Elizabeth Spencer

About Elizabeth Spencer

Elizabeth Helen Spencer is a Philadelphia-based writer and English teacher. Her freelance blogging career began with the small step of changing her LinkedIn profile title to "Freelance Writer." Three years later she writes for online publications like Money Under 30 and Romper as well as private clients. Visit her website to learn more about Elizabeth's work.

It’s Not About You: What Editors Want Writers To Know About Pitching

You follow successful bloggers on Instagram and dream of living that lifestyle yourself. How hard can it be to dash off a few guest posts a week in between traveling the world and taking lots of pictures of your dog because, hey, you don’t have to sit in a boring office all day? Soon your social media following will number in the high six figures and you won’t be able to keep up with all the sponsorship offers from your favorite brands.

In reality, successfully pitching a guest post has a lot more to do with research and tenacity than finding the perfect angle for your “it’s always 5:00 somewhere” selfie with your laptop and white wine glass as you blog from the Mediterranean Coast of Italy, sure to encounter George and Amal at any moment. You can celebrate once you see your byline in print, but in the meantime you’ll need to brace yourself for frustration and rejection.

Whether your motivation for pursuing freelance blogging is to become rich and famous, or to simply make money on the side while you raise kids, it’s important to check your ego at the door before you begin the pitching process. Understanding your audience means knowing it’s not about you. As an experienced freelance blogger and creative writer who has worked on the editorial side of three literary journals, I’ll share my perspective from both sides of the desk. Here are my five tips for successfully pitching a guest post, with examples and specific steps you can take now to achieve pitching success. [Read more…]

How to Outsource Your Freelance Blogging Work with Integrity

At the beginning of your freelance blogging career, you worried about getting enough work. Now you have a better problem, but a problem nonetheless: you have more assignments than you can comfortably handle on your own.

This article will show you how to outsource some of your work to other writers while maintaining professional integrity with your client and subcontractor(s). Now, I know some of you are thinking “but I’m not at that point in my career yet. How do I get there?” While there are different ways to land more decent-paying freelance blogging gigs, the good news is it doesn’t necessarily take as long as you might assume.

Like many freelance bloggers, I started out writing for a content mill. After nearly a year of writing content in the evenings after my toddler was in bed, I was unhappy with the low pay and demanding deadlines. I knew there must be something better out there, but I wasn’t sure how to find it. Around that time, Sophie offered a new intensive mentoring program and I decided to enroll. Some people are good at putting themselves out there and forging their own path to freelance blogging success, but I’ve always benefited from personal mentoring and external accountability.

After two months of working with Sophie, I landed my first steady gigs as a freelance blogger. The first one came with a byline and the responsibility of writing a few articles a month for a personal finance website. I discovered it through a job ad and used Sophie’s pitch templates to send a winning application. The second gig involved ghostwriting blog posts and other content for a private client who filled out the contact form on my website. With Sophie’s help, I’d recently given my site a makeover to add a portfolio and focus on my freelance blogging services.

Both of these gigs expanded after a few months. My editor liked my work, so she assigned more articles. My client was starting a new marketing firm and as his customer base grew, so did my workload. After a year of freelance blogging on the side while working my “day job” as an adjunct English professor, I realized something had to give. I was overwhelmed and falling behind. If this continued, I would likely lose a writing client or receive bad evaluations from my students.

First, I scaled back my teaching load from three or four classes a semester to just one. Then I decided to share some of my blogging work with a few writer friends.

Here’s how I maintained my professional integrity in the outsourcing process so I could catch up, stay on track, and keep my clients happy. [Read more…]