What's Hot in Freelance Writing: How to Create a Niche & Increase Your Freelance Income

Periodically, I do a sweep of the major job boards (Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs) to see what sectors are hot in freelance writing.

By my obversation, it's technical and financial writing. I've always believed that you should specialize (create a niche) to be more profitable as a freelancer. And, creating a niche within one of these highly sought after disciplines seems to pay off.

How To Create Your Own Niche

What if you have no desire to write within these disciplines? Simple. Don't. BUT, I do advise creating a niche within something. For example, maybe you like writing about real estate. Contact real estate agents around the country and offer to do a newsletter for them on a regular basis -- supplying new, original content on a weekly, monthly, quarterly basis (however often they deem necessary).

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Write and send potential clients a benefits letter (a marketing letter selling your services), detailing how they can grow their business by publishing a newsletter. Back it up with hard stats from verifiable sources.

Select a market where there are a lot of potential clients (eg, real estate agents), so that you can build a nice client list with minimal effort. An added bonus of choosing a market like real estate agents is that you can target realtors nationwide. All the research you will ever need to do can be found online to write about any market in the country.

The profit potential is amazing if you choose wisely. Eg, charging 20 realtors $100/month for a bi-monthly newsletter can be a nice, steady chunk of income (what freelancer doesn't crave stability).

Other professionals you might target are insurance agents, lawyers, financial advisors, staffing agencies, restaurant owners -- the list is endless. To get ideas of groups to target, flip through your local yellow pages.

RECAP: Finding Your Niche -- How to Go About It

1. Target a PROFESSIONAL market (eg, B2B) with large potential.

2. Offer original content on a consistent basis.

3. Offer to do the design of the newsletter, as well as the writing. After a one-time setup, which can be achieved using many free templates found online, it will be a breeze to just plop new text in. Many professionals are busy and will want you to just "handle it" for them; the less they have to do, the more likey they are to want you to do a newsletter for them.

4. Show potential clients how a newsletter can increase their busines using verifiable statistics (include 1 or 2 sample articles).

5. Build client list to a manageable number for a nice, steady income stream.

Following this basic concept, this may be the only type of freelance writing you will ever have to do. Now, wouldn't that be nice!
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May be reprinted with inclusion of the following in full: © 2006 Yuwanda Black for InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for the creative and editorial industries. Visit our informative, up-to-date editorial blog at http://inkwelleditorial.blogspot.com/ for first-hand information on how to start, grow and/or maintain a successful freelance career.