Finding The Ideal Remote Writing Job - It's Waiting For You
That remote writing job waits to be filled. How best can you manage your job hunting efforts while gaining paid hours?
It’s a battle at first. You have to invest so much time looking for work as a freelancer or staff writer. During that time, you may or may not be earning and I’ll look at that in another post. Too many unpaid hours are deadly to your finances.
But job hunting IS a job!
In order to find a job as a remote writing professional, it’s important to network and connect with people who work in the industry. That means LinkedIn, speculative emails, local firms, job boards…. and this is a daily task if you need to work.
My best change in how I sought work was to not rely on the freelance job sites and job boards like Indeed. Rather, I found going direct to potential clients in niches of interest to me changed how and when I received the optimum work volumes.
There are multiple ways you can make connections that will help you land a remote writing job. So many writing roles are now remote or hybrid, since the pandemic transformed the face of employment.
Though, there’s work to be done to find that remote writing role.
That’s why I set up this substack so that you can cut your hours spent searching for work and gain access to weekly remote writer job lists. It’s a long process for most of us when trying to hit income targets when contacts and opportunity appear to lack in variety.
Is finding a remote writing job worth the effort?
Looking for a way to make money and work from home? Of course, that’s why you’re here. Yes, it’s worth the effort. Working as a remote writer has many benefits:
You can choose your own hours, so you can control how much time you need to spend working each day.
You can work from anywhere in the world,
There are little office politics involved - nobody will see when or how often you come into work (as long as they don’t check up on your social media) so there won’t be any jostling for position among other writers who might feel threatened by your presence.
Here is a list of tasks that you should do weekly to find remote writing jobs, freelance or staff:
Job boards: Look for job listings on websites that specialise in remote jobs. But as mentioned, don’t rely on these sites by spending your days and all your time applying for advertised work. Read on.
Freelancing platforms: Sign up for freelancing platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour to find writing gigs, but focus on the higher paid gigs. Don’t undersell yourself.
Social media: Follow companies and publications on social media that hire remote writers. LinkedIn is a great platform to network and find remote job opportunities. Look in the jobs pages for remote writer roles and apply. Also, reach out to companies that advertise remote staff roles and ask if they hire freelancers instead if you’d prefer a freelance arrangement.
Personal Network: Reach out to your personal network, let them know you’re looking for a remote writing job and ask if they know of any opportunities.
Company websites: Check the career or jobs section of company websites for remote writing job opportunities. Many digital agencies, for example, have careers pages and may have remote writer roles advertised, e.g. content writer, outreach specialists, PR.
*Cold emailing*: Research companies and publications that you would like to write for and send them a pitch or inquiry about potential writing opportunities. This is where you uncover hidden treasures in the remote writing world. So many firms don’t advertise and, as a result, many of the best opportunities have to be found, dug up. And many firms could use an extra writer for their blogs, ads, media and PR campaigns. If you pitch those in a focused and brief email or social media message or in a message via their contact form, you stand a good chance of being offered work.
Is this the right role for me? Thought About Books?
You’ve decided that you want a flexible life. A work-life balance that suits your lifestyle. You’ve chosen a writing role to target, albeit blogging, copywriting, courses, academic, video scripts or even fiction.
Great. Have you also considered the author in you?
If you love writing fiction, don’t doubt it as a tough and non-paying industry as many writers try to have you believe. I personally know lots of indie writers who’ve either gone part-time at their jobs or left their jobs to write fiction full-time.
The gaming industry as an example. In a future post, I’ll talk about the burgeoning interactive fiction industry on the app markets and the growth in a need for storytellers to work on games.
All writers who succeed have one thing in common, goes for non-fiction or fiction writers, they all know how to market themselves and be that entrepreneurial writer. There are writers who moan about their Amazon sales and those who smile at their sales figures.
Amazon and many other shelves like Barnes & Noble are literal gold mines for so many authors. The successful self-published authors when their books may get lost in the TBR piles and within saturated genres and when to choose other marketing angles. Writing books is something to consider alongside your usual hunts for writing jobs. It’s passive income. And many services exist to help get your book out there like Amazon KDP, Ingramspark, Draft2Digital and Bookbaby.
Read about the publishing services for book writers and how it can bring that passive income!
What it takes to land a remote writing job is pretty straightforward but it requires focus and consistency:
You need a good portfolio. If you don’t already have one, start building it now. And place your best work at the top.
You need to take direction and work independently. This is true for any job, but it’s especially important for remote writers because you won’t be in the same room as your boss or colleagues, who might answer questions or offer feedback on your work.
You need excellent communication skills so that your clients feel heard and understood when they reach out with feedback or questions. It also helps if you can communicate effectively with different people (for example, if one client uses chat while another prefers email).
Travelling the world is a big reason freelancers feel drawn to remote writing jobs. Being able to visit fresh places, meet new people and see unique sites is exciting for many of us. If this is you when approaching travel blogs, you may include some details about where you’d like to go or what adventures you have planned in your answer.
So consider travel blogging if seeing the world floats your boat.
Specialist skills like SaaS or Direct Mail Copywriting can quickly land you high-paying jobs though plenty of agencies and bloggers exist with a need for writers so you can write about a bunch of topics, if you choose not to specialise, at good rates of pay. Just get serious about rejecting low paid work and lengthy free tests.
And finally...
Stay strong as you search. You could find a remote writer's path today.
If there are any aspects of the post you’d like discussed, chat with me in the comments or over on the LinkedIn group.
All the best!