I will tell you the one thing that freaked me out about freelance blogging.
So, you decided to get into freelance blogging.
I’ll bet you are tired of being a puppet working for a major corporation.
Well, my friend, there are 5 things you need to know right off the bat, but before we get to those 5 items there is a major step that you need to take first.
Don’t quit your day job to get into freelance blogging
Freelance blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. With that in mind, have you told your spouse or significant other yet?
You might consider for a minute that it’s very important to talk it over with your other half if you don’t want a huge amount of stress to come your way quickly. Sit down with them and explain your idea, and the pros and cons, before you make any decisions.
This was the one thing about freelancing blogging that freaked me out – telling my spouse that we could lose our security if I can’t make this work. So, I asked for her help in order to succeed.
She is now my editor and motivation to make it work. This is a good thing because I feel accountable to someone I am close to.
My wife and I are full-time owner/operators of a successful small business and I decided, after talking with her, that this would be a side gig until we make a certain amount of money and can afford to sell the brick and mortar business.
Let’s get back to “…it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
There is much to do and you will feel like it has to happen right now. Take your time to finish your website or at least get it to a point that you can use it.
Make sure you set up Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google My Business, so you have analytics to measure your ability to attract an audience and convert that audience into a sale, a comment or an email depending what you are trying to accomplish.
Get samples, post or articles together. Pick your best ones and make a portfolio for customers to see. This is how editors and website owners can judge your writing and writing style.
Now let’s get into those secrets you need to full-time freelance blogging.
If you want to start freelance blogging there is a lot you need to learn
- As a freelance blogger, you will receive an IRS Form 1099 at the end of the year. You will be expected to pay those taxes out of what you made as nothing is withheld from your pay. Please, heed my warnings don’t mess around with the IRS, they are not just another creditor.
So, you will need to save a percentage of your check and pay those taxes quarterly. Check with your tax advisor as to how much you should take out every time.
- You will need to get traffic to your blog post so you can grow an email list, sell your product or service. This becomes very real early on in your journey. If you are to succeed in freelance blogging, you must get a freeway of traffic coming to your blog.
There are lots of ways to do this like SEO, SMM, guest post, and my favorite cold email pitching. There is a lot to this, and I will help you find an answer in this post.
- I suggest that you learn the ins and outs of writing a post. Picking your headline is one of the most important things you will write because if they don’t click on your headline, they will never read your post.
The rule of thumb is 80% will read your headline, but only 20% will read your post. So, spend 80% of your time writing an email and 20% writing the body of the post.
A second most important part of a post is the introduction. It must be catchy to get your reader to read on and finish the post. That is the entire reason behind the introduction so learn to do it well.
- You will need to set up a website. This is a learning experience and takes time, but I can’t encourage you enough to do a WordPress website and do it yourself.
I wrote an article on Medium that explains why you should do this yourself. Check it out before you pay someone.
- Picking a topic is hard and easy at times.
There are all sorts of ideas to pick topics, but first, you need to find what industry you want to write in. I write in Business, Personal Finance and Technology.
Next is finding your niche like start-ups, entrepreneurship, loans, credit cards, web design and there are literally thousands of niches or sub-niches you can write about.
I would suggest you write about something you know. Like parenting, mathematics, gardening, executive decisions, etc. Maybe psychological topics, marketing, life or alternative lifestyles.
Maybe you are into horses, dogs or birds. Whatever you do professionally or as a hobby you are an expert and potentially have things worth writing about and an audience that wants to listen.
I have scratched the surface here but as you can see it gets confusing quickly. Being a full-time blogger or freelance blogging is hard work. It takes a determined individual to make it in this field. Tell me are you a determined individual?
You need someone that has been successful at this to guide you and show you what and how to do each task. It’s much easier, trust me, if you do things in an orderly manner.
How to get started in freelance blogging
I would suggest you take an inexpensive, but complete course on how to start freelance blogging. I took Elna Cain’s course, it taught me all the basics like how to find work, how to create a portfolio, how to package your work for a client and much more.
Elna has been doing this for 3 or 4 years and has been very successful. I took her course, which is why I feel comfortable recommending her to you.
The takeaway
Freelance blogging is hard, but it is also fun knowing that everything you are doing or investing in is to benefit you and your family. It’s also, in my opinion very attainable. But you can save a lot of time if you pay attention to this post.
Sure, there are lots of blogs out there, but most people get involved and try and do everything free. Those people never make it. The people that make it are the ones that jump in with both feet and don’t see failure as an option. Is that you? Leave a comment and let me know.
If you do all the things, we just talked about you will be successful. Just remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
I will be writing more on this topic so why not subscribe so I can send a notice when it is ready? Also share it on social media, because that is one way to increase traffic to my website.
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