Promotion Is Free — A Web Presence

One of the first things to address when promoting yourself as a freelance writer is having somewhere where people can find you. These days, that means having a web presence — and that doesn’t have to cost you anything. My preferred method is to get a blog, because you don’t have to mess around with creating static HTML pages and blogs are easy to update. Although I always recommend buying your own domain name, you don’t have to go this route when you are starting out. In fact, you can still promote yourself effectively by getting a blog on a free host such as Blogger or Wordpress.com. The advantage of doing this is that it doesn’t cost you anything and you can be up and running in five minutes.

Getting Started

So what do you need to make yourself known as a freelance writer? Think about it from the prospective client’s point of view. When they eventually find you, they want to know who you are and why they should hire you, what you have done and how to get in touch with you. They will also want to see examples of your work. That means that at the very least you need an about page which talks about your background and experience, a resume page, which gives more detail about your published clips and other relevant information, and a contact page with a contact form and any other contact details you want to release. If you also want to include your rates, then many people find that helpful too.

Adding Content

Use your posts to keep adding examples of your writing, and soon you will have a freelance writing blog with a respectable amount of content. It may take an hour or two to get the pages written to your satisfaction, then it will take only 10–15 minutes every time you post (depending on the length of the post and how often you post.)

Shop Window

So, how does this help you with promotion? In order to promote yourself, you have to have something to promote. Think of this as your virtual shop window, inviting customers to browse and buy. Once you have this set up, you can use some of the other free promotional methods I’ll be discussing to get more people to see what you have to offer.