Change of career to content writer, advice welcome!

[timter51]

Hi folks,

My brother is making a drastic career change at the age of 36, basically packing it all in with his current career and starting with something he actually wants to do and actually enjoys doing, whilst being his own boss. He's heading in to the world of content writing!

He's lucky enough to have financial security at this point to hopefully help make a smooth start, though he's under no illusions that it will be easy. I have some internet marketing background so have been able to offer advice on that side of things (affiliate sites and blogging, mainly). Through his career he has had a lot of experience writing content, but in one narrow field. He's going to need to diversify and "roll with it" a hell of a lot at the start, I think. I know there are quite a few quality writers here on Acorn, so I was wondering if anyone could offer some advice to someone looking to make a start?

I've suggested to him a couple of things to get experience, contacts and portfolio work under his belt:

1. Offer free work to genuine, honest folk (like you guys! And on other UK business forums, local business networking groups etc.)

2. Get a profile on PeoplePerHour, set prices low and see how it goes

Any help advice would be much appreciated. And point 1 above is a genuine offer, I think it's a good idea for him to do that at the start, agree?

 

[martin-s]

There's a lot of call for freelance content writers. We use a whole team of them.

The challenge is that it's very competitive and, as talented writers need no real experience, rates are always under downward pressure.

 

[dazc]

Through his career he has had a lot of experience writing content, but in one narrow field.

What's the field? Content writers are ten a penny but finding someone who knows what they are writing about is difficult.

 

[accelerator]

I would also be interested to know what field he has experience in. Thanks.

 

[donton]

I did the content writing thing for 3-4 years. I'd avoid sites like PPH and Elance like the plague. It's very, very hard to make decent money on there (ie, money to pay your bills).

By far the best leads I had as a content writer were through my own websites. I could generally charge a lot more than I could on Elance and PPH where I was competing with hundreds of other people on price (most of whom couldn't write anywhere near the standard I write to).

In short, your brother is best setting up a simple website and doing things that way. Takes time to get traction, but if you use PPC on the search network he can pull in clients in a matter of a few hours or days. The work section on Problogger is decent too, I picked up a handful of high paying jobs on there - a couple I still do on a bi-weekly basis even today.

I'm selling my content writing lead gen website, drop me a PM if he's interested.

 

[Adam H]

Id avoid recommending places like PPH, if he's aiming to be a quality writer and quality prices then he shouldnt be messing around with PPH or any other freelance site where everyone expects everything for nothing.

His best bet is to submit his work to some respected sites and then use those live publications as examples when pitching to agencies or potential clients.

Plenty of good writers out there that are more than willing to be competitive but not many that go above and beyond in my opinion to seal the deal.

 

[Jamie101]

Back when I was writing content (only about a year ago) I used to get enough work from Acorn alone to keep me busy.

I think I started out chargjng £5 or something per 500 words on here and gradually increased it to £15 as far as I remember. Starting out low gave me confidence writing since people were coming back with great feedback.

My advice would be to start on here check charging lower than average prices and see what the market decides his content is work.

I actually got bored one summer and wrote a very short ebook on starting out on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Become...-ebook/dp/B00B50GDAK/ref=nosim?tag=acorn06-21

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[timter51]

A big thanks to all you folks for replying, knew I could rely on Acorners for excellent and useful feedback

From your responses and what he was received on other forums, PPH has been completely knocked back, and a lot of people have said to not offer free articles as he risks tarnishing his rep before he even gets going. So my two suggestions obviously weren't particularly great!

He's taking on the all the advice. Website is now in development, and looking in to PPC to kickstart it. ProBlogger jobs area certainly looks to have potential, and I've suggested he also register here to to post in "Services Offered".

Regards the "free work" situation, he's going take the route of submitting to respected sites to see if he can get published. My slight concern there is that he could be "shooting in the dark" a bit, if you don't get published then it's time wasted, surely? Or am I looking at that wrong? I guess he could offer the article elsewhere, if he gets knocked back?

 

[Retired_member41]

Are you not the same Tim who is part of/linked to domain giant and a few others on acorn and other business things? I thought you did content already?

 

[dazc]

Are you not the same Tim who is part of/linked to domain giant and a few others on acorn and other business things? I thought you did content already?

He didn't answer my question and I could have been an easy client. I've never asked anyone to do anything for free either.

So my guess is all is not what it seems?

 

[timter51]

Are you not the same Tim who is part of/linked to domain giant and a few others on acorn and other business things? I thought you did content already?

No, you've got the wrong Tim there Caz, I'm not sure who that is. Outside of my personal domain trading, I run a handful of my own small affiliate websites.

He didn't answer my question and I could have been an easy client. I've never asked anyone to do anything for free either.

So my guess is all is not what it seems?

Sorry daz, no need to be suspicious! I didn't mean to not answer your question. His specialism is sports, mainly cricket and tennis. He does also have some experience in fitness / health.

It's early days, when he's set up I'm hoping he'll join here and become part of the community.

 

[dazc]

Sorry daz, no need to be suspicious! I didn't mean to not answer your question. His specialism is sports, mainly cricket and tennis. He does also have some experience in fitness / health.

OK, thanks. I was hoping for education or home improvement though.

(Please no pm's from content writers unless you have expert knowledge).