Ultimate Freelancing Toolkit for Writers in 2024
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Ultimate Freelancing toolkit for Writers in 2024
Freelancing is now competitive and have gone beyond taking it as a hobby.
Freelancing is a serious business making the services of freelancers to be in high demand now than before.
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With over 57.3 m freelancers in the United States alone, the number of freelancers is expected to double by 2028. By 2024, the freelance industry is expected to reach over $455bn.
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Key Highlights
🎯 Like a handyman’s toolkit, a freelance writer needs to put together a personal toolkit for efficiency and profitability.
🎯 Most freelance writing tools are free to use.
🎯 Meeting deadlines and delivering satisfactorily adds to your KPI.
🎯 Freelancing is a serious business and income in the industry is expected to double in the next five years.
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Many freelancers have made successful careers out of writing and many have raked in over six figures annually. The worldwide hourly freelance rate is $28 which is a boost from $21 earned in 2020 according to Payoneer’s Freelance Income Report.
A subsequent survey revealed that boomers are ahead of the competition in terms of earnings, commanding higher rates while Gen Z and Millenials are at the forefront in terms of engagement volume.
Pay rates are also equalizing in the market and in all fields as women earn more than men in the fields of marketing, web, and graphic design.
Irrespective of the field you are, geography, or gender, you can command better rates when you know how to deploy your knowledge and use the right freelance toolkits for your business.
In this article, I will show you tools that I’ve used and currently using in my freelancing writing business. You need to get it right to make the best of your career. Most of these tools are free to use.
My freelancing toolkits are categorized under the following:
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- Grammar checkers
- Task managers
- Getting work
- Productivity
- Writing Platforms
Let’s get to the details…
Grammar checkers
A grammar checker is a program that checks for grammar errors in a block or text. Grammarly also improves sentence logic and aims to make statements concise.
1. Grammarly
Grammarly is a powerful online tool, a grammar checker that captures writing mistakes.
Grammarly prioritizes correctness, clarity, engagement, and delivery to make your writing better.
Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari all have free extensions for Grammarly. You can use it for your blog entries, social network postings, web forms, and Gmail messages because it functions in almost every text area on the Internet.
There is also a Grammarly premium version with even more capabilities.
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2. The Hemmingway App
Writing for the web is more than just throwing up targeted keywords or flaunting your extensive vocabulary. Making your text easy to read and understandable to your audience should be your objective.
The Hemmingway App helps you write with clarity. Hemmingway identifies complicated statements, simplifies them, and targets grammar mistakes.
The app does this by finding complex sentences, offering substitutes for longer words, and more.
It uses color highlights like blue, green, purple, yellow, and red to identify long sentences, passive voice, and sentences that have synonyms and better alternative use of words.
3. Word Counter and Word Counter Plus
Word Counter does a word count for your article. All you have to do is paste your text into the box to see the word counts, estimated reading level, reading time, and estimated speaking time.
Word Counter plus is a chrome extension that helps you track the number of words you have written. It gives you the word count, character count, average, and longest word length.
Task Managers
A task management tool is more like an advanced form of a to-do list. With a task manager, you can outline the workflow of your writing project.
A task manager can help you stay organized when you have a writing project, especially when working with a team. See task managers that work well below.
1. Notion
This app I personally use myself to manage my projects and tasks. Notion is more than a note-taking app or a task management app.
In its advanced form, you can create a table-like database. You can create notes, and to-do lists, upload files, manage projects, and create relations among them by joining them in a table-like database. It is an all-in-one tool.
2. Todoist
Todoist began as an online to-do list but has since expanded to include task management capabilities.
Even though it doesn’t have the same sophisticated task management capabilities as most task management tools. Todoist simplicity makes it perfect for managing your writing projects and perfect for freelance writers, students, and small teams.
Popular task management tools like recurring tasks, prioritization, subtasks, and visual reporting are available in Todoist’s free plan.
Some of the best task managers in the market include Taskworld, ClickUp, Trello, Basecamp, Meistertask, Airtable, and nTask.
As a writer, your goal should be simplicity, so don’t use an app that will make your work complicated.
Job Boards
In this section, I will discuss the writing platforms available today to get freelance writing jobs from anywhere in the world. Starting from the popular ones.
1. Upwork
When we talk about freelance working, Upwork comes in at #1. Upwork is one of the tops and most used freelance marketplace. However, the platform is becoming very competitive, especially from new entrants.
You need to have a positive rating and a robust work profile to get hired. This shouldn’t discourage you, you can build your portfolio gradually.
You can get freelance jobs, as well as hire freelancers to work for you. There are over 5000 open writing jobs at any time on Upwork.
You can qualify for jobs on Upwork.
- Signing up
- Fully complete your profile (including your work experience).
- Applying and bidding for jobs with Connects.
Connects on Upwork are kind of a currency you need that allows you to submit proposals and bid for jobs on Upwork. It helps you build lasting relationships on the platform.
You can buy more Connects from Upwork, and Upwork gives ten free Connects every month.
The more Connects you have, the more you can apply for jobs.
2. Writer’s Market
Writer’s Market is an annual reference guide for writers looking to market theirs. The book gets published by Writer’s Digest Books and debuts in bookshops during the summer.
3. Fiverr
Just like Upwork, Fiverr needs to be on this list. Fiverr is also a freelance work marketplace to list your services known as “Gigs”.
When you get hired on Fiverr, the buyer or employer pays in advance, but the money is not released until job completion. Fiverr pays you 80 percent of the payment while taking 20 percent for themselves.
Some more Freelance work platforms for writers
- Flex Jobs.
- Freelancewriting.com
- Guru
- Freelancer.com
- Contena
Productivity
As a freelance writer, meeting deadlines adds to your KPI and you wouldn’t want missing deadlines to impact your ratings and pay. Below are good productivity tools to check out.
1. RescueTime
As a writer, we most times get lost when researching a project. The best way to stay on schedule is to keep track of our time by prioritizing tasks with timelines for each.
RescueTime keeps track of the time spent using programs and websites and provides a detailed account of your day. How long did it take to:
- Write an article
- Check your emails
- Browse the web
2. SelfControl
SelfControl is an excellent free program that blacklists specified websites for a set amount of time. The essence is to curtail distractions.
You will not be able to visit the specified websites like Instagram and Youtube while the app is active and will not till the timeout expires.
3. Trello
Trello is a visual task tracking application that enables you to manage any project. Add paperwork, a to-do list, or even automation. Make everything specific to your project.
As a writer, you can generate distinct scene cards and plot events for each chapter of your novel or short tale. You can first establish a board for your work. Then, add chapter lists to the board.
Writing Platforms
If you wish to publish your write-ups, I will outline the platforms you can use in this section.
1. WordPress
If you want to build your publishing business for your writing projects, then you can do that with WordPress.
With WordPress, you can build a personal writing platform and publish your articles, blog posts, and books.
As a website and content management system, you get to design your website the way you want.
2. Medium
Medium is an already made online publishing platform. You don’t have to build an entire website before you publish your article. Just sign up and start writing. Medium can also be used for content syndication.
Another great reason to publish on Medium is that it draws in about 60 million unique readers every month, meaning you don’t have to find people to read your articles when you get started.
With the Medium partnership program, you can monetize your articles, which means you get paid for writing on Medium.
3. Substack
Substack is an online platform that enables users to start a subscription Email Newsletter.
With substack, you can start monetizing your write-ups immediately and send them directly to readers’ inboxes.
Substack provides you with analytics, payment, and design to help run a successful newsletter.
Using Substack is free if you don’t want to monetize, but when you monetize, substack takes 10% of your paid subscriptions.
Tips on getting better writing jobs
Your Portfolio
You need to make sure your resume or portfolio is detailed, clean, and polished. This means you need to make it minimalistic and direct to the point.
As a writer, your portfolio and bio are the most crucial part of your resume, and that is what potential employers will focus more of their attention on.
Your bio gives your potential employer a brief description of who you are and your experience as a writer. Your portfolio shows potential employers your previous writing projects and will serve as proof of your writing skills.
Learn to write a Cover letter
As a freelance writer, you will apply for many jobs, so having the ability to write a cover letter is necessary.
The best thing to do is to write a few great cover letters, and when you are applying for a job, you can tweak one of them to fit the job.
Follow up on Applications
Many people don’t know this, but following up on applications shows potential employers that you care about them, and this keeps you in their minds.
Generate Referrals
This is why you must always do a good job all the time. When you complete a job perfectly, it can be the best source for getting more jobs.
When you complete a job perfectly, there is a higher chance that you will be hired or referred to someone who currently wants your skills.
Final Thoughts
Just like a handyman’s toolkit, Freelancers need to build an arsenal of tools to get their job done efficiently and profitably.
The good news is that most of these tools are free to use.
