Minor in Creative Writing? What does that even mean? Does wanting to pursue a career in journalism or advertising count as a “minor” in creative writing? Does writing for your school newspaper or creative-writing course count as “creative writing”? How about writing for a mainstream magazine? Does freelancing for various publications count as “creative writing”?
These are all valid ways to gain experience and start your career. However, beyond the traditional media, there are many other ways you can utilize your talents to make money online.
Online Journalism
The Covid-19 pandemic was just one of the many events that shook the world in the past year. While most of us were locked in our houses or stuck at work, digital journalists explored ways to keep their audiences entertained and informed during these times of crisis. Popular websites such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal were among the first to embrace the “new normal” and launched special sections dedicated to covering the pandemic. One of the biggest challenges they faced was how to engage their readership during these unprecedented times.
When people needed information, they turned to the websites for the answers. However, keeping up with the demand for information while adhering to social distancing guidelines and economic restraints proved to be difficult. This is where the role of a digital journalist comes in. As the name suggests, a digital journalist combines traditional journalism with digital storytelling techniques to create an immersive experience for their readers. This could mean writing an in-depth piece about the pandemic for a national newspaper or reporting on a local story for a regional newspaper. The important thing to keep in mind is the variety of stories you can cover.
When it comes to the Covid-19 pandemic, you could investigate the symptoms, treatment, or you could try your hand at telling a story about the struggle for people in the frontline.
Traditional Journalism and Content Creation for Social Media
There are many examples of traditional journalists who used to report for a living and now make a living online. Some of the most successful content creators and journalists are:
- Luke Harding
- Anne Helen Peterson
- Simon Cowell
- Piers Morgan
- Chris Mellon
- Carl Svanstrom
- Kate Hudson
- Lesley Magnus
- Kate O’Neil
- Helen Pearson
- Caroline Gluck
- Helen Mirren
This is a great option for those who love to write and would like to explore a career as a journalist or content creator. Instead of going to college, you can study traditional journalism at a reputable university and then find a paying job at a newspaper or magazine with enough experience to land a good position upon graduation. Remember to build your portfolio, write for publications you admire, and do some guest posting to gain experience, too.
Freelancing For E-commerce Platforms
It’s a common practice for established journalists to write for various publications as a freelancer. As a freelance writer or editor, you will typically be commissioned to write content for a money-earning website or e-commerce store. Some of the most popular websites that utilize freelancers are:
- Gap Year Jobs
- UpWork
- Fiverr
- Amazon Mechanical Turk
- Clickworker
- Honey Bee
- Mediavine
E-commerce platforms like Shopify, Bigcommerce, and WooCommerce are also popular places for entrepreneurs to sell their products. If you can write product descriptions that catch on with enough readers, you can potentially make a lot of money without having to develop a physical store. You can also sell and ship products directly to customers from your home.
Media Marketing And Advertising
There are many ways you can utilize your minor in creative writing to make money online. You could test the waters by creating a small blog that documents your creative process. From there, you can branch out to do more freelance writing or look for a job in marketing or advertising.
Media marketing managers work with journalists, bloggers, and other content creators to plan and execute media campaigns for a variety of businesses. They are responsible for crafting a compelling narrative for potential customers and connecting it to actionable goals. They might research the demographics of a digital audience and find out which blogs, podcasts, and other platforms resonate with this group. Once they know what content works well together, they can develop a campaign plan and then execute it. This involves creating advertisements, social-media posts, and other content to drive organic traffic to a website.
Advertisers usually look to media planners to develop ad campaigns for them. Advertising agencies and in-house marketing teams often hand off the media planning to outside firms, as it’s a job that can be challenging to keep up with all the changing trends and platforms. The role of an advertising planner is to establish advertising goals and objectives, create proposals for upcoming campaigns, and then implement them. This involves researching ad-buyer preferences, competitor analysis, media-planning software, and the creation of advertising layouts and creative.
The important thing to keep in mind about these various options is that you can utilize your creative writing skills to make money in a way that you feel passionate about. Some of the world’s best-known journalists, magazine writers, and advertising creatives have come from a background in creative writing. If you have a knack for narrative writing or interesting ideas, you can explore a variety of options that allow you to write about what you love most.