Article writing is big the world over. With more people getting online, a lot of businesses are taking advantage of inbound marketing to grow sales, make money and increase the profits they make monthly / yearly.

One way they are using inbound marketing is by publishing lots of great articles on their niche. These articles usually talk about:

• The challenges their audience / potential clients / customers go through. Usually they then find a way to mention their product or service in the article (saying a few lines about how it can be helpful to buyers).
• Other products in the market. So, the articles can take the shape of reviews (of just one product or two) or giant posts reviewing lots of products / service providers (usually with a comparison table or two thrown in there as well).
• How to attain something. Because people are always looking for things, businesses use articles to help consumers find what they are looking for. So, could be just the right product for them (think of someone just looking for the best product in a category to buy) or a product packaged in a way that makes sense for their budget (for example someone looking for a product that leaves room for DIY vs. full service done-for-you kind of solution).
• How to tackle a particular problem. So, how to articles where the business gets to mention a tool or resource of their own (or from someone they are affiliated to).
• How to protect, clean and generally increase the lifespan of a product.
• All kinds of statistics in a particular niche that may be of interest to readers or consumers in that particular niche.
• New product releases, bug fixes, upgrades or articles going into detail about new changes introduced in a service / product.
• Dos and don’ts. So, articles to help consumers get the most out of a service they pay for or a product they buy.

Businesses in Kenya are using content to grow their sales. Businesses in other parts of the world are also doing the same. They are using the content:

• online (on their blogs, emails, live chat, social media handles and other sites)
• offline (on brochures, flyers, letters and manuals)

And their customer support team also get to benefit from the tens or hundreds of content they publish.

You have seen businesses linking to articles on their blogs when someone emails them asking for help?

Or businesses with links to certain content pieces in their welcome emails?

I mean that is just hundreds (maybe even thousands) of hours saved by these businesses – just because they, some time back, saw the eventual benefit of having a solid content strategy and went out and got somebody to create the content.

Why become an article writer

To make money helping others. Whether you see freelance writing as a career or business, at the end of the day it is all about exchanging value. You help someone get a piece of quality content they can use to grow their business, and you get paid for it.

And it isn’t something you need lots of capital or resources to start doing. If you can write well, and want to get paid to write, it is just a matter of getting in front of potential clients, getting work, doing it and getting paid.

So, if you harbour any plans of making extra money doing a side hustle online such as writing for other businesses, I am here to say this to you: Yes, you can do so. You can start making that extra money writing for others.

From before the internet, there has always been demand for writers the world over. Now, the internet has just made things doubly interesting for people interested in working as content creators.

It has opened the whole world.

The whole world is at your finger tips. And then it has also created thousands more publishers in every niche / industry imaginable.

There are countless businesses using content to rank high on Google and get in front of audiences that can buy from them. And every search engine results page tells a story of a growing need for even quality content (since everyone is trying to rank for all the top keywords).

Which means that the number of businesses willing to pay a premium for quality content is also growing by the day.

So, we are in a unique place in history, where if you are just dedicated enough, you can make good money solely from offering content writing as a service to clients in and outside Kenya.

You can charge per article, work for those you like, choose how many articles to write per week / month, get new clients whenever you want and have fun meeting the demand out there (in return for good pay).

What are some popular niches you can write articles on?

Content writers are usually expected to be flexible – to be able to write on a variety of topics. Some of the topics fall under the evergreen umbrella, while some are more catered towards trending topics.

So, what can you write on? What topics can someone hire you to create content on?

• Any topic that has a book published on it. So, just hop onto Amazon to see if there are any books published on what you are interested in writing about.
• Any topic that has a related product or service. So, look around where you are right now – at the things around you. All those things are potential areas for content creation.
• Any topic related to tending topics or the news.
• Any topic related to coupons or how people can save money on their purchases.
• Any topic touching on the common themes popular on TV shows and movies / films.
• Any topic someone would like to know more about. Anything someone would be interested in having a tutorial on.
• Anything that can help people avoid pain and gain pleasure.
• Anything that would help someone reach a decision where spending their money doesn’t lead to too much buyer’s remorse – like product reviews.
• Any topic touching on religion / spirituality, good health, food & nutrition, money / finances, insurance, investing, retirement, jobs / careers, motor vehicles, motorbikes, technology, blogging, WordPress, e-commerce, personal development, relationships / marriage, small business, online business, travelling, devices, real estate, planning, parenting, education among others.

In any of the areas above, a content writer can create:

• informational posts
• tutorials
• opinion pieces
• reviews
• news pieces

Placing your own ad listing on Niabusiness with details about what you offer as a freelance writer

So, if you want to become a freelance content writer and start getting paid per article, go to the Freelance Writers / Content Creators category on Niabusiness.com to create an ad listing with details about the service you want to offer.

If you want to write articles for businesses in the real estate / property market, you can create a listing specific to them.

Or you can go broad and just create a listing targeting anyone who might be interested in hiring a content writer.

Or do both – have one listing targeted specifically to a niche you want to write about and another one that is more general.

Here is an example. Let’s say you love building websites like I do, you can create an ad with a headline that goes something like this: ‘Freelance blogger for hire (on WordPress topics)’.

In the ad you can then go into detail about how you love to write about SEO, internet marketing, WordPress themes, WordPress plugins, WordPress reviews (for products and services in the niche), WordPress web hosting and WordPress tutorials.

And then your second ad listing can have a title that goes something like this: ‘Online business freelance writer for hire’. In there you can share details about your writing skills, your research skills, how you pay attention to detail, how flexible you are writing on lots of topics …and so on.

Then from the responses you get over time, you can go back and tweak your ad listings for even better conversions.

So, hop on to Niabusiness.com, create a listing and being honest here, keep learning other ways to market your content writing service.

Use Niabusiness to get in front of potential clients but also learn and use other ways to get the jobs you want.

To place your ad, click here.