Do you want to be a professional freelance writer and make a fortune or pay your bills? Writing is a big industry and some people are making millions if not Billions. However, there are others that would wish to earn the same too but they do not have any experience. We all know that experience is very essential in this field.
So that’s why I’ve decided to help you understand some of the useful resources that you will need to get started or boost your experience. Furthermore, I will give you some insights on how to get or use them. I hope that you will learn something new today.
The most important step that you need to make is gathering all the tools needed to start. I’m talking about a laptop, phone, and internet connection. These are the most essential tools needed to kick start your professional writing career
Of course, you will need other tools such as a desk and a chair. Lastly, you need to be as far as possible from distractions. For example, children, TV and noisy friends. If you get all these things together then you can move on to the second step which is training. Not the college type of training but self-training. But if you are reading this that means self-training isn’t a problem for you. After achieving those steps then you can start gathering more resources to boost your writing career
10 important resources for every professional freelance writer
1. Freelance accounts
A professional freelance writer needs to own at least one freelance account. It will be going to help you acquire clients that will pay you to write for them. Besides, these accounts will protect you from clients that advantage of susceptible writers. I highly recommend using Fiverr as a beginner. But their a couple of others you can use. For example:
- Upwork
- People per hour
- Guru
- Freelancer
- DotWriter
- Textbroker
Note that it may take some time for you to land a client for beginners. But you can search for tips on how to land your first client on the account that you choose. If you decide to start on Fiverr, I have a complete guide that will help you land your first client.
2. Grammarly
Grammarly is a very important tool for everyone, either you are a native writer or not. It helps to correct spelling mistakes and also punctuation marks. These two are some of the things that may hurt your career. Alternatively, you can upgrade to the latest Ms. Word because it has improved writing assistance.
3. Payoneer
So you have completed your first assignment but you don’t have a channel to receive payments. Payoneer is an international wallet that a good number of freelancers use to get paid across the world. This tool is a must-have for every freelancer that wants to receive or send payments
The best thing about Payoneer is that it is acceptable on most writing platforms. Besides, they only charge a small fee for sending your payment directly to your bank account. Payoneer is easy to sign up and it’s available across most countries.
4. Paypal
PayPal is one of the most popular payment to send and receive payments. You can use it as a second option if Payoneer is not available for you. The best thing about PayPal is that it’s a widely accepted platform. But, I have come across freelancers complaining about account limitations. You avoid this by using correct details and having the necessary documents.
5. Duplichecker
It’s always good to scan your documents for plagiarism. Even if you trust yourself 100%. This will ensure that you don’t deliver any plagiarized work to your clients. The biggest mistake that you can make as a writer is delivering plagiarized work. It can cost you clients or your freelance accounts.
Duplichecker is a free tool that you can use to scan up to 1000 words. If you have a very huge document you can split it to small parts. Alternatively, you can use grammarly premium and scan larger documents. Altthour there are many plagiarism checkers out there that you can use
6. Ubbersuggest
If you are in charge of coming up with topics for your client you will need some content ideas. This tool is the best for researching topics and looking up their SEO difficulty. In addition, it will show you, competitors, on every keyword that you search for. You can use this data to come up with better content for your client.
7. Google trends
Google Trends is another free tool to boost your research skills. That is if you are looking to write about trendy or viral content. It shows you the most current search volume trends.
8. Personal blogs
Having a person makes you a more professional freelance writer. Besides, it the best place to have samples that you can show some clients. Setting a blog is very easy and cheap all you need is a hosting plan a domain name. Then next you can install WordPress and finally upload your articles.
A personal blog will open you up to more potential clients.
9. VPN
A VPN is an important tool for you as a professional writer to stay safe online. Besides, you can use it to access any site that isn’t available for you due to your location. But you should be careful because your IP may be flagged as fraudulent when you use it to aces your freelance account or payment accounts such as PayPal. Always make sure that you’re using your real IP on the accounts to be safe.
10. Social media accounts
Social media accounts help freelancers to come together and share knowledge. Furthermore, you can use social media Such as Twitter, Linked and Facebook to look for potential clients. But you should be careful as there are some waiting to take advantage of you. Do not allow it! Always be keen on the people that you trust on social media.