If you can get into this mindset it becomes a whole lot easier to separate yourself and your personal views from your work. A good way of doing so may even be to create a pen name and treat that as your brand. At the very least you will need to come up with a name for your freelance services.

What to call yourself?

You’ll want something that’s catchy, relevant to the work you do, easy to remember and easy to spell. Think about what online keywords you’d like to hit. For example, should the word ‘writer’ be in there somewhere? Do you want to use your full name or opt for something that expresses your writing style or focus?

One of my favourite names for a freelance writing business is ABC Copywriting, run by Tom Albrighton. Everything he could possibly want to convey is summed up in that name.

Also, consider your potential URL. Really long domain names can be confusing, as can ones with unorthodox spellings. The aim is to make it as easy as possible for people to find you.

In order to balance the commercial and the personal aspects of your brand personality you’ll need to consider brand guidelines. Nothing too rigid, as the beauty of being a freelance writer is the versatility you offer. But you’ll need to have a rough idea of how you’d like to portray your business before you can start marketing your services.

When many think of an ‘expert’ they think of an academic who has been working in her field for decades. Alternatively, people figure an expert is someone who makes a lot of money or is a household name.

Thankfully, these days anyone who is good at what he or she does and boasts insider knowledge can position themselves as a voice of authority in their field.

If you work in a niche industry or have good knowledge of a specialist or emerging subject, capitalise on it in the following ways:

• Develop relationships with reporters and become their go-to expert for quotes or soundbites.
• Speak at events relevant to your industry – discussion panels are a great way to test the water.
• Teach and pass on what you’ve learned (go down the higher education route and provide guest lectures at colleges and universities, or design and run your own educational programmes delivered in person or online).
• Claim your topic – read the latest trade publications, blogs and journals and keep abreast of industry trends; offer to contribute guest posts or be interviewed.
• Use social media to engage with influencers and consumers in your field.
• Create reports and useful statistics as a by-product of your market research (this can be as simple as utilising feedback from your clients or readers).
• Write about your industry with a view to getting published or heading down the self-publishing route.
• Gather testimonials from previous clients and put together a case study.
• Enter competitions.
• Volunteer your services as a mentor or advisor.

When it comes to building your online base, there are a few key things you’ll need to include. The rest is up to you:

• A brief introduction such as a biography or ‘about’ page.
• An outline of the services you offer.
• Examples of your work. No need to detail your CV, but an overview of the variety of roles you’ve held and demonstration of your versatility is crucial, as are links to previously published work to support your statements. This will help prospective clients get a feel for your writing style.
• Contact information such as an email address and social media channels.

The good thing about a universally preferred platform, such as Wordpress, is the amount of online forums and chat rooms dedicated to fixing bugs and script errors. There are also several bestselling books that will enable you to become a WordPress whizz in no time at all.

Other platforms that have enjoyed success are Google’s Blogger (www.blogger.com), Blog.com and Tumblr (www.tumblr.com). All of these platforms offer a basic package free of charge.

Whichever service you use to build your site you should include a blog. Unless you’re working on new projects every week, your blog is the only part of your site that is likely to be updated regularly. It’s also a great place to get personal with your audience. Here you can express your thoughts without a hard sell: for most people other areas of websites take care of the pitch.

Blogs should be engaging and serve a specific purpose. Some of the most successful are used to keep customers and followers updated on what brands or individuals have been up to, while others draw as many experts and commentators into the fold as possible to add credibility.

When it comes to maintaining a blog, consistency is everything. If you’re planning to start a blog or have one already, take some time to plan what content you’d like to cover over the course of a week, fortnight or month. Planning is key. With a plan, you always know what’s going live, and will develop a great routine that also means your readers, followers and customers know what to expect and when.

The aim is for your blog to run like clockwork. Don’t think this means you have to post at 10, 12, 2 and 4 o’clock each and every day. You can have a great content plan that consists of one kick-ass post a week.

If you need further convincing on the merits of a blog – they’re great for improving search engine rankings!

Here are three portfolio-building websites to explore:

1. Ideas Tap: If you join as a member you’re allowed to upload a portfolio that in addition to allowing you to group your work into ‘sets’ will allow you to customise a URL. Mine is www.ideastap.com/people/RachaelOku

2. Writers-Network: This platform is specifically designed for writers, as the name would suggest, and allows you to ‘post’ unlimited poems, articles and stories. You can organise your writing into ‘collections’, interact with other writers and even get feedback on your writing. www.writers-network.com

3. Carbonmade: One of the most popular platforms for visual artists, it also works well for writers. Use this to create a basic digital portfolio in minutes. www.carbonmade.com

• display advertising
• Google AdSense
• affiliate schemes
• sponsored content/advertorials.

In order to get your website to appear on the first few pages of Google you’ll need to consider a few simple tasks:

• Consistently add new content of the highest quality to your site.
• Add new posts to social sharing and social media sites.
• Edit the text and coding in your page URL, page title, headings and images to reflect specific keywords. As a freelance writer, keywords surrounding the following terms will be highly relevant: “freelance”, freelance writer”, “writer”, etc.
• Get links from high authority websites coming back to your site. This is one of the biggest benefits of guest posting on bigger sites than your own.
• Remove any barriers that prevent search engines effectively indexing your site. (You may need professional advice to complete this step.)

Here are eight programs that will help eliminate typos, plagiarism and repetition from your work: