Pros of freelance writing

• Creativity
• No supervision
• Independence from people
• No reporting to work
• Freedom of what you love

Cons of freelance writing

• No benefits of employment
• Unpredictable nature
• No hours of working
• Unsteady cash inflow

Waving goodbye to 9-5 job models is prevalent and on the rise these days. Almost no one can give you the guarantee of having enough money or work to support a freelance writer’s lifestyle. Your determination puts you ahead of the rest, and the more you get willing to up your writing game, the better the pay will get.

Becoming a Freelance writer

If you want to become one, start writing, and do it daily. You know the famous saying goes practice makes perfect. But then let us review the necessary steps to get you on the ladder.

Sharpen your writing

Writing is one skill that can get learned and improved in a period. Get committed to jot a short story or article every day. Begin writing something that you find passionate or something that you love. Afterward, start writing about the things you do not understand. Doing that will widen your scope and guide you where you don’t have strengths, and with dedication, you will mold a versatile professional in you. There are so many writing categories and jobs out there, and the versatility in your writing can help you sort out the field of your interests.

Select your niche

Check on what you love, passionate about, or right at since having them in mind can go a long way into making sure that you get to define your niche. You will get reliable clients if you do so, and remember not to waste your energy and time jotting about things you do not fully understand even if you get paid well. If you fail to deliver the results as per the clients’ expectations, you will put a strain on your name. Do the things you are good at to help you build a better reputation.

Start blogging

It is one of the most basic yet crucial steps for every freelancer. It acts as a living portfolio and will be the best evidence to show your clients what you do. If you are just getting started in the craft, it is better, to begin with, a blog. Blogging will immensely help you polish your skills and help you advertise your work with the samples posted on your page.

Learn the relevant tools and skills

Writing as a freelancer is not all about writing. You have to acquire knowledge in other areas that support you, including marketing, management, and finance. How to edit your work, track the assignments, time, clients, and invoices demands that you know and understand how to make your way around each step. You can use Excel to manage your work, Slack or Trillo to organize everything, communicate with your clients, and utilize text tools to assist you in proofreading your work.

So, what is Technical Writing?

Most companies and organizations require writing services for their services and products. As a result, they look for individuals who can properly write how-to-guides, and simplify complex procedures into something that an ordinary consumer can digest. Technological advancements and the internet have increased accessibility when it comes to doing technology writing jobs online. Such companies engage the platforms, and platform-registered writers do such work on their behalf for a fee.

Applications of Technical Writing

The sphere of technical writing proves straightforward, and contains simple-to-comprehend instructions or/and explanations regarding a specific subject. It proves an efficient method of explaining stuff and its working mechanism.

Technical writing can come in two forms, and these include abstract or tangible forms. Tangible technical writing encompasses something that you can see or touch and includes devices like software programs, computers, or assembly information for specific furniture or devices.

On the other hand, abstract technical writing entails a stepwise process with the steps proving related to tangible objects. For instance, it can include steps needed to finish a process in the office.

Examples of Technical Writing

Many people comprehend things better by understanding what an example of the same entails. Therefore, to understand technical writing, consider the following examples,

• Instruction manuals
• Process manuals
• Policy manuals
• Analysis reports
• User manuals
• Product assembly instructions
• A summary of an extensive report that shortens and highlights the most crucial elements

Guidelines to Writing Excellent Technical Writing

Technical writing needs the author to adhere to a specific set of properties regarding understanding their audience, how to write in a non-personal style, and writing clearly regarding a subject that requires extensive research. When you consider and incorporate these properties, then you can develop clear explanations and instructions for your audience. So what should you consider before you begin writing?

• Comprehend your audience. As an expert, you have to understand specific acronyms, lingo, and abbreviations, which apply to any particular field. However, any beginner in the technical writing field will not similarly comprehend everything. Therefore, ensure that every detail has to get spelled and explained out loud and in a proper way.
• Try and employ the use of a style that proves impersonal. It always proves a wise idea to write in the third person. Such a perspective comes similarly as a teacher who instructs a learner
• Omit all the opinions that might have crossed and dominated your mind. Always ensure that the writing comes straightforwardly and concisely. It should also prove simple and one that your audience can easily understand, especially regarding the instruction and process.  Instructions mostly appear as simple steps that an individual has to achieve to get to their desired objective. Alternatively, it can come as a lengthy or short explanation of an abstract concept or an idea.
• Understand the most effective way to research. Here, you have to collect information from diverse sources, comprehend the information gathered before making a thorough analysis of the information before putting it into an easy-to-comprehend format that can become instructive to anyone who lays their eyes on it. Also, take note of the target audience experience level for your targeted audience. The more inexperienced the audience proves, the more you have to provide regarding information and explanations. Further, become thorough while describing issues or things and give out sufficient detail in making your points. However, also deliberate on issues of becoming economical with words to prevent instances where you end up boring your audience with details.

In most cases, if not all, excellent writers make complicated tasks seem simple. Further, such writers also ensure that they can quickly elaborate on a difficult information piece.

Conclusion

Technical writing has a simple definition that proves crucial to understand before you can embark on writing technical pieces. However, in a scenario that you do not know, reviewing the article can become useful. So have a good luck.

A resident historian has an opportunity to paint a picture regarding a region, town, or village on its outlook in the past by narrating stories of individuals who worked and lived there. So, how can you get started if you want to venture into this niche?

Diverse aspects of local history exist that you can concentrate your study and writing on. For instance, you can concentrate on the wider community or specific families. Additionally, you can focus on traditions, local events, entertainment, and occupations. Alternatively, you direct your energy on monuments, churches, buildings, organizations, industry, historical sites, churches, and schools. It will offer you some insight into the cradle and growth of the society and community within the location.

Tips on Starting Your Local History Writing Gig

• Begin by writing about something you comprehend well. It proves easier to begin by concentrating on familiar subjects, and those that bring your passionate side to the fore. So, start by only selecting one theme for your piece, especially if your research proves extensive.
• Avoid writing about big concepts. It proves advisable to start writing by mentioning significant people and events but without neglecting the need to state to your readers concerning the experiences and lives of common people.  Your potential readers would love to identify with characters you write about, and to unearth more regarding their residential places.
• Target audience for your story.  It proves crucial to consider your target audience before you begin writing your piece. It can entail a particular group of individuals or sometimes a publication. Other times, it can target larger audiences. However, learning and comprehending your audience can assist you in deciding the volume of detail you have to include, besides the style you employ in telling your story.
• Plan before starting your piece. It always proves useful to develop a synopsis when it comes to writing your historical piece. You can use it to submit a book’s concept to your publisher.  It proves simple as all you need to do entails listing down the main subjects you plan on covering. Such a plan will make your writing easier and save you precious writing time. An excellent synopsis highlights gaps contained in your study and can get sorted out before you start writing. 
• Place a larger historical context to your story. You have to narrate stories about the history of places and individuals and how the impact of the occurrences within and without the community on people working and living there. When you describe the impact beyond your study area, it will place your story into a larger historical context to assist you in explaining the course events.
• Check the facts you use. The content you write has to prove accurate. Try and use primary sources as they come very accurately. However, secondary sources can also come in handy though you have to become careful as secondary sources like the internet can have all types of information, which can prove inaccurate.
• Transform the past into life. You have to do more than present the dry facts, dates, and figures to your readers. Try and spruce up the history dates and other crucial information to entertain your readers besides enlightening them.

Three Local History Writing Elements

Most, if not all, successful factual history writers mix three elements of brilliant history writing. It entails description, narrative, and analysis. When you interweave descriptions of the occurrence at a specific time together with why it might have happened, it will allow you to narrate an interesting story to people. While it might become tempting to incorporate all the little details you uncover, it proves wise to identify only the pieces of information that can make your story brilliant and leave out the rest. 

Conclusion

If you want to start a career in local history writing, then consider the outlined guidelines. You can become an accomplished local history writer with widespread acclaim if you understand what it takes to do such pieces. 

Online Research Jobs

Becoming a serial researcher is one of the occupations that gets a form of a know-it-all. If you have always had the satisfaction of learning at least all that you could, you can nurture that curiosity to a job. Several jobs and industries depend on research, consultancy, and experts. You can get some research jobs online that do not require previous experience in the field of study. Still, if you are looking for better-paying opportunities that target industries specifically, you may need to have had formal education or experience to get the job.

Some services seek Subject Matter Experts in targeted industries, functions, and technologies. If you want to land this opportunity, you need to have had extensive experience practicing with the subject. You will get access to their expert database, and you will also get a pass to access live projects with their clients.

Others seek experienced and qualified researchers, but the field is highly competitive. After the registration, you can hand in your research to several general studies, and you will receive or win payments.

You can also find sites that deal with contractors independently to finish research on courts for their clients. It involves visiting the local courts to retrieve the clients’ data, but the flexibility allows you to do it in your schedule. According to their databases, a researcher can earn between $10 and $15 per hour, but more experienced research can fetch $25.

Answering Questions

It may not just be the internet thrill that drives you. Probably you love answering questions. If you are in that line, then the know-it-all perspective can fetch yourself question answering some income.

Wonder is probably the most popular company among the others that sells question-answering services. They give their clients a platform to submit their questions, and then the researchers get the responsibility of locating quality resources to answer the question. They then have to synthesize the information into one complete and specific answer for the clients. Before getting enrolled, you must complete a sample assignment.

The top researchers can bag almost $35 every working hour and earn up to $2000 every month. Aside from payment, as a researcher, you get additional amenities such as the opportunity to handle exciting projects daily, exploring new fields, and networking with peers and colleagues from around the world, and also create an excellent research portfolio. You must have excellent writing skills, and you must also have a passion and love for reading.

As a researcher, you get to set your own schedule. You can work as often as you want with the intensity you want. You will log in to the dashboard to view the available requests and choose the one they are comfortable doing. You can use Slack or a chat service that supports multiple users at a go.