Our Freelance Writing Needs Defined

We must make freelance niche types fit our needs, wants, values and lifestyles, and we also must make ourselves fit freelance niche types. Of our waking hours, we work more than we do anything else. I keep this in mind when college students come to me concerned about what to do forliving, and I tell them (because I want them happy) to do what they love. I also tell them (because I believe intruth) to do what they are good at.

The same goes for freelance writers. If we are talented, we havechance. If we havesevere work ethic we havebetter chance. And if we are devoted enough and relentless enough (and—ahem--masochistic enough) about writing forliving, we will be able to put on our vitaes that we are indeed professional writers. But in order to do and be so, we best findfreelance writing niche types or type we will be spectacular at, staking outcorner inniche market, one which we’ll bring passion to every morning as that damned alarm (laterwonderful thing) sounds.

Niche Defined

FromItalian-derived French for nicchia, "a shell-like recess inwall,"niche isinset, concave enclosure. It is this little enclosure we freelance writers need to find, study, practice, and own. It issmall area of specialty we make ours and offer to those in need. Sosmaller (and thereforeless competitive)better.

We infreelance writing business and those of us working to get into it have plenty of industries to work with:

• Advertising
• BtwoB (Business to Business)
• BtwoC (Business to Customer/Client)
• Entertainment
• Finance
• Medicine
• Non-profit
• Publishing (online/offline)
• Recreation
• Science
• Research/Marketing
• Real Estate
• Technology

Niche Types Defined

And for every industry there are tens of freelance writing niche types:

• Creative Writing- I’ll say again from my lofty loft of opinions that I believe all writing is creative, as it is generative. My point is affirmed when we look at all ofkinds of writing projectscreative freelancer can do or get into, from magazine articles about bushwackers and George Bush to books about needlepoint and pine cone needles and needling family members to…

• Ghost Writing- Ghost writing ispopular preferred choice of many clients, even those who have hung outwriter shingle (or banner) and outsourceassignments, collect them, pay us (hopefully well), and put their own names onwork, be itbooklet orbook,piece of web copy orpiece of ad copy.

• Proposal and Business Plan Writing- For profit or not, businesses need writers to create proposals that show need and get that need satisfied—monetarily. As there is with all freelance writing niche types, with proposal and plan writingfreelancer hasskill sets and experience to prepare documents that will be convincing enough that ifclient needs hot soup sold in hellwriter will be able to deliver. I have written two successful proposals andnumber of grant proposal reports (that ensured continuation ofgrant). They are somewhat interesting, but only to those writers withparticular finesse forcross between technical and creative/dynamic writing.

• PR (Public Relations) Writing- PR writers do concept copy or concept to completion work innumber of media, writing ad copy, doinglayout, and designing such items as brochures, newsletters, press releases, media kits, and more, to achieveultimate goal forclient: name branding.

• Technical Writing- Involving everything technical, from professional, consumer, and user manuals to white papers, technical writing depends uponwriter’s ability to organize, synchronize, structure, and developdetails of technical content.

• Web Content Writing- To meetclient’s goals of web presence and online branding using highly trafficked, “sticky” websites/pages,web content developer or producer writes what are known as KRPs—keyword-rich pages. This particular wave of freelance niche types was discovered (years ago) to be most beneficial as SEO, search-engine optimizing/optimized/ optimization, text (or content).

While I also specialize in mental health/disability writing and creative and memoir writing, web content development is one of my favorite freelance niche types. To getkeywordphrase keywordphrase keywordphrase construction clear, engaging, and entertaining while keeping it from doinghideous grammatical/ rhetorical pileup ischallenge I look forward to every morning.

Hey, it beatsalarm clock jangling, signalingdread of having to punchcard atfactory or seeboss off to work so I can clean her toilets and scrub her floors. Of course, there’s no shame in those jobs…. I did them for years to get through grad school. But that’s more to do withother definition of niche: “the status oforganism within its environment/community, affecting its survival asspecies."

And besides, I love writing so much, much more. It’smuch better fit, one I wish for all of you who adorewriting process as much as I adore it.*

*If this iscase, you definitely need to check outpages on my site with web content and writing niche samples, articles that exemplify good, tight, even humorous writing and that are about writing atsame time.

Works Consulted

Bly, Robert W.. Secrets ofFreelance Writer: How to Make $eightfive,zerozerozeroYear. New York: Henry Holt and Company, onenineeighteight.

Hyperdictionary. WEBNOX CORP., twozerozerozero-twozerozerothree seven Dec. twozerozerofour.

Konradt, Brian. “CreatingSpecialty.” Write from Home. seven Dec. twozerozerofour.

This article was posted on December twoone, twozerozerofour