Are you beginning writer? If so you’re very lucky.
There’s never been a better time to build a writing career because there’s so much work available. Let’s look at three tips which will help you to get hired.
1. Assess Your Writing Skills: Can You Research and Write on Demand?
Firstly, assess your writing skills. What writing experience to you have? Do you write as part of your day job? Any writing experience that you have in writing reports, Web content for your employer, or other kinds of business writing, is very valuable.
Unfortunately, you can’t make a living writing short stories or poetry. However, this kind of writing experience is useful in that it indicates that you’re comfortable using words to express yourself.
Big tip: professional writing involves writing for others, so you need to be comfortable following a brief (a description of a writing project). You must also be able to research, and write on demand.
2. Define Your Target Market: Know Your Buyers
Many beginning writers become frustrated and upset because they don’t have a sense of the huge market for their skills. They target the lowest end of the market, and then complain about it, simply because they don’t understand the range of buyers.
At the top level of the writing market are large publishers, including magazines and websites, as well as corporations which need commercial writing. At the bottom level, are tiny businesses. (Buyers at the lowest level try to buy your writing as cheaply as possible. Rates of five dollars or less per article are common.)
When you’re just starting out, unless you have on-the-job experience which makes you attractive to larger magazines and corporations, you need to set your targets a little lower than the top tier of
buyers.
I recommend to my writing students that they get experience on the outsourcing sites. Once they have some experience, and testimonials, they can target buyers who pay more.
Another big tip: there’s more to professional writing the writing itself. You need to market your skills efficiently. To reach higher-paying markets you have to know how to approach them — this is a function of marketing. Marketing is something that you must learn if you want to be paid well as a writer.
3. Get Social: Use the Social Networking Sites to Make Contacts
The social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are amazing tools for writers. However do realize that these sites are only a tool. You need to market yourself as a writer, and get your name known, before you can use these tools efficiently.
As a new writer, focus primarily on tools like blogs to promote your writing services. A blog acts as a portfolio, in many ways, and it means that you can be found online when potential buyers of your writing look for your name. Once you have a blog or two, promote your blog posts (and thus yourself) on the social networking sites.
About the Author:
Want to make money writing? Discover how easy it is to make money as a Web writer with Angela Booth’s “Sell Your Writing Online NOW” Training Program at http://sellwritingnow.com/Home/training.html The program is fun and profitable too. There’s a full year of lessons and assignments: “Sell Your Writing Online NOW” helps you to earn while you learn, even as a brand new writer For free weekly writing information, subscribe to Angela’s Fab Freelance Writing Ezine at
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