Katie Katie Parsons is the creator of Mumbling Mommy and is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist. She works from her home office on the east coast of Florida. Most often she writes about life in a combined family of five children and what it's like being a full time work-from-home parent. Feel free to pitch guest post ideas or just drop her a line at [email protected].

Writing is a true equalizer when it comes to working from home. Not everyone comes to the table with the same amount of natural writing ability, but when it comes to nuts and bolts basic writing, anyone can do it with some practice and savvy searching. Take a look at a few of the reasons I think part time writing work is a gig for anyone who wants to bring in a little extra cash.

Reasons to do part time writing work

Content creation is in.

In case you haven’t noticed, nearly every company is clamoring for more online space and looking for ways to become more visible. This means these companies need people to write website content, blog posts and social media content too. This is good news for anyone interested in some side work writing; companies would rather pay you for 10 hours per week than have to hire a full-time employee. Even in the four years since I started doing online content creation to earn a living, the jobs writing for the media I mention have skyrocketed. There’s a lot of work out there – especially for people who just want something part-time.

Information is literally at your fingertips.

You’ve probably heard that you can’t trust everything you read online — but you CAN trust some things. The world’s information is becoming increasingly digitized, making legitimate research available without much searching at all. This speeds up the writing process and gives you more to work with when it comes to the information you use in your writing. Some sources that are generally trustworthy include:

  • Traditional newspaper sites
  • University sites
  • The Mayo Clinic

If you are writing a piece that does not need actual facts but can include some helpful tips from other experts, just frame it that way (Ms. XYZ, a licensed massage therapist, says that a weekly massage can reduce stress drastically). Speaking of experts…

Everyone is an expert…

…at something. Even if you have never considered yourself a “writer” per se, think about the areas where you could teach others a thing or two, then seek out that work on job sites. If there is a brand, blog or site that you really enjoy, go to the page and search for terms like “jobs” or “work for us” and then find out how you can be considered to write for them. Some companies are also looking for people who can create basic videos — how-tos, tutorials, even opinion pieces. In that case, you would just need to write yourself a basic script and then record it.

It is work designed around your life.

There IS some deadline writing work out there where you have to be at your computer for a certain span of time but that’s not the only work out there. I try to pick work that has extended deadlines (a week or more) or where I know in advance of a regular deadline (for example, I know that every Tuesday something is due; then I can work on it all week when I have time). For me this means plenty of working early morning hours, after kids go to bed and some on the weekends. That also means I can spend my days with my kids and work when my husband is off.

If you want to get started looking for freelance/contract part time writing work, here are a few great places to find it:

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Category: Working From Home

Tags: Freelance Friday