Do you love blogging? Why not think about turning it into a career? Whether you’re looking to freelance full-time or adopt a side hustle – becoming a freelance blogger could be a great way for you to make money while indulging your passions. It’s not always an easy gig, but if you play your cards right, it could open some wonderful new doors for you.

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Do you think you have what it takes to be a freelance blogger? Learn more about how to get started and how to turn your venture into a success.

Getting started

Write your own blog

Before you can think about blogging for you living, you need to find out if you actually like it! By starting a blog, you’ll be able to test your skills and see if you feel happy and comfortable writing. Your blog can be about anything you want to be so long as it’s something you’re interested in!

Starting your own blog is a great way to get a feel for the format and to practice your writing. Learn how to write a good blog post and take it from there. You might even find that your blog becomes a success in its own right, allowing you to profit from your own work.

Get some experience

To start getting paid blogging work you’re going to need to build up some experience first. You could volunteer to write blogs for your workplace, submit guest blogs on other blogs or start using tools like Medium to publish your work. Build up a portfolio which shows you can write about different topics and work with a variety of clients.

Search for paid freelance work

When you’re ready to get going, start looking for paid freelance work. There are some fantastic websites that pay for freelance writing, or you can get some work through websites like Copify. People Per Hour is a great freelance job portal, allowing you to bid for jobs and sell your services to build up a rating and be able to work with a variety of clients.

You can also try contacting businesses in your local area to offer your services as a way to establish yourself near where you live. Having a face-to-face meeting with clients can help develop some great relationships and make both you and the client feel more at ease about the partnership. While a lot of freelance blogging work is handled successfully online, be wary of dealing with people you can’t verify.

Always be professional and polite when communicating with your clients. Ask them for a detailed brief and agree any fees before you commence the work. For new clients, it might be worth asking them to pay a retainer to ensure that you’re protected financially, as unfortunately some companies or individuals can try to take advantage.

Managing your blogging work

Create a schedule

Blogging is a creative job, and it can be difficult to stay focused on the task at hand. As you start getting more work coming in, make a schedule so that you can stay on top of it. Be clear about your deadlines to make sure that you always deliver on time, if not a day or two early, to allow for any edits or further work you’re asked to do. Learning to manage your time is important and creating a schedule will mean that you don’t overstretch yourself.

Make sure invoices are paid on time

Handling the money side of blogging can be stressful, but getting on top of the things from the beginning will help you in the long run. Start by opening a new bank account for your blogging work and make sure all invoices you send contain those details. Make your payment terms clear on your invoice, whether it’s 7 days, 14 days or 28 days – make a date in your calendar of when something is due to be paid and send out reminders to your client a day or two before if necessary.

Occasionally, you will need to deal with a late payment. While this might feel uncomfortable, there are ways to deal with unpaid invoices without feeling rude or awkward. At the end of the day, it’s your money and you earned it, so you deserve to be paid.

Stay productive

When you work as a freelance blogger or copywriter, you’ve got the freedom to work from home – something which has many benefits. However, working from home can also be difficult – and without the office environment to keep you busy and someone checking up on you, things can soon start to slip.

Make sure you set yourself a work schedule so that you can inject some normality into your routine. You can make your working week flexible by working during the day on some days and evenings on others so that you can pursue other interests or do other things. Find ways to stay productive when working from home and you’ll soon establish a great blogging routine.

Remember your tax return

Now that you’re earning money from blogging, you’re going to need to fill out a tax return. You can get some great advice for filling in your tax return to make your first time a breeze. Remember that your return is due by 31 January for the tax year ending the previous April. It will help you out if you save a portion of your freelance earnings each month ready for your tax, around 30% should cover it. If you’ve saved too much, you’ll have a nice bonus come the end of January!

Growing your blogging business

Advertise your services

Once you’ve got an established blogging business, you can start looking further afield for more work. Start advertising your services so that you can drum up more business. There are different ways to market your freelance services, and you can advertise online through your social media channels or even paid-for ads in local newspapers. Always ask new clients where they heard about your services to find out which methods are the most effective for you.

Secure big contracts

Confident you can handle some big clients with a lot of work? Go for it! This can be a great way to take your blogging to the next level and establish yourself as a copywriting business. Be confident and make a good pitch to help you get those big contracts that will increase your monthly income.

Hire other writers

Struggling to handle your workload solo? Hire some other writers! Advertise work on freelance websites or speak to people you could possibly train to write for you. There are plenty of writers out there who would be grateful for the work. Keep an eye on the work of your writers with a mobile employee time clock, this will help you to make fair payments and keep an eye on the work that’s being done each week. Hiring other writers will help to ease your personal workload, and will also teach you some other business skills that can prove useful in the future.

Share your wisdom

After establishing yourself as a successful blogger, why not share your wisdom with others? Creating your own e-course will enable people like yourself to learn more about blogging and hopefully follow in your footsteps. E-courses are a great way to make some money and can make for a nice change from blogging every day!

Freelance blogging can be a rewarding career, and a fantastic way to work for yourself. Think you’ve got what it takes to become a freelance blogger? Start blogging today and see where it leads you – you might just find yourself embarking on an exciting new career!

* This is a collaborative post and may contain affiliate links