Overview of Freelance Writers & Freelance Publishing
Being a freelance writer or publisher, having no boss and keeping own working hours, sounds like a career of dreams to many people. But getting established as a respected freelance writer is a daunting task. There are many people who have opted to work online as freelance writers simply because they think it's easy and requires little dedication and no hard work. The sad reality is that it takes a lot of effort, dedication, hard work to be a successful freelance writer or publisher. In today’s contemporary digital world, freelance writing is a multi-billion dollar industry, having millions of freelance writers getting paid handsomely for working online.
Such a lucrative freelance writing industry has created employment opportunities to millions of people, and a large percentage of freelance writers are earning big bucks by working online for accredited e-newspapers, magazines or tech companies. But to succeed in the freelance writing world, what is the most imperative is to educate yourself with the techniques of writing quality articles, publishing impressive blogs etc. In the freelance writing arena, the more quality work you deliver, the more money you can earn. Frankly speaking, those who do not take writing too seriously will never make enough as a freelance writer. Having the passion and desire to keep on improving your writing skills can establish you as an exceptional freelance writer.
Looking to work as a freelance writer? Wondering how to improve your writing? Looking for ways to enhance your writing skills? In this article we will provide invaluable information for budding freelance writers as well as useful tips to become a successful freelance writer. To know more about freelance writing, let’s get started from the beginning. Before revealing what it takes to become a successful freelance writer, let’s understand quickly what freelance writing or a freelance writer is and how beneficial it is to opt it as a part-time or full-time career. Let’s begin with, what is a freelance writer? A freelance writer is someone who works on a self-employed basis, writing for one or more clients and getting paid per article basis or per batch of assignments basis.
The freelance writer term encompasses all the home-based bloggers, content writers, editors, SEO writers, web content writers, professional writers and ghostwriters. The industry pays expert freelance writers a considerable sum of money that helps them to cover their monthly expenses easily, including utility bills, school fees etc. But only those freelance writers who write regularly draw a regular wage from freelance writing. If you are an immensely talented freelancer but do not have a very few published article to your credit, then your chances are very less that freelance hiring companies or publications will show keen interest in your online profile. Today, a large number of people are resigning from their jobs to join the bandwagon of freelance writers. They are attracted to freelance writing more likely due to the various benefits that this writing industry offers, including the adequate remuneration paid to writers each year. Apart from the earnings, being a freelance writer has enormous other benefits. Some of them are:
- Being a freelance writer is a sure way of getting freedom from annoying bosses.
- You get freedom from the daily 9 to 5 schedule and are able to set your own hours.
- You leave behind the drive in heavy traffic in the morning in order to reach office.
- Freelance writers have the liberty to choose who they work for.
- You only need to have a laptop, fast Internet connection, writing skills and little space or a room in your home as an office.
- A freelance writer can take holidays without requiring any leave approval.
So what it takes for a successful career as a freelance writer, you ask? To be a famous work-from-home writer, especially web content writer, you need to focus on the following things:
Become a specialist: A good 'niche writer' always remain in look-out by ideal clients for freelance writing jobs. Although it is restrictive, but the need for specialization in writing industry is at an all time high. There is a very high demand for web content writers, technical writers, creative writers, travel writers, copywriters, resume writers, essay writers, academic writing, medical writing and SEO writers.
Gain Knowledge: If you are a beginner, after a few initial successful assignments, keep on reading good stuff to improve your knowledge of writing mechanics, expertise and language mastery. Creating original, well written, error free articles supported by scholarly research essentially requires word derivational knowledge and writing proficiency.
Get good writing pieces ready beforehand: Many reputable sites seek samples of written work before hiring someone for freelance writing. So, the first thing you need to do is create ready-reckoner samples written on various topics with different writing styles. This will show the clients how flexible and valuable you could be for the company if given a chance as a freelance writer.
Look for Opportunities Online: If you have the passion, motivation, and persistence to write online then start with big publications only. Constantly surf the internet for opportunities and if you succeed in finding good websites you could write for, send an email or call up their editors to enquire about the possible opportunities.
Keep Patience: Patience is an imperative factor that comes with freelance writing occupation. If you article is rejected by an editor, do not get bitter to him. Just take his criticism constructively and objectively as it will help you improve your writing skills and navigate this journey into becoming a freelance writer!
As a freelance writer, one can focus on one service or multiple writing jobs. Following are a few services you can offer when you work as a freelance writer:
Editing - You can offer basic proofreading to correct typos, grammatical errors, punctuation, or a more in-depth editing to enhance content flow, clarity, syntax, as well as improve structure and substance of the sentence.
Ghostwriting – A ghostwriter is a freelance writer who gives his client all the rights to his written pieces. In other words, the content you write isn’t published under your name. This freelance writing job is of high demand, allowing you to earn considerably more than other writing services.
Copywriting – You may use your creation and ideation of words for writing copy for the web, press releases, promotional advertising or marketing pages or updating a client’s website.
Blog Management – You may write a blog and post it on your client’s blog website. Also, you can manage writers, and edit and publish their content on your client’s website.
Social media marketing – Many technically skilled people are these days offering social media marketing services, wherein a client’s social media accounts are handled and regularly updated by the hired freelancers.
How much a freelance writer/publisher gets paid, you may ask. Well, the sum of money you earn depends on the time you dedicating to writing and also how often you come up with quality articles. The more you work, the more you earn. When it comes to be screened by reputable publications, writing best quality possible articles is important. The complexity of articles, urgency, a writer’s level of education and experience of a writer are some of the key factors that greatly influence the price per article. So, it’s worth bearing in mind that the more high quality articles your portfolio contains, the more likely it will impress and attract sites and publications to take your freelance writing services at impressive prices.