My initial writing work at home jobs were my first successful
forays into the world of making money online, so I have a great love
for these particular types of work at home jobs. If you're looking to
get your first fiction book published, this work will probably fall
into the 'underwhelming' on the experience range. However, if you're
looking to learn how to work remotely, break into the online workforce
and gain a firm grasp of how websites and the internet work this can be
a great place to start.
As the internet continues to grow, so will the need for eloquent,
skilled writers - the majority of the internet is (at least at this
point) made up of text. Some one has to write all that text! Lucky for
freelancers, many great business persons aren't the best or speediest
writers (or they have better things to do with their time).
As businesses get more and more competitive at ranking for keywords,
they will need increasingly skilled and creative writers to create
high-quality content. If you are willing to write about some boring
stuff (Tile Grout anyone?) and if you can throw in a bit of unique and
catchy personality into the writing as well as know some SEO writing
basics, you'll be set for finding plenty of quality writing jobs.
If you can deliver on-time, maintain good client relationships, and if
you can bring a bit of social media traffic building skills to the
table, you'll be well positioned to gain enough clients to keep
yourself fully employed.
Understanding what you're getting yourself into:
First of all, not all writing work at home jobs are created equal.
There are TONS of jobs out there because everyone needs content. Many
of these are scams, pay too little, or aren't worth signing your name
to. You need to be disciplined and skilled when applying to jobs and
you need to hold the jobs you take to equally high standards.
Deborah Ng, a fellow freelance writer, saw the overabundance of bad
writing work at home jobs on the job boards and created Freelance
Writing Gigs to help skilled freelance writers find
good online jobs. That of course brings us to our next point - you have
to know how to write reasonably well to make a living at it! You need
not have an English degree, but you do need to know how to convey your
thoughts in words.
For example, if you don't know how to use a
semi-colon correctly or if you don't know which version of
"there" is appropriate to the occasion, you should do a bit of brushing
up on your skills before you start applying to writing work at home
jobs.
Online gigs have either no editors or very over-burdened editors and
you'll be expected to present fully-edited work ready for publication.
Showing that you can do this from the beginning is a great way to get
your foot in the door. When I was starting out and didn't have a large
portfolio of published work, I'd often show my skills by including a
brief mention of a typo or two that I found in the job board posting
(there's almost always at least one) in my email cover letter.
Once you get the job, be prepared to deliver on time (or ahead of time
to make your editors and employers love you extra-much) and to
over-deliver in terms of quality and content.
The drawback to work at home jobs is that you're automatically
mistrusted by employers. They don't see you every day walk into the
office so even if they have completely outsourced teams and are used to
working with remote contractors, they still don't trust you
automatically. You have to prove that you're not just as good as an
in-house writer, and that, actually, you're better.
How to get Writing Work at Home Jobs
Deborah's site is really the best place out there to look for writing work at home jobs. You
can also check CraigsList if you like, but she checks those ones.
Finding writing work at home jobs isn't the hard part - getting your
foot in the door is.
There are several things you can do to set yourself apart from the
hundreds of applications that flood the hiring manager's inbox the
second she post a job description. Here are my top 10 tips for getting
the job:
Create
a website to host your resume, portfolio and links to
examples of your published writing. Use a link to this in your initial
email cover letter instead of attaching your resume so that you won't
get stuck in a spam filter because of an attachment.
If you're brand-new, start
a blog and write a bunch of articles for it so you have some
online examples of your blogging skills.
Treat your initial email like a cover-letter, but a bit
less formal. Sound real, approachable and trustworthy. I've found that
a LOT of online hiring happens because of personality, not skills. When
you're 2,000 miles away the manager needs to feel they can trust you.
Apply FAST. Deborah posts at 8am EST each morning. Be one
of the first with your foot through the door and you'll be more likely
to be seen.
Speed counts for a lot, but only if you also have accuracy.
Make sure that you have no grammatical or spelling mistakes in any of
your submissions. Follow all the application instructions that are in
the job posting to the T.
Follow-up on your applications. I usually give it 24-48
hours and then send a brief email to follow up. This makes sure they
got your information, lets them know you're a real person (not an
automated system) and shows your reliability.
If the company indicated themselves in any way in the
posting, you can send a follow up to the HR department (found on the
company website) as well. Plus, you can also include company specifics
in your initial cover letter.
Apply to everything you could possibly conceive of yourself
doing. When you're starting, anything is a good first step. Once you've
got a bit of a portfolio going, you can be more selective.
Track your applications on a spreadsheet along with your
follow-ups and responses. You'll probably be doing 5-10 applications
per day, and it's easy for follow-ups to slip through the cracks.
While you're applying for writing work at home jobs,
continue to improve and build your writing skills even if you're still
in an office every day. Deborah's site is full of these sorts of
resources so I'm not going to re-invent the wheel here, but make sure
that you're writing as much as you can every day - on your own blog if
no where else- so that you're continuing to improve your skills.