8 Reasons Why A Freelance Writer Should Use The Internet

What a wonderful resource the Internet is!
Students find information to help them with their studies; business people keep in touch with important clients and stay up to date with important business developments; stay-at-home-parents can find ideas for children’s activities and feel less isolated by forging friendships with other online parents; and even small children have the opportunity to learn how to use the technology that will take them into the future.
It seems everybody has a reason to use the Internet and writers are no exception. In fact, the Internet is a resource that once explored, most writers couldn’t do without.
Let’s take a look at why.
1. Research
This one’s almost too obvious to mention but nevertheless, it’s the number one reason why a freelancer would use the Net.
While most writers still build up their own library of reference books, without the Internet we’d still be scurrying off to the public library in the hope that they’d have a book about “coinage in ancient Egypt” or “the architect who designed the fountains at Trafalgar Square”. Pretty obscure subjects and the likelihood of the library having anything on their shelves was pretty remote. They could probably order something that might help but that could take anything up to a month to arrive.
But now we have the Internet! Tra-la! A few simples keystrokes and up it comes. I now know that coins in ancient Egypt can be traced back to the late dynastic period and that the fountains of Trafalgar Square were designed by Sir Charles Barry. How much easier things are today!
The meanings of names, weights and measures, sunrise times around the world, world Royalty throughout history, how long it takes to drive from Chicago to Los Angeles and what food you’re likely to be served in Botswana, all the information’s out there just waiting for you to need it.
2. Find Work
While it’s still usual to pitch ideas to magazine and newspaper editors and send manuscripts as hardcopy, the Internet has opened up a whole city of avenues for writers.
There are websites specifically designed to help freelancers find work (or project owners find freelancers, depending on how you look at it), and online magazines are often looking for writers who can submit professional content to their sites.
By joining a handful of well-chosen freelance forums, you’ll soon discover where to look for work and which markets pay best.
3. Join Support Groups & Communities
Writing is a notoriously lonely profession.
Almost all freelancers work from home and therefore don’t have the opportunity to network with others in their profession.
By joining online support groups and communities, freelancers can alleviate some of that loneliness.
Being able to exchange ideas and thoughts with others who know exactly where you’re coming from can help a writer get through the day without clawing at the walls too often.
Online communities are also great sources of information that you may otherwise have missed. New markets and new research resources are often discussed and the budding freelancer will be given far more advice from those who’ve made all the mistakes already, than any book could ever offer.
Local groups sometimes arrange social meets, too. What could be better than lunch with other writers when you’ve been pulling your hair out because your friends just don’t understand that putting words on paper really isn’t as easy as it looks.
If only ruined wallpaper and wigs could be written off against tax…
4. Polish Up Your Language Skills
“Their”, “there”, or “they’re”? Or was it “lay” or “lie”? Or possibly even “too”, “two”, or “to.”
And where does that semicolon belong? Oops, it seems I started that sentence with a conjunction. Am I allowed to do that? No? Well I just did! Surely writers can break the rules sometimes, can’t they?
The Internet is bursting at the seams with sites designed to help improve your writing.
It doesn’t matter how good you think your language skills are, it’s always worth testing yourself now and then just to make sure you’re still on top of things.
I know I’m a sucker for the comma. They slip in all over the shop and lead to wasted time while I go through my work, whipping them out again. And I’m not alone. Most of us have a little “something” that’s peculiar to us. As long as we’re aware of it things aren’t too bad, but what if you have some little “distinguishing feature” that you don’t know about? You wouldn’t want to be sending your work off to editors with commas hooked here, there and everywhere, would you?
Some language improvement sites send out regular newsletters that are worth subscribing to. I receive a couple every week and am surprised at just how much I’ve picked up.
5. Develop A Portfolio
A website is pretty much a necessity for freelancers these days and luckily, they aren’t difficult to build.
Your website should give prospective clients information about your background including any relevant education or employment, a bit about who you are and why you write, what your goals are and your areas of expertise. Some freelancers list their basic prices on their websites while others choose not to.
A “clip file” is a must on the website. No matter how much you write about yourself, if you really want to sell yourself you need to give visitors the chance to access a cross-section of your past work.
To get a good idea of what’s needed, take a look at other freelancer’s sites. Those who have been around for a while have neatly laid out sites that work hard for them. Make sure yours works hard for you, too!