Should you use a pen name? It depends.

by Dusten Carlson

January 31, 2021

Can you build a writing career on a professional pseudonym? Yes. But is it a good idea?

It’s a question I hear a lot (and see a lot online). Should I use a pen name for my writing career, or my real name?

Everyone has their reasons for wanting to use a pseudonym.

Some writers may want to conceal a side gig from their primary employer. Others may wish to write in less-mainstream niches (i.e. cannabis, adult fiction) without risking reputational damage.

Maybe you just think a pen name is kind of sexy. “I’m a writer, after all…” you say as you tighten your ascot.

Should you use a pen name?

While the appeal of a pen name is understandable, it doesn’t really confer any sort of career benefit to use one. In fact, there might be a number of downsides you should consider as you make your decision. Still, whether or not you should use a pen name is ultimately dependent on your broader life and career goals.

As you’ve gathered by now, there isn’t really a straightforward answer to this one.

So let’s take a look at this question from a few different angles.

Why you should use a pen name

Maybe you’re thinking, “what’s the harm?” Most writers work remotely and turn in their work via email, Dropbox, or publish it on WordPress or in a client’s CMS. What’s the harm in a little extra anonymity?

Preserving some sense of anonymity is probably the best reason to use a pen name. Like we mentioned in the intro, there are practical reasons to want to remain anonymous as a freelance writer, or to be known under a different name altogether.

If you have a normie day job, there are a number of hypothetical scenarios wherein you might not want your boss discovering that you moonlight as a writer.

Maybe your employer has a policy against additional employment. Whether it’s enforceable or not is another matter. But I once knew a writer once who got in trouble at a daytime marketing job for writing listicles about superhero movies on the side.

(It was me).

Maybe you write about controversial political topics, or in a less mainstream industry like the examples listed in the intro. This kind of content could reflect poorly on your employer and result in trouble for you.

We’d never advocate anyone get in that kind of trouble. Even if you hate your day job, it’s a lot smarter to keep your head down until you can build up to full time as a freelance writer (assuming that’s what you want).

So in this context, writing under a pseudonym might make sense.

I’ve also known writers who want to keep their SEO “uncluttered.” Let’s say you have some kind of job that requires some level of a public persona, like an insurance salesman or a lawyer.

The same way you wouldn’t want potential clients seeing your Cheap Trick tribute band first when they Google your name, maybe you also don’t want your number #1 Google Search result to be a listicle about Zack Snyder’s Justice League that happened to rank.

It’s also possible you have an extremely common name, or share a name with a celebrity. If you’re “Michael Jordan”, then you’ll probably have a hard time outranking the other Michael in anything you ever do. (I believe in you, but it’s Michael Jordan…)

God among plebes.

So far we’ve got a handful of pretty persuasive reasons to write using a pen name:

Avoid hassle with an employer
Work in less-mainstream niches
Keep SEO around your name “clean”
Avoid confusion with a common/celebrity name

Now let’s look at the potential drawbacks.

Why you shouldn’t use a pen name

The first and most important downside is this: a pen name might limit your ability to get jobs.

After being a freelance writer, I started my own content agency where I instantly found myself on the other side of the freelance table — I was the employer.

The stuff I learned from that side of the table was extremely illuminating, and a big part of the reason I started ProWriter with Dave.

Here’s how this connects to the point.

A big thing about hiring writers is that no matter what kind of job you post, and no matter where you post it, you get flooded with applications.

In fact, most of the applications you get aren’t even qualified candidates. They’re just writers crawling jobs boards sending a pitch to every post hoping for a bite.

If you take those away, there are about a third left that actually have some experience or interest in your niche.

The problem we’d run into, though, is that we would often hire writers that sent us good samples only to find out that they… probably weren’t the original authors of the samples they pitched us with, if you catch my drift.

We were catfished, I’m saying.

So to solve this problem, we started doing a deeper dive on the applicants who seemed qualified from their pitch samples.

This meant searching the web for other digital “footprints,” like a social media presence, and bylines at credible sites (it’s one of the reasons we built the ProWriter Portfolio — to bring all of these footprints together, making it easier for employers to vet candidates).

You might be seeing the problem for pen name writers here, but let me spell it out.

If you choose to use a pen name, you might run into trouble getting hired unless you spend some time creating digital “footprints” for your alter ego. This means that you’ll probably need a couple of social profiles, a separate email, website, (a ProWriter portfolio!), i.e., a whole ‘nother digital life to maintain.

I’ve talked before about the power of using a real picture of yourself in the signature line of your email pitches, and prominently across your digital spread. The same applies here.

And using your real photo with a pen name… kind of defeats the purpose.

Game it out

But let’s say you’re committed to the pen name idea, comfortable operating a second digital life with your same face all over it, figured out whatever tax and business implications using a pseudonym might require, etc.

What happens if you want to change your mind?

Let’s say you transition out of your day job and into freelancing full time. You start building a name for yourself, make appearances on podcasts, guest column at major websites, etc. You’re really taking off!

By then it’s too late to change.

It’s not like you can change the byline on every article you ever wrote. You’ve already built brand credibility with this pen name. That means you’re stuck with it. Every new article you write under that name makes it that much more difficult to change your mind later.

Even if you’re not destined to ultimately become a roundtable guest on a cable news program under that pen name, what if you simply change your mind and start applying for jobs under your real name?

If you’re sending employers like me samples of your work with someone else’s name on them, that’s going to put up a red flag.

Lastly, there’s something to be said about owning your work. There’s honesty and integrity in it. If you’re in for a pep talk along these lines, Todd Brisson has an excellent essay on it here.

All in all, this makes a pen name a little more trouble than it’s worth. It complicates things unnecessarily.

What if you still really, really need to use a pen name?

Finally, let’s say you’re one of those who want to get close to the third rail and write on really controversial topics. Stuff you might have doubts about publishing under your real name.

Hear me loud and clear: A pseudonym will not protect you.

I know, I know. We did say that anonymity was probably the best reason to use a pen name. But that privacy is not ironclad.

If you build a name for yourself on controversy, you’re entering an environment where other influence-seekers online are incentivized to kneecap you. Doxxing is a threat you have to contend with. Whether right or wrong, it’s reality.

Personally, I don’t think anyone should say anything publicly they wouldn’t put their real name to.

But I realize that’s old school. And I’m not saying there aren’t legitimate reasons for anonymity.

I’m saying a pseudonym is not some privacy silver bullet.

I don’t know if it’s even possible to privacy-proof your life such that you could never be found out.

Recognize the risk that comes with dabbling in controversy. If people want to find out who you are, in this day and age, they will.

Our advice?

You’ve probably picked it up, but our bias definitely leans toward “don’t use a pen name.”

Still, there are credible reasons for wanting to use one. For those of you who are still leaning toward it, we hope we gave you a good rundown of the risks and considerations you should take into account.

Our last piece of advice is simply this: Commit to the bit.

If you choose to write under a pseudonym, then yes, you should put some work into creating a digital presence that you plan on sustaining throughout the course of your career.

I know of some writers who use multiple pseudonyms in different niches. That seems to be making things harder than they have to be, but it works for them, so no judgments there.

Make sure you think carefully about how using a pen name isn’t tight-seal privacy protection in the digital age, and that it can impact some employment opportunities if you’re trying to pitch samples that appear to have been written by someone else.

Editor Robert Lee Brewer even suggests pitching and communicating under your pseudonym for the duration of a relationship with an employer (up to the point where they have to actually pay you).

He says that it prevents the editor from accidentally bylining your real name, and avoids other points of potential confusion. It’s good advice.

Takeaways and resources

Reminder that ProWriter offers a free, professional writer portfolio, which we referenced several times in this article. You can claim yours and start building it out in minutes here.

Finally, as always, find me on LinkedIn if you have any questions or feedback.

Career Help

‘One thing I wish I knew…’ 6 freelance writers give advice for newbies

by Dusten Carlson

January 17, 2021

We talked to some freelance writers we know about their experiences breaking in, and what advice they have for writers who are just starting out.

My first job in freelance writing was literally handed to me. A friend of mine knew I wanted to be a writer. He had a friend who was the editor of a modest news aggregation blog. My friend asked me if I wanted an introduction. I said yes.

Without that first gig, I’m not sure how I would have started.

This was pre-Upwork/LinkedIn/reddit days. Content mills weren’t really the household names they’ve come to be in the industry.

The only one I knew of was Textbroker. I’d tried using it, but didn’t understand what clients wanted. Assignment briefs were sparse and confusing. A lot of them asked for “SEO content.” WTF was that?

And it never once occurred to me to find an editorial email address at the bottom of a site I wanted to write for and send a pitch. Websites don’t exactly hang “now hiring writers” banners on their homepage. I assumed that anyone who worked at Huffington Post made a connection through a big journalism school, and that ship had already sailed for me.

These gaps in my knowledge sound ridiculous looking back. Embarrassing, even.

But I shouldn’t be so hard on old me. These gaps are all too common.

Nowadays, aspiring freelance writers have more options to break in.

There are numerous job boards and content mills to find gigs to cut your teeth and build a writer portfolio on.

You have easier access to editors and business owners on social media.

Googling “how to become a freelance writer” will bring up all kinds of resources (some more helpful than others).

But a lot of freelance writers I talk to still have some of those big, familiar knowledge gaps I had.

They just don’t know how to get started.

Sure, there may be more options, but maybe that brings on an options paralysis.

Which courses will actually help me figure out how to break in?

Where do I get good jobs?

How many articles do I have to read before this all sinks in?

They say you start a business to solve a problem you yourself have. That’s a big reason Dave and I started ProWriter.

People have responded positively to the blog posts we’ve written, educational materials we’ve created, and ad hoc observations we’ve shared about the freelance writing space so far.

That’s awesome! That’s what we were hoping for.

But, we think it’s important to hear from other writers, as well. People who are working hard. In the “trenches,” so to speak. Other freelance writers like you.

What they’ve learned, what they’d tell themselves on Day 1 if they could go back.

We picked a handful of freelance writers we know well to help you understand where your priorities should be when you’re just starting out.

There might be things you’re anxious and worried about. Hopefully, these writers will give you permission not to.

There might be questions you have. Hopefully, these writers will help answer them.

You might feel very strongly that you should just do something. Hopefully, these writers will save you the headache. Or, better yet, give you permission.

We’ll take our backseat now and let these writers take over this blog post from here on. We hope you find it valuable.

The writer portfolio is critical early on

Ashley Reign:

“In the beginning, a lot of it is about building a resume rather than scoring a high-paying job right out of the gate. […]

“Focus on finding gigs that will allow you to do work you’d be proud to add to your online portfolio. Look for clients that will credit you and/or provide a link to your website or byline, even if they don’t pay all that well. As your resume and portfolio grow, so should your asking pay rate.”

Jeanette R:

“One piece of advice: Build a diverse portfolio and get published in places that maintain an archive. […]

Mandy Lutman

“Promote your self-published material and personal (professional) blogs alongside your professionally-published work. Both are important.”

Elizabeth Belanger:

“Were I able to go back in time and advise my past self on my future freelance writing career, the most significant piece of advice I’d likely give myself is to develop a specific niche sooner rather than later. Being knowledgeable in certain industries or topics is fantastic, and clients who appreciate well-written, expert-level content are likely to request more work from you!”

Learn technical skills, like SEO

“On the content side, I didn’t pay enough attention to the technical side of SEO and everything it entails (from keyword ideation to titles and headings to schema to metadata) at the outset. […]

Casey Watson

“While I’ll never be a wizard on the technical side, I found my ability to understand my client’s needs and meet their expectations grew once I knew more about the technological challenges they face in getting found and heard.”

Piper Gourley:

“One skillset I would like to continue to expand my knowledge on is search-engine optimization (SEO) writing. As the web continues to become an even wider medium for writing, and more articles about the same topics are being produced, SEO skills have become more relevant to writers than ever. SEO pieces also tend to bring in more money than non-SEO writing, both for freelancers and publishers, so mastering SEO is a profitable skill to commit to in the long-run.”

On self-care and other career advice

Mandy Lutman:

“Don’t overwork yourself. Burnout is a real and scary thing and having a work/life balance is important from the get-go. It’s very easy to fall into the workaholic hole, but if you do, it’ll take years of healing to dig yourself out of it.”

Casey Watson:

“Anticipate that you’ll succeed. That sounds terribly inspirational-poster, but I mean it more practically. […]

“If your goal is to develop a remunerative sideline or even a stable source of sole income, anticipate — but don’t expect out of a sense of entitlement — that it will happen. From the start, develop habits and systems that will allow you to sustain what you’re doing.”

Piper Gourley:

“It’s important to be flexible. You’re going to be writing for a smorgasbord of clients. Your style needs to be in flux with their needs. Adaptability is one of the most useful skills you can have. […]

Piper Gourley

“Rigid stylistic writing is not likely to get you very far in freelance work that requires you to deliver a variety of pieces (blogs, articles, advertorial writing) to various clients, all of whom have different expectations for your writing. Stay adaptable, ask questions when they emerge, and always, ALWAYS read the style guide, even if it’s a client you’ve already worked with!”

Casey Watson:

“One more thing! Find a portfolio set up that you like and systematically keep and organize your stuff as you go. It’ll help you in myriad ways.”

Final takeaways and resources

ProWriter offers a free, professional writer portfolio, designed to highlight experience and skills to help you stand out when applying for jobs. You can claim yours and start building it out in minutes here.

If you want to learn more about SEO and other more technical freelance writing topics, you can look at our resources library.

You can also check out our courses page here, and take our introductory course to freelance writing for free.

Finally, as always, find me on LinkedIn if you have any questions or feedback.

Career Help

Is freelance writing a good side gig?

by Dusten Carlson

December 7, 2020

Trends continue to show growth in freelance markets, but is a writing side gig all it’s cracked up to be?

This post will help you understand the opportunities in the freelance writing space, and point you in the right direction to get started.

How we work is changing fast. A recent study by Upwork showed that the freelance market has outpaced the overall workforce since 2014. It also suggests that freelancing will constitute the clear majority of the workforce within a decade.*

Whether you’re a working professional who has transitioned to remote, a college student looking for experience, or a stay-at-home parent trying to enter the workforce, millions are exploring freelancing options for making extra cash.

But maybe you’ve heard horror stories about freelance writing. Shady employers that ghost without paying writers. Being trapped in a “content mill” writing low-quality content for pennies.

There are plenty of posts like that on reddit and Facebook. If you’ve seen them, you just might be wondering whether freelance writing is all it’s cracked up to be.

Is freelance writing a good side gig?

If you want an opportunity to make some extra cash, desire a flexible schedule, and can find space to work at home, freelance writing can be a very rewarding pursuit. But don’t go searching for jobs just yet. Many new writers lack the skills employers are looking for, which can result in a rocky start to your side career.

There are a lot of perks to being a freelance writer. You work from home, your schedule is your own, and you can pursue writing in fields you either have subject matter knowledge about from your education or career background, or simply find interesting, whether it’s pop culture or a personal hobby like gardening.

But making the wrong career decisions early on can lead to burnout and frustration. If you want to avoid those landmines and improve your chances of finding the kind of success you’re hoping for, read on.

Why freelance writing?

We cited some broad statistics about freelance market growth at the beginning of the post. But the numbers get more interesting the closer you look.

Though economic trends suggest that many are turning to freelance work out of necessity, the majority (61%) became freelancers by choice, and 51% say they wouldn’t go back to a normal 9-to-5.

Even if professionals turn to freelance to meet a short-term financial need, many find that the freedom and flexibility associated with a freelance career beat having a boss.

How hard is it to find work? About 25% of freelancers in the same study said that they can find a gig in a day.

You can be stuck in a bad job for months or years until you manage to make a change. Whereas in freelancing, moving on from bad gigs to the next thing is a weekly, if not daily, occurrence.

Of course, freelance writing only encompasses part of the freelancing space as a whole. There are graphic designers and web developers, and workers like rideshare drivers that make up the $1 trillion freelancing market.

Why should you look to freelance writing for opportunities?

For starters, the barrier to entry is a lot lower than computer coding (but it’s not zero — put a pin in that, we’ll talk about it in the next section).

The earnings vary depending on experience and what kind of work you do. But to give you some idea of what to expect, statistics from Upwork show that content writers on their platform earn between $15-$80 per hour.

There’s also a ton of low-hanging freelance writing work. You just need to know where to look for the right opportunities.

If you’ve already done some searching, you might have an impression that the only freelance writing jobs are at low-pay content mills or writing technical copy you need a PhD to understand.

Where are the good jobs? The jobs that are closer to $80 an hour?

In content marketing.

Content marketing as an industry has shown consistent and significant growth year over year for the past five years.

Content agency CEO and industry thought leader Julia McCoy notes that businesses see the value in content, and are continuing to invest heavily in it. She goes so far as to call content marketing “the future of marketing.”

There’s an incredible amount of diversity in content marketing, as well. Not only are there jobs available in every industry you can imagine, but the variety of assignment types is impressive as well.

Content marketing writers create:

Blog posts for brands and businesses
Email copy for marketing campaigns
Product descriptions
Website content
Case studies
Video scripts
Social media content
And more.

If you’re feeling like content marketing isn’t for you, don’t click off just yet.

I meet a lot of new writers who seem crestfallen when I talk about opportunities in content marketing. “That’s not really the kind of writing I want to do,” they say.

Many are creatives with dreams of writing novels, screenplays, or comics. Some are hoping to build a name for themselves in opinion writing for magazines and digital publications.

I tell them the same thing.

“That’s great! Keep at it. But content marketing pays the bills.”

Helping a company tell their story and sell more widgets might not set your soul on fire, but it’s widely available work that pays well.

Whether you want to launch a career as a freelance writer or are just looking for a profitable side gig right now, content marketing is where it’s at.

But don’t rush out and start applying for jobs just yet.

How to get what you want out of freelance writing

It’s probably safe to assume that you want to know more about the $80 an hour writing jobs, not so much the $15 an hour writing jobs, right?

The problem is, those gigs are competitive.

But just because they’re competitive doesn’t mean you can’t get them.

As freelance writer Alice Genes notes, writers should worry less about competition in the freelance writing space and focus on increasing their “hireability” instead.

As an employer of writers, I couldn’t agree more.

The freelance writing market is absolutely oversaturated. But it’s oversaturated primarily with unqualified writers.

I’ve managed a digital content agency for the last five years. Whether I hire for a big brand content marketing project or a new media outlet writing listicles about cat memes, well over 90% of the applications I typically receive are unusable.

It’s not that the applicants are just not good fits for the job. It honestly seems like most of them are from people who decided to “try it out” and put out a few applications. “I’m willing to learn,” many say, without providing any samples, much less links to a writer portfolio or previous work.

A lot of new writers just assume writing is easy and anyone can do it. They don’t seem to really connect with the idea that freelance writing is a job, and that freelance writers are skilled professionals.

If you take one thing away from this blog post, it’s this: don’t go applying for jobs until you have the skills employers are looking for.

Good professional freelance writers are actually hard to find.

But it’s only these few professionals who have put the time in to understand SEO, copywriting, formatting, and more of the skills today’s employers really need to make their content marketing projects a success.

So, how do you get what you want out of freelance writing? Ideally, the $80 an hour jobs you want for extra cash, to justify going freelance writing full time, or to pay the bills while you pursue your passion projects?

It starts with professionalism. It starts with skills development.

Freelance writing is a real job. Treat it like one.

More resources

If you want to go deeper into the topic of becoming a freelance writer, check out our free How To Become A Freelance Writer guide.

You should also check out our free video course, which gives an introduction to the skills writers need to be successful.

Lastly, if you’re ready to start finding your first gigs, you can check out our Jobs Board which curates gigs from all over the web, and also hosts unique jobs from ProWriter employers. If you’re looking for bylined gigs in industries you want to make a name in, try searching our Submissions portal.

Also, our newsletter “Who’s Hiring?” will send the top jobs to your inbox each Monday. Sign up for that here.

Finally, if you have any questions or feedback for me, you can reach me directly on LinkedIn.

*Bear in mind that this study was published two years before the COVID-19 pandemic, which some experts have argued will accelerate certain economic trends. To wit, more recent analyses have shown millions more Americans finding freelance work for the first time.

Career Help

5 smart tips for first-year freelance writers

by Dusten Carlson

August 17, 2020

Freelance writers need to make the right moves in their first year to set themselves up for a long, rewarding career.

In our experience as freelance writers and, later, the employers who hire them, these 5 things make the biggest impact on a writer’s long-term success.

The day you decide you want to try and make money as a writer kick-starts a whirlwind 12-18 months that treats most writers like a kite in a hurricane.

Just in case you think I’m picking on you, I’m putting myself in that group, too. I had no idea what I was doing. I wrote free articles for a short-lived local Nashville music paper nobody read, thinking somehow someone at Gannett Media would notice me and give me a prestigious column somewhere. And if they could do it sooner rather than later, that would be great. The rent is due.

It didn’t happen. Instead, I waited tables and wrote tons of “trending news” content for various sites, worked 10-12 hours a day, every day, and eventually, gave up for a normie 9-5 desk job.

Sure, I kept up with some freelancing on the side and eventually found my footing, but at that time in history, 12-18 months in, a success story in the industry I was not. And that’s because at that time, in my early 20s and fresh out of college, I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

This is not an uncommon story for freelance writers. Recent data on the market is pretty bleak, with a majority of freelancers making less than $10,000 a year and very few who make it to year three without giving up.

Still, it is possible to claw your way to the top tier, make a good living, and not one that requires 80 hours a week to accomplish.

But how?

We’ve written at length about how hard it is to find good information on becoming successful in freelance writing. There are hundreds of millions of articles about freelance writing online, but how many of them are really, truly helpful?

What if you don’t want tips on building your own website, or vague advice like “just sit down and write!” How do you start making money now, and, what things do you need to do in that first year to keep your earnings increasing into year two and beyond?

In my experience as a writer, and more importantly, someone who eventually made a career out of hiring them, here are 5 tips that, if I could go back in time to that Nashville-based waiter/wannabe writer, I’d give him.

He did find his feet eventually. But he could have done it a lot sooner, and made many fewer mistakes.

If you’re considering a career in freelance writing or are stuck in your first year, I hope these tips help you as well.

In this post we’ll cover:

Why your portfolio is your career’s secret weapon
Securing recurring work from satisfied clients
Complimentary skills to develop and how

Let’s go!

No. 1: Use your real name

I do not know what it is about a pen name that is so alluring. I think maybe it just makes you feel more like a writer.

Of course it doesn’t actually make you more of a writer. And it might unintentionally hurt your career.

Let me explain.

As someone who has spent a good chunk of their career in this space hiring writers for various projects in every conceivable vertical (for publishers, for brands, for marketing campaigns, you name it), I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received an application from someone I couldn’t verify.

This means, they send me a pitch on their services, but I can’t find them anywhere else online.

This application always ends up in the trash.

Employers don’t have the time to roll the dice and take a chance on someone who can’t provide proof of concept. We’ll get into how your portfolio plays into this later on, but first and foremost, be a real person with a digital footprint. Not having that in this day and age is a red flag.

Now you might have good reason to not want to be published under your real name. That’s fine. But don’t conceal who you are from the person hiring you. Once you get the job you can let them know your byline preferences.

But on that note…

No. 2: Get bylined work early

A lot of newbie freelance writers get stuck in low-pay ghostwriting work early on.

It might not be right, but it’s normal. I can’t change the game, but I can help you play.

One of the best ways to break out of this part of the market is to seek bylined work as soon as possible.

Ask current clients for bylined opportunities (the worst they can do is say “no”), submit to sites that allow for an author byline, and if worst comes to worst, self-publish a bunch of content on Medium or elsewhere that looks a lot like the kind of writing you want to make a career out of.

Slowly but surely you’ll build up your clips.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Ask current clients for bylined opportunities. The worst they can do is say ‘no.’ #writingtip #writingcommunity” quote=”Ask current clients for bylined opportunities. The worst they can do is say ‘no.'”]

From an employer perspective, ghostwriting clips aren’t worth much, especially for higher-paying gigs. You only need to hire a writer who stole good ghostwritten clips from someone else once. Thereafter, you’ll always be skeptical of writers who can only provide ghostwritten content.

Believe me, this happens a lot, and it drags the whole industry down.

If you’re committed to publishing under a pen name, just make sure you get bylined consistently with that pen name. Those still wouldn’t be preferred clips for me personally, but it’s better than the alternative.

No. 3: Strategically build a portfolio

I cannot stress enough the importance of a writer portfolio. We take this so seriously at ProWriter that we built one that writers can use for free.

Your portfolio is not a museum where you hang trophies. It is the most important tool you have. It’s more important than a good pitch. It’s more important than nailing an interview.

Employers get bombarded with hundreds of applications, and most of them are from writers who are not qualified for the gig. So these employers, busy with their other responsibilities, have to optimize how they work through applications. And for the most part, the portfolio is the first place they start.

They need proof of concept. They need to see you can write.

Will any ‘ol portfolio do? No. I’ve seen hundreds of applications with links to Google Drives and Dropbox folders containing Microsoft Word documents that are articles the applicant supposedly wrote for some client.

How can I, as an employer, know that this is something the applicant wrote, or that a client even accepted and used it?

I can’t.

It’s much better if I can see something published somewhere under your name. If a client of yours liked your content enough to publish it with your name on it, you must be the real deal. Even self-publishing on Medium shows me something a Dropbox link doesn’t. It’s not easy to just rip off someone’s writing and put it up online somewhere, especially with how sophisticated plagiarism checkers are getting.

Your portfolio is key to your success, and every link you can put in it with your name on it is a building block in the fortress of your career. Find bylines jobs, do a great job with anything with your name on it, and get a portfolio to show it all off. It makes it easier for employers and it makes you look a lot more professional.

No. 4: Make the ask

The number one thing writers can do early to start building a steady, recurring client base is this: when a job is done, ask for more work.

That’s it.

Don’t say “let me know if you ever need a writer again.” Say, “do you have another job you need my help on?” Don’t split the difference and hope they call you. Get a “yes” or a “no” (a “let me poke around and email you in a week” is fine too).

This is not an obnoxious thing to do. You’re not putting your client out by asking for more work.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”‘The number one thing writers can do early to start building a steady, recurring client base is this: when a job is done, ask for more work.’ #writingtip #writercommunity” quote=”The number one thing writers can do early to star building a steady, recurring client base is this: when a job is done, ask for more work.”]

Let me tell you a few things from the employer side of this point:

Whenever, whenever, a writer has asked me for more work, as long as I was happy with the work they did, I either found something for them to do or passed them on to someone who needed a writer.
Whenever, whenever, a writer has said “keep me in mind for future jobs,” even if I was happy with the work they did, I forgot all about them.
Out of hundreds of writers I’ve worked with in my career, I can name the ones who consistently ask me directly for more work on one hand. ONE. HAND. And I always go to them first. That means just asking is a HUGE advantage.

Yes, you will hear a lot of “no.” But “no” doesn’t kill you. Just move on, keep asking, you will hear “yes” enough to build a client list.

No. 5: Seek out complimentary gigs

On any number of jobs boards you’ll see part-time gigs for things like “part-time editor” or “communications/marketing intern” or something. While these jobs might not be your dream gigs, I highly recommend a few months in as many different content production roles as possible.

Writing tweets as an unpaid intern for 10 hours a week right now doesn’t sound that exciting, and writing press releases for small companies might sound pretty dull too, but these are good gigs to cut your teeth on early in case a better (paid) opportunity comes up later.

A part-time editor position should be paid and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Learning content production from that side of the table will make you a better writer a lot faster than your competitors.

Final thoughts

There’s no changing the fact that the first year for many freelance writers is a slog.

But don’t get stuck in a rut. Use that time to flatten your learning curve and you’ll be ahead of 90% of the market.

Most importantly of all, do good work. Especially if your name is on it.

If you don’t have a writer portfolio, you can set one up through ProWriter for free here. If you’re looking for your first gigs, you can check out our jobs board or follow us on Twitter where we post writing gigs daily.

Happy hunting!

Career Help

100 of the best writing tips there are

by Dusten Carlson

August 2, 2020

We skipped all the generic, cheesy writing tips that don’t actually help anyone.

These are real, practical tips for writing and career you can actually use, designed for hard-working, salt-of-the-earth professionals making a living as freelance writers.

There are plenty of articles online that offer writing tips, but if you ask me, most of them are pretty vague.

“Write every day!” or “make sure your writing serves the reader!” are fine tips, but they’re a little too broad and generic to really be useful to a professional writer.

We’re talking to a different group of writers out there — writers who write for a living, and who want to figure out how to be even more competitive in an already-saturated freelance writing market.

If you’re still reading, I’m guessing you’re in that group. You’re looking for writing advice that will actually help you improve your craft, your career, and at the end of the day, your ability to make money, right?

Well good, you’re in the right place then.

Sure, if you need help writing your novel or screenplay, you mostly just need to sit down and do it.

But if you’re a freelance writer by trade or are exploring freelance writing as a career option, we wanted to offer some advice that will help you focus on what matters and how to become the best freelance writer you can be.

ProWriter’s staff have worked both as freelance writers and with freelance writers for many years, and in that time we’ve learned a lot about what people who hire writers are looking for and what skills make writers more likely to get great gigs.

With that in mind, here are 100 of the best pieces of writing advice we could come up with. They cover:

Skills you need to focus on developing right away
Early strategic moves that’ll help you in the long run
Real talk about finding (and keeping) better gigs

Let’s get to it. And if you think we can or should go deeper on any of these points, shoot me a note on LinkedIn. We want to be as specific and helpful as possible for writers trying to earn a living every day!

100 tips for professional writing

1. Get your name on your work

Start building a portfolio of bylined work on Day 1. You might need to ghostwrite to pay the bills at first, but the only way out of that is to build trust with clients (and Google) by putting your name on great content.

2. Plan for periods of low workload

The most successful freelance writers we know understand that the market can swing wildly. Diversify your craft, build up your emergency fund, and invest in good professional relationships to weather the valleys.

3. Widen your perspective

This is the point in most advice lists where you’re told to travel and have experiences. But what we mean here is to look outside of the freelance community when it comes to improving your skills. Don’t just hang out in freelance Facebook groups or read blog posts at sites for writers (yes, this includes ProWriter). Subscribe to SEO blogs, marketing podcasts, and widen your media diet so you can keep tabs on what’s hot in the zeitgeist and what’s working in digital, social, and search. All of that has a direct impact on your efficacy as a writer and your value to your clients.

4. Invest in your own professional development

You don’t have a boss to hand you a plane ticket to some conference or workshop. You are ultimately responsible for making sure your skills are bleeding edge. Constantly be on a proactive lookout for YouTube videos, free webinars, and articles on hard SEO skills, how to write engaging titles, emotional triggers, and whatever else will keep you competitive in your vertical.

5. Develop complementary skills and market them

For example, spend a few Saturdays taking graphic design courses at sites like Udemy so you can create custom images or infographics to help with social promotion. Learn WordPress so you can set up websites quickly. Anything you can do to position yourself as the all-in-one solution for your clients will not only help you get more jobs, it’ll also put you in a stronger position to negotiate for higher rates.

6. Incorporate

Become an LLC and market yourself as a business (even if you are a business of just yourself). Writers that act like like real professionals are treated like real professionals!

7. Diversify your client base

Building a book of business of direct relationships with good-paying, recurring clients takes time. Pitch your services to digital publications, marketing agencies, and others while you build your dedicated client base.

8. Take low or unpaid work if you must, but…

Make sure you get something out of it that helps you. Most writers need to take less-than-ideal work starting out, but try to negotiate for something that gives you a strategic advantage down the line, like a byline.

9. Think ‘content’ everywhere you go

Practice self-awareness. Maybe there’s a new hobby you’ve picked up, a funny or heterodox opinion you have about something, or a new trend you find interesting. If you’re interested in something, you’re almost certainly not alone. But you might be the first (or best-suited) to write about it. These random thoughts of yours could be opportunities for pitches or potential gigs.

10. Never market yourself as ‘willing to learn’

While it’s good to have this attitude in general, it comes off as a red flag for employers. Most of your clients don’t have time to mentor you. In an ideal world, every client would at least give you constructive feedback at the end of a gig, but we don’t always live in that world. Focus on what you can do and deliver.

11. Build a portfolio early

You need to create a professional portfolio right way and put the work you’re proudest of in it. A portfolio is a billboard for what you can do. If you can’t build your own website, you can use an online writing portfolio (like the one we built at ProWriter). And please, for the love of all that is holy, do not use Google Drive or Microsoft Word. It doesn’t look professional.

12. Maintain your portfolio

I know a lot of good writers who haven’t updated their websites, portfolios, or LinkedIn profiles in years. Make a habit of keeping up your portfolio whenever you finish a job. Clear out old clips that don’t represent your abilities anymore, and add new work you’re proud of. You never know who’s looking at your page.

13. When pitching, get to the point

You ever have a friend who tried telling you a story, but keeps backing up to establish context? Boring, right? Editors are busy people. All they need to make a decision is what your unique angle is, and then, efficiently as possible, why you’re the one to write it.

14. Include success stories

If a client gives you a compliment on your work, ask for a review. If a job you did created some kind of tangible success for a client, ask for details. Include this in your portfolio or your outreach to new clients if it makes sense. It’s proof of concept that you can deliver. Don’t just say you have a track record of success. Show it.

15. Nail the first draft

This is about getting as much information out of your client as possible before you write. Agree the expectations, the goals of the gig, and what kind of messaging needs to be reflected early on. That way if they push back, you can point to exactly what you did to fulfill what you both agreed to.

16. Ask about recurring opportunities

Don’t feel awkward or uncomfortable about asking an employer for more work after you’ve completed a job. The worst they can say is “no” and if you did a good job, they’ll keep you in mind for the next gig.

17. Be transparent about deadlines — and keep them

It’s tempting to promise a new client the moon, but you don’t want to set yourself up for failure. Early on, try to under-promise and over-deliver on deadlines until you get a good sense of how long it takes you to do something. Then you can give more accurate estimates to clients.

18. Take breaks

Writing is a sit-heavy job with long hours. Sitting is the new smoking. Don’t forget to get up and walk around every hour or so.

19. Create boundaries

We don’t mean with clients (though those are important too). If you’re working from home, you need to create boundaries to protect yourself from … yourself. Set up an office space away from your distractions.

20. Wear pants

I hear you, a “flexible” dress code is part of the work-from-home appeal. But try dressing up like you’re going to the office one morning and see if it makes a dent in your productivity.

21. Keep an eye on where there are needs and fill them

Let’s say you have 3 clients in a row that ask if you can do email marketing copy. Take the time to try and learn that new skill. It might not be a one-off need — it might be a trend you can get in front of.

22. Turn social signals into content

Let’s say you and your friends are out drinking and all of you get fired up and enthusiastic debating a particular topic. That might be a pitch. Let’s say you had a quick take on Twitter that generated more engagement for you than usual. There you go, another pitch.

23. Make sure you have your own projects

This will sound corny, but you do need a “you” project. Even if it’s a personal blog. In the same way financial planners tell you to set aside a certain amount of money for savings and treat it like a bill every month, do the same with your schedule and set aside time for the “you” project.

24. Let people see your face

This is a subtle psychological thing, but trust us on this. When clients can see that you’re a real, normal human, it will help you establish trustt. I’d go so far as to say ‘find opportunities to SHOW OFF your face.’ Ask for a Hangouts chat instead of a phone interview. Anything you can do to establish a human connection will help.

25. Start a newsletter

This could be your “you” project, and yes, you will only have a dozen subscribers, two of which are your mom’s work and personal emails, for a long time. But keep at it. Find an angle. Write like you have a list of 10,000.

26. When you’re discouraged, remind yourself that writers will always be needed

This is not a job robots are replacing anytime soon. As long as there are humans looking to relate to one another, buy things from each other, and find ways to explain how they feel, writers will have opportunities.

27. Take other jobs if you have to

Again, sometimes this market ebbs, especially if you’re early on in your career. Don’t take it as a sign of your failure. Do what you must to make sure bills are paid, but look for your angle back in. It’s only over when you stop investing in it.

28. Set expectations with clients

The number one way client relationships spin out of control for new writers is over revision requests. Like #15, have your client define for you what a successful final piece of copy looks like, and agree in advance to the number of revisions you’ll allow. On that note…

29. Use contracts

Sure, you’re probably not a lawyer, and you probably don’t have $1,200 lying around to hire one to write you a contract. But do the research, ask other freelancers, do what you have to in order to get a template contract right away, and use it for every job. It’s the best way to define expectations and protect yourself from potentially crappy clients.

30. Invest in people

When you find clients you enjoy working for, try to establish more personal relationships with them over time. This is a people business, so invest in people.

31. If things are slow, keep submitting

The same way you don’t want gaps in your employment history, you don’t want big gaps in your writing output, and not just for professional reasons. You need to write to keep your muscles strong, so when things are slow, it might be a good time to find sites you can submit content to and write a few columns, op-eds, or articles about your passions and interests.

32. Move on quickly

“Never give up” is good advice for your writing on the whole, but some young writers take this to mean that they need to keep following up with potential employers until they get a firm answer. This kind of approach doesn’t work in dating, and it doesn’t work in business. Do one follow-up and then cut the cord.

33. Apply/pitch every day

Most full-time writers I’ve worked with say that they continue to apply for new gigs and pitch outlets they want to write for every day. Work out a routine where you do just that. Check job boards frequently first thing in the morning, and come up with angles to pitch outlets you want to work for.

34. Become more reliable than in-house talent

Many marketing and PR agencies will hire freelance writers to help them manage their projects. I’ve seen this relationship from both sides, and trust me when I say the agencies get “hooked” on good, reliable writers. If you’re one, they will turn to you for their press releases, blog posts, and more, even for the convenience of getting it off their plates.

35. Never welch on a deadline

If freelance writing was a religion, welching on a deadline would be the sin that can get you excommunicated. Always deliver. If you can’t make a deadline, say so upfront. If you need more time, give a few days’ notice.

36. Don’t copy/paste your cover letters

For freelancers, a cover letter doesn’t need to be a formal, 500-word document. Employers hardly have the time to read through hundreds of these for each job they post. A simple email cover letter is enough, and just a few sentences explaining why you’re right for the gig. So don’t copy/paste a form letter for every job. We can tell.

37. NEVER plagiarize

You’d think this doesn’t need to be said, but I’ve let go of a surprising number of writers for plagiarism. Freelance writers are busy, and shortcuts can be tempting. But with the number of tools employers use to scan billions of pages on the web for plagiarism, you will get caught and your career could end up (and honestly, should end up) in jeopardy.

38. Keep finding new niches

You might be really good at one niche, but new niches are popping up all the time, and your own personal interests change as you mature. Don’t settle. As you explore new hobbies and interests in your personal life, think about exploring them as niches in your career as well.

39. Use your real name

I can’t tell you how many writers I’ve worked with attempt to use pseudonyms, but sometimes it feels like up to half. Unless you’re in witness protection, use your real name. Like #24, employers want to know they’re hiring a real person. On that note…

40. Be easy to find and vet

I’ve had writers with zero digital footprint (and asking to be paid in cryptocurrency) apply to jobs I’ve posted. These applications go straight into the trash. Most people live increasingly online lives, so if you’re not easy to find when an employer Googles your name + writer, that’s going to send up a red flag. If you don’t have a lot of bylined work yet, an online writing portfolio, website, active LinkedIn, and maybe an Instagram that all clearly belong to the same person are the bare minimum!

41. Find people you trust to critique your work

Sure, this isn’t always doable on a deadline, but for content you really consider to be representative of your voice, have a trusted (and ruthless) professional connection (like an editor) who can pick the whole thing apart. This will make you a better writer.

42. Develop mindfulness

I’m not talking about meditative practice. Mindfulness in the context of your career means paying attention to what works. You consume content for your own purposes all the time — education, entertainment, you name it. Try to reverse-engineer what you’re seeing. What about the headline made you click? What about the article kept you reading? Did you start getting bored at any point? Did you click away before you were finished? Why? What would have kept you going? What would you have done differently?

43. Set manageable goals

If you’re like me, you wake up most mornings feeling like you’re either going to take over the world, or that you need to talk yourself into getting out of bed. Both cases turn out to be bad predictors of my overall productivity. I either overestimate what I can do when I’m feeling good, or underestimate when I’m feeling lazy or unmotivated. Set manageable goals for yourself. If you get through you list and have some extra giddyup, keep going!

44. Don’t just schedule it, segment it

We’ve already made a few points about making sure to have passion projects on the side. This point is about figuring out which times of day better suit each kind of writing you do. If you work all day and try to leave a few hours at night for creativity, but find that you feel more creative in the morning than at night, then switch it up! Spend a few hours on passion projects during the day and clean up any day-job responsibilities in the evening.

45. Whatever you want to write, there’s a structure for it

A lot of young writers think that they can just sit down with a blank page and follow their thoughts wherever they go. That might be a good exercise for teasing out interesting ideas, but the result is rarely publishable. Every kind of writing you want to do, from clickbait listicles to the great American novel, has a format. Learn it.

46. Develop business skills

Being a good writer isn’t enough. You’re going to need to develop some business management skills, some marketing skills, some accounting, even some interpersonal soft skills. That last point might be the most important of all. You might not physically see people you work with often (or at all), but like we’ve said before, writing is still a people business.

47. Don’t show your mom your work

What I mean is, don’t go to your mom, or your friends, or a spouse, for feedback. They’re going to love it no matter what, and even if they do have notes, you’re probably not going to take them anyway. Ask mom and co. for shares when it’s done, not feedback during the process.

48. Treat every relationship as a win/win

Let’s say you’re given a regular byline by a publisher. Not only is this a huge opportunity for you to shine, it’s also an opportunity to return value to the publisher and make them and their brand look good. This is a mutually beneficial relationship. Be mindful of this always. If your jobs aren’t mutually beneficial, quit.

49. Find the heterodox take

A lot of writers struggle with originality. “What can I say that hasn’t already been said?” If that’s you, see if there’s an opportunity to go against the grain. Is the status quo wrong, or outdated? Can you make a persuasive case that the dominant opinion on a topic is misguided, or missing critical information? Can you get 1,000+ words out of it?

50. DON’T FALL for ‘get rich quick’ promises

There are a lot of resources out there that purport to help freelance writers launch their careers with promises of six-figure incomes and houses on the beach. Take these with a bucket of salt. It is possible to become an elite freelance writer that makes that much money and works to the sound of the ocean in the background, but there are no fast solutions. Success in this field is like success in the gym. It takes time, patience, and discipline.

Hey, look at you! You made it halfway!

You’re doing great. Now might be a good time to get up and walk around, grab a drink of water, use the bathroom, whatever.

And yes, we really do have 50 more pieces of advice to give you. Buckle up!

51. Make friends with editors

We alluded to this in #41, but let’s spend a little more time on the point. Think about how much you can get out of a professional relationship with an editor. Not only can they help you improve as a writer, they can give you insights into what editors look for in a pitch, a reliable long-term freelancer, and more. Seek these connections out!

52. Improve your craft, but with purpose

A lot of writers think they get better by just practicing. Practice is important, but don’t forget to seek out and learn new skills, as well. Keep an eye out for blog posts, courses, and podcasts that go deep on hard skills.

53. Tell the truth

If you don’t believe it, don’t write it. If you do believe it, make sure you can back it up. On that note…

54. Make sure you know how facts work

A fact is information that can be verified by more than one qualified source. If information is alleged or unconfirmed, disclaim it as such or avoid it altogether. On THAT note…

55. Learn where facts come from

Figure out where good, reliable information comes from, and how to attribute it. While this arguably most important in journalistic writing, good research skills matter in more forms of writing than you think!

56. Say ‘yes’

Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson once said, “If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say ‘yes,’ then learn how to do it later.” Same goes for writing! Just make sure you deliver in the end.

57. Don’t forget to have something to say

Writing is about more than stringing pretty words together. Every piece of copy, from a tweet to a novel has a purpose, a goal, and a message. Make sure you have a clear idea of what it is going in.

58. Keep things simple

Figure out one point you want to make. Or three. Build your content around that. Otherwise you might ramble.

59. Write short sentences

It helps readability (and SEO for web).

60. Eliminate adverbs

Yes, adverbs are words too, and they can add flavor to your copy. “Eliminate adverbs” may sound like pretentious novelist advice, but give it a try. You’d be surprised how often you don’t need them, and how using fewer of them makes them more effective.

61. Write extra on your first pass so you have plenty to cut

Believe me, you will.

62. Network

Writers may be fiercely competitive for gigs, but they’re reliable for shares!

63. Think about how it’ll age

Don’t write anything that might come back to haunt you later. (Later? Trying to come up with 100 writer tips is haunting me now). This doesn’t just apply to writing hot takes on controversial topics. It also applies to phoning it in and submitting bad copy!

64. Take a persuasive writing course

What you’ll learn, even in a basic 101 course, will apply to almost every form of writing from ad copy to an op-ed for a major magazine. And…

65. Become a student of psychology

How people think and what they respond to is critical to good writing. If you’re going to “read more” to become a better writer, throw in some nonfiction as well. (If I can make a couple of recommendations, Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman and Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger are good places to start).

66. Don’t write anything you wouldn’t enjoy reading yourself

The jobs that pay don’t always overlap with our passions, but take pride in your work regardless. Offer something in everything you write that you think is missing, or you would enjoy discovering as a reader.

67. ‘And’ is a great place to start a new sentence

Working on that “shorter sentences” tip from #59? A little stuck? Look at those long sentences. Did you say “and” anywhere? Try cutting your sentence in half right there.

68. Assume people will read your work

They will! And, equally as important…

69. Don’t read the comments

Ignore unhappy people blowing smoke on Twitter, in comments, or in reviews. If you feel confident in your work and know you did a great job, there’s no reason to rain on that parade.

70. Get rid of distractions

Don’t work with Netflix on in the background. It doesn’t work. Tune out your distractions so you can work faster and better. Then you’ll have plenty more Netflix time later.

71. Don’t reward yourself if you didn’t accomplish anything

We’ve all tried sitting down to write only to waste our time on something else instead. We move on, feeling a little guilty, but reassure ourselves it’s “part of the process.” Well, cut it out. Reward yourself for completing something, not almost starting.

72. Don’t announce ‘plans,’ announce ‘dates’

Research shows that publically announcing your goals makes you less likely to accomplish them. I know, I know, you think that putting yourself out there will create accountability. But the opposite is true. You get just enough of an endorphin kick from your friends cheering you on that you feel accomplished enough to do … absolutely nothing. Instead, do the work and announce the release date. Then it’s already done and you deserve that cheering.

73. Get a hobby

This is technically not writing advice, but your writing will benefit from it. Don’t make writing your life. Find something else to do that you can enjoy. Engage the other parts of your brain and body. And hey, if you get really good at that thing, maybe it can become a new niche for your writing as well.

74. Write for ‘scanning’

Short sentences? Check. Short paragraphs? I know it feels weird to have some paragraphs that are a sentence or less, but varying your paragraph size helps with readability, the all-important SEO metric. Try it.

75. Offer to do guest posts

Find blogs or other sites that cover topics you know like the back of your hand. I mean topics you know so well you take them for granted. Topics you don’t even think of as niches yet. But they are, so use that to build your portfolio.

76. Treat every opportunity like an American Idol audition

It’s tough, I know. Some opportunities don’t feel like they’d go anywhere, and others are just for some quick cash. But you never know which employers need more work at higher levels, with more regularity, and for more money, so always aim to impress.

77. Water down your vocabulary

You’ve probably heard that writers need to build a big vocabulary. Maybe for your novel, but keep it between a 5th and 10th-grade reading level for everyone else.

78. Outline

Yes, I know, you feel like you have the topic down pat. Or, you can research whatever you need on the fly and it’ll just be much faster that way. But trust me, taking the time to sit down and outline your main points, pull in the research you need to support each, and fill it in from there is the more efficient way, and it results in better copy. Going rogue without an outline just increases your chances of getting stuck or turning in mediocre copy with too much bloat.

79. Learn your hooks

A lot of writers starting out think that the lift is in the body of whatever they’re writing, and often give barely a thought to the intro or those transitions that keep readers going throughout the copy. But hooking the reader and keeping them engaged is critical to successful copy of any kind. Spend more time studying what works there than anything else, because if you can’t get a reader invested, they’re not sticking around for the hard work you put into the rest of the piece.

80. Learn the art of the title

No matter what you’re writing, the title needs that perfect balance of relevance, emotional trigger, and creativity. The title is the reader’s first impression of your work, so take the time to learn the craft and apply it with purpose.

81. Find tools

Grammarly, CoSchedule Headline Analyzer, Yoast SEO, and many more. Find and use whatever tools you can get your hands on to help you improve your writing.

82. Ask for shares

You’re never too good to ask people to share your work. I know it feels awkward, but anyone you ask can always say “no,” so you might as well make the attempt!

83. Keep writing and editing separate

Some jobs require you to edit on the fly, I get it. But whenever you can, give yourself some breathing room between the writing and the editing. You’ll be surprised how often what sounded like a good idea at the writing stage doesn’t hold up after you’ve slept on it.

84. Every word adds value

Some jobs come with arbitrary word counts. For others, writing a few more pages or paragraphs feels like the right thing to do. But don’t let length corner you into providing low-value content. Filler. Fluff. You know what it is. You’re a word person. You know how to squeeze a few more words out of a sentence. But it’s a bad habit to get into. Make sure every word adds value.

85. Learn from the mistakes of other writers

We’ve all read something that seemed to fall a little flat or feel a little awkward (not this blog post though, right? RIGHT??). Take a mental note. What didn’t work? How would you make that point better?

86. Ask for examples

Whenever you take a new job, ask your clients for previous examples of copy they felt was particularly successful for them or representative of who they are. What they give you speaks volumes about what they want to see. Reverse-engineer it and then do better.

87. WWWWWH

No matter what you’re writing, there’s a “who, what, when, where, why, and a how. Take the time to figure out the answers to these questions when you’re outlining.

88. Don’t ask for feedback

Not from your employer, anyway. Most of them don’t have the skillset, the vocabulary, and especially the time to help you figure out what you need to work on. Develop a network of peers to help you with that.

89. Always ask for another job

If it was a one-time gig or the employer just says “no,” then cut your losses and moe on quickly.

90. Watch for redundancy

We use the same words, the same turns of phrase, and the same metaphors all the time. Double-check your work.

91. Don’t put yourself in this situation

The one where you have no choice but to rush, or turn in subpar work. Maybe you’d never done a particular kind of job before and didn’t know how long it would actually take you. Maybe it’s good old-fashioned procrastination. Either way, don’t let it happen.

92. Compliment good craft

When you see other writers do something well, take some time to compliment them on it. Nobody notices those little craft quirks but other writers. Let’s lift each other up!

93. Don’t turn in copy with a single error

‘Nuff said.

94. Pay it forward

Writers are competitive, but there are ways we can help each other out. If you’ve outgrown a gig or are in a situation where you’re offered a good opportunity that’s below your pay grade, pass it along to someone earlier in their career who can handle it.

95. Read it out loud

If it doesn’t sound right to you, it won’t read right, either.

96. Aggregate experts, not ideas

A lot of writing requires research. But don’t just look around for generic ideas to put into your article. Find the experts, and quote them by name. Add your own questions and insights (or those of your client) on top of it.

97. Remember…

You want to tell your reader what to do with the information you’re giving them, no matter what you’re writing. Have a clear idea of what that is, and explicitly say it. Don’t leave it to their imaginations.

98. Formatting hacks

A lot of these tips are about readability and keeping readers hooked. If you can’t tell by now, the format itself plays a huge role in that. Where to place headings, how to tease with hooks and transitions, short sentences and paragraphs — learn how to upgrade your copy with formatting tricks.

99. Be competitive!

Be the best damn writer and write the best damn content you can.

And finally…

100. Kill passive voice FOREVER.

Yes, this is the most important tip. Passive voice is one of the top giveaways of an immature writer. Destroy it with impunity. This blog post is 5,000 words long, and you better believe I went through it after my first draft and eliminated as much passive voice as humanly possible.

You made it! Thanks for sticking with us to the end.

I hope you found these tips useful. If so, please share this article, or the tip you found most useful, with your network. Once again, find me on LinkedIn if you have questions or want to keep the conversation going.

If you’re a new freelance writer looking for more writing tips, you might get a lot out of our Writer’s Guide to SEO (it’s free, doesn’t require a download or anything). If you’re looking for ways to show your work to your clients, you can also sign up for a free ProWriter profile here.

What makes a good writer? Tips for writers

Career Help

What makes a good writer? 5 important things to focus on

by Dusten Carlson

June 29, 2020

There’s a lot of advice floating around blogs and social media about what it takes to be a good writer. But it can be difficult for new writers to figure out what to prioritize. Which tips create a map to success, whatever that means for you?

Our advice? Skip generic advice.

Let’s start from scratch here. What makes a good writer?

Becoming a good writer requires a combination of learning hard skills and becoming more disciplined in your creative habits. Although natural talent and creativity are part of the secret sauce, a lot of promising writers fail to launch because they rely too much on passion or waiting for inspiration and too little on cultivating professional skills.

We’ll get to the skills here shortly, but first, I want to spend some time on the mistakes most writers early in their careers make.

First things first: Avoid these writing mistakes

I want to focus on this first in part because I believe the cliche that everyone has at least one great novel in them.

I also think that the reasons that prevent most people from becoming writers at all are mostly self-inflicted.

Whether you want to write the great American novel, become a successful columnist, or design marketing campaigns that inspire people to take action, the first step is deleting everything pop culture has ever told you about these jobs from your brain.

Successful authors conjure mental images of quiet lives spent in cabins by lakes, or in cottages in English countrysides. Admittedly modest lifestyles, but ones where money isn’t really a worry and most days are spent listlessly drifting between your fireplace-lit reading nook and your typewriter.

The truth is, most authors make about $26 an hour, and their days are mostly comprised of research, fact-checking, follow-ups, and outlines. The workflow more resembles the tedious building of a house than composing a beautiful symphony.

This is “deadline face”

Let’s do columnists. A lot — a lot — of ink has already been spilled by better writers than I about the Carrie Bradshaw myth. TL;DR, a Sex and the City lifestyle is not doable on the average columnist’s salary.

No one is rolling out of bed to write a quick column and then spending the rest of the day at brunch, either. The real-life Carrie Bradshaws of the world grind.

Disappointing, I know

What about creatives at fancy ad agencies? Long gone are the leisurely smoke- and gin-filled meeting rooms of the Mad Men era, if they ever existed as depicted on the popular AMC show.

Ad agencies today are packed with underpaid Millennials working grueling schedules and experience some of the highest burnout and turnover of any industry.

Real employees, most of the time

Sure, all this makes most professional writing jobs sound like they’re human meat grinders. That’s not our intention.

**What we’re trying to get across here is that writing, in all of its forms, is a job.**

Before we can offer our advice on what’s important to focus on, it’s important to understand the context of where we’re coming from.

To set the stage for becoming a good writer, we have to weed out some of the romanticism most people associate with a career in writing. That will help you focus on what matters early on so you can develop the necessary raw skills and hopefully, ultimately, become the good writer you want to be.

We have to eat our veggies before dessert.

That means worrying a lot less about “developing your voice” (whatever that means), not waiting around for inspiration to kick in, and avoiding the trap of relying on your natural abilities to shine through no matter what.

Your “voice” is going to develop the same way your muscles grow when you exercise. Inspiration isn’t going to show up enough to pay the bills, and when it does, it will hardly ever be on your schedule.

A natural writing talent is an asset — but a professional writer who has taken the time to develop the right skills and disciplines will run laps around a writer with no skills and no discipline. They will be more successful even if they don’t possess as much raw talent.

If you’ve made it this far, that means you’re serious about learning what it takes to be a good writer. That’s great! Here are 5 foundational things to focus on.

5 tips to turn beginners into good writers

So you’ve lost your romantic notions about what makes a good writer. Now what?

Hopefully, two things have happened. One, you understand that the path to becoming a successful writer (whatever that means to you) is hard work.

But…

Two, hopefully you realize that it’s actually doable.

If you thought that success was a matter of waiting to be discovered and only a fortunate few make it into that club, this should come as a relief.

I’m sure you’ve heard about how JK Rowling was sent no less than 12 rejection letters from publishers before her first book was published.

Ouch.

Try to actually picture that. Try hanging your hopes on one publisher. Then two. Then three. All the way up to 12. Imagine hearing “no” every day for a year.

Most of us would have given up, right?

All that’s standing between you and your version of success as a writer is your own work ethic. Don’t wait around to be discovered (it doesn’t happen), and don’t let “no” discourage you (you’ll hear it more than you hear “yes”).

If you’re just starting out, here’s our advice. These tips are practical, but we also wanted them to be as specific as possible for people who want to become good writers that can make a living.

We skipped stuff like “read a lot” or “write with passion.” Good advice, but I think it distracts from some of the practical steps writers need to take at the start of their careers to develop the skills they need to be truly competitive.

I’d love to hear your feedback. If these tips helped you, please give me a shout on LinkedIn. Or, feel free to tell me where you think I went wrong here. I’m a big boy, I can handle it.

No. 1 — Learn the hard skills for whatever you want to write

I’ll keep saying it until someone proves me wrong — natural talent is not enough.

Whatever you want to write, whether it’s a press release, an SEO-optimized blog post, a graphic novel, a clickbait listicle, the great American novel, or even a tweet, everything has a format and a structure.

This is why “just sit down and write” isn’t always the best advice. It implies that you already have everything you need in your toolkit, and can rely on your creativity and discipline to find success.

Natural talent is not enough. Learn the hard skills and structures for whatever it is you want to write. #writertip Click To Tweet

Creativity and discipline are important, but they’re not the whole pie. People have already figured this stuff out; you can stand on the shoulders of giants here.

There’s no need to rely on trial and error through your screenplay. It’ll be a mess.

Whatever you want to write, if you want to be a good writer, learn the hard stuff — the structure, what works, what doesn’t. Once you put in your time, you can get more creative.

No. 2 — If you’re a writer, you’re a business. So learn business.

Being a good writer is about so much more than just good writing, though.

I preferred my creative writing courses to Intro to Business back in college too, but I’ll be the first to admit I wish I’d paid more attention to the latter.

Whatever kind of writing you do, if there’s going to be money involved, you’re going to need to learn some basic business skills on the fly.

Whatever kind of writing you do, you're going to need to learn some basic business skills as well. #writertip Click To Tweet

Don’t diminish or skip this — everything from contract negotiation to figuring out how to pay your taxes will become part of your routine. You might need to build a website, or a portfolio of your work to attract clients. You’ll need to find creative ways to market yourself.

You’ll be the talent, the manager, the publicist, and the accounting department all in one.

No. 3 — Don’t sacrifice readability to style

A writer once asked me to review a creative writing sample for a YA fantasy novel she was working on. After reading a few paragraphs I said “you have some interesting ideas here, but it’s really dense, there are a lot of words I don’t know, and I don’t really know who or what this story is about.”

She replied, “Yeah, it’s supposed to be impenetrable.” So I handed it back and said, “Well, then it’s probably not supposed to be YA.”

It’s not just a problem for aspiring novelists. I run into a lot of writers who try to impress with a big, sweeping vocabulary and complex sentences, even in relatively straightforward “how to” articles.

But unless there’s a justifiable reason for it, you should write everything for a general audience. I’m sure you’ve heard that familiar cliche about The New York Times being written at a 5th-grade reading level (it’s actually 10th grade, but who’s counting).

You should write everything for a general audience. #writertip Click To Tweet

You definitely have your own stylistic quirks, and that’s okay. Maybe you’re verby, or like using lots of metaphors. I’m not saying you should water your writing down to some arbitrary standard of mediocre prose.

Just water down you to a level where everyone can understand what you’re saying.

Oh, and “it’s just my style” is not a justifiable reason.

No. 4 — Reverse engineer your career path from your ultimate goal

In addition to writing skills, business skills, and readable copy, you need a goal.

Start big.

But then, break the goal down into component parts.

What steps do you need to take to get there? What skills do you need to develop, what city do you need to relocate to, who do you need to make connections with?

To be a good writer, you need a goal. Start big. #writertip Click To Tweet

Is there someone who has achieved what you want? What did they do to get there? What have they said publicly about the challenges they faced, and what can you learn about that?

Follow them on social media. Can you learn anything about their habits or attitudes or work ethic from the content they post? (Hint: writers never stop writing, so the answer to this is yes, yes you can).

No. 5 — Make it a habit

I promised we’d avoid generic advice, but bear with me on this one.

Whenever you see advice like “just sit down and write!” whoever’s saying it isn’t telling you the whole truth.

When I tell writers they need to make writing a habit, they roll their eyes and smile. “I know, I know,” they say as though I’m telling them to schedule a dentist appointment.

But what if that advice sounded more like a warning? What if instead of a gentle reminder to be proactive with your health, it was a dire plea to change a lifestyle habit that is already destroying your health?

I think this is the mindset aspiring writers need to adopt. Because nobody is waiting for you to finish your book, your graphic novel, or your column. If it never comes out, nobody notices. Nobody knows what they lost because they don’t know what they could have had.

Except you.

The only person who can help you find success as a good writer is you.

The only person standing in your way? Same person.

“Make writing a habit” is an implicit admission that we are our own worst enemy, creatively speaking. Don’t let the enemy win!

More resources for writers

I hope you found this advice helpful.

If you’re looking for more resources for aspiring writers, or paying gigs to help kickstart a creative career, subscribe to our newsletter.

You can also set up a free writing portfolio here.

Career Help

7 Podcasts That’ll Make You A Better Freelance Writer

by Dave Polykoff

December 9, 2019

Freelance writing can be a crazy competitive career field, so it’s essential to always be learning and growing.

These 7 podcasts can help you improve your skills, creativity, and productivity, and teach you more about the business side of writing.

#AMWriting

This podcast covers everything you need to know about writing books, such as how to write your first draft, how to crush it with self-promotion, and how to find an agent.

Co-host KJ Dell-Antonia is a former editor at the New York Times, and fellow co-host Jessica Lahey is a NYT-bestselling author.

The Accidental Creative

If your goal is to conquer the world with your brand and your ideas, then this podcast hosted by Todd Henry is perfect for you.

It’s chock full of inspirational ideas and thought leadership, so it’s definitely worth listening to on a regular basis.

Better Biz Academy

Coach Laura is a highly successful freelance writer who gives away all her deepest secrets on her podcast. These include how to land quality freelance writing gigs and how to build a sustainable and rewarding business.

Beyond The To-Do List

This podcast was made for freelancers who want to reduce stress and improve their productivity, creativity, and focus.

Host Erik Fisher and his guests talk about things like self-care and why it’s important to take breaks sometimes, instead of being constantly obsessed with work.

High-Income Business Writing Podcast

For those who aspire to earn six figures or more through freelance writing, coach Ed Gandia is your guy.

He interviews some of the top freelance writers in the world on his podcast, which covers a wide variety of topics that can help you become a top writer too.

Grammar Girl

Even if you feel like your grammar’s perfect, you should definitely check out the Grammar Girl podcast.

It covers everything from how to use semicolons properly to the minute differences between very similar words, so you’ll definitely learn a lot.

Writing Excuses

This podcast geared toward fiction writers features a panel of published authors from various genres explaining things like character arc and how to insert elements like humor or romance into your stories, plus they cover the business side of fiction writing.

It’s now in its thirteenth season, and the four main hosts have since written a book together.

Listening to podcasts every day is one of the simplest ways to improve your game as a freelancer, and the best part is that you can just play them in the background while doing your usual daily tasks.

Career Help, Writer Tip

Common Writing Mistakes Every Writer Should Watch For

by Dave Polykoff

October 31, 2019

Writing mistakes can quickly ruin even the best-researched and well-written pieces. New writers may feel intimidated by all the grammatical, story flow and other rules whether written or unwritten.

To forge ahead, understand that a handful of key tips can help avoid writing mistakes consistently. Don’t repeat the same mistakes over and over; and in the process strengthen your writing work potential.

Know Contractions

First, know how contractions operate. They just combine two words, as in “you” and “are” into “you’re.” When in doubt about it’s vs. its, or your or you’re, try this. Insert the option with the apostrophe, then say it aloud as the two words it’s supposed to represent. For instance, if you wrote “It’s you’re game,” say it without the contraction. “It’s you are game” indicates to use “your” instead.

You vs. you’re, its vs. it’s, and they’re-their are among the most common grammatical problems with writing. Often the option without the apostrophe, such as their, your and whose, describe possession of something: like your game in the example above. But saying it aloud is an easy trick.

Straightforward Grammatical Rules

Simple grammatical mistakes can convince readers that an article is sloppy or untrustworthy. Get comfortable that when choosing between “who” and “that,” go with who if it refers to a person. Joe is a driver who rarely speeds. Picking “then” or “that”? Remember than helps compare things. You’re better than that.

Some little writing rules are straightforward. Never use “alot” – a lot refers to a huge number of something, and allot means to assign or share. “Alot” is nothing.

Beyond Spelling and Grammar

Beyond grammatical and spelling errors in writing, important things to avoid are sentences that are too long or have too many commas. Good, easy-to-read text is best in bite-sized pieces. Keep sentences short. If you run across a long sentence divided by a comma, consider making it two sentences.

Same with too many commas in a sentence; it can break a reader’s train of thought and possibly confuse. Again, consider breaking the sentence into separate thoughts, or use a semicolon instead. To delete a comma, try “but,” “and,” “if,” “since” or “although” instead.

Eliminate Clutter and Plan Ahead

A writing mistake to avoid is clutter. If something seems to interfere with the flow of text or a reader’s ability to digest content, eliminate or replace it. Examples can include too many quotation marks around words; the above-mentioned overuse of commas; and too many pronouns.

Finally, a big writing mistake to avoid is disorganization. Either start from an outline or rough sketch of points you want to make and in what order, or in the end broadly review a draft from the perspective of organization. Does A lead to B which leads to C? Think of paragraphs as acts in a play.

Help guide the audience along with transitional words or sentences between acts, or with formatting options like subheadings or bullet points.

Career Help, Writer Tip

Simple Tips to Keep Freelance Clients Happy

by Dave Polykoff

October 24, 2019

No two freelance clients are alike. Any freelance writing veteran can tell you keeping clients happy can depend on a number of factors, including a company’s size, the industry, or personalities involved. Still, there are a few tips for keeping freelance clients at peace that seem to apply to most of them.

Deliver on Time

Always meet given deadlines seems simple. Make it a habit by properly planning ahead, and this super-simple tip pays dividends on a broad scale. Remember, time is money in business, so lost time equals lost money.

Know Their Wants

It can seem easy to get a topic and keywords and go off to the races to deliver. Not so fast: first you should truly ascertain what the business does, and what it wants. Knowing the end goal should help in producing the content, whether its more leads, more sales or just more attention. Acquaint yourself with all the client information you can to truly know the audience and purpose of the content.

Provide Quality

It seems a no-brainer, but learn to be consistent in weaving in search engine optimization best practices into colorful and engaging content, and you limit opportunities for complaints. Think how your client’s audience might type phrases into search engines, and lace that into paragraphs.

Compete Well

Along the lines of No. 3, go the extra mile to ensure your content uses top-quality, credible sources, and information from high-traffic websites to solidly back up your writing. Properly research topics, validate your work and compare well with the many other freelance writers out there.

Communicate

Never hesitate to ask clients questions if you have them, and try early on to establish an easy and comfortable line of communication. It doesn’t have to be lengthy conversations, either. Send one-line progress reports, ask a question well before deadline, or just post-submission feedback to keep communication lines robust.

Finally, try to go above and beyond what is asked. Spend extra time to consider what clients may need or want next. Simply suggesting new topics can do wonders toward making freelance clients happy. And nurturing satisfied clients keeps jobs coming and helps bring even more work.