Freelance Writer Resume Guide with Samples

Freelance writing is the practice of earning income by writing for multiple clients, while not being hired by any employer. As a freelance writer (also known as freelance content creator), you can cover a variety of topics or specialize in one specific area.

As every business needs compelling content, there's a huge demand for skilled freelance writers. With an impressive freelance content writer resume, you can maintain job stability by marketing yourselves efficiently and attracting more potential clients.

Check the table below to understand the differences between a resume and a CV.

Freelance Writer Resume

• 1-2 pages
• Covers the information related to the job opening only, including contact details, resume summary, education, work experience, certifications
• Required for the job application along with a cover letter for a freelance writer
• Creative and unique

Freelance Writer CV

• No length limit
• Include full professional details: contact info, summary, work experience, education, academic experience or awards
  
• Usually required for academic fields as teaching, medical & nursing, accounting, or science
• Plain and format

📌 Three common resume formats are chronological, functional, and combinational resumes.

Be aware of the choice of format for your freelance writer resume even though they all serve the purpose of featuring your skills and work experience.

As a freelance writer, you must have gained relevant experience in the field. Most applicants prefer to use the chronological format type to showcase their employment history.

However, the hybrid one seems to work better for a freelance writer resume format as you can still show experience while highlighting your key skills.

Writing a resume may seem overwhelming at first. No worries! Try to look up freelance writer resume examples and templates on the Internet - this way, you can get yourself great tricks and writing advice.

There are a variety of jobs to get your freelance writing career off to a great start such as content writer, journalist, travel/food reviewer, editor, and proofreader, etc. Hence, make sure to tailor your resume for writing jobs online for a specific job.

Simply put, find what is most relevant to the job requirements and fill your freelance writer resume with personal qualifications, expertise, and experience that will impress the client.

The cover letter is like a handshake - that's how you greet and introduce yourself to employers.

As a freelance writer, you are commonly asked to submit a cover letter along with a resume.

Through your freelance writer cover letter, the client expects to see your clear understanding of the job requirements as well as a brief demonstration of your qualifications that motivates them to dive into your resume.

It's true that many people, freelance writers included, make grammar mistakes and typos while writing.

That may cause a bad influence on your brand image and stop you from getting the job successfully, especially when writing should be your best skill.

Thus, be sure to proofread your freelance editor resume and cover letter before sending it out to clients.

1. Resume profile (Personal Information)

✔️ You should include these:

• Full Name
• Email
• Phone Number
• Personal website/Social media/Blog/Portfolio

❌ You should not include these:

• SSN
• Marital Status
• Religion/Race
• Identifying Info

2. Resume Headline

A resume headline (or personal title) states your professional level or expertise in the field. Drafting a well-branded freelance writer resume headline can gain the client's first attention and make you stand out from other applicants.

For example, instead of “Freelance Content Marketer", try to make a huge difference by a statement like “Content Marketing Freelancer with a strong focus on brand building and content management on social media."

3. Resume Summary 

A resume summary (also known as a professional summary) ideally consists of two or three sentences placed at the top of the resume.

A professional summary for a freelance writer should briefly demonstrate your skills, experience, and outstanding achievements to motivate the clients to read your entire freelance writer resume.

4. Resume Objective

While drafting an objective statement for your freelance editor resume, clearly state your career goals and commitment to meeting client needs.

5. Skills

Freelance writer jobs require a broad skill set when compared to other professions. Hence, knowing how and what to list key skills on your freelance writer resume can get you closer to the job.

How to highlight freelance writer skills on a resume:  

• List both hard skills and soft skills
• Include key skills relevant to the job only 
• Utilize bullet points
• Stick to the truth!

6. Work Experience

As a freelancer, you’re likely to experience some full-time jobs or have worked on a lot of projects with different clients.

Though you can showcase your work experience on your personal website or portfolio, you still need to present all of them on your freelance writer resume.

✔️ You should include these:

• Employer/Client Name
• Year of Start and End
• Job Responsibilities                   
• Achievements

❌ You should not include these:

• Salary
• Information that Benefits Competitors

7. Education

Whether the clients expect freelance writers to have fancy academic degrees or not, you need to cover the basics in the education section, including:

• School Name
• Year of Start and End
• Degree and Majors
• Relevant Courses (optional)

8. Feature Your Own Blog/Website or Certifications

As mentioned earlier, freelance writers tend to showcase writing samples on portfolios, blogs, or personal websites so that clients can take a closer look at their work.

Make sure you add a link to your resume so that you can be ahead of other applicants.

The earlier part has highlighted the role of tailoring the freelance content creator resume for the specific job.

Just like a portfolio or personal website, quantifiable achievements on your freelance editor resume can be a good way for clients to evaluate the quality of your work.

With numbers like unique page views, organic traffic rates, membership rates, etc., you can prove yourself further to win the competition.

With large numbers of resumes, clients might use Applicant Tracking Systems to automatically scan through them. Although you're doing a creative job, make sure you're also crafting an ATS-friendly freelance writer resume.

Regardless of your writing style or area you specialize in, you may consider adopting relevant action words/verbs.

This way you can show clients that you fully understand the job requirements and make your freelance content writer resume stand out. 

In search of freelance content creators, clients yearn for creativity and uniqueness. Hence, it's important to hone your niche and show it on your resume if you want to attract many clients and build up your freelance writing career.

Say that you're writing a cover letter for a content writer with no experience or a cover letter for a content writer on Upwork, keep in mind to include the following key points: 

• Contact details: Name, email, social media, personal website. 
• Self-introduction: Start with a polite greeting - make sure you say the right name of the client and desired job.
• Motivation: Sincerely express your intention to apply for the job.
• Qualification: Briefly demonstrate your expertise, relevant skills, projects, and works along with outstanding achievements.
• Closing: Express appreciation to the potential client.