So you’ve decided to become a freelance writer? Congratulations! Welcome to a world where you continue to hone your craft in different voices, companies, and industries. You also get to live in a Week of Saturdays and work at your own pace.
But not so fast…
Before you jump in with two feet, you should master the craft of clean writing and the business aspect of being your own boss. Thankfully, there are 33 resources listed below to help you achieve this.
These resources will help you grow your writing skills and win and retain good clients. They will also help you overcome imposter syndrome, point you in the direction of lucrative writing opportunities, and connect you to online communities of professional writers.
We hope this list covers most of your questions and reservations about building a career as a thriving freelance writer. Scroll through to get started with 33 useful writing resources to guide you.
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Books you need to build a thriving freelance writing career
There are certain books you need to read to take your writing career to the next level. To get the best out of these books, it is ideal to schedule reading time into your day or week.
How to Set Up a Freelance Writing Business: An Insider Guide to Setting Up and Running Your Own Copywriting Business by Jason Deign
Ever thought of monetizing your copywriting skills? This book by Jason Deign, a successful copywriter, will get you off to a good start. It focuses on helping new, young copywriters build a thriving copywriting business and grow it to a scale you can manage.
How to Find Your Writing Voice by Ryan Biddulph
Do you have trouble writing in a way that sounds like you? This is a must-read. Ryan Biddulph, Amazon bestseller, shares techniques to find your writing voice, write better, and inspire your audience. It’s a practical book as Ryan shares writing secrets that helped him find his voice and sell an obscene amount of books on Amazon.
Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi
Whether you intend to be a part-time or full-time freelance writer, you will need the support of others to succeed. In this book, Keith shares several tips for reaching out to people and building valuable relationships. This is a recommended read for writers who want to get better at relationship building.
Content Everywhere: Strategy and Structure for Future-Ready Content by Sara Wachter-Boettcher
Great content alone doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s essential to make your writing future-ready, reusable, and flexible. Sara Wachter-Boettcher’s masterpiece guides you through this process. It teaches you to organize content and build your distribution systems in a way that makes your content reusable, long-lasting, and multi-purpose. Write once, share twice.
Online courses you need to build a thriving freelance writing career
A profitable freelance writer is always learning and upskilling. The writing and business courses listed below will help you keep your writing clean and expand your skillset to include pitching your services easily and building a career you do not need to escape from.
Cleaning Your Copy: Grammar, Style and More
This self-directed MOOC by News University guides you through the nitty-gritty of spelling, punctuation, AP style, and grammar. These are fundamental knowledge you need to satisfy a range of clients with different voices.
Writing for Brands: Freelancing in the Age of Content Marketing
This 30-minute Skillshare course breaks down how you can write for brands, content marketing basics, and ways to market yourself as a writer. Regardless of whether you intend to go full-time or part-time, this course teaches you useful pitching strategies, writing, and digital networking.
Writing With Confidence: Writing Beginner To Writing Pro
Described by some of its students as the best writing course on Udemy, this course teaches you powerful writing principles. The best part? These principles apply to different non-fiction writing, including emails, blogs, adverts, sales pages, white papers, and more.
Seth Godin’s Freelancer Course
If you’re seeking shortcuts, this course by Seth Godin is not for you. But if you’re interested in building a lasting and rewarding freelance writing career, you can sign up to learn from one of the best of our time – Seth Godin. By the time you’re done, you would know what you need to take your writing career to a new level.
Technical Writing from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
Technical writing is the most lucrative writing skill, according to our 2020 Freelance Writing Landscape Report. You can double your income by learning technical writing skills with this 4-week course. It teaches how to communicate technical knowledge in different formats and sound human even when writing about heavily technical subjects.
Blogs you need to build a thriving freelance writing career
The most sought-after freelancers are always ahead of the curve. One of the best ways to stay ahead of the curve is to sharpen your skills and stay ahead of industry trends. These blogs can help you stay ahead and aware.
Copyblogger
This is a blog for all things content marketing, writing, and social media marketing. It is valuable for any writer who wants to create irresistible content and stay on trend.
Week of Saturdays
Popularly known as the ‘home for writers,’ Week of Saturdays blog shares helpful tips on becoming a better writer, learning new mindsets, and excelling at handling the business aspect of freelance writing.
Make a Living Writing
If you are confused about how to build your dream freelance writing career, we recommend the Make a Living Writing blog. With over 1200 articles and resources on launching a successful writing career, you’re sure to find the thread that can get you started here.
Smart Blogger
Created with bloggers in mind, Smart Blogger contains advice on how to become an industry authority, increase readership, and command attention. Since blog writing is inevitable as a freelance writer, you may need to bookmark this blog.
Writers in Charge
This blog shares practical advice, case studies, and resources focused on helping professional writers succeed.
CoSchedule Headline Analyzer
80% of readers read your headline before anything else. To determine if your headline is magnetic enough, you can use CoSchedule Headline Analyzer. It determines your headline strength based on word balance, character length, and the current algorithms of search engines.
Cliche Finder
This software tool analyzes your content and highlights cliches and stale phrases in your article. You should use this tool if you want to create original and fresh engaging content.
Power Thesaurus
Redundant words, too many adjectives, and weak verbs kill your writing. Power Thesaurus helps to prevent weak writing by suggesting the right words for every purpose.
Copyscape
Plagiarism is a freelance writer’s deadly sin. You can ensure it doesn’t sabotage your work by using this tool, which analyzes billions of internet content for duplication traces.
Grammarly
This is one of our favorite writing tools at Week of Saturdays. You can (and should) use Grammarly to proofread and self-edit your work. It also helps you keep your writing concise, persuasive, and purposeful.
Communities you need to build a thriving freelance writing career
It’s easy to isolate yourself as a freelance writer, young or experienced. But you don’t need to live and work this way. You can collaborate and get you a support system of nerdy, writing like-minds. Here are some writing communities to get you started.
Copywriter club
Need conversations on strictly copywriting and marketing? You can apply to join the Copywriter Club community. It is a private Facebook page for writers to chat, share strategies, and improve each other’s writing.
Freelance to Freedom
Freelance to Freedom is a go-to support group for anyone looking to transit smoothly from 9-5 job to a freelance writing career.
Leapers
Leapers is a Slack community of over 1600 freelancers offering peer-to-peer mental health support. Leapers is an excellent and free community, whether you’re starting out or established as a freelance or remote-working writer.
Week of Saturdays
You should join this community if you’re a writer keen on improving your writing skills, getting real-time support from other writers, and receiving profitable writing opportunities.
Podcasts you need to build a thriving freelance writing career
There are podcasts for virtually any topic you can think of. Writing is not an exemption. In this section are some of the best podcasts to grow your writing, productivity, creativity, and business skills.
The Writers File
Each episode of The Writers File podcast breaks down famous and excellent writers’ habits. You get to listen, analyze, contrast, and grow with this knowledge.
The Copywriter Club Podcast
Each episode of this podcast features an in-depth conversation with a successful copywriter, leaving you with ideas worth stealing and adopting in your writing business.
The Accidental Creative
The Accidental Creative podcast is for you if you need inspiration for creative ideas. You should tune in weekly to get high motivation and bursts of creativity.
Better Biz Academy Podcast
A thriving writer herself, Laura Briggs shares juicy details about developing a satisfying and rewarding freelance business on this podcast.
The Writing Coach Podcast
This podcast deep-dives into freelance writers’ issues. From topics such as procrastination and pitching to interviewing other freelance writers about their writing processes and journey.
Job outlets you need to build a thriving freelance writing career
To maintain a profitable freelance writing career you don’t hate, you need to be selective with the clients you take on and where you find them. Below are five writing job outlets to keep you paid and above the noise.
Writers Access
Writers Access offers writing opportunities to writers of different levels. Client briefs range from blog-writing to technical and legal. Although the sign-up process is a bit lengthy, it may be worth it to you in the long run.
Scripted
Scripted is a writing platform that connects writers directly to companies. As a writer on Scripted, you get paid an average of ten cents per word and have full control over your workload.
Freelance Writing
For the efficient amongst us, this is an excellent choice. You can sign up for this daily morning newsletter to receive a list of handpicked writing jobs from People Per Hour, Indeed, Craigslist, and Problogger in your inbox.
The Write Jobs
If you are looking to secure higher-paying jobs, this job board is an excellent resource. You’ll find plenty of verified and good-paying writing jobs and clients on it.
Clear Voice
Clear Voice helps you find freelance writing jobs worth your time and talent. Signing up also increases your visibility as a writer and content creator.
Know of any more resources that help freelance writers and content creators build a thriving freelance writing career?
Please leave your suggestions in the comments. We’re happy to hear from you and include it.