Genuine freelance work from home can be the perfect route to fulfill your passion to work in your field of aptitude and interest. In the freelance world, you can find jobs that range from writing to programming to information brokering. Blend your business acumen and your expertise to achieve success in your freelance career. Consider these six genuine home-based jobs that can give you the job stability, financial freedom, and work satisfaction. These are not get-rich-quick home-based freelance schemes, but if you’re willing to work hard and smart, you can carve a path for a steady stream of income.
1. Freelance Writing: Leverage your writing skills to earn a steady income. Writers who’ve a good command over English and can write in a clear and concise way are in demand. Freelance writers can pursue different types of writing. It includes article writing, web content writing, copy writing, resume and cover letter writing, and technical writing.
How do you get started in the freelance writing landscape? Write articles and build a portfolio in your areas of expertise to showcase your writing strengths. Send e-mail to the editors of related print and online newspapers and journals and explore freelance writing opportunities. Attach your sample articles to the e-mail. Use the body of your e-mail message as the cover letter. Let it throw more light on your writing aptitude. Don’t worry about any rejects. Pursue search for freelance writing work with perseverance. It should pay off.
Visit the websites of companies that provide writing services. Check the Careers or similarly labeled sections of their websites for freelance writing positions. If you don’t find any, send an e-mail with details on what you can offer.
How else can you market yourself as a freelance writer? Find the details at Nine Tips to Find Freelance Work.
2. Freelance Technical Writing: It presents the most opportunities. The Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2007-08, says that the “Opportunities should be best for technical writers and those with training in a specialized field.” (Source: bls.gov/oco/ocos089.htm#outlook).
To work as a freelance technical writer, you don’t have to be a tech pro. If you can explain complex technical info in a simple way that even a common reader can understand it, then technical writing is for you.
3. E-Book Publishing: Do you have expertise in one or more subject areas? If yes, why not exploit your skills to earn cash through e-books? If you also have writing skills, then you can use the two skills to pen the e-book yourself. Otherwise, you can hire a writer, who can ghost write the digital book for you. Each time a user downloads your e-book, you make money! There is no inventory or shipping costs, as users download e-books online. Readers pay for your book through their credit card.
Set your e-book apart from others through valuable content. Before you board the e-book publishing bandwagon, do a thorough research on your writing topic. Will your book have sufficient audience? Are there any competing books? If so, how many? How should you price and market the e-book? These are some of the questions you should have answers for to drive your e-book publishing effort on the success track.
Refer to Ebook Publishing Tools at ebook-publishing-tools.com, among others, for more information.
4. Info-entrepreneurship: Companies and individuals need on-demand and reliable information to make decisions and to stay ahead in business. You can work as an info-entrepreneur if you’ve the skills and interest to mine the information from various print and electronic information sources. An information broker, another name for info-entrepreneur, collects the required data / information—from one or more sources—and delivers the same to his / her clients, for a fee. Some of the resources you would use to get the information from include online services / databases like OCLC, Dialog, Factiva, LexisNexis; CD-ROM databases, and online and print newspapers and journals.
Info-entrepreneurs may also offer additional services like writing and analyzing reports.
Find more info about the exciting field of information brokering at the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) at aiip.org.
A membership in AIIP has benefits that include networking to find freelance work, keeping up-to-date on the developments in the profession, and attending training programs.
The AIIP discussion list AIIP-L serves as an excellent platform for information on growing and nurturing your information brokering business.
5. Freelance Programming: Freelance programming work is among the league of highly paid contract work. Even though the recession has hit the information technology industry hard, projects abound for programmers with extensive programming expertise. Companies would prefer to hire freelance programmers because, among others, of the uncertainty of the economy.
Some programming projects require multiple skills. In such a case, if you have experience in some of the tools / platforms, then you can team with other techies who are also in need of a job. When you present your credentials as a team to the prospective employer, the chance of winning the contract brightens.
Checkout these and other freelance programming sites: rentacoder.com, programmingbids.com, and scriptlance.com.
6. Freelance Resume Writing: It is a specialized writing area that combines writing skills and experience in one or more business domains. Examples of the latter are manufacturing, information technology, education, sales and marketing, and human resources.
A key to success as a freelance resume writer is the experience to write resumes that address the needs of the employer. Such skills help employment seekers land the interview and the job.
Today, there are many entrepreneurs in the resume writing business. So, how do you gain a competitive advantage? A certification in resume writing can place you ahead of the others in the resume writing domain. For more info on how you can become a certified resume writer, visit the Professional Association of Resume writers and Career Coaches (PARW/CC) at parw.com. Another organization that certifies resume writers is the National Resume Writers’ Association (NRWA). Checkout the NRWA Web site at nrwaweb.com for details.
With a disciplined and effective approach to finding freelance jobs and to fulfilling the contract work, you can establish yourself as a successful freelancer in the freelance world.
Written by S Viswakumar
Professional Content Writer and E-Learning Developer
Learn how to find writing gigs online as a professional freelance writer with expert freelancing advice in this free job skills video clip. Expert: Rebecca Sato Contact: www.zenlife.net Bio: Rebecca Sato has been a science and health researcher for the past few years. Her goal is to teach people to live a long and healthy life. Filmmaker: joseph wilkins
Video Rating: 4 / 5
