Your writing career has you pitching articles to print magazines and online publications, self-publishing informational ebooks and even earning some cash from your fiction writing.
You’ve got all your bases covered, right?
Wrong. There’s one big writing income stream you’re missing out on: paid blogging.
Paid blogging, known in the industry as content marketing, is creating blog posts that attract a company’s ideal customer and potentially generate new leads. It’s not about selling products or services — it’s about offering value to readers to increase brand awareness and build trust.
Content marketing could offer a significant boost to your freelance writing income. This writing niche is expected to be a $300 billion industry by 2019 — and many companies are seeing the opportunity to outsource their blog work to freelance writers.
If you can write novels and magazine articles, you can probably write paid blog posts. Here are six signs you’d make a top-notch content marketer.
1. You’ve mastered conversational writing
This is one type of corporate writing where jargon isn’t welcome.
Companies are paying for posts that engage readers and make difficult information easy to understand. Writing doesn’t have to be formal to be professional!
You won’t be rewarded for your oversized vocabulary in this field. If you can simplify sentences, use contractions and slang, and maybe even add relevant GIFs to your blog posts, you’d make a great content marketer.
2. You can grab readers’ attention
Readers often find a company’s blog because they searched for an answer to a problem.
Your client’s blog is one of many they could choose to help them. Your job as a content marketer is to keep them from heading back to Google to search for answers elsewhere.
Your essay-writing skills will come in handy here. You already know the ropes of crafting an attention-grabbing hook. Why not put that talent to use as a paid blogger?
Your clients will thank you when they see their site visitors sticking around!
3. You’re a natural storyteller
You have one blog post to make a new site visitor care about your client’s company.
How do you do it? Tell a story.
Content marketing is about forging a connection between readers and a company’s brand. If you can write compelling fiction, you can craft an engaging brand story.
Good storytelling is the difference between a distant corporation and a friendly business that cares about its consumers. Who said writing fiction was a non-transferrable skill?
4. You have an area of expertise
Companies in nearly every industry work with writers to improve their blogs…and some of those industries are pretty complex.
Part of a content marketer’s job is to make confusing information simple to understand.
Companies need writers who understand complicated topics so they can explain those ideas to potential customers- — without relying on industry-specific jargon (remember that conversational writing voice we talked about?).
Having an area of expertise gives you a huge leg-up as a content marketer, especially in certain industries like the legal or medical fields.
Potential clients can glance at your past experience and feel confident in your ability to simplify their subject matter.
5. You can meet deadlines
If you’ve ever written a journalistic piece, you’ve probably bowed down before the almighty deadline.
Content marketers may not be rushing to get a piece submitted in time to make a print deadline, but making your deadlines is still crucial in the world of paid blogging.
Most corporate clients have well-thought-out editorial calendars that dictate the ideal date to publish a particular post. If you submit a piece late, you could throw off their publishing schedule.
Companies are often juggling a team of freelancers to meet their content marketing needs. If you stand out from the crowd as the one whose work is always on time, you’ll set yourself up for recurring writing assignments.
6. You’re a decent editor
You’re not submitting your blog posts to a magazine with a full-time editorial team to catch typos and hold your hand through big-picture edits.
Freelance content marketers typically work with the in-house marketing team at a company. Unlike magazines, marketing teams often don’t have the skills or the time to polish your work.
Part of the value you bring a company is the confidence that their blog will be professionally written. If you can be your own editor, you’ll win major points with your content marketing clients.
It’s well worth your time to explore freelance content marketing. It could be the next big break in your writing career!
Have you ever thought about getting into content marketing? If not, what’s holding you back?