An Alternative Work Opportunity to Balance Personal and Work Life: Freelance Content Writing

Note: Re-posting as the previous Link got Corrupted.

Not everybody can manage to handle a 9 to 5 job, but does that mean they can never have a professional life? They can’t build a career? Today we all aspire of having a good job where we can not only utilize our knowledge and skills to our benefits but also for those for whom we work. But unfortunately for many reasons, which are not in our control many of us give up the desire of getting a good full-fledged job and career.

There are people like married women who have to give up their job for reasons like family engagement or transferable jobs of their husband, or upbringing of kinds and many others. So does that mean every married women who has these above mentioned factors in her life has to forget about having a career? Thankfully the answer is No.

Though not very popular few years back, but with the rapid technological advancement the concept of Freelancing is gaining popularity. Those who are not quite aware of the meaning of the term, freelancing is doing job or work for yourself with the convenience of your own time and plan. You get to work from your home and you don’t have anybody to boss over you. Though sounds a little too good but it is true. Freelancing is a good choice of career for these people. In abroad the  concept is quite popular but in India it’s gaining gradually, now.

There are many fields where freelancing or home based jobs are applicable like for example journalism, Content writing publishing, photojournalism, editing, music, photography, event management, proofreading,, event planning, , copy writing, copy editing, computer

programming, graphic design, web design, website development, illustrating, translating, and many others. Among these Content Writing is the most popular field of freelancing. Freelance Content writing is quite popular in India.

Content writing means writing contents for websites. The write ups that we see whenever we open a page of a website is termed as content and those who writes it are called content writers. Since internet presence is very important today for every business and organizations, whether big or small need for content writers are increasing. And since the pay and earning both are quite profitable in freelancing freelance writers are always in demand.

The best thing about freelance content writing is that anybody yes anybody from any educational background and with any degree can work. Housewives, collage students, whether male or female, even retired persons who wish to spend time doing something productive and working persons with some productive free time can do this job. The main things required are computers at home with a good all time round internet connectivity knowledge of English (as the medium of work is mostly English) and flair of writing. Now knowledge of English and flair of writing in this case does not mean that one has to be a master in literary English, all it needs is the capability of arranging and writing simple, correct, crisp and understandable sentences in English language and without any grammatical and spelling mistakes.

 

There are firms and organizations who appoint freelance writers under them. There are also individuals who own writing firms or are themselves writers and get bulk projects to work on, who also appoints other freelance writers to share the load. The process of work is also quite simple. The employers will provide the subject of the topic, which are varied in nature, number of words that the article should have and most importantly the keywords along with other necessary guidelines that varies with different employers and you have to search the net for information and present it in a different way or as directed, and send it within the deadline provided. Now the keywords  of an  article is set of words , which will allow the article to be visible to the readers on the search list when they search on any search engine using that particular word or something similar to it. So it is very important to utilize them in any article effectively. The forms of writing that are involved in content writing are article writing, blog writing (there is not much difference between blog and article except in the presentation), writing press releases, review writings and the likes.

Just as the subject payment, pattern in this job also varies, but as there is the liberty of choice on the part of the freelance writers so it is quite acceptable on the both the front. Most of the time  payments are based either on per article basis or on per word basis. The writing can be of any  number of words like from 150 words to 1000 words per article but the rates are normally based on 500 words. The more number of articles you write (per day) the more you get to earn. Your writing speed is important here with increasing writing speed your number of articles (per day) can gradually increase and so does your earning. With experience one can even decides one’s rate and negotiate accordingly. Fresher’s however have the choices to select out of opportunities where rates are clearly mentioned, according to their convenience.

Finding these freelancing jobs is quite easy too. With networking popular sites like Facebook and skill pages it is very simple and fast to reach to the employers. With posting on walls and joining communities and liking pages in these above mentioned sites that has many pages and communities dedicated to freelance content writing, getting opportunities in the line of freelance is quite easy.

Here both the job seeker and the employer can post requirements and even reply and communicate directly. Moreover usual job portals are there too, for finding opportunities in freelance writing.

Before being appointed freelance writers are tested by the employers online by writing samples. Sometimes experienced writers are only asked to provide for previous writing samples too.

However freelance writing jobs also have a bad side which is recently being noticed. Frauds have entered in this field too. They make the writers write and do not pay. Well it is true that it is a bit difficult to detect fraud in this field as everything happens online but with a little awareness, intelligence and observation it can be avoided. If anybody offers too tempting rates then instead of jumping right into the offer check the authenticity first by little research and feedback from fellow writers, as far as possible.

There is another sub field in freelance content writing known as academic writing or assignment help. Here a freelance writer has to write on academic subjects and provide help in writing assignments to students. There are online firms that provide such services to students and they are always in search for freelance academic writer. This can be a good opportunity especially for both working and retired teachers who wish to utilize their experience and knowledge in something productive and earn in their free times.

If, you are one of those who are caught between family engagement and career or have to quit a job for some reasons, then you can try out freelance content writing, instead of worrying for your career. This is a real good option as it helps in balancing personal and work life, conveniently. Moreover there are no issues even if you need to travel from one place to another due to your spouse’s transferable job. All you need is computer, net connection and a zest to try out a new field of work. There is also a chance to work with multiple employers at a time.  This gives chance to write on    wide range of subjects and get accustomed with various styles and forms as well. Sometimes you get to know about new things as well. It is an interesting, intelligent sophisticated and respectful alternative work opportunity for anybody.

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