There are a lot of different types of freelancing, even within the freelance writing community. My career has largely been focused around web publishing, meaning that I write articles similar to this one, just for much bigger sites. This guide is here to help you understand what I wish I understood from the beginning.
With that being said, no two freelance paths are the same. Use the following as a case study, acknowledge that it is most useful for web writers, and adjust to your own aims.
Words and Payment
Green Circle Notes has covered daily writing counts and word quotas in the past. Without completely rehashing that article, it is important for you to realize that you will be writing as a freelancer. Actually writing, and not just thinking about it. It’s shocking how different those two are, and I 100% had to build “writing stamina” when I started.
There’s a temptation to tell you to think seriously about how much you can write each day, and how strong your focus is going to be when it comes to getting copy out. But a lot of the initial freelance dream is built on idealized thinking. Instead, I would now recommend really sitting down and writing out a piece. Or don’t, and muddle through, confident in yourself, engaging in a sink-or-swim environment. (That’s what I did.)
Next, think about how the words you write translate into pay. Though many freelance advisory sites will say you’ll get paid directly by the word, frequently citing numbers as high as $1 per word or more, I’ve found this to nearly never be the case, with only one exception, in my career. Instead, expect to be paid by the post (yes, with some adjustment for the overall post length) or by the hour.
Of these two, pay-by-the-post tends to be better in terms of actual pay and flexibility, while pay-by-the-hour tends to be more steady and reliable. In either case, you should aim to get paid considerably more from a freelance position than your typical job after your first few assignments or recurring gigs. Give yourself months for this, not years. Freelancing is a real career and can certainly elevate your life.
In any event, no matter how you’re paid, being able to have a decent level of output will be important for that endeavor. You may also find that having different strata of clients (one mid-tier pay but very steady, another high-tier pay but with variable assignments) at once is a great approach.
As a final note, don’t expect payment to come quick. In many cases you will not receive your pay for as much as two or even three months after delivery of your work. That being said, stay skeptical until you get that first payment, even from big clients.
Taxes and Forms
This is not a tax, legal, or financial advice site. But, if you’re anything like the typical freelancer, you’re probably way more afraid of the business aspect of the freelancing life than you need to be.
Without getting overly afraid or worked up about forms and licenses, take some time with your browser and find out the local rules in your area. You may discover that you need to do nothing or next-to-nothing to start freelancing. Again, this is not legal advice and depending on your specific niche, jurisdiction, or circumstances, getting started freelancing might have different paperwork or requirements. But, for the vast majority of people that get anxious about this stuff, the worries are way overblown.
Pitching, Applying, and Finding Work
Pitching, or the act of reaching out to editors with article ideas, and applying directly to calls for recurring freelancers are the two main ways I’ve found gigs in my time. Here’s how to approach those two at this time.
Pitching to Editors
The classic pitch involves an email to an editor that tells them three key things: What you’ll write, why their publication is best for it, and why you’re the best writer for the job. Personally, I learned a lot about pitching from Jack Sommer’s thoughts on the subject, who wrote a lot about the subject while he was Business Insider‘s commissioning editor. Ultimately, a good pitch keeps things tight, respecting the editor’s time, and sticks to the all-important three things outline above.
The ins and outs of pitching could be an article all of its own and I’ve fallen away from the practice of cold pitching at the moment. Instead, I want to focus my attention here on what to pitch, which is still a part of my recurring clients’ needs and one of the things that I was most clueless about when I first began.
If I were to go back and tell my younger self what to cold pitch, I would emphasize that ingenuity is not the most valuable thing in the world. When sites publish multiple articles in the same vein, they do so for a reason. Those articles do well. Not only do you not need to break the mold with your pitch, it can be a harder sell if you do so. Just provide your unique and experienced slant on something that’s clearly working, and you’ll be much more likely to get the “yes” from your new editor.
Now, I personally think that direct pitching is sort of dying. People are worried about AI spam these days. It’s unfortunate, but real. Despite this, I actually suspect that industry trade mags are going to be a good place to go for a longer time. One of the first successful pitches I ever had was to a trade mag, covering something I did in my previous job. It paid handsomely, too. These places want real experiences, so whatever you’ve done, you’re the authority. They’re an awesome place to break into paid published writing if you’re coming from another industry.
One last thought, don’t be afraid to pitch. Editors want to publish just as much as you want to write. You’re not bugging them or bothering them, you’re giving them chances to say “yes” and fill their publication calendars. So, give it a try!
Applying to Freelance Jobs
Applying to a job on a freelancer board, directly through a website, or via Indeed is more or less like applying to a real job. However, for freelance jobs you’ll likely get recurring work from the client, whether that be daily, quarterly, or in blurts at key points along the company’s working pipeline.
You’ll also be able to get multiple clients at once due to the part-time nature of any one client. Just make sure that the work you do for Client A doesn’t compete with the work you submit to Clients B, C, or D. Here, you’ll also need to keep ethical boundaries secure, avoiding letting your left hand (Client A) know what your right hand (Client B) is doing internally.
Getting a portfolio of freelance clients this way can lead to very rewarding work situations. If one client dies, so to speak, you’ll still have your others.
That is, in theory. The practicalities, organization, and creation of a proper portfolio of active freelance clients could be a lengthy article in its own right, and it can be fraught with difficulties as you build niche expertise. For this reason, personal creations (i.e. Green Circle Notes) can be seen as a reliable “fifth client” in terms of having an endless amount of work, which is always a nice feeling to have as a freelancer.
WordPress, Google Docs, and an Array of Terms
While you’ll inevitably run into someone who relies heavily on Microsoft Word in their web writing practice, I never have. Instead, you’ll likely find that the work you do will primarily happen in Google Docs, WordPress, or a modified version of WordPress that your client has invariably named something else, but is still 98% identical to WordPress.
WordPress and its nearly-identical twin variants will often be referred to as the CMS, or Content Management System, of the site you’re working for. This isn’t the only confusing term you’ll encounter in your writing life, especially when it comes to WordPress. The following seven are, in my opinion, either the most commonly used or the most important to understand (yet confusing) terms when it comes to the real freelance web writing workplace. Know these, and how to implement them properly, to both write effectively and stay toe-to-toe with your seasoned peers:
Header
Both the word “Header” above, and “WordPress, Google Docs, and an Array of Terms” above are considered headers. They are the fundamental chunks of an article and, honestly, I wished I was taught more about them before attempting those 13 page term history papers I got every semester in college.
In fact, I knew so little about headers that, in an early attempt at paid writing, I simply made my text font bigger (and bolder) in an attempt to make one. Don’t make that mistake. Instead, type “## ” or “### ” in a new line in WordPress to make a new header or highlight your line and click “Normal Text” to the left of your font in Google Docs and choose “Heading 2” or “Heading 3” to transform a line’s text into a proper header.
As you talk strategy, you’ll call these an h2 or an h3. All h3s break up the h2 above them, but in practice the h3 is slowly dying and editors are beginning to prefer h2s all the way down. Speaking of dying, never discuss h1s, which died so long ago that it will only embarrass everyone present if you ask why.
What’s in a header name? It should possibly include a specific keyword your editor is targeting, use a natural two or three word phrase, include a specific term (formal product name, person’s name, etc.), or reflect what a real user might search for. Observe the capitalization scheme other authors at the site are using and imitate it unless instructed otherwise. Avoid being overly repetitive unless that’s the search meta at the time. If you’re the only person at your organization being cute with headers, don’t be.
Meta Description
The meta description is a short phrase that, if done properly, will show up below your link in a Google SERP (what you see after you “Google” something) page.
Your client will usually demand a meta description of no more than 160 characters or, possibly, one in the 120-125 range. Don’t get hung up on this, as a large percentage of the time Google’s algorithm makes its own description for your page. Just fill it out and get on with your day. It’s totally fine to copy and paste text from the body of your work here, too, just make sure it has your editor-approved character count.
Slug
The slug is anything after the last “/” in a web’s URL. Use a simple “-” to separate each word in the slug. Again, don’t get cute. Letters and numbers are okay, but you should avoid symbols.
This article’s slug is: things-every-freelance-writer-should-know
If you’re working for a big site, be sure to make your slug unique enough so as to not copy a previous slug or cause future writers trouble. For example, if you’re covering an Apple event in 2030 called “Apple Tech Fest” you might wish to use the slug “apple-tech-fest-2030” or, if you’re covering new phone launches, in particular, “apple-tech-fest-2030-phone-launches” might be best. Avoid “apple-tech-fest” unless the intention is for the site to update the page each year for subsequent Apple Tech Fests, which can be useful for internal linking. For example, in the future, I may have a “best-moleskin-journals” slug that gets an annual update, easily preserving links to it from around the site.
When you’re unsure about a slug, it’s best practice to double-check and see if a slug is already in use. If you find that your ideal slug is already in use, but for an article written over three to five years ago, you may also consider shooting your editor a line to see if they want that old article refreshed. But giving a slightly different slug is always acceptable.
Categories and Tags
Categories are relatively self-explanatory. Choose what makes sense based on personal judgement and your editor’s requests. This article lives in Green Circle Notes Writing category, at least for now. Tags are simply a website’s way of organizing mini categories, creating both site structure for Google and for your audience. One of this article’s tags is Productivity.
Don’t go crazy here and, typically, follow any site-specific instructions. Unless instructed, avoid making new tags or adding to seldom-used ones. It’s easy to double-check what tags are in use, too. Just go to “sitename.com/tag/suspected-tag-name” and you’ll find it.
TK
In the publishing world, editors use “TK” and “TKTK” in the same way that scientists use “n” and teachers use “______” for unknown information. It’s not the most important thing in the world, but you can avoid looking silly if you know it already.
Backlinks and “Clean” Links
Linking strategy is another one of those complex topics that web writers need to know. It helps, however, to understand what you’re talking about, and both “backlinks” and “clean” links are terms you’ll often hear but are quite easy to misunderstand.
When I began writing online I mistakenly used backlink to refer to a link back to other pages on the site I was working for. The term for that is “internal link” and is actually the opposite of a backlink, which comes from another website to the site you’re writing for. In fact, you should essentially never talk about “making backlinks” and to create backlinks to other articles you’ve written elsewhere without explicit permission is highly unethical. My advice is to not even request to do so unless you’re both highly familiar with your editor and there are very special circumstances.
The other term is a clean link and this is largely for external links. In many cases, and this is especially true for retailers like Amazon, there will be a lot of “trash” on the right side of the link. In layman’s terms, to clean the link is to remove as much as possible from the right side of the link. A general rule of thumb is to remove anything to the right of the first “?” and re-enter the URL. Whatever pops up at this time is usually clean enough for most editors. Over time, you’ll learn to clean each new link appropriately.
The Actual Writing
For web writing, very few points are given for overly-complex writing and difficult words. I like to joke that my overall vocabulary has plummeted since I started writing, and I just might be correct. Additionally, long sentences, big paragraphs, and too many ideas stuffed into a single area are considered negatives for most online writing.
White space, created by new and shorter paragraphs, are easier for readers scrolling through to parse.
Isn’t this nice?
Part of growing as a web writer is accepting that the average reader will spend seconds skimming something you spent hours preparing. Don’t expect someone to remember (or have even seen) something you wrote three or four paragraphs up. Use repetition judiciously to remind the reader of key points.
[This article is right on the border of what I’d consider too complex for a web article. To see more typical examples of what flies professionally, check out the drawing on the edge and the lab notebook journal idea articles as well.]
The Formatting Bog
Beyond writing, you’ll be surprised at the amount of formatting you might be required to do.
In many cases the formatting is a learning curve, and you’ll just need to give it a go, try it a couple of times, and then you’ll be an expert. However, the smell test really applies here. Often, low paying clients with already borderline pay will sneak in additional formatting that will drive you bonkers. I’m talking horrible templates, finicky WordPress garbage, the works.
You are not a loser or incompetent if you quit a client because you cannot keep up with their formatting nonsense while trying to make a decent wage. The editors at these institutions may put on heirs that it is you that cannot keep up, and that others are doing fine, but you are not missing out if you drop them. In many cases, it is the ones that pushed through the garbage that ultimately missed out on better opportunities elsewhere.
Don’t give up. Keep accepting clients that use WordPress. And don’t avoid formatting altogether. But at the beginning of a freelance career, you’re likely to meet clients that don’t respect your time in this regard. If something doesn’t pass the smell test, you have permission to drop that client without feeling an ounce of shame about it.
Images and You
When your editor asks for images, what is it that they’re looking for?
In the absolute best case, you’ll provide a unique image of what you’re discussing, taken using your phone camera (or a screenshot). The image will be at least 900 pixels wide and saved in a 4-by-3 .jpg format. This keeps the image Google compliant and will serve as a delightful header image.
In other cases? Don’t get overly worried about how you source images. I find that I’m more self-restricting than needs to be. Don’t AI-generate an image without permission, but at the same time, don’t overthink taking screenshots of media, so long as you attribute the source properly. Use common sense and let your editors know what they need to, but don’t overthink image sourcing. Even Pexels is fine.
If you’re adding your image into WordPress don’t forget to add a short Alt Text, which helps visually impaired people understand the image. Use this area to describe the image instead of the “Description” field. Any SEO value of the Alt Text is severely overblown by your team, but go ahead and listen to them if they ask for a keyword to be placed inside, it won’t hurt anything. Use a simple, human-readable image title. Avoid filling out the “Caption” and any credits sections in WordPress unless asked to, as they can create annoying artifacts on the page.
Finally, there was once a time where nearly every header was “right” for an image. Or, even a .gif ala Buzz Feed. Those days largely seem over. Be sparing with images unless it makes sense to sprinkle them in, or you’ve otherwise been asked to. Meaningless images tossed in “just because” subtract from an article’s authority and can be mistaken for yet more ads by readers.
SEO Awareness
If you’re a writer for the web, you should have (at minimum) some basic SEO awareness. In fact, if you’re just starting, simply knowing that SEO is a thing you can have a real effect on is worthwhile. That means on-page SEO, not the technical behind-the-scenes stuff.
I frequently read Search Engine Roundtable, Search Engine Journal, and the Ahrefs blog. Mostly because Google Discover recommends them all to me.
Later in your career, you may wish to get a Semrush subscription and go to town on keywords, or whatever AI-fueled trend will be going on at the time. Semrush was quite effective in my career’s midpoint (though less so now).
Don’t get bogged down, however, as this stuff changes every year or so. But knowing why your editor is bemoaning “helpful content” or being able to slam down a defensive “Well, it’s not YMYL!” like an SEO insider are boons for anyone starting out down this path.
The Freelance Endgame
The final part is to begin thinking about your endgame from the get-go. You don’t need a concrete idea yet, but it’s worth figuring out what you’re aiming for and reevaluate every year or so.
Are you trying to grow as a freelancer and have a ton of work? Or do you want to increase your pay rate and do less work, enjoying more free time? Learning the fundamentals of pitching, advertising, and having a marketable portfolio seem to be the way to go.
Or, do you want to return to a corporate job? Getting experience writing for big brands at high rates can make for a high salary return to the corporate world, I believe, if you push yourself in the right ways, apply for the right positions, and keep your mind open. The pay bump that effective freelancing can provide, even when the work is patchy or irregular, should be able to translate back into a big leap in pay when returning to the world of W2-style work.