You may have always wanted to be a writer, but you’ve been intimidated because you don’t have a degree. Well, the truth is that you can start a successful freelance writing career with no experience.

How can you start freelance writing with no experience? You will need to create a website and writing portfolio for yourself. You’ll need to pick a specific niche and type of writing that you want to do. Then it’s time to start applying for jobs and cold pitching to start finding your first clients!

In this article, I’ll explain how you can get started as a freelance writer. Even if you don’t have a degree or experience as a writer.

The Truth About Becoming A Freelance Writer

You don’t need to have been a star student in your English class to become a successful freelance writer. As long as your spelling and grammar aren’t completely terrible, you can do it.

You don’t need to go to university for literature, or intern at a newspaper, or anything else to start writing.

As a teenager I had always wanted to write. But I ended up getting steered by my parents and teachers to go to university for accounting instead.

Fast forward a few years after I had graduated, and I found that I was miserable working in an office. I definitely wasn’t in a position to go back to school for several more years. So I decided to pursue writing, experience or not.

The truth is that you can get started as a freelance writer without any education or experience. In fact that’s true for lots of freelance jobs. Whether you’re doing video editing, creating logos, or any number of other things. There’s a ton of free resources online to teach you everything that you’ll need to get started.

Here are the steps that I personally took to become a freelance writer, even without a related education or experience.

Make A Website and Portfolio

To create your freelance writer website, you’ll need to buy a domain, which is the URL people type in to get to your website. Then you’ll need to pay for hosting.

Personally I use Namecheap to buy all of my domains, and I use Hostgator for my hosting. Although I hear Bluehost is also very good for hosting too.

It should cost you less than $150 to get everything set up and hosted for your first year. Including your domain, hosting, and maybe a premium theme as well.

Can You Start Without A Website?

Technically you could get started as a freelance writer without a website. But it looks way more professional if you have a site to host all of your writing samples. Plus then you get an email at an actual domain name that you own, instead of just using Hotmail or Gmail.

You can also start off just using content mills like Textbroker, or websites like Upwork to find your clients. This is how I got started in my spare time, just to see if I would really like writing and if it was a good fit for me. But when you decide to go full-time as a writer, I think having your own website is a must.

Pick A Type of Writing

There are lots of different types of writing that you can make money from online.

Do you want to be a blogger or write articles?

Are you interested in copywriting?

Or would you rather write for newspapers and magazines?

You’ll need to decide what kind of writing interests you the most.

If you’re not sure what some of the options are, check out my article 20 Ways Writers Can Earn Money (Writing Job Opportunities.)

Consider Picking a Niche

Many writing experts will tell you that you should pick a specific niche. Maybe you want to write about only dentistry, or SaaS.

It’s not without its benefits. See my article Do Freelance Writers Really Need To Pick A Niche? for more details about the pros and cons of picking a niche.

Personally though, I recommend staying more broad and general unless you’re an expert about one particular subject matter, or really passionate about one specific topic.

Create A Portfolio

You’ll need some examples of your writing that you can show to clients.

If you don’t have anything that you think is worth showing them, that’s okay.

When I started, I specifically wrote some articles just to show to clients.

So take a couple of days to sit down and write at least 5 or 10 articles. Or better yet, start a blog.

You can either include different types of writing, or specialize for your niche.

Consider Starting Off With Content Mills

Some writers discourage new freelancers from working for content mills.

There are a few different reasons for it. Check out my article Should You Use Content Mills Like Upwork or Textbroker? for a few of them.

Personally I think content mills are a great way to get some experience, boost your confidence, and start earning a little income. It’s how I got started myself.

Writing for content mills isn’t necessarily a good long-term solution and eventually you’ll want to move away from them. But it’s a good way to get your foot in the door when it comes to being a freelance writer.

Pitch Every Job You Can Find

Part of finding a job as a freelance writer is just a numbers game. When you’re starting off, you’ll want to apply to as many jobs on job boards as you can, as well as cold pitching potential clients directly.

Be sure to make all of your pitches personal. Companies will know if you’re just sending the same message to everyone. Generic emails get rejected or deleted.

Don’t worry if you feel like you’re not qualified for a particular job. Most job postings are just guidelines. If you can show examples of high quality work to potential clients, most are willing to overlook the requirements they’ve set.

Don’t Mention That You Don’t Have Experience

When you’re new, never mention that you don’t have experience.

You don’t want to lie, but it’s not information that you should just be volunteering either.

If you’re good enough, most clients won’t be able to tell if you’ve been writing for 3 months or a couple of years. Especially at the lower-paying rates.

Consider Guest Posting

If you search and search but can’t seem to find any paid work, you might want to consider guest posting.

This is where you offer to write free articles for blogs or websites, in exchange for a link back to your freelance writer website.

It’s unlikely that a future client will see your guest post and immediately want to hire you. But linking to your guest posts is a great way to fill out your writing portfolio.

Set Up Social Media

Eventually you’ll want to set up some sort of social media for yourself as a freelance writer. This might be a Twitter account, a Facebook page, or something else.

Personally I would recommend at least making a LinkedIn page. It’s the most professional form of social media, and the most likely platform where clients might end up contacting you with some work.

You can use your existing social media to network and see if anybody you know can recommend you. You might be surprised what kind of connections you’ve already got without knowing it.

Just don’t fall into the trap of spending all day updating your social media instead of actually writing!

Have The Right Mindset

Especially in the early days, a lot of the challenges that come with being a freelance writer are mental.

If you’ve never worked for yourself before, you’ll need to learn how to manage your time and motivate yourself.

You’ll need to be able to stay optimistic, even after the first few pitches that you send out get rejected, or don’t receive a response at all.

You’ll need to set goals for yourself and hold yourself accountable to meet them.

And you’ll need to track how much you write and earn. Remember, what gets measured gets managed!

Conclusion

Anybody can become a successful freelance writer!

You don’t need any writing-specific education or experience. So don’t let limiting beliefs hold you back if writing is what you’re interested in.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s easy or a get rich quick scheme. But it’s not super difficult either. Like anything in life, it just takes work.

If you set up a website, pick a niche, and start applying for jobs, you’ll already be well on your way.