Before we go through the markets, first a word of warning:
As a beginner, it’s easy to be intimidated by the prospect of working with clients. Your first instinct will probably be to think
I’m not an expert in any of these!
And that’s totally natural. If you’re going to be paid to write about a topic, you want to feel confident you can deliver for your clients.
But here’s an important fact to remember:
Your Clients Don’t Expect You to Be an Expert in Their Topic
They aren’t hiring you for your subject matter expertise. They already have that.
What they need from you is content creation expertise. In other words, they need you to turn their ideas into great content.
In many cases, that will mean interviewing the client and then writing the content based on the interview. In other words, it’s a collaborative process.
So, please don’t get hung up on your expertise in these markets! Many content marketers write about topics they knew nothing about before getting hired. It’s totally normal.
That being said, let’s dive into the individual markets:
1. Marketing
This is where I cut my teeth.
Most writers are allergic to marketing, so the number who can write intelligently about it is relatively small. Personally, I think it’s interesting, because it’s psychology applied to purchasing decisions, and I’ve always been fascinated by how people think.
Rates were about $200 per post a decade ago. Now they are quite a bit higher.
I know several writers making a killing in the personal-finance space.
And I’m not talking about stock tips, by the way. It’s much more mundane topics like mortgages, credit cards, taxes, and insurance.
Boring?
To most writers, yeah, but the money flowing through those industries goes up into the trillions, and so they can afford to pay writers better than anyone.
Do you have personal experience with any diseases or other health conditions?
Most of us do. What you might not have realized though is that experience is often a gold mine of opportunity.
Like it or not, medicine is big business, and so drug companies, equipment providers, doctors, and hospitals often have big budgets for content. If you’re willing to write for them, you can make a nice living.
Over the last decade, the market for products and services targeted at boomers has exploded. Everything from specialty travel to cosmetics for older ladies to supplements for brain health.
Unlike previous generations, boomers are also relatively tech savvy. They’re comfortable with Google, Facebook, and email – three of the most common ways content spreads.
So, there’s also a growing demand for writers in the space. It’s not quite as big as some of the other markets on this list, but I predict it’s only going to get bigger over the coming years.
Nearly every profession has a trade journal. Most also have blogs, podcasts, and newsletters.
The problem:
Experts in those professions are often terrible writers. Have you ever read an article written by an accountant, lawyer, engineer, or doctor? It’s practically an alien language.
So, smart publications in those spaces often pay writers to “humanize” the content. Sometimes you work directly with the expert, and other times they hand you a stack of research and ask you to “synthesize” it (a.k.a. translate it into something people can understand).
For the past several years, my mother has done some work in this market, mostly working with engineers in Asia. She spends a lot of time googling terms and asking questions, and she’s the first to admit it’s boring as hell, but the work is steady, and it pays well.
This one was a shocker for me.
You probably know that not all books are written by the authors on the cover. It’s relatively commonplace for the rich and famous to work with ghost writers.
But you might not have realized it also happens with online content. Some of the biggest, most famous influencers online don’t write any of their blog posts.
I won’t name names, but I used to work for one of them. He’s one of the most famous marketers online, having published thousands of blog posts, but almost all those posts were written by ghost writers.
Please understand – I’m not demonizing it. When you’re a renowned expert, time is in short supply, and it’s often much faster to have a ghost writer interview you and write the article themselves. The ideas are still yours, but somebody else does all the “polishing.”
If you become the favorite ghost writer of a famous influencer, the work can also pay exceptionally well. I’m talking six figures.
And we conclude with another market where I have some experience.
Content marketing is especially effective when selling to businesses, and so any products or services marketed toward businesses often have big content marketing budgets. The most common one is software and web apps. Look around, and you’ll find almost all of them have blogs.
Guess who writes the majority of that content for blogs?
Freelance writers. You’ll have to use the product, take lots of photos or screenshots, and genuinely understand how it benefits the customer, but again, that’s mostly a matter of research.
And again, it can pay very well.
What if you’re not an expert on any of these topics?
Again, don’t worry about it!
The companies paying writers in these spaces don’t require you to have original insights or opinions. For the most part, they are paying you to “translate” the insights and opinions of other people into a more readable form.
Sometimes you do that through reading a stack of boring articles. Other times, you tinker around with software until you understand it. Still other times, you interview an expert and let them put their name on your words.
Granted, it helps to be at least a little familiar with the space, so you can understand the lingo, but it’s mostly about being able to learn quickly and then communicate. No expertise required.
And when you’re a beginner, that’s actually a relief. It takes the pressure off.
You can spend a year or two “translating” the ideas of other experts, and then you can move on to more exciting projects once you’ve earned your stripes, or sometimes you end up having insights of your own and becoming an expert.
That’s what happened with me and marketing. After studying and writing about it for a few years, I began to form original insights and opinions, and I became an expert other people wanted to listen to. It’s almost like I got paid to learn.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but in my opinion, that’s the coolest thing about freelance writing. Yes, you’re getting paid to write, but the things you learn often lead to other even more lucrative opportunities. It’s a fantastic foundation for almost any career.