3 Key Elements That Make a Successful Online Freelance Writing Business

Have you ever sat down and seriously asked yourself what does it take to be a successful online freelance writer? What separates greatness from mediocrity? How does one person manage to have a thriving and booming freelance writing business, while another's left to "pick up the remains and feed on it?"

1. Branding - Hands down this is a little-known secret that top performing writers work on right from the start. If you have plans on establishing a full-time income doing freelance writing work and making a real career out of it, then branding is where you should focus on from the get go.

Create a website (or blog), come up with an interesting pen name (or stick to your real one if that's your preference), and come up with a catchy tagline that people are bound to remember! These things obviously take time to develop and that's why most run-off-the-mill writers don't go too far because they've forgotten this key element. Or they don't want all the work that comes with it.

2. Networking - No matter how well written your articles or blog posts may be, even if you brand yourself as the king of website content and regardless of how catchy your pen name or tagline may sound, if you aren't involved in the process of networking on a daily basis, you're obviously going to run out of clients in the long run.

Networking takes various forms. Some freelance writers like to do it via guest blogging; others prefer promoting themselves in social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Digg. Whatever the strategy, exposure (and lots of it) is the name of the game and the more people know about you, the higher the chances of being hired to do freelance work.

3. Pricing - A common waterloo of freelance writers today is setting their rates too low from the start. If you know that you have the writing skills and talent to back your prices, and a growing list of samples and feedback to prove it, there should be no reason why you shouldn't come up with modest rates, which would eventually set the standard for your business.

There are certain guidelines and formulas that you can use to determine how much your work is worth per hour or depending on the project involved. Remember, if you are planning to make a full-time job out of this, you have to factor in things such as health benefits, insurance (particularly for home-based workers), and other essential stuff (e.g. you won't get paid for sick days or holidays and unlike an employee you won't be able to enjoy year-end bonuses or have a pension).

It is for these reasons that you should never sell yourself short.