Types of freelance writing jobs
The best part about writing as a profession or as a hobby is that it is just right for pursuing from home or on a freelance basis.
Plus you have the flexibility of choosing your own working hours. No fixed timings and no need for any heavy investments either. All you need is a computer and an internet connection or alternatively, a cyber café nearby.
With many publications and clients accepting online submissions you even save on stationery and mailing costs. What’s more, the internet has made the whole world a market for sourcing freelance work or getting your work published, making it even easier to earn money from freelance writing jobs and starting a freelance writing business.
Writing for publications vs. writing for clients
Depending on whether you want to earn money from writing to make a living or just to pay your bills, there are loads of opportunities available for freelance writers today. But basically there are two types of freelance writing:
Writing for publications
Most aspiring writers look forward to the thrill of picking up a reputed newspaper or magazine, or checking out an e-zine, and seeing their name and the article they have crafted in print. Knowing that readers in their city or across the country and maybe even the world will read what they have written and see their byline makes the prospect of being a published writer even more exciting.
Before you get carried away imagining yourself achieving the same level of success as say, Arundhati Roy or Amitav Ghosh, remember that you have to take baby steps before taking giant strides in the world of writing.
To get a break into writing for publications, it makes more sense to explore local opportunities first and then try your luck with national and finally international level magazines and newspapers.
This type of writing includes: article writing on different topics depending on the type of publication you’re targeting, and could range from writing about food and relationships to travel writing; technical writing for journals; book and film reviews; personality interviews; short stories; personal experience stories; and human interest stories, besides some other niche categories of writing. The payment offered to writers varies (from Re 1/per word onwards in India) and is usually attractively high for more established writers.
Nowadays, besides print publications, you also have the option of writing for e-zines, but of course for a more modest payment. On the positive side, web publications are more upfront about their rates and payment schedule. But one important thing you have to remember is that the writing style required for writing for e-zines is different. I’ll cover this aspect later.
Writing for clients
While writing for publications is more stimulating, it also means more vigorous efforts for getting your work accepted. And though the payment is better, you cannot be sure of snagging such higher paying assignments very frequently.
On the other hand, if you write for clients like web content companies, the payment is lower, but you can be assured of more work and could make a rough estimate of how much you will be able to earn on a regular basis. There may be no byline for writers in many cases, but there is more stability.
Also, the topics you’ll be asked to write on will depend on your background and expertise, as well as on what your client’s needs are.
Writing for clients mainly involves two types of writing:
- Web content writing
- Paid blog writing
Web content writing
Today people constantly use the Internet to find: information on different topics, how to do something, where to find something, about how something works, and a whole lot of other stuff. Consequently, there’s a huge demand for such articles by different website owners.
Also, since websites have to compete for rankings and getting more traffic, website owners have to keep adding fresh content to their sites. And for such content, guess who they turn to for a large number of articles at short notice? Who else but freelancers!
Just Google “freelance content writing opportunities” and you’ll find hundreds of companies who provide bulk content, including Search Engine Optimised (SEO) articles, to different websites by hiring the services of freelance writers. SEO articles are keyword rich articles which websites need to improve their ranking and attract more visitors to sell their products or services.
Most of such bulk content providers will give writers a keyword or related keywords and other details like keyword density, word count, etc. and would expect them to submit the completed articles within a day or a few days. The articles are usually not more than 500-700 words and don’t need much of creative inputs.
Sometimes these clients could even show you reference articles from which you could source content for writing similar, but original articles for them.
Though the writing jobs will be consistent, the payment is usually around Rs 100 ($ 2) for a 500 word article. But if you can churn out 4-5 articles per day (@ 1 to 1 ½ hour per article), five days a week, you could earn from Rs 8000 to Rs 10,000 working from home. In short, the more you write, the more you’ll earn.
Then there are other popular websites like About.com or Helium that pay slightly better rates and require articles on a wide range of topics.
Paid blog writing
Nowadays most businesses, big and small have an online presence and need to refresh their websites with new content on a regular basis. Payment is better than that offered by bulk content providers who take a commission for themselves before paying writers.
But you have to be prepared to write regularly on the same topic and perhaps a topic you may not be fond of or enjoy writing about.
Hope you found this informative. One more thing, you don’t have to decide on any one type of writing for starting a freelance writing business. You could settle for a smart mix of freelance writing jobs – the lower paying online ones for your daily bread, and writing for publications to add dollops of butter to the bread now and then.
Psst: Just drop me a line at veenawrites16@gmail.com , and I’ll email you my FREE e-booklet titled: Free Online Resources for Writers. It’s a compilation of helpful online resources every writer needs, freebies I found by scouring the internet and which I have personally found to be very useful.
Bye for now… and don’t forget to pass the word around about the tutorials to your friends who might be interested.
