While you may well be daunted by the prospect of going solo and embarking on a career as a freelancer and sourcing your own short-term content writer jobs, then don’t be, because we’ve got some really handy pointers for you to get straight out there and start earning from real writing jobs straight away. Just follow these five handy tips, and you do just fine on your own…

Develop your portfolio

Whether you’re straight out of school, university or a salaried job, you’ll need a portfolio. No question. The less experience you have, the smaller your portfolio will be – and it’s even likely that you may not even have one. Whatever the case, get together about five pieces of really good copy that you think would impress your prospective clientele – if you don’t have any previous (/good) examples, then set yourself some homework to write copy for, say, a brochure for a brand that you’re into.

Then, to showcase your abilities, come up with a few snappy one liners to advertise an existing product or brand. Just be sure to make it clear that these haven’t actually been used by the companies you choose. Think about your areas of expertise and interest and tailor your pieces towards those – go for the jobs that you know you’ll enjoy, that way you’ll get more out of your freelance work, and be able to give more back to it, too.

Answer freelance job adverts

Online job ads can indeed be a bit hit and miss, but you can land yourself some pretty good content writer jobs by answering job ads. But it would take you ages if you were to look for individual ads, so subscribing to a freelancer hub like to PeoplePerHour.com is a fantastic idea – companies post ads, you answer them and build a profile as you complete your work and get feedback and recommendations. A general rule is that the more information given in the ad, and the more specific those details are, the more likely you are to actually get a job at the end of it. Just make sure to be specific and very courteous back – remember, you’re pitching yourself as a business associate, and they’re going to be your customer and your employer, all rolled into one. Oh, and Twitter’s a pretty good place to find work, too.

Network, network, network

While networking does take time, it can bring in some great and regular work, and knowing a copywriter in the real world is bound to make a company choose them over a faceless person from the Internet. Sign up for networking events in your area, network with bloggers and Tweeters online, and just generally put yourself out there. You’re bound to start seeing a difference in no time.

Raise your social profile

Social media is the perfect means of networking and advertising your services. It’s also wise not to ignore LinkedIn – an extension of social media, this is professional social networking, and you may well obtain and retain clients this way. You may well even get referrals, so the easier you are to find, the better. Once you’ve joined LinkedIn, connect with previous employers and colleagues, and don’t forget to request recommendations – they always look fantastic.

Request referrals

Once you’ve built your network, previous employers and current clients can be a brilliant source of work – via referrals. And even if they don’t know anyone to refer to you, it’s worth asking if they can put you in touch with someone in the company in another department who could use your services. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

This content was provided by one of our users, nick_lewis