Yesterday I spoke at Her Campus’ Her Conference. It was my second year speaking about freelance writing. I spoke on the Ditch the 9-5: How to Make it as a Freelancer panel, and this year I spoke on the How to Kill it as a Freelancer panel with Kaitlin Menza, Wendy Lu, and Elyssa Maxx. I admire all of the women on the panel and even found Wendy’s blog post when I googled “how to study for the Columbia Journalism School writing test” so I thanked her for helping me get in. 😉
Here is some of the best advice I learned from the panel:
Network, network, network:
Kaitlin credits networking early in her career to helping her land article assignments. She interned at Seventeen early in her career and did a stellar job and her former coworkers have given her new assignments as they’ve moved to different publications. Relationships are essential and it’s beneficial to maintain authentic relationships throughout your career.
Follow the ven diagram:
Elyssa talked about the ven diagram for being a successful freelancer: be nice, meet your deadlines, and do a great job. It’s that simple! Your editors will love you and they’ll send you assignments and be more likely to accept your pitches.
Work full-time while freelancing:
Wendy has a full-time job and is a freelance writer on the side. (That’s what I did too until I left my job last August to freelance full-time!) Working full-time gives her the flexibility to only the articles she wants to write because she has a steady income and doesn’t have to rely on the number of articles she writes. She says it also makes her more focused because she has less time to write and has to use it wisely.
Know your worth and ask for more:
I gave this advice! Once you’ve written four or more well-written articles for a publication, ask to become a regular contributor. I think this is the key to succeeding as a freelance writer, at least until you start getting very high-paying assignments. It’s scary to ask because you don’t want to be rejected, but the worst that can happen is they say “no” but to pitch one-off assignments. The best case is that they say “yes” and you have a guaranteed base income each month.
