3 Basic Skills Every Freelance Writer Must Have

So you want to be a freelance writer, before you dive all in, check whether you have some of the basic writing skills that will ensure your success as a writer.
1. Basic grammar
As a freelance writer, you are contracted to write for webmasters and blog owners. If you have been in the world of blogging you have heard that “content is king”, it’s a big bad black lie. The truth is, quality content is king. No webmaster will hire you if what you produce is poorly written articles. The cure for this is simple and straightforward; learn basic grammar. With high school written English, you are more than qualified to write for the web.
Common mistakes include:
• Spelling mistakes
• Punctuation marks
• Paragraph structures
• Run on sentences
• Past and present Tenses
• Confusing words e.g. there and their
2. Following instructions
The quality of work you give back to the requestors is entirely dependent on your ability to comprehend instructions. Most requesters give clear precise instructions while others are a bit vague. This calls for you as a freelancer to decipher with uttermost care what the client is looking for. At this point communication is very vital especially when the instructions are not as clear. Always ask questions whenever you don’t understand. Commonly, you will encounter these set of instructions:
• Tone: friendly or professional
• Keyword concentration: e.g. 3%
• Word count: 500 words
• Headline: short headline or long headline.
• Article format: free flow or lists.
• Paragraph: short paragraphs are mostly preferred.
3. Researching for an article
As a freelance writer 90% of the times you will work on articles you know nada about. Research is the bridge that gets you on the other side. No writer no matter what good they may be can thrive without research. Since a lot of information is already on the web, this should be easy. The only challenge is finding the right information.
When researching for a particular article, it helps to look for sites with deep information i.e.
• Facts,
• Definitions,
• Explanations,
• Examples,
• Statistics
These are aspects that readers are looking for.

If you are a freelance writer or are looking forwarding to launching your career, these basic skills are more than enough to get on the right track; as a matter of fact the whole freelance writing process is dependent on how good you develop these skills.
I trust you found this information not only credible but also sound and practical. Looking forward to hear your feedback so we can grow together, In case you haven’t realized, I am not the best writer out there, I am just another freelance writer trying to grow. If you are with me, please holla at your boy on the comments section.