How to Find Well-Paid Freelance Writing Opportunities

Posted by on May 11, 2018

Want to make more money as a freelance writer? There are two main ways to do that. Write more, which means over time the quality of your writing is likely to go down. Or find markets and clients that pay better. I know which I prefer.

So how do you find well-paid freelance writing jobs? There are a few different ways.

Be brave

It’s easy to talk yourself out of pitching to the big boys, because you think your writing isn’t good enough, or you don’t have the contacts. But top markets are looking for passionate writers who can produce something that will appeal to their readers.

What’s the worst that can happen? They might reject your piece, but that won’t kill you. That’s how I looked at it when I pitched The Washington Post. And guess what? They accepted my piece, straight away, and paid good money for it, on time. You don’t always get that with low paying markets. Sometimes the markets who can’t afford to pay much are the ones that are less professional in general, and less likely to have great systems in place to pay writers in full and on time.

Surprisingly, my acceptance rate went up when I started pitching high paying markets. As I outlined in this piece I wrote over at Be a Freelance Blogger, you try harder when you’re pitching to a high paying, high profile publication or client. I think we all work harder when we’re a little scared!

Find Well-Paid Freelance Writing Opportunities

Disclosure: Sometimes my work here (and all around the web) contains affiliate links. Find out what that means here.

Stay In Touch With Your Good Clients

Once you get one or two good clients, don’t let them forget about you. Pitch them another piece. And another. Email companies you’ve worked for occasionally with offers, or information about your services. Remind them that you’re ready, willing, and able to provide content when they need it.

​You’ll not only get repeat business, but your good clients are a great source of word of mouth marketing too. Good clients send you other good clients!

Get on people’s radar

Connect with your dream publications and clients online. Share their stuff on social media. Comment on their blog posts. Network with experts, companies, publications and people that you’d love to work with. Network with other writers who are making good money. They’ll maybe give you tips about who to pitch and even how to pitch them.

Ask For The Work

If there’s a company you’d love to work with, contact them and ask if they have any freelance writing work. Write a simple letter of introduction outlining what you could do for them. Include testimonials, samples and the benefits of working with you. What makes you great and what do you have to offer this particular client?

Writing for a publication means you usually pitch an article. If you want to write for a company website or provide business copywriting for a company, you have to sell yourself and your skills.

Double Your Writing Income: Learn How

Brag a little

Do as Austin Kleon encourages you to in his bestselling book: Show your work! Let people see how good you are. Publish your portfolio and testimonials on your website. Share your successes with others. Tweet and share your published pieces. It helps establish your credibility as a writer and builds trust with potential clients. People are much more willing to hire you for a well-paid writing opportunity when they can see that other people have trusted you or recommended you.

Post about special ‘wins’ and new high profile clients on social media (as long as that doesn’t violate anything in your contract). You never know who’s watching. If you’ve taken the time to connect with high quality potential clients on social media, maybe they are watching, right now. Let them know how well you’re doing. Maybe they’ll reach out and ask you for a quote.

One reason we don’t aim high enough is we don’t think we’re good enough. If you have some time and money to invest, boost your writing skills AND your confidence with a high quality writing course, like Write Your Way to 1K. Want a highly affordable way to improve your writing (in just 15 days) and get great systems in place for your freelance writing business? Check out the Freelance Writer’s Success Kit. Or grab my FREE list of freelance writing markets that pay, right here.

Posted in: Writing

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