5 Top In-Demand Types of Writers for Successful Freelancing

Choose one of these types of writers if you are planning to become a freelance writer. They are in high demand in the freelancer market and provide good earning opportunities.

In the current time of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, companies are shifting their businesses online. Writers and freelancers can also find plenty of productivity tools that they can use to improve efficiency and get more work done. This is opening new opportunities to remote working, freelancing, and online earning. You will find great earning opportunities to earn full or part-time earning and supplement your income if you becomes one of the below types of writers.

1. Website Copywriting

One of the most popular types of copywriting is website copywriting. It comprises of writing content for websites and its different pages, advertisements, promotional materials. It is similar hiring a salesperson for websites.

Website copywriting is focused on writing content for website pages for sales and marketing. It may contain keywords for SEO on-page optimization related to website niche, and services or products sold on it.

As a website copywriter, you will need to understand the products or services offered, essential to becoming a good copywriter. If you already know your product or service inside and out and its various features, it can be a great starting point for writing the copy.

You don’t need to spend hours researching the product or services. You can start writing down what you already know.

I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.” by David Ogilvy – known as “Father of Advertising” and one of the most popular copywriters.

A good website copywriter should:

• Write what is unique or special about the product.
• What benefits does it provide to its customers?
• Describe the features and benefits of each.
• Know how does a product or service solves a problem?

*Average Salaries: The average salary for a copywriter is $53,154 per year.

2. Medical Writer

One of the types of writers that are high in demand is medical writers. Health care and medicine are huge fields and there are constantly new researches in it.

This creates new opportunities for medical writers who are required to write about them.

Medical writers typically write for:

• medical education purpose
• marketing of healthcare products
• publications and presentations
• research papers
• prescribing information and labels
• study reports and protocols
• medical journalism

Medical writers usually work for pharmaceutical and healthcare product companies, medical research companies, media and publishers, and healthcare websites.

Among other types of writers, it is one field that requires a set of skills and knowledge to become successful.

• Becoming a medical writer requires a basic understanding and familiarity with medical concepts and terminologies. If you have a degree in one of the life sciences fields then it will provide the right understanding and familiarity with scientific and research background.

• The second most important requirement is the ability to write and communicate scientific information to the target audience. The writer must have command of medical and scientific terminologies to clearly express and present the information in the language used.

*Average Salaries: The average salary for a medical writer is $73,527 per year.

3. Novel or Creative Writers

You will find plenty of opportunities if you have good imagination and creativity and when you express it through your writing. There are plenty of opportunities for a good novel or creative writer.

You can write about

• children books
• novels for publication and selling purposes
• biographies for other people
• books for realtors or marketers
• fiction writing
• novels on science fiction, romance, personal finance, drama, etc.

To become a successful novel or creative writer, you should be able to write long-length texts of 10K words or more on one niche. This will require excellent research skills to be able to come up with ideas. These projects last several weeks to a few months, allowing you make good earning.

*Average Salaries: The average salary for a novel writer is $49,046 per year

4. Academic Writers

Academic writers write research papers, essays, dissertations, and educational purpose papers in an academic style. The outcome content will be used for publication in a research journal or education purpose. Academic writers write:

• essays
• research papers
• thesis/dissertation
• research proposal
• literature review
• bibliographies

The academic writer must have excellent research skills. The writer should be able to provide the source of information and mention it in the writing in an academic style. Looking up the information from Wikipedia and websites is discouraged. Academic papers and databases from university libraries are considered credible resources.

Academic writing conveys information based on arguments on the evidence and not on the author’s views and preconceptions. It is important to prevent biasing information or views and responsibly present the work of other writers and research accurately.

This requires striking the right tone in your choice of language, and avoid informal language. Academic writing also doesn’t contain slang words, and it is precise and clear.

For example, words such as “perhaps” are avoid because it gives the impression the writer lack confidence in arguments and doubt. Use of jargons is encouraged to make writing concise and accurate without making it complicated.

For these two reasons, academic writers usually charge higher than other types of writers on an average of $45/hour. As you gain experience and increase credibility and acceptability percentage, you can increase rates and charge more.

*Average Salaries: The average salary of an academic writer is $42,515 per year.

5. Technical Writer

Technically definition of a technical writer is someone who communicates complex information and writes technical documents. These include instruction and user manuals, journal articles, reference guides, procedures, etc. A technical writer writes about complex products into easy to understand guide documents to help the users in using the product.

A technical writer usually has good educational background. A degree in engineering, IT or computer science, for instance, will be suitable. One can expect on-the-job training required to understand the product and customers’ needs.

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, entry-level technical writing jobs require a bachelor’s degree and short-term on-the-job training. The job employment of technical writers is projected to grow at the rate of 7% from 2019 to 2029, faster than average.

With the continuing development of scientific and technical products, and growth in web-based products, an increase in technical writing jobs is expected and to remain in demand.

Technical writing jobs usually work with businesses and agencies as a part of a team. The job responsibilities usually include coordinating and communicating with product developers, graphic designers, document specialists, and industry experts to create technical documents. Technical writing jobs can require contacting and discussing with customers to understand the requirements of end-users.

Technical writing jobs go beyond just good language and grammar. They are expected to have extensive knowledge of the technical field that non-technical writers don’t possess. Technical writing jobs remain increasingly high in the industry as new products are developed and their documentations are required.

Medical as Technical Writers

Medical writing can be termed as technical writing. They provide similar opportunities to work full or part-time. It is a promising professional career and is essential for businesses to help people understand how to use technology products.

*Average Salaries: The average salary for a Technical Writer is $74,650per year.

Bonus

You will find Freelance Writers Den a great resource if you are looking for writing gigs and project opportunities. It is a writers’ community offering member-exclusive job boards, writing boot camps, and e-books, and learning resources.

*The information of average salaries was gathered from PayScale and other sources and may change/update with time.