wide niche such as healthy lifestyle and write about diets, fitness, meditation, lifestyle tips and so on.

You can choose several different niches too and focus on them.

But what’s important in that. You don't need to try and cover every niche. Most likely you don’t have enough knowledge to write about some specific niches, so it’s better to focus on what you know best.

3: Practice writing

If you have enough time and you are sure that extra work won’t exhaust you, try searching for small orders on various freelance websites like Upwork before you actually quit your current job.

It will help you to understand what are the most common requirements and job offers, how much people pay for different jobs, how much you’ll be able to earn at your current level, and how many time it will take for you to finish an article or a novel or something else.

Moreover, it will give you something you can add to your portfolio.

4: Make your portfolio as good as possible

When you’re just starting you have to stand out among other beginners. That’s why it's important not only to create a portfolio (some beginners don’t have it all, but others do) but also to make it as strong as possible.

Try to choose your best writing pieces if you already have some. If not – try to come up with the topics and write something on them. Sure, if you already had completed a real task, that’s good, but even if not you still have a chance. There’s one good thing about writing: your skills sometimes matter even more than your experience.
  • If you prove to HRs or clients that you’re able to write good pieces, they will hire you 👈
Your goal here is simplify their work as much as possible. Write clear descriptions of your portfolio works, be sure that the files are well-named and well-formatted, the texts are easy to read (the font looks good; there are paragraphs in the text, etc).

5: Define your rates

It will make the whole job search process much easier and quicker. You’ll be looking for clients that are able to pay you according to your demands and you’ll be receiving job offers from those who are willing to pay you the amount of money you want.

Of course, the whole process of defining rates can be quite tough if you’ve never worked in this sphere before, but lucky for you there’s always the Internet to help you. If you’re looking for an office job, check job sites and see how much money beginner writers ask for their services and how much money companies are willing to offer.

If you want to become a freelance writer, check freelance job sites for similar information. However, mind the skills: some people ask more because they know foreign languages, are able to work with keywords, have SEO skills, and so on.

💥 Another tip for those, who want to become outstanding freelance writers: remember that when you define your rates at the beginning of your freelance career it doesn’t mean that these rates will always remain the same. It’s important to understand when it’s time to ask more for your work: for example, when you already have a lot of positive feedback and many loyal clients, when you are able to write texts in different fields of knowledge, and so on.

That’s probably the best thing about freelance career: you are able to earn money quicker if you aren’t afraid to work hard and to develop professionally.

And the last important tip is to be active. The whole process of changing your job is complicated and sometimes scary but you’ll succeed if you keep trying.

Apply for every freelance project available or send your CV to as many companies as possible, and soon you’ll be able to find a new job and become a professional writer.
 Guest contribution by: Christina Battons, freelance writer and blogger, who specializes in topics about education, writing, blogging and likes to share my knowledge and ideas with people. You can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.