freelance article writing

freelance article writing

Mastering the Art of Freelance Article Writing

1. Introduction to Freelance Article Writing

Ed Watts is a ghost author who writes articles for others in exchange for payment. A novice writer can start with $10.00 per 1500-word article. That’s not much money, but it’s not too hard to write a 1500-word article on a topic of interest either. It can be done in four hours or less with the necessary data on hand. Industry professionals make great ghostwriters because they are usually extremely proficient at producing high-quality content due to their wealth of experience. That is what businesses on the internet are looking for. As a ghost author, you can set your schedule and choose topics that interest you. Working from the comfort of your own home is an additional benefit. With a computer and the right mindset or creative thought, you can make a good income from freelance article writing.

Freelance article writing is a home-based business that can receive good payment. Out of a hobby, interest, or passion for writing, you can make an extra income by writing about your own interests. As a freelance article writer, you can set your schedule and select topics of interest. The essence of being a freelancer is to be employed by a person or business to write articles according to their desires. In the long run, ghostwriting, where your work is published under someone else’s name, becomes a way of life for many freelance article authors. Typically, freelance writers are paid by businesses on the internet to write content that attracts visitors to their websites. Many authors prefer ghostwriting because it brings in more money and is less physically draining. If they write good content, word of mouth and the author’s reputation will continue to grow.

2. Essential Skills and Tools for Freelance Article Writers

One of the greatest things about freelance article writing – and writing in general – is that it only requires a computer, a word processor, and the ability to string a few words together. As your career progresses and you begin to explore new fields of writing, you will find that words alone may not be enough. You’ll need to source images, understand the importance of keywords, and have a working knowledge of how content management systems function. But let’s not jump ahead too quickly. Let’s return our focus to the tools required by every freelance article writer. If you do not already possess these skills, you must start acquiring them immediately. Remember, the requirement for you is to create articles that are free of grammatical, syntactical, and spelling errors. What’s considered a minor error to a daily newspaper publisher, for example, is generally considered a disaster by book publishers. The rules are less stringent in other forms of writing, but you must become a competent wordsmith to be taken seriously.

Every journey starts with a first step, and freelance article writing is no exception. Striving for perfection will ultimately cripple your progress, so don’t stress about becoming a world-renowned consummate freelance writing professional right out of the gate. In the beginning, a stout pair of walking shoes will do just fine. They may not be state-of-the-art, stylish or feature-rich, but they are all that’s required to help you take that all-important first step. You’ll be able to travel further than you probably think with your original set of writing tools, but as you gain experience and knowledge, the right time will arrive to upgrade your skills and add to your collection.

3. Finding and Navigating Freelance Writing Opportunities

The absolute first thing to remember when searching for freelance writing opportunities is that the world, like the universe, is big – and everywhere that humans are, writing will be needed. Your first task here is to use this unending earthly inventory of locations and businesses and even moments to your benefit. Tools that you may use to locate markets include subscription-based directories or websites, which usually lend more in-depth information than the free databases provided by online writer resource centers, productively trolling on the internet or physically in libraries, and visiting similar websites to that of the one that is sending your aim on a writing journey. With regards to the latter, any businesses who offer the same or similar products or services, in particular those who do not yet have a significant online presence, are good bets for seeking out freelance writing work. The types of markets that a writer will generally look for are based on their interest and expertise – don’t push yourself into an inauthentic situation or you may end up regretting it. Journals are usually the best mid- to top-paying markets for the person who enjoys working and writing on a specified subject and are created for academics or professionals in a particular industry – examples cover a spread from the German Studies Review to the Journal of Sports Economics – but some are specifically created for an audience of general interest, such as newspapers and trade magazines.

You know the saying “seek and you shall find”? When it comes to making a career out of freelance writing, the phrase is worth its weight in gold. In order to secure paid writing opportunities, you absolutely have to chase them down. Unlike traditional employment scenarios, in which an employer often takes the necessary steps to seek out and interview several candidates before making a decision, the world of freelance writing takes more of a “you need to spend money to make money” approach – in this case, the spending comes in the form of time and effort spent browsing dozens of websites, whether they be of businesses, news providers, or even government and educational institutions, that may make the perfect recipient for one of your beautiful words. From this point, the progress of your writerly endeavors will be significantly determined by how proactive and efficient you are in the fight to search and attain. Data shows that the greater number of paying markets you submit to, the greater number of workshops you attend, and the more queries you send off, the more successful your writing career will likely be.

4. Crafting Engaging and High-Quality Articles

In general, I would suggest following the old public speaking rule of “tell the person what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.” The first paragraph should give the reader an overview and thesis; the article body should discuss the points, in depth, that are outlined in the opening paragraph; the conclusion should wrap up those points and restate the theme or thesis with a link back to the original thesis. Also important are writing articles in a professional manner (always remember that your name and reputation is on the line when you write content online), basic grammatical and spelling skills, and the ability to carefully follow clients’ instructions.

The four most important ingredients for any article are staying on topic, writing in an engaging manner, and covering the topic in the appropriate depth. Different clients want to see different “depths” depending on the type of content host that they are. For instance, eHow is a pretty general “how-to” and “simple solution” website, so you won’t want to aim to create 10,000-word essays on eHow, as the site just doesn’t support articles of that length organically. For other clients, including Suite 101 and Demand Media Studios, content that is too short and concise, regardless of quality, is frowned upon and can hurt your reputation.

5. Building a Successful Freelance Writing Career

His services are likely to be used and enjoyed almost as often as he is willing to offer them. Let me stress right away that these words are written by no worthy who achieved fame with a Pulitzer Prize or a Booker Prize or any of the other high-profile awards. There was a time when dining as guests of a country’s President and his First Lady gets invitations from more countries and enters the literary pantheon simply because words chosen by me executed a Head of State so very effectively. But high-profile journalism and the huge sums of money paid to columnists, which make others equally celebrated, are niche markets providing the honey that attracts talented writers to journalism in the first place. Landmark jailhouse interviews happen a matter of rarely enjoyed serendipity rather than a simple application of the reporter’s craft.

Business was good and turnover was high. Business that requires no capital investment and is immensely stimulating and satisfying to those who enjoy words and who are able to express thoughts, ideas—and sometimes fantasies in them. That is the business of freelance article writing, a way of earning a living by writing articles on anything and everything for publication by editors in newspapers, magazines, and journals with space to fill and no staff writers to help them fill it. The great need of busy editorial offices for investigative journalists is at a higher pitch today than ever before. There is a scarcity of talented writers and the rare discovery of someone with a unique selling proposition is noted.