Freelance writing can be as rewarding as it is stressful. So
if you’re thinking about being a freelance writer and wishing to lean more
towards the rewarding instead of the stressful part, you need to acquire some
skills.
.
There are 5 skills
that all freelance writer must have. What are they? Read on to find out.
Time Management
Being self-employed gives you a great amount of freedom. You can choose when you want
to sit down and write. However, on the other side of the coin, such freedom can
backstab you when you can’t manage your time.
.
Spending an hour or two a day to play your favorite video
game or watch your favorite TV series is alright. But when you start to forget
that you have a deadline to meet, you’ll be rushing things to get stuff done.
Do your best to have a schedule and stick to it for real.
Editing and Proofreading
Writing, editing, and proofreading go hand in hand.
Everything you’ve written must pass the editing phase before you submit it to
the client. Check each sentence and see if it fulfills a purpose. Then check for spelling, grammar, and punctuation
mistakes. Remember that every time you add something new to your work, you
need to do both the editing and proofreading too.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
With millions of websites out there, you need to stand out
in the eyes of search engines. One way to improve the visibility of your
content is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The basic is to incorporate search terms or keywords
into your content so search engine.
.
SEO doesn’t mean that you should stuff keywords into your
content at the cost of readability. The days when you can list hundreds of
words in a page and rank well for each and every one of them had long past.
.
Always pay attention to keyword density – the number of
times a keyword is written divided by the total number of words in the article.
Different industries may have different acceptable ranges of keyword density so
you should research it for before writing the content.
Content Management System (CMS)
Making a website from scratch costs a lot of time and money.
Many people choose the easier way to build their website using Content
Management System (CMS). CMS makes it simple to set up and customize a small to
medium website. Knowing how to use a CMS is essential as you may be asked to manage
the website content too instead of just writing them.
Adaptability
As a writer, you must be able to adapt to various content
types as well as different platforms to publish them.
.
Often times your clients will ask you to produce a variety
of writing for different purposes. Some examples are:
- promotional piece such as a landing page for
their new products and services - blog posts to attract traffic
- proposals and various business documents,
- social media posts to improve their social media
recognition.
Be flexible and embrace change. That’s what great freelancers
do to stay in the game.
—
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OK, did the list above seem overwhelming? No worries. Take
your time to polish one skill at a time and you’ll soon be a successful
freelance writer.
Keyword: web novel