What does writing for pay entail?

We have a Copywriting subforum. Best to ask your question there.

Having been a copywriter for over 20 years, I recommend you pick a target market. Who will you write for? Niche down and you'll be more valuable to those customers, and be able to charge more. "Being versatile" is NOT rewarded. Specialist surgeons make more than general practitioners.

Look for a niche that is not already glutted by freelance writers. The moment you appear where the crowd of writers already is, you have devalued yourself. Social media management may be "hot," but in the FB groups I'm in where freelancers talk, it's not good-paying work. Of course, if $400 a month in return for selling your soul is an OK deal for you, by all means go ahead.

Every business needs three systems and yours is no different.

It sounds like you're asking for definite answers, to some abstract questions.


It depends on what your client wants, and what your experience (or learning curve) is for the assignment.

You could probably write a blog post about pizza delivery in 15 minutes because you already know the topic (seeing as how you're a pizza delivery guy). But if you need to write about being a freelance writer... well, obviously that's not your main expertise at the moment. So it will take a bit longer for your research, before writing about it.

Unfortunately, your feelings about your abilities to write anything and everything don't really matter beyond the point of your own self motivation. (your blind confidence isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it will only get you so far before you'll need to actually produce results for your clients)

As far as your competition goes... Well, just go search for "writers" on fivver, or freelancer, or upwork, or any of the other freelance farms...

And after you get discouraged from looking at the sheer number of people offering general writing services, then you may want to consider picking one particular style to start with (either article writing... or blog post writing... or ?...) and becoming proficient in that market first.

Because writing a twitter post is not the same thing as writing a blog post, which is not the same thing as writing a sales piece, which is not the same thing as writing a book, which is not the same thing as...

Some do... Some don't.

It depends partly on the client you're working with, and it depends mostly on the questions you know how to ask the client.

Many clients don't know exactly what they want. They only have a vague idea, and it'll be up to you to help them target a more definite direction and a goal for the writing.

That's where you asking good questions comes into play. Better questions often lead to better answers.


Sort of like the questions you're asking here. They're a bit vague and fuzzy, so you're more likely to get vague and fuzzy answers.


Overall, if I had to offer you one piece of advice right now, to get you started, it would be to pick one market (or niche) and study what other writers are doing in that market. Study the writing styles of the better writers and figure out where you fit into that particular market.

Then just start writing, everyday. Write as if you're writing for a client, and as if you're getting paid for the assignment.

At the very least this will gain you some experience, and help you build a portfolio of writing samples that you can show to potential clients.
Because I don't want to sound too harsh here, but right now it looks like you have nothing to offer that anyone would be willing to pay for. (except for maybe a large double cheese and pepperoni pizza?)

I hear ya'll.