What You Need to Know If You Want to Start Your English Content Writer Jobs
Being a content writer is never easy, here in Indonesia they boldly give cheap payment to their writer. Even if it’s for an SEO article, they are willing to pay for a cheap one. So it’s not a great competition for the writers themselves.
So it’s not a new thing if a lot of us try to find a job from abroad. We challenge ourselves to write something in English even though we know that our writing is not that good. Grammar? Well, it’s so hard to understand since it’s not our mother language but you should remember that Nothing is impossible.
The most asked questions are “How did you get clients for your writing service?” or “Where do you get your freelance writing service?”
Actually, it’s easy to answer that, nowadays there are a lot of websites that can give you easy access to search for a freelance job like Fastwork, Fiver, Sribu, Freelancer, etc. But still, it takes a lot of effort and patience to get the job from that.
You can apply the mainstream technique and possibly get the first client immediately but you should know too that sometimes you need to use tips and tricks to get your first client. Remember, patience is the key. It’s common for someone to take weeks or months to receive approval from their client.
Don’t be frustrated, there’s nothing easy in this world but you can try these tips and tricks to help you get your first client who will hire you for your English articles.
1. Prepare Your Writer Staterpack
First of all, you should have all the devices and everything that will help you to improve your skill and do your job. First, you need a laptop or computer, and a space with a comfortable chair and desk since writing needs you to concentrate and relax.
Second, you need a PayPal account, Visa or Master Card credit card. Because most of the clients or job sites pay the freelancer through PayPal. If you work with local clients you won’t need this but clients from abroad, mostly use PayPal for payment.
2. Email, Skype, Zoom, and WhatsApp
You need to make a professional email to send your article, proposal, copywriting, etc. Some clients use Skype or Zoom to talk with you through video calls. So make sure to install two of them. Some clients want to talk with you via WhatsApp or Telegram, I know most of us as Indonesian use WhatsApp apps so it’s not a big deal.
3. Create Writing Portofolio
It’s the most important of this job. Naturally, clients always want to know your writing experience. So it’s a big deal to have a portfolio. Because based on that, your clients can know about your writing style, how you write, your niche, and how you met their expectations. Since clients always make sure that they hire the right person to help them write their excellent content.
4. Tell Your Friends or Mutual About Your Service
It’s impossible if people nowadays don’t have any social media or friends to talk with. You can talk to you your friends about your writing service or you try to put your writing service on social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn. It’s actually important because who knows if someone could help them who needed help with writing, they would refer you.
5. Try Freelance Platforms
Use your portfolio to attach clients from Freelance Marketplace/Platforms. These freelance platforms are suitable for those who still do not have any professional writing experience before. Most of the clients are using English so you can improve your English skills here.
From these platforms, you will find various types of writing projects and from various niches such as product description, article writing, SEO article writing, video script, academic articles, press release, technical writing, etc.
5. Hunting Job
What you should know is that there is a job board that can give you high-paying jobs out there. Because all jobs gonna be verified and moderated first before being listed on the boards. While some job boards like Problogger ask clients to pay a specific fee for a job listing.
Here you can do your hunting job on these job boards like Jora, Indeed, LinkedIn, SimplyHired, Krop, Problogger, Scripted, CreativeHotlist, BloggingPro, Contena, Coroflot, Mediabistro, Behance Jobs, ClearVoice, VentureFizz, Freelance Writers Den, SolidGigs, FlexJobs, We Work Remotely, Authentic Jobs, etc.
You can also try to write for sites that pay for articles like Link-able, WhatCulture, Listverse, Cracked, The Penny Hoarder, Digital Oceans, Bitch Media, Informed Comment, Greatist, Wonderlist, Sporteology, A List Apart, Metro Parent, B. Michelle Pippin, Longreads, KnowledgeNuts, etc.
6. Promote Your Writing
If you are a newbie to English writing, then you must tell everyone that you could write an article in English. And it is worth reading, so if you want your writing and obviously yourselves to be noticed, then you have to share your writing outside the world. You can share it on your Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And it would be nice if you have referrals from other writers.
7. Keep Writing
As you know that English is our second language, so I know how hard it is to write something in English. That’s why you need to keep learning and keep writing every single day. This gonna give you a service boost that improves your skill. When you get your writing getting better, soon you not just find the clients and get paid but you will make your clients become long-lasting ones, and increase your pay.
How to Write a Good Portfolio?
Here an easy tips that you can try to write a good portfolio. First, you need to choose a niche. So it’s easy for you to find clients with your niche. You can look for a website that is actually in your niche and allow guests to post and write for them. So you can have your portfolio.
Use Author Bio Box, when you apply for guest posting on some websites, you will find a box that let you write a short bio about yourself. You can use that to promote your freelance writing service. Include your email, or Twitter to let them reach you.
Second, you can ask the website owners for testimonials or feedback or statistic after they publish your post. Last, you can build your own blog. You can build your blog to tell everyone that you are a passionate writer, your knowledge about your niche, and your writing skills, and if you get a lot of views then means your work is recognized.