5 Tips On Creating A Writing Porfolio With No Experience
Easy-peasy steps to building writing samples for your portfolio.
So you want to be a freelance writer but you have no writing samples.
You don’t know where to start.
You’re wrecking brain because you have no samples.
Your mind is blank.
You feel defeated and want to stick with your 9–5 job forever.
You’re thinking, ‘Ugh… Will I ever be able to do this?’
Trust me, I get you! And yes, you CAN!
I’ve just started my freelance journey and I have those thoughts too.
There are days I want to stick with my 9–5 job because of the stability. But to quote the famous Michael Jordan,
“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”
And with that, how do YOU MAKE IT HAPPEN?
As a beginner, I’ve struggled with creating a writing portfolio without actual samples and I know YOU are struggling with it too.
After all, you need to land clients and show what you can offer them, right?
YOU can write, so what’s the problem?
I’ve done research on how to get started as a freelancer through many websites, I’ve taken free and paid courses and I have also followed freelance ‘gurus’ to learn their secrets.
There isn’t much out there, but…
Here Is What I Have Leant:
1. Pick A Topic You Will Enjoy Writing
This is so important. It is also called, a niche.
The niche of your choosing will help you to write more samples and narrow down your clientele.
Do you like travel, food, technology, marketing, pets, psychology, self-development, etc.?
Pick a theme or two and start writing.
You don’t have to have a client to write, but clients want to see that you CAN write.
If you’re going to work for yourself, you should enjoy it!
2. Do You Want To Content Write or Copywrite?
Or both?
It’s okay if you want to do both, but it would be easier if you picked a category.
This way you can focus on building your samples around it.
If you want to copywrite, learn the science behind it and know how to sell solutions to the problems your target audience have.
For content writing, understand how to write for an audience. Use headings, bullet points, pictures, and most importantly, white space! Like I’m doing right now!
3. Re-Write Existing Copy
Now be careful when you do this, as plagiarism is a BIG NO-NO!
DO NOT claim other peoples’ work as your own.
But, you can reference other work in your samples and write about how you could improve it.
You can either re-write the content or point out what can be done better.
Below is my approach on this — I have also written a little case study to support my sample:
4. Publish Your Work Online
I have started developing a website with a domain name but if you feel like it would overwhelm you, don’t worry about doing that right now!
Create a blog on Blogpost or create an account here on Medium and start researching and writing.
Once you start, your brain will then slowly be trained to think of topics to write about.
Instead of sharing unpublish work via a PDF file to clients (which I have admittedly done multiple times), sharing your published work online will portray you as credible and knowledgeable in your craft.
Sharing valuable published work with prospective clients looks more professional!
Having a LinkedIn and Twitter account to share your work, wouldn’t hurt you either…
5. Forget About Likes and Engagement
We all want to have the effort we put into our work recognized and hope it has some value to others — that’s just human nature.
But in this case, I would encourage you to keep on writing and sharing, even if you do not get many views or engagement.
Yes, it can be disheartening.
But the more you focus on improving your content and providing value, the more organic engagement you are sure to receive.
And this could be a way of landing clients as well.
It’s Time To Get Started!
And there are my few tips on starting your freelace journey!
Just because you’re a beginner, doesn’t mean you can’t make it.
With time, continuous effort and dedication, you will have a portfolio in no time!
Your time is now — have you started building your portfolio? Let me know in the comments!
