Have you been wondering how to create a standout writer website that would impress clients and get you hired?

You know you need one. Without a site, it’s like you’re invisible. You just don’t seem legit, especially if you’re going after online markets.

I’ve talked about writer websites before, and do reviews weekly in Freelance Writers Den, but today I thought I’d just show you some fine examples of successful writer websites. These sites have a few things in common:

• They have clean, uncluttered design.
• You can get a good sense quickly of the type of writing the writer does.
• The clips are presented in a way that’s easy to read.
• It’s easy to figure out how to contact them.

Some of them were done very affordably, too.

Take a look for yourself. There’s a lot of variety in the approach in these sites, and they each have some particular strengths. They’re in no particular order:

1. Mary Yerkes – An example of what you can accomplish with the basic WordPress blog site you get when you join the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE). Clean, simple, and gets the job done with some clips and a really inviting photo that makes her seem happy, professional, and accessible. If you don’t want to learn a lot about WordPress and which host would be best for you, this NAIWE site offer is a turnkey solution. Plus, you get a whole writer support organization thrown into the deal.
2. Yolander Prinzel — I likes this site’s all-in-one home page approach (which you’ll notice I sort of adapted for my own site). Note how some of the client mentions are live links to clips, and how she plays up her expertise as a financial writer in her “about me” box. Love the testimonial right at the top, too. Only thing missing here is a nice shot of her for the home page.
3. Oscar Halpert – This is one of my favorite writer photos — check out how friendly, approachable and yet business like Oscar is looking here. Also take in his great, concise landing page copy. Shows he knows how to sum it up, one of the big skills pro writers have over amateurs. Most writer sites have too much blather instead of showing they can pack a powerful punch in few words.
4. Kristi Hines – The popular Kikolani blogger’s own writer site is a top-ranked one for the search term “freelance writer.” Hines put it all on one page, and it’s clearly working for her. If you have more than one skill, check out how Kristi presents herself smoothly as a writer, blogger, and photographer.
5. Sally Bacchetta – A fairly busy-looking site, but packed with clips, and a top-ranker for “freelance writer.” A basic head shot is enough to make her seem friendly and relatable.
6. Emily Suess — The Suess’s Pieces blogger takes a risk with the rotating header, as some people won’t be able to see Flash elements, but she makes it work with a great photo that really shows her personality. A top-ranked site for “freelance writer.” For copywriters, she shows you how to lure prospects by crushing the copy on your own site, with her great headline, “Say it with me.”
7. Pat Howard – Dig his young attitude in the photos, which also plays into one of his specialties: TV writing. Nice testimonial page. Great example of how to show your personality on your site without oversharing or seeming unprofessional. A simple, effective site.
8. David LaMartina – This writer recently joined the Den and got his site done by Sean Platt’s new WordPress design/hosting/support company, OutstandingSETUP. I’d been hearing about this company but hadn’t had a chance to check out their work, and now that I have, all I can say is WOW. Real nice for $17 a month, eh? If you’ve been considering shelling out hundreds to a designer to custom-make your site, you might want to think about this as an alternative. I find many designers are in love with flashy things and don’t know a lot about conversion, where OutstandingSetup’s team understands what your site needs to have, and leaves out the distractions. This is a visually pleasant, clean, simple site that gets the job done on a budget.
9. Ed Gandia – The Wealthy Freelancer co-author recently told me he hasn’t updated his writer site in years. You can see why he doesn’t have to, as it’s got everything you need. Especial awesome here: His free-for-subscribers product that’s focused on his prospects, The Software Marketer’s Lead Generation Report. Can you say “Way to build a prospect list?” Also his landing page headline immediately shows he gets his software-company audience: “Results-Driven Copy and Strategy That Resonate with Today’s Overmarketed (and Hard-to-Impress) Technology Buyer.”
10. Carol Tice – OK, obviously, I’m biased here. But I did work hard redoing my site, and I do get a lot of nice gigs through it. I’m particularly pleased with my resume page, which is now a tab called Where I’ve Been.

Seen any good writer websites lately? Leave us a link and tell us why you like the site.

P.S. Need feedback on your writer website?  In Freelance Writers Den, writers get complimentary website reviews. Click here to learn how to Win 1 Year Free in Freelance Writers Den. Find out what’s in the Den by clicking below:

Once upon a time — okay, in the late 1980s — I was a starving songwriter. I had never written an article.

Also, there was no Internet.

Fast-forward to today, when I earn a full-time freelance living from writing articles and blog posts for the past six years, and well more than 1,000 of my articles are floating around the Internet.

How did it happen? How did I go from no clips and get those very first clips, and start building a career as a freelance writer?

Here’s the secret:

It happened by accident

I was minding my own business, reading the local alternative paper, as I liked to do on Thursday afternoons. And whaddaya know — the paper was having an essay contest.

It was about the paper’s 10th anniversary. They wanted people to write about what the past decade of life in L.A. had meant to them.

I about fell over.

I had quit college and moved back to L.A. exactly 10 years earlier to start pursuing songwriting. Since then, life had been frustrating and grindingly difficult.

“It’s like they made this contest just for me,” I told my husband.

Even though I’d never written much prose before, this essay almost wrote itself.

When I won and they paid me $200, it changed my life. No exaggeration. I literally asked musician friends over to my house and handed them my recording equipment. I wouldn’t be needing it anymore.

I had found the type of writing that pays! That essay led to more alt-paper assignments right away. The editors there seemed friendly and willing to help me learn.

Contests lead to article-writing gigs

Then, not long after, it happened again. The real estate section of the Los Angeles Times was having an essay contest.

They wanted readers’ stories of do-it-yourself home projects.

My husband and I were at that moment camped on a mattress on the floor of our living room. We’d bought a serious fixer house cheap and were slowly learning how to rehab it, making lots of mistakes along the way.

It was like they thought up this contest just for me.

And I didn’t know enough to be scared witless at trying to get in the L.A. Times.

After my story of our “young and dumb” rehab efforts ran, the editor wanted me to write cover features for the section.

I felt totally unqualified. But he said I’d be just great.

He thought my writing was fun, and funny.

This contest found me a mentor, and a gig at one of largest newspapers in the country. With my second published clip. It all rolled from there.

I didn’t know that would happen

I just thought it would be fun to write about our pathetic attempts at home improvement.

I didn’t have big career goals here. I was just having fun and loving that this writing paid a bit.

Getting my writing out there in a quality publication turned out to be the way to get noticed by the right people.

As you might guess, I’m a fan of entering local writing contests — especially the kind that don’t charge a fee. And especially if you think you’ve got an idea that’s exactly what they want. Keep your eyes peeled.

But the takeaway from my little story goes way beyond “enter contests.”

Here are my tips for breaking in to article writing from scratch:

• Start with your attitude. Many new writers I know have a massive insecurity complex. Get over it! Freelance writing is all an adventure. Look for opportunities to have fun doing writing you know you’ll be good at, and you’ll be on the right track.
• Hang out with the right crowd. I saved a lot of time by starting with quality publications instead of at a poor-reputation place like a content mill. The clips I got positioned me to easily get the next assignments. Look for opportunities to write a volunteer sample at a quality organization, whether it’s a highly regarded charity, local business, or magazine. That builds your portfolio.
• Look for the easy thing. As I did, you want to look for a writing opportunity that is a natural for you given your work and life experience. You might even feel like they created the gig just for you.
• Tell a friend. I couldn’t stop talking to people about how much fun I was having with this print writing thing I’d stumbled on. You never know who might refer you to a small business or new publication that needs writers.
• Realize we all start somewhere. Remember that every writer working today once had no clips. They faced this hurdle and found a place to write. You can, too. The trick is to get over this hump as fast as you can — find somewhere you can write something for somebody, now. Then you’ll never again have to say, “But I don’t have any clips…”

Need help getting your first assignments? My upcoming bootcamp with WritingThoughts’ Laura Spencer breaks it down and shows you exactly how to find those gigs. The Step by Step Guide to Freelance Writing Success begins tomorrow. Get four live, 1-hour trainings and a month in the Den for homework support — and get on the road to earning a living as a freelancer — now.

I get a lot of questions about how to break into freelance writing. And I can answer them all with two words.

Really.

If you do these two things, it will keep you out of a lot of trouble as a new writer.

You’ll move forward faster and probably earn a lot more.

Can it really be that simple? Two words?

I think so.

Ready? Here we go.

1. Experiment.

A lot of new writers are mystified on how to move forward with their careers. I get questions like:

Should I send a query or a letter of introduction?

Should I pitch more than one idea at once?

What is the one easiest, low-cost way for me to market my writing?

Is it OK to reach out to editors on LinkedIn?

Which is the best writing niche for me?

Take a listen here and you can hear what Laura Spencer from WritingThoughts and I had to say about that last one (plus describing the easiest way to market yourself) at yesterday’s Webinar:

To sum it up, the answer to all of your questions along these lines is: You’ll have to experiment and see what works for you. Every writer is different.

I can tell you what worked for me, and it might work for you.

But there’s only one way to find out for sure.

You can get advice all day long, but if you never go out there and start trying it and see what gets results in your case, you’re not going to have any concrete data on how to move forward.

Once you start experimenting, you’ll learn fast. Or at least faster than you will sitting alone in your home, trying to guess at what might work.

Is following up on query letters a waste of time?

Will my healthcare writing pay better than writing about pets?

There’s only one way to find out. Start doing it and see.

Here’s the other big thing you can do to avoid mistakes:

2. Ask.

Often, new writers realize they don’t quite know what to do. You get yourself into a situation where you’re worried you’re about to screw up.

I’m not sure if the editor wants a sidebar with this story.

They told me to send an invoice but I’m not sure what they pay.

I want to use my best friend as a source in my story — is that OK?

When you have these sorts of questions, you can twist your worry beads, vent on writer forums, take anxiety medication — or do the one thing sure to resolve your uncertainties: you can ask your editor.

Barring that, you can ask a freelance writing pro for advice. We’ve been there and can give you some guidance based on our experience.

We’ve already experimented a lot. And asked a lot of questions. That’s how we got here.

Got questions about how to break into freelance writing? You can ask them — and get answers — at my 4-week bootcamp starting July 10: The Step by Step Guide to Freelance Writing Success. You can check out all the details by pressing that button below:

By Elaine Yue

“You’re an idiot.”

That’s what I told myself after I spent three hours writing a 500-word article for a content mill.

What did it pay?

A whopping $5.

When I had decided I would do some freelance writing to “make some extra cash,” I had no idea that writing a 500-word article would take hours.

There was no way I would make money like this.

I start to dig

By luck, I came across the Make a Living Writing blog. My entire perception changed.

I could actually make money writing!

I joined the Freelance Writer’s Den and read everything. I was sure these tips would bring me a high-paying gig immediately.

Information overload

But I quickly realized I had a problem.

I had no idea where to begin.

All of these tips were great, but they were coming from veteran writers who already had a marketing plan in place. They already had prestigious clips and connections. One tweet and the gigs would roll in.

I had no clips.

I had no connections.

How was a newbie writer supposed to start?

Mind-mapping a marketing plan

I decided to mind-map a specific plan:

1. I answered:

• Who am I serving?
• What do they want?
• What fears keep them up at night?
• What problems can I solve for them?
• Where can I find them?

My mind map helped me organize my thoughts so I had a cohesive plan. Otherwise, I was left thinking, “I’ll try this technique” or “I should try that technique.” This process gave me a more concrete road map to follow.

2.  I built a prospect list using Manta, Linkedin, Jigsaw, and Google. Using Manta’s data, I identified health supplement companies with $1 million-$5 million in annual revenue — my target audience.

3.  I created a website with a blog to use as samples.

4.  Using tips from the Den and Ed Gandia’s Warm Email Prospecting class (yes, I did find it through this blog, and that is Carol’s affiliate link), and working with the answers to my questions about customers’ needs (getting more customers, educating shoppers about health concerns), I created this email:

Subject:

Congrats on becoming an Authorized Distributor of [Vendor] → trigger event

Message:

I read a press release that [Company] has become an Authorized Distributor of [Vendor] – congrats! → trigger event

I’m contacting you because I help nutritional supplement companies write newsletters, blogs, and marketing material that help convey their messages clearly and effectively to customers. And I have some ideas on how you can convey your message to your very specific and special target audience. → value statement

Let me know if you’re interested in discussing further. No sales pitch — just seeing if we might have a good fit. → call to action

Finally, a client!

When a client called me, I realized how great timing and an effective pitch were instrumental in landing me the gig.

He had been thinking about creating better content for his customers and increasing his Google ranking.

So when I said that I was a health writer who could write effective content, it was a no-brainer.

The gig: four blog posts and two landing pages for $1,000. Every month.

Tweaking my plan

I am by no means on easy street — yet. My marketing plan is still a work in progress. But for us newbies, any plan is better than no plan.

So take all of the tips from the Den and other sources, create a plan, and I guarantee you will get your first client.

Elaine Yue is a freelance writer and consultant specializing in the health supplement and insurance industries. For more details about her marketing plan, check out ElaineYue.com.

Do you have questions about how to earn more from your writing? Learn more in my community Freelance Writers Den – take ecourses, attend live events, ask writing pros your questions in our forums, and use our exclusive Junk-Free Job Board.