By Carol Tice
Following up on my previous piece on five good writing niches, here are eight more areas that tend to have great pay.
A few of these I’m interested in getting into myself, or I’ve dabbled with them in the past. I’m going to use rate quotes from the Writer’s Market to discuss pay.
1. Technical writing. If you can talk to software engineers and translate what they’ve created into a user manual consumers can understand, you will make a lot of money. Ditto for medical device makers. The biggest problem facing most of the technical writers I’ve met is they can’t kick the habit and write anything else, because this pays so much better. Plenty of this work is still around, despite some offshoring. Writer’s Market says top rates are $125 an hour.
2. Article ghosting. How many times have you pitched a magazine or newspaper editor a company profile, written it, and gotten perhaps $100-200? What if instead, you sussed out when special sections were coming out that might need guest articles written by executives, and approached those busy executives about ghostwriting a really strong article for them. I have a friend who does this, and gets $1,200 an article, including pitching the publication. Brilliant, eh? Great approach to improving your pay.
3. Grant writing. Many of us have a soft spot for good causes. If that’s you, you might explore helping them win grants to support their work. I’ve done a tiny bit of this, and if you can carefully follow instructions and write well, you can do it. Small nonprofits may want you to do it as a volunteer, or for a cut of what they get. Do one sample and then move up. Top rates hit $125 an hour or better.
4. Curriculum design. If you’re an academic type, maybe a former or current teacher, know that there is a vast need out there for people who can write courses in a way that students will find appealing and accessible. E-learning is exploding, and someone has to write each online class. I see listings in the online job ads for this category all the time. $100 an hour is WD’s top rate.
5. Company magazines. Many large companies publish magazines for their employees, customers, or franchisees. They pay like trade pubs from what I’ve seen, $.75-$1 a word. Linda Formichelli recently related to Jennifer Mattern of All Freelance Writing how she broke into better-paying markets freelancing for AKFCF Quarterly, KFC’s magazine for their franchisees. Other company magazine examples: Here’s one Raytheon does for customers and prospects: Defender. And Tractor Supply Co. does one for its mostly-rural customers, Out Here. And of course there’s Costco Connection, which is one of the biggest-circulation magazines in the U.S. of any type. The possibilities are literally endless – look around the next time you’re in a chain store to find more of these opportunities.
6. Airline magazines. Airline mags are one of the best-paying consumer magazine types. Research which airlines pay best, and where they’re based – they love articles about their home or big-hub markets. If you like to write about travel, these are great target markets.
7. Annual reports. If you’ve written about business or nonprofits and feel comfortable around figures, annual reports can be a great niche. Both for-profit and non-profit entities need them. They’re about conveying what a great year the organization had, through stories and numbers. WD says $150 an hour is top rate, or $15,000 a project.
8. Business plans. This is one of the top new niches that I’m targeting for ’10. Every company that seeks funding from a bank or venture-capital firms needs a business plan. While the Internet is full of wannbes who’d like someone to write their plan for $300 or so, there’s another tier of companies that want a quality, intelligent plan done, and they pay much more. These can be $15,000 projects or more.
