When you are a true visionary and you’ve made a leap into the freelance writing world, how you build your brand is going to have a direct impact on your overall profit, stress levels and job satisfaction. You can read about advice for freelancers just about anywhere, and it’s useful to pay attention to some of the basic aspects of freelance writing. While you might start out taking any job that you can find to pay the bills, this is going to lead to a burnout of epic proportions. If you discover that you are making less an hour than you would as a Walmart Greeter, it’s time to take a look at the reasons why.
Clients That Are a Better Match
As you build your brand and hone your skills, you will start to find clients that you mesh well with. When you work on online platforms, you’ll figure out which type of clients are going to be a good fit and which ones are better left to another writer. You are not going to be able to be a perfect match for every single client, and this is perfectly acceptable. It’s ludicrous to think you can keep everyone happy, and the sooner you figure out that some clients just aren’t right for you, the easier your job will become.
Easier to Write Content
If you are writing a piece of content that is flowing like a garbage filled canal, you aren’t writing a piece of content that is right for you. When you develop your areas of expertise, the content you write within those areas is going to flow. If it feels like you are pushing a cart of cantankerous cattle up a cliff, this is not the right content for you. Start with an easy, popular topic and develop your knowledge of the topic. You can find out what is selling on most websites, or see what types of orders are available for you to fill. You might not feel that writing about Heating and Cooling services is very glamorous, but with a little research you can become well-versed in the field in order to create easily written content.
More Work For Less Stress
Your hourly rate is simple to calculate. If a ridiculously low paying $5, 500 word article takes you two hours to write, you are making $2.50 an hour. Forget the argument, “but I am working from home in my pjs” and consider you can make more pay doing almost anything else in the world. Look for an hourly rate that you can live with and then find the content you can write to achieve that level. Your hourly rate is directly impacted by your productivity, which can be a completely different topic all-together. If you are easily distracted – oh look, a squirrel – freelance writing may be difficult for you to maintain on your own.
You Become an Expert in Your Niches
As you develop your brand, you are in the distinct position of being able to showcase yourself as an expert in a wide variety of niches. This is an important process, and one that can continually evolve. While you may have a Master’s Degree in Art History, you aren’t going to find a plethora of work in this niche writing content for the internet. You have to figure out the content people on the internet want to buy, and then become an expert in that niche. Over time, it becomes highly possible for a well-researched freelance writer to explain exactly how to fix the plumbing problem in your home without having any practical experience on the topic.
As you grow your brand, understand that you can become an expert in just about any topic that is popular you are interested in. Don’t be afraid to branch out into HVAC, real estate, or home design and you may discover that you can create excellent content at an hourly rate you can live with. You will be able to figure out the type of content that flows naturally from your fingertips. If nothing else, you may become excellent at diagnosing problems with the aging car your parents gave you back in college.
Melissa N has been working as a freelance writer since graduating from college with a BA in English in 1994. Melissa has written many investigations for the juvenile court system, taking complex information and breaking it down into comprehensive reports. Further, Melissa has written on topics such as real estate, gardening, parenting, divorce, personal injury law and fundraising. She has written for Garden Guides, Ehow, Reuters, Find Law and Livestrong. She has written a number of published articles that are now used on legal research sites for attorneys and paralegals.
