Just What is Freelance Writing?

Freelance writing is any writing you do outside of your regular job or school in order to earn money. Writing a press release for a nonprofit organization, writing a report for a company, interviewing people and writing a magazine article or writing a news story is considered to be “freelance writing.”

As a freelance writer, you work completely from your home, using your Internet connection and computer. You use your own reference books as resources or you visit your library and find reference material there, or you conduct online research--known to journalists as “computer-assisted” research.

You might be a college student, a work-at-home-mom or work-at-home-dad. Freelancers choose to work from home, earning money with their writing for several reasons. These include the economy and lack of jobs; suffering burnout in a previous job or simply making the choice to work at home.

Freelance writers may have young children at home or they may be empty-nesters. Whatever their personal situation, these individuals have chosen to earn money through their writing.

As mentioned earlier, freelance writers can work on a variety of projects. They may have built a private client list, writing a variety of items and an a wide range of formats. A youth organization might need to publicize a fund raiser and the purpose of the organization. This is where a freelance writer comes in--if she has the education and experience, she can speak to the organization’s president, learn everything she needs to know about this group, develop a mental picture of what the group does and why it is raising money. She may take a few photos of the organization’s headquarters, the staffers and volunteers, and with the permission of the members’ parents, she may also take photos of the organization’s members. With all of this interview material, the freelance writer returns home and begins to write her press release. After showing the final draft to the organization chairperson, she distributes her press release to media outlets like community newspapers, the local paper, radio stations and television stations.

She may also write magazine or newspaper articles, interviewing people involved with a particular news story or article.

At the time she offers her professional writing services, she discusses payment arrangements, letting magazines, community groups and newspapers know what her rate is and when she expects to be paid. As a professional, she should be able to write up, print and deliver invoices detailing payment for services she has performed for her clients.
Other freelance writers set up personal blogs, writing on topics they feel passionate about, such as the environment, animals, the treatment of children, health issues, crafts, hobbies or professional topics.

These writers--bloggers--can receive payment based on page views or ad clicks. Bloggers are able to take advantage of programs like Google’s Adsense, Amazon’s associate program and other payment programs. When readers click on ads or land on the blogger’s site and read their entries, the payment programs that are linked to the blogger’s account record each page view and ad click; the blogger receives a percentage from each item ordered by readers. Once her blog records a predetermined number of page views, she receives a specific amount.

At the time her blog and accounts reach a specific amount, usually between $10 and $100, the blogger is paid.

Another outlet freelance writers can take advantage of is web content writing. A writer applies to these sites, uploading her resume and writing samples or links to writing samples. If she is accepted by these sites, she enters her personal information--name, address, email address, a biography and a photo for her bio. She completes a W9 so the IRS can send a Form 1099 to her for tax preparation. She also agrees to a payment method such as PayPal. If she has not set up an account with PayPal, she goes through this process and links a personal bank account to her PayPal account.

After reading the site’s writing guidelines and information for new writers, she accepts her first assignments and writes her first articles. The better web content sites have an editing process, working with freelance copy and/or content editors, who edit each article written by the site’s writers. The articles are edited for grammar, spelling and punctuation errors, as well as English usage issues. The copy editors, known as CEs, may also fact check each article for accuracy in the material. In this instance, the writer is expected to conduct research, either online or offline, and provide her research material in her article template for this purpose.

Payment for freelance writers who write web content articles is usually made more quickly than it is for private writing clients and it is much swifter than payment for blog writers. The web content sites pay a set amount per article, ranging from $2 up to $30.

These sites include Textbroker, SEED, Associated Content, Bright Hub, Constant Content and Demand Studios.

The freelance writer may have little or no writing experience beyond what she has written in high school or college. She may have journalism experience or experience writing professional, peer-reviewed articles for professional magazines or educational institutions.
Other writers have written nonfiction and/or fiction books and have been published previously.