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One of the most popular work at home options is to make money writing. There are numerous specialty areas you can focus on as a freelance writer dependant on your skills and interests. In many cases, no degree or professional experience is necessary. You only need a strong command of the English language, excellent grammar skills and a passion for the written word.
Option One: Subcontract with Writing Service Providers
One of the easiest ways to get into freelance writing and learn the ropes of writing web content is to work for a broker company. This is a company that essentially works as a middleman between the buyer and seller (you) of written material. They contract clients, the clients submit their writing requests, then you create the requested articles. If the client accepts your article, you get paid.
A few of these sites include Textbroker, Scripted and Interact Media. Please keep in mind that because these sites accept writers with little or no experience and they are the ones doing the marketing and contracting of clients, your pay will likely be less than what you could potentially make with private clients. They are a good place to get your feet wet however.
Option Two: Contract Personal Clients
If you are ready to hit the ground running and earn to your utmost potential, contracting your own clients is the way to go. You may choose to focus on copywriting, creating blog posts for your clients, writing resumes or you can focus on another specialty entirely. Check out my post on starting a free online business for specific advice on creating a service business and finding clients.
Option Three: Sell Digital Products
If you are confident in your writing and marketing skills, you can dive into the digital product pool. The internet is full of eager information buyers. Again, this is an avenue full of potential. You can sell PLR articles. You can create eBooks or courses and sell them through e-junkie or on Amazon.
Option Four: Write for Yourself
You always have the option to work for yourself. You can learn how to make money blogging. You can also place your writing on sites like HubPages or Squidoo that will share any revenue you help them bring in with your content. This writing avenue is best combined with other options, especially when you are starting out. It can take time to get things going.
Option Five: Submit Your Work for Publication
If you are serious about your writing and would like to see it published, you have options here as well. You can create Greeting Cards, work as a Travel Writer or Write Children’s Books. You will find over 7,500 publishers, literary agents, magazines, contests and more in the 2012 Writer’s Market Deluxe Edition.
Must Have: Create Your Landing Page
Regardless of your direction, create a landing page. It makes marketing so much easier when you have one centralized location to send prospects where they can learn more about your experience and service offerings. Even if you are simply applying to content sites, they may ask to see previously published content. Build a small business website to showcase your experience and links to writing samples, if any.
Do you make money writing? Are there any options that I missed?
Another great way to see if you enjoy creating content and still get paid is to list writing gigs on Fiverr.com. It’s easy to stipulate what type of writing you’d be willing to do and the business comes to you. It is relatively low pay like the writing service providers you mentioned but it is painless to sign up, no writing samples or testing required.
Great tip, Connie. Thanks for sharing!
Going through websites that serve as a middle man is one of the easiest ways for beginners to start earning by writing from home. Hiwever, it is important that before they join, they really go through their policies, especially when it comes to getting paid. When I started out, I experienced a lot of instances doing writing jobs for clients, and end up only being paid a fraction of the amount we initially agreed. There are a lot of those kinds still out there; so it’s important to always to check carefully how will you be protected as a writer.
Thanks for sharing your story, Adeline. Reading those contracts is a must.
Thanks for ideas. I’ve done a few posts for TextBroker in the past though haven’t really thought about doing freelance as a full-time thing. But I am submitting short stories and use https://duotrope.com/ to look for fiction publishers.
When I started out, I was not a trained writer and I took the time to read about how to write online content properly. I taught myself how to write SEO optimized content and I brushed up on my grammar with Mignon Fogarty’s Grammar Girl podcasts. I started out with the broker sites, then did some pro bono to get clips and finally moved on to private clients within a few months time. It’s doable!
Outsourcing marketplaces like Elance and Odesk are also a good way to get started writing. There are also several freelance writing job boards that advertise freelance writing jobs. The best way to find freelance work however, is to do a search in Google for ‘write for us’ to find sites that are asking for writers to contribute to their site.
Thanks for sharing this with us Angie. I would like to suggest odesk as another forum to source work or workers for that matter.
Hey Angie,
I think Iwriter is also a great place for newbies to get started. Your pay might not be as great as it would be if you privately found people, but if you’re new to the internet and don’t know how to find people who might want your services, Iwriter is a great place to dive in and start writing immediately. Also a great place to attract a loyal following who loves your writing skills. Once you get your feet wet, you can always branch out to increase your income.
Thanks for the recommendation, Derek.
The freelance work site that I like the best is VWorker. The employers seem more reasonable than on some of the other sites, and it is easier to get established than on the megasites like ODesk and ELance.
I recently decided to do freelance writing full-time. The most important thing I’ve discovered is the need to let go of content mills and public sites like oDesk and focus on finding private clients ASAP. There are many ways to find private clients, from commenting on blogs to querying companies directly. It’s also best if you (at least initially) focus on your field of expertise when you send query letters, since your portfolio may be a bit limited. Describing specific ways in which you can improve a client’s content and help him/her gain clients is a great way to gain new business without having to show writing samples.