Freelance Content Writing

Freelance writing is a big field in the US and UK. They have different kinds of writing, with proper writer unions and brilliant background set-up for the writers to flourish. There are writers for the movies, professional article and content writers for websites, brochures  etc. They are people who take up writing as a career and don’t join a company to represent them, but work individually. In India, it isn’t yet developed enough, but the scope is enormous.

Take the example of content writing. The outsourcing industry has created so many options for the writers that they can earn sitting at home working on the computer eight hours a day or so. Outsourcing companies give their work to the companies in the East. And India is one of the major hubs in the world. India offers high quality at a lower price than the Western counterparts which helps the companies save some bucks, while they still get good quality content.

Talking about content writing, there is one simple rule, content is the king. If you can write some meaningful stuff on the allotted topic, you belong to the place. The rule is to keep it simple and stupid, and to write as if you’re telling the readers about it, and make them feel it as an interaction rather than reading. In between that, you need to throw in the technical jargon in a language they can understand. Also, it requires a thorough research as you are not expected to know each and everything. Hence it might be a tedious and kind of boring job unless you are ready to do it mechanically. Content writers in India are paid anything between 1 USD to 6-7, or even 10 USD (depending on experience, the level of outsourcing and writing skills).

The next in line is technical writing. It is similar to content writing in the fact that it is usually posted on the internet. However, it requires a specialization. It is like post graduation if content writing is graduation. These are highly technical and informative articles, usually about computers and the new emerging fields of biology, chemistry, physics, and newer worlds of the sciences, for example biochemistry, biotechnology, etc. This requires a huge amount of knowledge in the particular specialization. The writers are paid in plenty as they need to write high quality content based articles. They don’t need to care about the interaction with the readers as the audience is very specific. They are paid anywhere starting from around 5 USD.

There are some words of caution however. One must have a trustworthy employer in the field, probably with a couple or so of recommendations for him. There are lots of people who are ready to take advantage of those who are not careful enough. As all the business is carried out using internet, sometimes the employer runs away without paying, or uses unsaid rules to refuse payment or give part payment. Also, many pay less than they require to. It is required that they check the employer’s past records, and or the people who recommend him.

This profession is taken as a part-time work by many, including students, housewives, and regular service people also to earn some extra bucks, however there is some real scope of full time earning in this line.

Raghav Gautam

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