1. Abstracts. These are capsule summaries of scientifi c articles and
papers. Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, got his
start writing abstracts for physics journals.
2. Advertising. Thousands of organizations—from Madison
Avenue ad agencies and Fortune 500 corporations, to small local
businesses—need ads written to sell their products; American
businesses spend $56 billion a year on newspaper and magazine
advertising.
3. Annual Reports. Most large, publicly traded companies produce
elaborate and expensive annual reports, for which the average
writer’s fee is $10,000 per report.
4. Articles. This is the traditional defi nition of freelance writing:
crafting articles for magazines and newspapers. Pay can range
from nothing and abysmal to decent and occasionally high.
5. Banner Ads. Banner ads are seeing a resurgence; they may have
as few as half a dozen words, which you can get paid $500 or more
to write.
6. Billboards. Professional writers are needed to write pithy slogans
on billboards and other outdoor signage.
7. Biographies. Both traditional book publishers and wealthy individuals
hire writers to craft biographies.
8. Blogs. Increasingly, companies are paying bloggers as much as
$100,000 a year to blog for them; popular bloggers are also landing
book deals based on their blogs.
9. Booklets. Companies publish booklets to educate and inform
customers, and many writers publish and sell their own how-to
booklets for money.
10. Books. Another traditional venue for writers, where the pay, like
magazine articles, can range from nominal to fantastic.
11. Book Reviews. Although a low-paying assignment, many writers
enjoy book reviewing, and you do get a lot of free books.
12. Brochures. Despite the proliferation of websites, business
prospects often tell salespeople, “Send me a brochure.” You
can charge $500–$1,000 a page to write sales brochures for
business clients.
13. Bumper Stickers. Americans buy almost two million bumper
stickers a year, and companies will pay up to $15 a word or
more for slogans used on bumper stickers, coffee mugs, and
other merchandise.
14. Business Plans. Entrepreneurs need business plans to get
money from banks and venture capitalists, and will pay you
$10,000 or more to write one for them.
15. Cartoons. The New Yorker pays $675 for a single cartoon, and dozens
of other publications also buy cartoons .
16. Case Studies. Also known as success stories and extended
testimonials, case studies relate the experiences of a satisfi ed
customer who has benefi ted from the product or service you
are marketing.
17. Catalog Copywriting. About $1 billion a year in merchandise is
generated through catalog sales.
18. Children’s Books. Americans spend more than $3 billion annually
on children’s books, and of course the Harry Potter series has
helped create a whole new generation of eager children’s book
readers.
19. Christian Writing. Religious publishing in the United States is
a $7.5 billion market, with 5,600 new Christian book titles published
annually.
20. College Essays. Parents of high school students are hiring
“college consultants” to help with the college selection and application
process, including guidance and editing for the college
entrance essay.
21. Coloring Books. Young adult horror writer R. L. Stine got his
start writing the text for coloring books. Although he was paid
just $500 per book, each took less than a day to complete.
22. Comic Books. Top comic book writers can earn more than
$100,000 a year.
23. Cookbooks and Recipes. One out of every ten books sold is a
cookbook, generating cookbook sales of more than $1.3 billion a
year.
24. Copyediting. Freelance copy editors can earn $25–$45 an hour or
more.
25. Corporate Histories. Companies will pay freelance writers
$10,000–$50,000 or more to write books about the corporation and
its history; most are privately published by the company.
26. Crossword Puzzles. Newspapers pay $40–$75 per puzzle, except
for the larger Sunday crossword, for which writers get $100–$350
per puzzle.
27. Direct Mail. It’s a little-known fact that direct mail copywriting
is one of the highest paying freelance copywriting assignments,
with some direct mail writers earning as much as $10,000 or more,
plus royalties, for a single sales letter.
28. eBay. eBay has 210 million registered users worldwide, who trade
items worth a total of $12.6 billion; you can make money writing
ads for eBay marketers or selling products yourself on eBay.
29. E-books. I make $3,000 a week selling self-published e-books and
other information products online; the average e-book length is
sixty pages.
30. Email. My clients routinely pay me $1,000–$2,500 per message
to write short promotional emails they send to customers and
prospects.
31. Employee Communications. Freelance writers can earn $100,000
a year or more writing employee manuals, company newsletters,
benefi ts booklets, and other materials to communicate company
policies, rules, activities, plans, and benefits.
32. Erotica. Sales of erotic romance fi ction in the United States exceed
$1 billion annually.
33. Essays. Writing personal essays can be extremely satisfying and
pay anywhere from nothing to $1,000; I was paid a $20,000 advance
for a book of my essays some years ago .
34. E-newsletters. Thousands of companies use short online
newsletters, also called e-newsletters or e-zines, to regularly communicate with their customers at virtually no cost. They pay
writers $500–$3,000 per issue to research and write brief articles
for these e-zines.
35. Fantasy. If you can write an engaging fantasy novel for young
readers or adults, you can write your own ticket; look at Terry
Brooks and J. K. Rowling.
36. Fund-Raising. Charities and other nonprofi ts use fund-raising
letters to raise money for their causes, and top fund-raising writers
can earn as much as $400,000 a year.
37. Ghostwriting. Celebrities from Lee Iacocca to Bill O’Reilly pay
ghostwriters handsome fees to write their books for them; noncelebrity
individuals and companies also hire ghostwriters to
produce books and articles.
38. Google AdWords. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is an underserved
niche market for copywriters; clients need PPC ads that
generate lots of traffi c at low cost.
39. Grant Writing. Organizations in search of funding will often pay
grant writers a percentage of the money raised for them.
40. Greeting Cards. Hallmark and other companies use both
staff and freelance writers to write greeting cards for every
occasion.
0 comments:
Post a Comment