Yes, New Moms Can Build Successful Freelance Writing Businesses

by Janelle Davis

I started the process of creating my writing business
when I got pregnant with my son.

As I physically needed to stop working, I still needed the money. I did some research and discovered freelance writing. I didn’t even know that freelance writing was a thing and I can’t believe that I hadn’t been doing it all along. I mean, what a no-brainer for someone who loves to write.

So commenced my research on how to do this and make money doing it.

I Was Looking to Make Money as a Writer, Not Spend It

I gained a LOT of knowledge by Googling and listening to podcasts about freelance writing. I really wanted to avoid paying for any trainings from one of the hundreds of writers out there, although I did find a couple veteran writers that I like who offer some freebies and cheap courses. I was looking to make money, not spend it.

The first order of business was to formulate some samples so I could start a portfolio and present them to potential clients. Depending on what your niche is, I started with three blog-style pieces. You’d think that I would already have plenty of pieces through obtaining my master’s in literacy, but they all died along with the flash drive that they were on.

It still makes me nuts to think about, so backup, backup, backup!

Anyway, I wasn’t going to do anything else besides learn from relevant podcasts until I had my three samples. Some say you can start with one sample; some say none. I say how ever many you want because your portfolio will grow no matter what and if you’re driven to make this happen, it’ll happen.

How LinkedIn Brought Me My First Paid Writing Gig

After writing my three sample blogs, I wanted an immediate public home for them, not quite yet my own website. I chose to open a LinkedIn account.

I built my profile and followed as many relevant profiles as I could. I am very lucky because the publisher of a local magazine reached out to me. This resulted in a monthly writing gig for an education feature.

At the same time, I was pitching the samples that I wrote to as many paid and unpaid blogs as I could. They say to pitch at least fifty a week to result in, at least, a couple of “yeses.”

For me, having a baby to take care of, that was a hard number to pitch. So, I would dedicate a day or two during the week solely for pitching during any downtime.

As a Writer, You Don’t Have to Have Just One Niche

Choosing a niche may have been one of the most challenging things for me.

I just wanted to write, about anything. I felt a little pressured to have one niche set in stone from the start. I learned that you don’t have to.

You don’t even have to have just one niche.

I thought about what I know and love and decided to focus on freelance writing about motherhood and education. This has and will continue to change as I grow and learn more. I want my repertoire to grow.

For example, I am currently learning how to write case studies.

To Be a Successful Writer, Learn to Be Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

I am constantly working on sticking out to potential clients since there are so many talented writers out there.

I’ve been teaching myself different types of writing to build my portfolio. I update as much as I can and I periodically ask myself, “What have I learned or experienced thus far, that I can add as a niche or make current niches more specific?”

In terms of gaining new clients, I pitch to as many as I can. Some from job boards, some blogs, some through contacts and some cold pitching. I find that pitching to companies locally can be beneficial because it can lead to a long-term assignment. Also, the competition may be lower.

For some, reaching out to businesses to convince them to use your services can be scary, but they say in order to be successful you need to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

For any great writing experience you have, ask your client if they would mind writing you a review or reference that you can place wherever you promote your writing business.

If business happens to slow down, it’s most likely because I have been lax. I do whatever I have to do to get back into that business mind set. It’s important to keep that “why” in the forefront of your mind.

My Most Lucrative Writing Assignment: A Monthly Education Feature

The most lucrative assignment I have right now is writing a monthly education feature for a local magazine because it’s long-term. I am getting ready to pitch to my editor and others within the magazine in hopes to gain more writing assignments.

Being published on someone’s blog is great because it builds your portfolio, but it is the longer-term relationships with clients that build your business and lead to more.

Like I mentioned earlier, cold pitching local, new and established companies can lead to bigger, better and ongoing projects.

I Wanted to Help Motivate Students to Read and Write

I have my childhood education degree and my master’s is in literacy because I love to read and write. I wanted to help motivate students to read and write.

I have taught first grade and have worked as a reading teacher. I really love to see that AHA moment in a child’s face when they “get it.”

As rewarding as teaching is, I wanted to focus more on my writing and be there for my new baby. Teaching provides me with a lot of skills that I have integrated into my writing business. It has also proved to be a great niche.

I substitute teach here and there to keep teaching in my life.

As a Writing Mom, It Helps Me to Assign Specific Tasks to Specific Days

Something so simple as being organized makes running my business easier.

There are a lot of different facets to the writing business and it can be overwhelming. I have had so much to do at once and while that’s tricky in general, it’s even trickier when you’re at home with a baby.

So, I don’t have all of the time in the world. I’ll be honest, I haven’t always been the most organized person in life, so setting specific tasks to specific days has been extremely helpful. Each day is dedicated to a different task, for example Mondays are for marketing, Tuesdays I pitch, Wednesdays I work on samples and so on.

If someone has more time than I do, they could split up the hours of the day assigning them different tasks.

Advice for a Young Writer: Join a Facebook Writing Group for Support

Don’t give up. Everything has the potential of being discouraging, but if you don’t push forward then it definitely won’t happen.

If you think that you’ve done everything you could and still no bites, regroup. Assess your situation and think about what you could do differently.

Definitely join some sort of Facebook writing group for support and ideas, they’re great!

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Janelle Davis is a freelance writer to hire, specializing in lifestyle, education and mommyhood. She has her MS in Literacy Education.

She has previously worked as a literacy teacher, helping students read and write and is currently working on successfully building her writing repertoire.

Janelle is published in Pregnant Chicken and The Dating Truth.  She has a monthly “Educator of the Month” feature in Family Times Magazine.