5 Best Ways to Start Off Your Writing Career (on the Right Foot!)

Being able to get started in a writing career in an AI-prevalent world now can be such a tough act. Artificial Intelligence is on the verge of threatening to replace the careers of so many existing writers out there.

But, what can you do? When you feel it inside your heart that writing is the career that you truly want to have, there could be no obstacles too big for you to overcome.

So, how do you get started with your writing career amidst stiff competition in this ever evolving world of content creation? The truth is, the answer to this question is definitely not a short one, nor a definitive one.

What is certain though is that - writing can be so fulfilling. This is true especially if you believe that you are born to be a writer!

I have listed some of the ways on how to (hopefully) make it easier for you to get started in your writing career. So, keep reading.

1. Choose the niche that resonates with your values.

It is so easy to choose the niche that you want to write for. This is true especially if you already possess a broad knowledge about the topic that you will be writing about.

Being knowledgeable on a niche that you want to write for is one ticket to a successful freelance writing career.

However, when it comes to writing for the web, you have to make sure that your niche must resonate with your values. This way, you will not only be writing for SEO’s sake.

After a couple of years, you will find yourself still wanting to write more for that niche. This is because when it is something that resonates with what you believe in, you will never get tired writing about it.

When it is something that you truly believe in, the written content that you will be able to come up with will be written from the heart and not just from your mind. Otherwise, it would be so easy to suffer from writer’s block.

Not to mention that when burnout strikes, it would be too difficult to come up with another interesting topic for your chosen niche and more so if it is not what your heart really wants.

However, choosing the niche that will resonate with the beliefs and values that you grew up with, may not be easy in the beginning. It may take time, (and more clients) before you can finally decide what niche you want to specialize in your writing career.

In my experience, it took five years in my writing career before I realized that the health niche is worth sticking to. With health articles, I feel like I am learning and applying in real life the information I learned from writing every blog post about health.

For me, writing about the health niche is much like maximizing the benefits of being a writer. I get to earn a living, while also helping my family improve their health status as I apply in our daily life all the things that I learn from my writing and research.

2. Have a keen eye for good references.

Knowing where exactly to find reliable information is a must for writers. That is, if you want to have your written content tagged as “credible” and well-researched.

Remember that you have to come up with original content if you want to excel in your freelance writing career amidst stiff competition online. Your website has to stand out from among the sea of options available to every internet researcher.

But, how do you find a good reference? Here are some tips on finding reliable references online:

• Look for websites with domains that end with a “.gov” or “.edu”.

These are government websites whose content are screened and proofread by experts and authorities before finally being published.

• Browse websites that have been on the internet for a decade or more.

Websites such as Forbes.com, and Inc.com are two of my favorite references. Add in Healthline and Mayo Clinic as my references for health-related articles.

• Be quick enough to notice websites with content written by experts.

It took me years in my writing career, and writing for different clients before I developed a keen eye for telling which websites have regurgitated content. Today, I can easily tell which website sources produce original content and which ones don't.

How do you know that it’s just regurgitated content?

Well, if you possess enough diligence in looking for information online and read or skim each one, you can easily tell which website is the original source.

The more you read carefully, the easier it is for you to differentiate which one is merely a rewritten version of the original post from another website. You can tell it not just from reading the content but also from the way that the entire article is presented.

• Check the author’s bio.

Great websites with excellent content are written by authors who have years of accumulated knowledge regarding the topic that they are writing about.

Don’t skip reading the author’s bio because this will give you an idea of whether the writer is an expert in the topic. This also goes to say that you should be wary about sourcing information from websites that have no author’s bio.

As you've already known, bad references can surely put a dent in your freelance writing career. This is the last thing that you'd ever want to happen in your writing career, right?

3. Work for an employer who values you as a person.

Writing itself is a stressful process. It can only be fun and exciting if you are doing it as your leisure activity.

But, if you are employed as a writer and are making it as your bread and butter, better work for an employer who values you as a person. Otherwise, your writing career would mean days spent on writing and struggling at the same time, to get over the effects of stress.

I have learned that there are good, better and best employers. But, there are also bad clients. These are the clients or employers who are too strict with deadlines and will terminate you right away if you miss it.

Worst clients are those who promise a high monthly salary, but will bombard you with too many topics that are too many to be finished in a day’s work.

And, since you want a high-paying job you will end up writing until 2am in the morning just to be able to meet the deadline. But, only to find yourself reprimanded for haphazardly done articles.

So, how do you make sure that your writing career is a fulfilling one? Choose a good employer.

For me, good employers know exactly how much is “too much workload”. And, they will happily pay for your output as long as it is high quality. Good employers know that you have a life too.

Moreover, good employers are completely aware that writing is not the only task that you have to do within 24 hours.

Most of all, good employers would give their topics at least a week advance so you can have enough time to research about it. This way, the submission date would not be something to look forward to with much dread and stress.

Remember, no matter how much you claim that you LOVE WRITING, we don’t live just to write. But, we write to live and make a living.

4. Never settle for cheap clients.

If you want to be “THE WRITER” and not just any other writer, never settle for cheap clients. When I say “cheap” clients, I mean those clients who would ask for an overwhelming amount of articles to be written in a day at a very low price.

This may seem fine with writers still starting on their writing career. Because they want to gain a lot of experience with writing online, but hey. Writing for a living and being underpaid to write plenty of articles are two different things.

It is better to agree to being trained and get paid at a low price while writing a reasonable amount of articles. But, 5,000 words in a day for $2 per 500 words? That’s slavery at its worst!

5. Learn to use the right tools.

It is not enough that you know how to write. No matter how good you are at grammar, you will still find that you need the help of grammar and plagiarism checker tools. Besides, most clients will require that you use one or two.

The truth is, writers who have spent decades in their freelance writing career still use grammar checker tools. When you have this grammar checker and plagiarism tools, what your eyes have missed during proofreading, can still be rectified by these tools.

This helps ensure that you will be able to submit articles that are perfect in terms of grammar and originality. This way, your submitted output will no longer need much time for editing once it reaches the editor’s end.

Not to mention that when you submit perfectly-written articles, your employer and your readers will be impressed. Isn't this a perfect way too, to take your writing career to a whole new level?

Here are two of my most favorite tools:

Grammarly

One of the most reliable tools for grammar checking is Grammarly.

What are three benefits to using Grammarly?

There are three main benefits to using Grammarly and which are also the reasons why I love using this tool. These are the following:

• Helps you come up with a written output that is free from spelling and grammar errors

• It tells you right off the bat which sentences don’t pass plagiarism checks.

• Grammarly encourages you to come up with original content.

This is made possible not just because it helps you flag plagiarized sentences. But, it will also help you explore more synonyms that can be appropriately used for the topic you are currently writing.

So, when you use your own chosen synonyms, you are more likely to come up with sentences that will sound more like “you”, as opposed to having a finished output with merely rewritten sentences.

Therefore, the more you use Grammarly, the more you grow your vocabulary reservoir.

Why is it a good idea to use Grammarly?

The use of Grammarly will help you become more confident of your writing skills. It will make it easier for you to write concise, clear, readable and well-structured sentences.

If you are working for an employer who asks you to write several posts in a day, Grammarly eliminates the likelihood of having overlooked spelling and grammar mistakes in your content. Thus, you will feel confident once you turn in your written output to your employer.

Does Grammarly help you write better?

It definitely does. In addition to correcting your errors in grammar and spelling, Grammarly also creates suggestions to make your sentences more creative, convincing and appropriate.

Not to mention that it also does a great job in detecting inappropriate tone within your sentences and paragraphs.

Copyscape

Is Copyscape a good tool?

Yes, it is. Copyscape gives you an assurance that what you have written cannot be tagged as plagiarized content. It works wonders in detecting similar sentences and paragraphs published across the web.

Although the free account already allows you to check for plagiarism content, the Copyscape premium version does a better job.

Before you submit your written content to your client or employer, make sure to run your content through Copyscape first. This way, you can be assured that your content is devoid of any plagiarized sentences.

The result would be a happy employer and a better writer!

I believe that every writer, especially the newbies in the world of freelance writing career would want to start off on the right foot. However, you should never be too confident about your writing skills.

Always check your output using Copyscape before submitting.

The last thing you want to happen is to find your employer or clients getting furious about your submitted “plagiarized” content.

The truth is, these tools have become my trusted partners in my entire freelance writing career.

Today, I still use this tool before publishing my written output. There were times when I became surprised that some of my written sentences were tagged as plagiarized, though this happens rarely!

If this happens, you have to do some further digging which websites show up on Copyscape as your "copied source". There are times when the common phrases, and sometimes common sentences you use in your article are also used by other writers out there.

If you check other published articles which Copyscape tagged as your copied source, you will find that the post used the same phrases or sentences but the entire article discussed about a totally different topic.

You know I could go on and on and share with you what I have learned through years of writing online as a freelance writer. But, feel free to come back to this website for more helpful information.

You are very much welcome to contact me here for more questions or topic requests.