Hit A Dip In Your Freelance Writing? You Are Networking, Right?

By Dan Smith

We all hit a bit of a lull in our freelance writing careers. For some, it’s not a massive problem as they’re fully prepared. For others, however, the dip can seem like it’s going to be devastating.

Fortunately, if you fall into the latter group, there’s one thing you can do to ensure any loss of work is only temporary — network.

I’m by no means an accomplished writer and compared to some other writers you probably know of, to all intents and purposes I’ve only just started my career.

But whilst I may not be at the peak of my career, I wouldn’t have got to the stage where I am today without networking.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, you’ll always be networking to some extent. It might not be on a major scale and you might not even think what you’re doing can be classed as networking, but unless you’re sat in a room without interacting with anyone, you’re going to be carrying out networking of some form.

The problem that a lot of writers face, however, is that they don’t understand the real importance of networking and just how beneficial it is, especially when they’ve hit a dip in their freelance writing.

When I first started freelancing, I used to read blog after blog, taking in all of the information and whilst I gained a lot of knowledge this way, I made one major mistake — I very rarely left a comment.

At the time I didn’t think much of it. Things were ticking over quite nicely and whilst I wasn’t making a fortune or becoming particularly well known, I was content with how things were going.

Then 8 months ago I had a bit of a…moment. An epiphany. A light bulb moment. Call it what you will, I realised that I wanted to carve out a career as a freelance writer and I really started to network, particularly with other writers.

I started off by commenting on some of the primary freelance writing blogs (thinking back now, if I’d left a comment on every blog post I’d read, there’s a good chance I would have been known as a freelance writer a lot sooner than I was) and setup a Twitter account to add the writers I had discussions with on blogs.

I then decided one day I’d just e-mail one or two writers directly. I wasn’t asking for work and I wasn’t sucking up to them, I simply said hi, introduced myself and explained that I liked their work and just wanted to network with them.

I was lucky enough to strike up a good relationship with one of those writers and it led to two regular gigs, as well as referrals to some of their own clients to use my services.

I continued networking on a regular basis and I still do to this day. I even still contact writers directly now and again if I haven’t spoke to them before, just to say hi.

If you’re going through a bit of a dip at the moment or you simply want to prepare yourself should you be faced with a drop in your writing work, get out there and start connecting with other writers.

Don’t be afraid if you don’t know them or haven’t talked to them before and don’t think that just because they’re making a full time living from writing they’re not going to want to talk to you because you’re only just starting out as a writer or you aren’t as popular as they are.

From my own experience, freelance writers are arguably the friendliest and most sociable bunch of people I’ve ever come across and — truthfully — I’m yet to meet a writer who has been unhelpful, arrogant or just plain rude.

There’s masses of writing work out there — you’ve just got to remember that it’s not often going to come to you. Start networking with other writers, get your name known and you’ll soon find that your workload picks up once more.