How To Get Published As A Freelance Writer in 2024

Last Updated on February 2, 2023 by John Cirelly

So you want to learn how to get published as a freelance writer? Then keep on reading! Getting published isn’t as tricky as you probably think. Let’s dive into some quick strategies you can use to get your first published piece!

Why Getting Published Matters

As a freelance writer, getting your work published across multiple platforms helps build your authority and shows prospects that others trust the quality of your writing. While getting published can happen naturally over your writing career, it’s not a bad idea to seek out these opportunities yourself.

Some clients will only ask you to share your published pieces, which can be frustrating if you don’t have any but have tons of ghostwritten content. This is typically the case if you’ve been writing for an agency on behalf of their clients.

Here’s how you can fix that.

How To Get Published as a Freelance Writer

Check out these five strategies to get more of your work published.

1. Refine Your Portfolio

It might sound counterintuitive, but make sure your portfolio pieces are pristine. This means grammatically correct, SEO optimized, and related to the niche sites you want published on.

Later in the article, I’ll discuss some ways to get published, but these strategies first require you to have a solid portfolio of at least three writing samples to show off. If you’re new to freelance writing as a side hustle, I recommend checking out my post on how to become a freelance writer.

2. Reach Out To Large Sites

Reaching out to larger websites isn’t as hopeless as many new writers think. In fact, if you can show you can provide quality writing and are knowledgeable in their domain, they’ll likely take you on.

Large sites can publish multiple blog posts each day, meaning they have a demand for long-term high-quality work. Find a large website within your niche and head on down to the footer section of their site.

You should be able to find a Careers, Work For Us, or Contact link. Reach out and ask if they’re taking on any new writers. Touch on your writing experience, and knowledge in their niche, and include some writing samples.

If they say they aren’t hiring, tell them you’d still be happy to write a piece for free just to get your name out there.

If you’re not sure what to say when reaching out, check out my example on how to pitch your writing services.

3. Look For Guest Post Opportunities

In the blogging world, there’s something called guest posting. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s basically where someone writes a blog post on someone else’s blog. Websites do this to gain a backlink pointing back to their site. Relevant backlinks improve SEO, and in turn, make ranking for keywords easier.

While guest posts typically don’t lead to a paid gig, they can be a simple way to get on larger websites. Some websites want money for a guest post. Simply ignore them. No one likes them anyway. You can use these strategies to find guest posting opportunities.

One technique listed is to use Google search operators to find websites that are in your niche and open to guest posts. For example, using the query: cyber security “write for us”. You chain a bunch of keywords together to find a ton of opportunities.

Here’s the query I used to find guest post opportunities:

YOUR NICHE "write for us" OR "guest post" OR "contribute to our site" OR "submit an article"

Believe it or not, I actually found a site that would PAY me to guest post, plus link back to my site with a do-follow link.

4. Tap Into Your Network

Another great way to get published as a freelance writer is to simply tap into your existing network. Ask your friends and family if they have a blog. You might be surprised. LinkedIn is another great place to look for writing opportunities.

Do a search for “web publisher” or “content manager” on LinkedIn to find some ideal prospects. Send a connection request with a polite intro and a compliment about their site. Then, let them know how your writing can help them grow.

Automation tools like Dux Soup make it easy to find prospects on LinkedIn and reach out with custom messaging. I wrote a complete guide on how you can quickly gain 500 new connections on LinkedIn to pitch your writing services to.

5. Publish Yourself

Is publishing your own work cheating? Nah, I don’t think so. If you have a blog, consider writing new content under your own name on topics relevant to your target prospect.

Just be sure you’re not including portfolio pieces that other clients have published. This could trigger a duplicate content signal on Google and mess with your client’s SEO.

When asked for published examples, include one example per domain. If you already have a blog, then you really just need two more bylines, and you’re good to go. If the hiring manager asks you if it’s your website, be honest. Explain many of your posts are ghostwritten, but you do regularly contribute to your own blog.

Wrapping Up

Those are my tips on how to get published as a freelance writer. I hope these tips help you with your freelance writing side hustle, and get your work out there. Getting published can feel like an uphill battle at the start, but patience and continuous outreach will get you there.