Today’s guest blogger is Chris Bibey of ChrisBlogging, which I reviewed on this blog last year.

If you are interested in becoming a freelance writer, you should keep in mind that slow and steady is just as good as fast and furious. In other words, you do not have to be in a huge rush to achieve success. Sure, the faster you progress the earlier you can quit your day job, but with that being said, you also need to make sure that you are learning as you move in the right direction.

Here are five tips to follow if building a freelance writing career is of interest to you:

1. Start from the beginning. On day one, you will want to get all of your ducks in a line. This includes everything from setting up an office to buying supplies to getting your samples and resume in order. If you are doing this part-time, there is no need to rush. If it takes you a week to get setup, so be it. It is important that you lay a solid foundation so that you are in the best position to move forward.

2. When you are setup and ready to write, you will soon realize that getting in touch with potential clients is essential. After all, if you do not have clients you do not have a freelance writing career. There are several ways that you can do this as a new freelance writer:

• Use bidding sites such as Elance and GetAFreelancer.
• Cold call local businesses.
• Cold email webmasters and blog owners who may need your services.
• Query publications of interest. You can find a list of magazines that accept freelancers by purchasing a copy of Writer’s Market.

Of course, there are many other ways of finding clients. Try out the four methods above to see which ones work best for you. From there, you will have a better idea of how to progress.

3. As you begin to receive projects, it is essential that you stay organized. To go along with this, make sure that you do not bite off more than you can chew. For instance, if you are working as a part-time freelance writer you do not want to have a full-time load. If you do, it is safe to say that you will be working a lot of nights and weekends which can lead to burnout. This is not to say that you should turn down work, but you should definitely pay close attention to how much time you can devote to writing.

4. Network, network, network! Every successful freelance writer knows how important it is to receive referrals from current clients. This is not only a great way to obtain more work and increase profits, but you will also meet a lot of like-minded professionals if you put a lot of time into networking.

5. Grow your career based on your goals and your current lifestyle. Take for instance somebody who has a full-time job, but wants to navigate into becoming a full-time freelance writer. In this case, it is important to keep both jobs separate, while working to grow as a freelancer. As mentioned above, do not become over anxious. If you grow month in and month out, you will find out soon enough that your goals are within reach.

With these tips in mind, you should not have any problems slowly growing your freelance writing career. And who knows; you may have so much success that you can reach full-time earning status sooner than you ever thought possible!

Learn how Chris Bibey of ChrisBlogging.com earns in excess of $7k per month as a full-time freelance writer.