4 Ways to Get Online Writing Samples at the Beginning of Your Career

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If you’re just getting started with a freelance writing career you may have noticed that all of the good jobs ask for writing samples.  But if you haven’t actually had any clients yet how do you get them?

Getting writing samples online is really not that difficult.  There are plenty of places that you can get your work published.  But before you start with that there are a few things you should remember:

1. Your writing samples need to have your name on it.  Without your name on it, potential clients will not know for sure that they were written by you.
2. They need to be of good quality.  Scratch that. They need to be great quality!  If you are going to use them to showcase your writing abilities, make sure that you have put the same effort into them that you would put into a clients work.  Write carefully and use the 3 step writing process to ensure that they are the best you are capable of.
3. They need to demonstrate your scope of ability.  Unless you have chose to be a writer that focuses on a single topic (and although many writers do this eventually, I don’t recommend this at the beginning; you might later fall into a specialty or find you prefer certain topics later but at the beginning you are going to need to be flexible) you will need to show potential clients that you are able to write on several different topics and that you are able to write them as if you were an expert in that field.

Now, the big question – where do you publish this writing?

I strongly believe that writers should spend at least some time writing for themselves.  The best way to do this is with your own blog.  You might want to have a niche blog if there is a specific area that you want to be able to focus on in the future.  But if you haven’t decided this yet you can have a blog that has several different focuses.  Just separate them by categories and don’t go too wide.  Keep it to about 3 or 4 topics and make sure that you identify them.  And remember that just because you are writing for yourself doesn’t mean that others are not going to read them so spell check and edit!

When I first started writing I did a lot of work for article marketing directories.  I used EzineArticles and Bukisa and I’ve since added InfoBarrel.  I know that many writers love AssociatedContent but I don’t write there because I’m a Canadian and I believe that only Americans can earn residuals there.  There are many places where you can write articles and your name is always attached.  There are some extra bonuses to writing articles for article directories.  You can earn some residual income and through resource boxes and your writer’s page, you can get valuable backlinks to your personal blog!

Guest posting is a great way to get some articles out there with your name on it.  I won’t go into great detail about guest posting because I recently blogged about it.  If you missed the post, go read about why I love guest posting now.

Finally, you can think a little less traditionally, too.  Don’t be afraid to be creative about getting your name out there on articles.  If you have an organization that you are particularly fond of, volunteer to write something for them.  Do you have a friend that needs help on their site?  Offer to help them out.  Look for opportunities to get published samples online.

And once you have them?  Be picky!  Don’t give every potential client the same list of published samples.  Choose samples that are most closely related to what they are looking for.  If they are looking for something in the health care niche – find an article that is related.  Or if they want how-to articles make sure that you choose one of your samples that is written in that style.

Getting samples is not hard – making sure that you have samples that reflect your abilities is more challenging.

Tagged as: article marketing, Arts, Blog, Business, Freelancer, Writer, Writers Resources, writing

Article by Danielle

I'm a social media junkie and professional freelance writer living in small town Manitoba, Canada. I drink a lot of coffee and love my computer (named Garcia after Penelope Garcia from Criminal Minds - the ultimate girl geek!), my kids, my husband, and my cats. In 10 years I hope to be that crazy lady travelling across Canada and the States with her three cats and her loving hubby. :) If you're interested in my professional services please visit my professional writer's site to find out more about my services or check out some testimonials from some of my clients.

has written 254 awesome articles for us at The Social Freelance Writer

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