Is Freelance Writing for You?

If you are looking for a flexible way to earn money from home, freelance writing may be the career path for you.

There are a few different ways you can begin freelance writing from the comfort of your own home. The first would be to seek out individuals and companies who need writing done and sign them up as clients. You could choose to query paying magazines about article ideas you think you could write about, or you could choose to write for one or more revenue-sharing content sites.  You could also choose to do a combination of those, writing assigned articles from magazines and clients when they are available, and writing for content sites when business is slow.

WHAT YOU NEED TO BEGIN

Freelance writing requires very little in the way of start up investment to begin. You’ll need access to a computer and the internet primarily.

What you do require to be a successful freelancer is the ability to write well and quickly.  If it takes you a day to compose one page of an article, you’ll have a difficult time earning a living as a writer. You also need to be able to edit your writing for content, spelling and grammar. You’ll need to know how to do research, and how to write articles based on your research without plagiarizing.

Finally, you need to be able to follow explicit directions, as quite often assignments from clients and magazines are very specific as to what is required in terms of content, word count, and even keyword placement.

Aside from being able to write, the most important skill needed by a freelance writer is the ability to market herself and her work.  To write for magazines, you’ll need to be able to sell your idea for a story to editors, to write for web clients, you’ll need to sell yourself as a reliable source of content, and to be able to make money from content sites, you’ll need to know how to drive traffic to your content on those sites in order to maximize your income.