For many people, life is about taking a settled path and not getting into too many innovations. However, technologies keep arriving and redefining this. The advent of Internet has brought forth many hitherto unknown vocations; software designer; website developer and freelance writer to name a few.
Until Internet came, freelance writing referred only to newspapers. However, now it attunes to the innumerable sites and the content written on them. For those who are uninitiated, freelance writing means writing as a free and unhitched writer. You are not on any payroll and do not have to slog it out to orders. You work according to your own schedule; take your own assignments and work accordingly.
This does not mean that there are no limits. Once you have picked an assignment and sealed a contract, it is a moral obligation to complete a proof-read work within the deadline. Time-maintenance and value-addition are both equally important. Otherwise, you will gradually lose credibility.
You have to choose the discipline you will write within and for. You find technical articles hard; spare them. You are not into nuances of fashion; steer clear. Whatever zone you find yourself comfortable with; tread those waters. Having zeroed in on the area you wish to specialize in, put all the hard work there needs to be put.
Freelance writing is about creating sequences of articles, which are probing, solution-finding and curiosity-arousing. You have to come out as an authority on the subject so that readers swear by what you write and wait for your next deliveries. Define the parameters of the genre you take and travel deep.
Freelance writing is also about continuous learning. Trends keep changing and you need to be updated with them. Events keep happening and shaping the world and you also have to take a parallel road so that you are up with it at every turn. Technologies keep arriving and you have to arrive simultaneously with them.
Get yourself a time period when you face minimum distraction; get yourself a space to work from and go shoot. Keep gaining knowledge about your disciplines through articulate pieces, journals, books and extracts. Be a good reader and listener. Go through well-crafted videos and learn the tidbits with more poignancy. This is how great freelance writers are carved and made. Discipline is the key.