Our Freelance Writing Needs Defined
We must make freelance niche types fit our needs, wants, values and lifestyles, and we also must make ourselves fit freelance niche types. Of our waking hours, we work more than we do anything else. I keep this in mind when college students come to me concerned about what to do for a living, and I tell them (because I want them happy) to do what they love. I also tell them (because I believe in the truth) to do what they are good at.
The same goes for freelance writers. If we are talented, we have a chance. If we have a severe work ethic we have a better chance. And if we are devoted enough and relentless enough (and??ahem--masochistic enough) about writing for a living, we will be able to put on our vitaes that we are indeed professional writers. But in order to do and be so, we best find the freelance writing niche types or type we will be spectacular at, staking out a corner in the niche market, one which we??ll bring passion to every morning as that damned alarm (later a wonderful thing) sounds.
Niche Defined
From the Italian-derived French for nicchia, "a shell-like recess in a wall," a niche is an inset, concave enclosure. It is this little enclosure we freelance writers need to find, study, practice, and own. It is the small area of specialty we make ours and offer to those in need. So the smaller (and therefore the less competitive) the better.
We in the freelance writing business and those of us working to get into it have plenty of industries to work with:
Advertising
B2B (Business to Business)
B2C (Business to Customer/Client)
Entertainment
Finance
Medicine
Non-profit
Publishing (online/offline)
Recreation
Research/Marketing
Real Estate
Science
Technology
Niche Types Defined
And for every industry there are tens of freelance writing niche types:
Creative Writing- I??ll say again from my lofty loft of opinions that I believe all writing is creative, as it is generative. My point is affirmed when we look at all of the kinds of writing projects a creative freelancer can do or get into, from magazine articles about bushwackers and George Bush to books about needlepoint and pine cone needles and needling family members to??
Ghost Writing- Ghost writing is a popular preferred choice of many clients, even those who have hung out a writer shingle (or banner) and outsource the assignments, collect them, pay us (hopefully well), and put their own names on the work, be it a booklet or a book, a piece of web copy or a piece of ad copy.
Proposal and Business Plan Writing- For profit or not, businesses need writers to create proposals that show need and get that need satisfied??monetarily. As there is with all freelance writing niche types, with proposal and plan writing a freelancer has the skill sets and experience to prepare documents that will be convincing enough that if the client needs hot soup sold in hell the writer will be able to deliver. I have written two successful proposals and a number of grant proposal reports (that ensured continuation of the grant). They are somewhat interesting, but only to those writers with a particular finesse for a cross between technical and creative/dynamic writing.
PR (Public Relations) Writing- PR writers do concept copy or concept to completion work in a number of media, writing ad copy, doing the layout, and designing such items as brochures, newsletters, press releases, media kits, and more, to achieve the ultimate goal for the client: name branding.
Technical Writing- Involving everything technical, from professional, consumer, and user manuals to white papers, technical writing depends upon a writer??s ability to organize, synchronize, structure, and develop the details of technical content.
Web Content Writing- To meet the client??s goals of web presence and online branding using highly trafficked, sticky websites/pages, the web content developer or producer writes what are known as KRPs, keyword-rich pages. This particular wave of freelance niche types was discovered (years ago) to be most beneficial as SEO, search-engine optimizing/optimized/ optimization, text (or content).
While I also specialize in mental health/disability writing and creative and memoir writing, web content development is one of my favorite freelance niche types. To get the keywordphrase keywordphrase keywordphrase construction clear, engaging, and entertaining while keeping it from doing a hideous grammatical/ rhetorical pileup is a challenge I look forward to every morning.
Hey, it beats the alarm clock jangling, signaling the dread of having to punch a card at a factory or see the boss off to work so I can clean her toilets and scrub her floors. Of course, there's no shame in those jobs?. I did them for years to get through grad school. But that's more to do with the other definition of niche: "the status of an organism within its environment/community, affecting its survival as a species."
And besides, I love writing so much, much more. It's a much better fit, one I wish for all of you who adore the writing process as much as I adore it.*
--------------------------------------------------------
*If this is the case, you definitely need to check out the pages on my site with web content and writing niche samples, articles that exemplify good, tight, even humorous writing and that are about writing at the same time.
Works Consulted
Bly, Robert W.. Secrets of a Freelance Writer: How to Make $85,000 a Year. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1988.
Hyperdictionary. WEBNOX CORP., 2000-2003 7 Dec. 2004.
Konradt, Brian. "Creating a Specialty." Write from Home. < http://www.writefromhome.com/writingtradearticles/145. htm> 7 Dec. 2004.
N.H.-born prize-winning poet, creative nonfiction writer, memoirist, and award-winning Assoc. Prof. of English, Roxanne is also web content and freelance writer/founder of http://www.roxannewrites.com, a support site for academic, memoir, mental disability, and creative writers who need a nudge, a nod, or just ideas?of which Roxanne has 1,000s, so do stop in for a visit, as this sentence can't possibly get any longer?.
disinfecting cleaning services Buffalo Grove ..The hardest part of nonfiction writing is finding a subject... Read More
There are so many ways for writers to make good... Read More
Style manuals are all well and good, and in fact,... Read More
What is a freelance grant writer? These individuals have a... Read More
If you're getting rejections from your submissions, please don't quit... Read More
Short Story Writing Tips ?We all have different tastes in... Read More
If your cash is running out fast and you have... Read More
Writing papers and book reports has long been the bane... Read More
Clustering, also called Mind Mapping, is a great way to... Read More
1. Use Logic: Check for External PressuresAre you under physical... Read More
Creating incredible characters can be easy if you know of... Read More
More and more good authors are turning to the Internet... Read More
If you're targeting an educated, more affluent audience with your... Read More
Calling all publishers, editors, journalists and freelance writers. It's time... Read More
Although he has his own website, John Grisham probably does... Read More
My dad was wrong. I just discovered that I am... Read More
Everyone has a unique story to tell. From explaining business... Read More
Summer's here and the time is write for dancing in... Read More
What is Sense of Place? It's the image of a... Read More
Whenever you sit down to plot a story (or even... Read More
Most writers are familiar with first and third points of... Read More
As writers, we initially tend to be either more cerebral... Read More
Punctuation, when used creatively, is powerful. Note, however, that when... Read More
The first step in the writing process is to put... Read More
(Skip directly to ten for the fastest shortcut!)Like any field,... Read More
spotless home service Arlington Heights ..Effective screenwriting relies on the good understanding and use of... Read More
This is the ideal topic for us all to think... Read More
The only way to become a writer is to write.... Read More
Have you given up on getting your book out of... Read More
Reading through a writer's notebook or journal is like discovering... Read More
Suspense novels are probably the easiest novels to write. Suspense... Read More
Writing can be more difficult that just compiling your thoughts... Read More
[When I was a nineteen-year-old high school student and budding... Read More
* Scanning and Skimming Practices *Whether you're writing e-mail messages... Read More
I've just come back to work after nine glorious, sun-drenched... Read More
FERRETING OUT WORK You keep hearing that there's work out... Read More
You're writing a story set in your local city, but... Read More
Screenwriting is a competitive trade. To distinguish yourself as a... Read More
You can create a great headline, a dynamic first sentence,... Read More
Beyond three and four act story structure, lies the Hero's... Read More
Creative Writing Tips ?By now you should have an idea... Read More
Short Story Writing Tips -We've established what a title should... Read More
Your computer is a writing machine, a word processor, a... Read More
Not all writers write good grammar. That's a fact. It's... Read More
More and more good authors are turning to the Internet... Read More
If your cash is running out fast and you have... Read More
Sometimes I can be dense when it comes to realizing... Read More
The freelance writing market is a growing market to be... Read More
Many of the most effective low-cost marketing strategies require writing.... Read More
Business etiquette is fundamentally concerned with building relationships founded upon... Read More
Writing |