(c) Ashley Gainer 2017
Hi! I'm Ashley, and I'm ridiculously excited that you've taken this first MAJOR step toward changing your life (and your family) with freelance writing. This starter pack is a super-condensed brain dump of everything you need to know to get started. It shows you where to focus, what to ignore (hint: everything NOT on the list), and how to take a few shortcuts toward making money from home as a freelance writer. I've been doing this since 2010, the majority of those years with tiny kids underfoot. I've seen writers come and go. I've seen them stall out. I've seen them take years to gain traction because they were following advice doled out by 20-somethings with no spouse, no mortgage, and no real constraints on their time. I'm one of those who took years to get traction, but finally I found someone who had been doing this for a couple years as a single mom, and she helped me figure out what I was doing wrong, what I needed to ignore, and how I could start making real money... even as an at-home single mom with no other income. But years of struggle won't be part of your story... not on my watch. Focus on the advice in here, read the occasional emails I'll send you, check out my blog for more advice, and never, ever, ever hesitate to get in touch with me. I'm rooting for you! Ashley Gainer ashley@ashleygainer.com www.ashleygainer.com
So you want to be a freelance writer? Good for you! Many freelancers fall into the major trap of focusing on the wrong things. That s why I made this list -- to show you the exact right things to focus on. If you can tackle these five steps with laser intensity, you ll have your first clients in no time. It takes effort and guts, but what s more important -- hiding behind fear or taking care of our babies? Step 1: Pick a niche or not. If you already know your knowledge/interest superpower, niche. If you get stuck in perfectionism or are a true beginner, don t niche and just apply for anything that looks interesting or tolerable. Want more help with niches? You can sign up for my FREE 5-day email challenge on picking a freelance writing niche here. Step 2: Put up a bare-bones website Your freelancer website doesn t need more than 4 pages 5 if you get on a roll: Home page, Portfolio page, Contact page, (optional) About page, and (optional) blog -- a great landing spot for your first clips. Step 3: Put together your writing samples, aka clips You could use some old stuff from work or school, but you d be better off coming up with new blog posts (hint: pick a niche topic if you decided on a niche). Make them about 500 words each and make 3. Step 4: Put together your pitch Put together a good pitch and then when you re done with it, copy and paste it into a Google Doc (or whatever you like) and make it a template -- something you can copy and paste into new emails -- so you aren t reinventing the wheel every time. Here s a good intro to pitching. Step 5: Find some job boards to pitch. These are the job boards I recommend: Problogger, Gorkana, and Journalism Jobs. The Write Life tends to have good lists of sites that pay writers in specific niches, and the BAFB Ultimate List is also a great resource. Questions? Email me any time at ashley@ashleygainer.com!
A Longer Pitch The Pitch Pitching the blog of a financial lending startup that targets millennials and is picking up a lot of attention. We ll call it Credit Crunchers. This pitch is a little long -- I d still send it, but you may want to go for something shorter. EMAIL SUBJECT LINE: Freelance pitch for Credit Crunchers The Intro Hi, [Name]! I m Ashley, a seasoned freelance writer specializing in personal finance. I ve been writing for the web since 2010, and in that time I ve been featured on sites like Credit Karma, Rockstar Finance, and HuffPost. Segue to Clips You can see some recent examples of my work here: Blog Post Title 1, a fun budgeting piece targeted to millennials; Blog Post Title 2, a guest post on Debt Roundup that got picked up by Business Insider; and Blog Post Title 3, a long-form piece for a client in the web design niche. I also have a portfolio of all my recent clips available here, and you can learn more about me at my website. What I m Really After & Some Ideas I recently discovered the Credit Crunchers blog and wow! You ve got some fantastic content -- great posts that cover interesting facets of personal finance that you just don t find
elsewhere. It d be a thrill and an honor to become a regular contributor to the blog. Would any of these ideas work for your audience? The Rubber Chicken -- my favorite frugal dinner (roasted chicken) that stretches across several meals. Bonus points for being nearly effortless but really impressive to dinner guests! Rent or Buy? The One Thing You Need to Consider -- an often-overlooked but important factor in the rent vs. buy a home debate 3 Reasons to Toss Your Budget -- debating the merits of budgeting vs. a conscious spending approach I d also be happy to pick any items off your wish list, if you have one. Sign Off Thanks for your consideration! You ve already got a great team of writers and I d love the chance to join them. If I don t hear from you in a week, I ll circle back. I look forward to working with you! All the best, Ashley A Shorter Pitch This is a much shorter version of the above pitch. Pick the aspects of each pitch that you like, and see what style ends up working for you and landing you the most clients! Generally speaking, shorter is better, but don t cut something important just to make a shorter pitch. Look for fluff to cut instead. PRO TIP: Test your pitches. Mix and match. What style of clip bullets gets more responses? What happens if you don t include your name in the first sentence? Does a follow-up time of two weeks cause any difference in response compared to saying you ll follow up in one week?
The Pitch Hi, [Name]! I m Ashley, a seasoned freelance writer specializing in personal finance. You can see some recent examples of my work here: Blog Post Title 1, a fun budgeting piece targeted to millennials Blog Post Title 2, a post that got picked up by Business Insider Blog Post Title 3, my most recent long-form piece I also have a portfolio of all my recent clips here, as well as a website. The Credit Crunchers blog is fast becoming a fantastic resource for millennials, and I would love to be able to contribute. Would you like to see any of these ideas? The Rubber Chicken -- my favorite frugal dinner (roasted chicken) that stretches across several meals. Bonus points for being nearly effortless but really impressive to dinner guests! Rent or Buy? The One Thing You Need to Consider -- an often-overlooked but important factor in the rent vs. buy a home debate 3 Reasons to Toss Your Budget -- debating the merits of budgeting vs. a conscious spending approach I d also be happy to pick any items off your wish list, if you have one. Thanks for your consideration! If I don t hear from you by Tuesday, I ll get back in touch. All the best, Ashley
Potential clients are everywhere. Here are my favorite places for beginners to find GOOD ones: But first: You need to aim for 10 cents per word! Ignore any and all potential gigs that want to pay you hourly or for low flat rates. Never, ever, ever, go lower than 7 cents per word. 1. The Write Life One of the great things TWL will do occasionally is put together lists of sites that pay for specific kinds of writing. These lists are good places to begin! (thewritelife.com/freelancing) 2. The Be a Freelance Blogger Ultimate List This list is updated annually (usually in July). It s a mega-list of every website the gals at BAFB can find that will pay writers $50 or more for a post. It takes a ton of guesswork out of it for newbies, and it s organized by niche so you can pick and choose what sounds interesting to you. (beafreelanceblogger.com/betterpaidbloglist) 3. ProBlogger Job Board ProBlogger is probably the most highly respected job board around for freelance bloggers (which is what we re doing). It gets tons of posts and many of them won t post their rate (or will show a low rate). Pitch anything that looks interesting, and then be ready to quote your rates when they respond! (problogger.com/jobs) 4. Contena Job Board (free or paid I recommend free) Contena is a job board with both free and paid account options. I ve never used the paid version, but the free board has a ton of great gigs. (contena.co) 5. Search Engines Some great search terms you can plug into a search engine to find new clients and writing gigs: Google: [topic] + write for us Google or Pinterest: websites that pay writers LinkedIn Job Search: remote writer (linkedin.com/job/home?trk=hb_tab_jobs_top)