When I decided that I wanted to start working towards building a freelance career, I had no idea what I was doing, nor did I know how to begin. Everything seemed incredibly overwhelming at first, and although I did quite a bit of research, I still felt somewhat unprepared.

I took the first few weeks following all of the steps I had learned, writing out everything I needed to do before I started putting my portfolio together, and even after I had finished, something still felt like it was missing.

I created a website to display my work, started posting there regularly, learning to write pitches, and there was nothing but crickets. At the time, I didn’t know why I wasn’t receiving any responses from potential clients, but after a few weeks of no work, I decided it was time to reassess.

The biggest mistake I made was expecting an influx of work and clients from the get-go, without making any connection with other writers or job opportunities. I sat around, hoping someone would stumble upon my site instead of going out there and showing them what I was capable of.

Here is what I learned while trying to get my freelance career off the ground and addressing all of the mistakes I made along the way.

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