Copywriting Business Blog

Got a way with words and a knack for story-telling? A career as a freelance writer can definitely have its perks, whether you are looking to supplement your existing income from a “regular” job, or have always dreamed of working in your PJs and being your own boss. Getting started down this career path is often the most challenging aspect of the career itself. But with a few tips from the pros, you can make a solid primary or secondary income from writing.

Benefits of Freelance Work

Freelance writing work is filled with tons of benefits, including:

*Ability to be your own boss and set your own hours.
*Option to work from your own home; imagine not having to get dressed for work.
*Huge potential client sector that stretches around the globe.
*Ability to move anywhere in the world that you wish, without fear of losing your job.
*No formal education required, just the ability to write well.
*Fewer expenses incurred than when holding a traditional job (lunches, gas money, wardrobe), but bigger tax breaks when it is time to settle with Uncle Sam each year.
*Enjoy what you do – you choose what type of projects you wish to take on, which leads to greater artistic freedom and fulfillment.
Like any type of self-employment, there are some drawbacks to consider. Many freelance writers don’t care for the solitude that is found in working from home, but prefer to be around people more often. You will also need to purchase your own health insurance.

A Dose of Reality

Every journey starts with a small step, just ask anyone who is living their dream. Most people find that when they are looking to start a career as a freelancer in any field, not just writing, that it takes time to build up their reputation and to obtain a significant number of clients. For this reason, plan on having an alternate source of income to tide you over for at least six months to a year as you grow your client base and learn the ropes of working from home. So simply put, don’t quit your day job – at least not until you have established yourself and are comfortable with the income that you are making.

Getting Started

When you first begin writing as a freelancer, you biggest concern should be finding relevant topics that folks want to read. This is likely determined by the audience that you wish to write for. Do you plan to offer your services online only, to websites and companies that outsource their writing work? Or do you want to write for magazines, newspapers and periodicals? The majority of freelance writers do at least some work for the online audience. And with millions of websites around the globe looking for material and content, working for online companies can be very lucrative.

Signing Up on the Marketplaces

There are many online marketplaces where you can peddle your writing skills. Some are clearinghouses for material that is already written, while others allow you to bid on writing jobs that interest you. Make the rounds and sign up for a couple of marketplaces initially. Signing up for each and everyone is not practical, as each will have their own specifications and rules, and keeping up with everything when you are new to the industry might become too confusing. Focus on just one or two popular sites and begin submitting your written work or bidding on jobs that match your skills set.

Setting Your Rates

As a beginning writer, regardless of any education you might have had, don’t plan on setting your rates too high as you first start out. In fact, plan on working for peanuts or less. There are many very successful freelance writers who began their careers part-time while earning $30 an hour at a day job – and found that they might work an entire week for less than a hundred bucks. That’s the breaks when you are working to build a reputation as a good writer. Demanding a more-than-reasonable rate is a good way to land a job or project – and then work hard to prove that you are worthy of more money in the future. As a general rule, plan on finishing as many as ten fairly big projects for next to nothing before looking for a raise.

Dealing with Clients

As with any type of home-based business, customer service can make or break a freelance writing business. Consider each client as your only client, and work hard to build a strong professional relationship between the two of you. Always follow the exact specifications of the client, and offer to gladly rewrite anything that the client doesn’t find appealing. This is like having a liberal refund policy at a retail store; clients are more willing to “shop” with you if they have some guarantee that they will be pleased with the material that you present them with.

In sum, working as a freelance writer can be a profitable and rewarding career, although it takes patience and persistence to get started. This is not the perfect career for everyone, but there are many people who have found successful and fulfilling careers in writing from home as a freelancer.

Most modern word processing applications have automated checking tools built-in, usually for things like spell-checking, grammar checking or even a built-in thesaurus. Most writers understand and appreciate the value of such tools and use them daily to help ensure a level of quality in their writing. Some, however, see an over-reliance on them as a contributing factor in a general degradation of the English literacy standard. If, like me, you view them as a valuable tool to assist your writing, when used properly and wisely, then there are some points you should consider. Don’t be fooled; they will never cure your writing ills.

A spell checker will save you huge amounts of time, especially if you write a lot, but you must bear its limitations in mind. Modern word processors like Microsoft Word, with instant highlighting of spelling mistakes allow you to go quickly through your text and correct obvious errors before you undertake your proofreading. This is where a great many authors go wrong or fail to appreciate what the spell checker is doing and what it’s checking for. They mistakenly believe that having carried out a spell-check, all the words will now be spelled correctly.

In general terms, the spell checker only confirms that all of the words are in the software dictionary, not whether you, the writer, have used them in the right place or even in the right order or context. Think about common mistakes when using ‘their’ and ‘there’. A spell-checker will not highlight where you might have used the wrong one. You would have to read your writing to notice that mistake.

Spell-checkers will not help with consistency either, since you can easily use different, but still correct, spellings of the same words within a single document or article. For example, you could include both ‘authorize’ and ‘authorise’ in the same document without necessarily attracting a spell-checker error, but this could be seen as a significant inconsistency in your work. For technical writers especially, there should be a project or customer-related style guide to tell which version is acceptable. If you are writing as a freelancer, then you might be forced to decide for yourself which version is appropriate. Consider writing your personal style guide to help record such decisions for future work and clients.

Just as with spell-checkers, some writers dismiss automatic grammar checking as something the experienced writer shouldn’t need, or even as a menace to the English language. Despite such views, a grammar checker can still be a useful tool, provided it’s used in combination with a sound understanding of what it contributes to your writing and its significant limitations. All writers need to understand that a software-based grammar checker is not, and can never be, a substitute for thorough proofreading and having a fundamentally firm grasp of grammar and language use. Grammar checkers can be excellent for catching small typos like repeated words, missing words or double spaces and will help to keep the quality of your writing high. Read more…

I remember quite clearly that I had no interest in taking typing classes in high school but, I did it anyway. I took two years of it actually, though I did not think I would have any need to know how to type. I wasn’t aware that computers would be as big as they are, and that I would end up using one to make a living. Though I cannot say that my typing skills are all that they could be, I am grateful now that I took those classes. Not everyone can be a extremely fast typist, but almost everyone can do a plausible job at it if they put some time into it.

Typing skills are something that come with practice. The keyboard is not arranged in a way that seems to make much sense, but there is some reasoning to it. The keys that are used the most are the ones that are the easiest to get to with comfort. The ones that you use the least are the ones that are a bit harder to use, but as your typing skills increase, this will be something that will not be a problem for you. Most have problems with the numbers, as they are way up at the top of the keyboard, but those can be mastered as well.

Once your typing skills improve, you will find that you can type without thinking about it. You may not have to think about any of the keys unless there are some that you seem to mess up quite often. Everyone has that problem with their typing skills before they are really good at it. Some of the characters on the keyboard can be tricky as well, but the most common ones like the period, question mark, and the comma are pretty easy to get used to finding without looking.

They key to good typing skills is to type without looking. You should not have to worry about where your fingers are landing. There are some great programs that you can buy to put right on your computer that help you with your typing skills. These should go in a logical order that teaches you the easy keys first and then slowly adds the ones that tend to give people the most trouble. You may not think much about improving your typing, but many jobs require a typing test because computers are everywhere. Think of it as an investment in your career. Read more…

Easy method to find copywriting clients on Craigslist.

Amongst the countless fields of work available today, writing for money is one of them. Naturally writing to earn a living can be pursued in different ways. Just to give you an idea, professionals like journalists, fiction authors, copywriters, science writers, and medical scribes all write for an income. The pay scale certainly varies depending on what branch of writing you go into. As most people already know, successful fiction writers and screenwriters tend to make the largest incomes. However, not everyone has an interest in this type of work. Fortunately in this internet age, more people than ever are writing for money, even from home.

Have you ever considered writing for money, but not leaving your humble abode to do so? This is a reality for many people these days. With websites like AssociatedContent.com, Helium.com, and many others, it is feasible to earn a real living or at least part-time income from the comfort of your home. Of course it is important to keep in mind that many others are striving to do the very same thing, so you can plan on a great deal of competition in this industry. This may even be more prevalent in the current economy we live in. Many people all over the US are seeking out work that allows them to earn from home. Writing for money just happens to be one of these methods.

Research is the key if you plan on writing for an income. By researching different employers, you can determine what standard rates are and what kind of pay you can earn over time. Naturally, rates that do not even add up to minimum wage are a waste of your time. This is especially true if you have a college degree. Some writers advertise rates as low as .02/word. These are often writers who are not proficient in english, or use article ‘spinnners’ or other software. The poor quality of their work reflects this.

On the bright side, there are real employers out there that do pay writers reasonable wages for SEO work and copywriting online. Most of these professionals will hire writers on a contract basis and present them with a set of guidelines to follow. It is wise to get feedback from as many companies as you can before jumping in.

Writing for money positions are always cropping up. Therefore it is wise to keep your eyes open at all times. You never know when another opportunity will arise. One that pays even more than the last one you had. As you write for different clients, your knowledge and experience will expand, which is always a wonderful thing. The more experience and skill you gain as a writer, the more money you can demand. The key is to not merely settle for peanuts and always keep your head up, because new jobs are always being posted on the web.

Need some help with your writing skills? Get a writing tutor and quickly get up to speed!

So many people are less than confident about their writing skills. Some people simply don’t enjoy writing. Of the remainder, either they seldom have occasion to write and therefore lack practice and technique, or they aren’t ‘born’ writers, yet must write frequently, as is the case with business people and particularly, students. Essay after essay, that feeling of dread encompasses them, when given a writing assignment.

Without a good command of the language, knowledge of composition and organizational skills, writing is a painstaking process that may not yield an A or B, even after all of your efforts. If you feel you could use some help to learn how to write well on your own, hire a writing tutor. The writing tutor will review your work, point out strengths and weaknesses and begin with a focus on a skill or skills in order to have your writing improve most quickly.

Writing is one of the essential communication methods we should all try to master. No matter what your field of study may be, you can rest assured that you have many writing tasks ahead of you.

To some, the thought of writing is so fearsome, they’d rather clean the oven than write! Learning to write well will pay you back throughout your life as an effective communicator. Now’s the time. A writing tutor is what you need.

So what should you expect in terms of the services a writing tutor can provide?

Your tutor may begin by reviewing several samples of your work, to gain a sense of your writing skill sets, areas where you need the most help and which will help improve your overall writing skills in the least amount of time. Most tutors do take note of your most common misspellings, e.g., ‘Their goes your dog’ and ‘There house is big’. The writing tutor doesn’t tend to go over particulars in grammar, but instead emphasizes writing skills and techniques that enable you to organize your material, write an outline, compose your work in such a way that the composition flows in a logical manner.

As you build your writing skills, your confidence will increase. Writing’s not so bad after all! Your essay scores are on the rise. This may be the point at which your writing tutor will get in to some of the finer points, which will start polishing your writing to a higher sheen.

Better writing has cadence. Much like a song, a written piece has variations in rhythm, length or shortness of words and clauses and so on. Once you have the concept, cadence will naturally begin to be a consistent element in your sentences.

In almost every piece of writing, the writer is trying to persuade the reader to his point of view. Depending on the subject matter, facts, with citations, are heavyweights in the persuasive argument. In the case of subjective opinions, the skilled use of rhetoric can win the day. Think Clarence Darrow.

As your writing tutor sharpens your skills and broadens your knowledge, you’ll start to realize that you’re beginning to develop your own style! An exciting moment! You can see the value to your future success by hiring a good writing tutor.