Content writing is one of the oldest professions that there is. It has existed since the invention of written language. People used to write on clay tablets even before the paper and pen were invented.
Through writing, you can eventually become a blogger or an author (like me), but the best way to start your writing career is to write for others.
It is said that you need to write at least a million words before you can become a world-class writer. You need to get the bad words out of your system before the good words start flowing.
When you are just getting started, you might want to write articles for other publications to build your portfolio. You can also have your own blog and write a few articles so that you can showcase it to potential employers or clients who would want to hire you as a freelance writer.
When you get started and do not have a strong personal brand, you might not be able to earn much for every word you write. In India and other countries, the basic pay for a writer starts with around 2 cents per word. (Around 1.5 rupees). This might look very low in the beginning but that’s how you start.
As you improve your writing skill, writing speed and your personal brand as a content writer, you can increase your charges.
Here are the different types of work you can do as a content writer.
Ghost Writing
When you start writing, people might expect you to write without attributing your name to it. This will pay well but might not help your personal brand.
Transcription
Convert audio and video files like podcasts and course videos into written content. This will also be ghostwriting. Doesn’t pay much but there are plenty of opportunities.
Proofreading and Editing
This is a good way to improve your writing skills because you are reading other’s work and are improving your knowledge of writing while helping someone else improve their content.
Copywriting
When you have enough experience and a personal brand as a writer, you can become a copywriter. You need to learn sales, consumer psychology, persuasion, and need to have a lot of life experience to become a good copywriter.
Experienced copywriters earn as much as 50 rupees per word in certain cases. If you write a 2000 word sales page that can bring in the sales for the client, you can earn as much as 1,00,000 rupees (Around $1500) for such a piece of work.
If you learn SEO on top of content writing, you can become an SEO content writer and you can charge more because the client doesn’t need to hire an SEO professional separately to optimize their content.
The best way to practice writing and become better at it is to start writing. Write on your own blog, write guest posts and do SEO for your own content. No one is going to certify you as a content writer, and no one is going to hire you based on your “qualifications”. People are going to hire you as a freelancer based on your work and work alone. So get started writing.
Once you learn how to create text-based content, you can also try your hand in video content and charge for video creation. Infographics can also be an opportunity.
There are plenty of ways to bid on writing projects and get clients but talking about them is beyond the scope of this article. I am going to publish a follow-up article where I will talk about how to get clients as a freelancer.
Author: Ankita Mundhra
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