Freelancing is a tough business. Going into it, you need to have the “what is best for me in the long run” mind-set. For the brilliant highs, there are a number of lows, where you will question whether you are doing the right thing, whether your career is progressing in the right direction or if you’re being taken advantage of.

By no means am I an expert on the subject of freelancing, being reasonably new to it myself, but it’s always nice to share advice, so here are some of the top tips I would give those thinking about becoming a freelance journalist:

Have the Essentials Ready

When you freelance, you need to provide yourself with your own equipment to work with. This means you need to have the essentials ready from the get-go. A good computer or laptop, good internet connection, any software you need, IT consulting ready to help with any problems… the list goes on. But you do need to have everything you need at hand to keep yourself up and running and able to complete your projects.

Build Up Your Portfolio

It’s extremely unlikely you will be commissioned for work without experience. A great way to start is through creating a blog which can double up as a portfolio. Mine is run through WordPress, which provides very professional looking themes.

Online magazines, like Yuppee, are great for getting work published elsewhere. Most websites that accept contributions are unpaid, but you need to acknowledge that these are the first steps of getting writing recognition.

Don’t Be Taken Advantage Of

By all means, unpaid work is almost a necessity when you start freelancing, but know your publications. Realistically, would the publication be able to pay you for your articles? Be bold and ask about what they can offer you. If the answer is nothing as of yet, set yourself a limit of say 3 or 5 articles you would be willing to submit before you negotiate prices again.

When offered unpaid work, look at what they are asking from you. Do they want you to take on a regular role? How much time will you have to commit to it? Will your other commitments suffer? Will you suffer any losses because of it? Unfortunately, I’ve had to turn down unpaid positions in the past because I feel it would cause me to neglect my other opportunities. It often comes down to a gut feeling of what is best for you.

Grow a Thick Skin

People can be tactless when discussing the process of freelancing. I’ve lost count of the amount of times people have said “so basically you don’t have a job” or “you don’t really do anything then”, thinking it’s an acceptable joke to make. Nothing can be more demoralising than someone mocking something you’re so passionate about, especially when it takes up so much of your time and energy. Personally, I pride myself on the ability to make jokes about myself but some comments can be so insensitive that you simply need to reassure yourself that it’s not true and carry on.

In terms of personal relationships it’s important to surround yourself with a support network who know how hard you’re working and that will be there for you when you might need that extra reassurance.

Networking

Not only is this a given business-wise, for your own sanity it is great to connect with people in the same position as you. You can share advice, get feedback on writing and make new contacts.

Websites like LinkedIn are great for finding people in the same situation as you. Utilise social media using appropriate hashtags and searching for groups that may be of a help to you.

Contacts can be made by simply introducing yourself on Twitter and starting up a conversation. Make sure you keep in touch with any contacts made as you never know if they’ll have any opportunities for you.

Pitching

Once you’ve found a contact, there’s no loss to be made from sending them an email pitching an article. The two pieces of advice I would specifically give in terms of pitching is to know your audience and to be concise.

Before sending across ideas, take a look at the publication’s website. More often than not, if they accept submissions, they will provide guidelines of how to submit content.  When writing the piece, do so with the particular publication in mind, it will really impress the person you’re pitching to if you know their work inside and out.

If there isn’t advice on their website, send across an email to the appropriate editor – where possible do your research and find out their name – summarising the article in a few lines and asking if they would be interested in publishing it. Use the subject line of the email to your advantage.

Make sure when submitting content that you proofread everything. Don’t write e-mails in a rush as you cannot expect editors to look at any attached documents if there are obvious spelling and grammar errors on the e-mail itself.

Enhance Your Skills

Always look at improving yourself and your capabilities. Learn SEO to make sure your articles are easy to find online. Even better, if you’ve been writing for a lot of online magazines, learn HTML – you never know when it could come in handy.

Additionally, even though it is important to write about your interests, don’t limit yourself. If you like film, don’t just write reviews, try your hand at opinion pieces and profiles. Learning new styles of writing is important to show variations of your talent.

Stay Determined

Working as a freelancer isn’t like a typical 9-5 job. Your mind is constantly wandering onto the next project or working out who you need to contact next.

Freelancing can be tiring in so many different ways. It will drain you mentally and working to deadlines will exhaust you, but that’s why it is so important to stay determined if it is something you truly want to do.