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How to beat your Web writing competition - your portfolio

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

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This past week, I’ve received several emails, all on the question of low-paid Web writing and “$2″ writers. Nowadays it seems, anyone and everyone’s calling themselves a “writer” and is drag-netting the bottom of the writing pool, scooping up low-paid work.

That’s fine. If you have writing credits, you don’t want low-paid work - you’re NOT competing with low-paid writers, unless you want to.

I covered getting freelance writing gigs on the out-sourcing sites in a recent issue of Fab Freelance Writing Ezine, and made this point:

The Two Ways You Can Get Freelance Gigs Online - Branding, And Applying (AKA getting the customer to come to you, versus going to the customer)

The first way, branding, means that you get your name out there online. It’s the easiest way to get people to come to you and offer you work. This is why I hammer the promotions/ blogging/ get famous theme in ezine issues, and on my blogs and sites. It’s because it’s easy, and the effect is cumulative - it starts with a trickle and before you know it, you turn away much more work than you accept. You cherry-pick the best offers people make, because you can. You’re well paid for writing.

Branding is a MUST if you want to be paid well. The more people who know you as a Web writer, the more writing work you will get, and the more you can charge.

You must have a Web site to display your Web writing portfolio

BRANDING includes displaying your writing expertise to potential clients. YOU MUST HAVE A WEB SITE AND PORTFOLIO OF WRITING. I don’t know how to say it more plainly than that. If you want lucrative Web writing gigs, you must show clients samples of your work: how else do you establish credibility and trust?

Each and every one of the writers who complained about low-paid writing work and $2 writers etc was making no effort at all to differentiate themselves by showing what they’d accomplished. Not one had a Web site or blog. Not one had compiled a portfolio. To their clients, they seemed exactly the same as the $2 writers.

Perception is everything: USE your past writing to get new gigs

Take a moment or two to think about how you appear to your clients. Do you appear professional? Do you seem as if you know what you’re doing?

It’s show and tell when it comes to getting hired: show what you can do. Create a Web site and blog.

Yes, there’s low paid Web writing out there, but so what? Who cares? The level at which you choose to get writing gigs is up to you.

Display your portfolio, and charge appropriate rates for your level of expertise.