How To Become A Freelance Writer With No Experience - 7 Ways

I did this and it worked.  

Now I will tell you a little interesting and perhaps surprising story.  When I was a teenager, I was an avid reader turned short story writer. I used to share my short stories with my classmates, who expressed interest in them.  By the time, I was 15 I was selected to become a youth correspondent for a new section of the local paper after submitting two short stories I wrote in my spare time. 

As a youth correspondent, I was a freelance writer for the paper and received payment based on the articles that I wrote.  I remember as a teenager being happy to receive $60 for an article that I wrote. I still recall receiving paper checks for payment for weekly articles on topics from high school pageant contestants to teens helping out in their community.    

Below is an introduction of an article that I wrote years ago.   Here it is as follows:

    "If your parents didn't go to college, you receive free lunch at school
or lunch at reduced prices, and you attend one of these schools-Huguenot,
Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe, John F. Kennedy, Armstrong, Franklin
Military, Governors School, Mosby Middle, Petersburg High, and Peabody
Middle in Petersburg-you may be qualified to be in Project Discovery.
   Project Discovery does not look at grades, behavior or extracurricular
activities when choosing participants.   Since 1986 it has encouraged a few
students each year to attend college, and helped them make choices about
college admission, says Lillie Sanders, project director.
  In cooperation with the Richmond Community Action Program, Project
Discovery schedules college tours and cultural trips to spots such as the
Bahamas and Disney World.

Students taken on tours

   Students  visit schools such as James Madison University, the University
of Virginia, Virginia State University, Hampton University, Howard
University and North Carolina Central."

Check out a copy of an old check stub on this page.

You see I started out without experience. I did not have a degree and I had not written for a publication before.  Yes, I was able to freelance for the first time and gain subsequent freelance writing opportunities.   So, how can you become a freelance writer without experience? One way is to write in your spare time. That is what I did. You could write poetry, short stories, an opinion piece of a book you read, a review of product you used or a blog post.

Speaking of blog posts, blogs like Tried and True Mom Jobs and Smart Cents Mom mention freelance writing in their blog posts.   Check out their posts here:

Tried And True Mom Jobs Blog discusses freelancing.  

Smart Cents Mom Writes About Get Paid To Blog As A Freelancer. 

2.  Submit Your Work To Places Looking For Writers

Look for the write for us .  You can actually type this into Google’s search engine or other search engines.

Do this by actually typing in the search engine "guest post here."

3.  Create a Linkedin account, if you do not have one already.   On your profile state that you are a freelance writer.  Also, post blog posts to your account.

4. Develop your Upwork account. If you do not have an Upwork account, you can sign up for one.    With Upwork, there are opportunities that are available there for beginners.  Through the platform, you can submit proposals to potential clients through listings on the website.

Also, you do not have to take only send proposals to beginner skilled opportunities to expert level tasks.  Go ahead and submit a proposal to an opportunity that is not beginner level.  You will be surprised that you could land a gig that is not labeled as beginner level.   That is what happened with me when I landed a higher-level opportunity.   This higher-level opportunity included helping a client with his Wikipedia page.

I have taken on various clients on Upwork. My first client that gained through Upwork was a book publisher.

When you write your proposal and offer your writing to them, you can tell them within the proposal what timeframe you will have the work to them.

The world of freelancing is growing.

According to Upwork’s 2022 Freelance Forward Survey, “freelancers contributed $1.35 trillion to the US economy in annual earnings, up 100 million from 2021.”

Also, according to Upwork’s 2021 Study and other data sources “found that freelancers contributed $1.3 trillion to the US economy in annual earnings, up 100 million from 2020.”

5.   Send a letter to yourself

Yes send a congrats letter congratulating you on your new freelancing adventure to motivate you to keep going even if you do not hear back from freelancing opportunities. 

6.Gain skills

These skills can include Adobe Premiere Pro.

It is great to expand your vocabulary and become a prolific reader. 

7.  Get a daily dose of reading about freelancers.   Go to Poynter.org to do this.   

Pointer provides freelancing information.  There is a post that talks about freelancing is more than a pitch it is a business. 

In conclusion, these tips can get you closer to becoming a freelance writer even though you don't have experience.  Do not think that doing these tips to help your freelance career or business is futile.

Upwork

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