If you are considering a career in freelance writing, you are likely wondering what qualifications you need. More specifically, you may be wondering if you have right educational background to be successful in a freelance writing career. The truth is that freelance writing is largely more about skills that about having a certain degree. Here’s what you need to know:
Degrees. If you are about to enter college to earn a degree and have the desire to later become a freelance writer, the truth is that you will do just as well with a degree in journalism or English as you would with a degree in Psychology, Information Technology, or another such field along with a minor in journalism or English. The reason is that having a strong background in a certain area can be a real benefit because it allows you to write with authority and even experience. If you do major in English or journalism, it is highly advisable that you minor in another area that interests you.
If you don’t have a degree and have no plans to get one, don’t fret. Unless you have big dreams to work for a major publishing house, a newspaper, a magazine, or somewhere similar, you don’t need a degree in anything at all to earn a living as a freelance writer.
The Most Important Skill. Whether you have a degree or not, one skill reigns supreme in the world of freelance writing. That skill is the ability to write well and write fast at the same time. Most freelance writers today are paid per word, per article of a certain length, or some other similar standard, and so slower writers simply won’t make as much money as those who can churn out great articles at a faster rate. While you want to write fast, though, you want to write well if you want to retain clients and get more business. If necessary, you may need to brush up on your grammar rules and maybe even invest in a program with spell-check if spelling is a weakness for you.
Not Far Behind. While writing quality content at a fast rate is critical to your ability to make money as a freelance writer, understanding search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t far behind. The internet has opened up a tremendous amount of job opportunities for freelance writers. Businesses all around the world are in need of fresh content that employs SEO strategies for marketing material, blogs, articles, and so forth. When SEO is employed properly in web content of all types, it can help websites get higher rankings, and thus – hopefully – more business. If you are going to set yourself to take advantage of the incredible number of job opportunities the internet has created, you need to have a firm understanding of SEO. Fortunately, much has been written on the internet about SEO, so you can self-educate yourself in SEO principles rather easily.
If you love to write, are good at it, and have the ability to write great content on any number of topics, freelance writing is likely a great career choice for you. Don’t let the lack of a degree or a degree in a seemingly unrelated field keep you from pursuing your dream of writing for a living!
