Long story short, I have Godly writing skills. No you wouldn't know that by reading this, but trust me when I say that I write like nobody else. My niche is mainly politics/history/news etc.
Can someone point me in the right direction? I'm desperate to know what other freelance editors or columnists do and how they do it, as in the process itself of becoming a writer.
How can I get myself out there and find somewhere to work?
How much do it payout usually?
How regular is the rate of work?
itt: google.
find work on fiverr/upwork.
if you don't have a portfolio, get one. figure out how.
cragilist/writing gigs can be useful if your market isn't over saturated.
also google this shit anon fuck
>>1134514
>how much do it
If you're not already blogging... Then you should be.
I'm a designer and I get a lot of exposure from my blog.
>>1134545
Can I use my blogspot as a portfolio? It's got lots of content
Freelance Writer here. Let me just tell you right off the bat here: Shit's hard man.
My niche is mostly creative writing, copywriting, and academic work. I guess those aren't really niche's, but you get an idea of what I mostly do.
Getting attention and building a good portfolio is going to be the hardest part of what you do, hands down. You are literally going to be swimming in a sea of shit because everyone who knows basic grammar is thinking they can do the same and somehow become the next J.K Rowlings, or whatever. Not only that but you're going to be dealing with a crap ton of Indians with basic English skills who couldn't cut it as a programmer willing to undercut you every step of the way. To a lot of people, why bother paying you $1 for 100 words when some dude named Daneesh is willing to do it 1,000 words for $1 and it sounds halfway legible?
So already what you need to do is just sit down, and start writing. Write your articles, and find some basic websites to get started on, like Fiverr, Upwork, Fiverup, or any multitude of places like that. Not only will this at least get you in the groove of writing, but teach you how to market yourself as well. From there, it's all a matter of finding clients, and building a base of repeat customers. That's literally how I make my money. 80% of my income is mostly repeat buyers.
And that's all at just starting out.
>>1134565
Sure. I don't see why not.
But make sure you don't dump it all at once. Maybe post something once a day or every 3 days to give the impression that the blog is be constantly updated with fresh content.
>>1134571
Also, selling instructional/self help e-books on Amazon can be potentially lucrative as well, OP
>>1134567
Thanks for the reply. Yeah Pajeets willing to do 1000 words for $1 does seem very off-putting. But I bet their quality is for shit, and I could write circles around them.
If you feel up for is, could you answer some questions I have (seeing as how you seem to be a seasoned writer and all).
>How long have you been doing freelance writing?
>What kind of clients do you get?
>What's the workload like?
>Obviously, what's the pay like for you now that you've established yourself and your reputation?
>>1134575
>e-books on Amazon
How profitable is this in the short-term (let's say 2-3 months)? I've always wondered, but never had someone that does share their expertise
>>1134579
>How long have you been doing freelance writing?
About 2 years now. Was a NEET before, but I figure I write decently well so why not try to make a little bit of money on the side for video games. Well that was then, 2 years later here I am and I might buy some indie game once in a while, but for the most part gave up the games to devote to writing.
>What kind of clients do you get?
Depends. For Creative Writing it's mostly people who have an idea for a novel but don't know how to put one together. They want something done that they can self publish, or need help "spicing" up their writing a little bit, or generally just have an idea of something they want for personal reasons (sometime erotica).
For copywriting it's usually business's. People everyday are starting business's and they want people to write some sort of compelling description for their products. Usually it's reviews, or a description of the product itself for their amazon page (usually the "WOW BUY THIS PRODUCT!" kind of writing). A lot of times I end up writing about us's, cover pages, and sometimes writing basic terms of use (though I'm not a lawyer and I believe that's something a professional should do).
For academic work it's usually students too lazy to do their homework. Sometimes I'll get graduate or doctorate students who need genuine help, but often it's college kids or high school kids who want to play games all weekend and are willing to pass off their homework.A majority of the time I'm gathering research, proofreading, working with citations, and sometimes writing the whole essay myself (for a premium).
>What's the workload like?
Depends. Some days I'm literally swamped with writing and I'm dying from caffeine overload trying to finish some work. Some days I've got little to nothing to do, so I just start doing some personal projects.
>>1134582
You could potentially make $30 to $50 bucks a month going in cold. It would be better if you built up a small yet loyal audience first.
Writing ebooks shouldn't be you main source of income, though. It's only supplemental at best.
>>1134597
well that academic work seems like it's right up my ally, because I'm a student myself. What's the quality of the papers that you write for them, and how legitimate are they usually (like do you actually use secondary sources and footnote citations, or not)?
How much do you get paid for those usually?
>>1134615
>How much do you get paid for those usually?
More than anything else I offer. Mostly because a huge pet peeve of mine is students too lazy to do their own work and so it annoys me, but at the same time I'm not too annoyed that I won't take their money.
As far as quality it's dependent. For mostly high school students or general education students the papers aren't all that good. It's general information that's meant to appease to the objectives of the assignment. If the assignment calls for 1,000 -2,000 words to be written with 2 -4 sources I generally don't go higher than the bare minimum.
On the other hand, if it's graduate work or work that requires more of an in depth study of the subject I usually tack on +20% research fee for subjects I don't know anything about. This is mostly to cover the hour or two I spend combing Wikipedia. But all in all I make it look as legitimate as possible. Meaning every citation I use comes from a scholarly sources such as academic journals, doctorate thesis, etc. (finding them with ebcohost services, google scholar, ect)
Needless to say, I don't make much from actually writing academic work since I'm mostly billing myself as an assistant. Normally it's about 80% research gathering/proofreading/writing citation/summarizing and 20% subject writing.
>>1134514
Content Marketing. No idea how to get in there, but its a direction.
See, Pricenomics, Nerdwallet.
go to UpWork and write ebooks for people. good money
>>1134691
how good?
Hey OP I'm not a writer nor do I know a lot about writing but I've worked in advertising for a year and I'm now a freelance illustrator having faced (I assume) similar obstacles when building my humble career.
If you've got the skills to get in consider doing an internship at an ad agency as a copy writer. Work your ass off, prove yourself, just be fucking amazing to everyone and anyone, then regardless of wether you get a job offer or not, leave them. If you played your cards right you will have met interesting people and potential clients, and especially keep that very agency as your first big freelance client. Once the personal trust is established, you can get paid very handsomely if you do good work.
The indian issue is just a problem you face if you start at the bottom of the barrel freelance shithole of fiverr and elance work. Try to skip that phase, because it's so fucking stupid and pointless.
If you can't get into an ad agency google potential clients and address them with a hand written letter and custom tailored work samples. Might sound cheesy but as a writer that's a perfect way to stand out and display value that's above that of the freelance chump change writers.
Bottom line: put in hard work to gain few well paying clients, as opposed to spreading your shit out in all directions hoping for lots of 20$ gigs.
>>1134724
Thanks for the interesting reply. I've never thought about working for ad agencies before, so I guess the issue is I wouldn't know where to start, or what the job really requires of me.
What sort of responsibilities does a copywriter have? Sorry if this is a noob question.
I like your idea about handwriting letters personally to the employer as a means of standing out. That's kind of how I got a job before, where I went into the business and flat out just asked them if I could have a job.
>>1134514
Here.
http://www.amazon.com/2015-Writers-Market-Trusted-Published/dp/1599638401
