7 Reasons To Choose Freelance Writing Career & Tips To Become An Outstanding One
This post was last updated on September 24th, 2019
Freelancing has taken on the Internet like a storm as it has given people to work flexibly at the comfort of their homes to either earn additional income or it has become some people’s only source of living. If you think that freelance writers have less earning scope or they don’t get much exposure to knowledge and experience, then you must know that most of the content management and marketing operations are being handled by freelance writers and the competition in this field is enormously rising. With endless opportunities to work as well as learn while leading a stress free and convenient life, freelance writing has become one of the most preferred jobs online.
Since more and more people are opting for freelance writing, you too can endeavour provided you have the spark in your writing to connect to the target audience or companies will have no reason to recruit you. All you can see is the 360 degree change in the working pattern but in reality, you will still have to work with dedication and self-discipline to ensure that the quality of work is complying with the standards.
If you can assure of the quality, then you can even tap multiple recruiters for you. You can simultaneously work for various firms at the same time provided you haven’t signed any contract with a clause that contradicts it. You may be initially sceptical about the scope of freelance writing but if you are passionate about writing, then have a glance at these 7 reasons to choose freelance writing career:
1. Introduces You To New Avenues Of Knowledge
Writing is the best way to get insights about any subject. If you start writing about a subject, your mind gets trained to incorporate more and more facts. To give a factual structure to your article, you will automatically make efforts to research more about the topic. If you didn’t have the option to make extensive research about the subject, then surely your article will lack credibility. Surely, when you perform such in-depth research, you get exposed to new avenues of knowledge relating to various fields.
2. Increase In Productivity Level
As your comfortability and knowledge level rises when you start writing articles, you become capable of submitting more articles. Initially, newbie freelance writers are advised to write on their comfort genre so that they get accustomed to writing and at the same time, they become aware of proper terminologies used in any particular field. Increase in vocabulary and grammar knowledge while getting accustomed to writing, will certainly improve your productivity level. But remember, that the success of any freelance writer depends upon the quality of write-up.
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3. Your Skills Will Improve
Since you know that the competition in this stream is enormous, you cannot afford to let your skills remain stagnant. But you don’t have to take extra efforts to improve your skills. You must keep yourself busy in writing more and more articles about diverse topics and must develop the habit of reading so that you become a versatile writer. Your writing skills must create a lasting effect on your readers and editors as well. The uniqueness of your articles, timely submission and error free content will ensure that your editors rely on you to provide original content and in return you will earn long-term writing opportunities.
4. Work Scope Is Ample
You just need a good start and then you will find yourselves flooded with opportunities. It is true that experienced freelance writers are given priority, so you must focus on gaining experience and then with your improved knowledge and writing skills, you will be able to get more job offers. You will also get to know the industry rates and being experienced, you will be in a position to negotiate the rates.
5. High Job Satisfaction
Your articles will receive great feedback only when writing is your passion. When you keep on writing articles of various genres, then you will be enthusiastic to write more if the response is overwhelming. Not only you increase your earnings when you write more but you will enhance your knowledge level. Working the way you always wanted to gives you high level of job satisfaction.
6. You Get Known As Expert
Regularly researching and writing about diverse topics increases your level of apprehension of various arenas. You get recognised for varied writing experience and you gradually become known as an expert. You become highly marketable as you have developed your skill to the level of a professional. Your CV will represent your experience on many domains and this will ensure that you get the job offered to experts only. You automatically get raised from being labelled as non-professional writer.
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7. You Are Able To Maintain Apt Work-Life Balance
The point of attraction in working as a freelance writer is the time flexibility. Being able to work at the comfort of the home while doing miscellaneous work at home helps freelancers in maintaining apt work-life balance. You don’t get late to home or miss the family time or stress up your mind with the burden of office work, when you start writing as a freelancer. When your mind is relaxed from the worries of working hard for promotions or pay hike while being required to spare time for family too, then you will be able to write with full concentration and motivation.
Now that you have enough reasons to try hands on freelance writing, then you cannot afford to portray yourself as an amateurish writer. You must be equally professional when it comes to delivering high calibre work. You need to segregate yourself from the crowd and provide your employers with distinct content to prove your mettle and for this, you must know how to become an outstanding freelance writer:
1. Improve Your Grammar, Vocabulary & Writing Fluency
It is evident that many people who aspire to direct their career towards freelance writing fail to deliver quality work because of lack of grammatically correct sentences, improper choice of words, copied content, etc. For becoming a freelance writer, you must start writing on your own by maintaining your personal diary, seek to learn new words, opt in for online grammar tests, etc. Many people even enrol into degree or certification courses in journalism or English to enter into mainstream content writing.
2. Know How To Effectively Engage The Mind Of Readers
If you have good command over the written language but your content is unable to capture the attention of the readers, then you may probably won’t be assigned much tasks. Your words are your weapon and voice. They must be effectively used as per the website domain that you are writing for. Writing in casual or informal language in a blog may be suitable for the target audience but may not be an acceptable kind of writing for preparing white papers or ‘about us’ section of a company website. It is your words through which the readers decide to associate with the company or not. The content must be clearly designed to held captive the minds of readers.
3. Don’t Limit Yourself To A Single Stream
Being a writer, you must be a person who is open to all kinds of learning. Isolating yourself from various subjects to keep your potential limited to selective topics will not have a good impact on your aim of establishing a niche in the industry. Limiting yourself to certain topics such as finance, lifestyle, health, etc will not make you a complete marketable package in view of the contemporary editors and publishers. You can however, prefer to work more on your comfortable topics but keep trying new things in life so that writing doesn’t cause monotony.
4. Adapt Yourself To Working Alone
Being a freelance writer, you are now separate from the tradition office structure and now you have to get habitual of working alone. This can be difficult initially but you can use a laptop and WiFi data card to easily move to places such as cafe, library or park and can comfortably work with a peace of mind. But if you take this aloneness in good spirits, then you will surely have enhanced productivity levels.
5. Start Freelance Writing As Part Time Job
Initially, when you are inexperienced about how it feels to work as a freelance writer, then get the feel of it by choosing it as a part time job. Don’t quit your job the moment you get some writing projects. Slowly embark on your newly chosen career path by giving it time during the mornings, evenings or weekends. This will give you an opportunity to analyse whether you are enjoying writing about various subjects within the deadline without compromising on the quality quotient. Gauge how well you are blending with your passion and then decide whether you will be able to pull it off full time or not.
5. Bring In Some Discipline
When you have decided to choose freelance writing as your preferred career, then knowing what kind of discipline and organization it takes is very important. You firstly need to analyse the source of income generated in comparison to your earlier full time job and whether you will be able to manage with this new income or not. After seeing the financial viability, you must be bit organized such as setting up a distinct place for your home office, keeping up your reference books in order, deciding your working hours, placing a board with deadlines and topics mentioned, ensuring that you read your content before submitting, etc.
6. Start Looking For Freelance Writing Job Opportunities
There are various websites that list all the available jobs in the freelance writing domain. Initially, to gain experience, you can start with small, non-publications websites. To build writing skills, you can start writing for website that cites children’s stories or poems. After you develop the basic writing skills, you can attempt to write essays, blogs, etc. Once you have experience and knowledge about various fields, you can craft a strong resume and can apply to write for newspapers, magazines or tap online sources.
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Snehashree Bhat
A young writer who loves to pen words from creative perspective. Passionate internet surfer, a versatile homemaker and a person who finds pleasure in adopting healthier and positive changes in her persona. An enthusiastic feminist who wishes to make serious changes in the stereotypical thought process of the society via the voice of her words.