If you’re looking to make some extra money from home, you’ve probably considered exploring the lucrative world of freelance writing. The demand for quality content is always high, and there are many ways to make money online from a home office. One such way is to freelance write for publications such as Forbes and The New York Times and sell your articles to a large audience on Amazon.com. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the requirements, challenges, and best practices for successful freelance writing on Amazon. We’ll cover everything from pitching the right way to writing the right articles to using the right keywords to maximize your exposure.
The Demographics Of Forbes & The NY Times Readers
Forbes and The New York Times are some of the most reputable publications in the world. With a combined audience of over 10 million monthly readers, you’re bound to attract an audience interested in your product. If you can drum up some interest from these publications, you’ll be able to sell your work to a pretty large audience on Amazon.com. Not only that, but these publications have a large enough audience that they can afford to be picky about the content they choose to publish. The good thing is that you can get started for free and learn the ropes from the experts.
Pitching & Placement
So you’ve got a brilliant idea for an article, and you’ve worked hard to research the right data to support your argument. You’ve even managed to secure some exclusive interviews for the piece. But now you need someone to publish these articles, and you’ve got a decision to make: should you pitch the article to a smaller publication that is more likely to accept your idea, or should you go for the jugular and submit your piece to a far more prominent publication and see if they’ll bite?
If you’re worried that your idea may not be accepted by a smaller publication, you can always self-publish your work and try your luck on Amazon.com. As mentioned by the experts at WriteEazza, the majority of the product reviews published on Amazon come from independent writers who’ve self-published their work. This means that, as long as your content is of high quality, there’s a good chance it’ll be accepted for publication. As long as you can secure some decent rankings for your work, you’ll be able to attract potential customers to your site.
Choosing The Right Topics
One of the first things you’ll need to do if you want to sell your work on Amazon is to establish yourself as an expert in the field. To do this, you’ll need to choose topics that are both interesting to you and your prospective customers. If you don’t really know much about the topic, do some research- the more you know about the topic, the better able you’ll be to choose the right words and convey your point effectively. You don’t want to choose a topic that you’re unfamiliar with, as it’ll be hard for you to prove your knowledge of the subject matter if you stumble over your words during a pitch or interview.
Find Your Niche
In addition to establishing your expertise, you’ll also want to find a niche for yourself in the field. When deciding on a niche, make sure that there’s enough demand for your product or service in your chosen area. For example, if you’re a freelancer who specializes in food writing, New York may not be the best place to look for clients. People in your area may already be taking care of their meal needs through fast food chains and restaurants. So, if you want to be able to sell your food writing to the general public on Amazon, you’ll need to find a different niche.
Research The Keywords
As you’re doing the research to find a niche, you’ll also want to consider the keywords you’ll need to use in order to be found by potential customers. If you want to be found by a specific audience, you can use the keywords to enter specific phrases in the search bar on your chosen platform (i.e. Google, Bing, or Amazon).
You don’t want to go overboard and stuff your keywords throughout the piece. Instead, find a balance between the right amount of keywords and the right phrases. Using too many keywords will make your site over-optimized, and you’ll lose out on potential customers who may have otherwise found you through normal, organic search results. Yours might just as well be a hidden gem amongst the general noise of the web.
Create The Perfect Pitch
So you’ve found a niche for yourself in the field, and you’ve decided to take the plunge- great! Now you need to create the perfect pitch to convince someone to give you a chance at publishing your article. This is more difficult than it seems- creating a perfect pitch involves more than just slapping together a few sentences that sound good. To truly nail it, you’ll want to consider every aspect of the pitch, from the language you use to the structure of the article. When doing your research, make sure to read previous pitches for similar articles to see what worked (and what didn’t) in the past.
Along with establishing your expertise in the field, finding a niche, and pitching the perfect article, you’ll also want to consider what’s going to make your article stand out from the rest. Whatever it may be, create a unique selling point (USP) around it. In the same way an Apple product has an Apple-only feature that makes it unique from all the other smartphones on the market, your article may have a special something that sets it apart from other articles in the same category.
How To Write An Effective Introduction
An easy way to determine the effectiveness of your introduction is to consider the following:
- Can you convince the reader to continue reading your article?
- Can you introduce the subject in a unique and compelling way?
- Is your article easy to understand, and does it deliver on its promises?
- Are you using proper prose?
- Does your article provide the reader with what they’re looking for?
- Does your article come with an ending that leaves the reader wanting more?
- How much effort did you put into the piece, and how much does it cost to produce?
If you can answer “yes” to all of these questions, then you’re well on your way to producing an effective introduction. Of course, writing an effective introduction takes practice- but the good news is that you can get some expert help if you need it.
Building A Winning Amazon Product Listing
So you’ve written your brilliant article, and you’re content with the way it turned out. You’ve even managed to secure some more interviews for upcoming pieces. You’ve pitched your article to a couple of publications, and now you’re ready to put it out into the world. But how do you do that?
The answer is quite simple: build a winning Amazon product listing. Just like in any other retail environment, you’ll want to take into consideration everything from the product description to the images of the product to the style of the page. When it comes to product descriptions on Amazon, you’ll want to keep your customers interested by providing them with a wealth of information. For instance, if you’re selling a men’s long sleeve tee, you may want to consider adding in the following ways:
- Product features
- Product comparisons
- Descriptions of how the shirt fits
- Pricing information
- Shipping & return policies
- Customer reviews
As you can see above, there are plenty of ways you can use the product description of a men’s long sleeve tee to keep your customers interested and buy the product. With so much competition in the online world, your product listing will be more important than ever to entice potential customers to click on your site. Remember, everyone’s first impression is based on the content of your product listing. So, ensure you’ve got something compelling to say about your product.
The Art Of The Paragraph
Apart from being an expert food writer, Linda is also a published author. In fact, she wrote a book about food writing entitled, “The Art of the Paragraph.” In it, she shares some interesting perspectives and offers advice on pitching, marketing, and getting articles published. If you’re looking to become a successful writer, you may find this book valuable.