With the rising cost of going to college, working while going to college is more the norm than it used to be. After the housing market recession students are more aware of their financial situations and trying to keep from graduating with mounds of debt. Many will try to pay for their classes during the semester after securing a student loan to cover the upfront costs. Students have crazy class schedules that can make it difficult to find employment to help cover their bills.

Freelancing:

Students often don’t realize that they have a skill that they have been developing for years, writing. From grade school through high school students have been working on mastering the skill of writing, whether they wanted to or not. Being a freelance writer can be the ‘write’ fit for a lot of students. Freelancing works around your crazy school schedule because you can write for a client a 2 am or at 10 am between classes. You can literally work wherever with your laptop by your side and Wi-Fi on campus.

Job Market:

You can find a job just about anywhere. There are job boards created just for freelancers. Every website on the Internet has content that they either need to update or create. Some sites will pay top dollar to have great content. Others will pay low rates but spend more time correcting and editing a freelancer’s work. There are a myriad of types of contract work available.

Pay for writing depends a lot on the content being written about and the experience of the writer. As a freelancer you can decide what your time is worth when you write. Some content positions will pay $0.05 per word; others can pay up to $0.25 per word. If a client asks you to write a 1,000 word article you charge them $.05 and it takes you two hours two write maybe a little longer you have just earned $50. If you were working for minimum wage you would need to work about 7 hours to earn $50. Clearly the minimum starting pay for writers is better than the US minimum wage. If you write faster, the higher your hourly rate is.

Experience isn’t always required. You have papers you have written for college and other projects, this is already a beginning of a portfolio. Just because it wasn’t paid work doesn’t mean it can’t be used to help get you that first writing job.

There are inexpensive classes you can take that will teach you how to become a freelance writer. Earn More Writing is an example of this type of course. It has several levels of courses you can take and can be done in a relatively short period of time. You are also learning from someone who currently makes a living at freelance writing, who has taken the time to share her knowledge.

While you can figure out how to freelance all on your own, you will save time, energy and money by taking a course on how to become a freelance writer.

What Should I Write About?

When you are just starting out you should write about topics you already know about. Maybe you just took a class on a subject that really interested you; this is a great starting point to build a portfolio. You shouldn’t write about things that do not interest you as your writing may be affected by your lack of interest for the topic. Keep in mind if you write about something that isn’t fun the rate per word could be higher, so you could earn more for your work.

Pitching clients can happen in lots of different forms. You can send cold pitches to websites or companies. You might not hear back, but then you might hear back right away. Dealing with rejection or just no reply at all is a good thing to learn early on.

Having an Online Presence:

Creating a portfolio of your work doesn’t have to be fancy. You need a simple site, and you can even use a WordPress site for free to begin to market your writing. Create a bio explaining you are in college and what your interests are and you can link some of your writing you have done for school to start in your portfolio. Once you get some online published work you will want to add this to your portfolio. Alternatively, you can also create a YouTube channel where you can share from your experiences to others.

Freelancing while you are in college is a great way to earn some side money or even enough to pay your tuition. The ability you have to market yourself and time you have available are really the only things you need to get started. You can write whenever and wherever. The flexibility is endless when it comes to freelancing.