Everyone is doing it.
So, why shouldn’t you?
By ‘it’, I refer to freelance writing of digital content: Blogs. E-books. Articles. These types of content appear to be the king in today’s business world. As the space of e-commerce continues to grow and expand, more and more businesses are finding that producing their content in e-space gives them more leverage and a bigger audience than when they use traditional mediums like TV, or hard copy books, as was the case in the ‘good old days.’
If you haven’t thought about it, now is a good time to start. Consider it your ‘happy place’, in a world that is constantly changing. You have one thing that is constant for you: Your writing, and how to make a career out of it digitally.
How do you start a career as a digital freelance writer, creating blogs, e-books, articles, copy, and all of the content that business needs to take its message out there, grow its audience and succeed? Because, guess what – It is writers that make it happen. They are the content creators, the marketers, the force behind the scene driving the business to achieve its goals. You can be that superhero by jumpstarting your digital career in 5 easy ways:
- Join the freelance sites: there are several sites out there that allow freelancers to join up and compete for work with businesses that need to create written content. Most writers do not like this step in the process, but as with the beginning of any journey, you can’t always choose what you ‘like.’ You just need to do what needs to get done. These ‘freelancer sites’ are especially good for beginning writers who want to get their names out there, or achieve some experience or gain client testimonials. The drawback: You become a jack of all trades and master of none, as you will be writing for different businesses, in different industries, and therefore would not have a chance to hone a specialization area or a niche. If you are not concerned about niche building, then this would be perfect for you. However, as having a career means being known as an authority is something (think Arianna Huffington, media mogul with a niche in, well, media), then you probably want to move away from writing in different industries as soon as you are comfortable with your writing style and experience gained to move up to the next level.
- Start a blog: This should actually be happening at the same time that you are freelancing. You are gaining experience from your clients’ work, and it is hopefully helping you to discover the specific type of writings that you want to eventually focus on – Maybe travel, or health or food, or technology. Try out different topics on your blog. I know, it will look like something that was crapped on, with all these different subjects splashed all over it. However, remember, you are discovering your niche. You are building a portfolio in one of those ‘crappy’ subjects that you could eventually discover to be your focus.
- Pick a focus area: You have a blog started, you have written content in different areas, you have started to get your name out there as a writer – You should now be more intense in determining which subject area ‘floats your boat,’ from all the writings you have done. Now, it is time to clean up your blog. Sanitize it by removing any posts that do not pertain to the area you want to now write on. Clean up the posts that you have written pertaining to your newly discovered area of interest, and start adding more posts.
- Create social media assets: Now that you know the area where you want to build authority in digital writing space, you want social media to know you for that niche. Start a Youtube video, or a podcast. If more comfortable with other channels like Pinterest or LinkedIn or Twitter, begin with those places. The key is to push your authority out through those channels since you will not be spamming them with content that is random at this point – You have discovered your niche.
- Do not forget to watch those in your niche who are successful: The point of having a niche is that you can now focus all your energy on it, and you can now recognize the individuals who are in that same niche and are succeeding very well. Join their channels or groups, learn from them, and begin to grow.
With these 5 simple tips, which helped me, I am hoping that you will be able to grow your digital writing career and become an authority in the space that you choose. Have you followed any of these steps before? Tell me about it! If you have other ideas on how you think a niche should be grown, drop a line!
Let’s make a toast to growing in the digital world of writing.