Is There a Career in Web Writing?

Q: Should I give up my day job and write web content? I have bought your book "Web Word Wizardry" and have been wondering: Is there much freelance work for web writers? Am I dreaming? Have you written a book on developing a web writing career?

Regards, Graham Smith, Club member

A: Sorry, no book. But heres what I would recommend: Before leaving the day job, I suggest you do some freebies for small businesses, schools or not-for-profit organizations.

How to find freebie clients?

Approach a small but active web designer who constantly receives horrible copy from clients, and who hasnt the time, expertise or inclination to edit it. (While a large web design company will have a writer or a system in place already, they might still be looking for someone like you.)

Doing freebies produces a portfolio, which demonstrates that you can do what you claim to do. The freebies also allow you to learn on the job and make mistakes without damage. (Mistakes on a small website are easy to correct.)

Theres also a third spin-off: The web designer (or web design company) sees the benefit of specialist rewriting, and begins to persuade clients that they need your services. Its one less thing for the designers to worry about. And their websites look better if the words are readable.

The web designer is often the natural "point of entry" for freelance writing work. Most future website owners will always approach a web designer before they even think of the copy, which is perfectly sensible. Web designers usually have a network of specialists to call on, and the web writer/editor is just one more specialist.

The problem with a web writers portfolio is that your online content may be changed tomorrow, whereupon you are no longer the writer. The solution is to capture "your" version of the site, preferably on a zip disk for convenience and permanence. Otherwise by the time youre ready to seek paying clients, your work has been changed so its unrecognizable.

Heres a tip: A perfect self-promotion package would include before-and-after versions of a couple of websites youve written for, making your handiwork obvious.

Is there a market for Web writers?

I think so. Many government and corporate organizations now have a team involved in writing web content, either full-time or part-time. So the big players are beginning to fully grasp that web writing is trained work and goes on forever.

Freelance work?

Web writing/editing is not yet widely accepted as a dedicated career. PR people do it, corporate communications people do it and IT people do it. But theres great potential here. Being among the first in a new profession brings challenges (like persuading clients that they need you) but also many rewards.

Keep trawling writers job sites for contract work, of course.

And hey, I enjoyed reading your letter. This is a *sign* that, yes, you could be a successful web writer/editor. After the retraining, youve either got it or you havent. So go for it.

POSTSCRIPT FROM ANOTHER CLUB MEMBER

A: Is there a career in web writing? There sure is! Just this morning I went to an interview for a position as a Web Content Editor for a fairly large corporate. Theyre doing a complete clean slate development of their website, and they want a user focus. So theyre taking on a team to focus on just that, including the writing/editing side. No techie stuff at all. We just tell the IT crowd what we want them to do, and they do it. Im sure the fact that I mentioned your course and the QWC Club on my CV helped me get to first interview

Regards,

Belinda

About the author

Writer/trainer Rachel McAlpine is the author of 28 books including Web Word Wizardry and Crash Course in Corporate Communications -- plus fiction, plays and poetry. Her websites are writing.co.nz, www.webpagecontent.com and www.trainagain.com. She lives in Wellington and runs training courses in New Zealand, Singapore and China.

:To contact see details below.


rachel@writing.co.nz
http://www.writing.co.nz