If you’re researching jobs that let you escape the office and be your own boss, being a freelance writer probably tops most lists you’ll find online.
You can work wherever you want (as long as you have an internet connection), whenever you want (please sleep from time to time), and for whoever you want (assuming they want to work with you, too).
But what does a freelance writer do, exactly? And how do you become one?
There’s a lot more to it than waking up in the morning, pounding on your keyboard for a few hours and then calling it a day. I want to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a freelance writer to help you decide if it’s the right path for you.
A freelance writer wears many hats
Think about the last time you got hired for a “normal” job.
The company gave you a job description with all of your responsibilities for your new role. They were probably pretty limited — you do your work, other people do their work, and life’s good for everyone involved. Different people (or teams of people) take care of human resources, billing, sales, production and everything else it takes to run a business.
As a freelance writer, you have to wear all of those hats. You’re running a business but don’t have a bunch of other people to take care of all the business-y tasks.
Writing for clients is only a portion of what a freelance writer does (and a pretty small portion, too). In fact, Clockify’s report on how freelancers spend their time shows that 75% of freelancers spend 20 hours or less on billable work every week.
A freelance writer has to market their business, send invoices to clients, keep track of their finances and so much more (all while also writing for their clients.)
If you decide to jump into the freelance writing life, you should be prepared to have two bosses with very different needs and expectations — your clients and yourself.
The work you do for freelance writing clients
Writing for clients is the bread and butter of what a freelance writer does. Client work pays the bills and will (hopefully) take the majority of your time at work.
But what does that work look like? If you’re new, “writing for clients” probably seems gray and ambiguous. Hopefully I can make it a little more clear by showing you who these “clients” might be and what they’ll pay you to write for them.
Who hires a freelance writer?
Businesses hire freelancers because they don’t have the time, resources, or expertise to do the necessary writing work themselves.
Words are an important part of every business, especially now that most everything lives online. From blog posts and website copy to social media and instruction manuals — it takes a lot of words to make sure people know what a company does and who they do it for.
But writing’s tough: For many people, it’s both a bore and a chore, distracting them from other aspects of their businesses. It’s much easier for a business to pay someone to do all that writing instead of doing it themselves. Outsourcing is an easy way to scale up operations.
Hiring a full-time writer is expensive and often unnecessary for most companies, but a freelance writer can provide writing expertise on a project-by-project basis. It’s a win-win most of the time — other people at the company don’t have to use their time writing less-than-stellar content and the freelance writer gets paid to write (while still keeping their freedom to work with other people as well. )
What does a freelance writer do for clients?
Freelance writing comes in all shapes and sizes. Clients could hire you to write anything from a 100,000-word memoir to a 100-character tweet.
ClearVoice, a platform connecting brands with freelancers, points out 10 different types of freelance writing that their customers pay for. This list isn’t exhaustive, but it’s a great place to start:
Blog writing — creating insightful and helpful articles and blog posts to help the client’s website get more traffic.
Brand journalism — sharing stories about the client to help make them look good through press releases, customer testimonials and brand stories.
Copywriting — writing words that incite a response. Copywriting is an extremely broad discipline and could include anything from website copy and infographics to billboards and magazine ads to product descriptions and sales pages.
Ghostwriting — writing under someone else’s name to share their expertise and build their credibility with thought-leadership articles, white papers, books and ebooks.
Technical writing — creating technical materials like how-tos, guides and instruction manuals.
Social media writing — building relationships with people on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms.
Email writing — connecting with a client’s email subscribers with newsletters, automated campaigns, thank you messages and other types of email.
Scriptwriting — penning the dialogue for Youtube videos, podcasts, explainers and other kinds of audio and video content.
Long-form content writing — compiling a lot of information into ebooks, white papers, case studies and ultimate guides.
The work you do for yourself as a freelance writer
You don’t hear much about the business side of freelance writing. It’s further away from the money and a lot less fun, so often times people don’t talk about it.
But these tasks, while much less sexy than getting to paid to write for clients, will make or break your work as a freelance writer.
Marketing
Because freelance writers work on projects, clients come and go pretty quickly. You need a constant stream of new work to make sure you don’t have to resort to eating cup-o-noodles for every meal because you don’t have any clients.
It’s every freelancer’s dream to have all-star clients sliding into your email inbox begging you to work for them, but I’ve got some bad news — it’s not going to happen (at least, not at first).
You’ll have to do some leg work to get your name out there and show people what you can do for them. Payoneer’s Freelance Income Report shows that 59% of the freelance writers they interviewed spend more than three hours every week promoting their businesses.
59% of the freelance writers Payoneer interviewed spend 3+ hours every week promoting their businesses.
Finance
While dealing with taxes, billing and expenses aren’t the most thrilling taks of freelance life, you still have to get them done.
As a freelancer, you’ll have to track every dollar you make and spend on your business. You can always track everything in a spreadsheet, but a small business tool like Quickbooks, FreshBooks or Wave will help you keep your finances organized without taking too much of your attention away from writing.
Networking
A recent study found that 64% of freelancers in the UK felt lonely because of their work. When you’re used to being an office around people all day, it can be tough to build relationships and avoid loneliness and burn out as a freelance writer.
You probably roll your eyes at the thought of networking.
But it doesn’t just mean going to some networking event and walking around awkwardly handing out business cards to people sipping cheap wine.
Networking is about building relationships. Yes, you’ll connect with potential clients, but connecting with other freelancers is just as important. You can support and bounce ideas off each other and even send referrals back and forth if you come across work that isn’t quite in your wheelhouse.
Being a freelance writer is all about balance
Freelance writers do everything any other business does. The freelance life is a delicate balance that you’ll have to work hard to keep in check. It’s very easy to get sucked into working all day every day and never knowing when to push the off switch.
If you decide to become a freelance writer, you have to be a master of priorities and organization. If you can find the balance between working for clients and working to keep your business moving forward, you’ll be on your way to a successful life as a freelance writer.
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