The Ultimate List of Resources for Freelance Writers
Blogs for Freelance Content Writer
1. Positive Writer
Positive Writer delivers on its promise, positive writing advice. Posts are chock-full of encouragement, anecdotes, and advice for navigating through the ups and downs of becoming a freelance writer.
2. Grammarly Blog
Grammarly is a popular tool among online writers, but freelancers should also check out their blog. The Grammarly blog covers all kinds of online writing tips and principles, like using trigger words and how to write concisely.
3. Grammar Girl
Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Grammar and word choice can confuse even the most seasoned writers, and Grammar Girl takes these complex questions and answers them in simple, easy-to-follow ways.
4. Make a Living Writing
The Make a Living Writing blog is all about practical help for hungry writers and is run by Carol Tice, an award-winning freelance writer with over ten years of experience.
5. Nick Usborne
If you ask Nick, he’ll say that his blog is “all about writing online, and helping my fellow freelancers.” Nick Usborne is a veteran copywriter with nearly 40 years of copywriting experience during which time he worked with companies like Apply, Chrysler, News York Times, Reuters, and more.
6. Write to Done
Write to Done is focused on helping you write better. Whether that’s a blog post, sales page or a non-fiction novel.
7. Copyhacker
Copyhackers wants to help you write more persuasive and effective copy. Joanna Wiebe, the mastermind behind Copyhackers, is a conversion copywriter with 15 years of experience working with companies like Intuit and Conversion Rate Experts.
8. Creative Revolt
Creative Revolt is a different kind of freelance writing blog focused on helping writers kick doubts to the curb, find the courage to launch their writing practice, and create some awesome content. It’s edgy but informative.
9. Buffer Social
Buffer is a social media scheduling tool, but their blog has all kinds of useful information about creating content for social media and social media copywriting.
10. Ben Settle
Ben Settle is an email copywriting veteran. The guy has probably written more newsletter than I’ve had hot dinners. His blog, unsurprisingly, contains all kinds of gems about writing better emails and copywriting in general.
11. /r/FreelanceWriters
While subreddit’s aren’t typically considered blogs, the freelance writing subreddit is a great place to connect with other writers, ask questions, find resources, and keep up to date with industry changes.
12. Freelance Writing Riches
Just like the name suggests, Freelance Writing Riches is all about helping writers earn money from freelance writing. The blog is run by Maggie Linders, a 6-figure freelance writer with over a decade of experience writing content for clients.
13. The Write Life
The Write Life is all about helping writers create, connect, and earn.
14. Be a Freelance Blogger
This blog is dedicated to helping writers earn money through blogging. While many writers dream of creating a blog that earns money while they sleep, actually creating one is much easier said than done.
Portfolio Builders for Freelance Content Writers
Clippings.me
Clippings.me is among the most popular tools for freelance writers looking to build a portfolio. The free account lets you upload up to 10 articles in your portfolio (called “clips”), while a paid plan gives you unlimited clips and a variety of other perks.
Pricing: Clippings.me has a free plan with basic functionality and a limit of 10 clips. The paid version unlocks unlimited clips, custom domains, analytics, and more.
Contently
Contently is a content marketing platform and technology company, which connects business with freelance writers. A Contently portfolio means you can upload articles, copywriting, and any other assets that speak to your individual expertise.
Pricing: It’s free to sign up and create a Contently portfolio, but any clients you land through the platform will be subject to an “agent fee.”
Pressfolio
“Pressfolios is the easiest way for journalists, writers, reporters, bloggers, public relations and other media professionals to backup their news stories, design a beautiful online portfolio website, and showcase their personal brand – no coding required.”
Pricing: Pressfolio doesn’t have a free version, but instead has lite ($9.99/month) and pro versions ($14.99/month.) The lite version has a limit of 250 stories, while the pro version gives customers access to unlimited stories, custom domain name, analytics, and more.
Journo Portfolio
Journo Portfolio is one of the most complete portfolio builders online. One of my favorite things about this tool is that you can connect it with Google Analytics to gather metrics about how many people are visiting your page.
Pricing: Journo Portfolio has three pricing tiers: free, plus ($5/month) and pro ($10/month.) The free plan allows you to upload 10 articles to a “yourname.journoportfolio.com” domain. The paid versions have extra benefits like unlimited articles, custom domains, and backups.
Squarespace
Squarespace is a website builder with beautiful, and easy-to-build portfolio templates. The nice part about creating a portfolio website with a tool like Squarespace is that you’ll have more flexibility than when using one of the other tools mentioned here. On the flip side, this extra flexibility comes at the cost of more complexity.
Pricing: The Personal plan costs $12/month whereas the Professional plan costs $18/month. If all you want is a portfolio website, then the Personal plan will cover everything you need. As you look at add more features to the website, you may find it makes sense to upgrade to the Professional plan.
Job Boards for Freelance Content Writers
Hunting down clients can eat up a lot of time for freelance writers. That’s why many writers choose to browse writing job boards instead. Depending on the job board you’re using, these projects may range from simple 1-off articles to full-time copywriting gigs.
Contena
Contena sources some of the best freelance copywriting, editing, and content creation gigs available. While the quality of writing jobs are much higher than some other sites, writers need to pay for access to the Contena platform.
FlexJobs
FlexJobs is one of the largest job search sites and they specialize in remote, part-time, and freelance jobs.
ProBlogger
ProBlogger is a blog, resource, and job board dedicated to helping blog writers be more successful. In addition to a bunch of useful articles and advice, the ProBlogger job board is one of the best in the industry.
FreelanceWriting.com
FreelanceWriting.com is a hub for connecting businesses and freelance writers.
All Freelance Writing
All Freelance Writing is a job board where companies pay to list their writing jobs. In addition to their paid clients, the website also sources job postings from other sites.
Mediabistro
Mediabistro is a website that offers resources and tutorials for media professionals, including a job board for a variety of media-related positions. In addition to writing jobs, you might also find roles like “Content Manager” or “Podcast Host”.
Places to Sell Articles
Many businesses choose to hire writers through a platform, rather than working with writers directly. The reason is because these platforms have built-in functionality that makes life easier for the writers and companies. Here is a list of our favorite sites you can use to find clients and sell articles.
nDash
nDash is a relatively new site but has quickly become of the top providers of content.
From their website “Brands use nDash to build and manage a content community, with a platform that combines in-house talent, freelancers, and thought leaders.”
Key Clients: LinkedIn, Hubspot, Amp Agency
NewsCred
NewsCred claims to be the leading enterprise content marketing platform.
From their website, “Top brands around the world trust NewsCred’s innovative technology, exceptional content offerings, and unrivaled expertise. Founded in 2008, NewsCred serves hundreds of customers in over 70 countries from seven global offices.”
Key Clients: JP Morgan Chase, HSBC, Panasonic, Cisco, Twitter
Clearvoice
Clearvoice is a premium content marketing platform for companies and agencies looks to connect with writers and create awesome content.
Key Clients: Paysa, Carfax, Intuit, Cabela’s
Constant Content
Constant Content is a content marketplace and writing service. There are two parts of this website. First, writers can list articles for sale on the marketplace. Second, writers with an account can apply to freelance jobs posts by customers.
Key Clients: Zulily, SportChek, Walgreens
Scripted
Like many of the other sites listed here, Scripted is focused on connecting businesses with freelance writers.
Key Clients: Apartment List, Event Brite, L’Oreal, LinkedIn