New freelance writers may struggle with many things, but a lack of information isn’t one of them. In fact, most of us are dealing with information overload.

Between the internet and all the self-proclaimed experts out there, we have access to way more information than we could ever need. And most of the time, this abundance of information is great.

I literally taught myself how to write a decent blog post, become a personal finance writer, and create an online course using information I Googled.

New freelance writers can find tons of information about how to find clients and build their freelance writing business. But the downside is that a lot of this information ends up being flat out wrong.

5 Myths About Freelance Writing

Here are five myths about freelance writing that you need to watch out for:

1. You should never do free or low-paying work

Okay, this first point is probably going to rub some people the wrong way. (Actually, all of the points in this article will probably rub some people the wrong way!)

There is this persistant myth in the online space that you should be making big money right out of the gate. And my friends, it simply isn’t true.

People across all professions do some amount of “free work.” Coaches usually do free coaching for a period of time before they start charging money for it.

Course creators will often beta test their product before launching it, which means they give it away for free to a select group of people. And most successful freelance writers have done some free or low-paying work in the beginning.

Most freelancers will guest post (i.e. write free articles) for websites or write a few articles at a very low price point in order to gain more experience.

I did this in the beginning for several clients. I did get paid, but the pay was so low the articles were basically free. But from those jobs, I got writing samples which enabled me to find better-paying work.

I’m not saying you have to accept free or low-paying work or that you should do it for very long. But if it helps you buid momentum in your freelance writing business, it may be worth the sacrifice.

2. You need a journalism degree to be successful

In the beginning, whenever I told someone I was a freelance writer they would almost always ask, “So do you have a journalism degree?”

Nope. In fact, I don’t even have a college degree. And no, I don’t have any plans to go back and get one.

I used to feel very uncomfortable sharing that information, but over the years, I’ve learned that no one really cares. In three and a half years of freelancing, I’ve never had one client ask me about my degree.

In the past, earning a college degree was crucial if you wanted to land a good job. Many of us grew up being told that if we didn’t go to college we’d be stuck working at McDonald’s for the rest of our lives.

If I were to go out and start applying for 9-5 jobs, my lack of a degree might hurt me. But it doesn’t matter in the freelancing world.

That’s because every business, website, and entrepreneur needs more content than they can feasibly produce on their own. The demand for new content is constant and ongoing.

So if you’re a good writer who can communicate with your clients and meet your deadlines, I promise you they’ll never ask about a degree.

3. You need to pick a niche immediately

Most freelancer writers will tell you that you need to pick a niche right from the start. I cannot even count the number of times I’ve heard the phrase “the riches are in the niches.”

And the truth is, your niche does help you. Once I established myself as a personal finance writer, it became so much easier for me to find clients. And new clients started coming to me because they would see my bylines on other personal finance sites.

But guys, it took me over two and half years to get to that point.

When I was just starting out, I never would have imagined I would want to write about finance. I had to write about a variety of different topics to figure out what I enjoyed.

And contrary to popular opinion, you can make money without a niche. I regularly earned up to $5,000 a month just being a generalist. There are many clients who are fine with hiring a jack-of-all-trades!

So just to be clear, I do think you need to pick a niche. I just don’t think you need to choose one immediately.

4. You need a huge social media following

Wouldn’t this photo be perfect for Instagram?

One day, I saw a poll that asked, “Do you need a social media following to be successful as a freelance writer?” I promptly answered “no” and believe me, I was in the minority.

At the time of this writing, I have 73 followers on Twitter, 57 followers on Instagram, and 85 people like my Facebook business page. Yet, I earn well over $100,000 a year as a freelance writer.

Could I be 10X as successful if I had tons of social media followers? Who knows.

What I do know is that there are tons of people with more followers than me who aren’t earning six-figures. In fact, many of them are busy building their followings wondering when all their hard work will start paying off.

The truth is, there is no direct link between your freelance writing income and your social media following. Anyone who claims overwise is probably well-meaning, but misinformed.

Here is what will actually move the needle on your freelance writing business:

Sending proposals for work
Asking for new work from current and previous clients
Asking for referrals
Doing the work for your current clients

If you do all of those things during the month of March, I promise you it will benefit your business way more than adding 100 new Twitter followers.

5. You’ll never make any money using Upwork

I got my start as a freelance writer on Upwork. Many of my best clients came from Upwork, and I’ve made over $90,000 on the platform since September 2016.

I do find clients through LinkedIn and other job boards, but I continue to use Upwork to this day because it really works for me. And that’s why it’s a huge pet peeve of mine when other freelancers tell new writers to avoid Upwork.

This annoys me for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s 100% untrue. Most of the freelancers who say this have never used Upwork themselves or they tried it for two weeks and then quit.

But the biggest reason it annoys me is that it turns people away from a platform that could help them make a lot of money. I’m so glad I ignored the freelancers who told me to stay off of Upwork in the early days.

Guys, there is no single “right” way to find freelance writing clients. Different things are going to work well for different people and you need to be open to trying all of it.

Final Thoughts

Obviously, all of the points I’ve outlined in this article are 100% my own opinion. Feel free to ignore them if they don’t work for you.

If you want to ignore Upwork, get your journalism degree, and build a huge social media following then I think you should do it. My only goal with writing this blog post is to give you options and try to expand your thinking a little bit.

If you haven’t done so already, please go download the Freelance Writer’s Starter Guide. This free guide will teach you five simple steps you can take to land your next freelance writing client.