Hello Friends!

Someone emailed me & asked an important question:

How do you build a community of freelance writers?

First of all, great question. If you think you need to be a more active member of the writing community, you're on the right track for several reasons.

First, freelancing can get lonely, and having friends who relate to you is amazing.

Next, sometimes you need a group of people to vent to, ask questions to, and benchmark your rates and processes.

Finally, your community is your greatest business-building asset. It's where your leads come from. It's how you get new ideas. It's how you get a warm introduction to potential clients.

Here are my main recommendations for building a community:

Social media. Writers spend a lot of time at home alone. That means when they want to connect, they usually do it online. Join the conversation on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. If there is someone you like to follow, send them a DM, comment on their stuff, ask them a question -- start a relationship.
Freelance community. There are several awesome freelance communities like Peak Freelance and Pollen (fyi...affiliate). Join these communities. Make friends. Learn new stuff. I wish these existed when I started freelancing.
In-person. When was the last time you went to a content marketing convention? If the answer is never, hop to it. I've met some of my favorite people ever at these conferences.

There you have it.

Thank you for reading,

Ashley R. Cummings

Did someone forward this to you? Subscribe here.

Sponsor | guidde

guidde is the generative AI platform that lets you create how-to videos and visual documentation in seconds. You can edit the video and audio as easily as editing a presentation and embed them anywhere: Zendesk, ServiceNow, Gmail, Slack, and Confluence. Try guidde today!

Expert Interview | Kara Detwiller

1. Tell me more about yourself and how you got started with freelancing.

A series of circumstances in my personal life made it possible for me to pursue freelance writing — I got married and moved to a very low-cost-of-living area. My spouse supported both of us while I took 6 months off of all work to recover from the burnout I experienced working in a fast-paced marketing agency job. Once I felt ready to work again, I really wanted flexibility and freedom to work fewer than 40 hours per week, so freelancing seemed like the best option. It has been about a year and a half, and I am really enjoying my freelance work and the balance I have in my life.

2. What's the best way to find jobs?

I recommend telling anyone and everyone you know that you're looking for freelance work. My first freelance clients were people I knew from previous FT jobs, and they reached out to me after I posted on LinkedIn that I was taking on freelance projects.

Sharpen Your Writing Skills

Tommy Walker

@tommyismyname

These are the two most important questions you can answer. 
1. What does your reader want? 
2. Why do they want it? 
If you can answer those without deferring to tropes, then your stuff is going to be 10x better than most others.

9:52 PM • Aug 4, 2023

1

Retweets

6

Likes

Marketing Goodies

Tommy Clark

@tclarkmedia

Alright. So you want to grow your company's social media presence.
Here are 3 principles you need to understand (to save yourself from a lot of unnecessary headaches and wasted time):
1) Nobody cares about your product that much.
It's a blow to the ego, but it's just the… https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1707433086726688952

7:32 PM • Sep 28, 2023

11

Retweets

70

Likes

Read 5 replies