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There was a time—now thankfully far behind us—when the dream of becoming a writer was frowned upon by educators, family members, and society as a whole.
Indeed, writers are and always have been eccentric free spirits. However, outstanding creations, no matter the art, require a certain amount of freedom.
Luckily, the increasingly digitalized gig economy of the 21st century has made the potentiality of this freedom lucrative.
You can now get paid very well for doing what you love, no matter where you are in the world, as long as you can access a computer with an internet connection.
Read below to find out the best freelance careers for you if you enjoy writing.
Starting a Freelance Writing Career
You’ve decided to become a freelance writer. Now what? As with everything else nowadays, a Google search might be the first logical step. The fact that a wait time of half a second provides you with almost 47 million results is both the miracle and the curse of our age. Sure, there are tons of resources out there, but how many of those can you trust? And most importantly, where do you start?
Digitalization’s beauty is that the knowledge and opportunities previously accessible only through a costly degree are now available online for much less—often for free. Learning platforms such as Coursera and Udemy are rife with writing courses, and freelancing platforms like Fiverr have developed “learning academies” to help their users gain more visibility and higher-quality skills from experienced professionals.
Related: 4 Simple Tips for Finding Legit Remote Jobs
Learn from those already in the field
What is more, before delving into any new endeavor, you should gather some information from people who’ve already figured it all out. The Holy Grail of online communities, Reddit, hosts several forums dedicated to various freelance platforms and the freelance writing community itself.
Give yourself some time to browse through the posts, where you will find plenty of information on how to avoid rookie mistakes like getting scammed or accidentally banned from the platforms that you’re using. And, if you can’t find what you’re looking for, ask your own questions! The users’ reviews are constructive, and all the threads are moderated.
So are you ready to begin? Well, here are the best freelance jobs for entry-level and advanced writers.
1. Copywriting
Freelancing makes it possible for experienced copywriters to earn six-figure yearly wages while working 15-hour workweeks.
A quick search on the most popular freelancing platforms, Upwork and Fiverr, shows how you can make as little as $0.05/word as a new seller.
However, with hard work and dedication, you can build your way up to wages of $175/hour while working for top companies. Moreover, to increase your chances of landing offers, you can collaborate with digital marketing agencies which frequently recruit freelance writers.
2. Creative writing
If you’re gifted at storytelling or poetry, hundreds of jobs are available on popular freelancing platforms in which you might be interested.
The downside is that, as this is a highly sought-after field that is also saturated with offers from sellers, some potential clients will try to post jobs whose promised compensation is laughable at best and depressing at worst.
However, if you spend enough time scouting for new opportunities, your chances of earning as much as $240/hour increase dramatically.
3. Resumé writing
Successful self-marketing pays off. Knowing how—and having the talent—to increase other people’s chances of achieving their career-related dreams is even more rewarding.
As a freelance resumé writer, you should have no issue landing jobs yourself. Compensation ranges from $15/resumé (in the case of beginners) to $125/hour (for services by more experienced professionals).
Once you do the math, it’s easy to see how writing resumés can make for a reasonably lucrative career if your passion for this niche is what guides you.
4. Freelance blogging and niche content
Since it’s been proven that blogs naturally increase traffic to websites, institutions such as travel agencies, restaurants or cafés, and fitness hubs—to name a few—have turned to freelance writers to help them curate and create niche content for, well, niche audiences.
Finding a job in this area shouldn’t be too hard, especially as entire platforms now only post offers for writers working in their designated area of interest. In addition to reaching out to outlets (such as blogs) directly, check out WorkForImpact, especially if you focus on activism and social issues.
On the other hand, if cryptocurrency is your main interest, there are already freelancing platforms that compensate you for writing in this niche with Ethereum. Given how the coin’s value has been following a constant uptrend in the past few months, this is an excellent opportunity for writer-investors. For example, receivers of recently expired work offers on laborx.com have already doubled their profits thanks to the market’s bullish ride.
5. Technical writing
Though frequently disregarded—and even antagonized—as the death of creativity, entire industries would have no means of conducting indispensable research and development programs if it were not for technical writing. As a techie, you’ve probably disregarded the possibility of a writing career.
Don’t. Many freelancers on Fiverr and Upwork are already highly successful in this field, earning anywhere from $0.005/word to $185/hour. In the long-run, no matter whether you decide to pursue this on a reduced schedule or full-time, you can earn significant financial rewards by being a freelance technical writer.
6. Freelance journalism
Out of all the fields mentioned above, this one is arguably the hardest to enter. For major news outlets such as The NYT or The Washington Post to publish an article written by a non-staff member, the writing itself must be pristine.
However, remember there’s much more to journalism, especially on the investigative side, than just writing. If the fact-checking is sub-par, your chances of landing a job in this field decrease dramatically.
A perk of this field is that submissions are open to everyone. So, if you so desire, as they say, shoot your shot! The average salary of freelance journalists in the US is around $60,000/year.
Conclusion
Writing isn’t merely reserved for bohemian artists—and especially in the increasingly digitalized gig economy we’ve mentioned at the beginning of the article, as you could see in the last few paragraphs, freelancing really is for everyone.
Why turn down the opportunity to change your career into one where you have full autonomy over your schedule and earnings? Or, if you’re happy with where you are, why not make some money on the side in your free time? It would be best if you didn’t look away from such opportunities. Take our advice, and start being a freelance writer today.
