THE Freelance Writer Training For Highly Educated Folks

So You've Got Mad Academic Skills And Want To Become A Freelance Writer?

So, you want to work online! Is freelance writer training your window to a new career or side gig? 

If you were - or are - a great academic, killing it with on-time delivery of papers and research, keep reading. 

If you graduated with a liberal arts degree or similar, keep reading.

Hi, I'm Alanna. I retired a few years but didn't want to quit working. I thought I’d pick a new direction/second career and just go with it. Working as a special education teacher for a decade while also getting my Ed.D. and many other higher-education degrees and accreditations made me confident I could pivot to a new career with no issue. 

Whoa, was I wrong! 

It‘s been a colossal struggle to identify a new direction that would combine my skills and a need for creativity. 

Careers I tried:

  • Online teaching (VIP Kids)
  • Consulting (School Discipline)
  • Blogging 
  • I even got back into painting and piano...desperate times.

That Didn't Work Out Because:

  • Online teaching constrained me to work hours I didn’t want (a 4 am start time is not for me!)
  • Consulting was a dead end
  • Blogging overwhelmed me with social media needs and website design/maintenance
  • Writing courses left me struggling to find a niche 

None of the new career paths were going in the right direction. 

But I Learned Something

All the attempts, false starts, and yes, even fails, made me realize that I wanted:

  • a flexible schedule
  • the ability to travel and work from anywhere
  • to supplement my retirement income, not replace it with another full-time career

Then I Found This Course

Discouraged but still searching, a course landed in my lap courtesy of my daughter, who runs LAP, the site you're on now.

I decided to check it out and give it a try. 

Right away, I felt that Academia To Affluence's Endless Freelance Income course was different. Other online courses left me feeling defeated and lacking in confidence. 

As I worked through this course, the feelings that came with it were of empowerment and self-worth, not discouragement and frustration. A refreshing change!

And the concept of using my academic skills and successes to achieve my retirement goals was appealing. So I kept at it. 
Academia to Affluence Endless Freelance Income Course freelance writer training

What Is The Endless Freelance Income Course

Created by Academic to Affluence’s owner, Courtney Danyel, Endless Freelance Income is freelance writer training that helps people with higher-education degrees establish a freelance writing career. The academic and business worlds present far different challenges than the online one. 

This freelance writer training provides a roadmap that takes the strengths and skills inherent in academia and translates them to the world of freelance writing. 

Who This Course Is For

The freelance writer training program is designed for people with Liberal Arts Degrees who want to pursue a different path outside the world of academia. The course creator has a Liberal Arts Degree and designed it around her experiences transitioning into freelance writing online. 

BUT it is also suited to those with an advanced degree, masters, and higher. 

This training is specifically for people who can research and synthesize a large amount of information quickly, across a vast number of topics. Having higher qualifications also increases the likelihood of finding and securing well-paying clients.

Pros of This Freelance Writer Training

The program has many positive aspects and I'll give you an honest assessment of the course. Courtney, the course developer, offers up a lot of background information and personal experiences to make the process seem possible. A link to an article about the transference of academic skills into the business world explained how portable they are. Honestly, I had no idea!

Helped Me Identify My TRUE Skills

The course showed me areas where I can use the skills I already possess. For example: 

Subject Expertise

Research For Companies 

Training

Teaching & Public Speaking

Coaching & Mentoring

Consultation & Facilitation

Project Management

Guest Lecturing & Presentation Design

Grant Writing

Identified My Professional Strengths

I was particularly impressed with the initial activities. Underestimating your abilities and skills is easy. But Courtney forces you to stop and assess your strengths and abilities, which provides a much-needed jolt of positivity.

First 

You list all of your work and educational experience. Including every position and work experience, you’ve had since high school is illuminating. 

Second

You list all the tasks with each work or educational background. Indexing all the requirements made me realize all the things I have accomplished. By writing it down, I remembered many activities that have not crossed my mind in years. Seeing my accomplishments in black and white was such a positive, confidence-building experience. 

Third 

You list all the different categories of skills necessary to complete the tasks. By including concrete teaching, personal, or management skills, you realize your hidden talents that made you successful pre-retirement. The addition of personality characteristics work will provide surprising insights. 

Completing a thorough self-examination of the following gave me an enormous psychological boost. 

Skills I Have That Are Useful In Freelance Writing:

Leadership

Organizational

Emotional

Teaching

Personal

Intuitive

Things To Consider

Generalized Vs. Specialized Writing Careers

The Endless Freelance Income writing course provides a valuable section on Specializing versus Generalization. A brief table gives information about both types of writing and explains the differences thoroughly. Personal experiences show how it is possible to begin as a generalist and eventually become a specialist. But the takeaway from this was you can overspecialize, which leads to less jobs and income. And this course shows you how to avoid that. 

Pros Of Generalizing

  • Generalizing provides more opportunities for work. 

  • Provides a chance to write about a variety of topics 
  • Allows you to move into different markets based on demand

Pros Of Specializing

  • Specializing makes you more appealing to those looking for experts. 
  • As a specialist, you can charge more
  • You can develop a very defined expertise

Picking Your Freelance Writing Niche(s)

Real-Life

Current skills and capabilities - what are you good at right now? It's easier to start with something you know. 

Sub-niches

Having a variety of sub-niches (areas you can research and write in) helps you appeal to wider audience and apply for more jobs. 

YOUR Passions & Interests

What do YOU love? What topics spark your investigative flame? Don't forget these as you narrow your niche. 

Market Saturation

I never knew it was possible to become overspecialized, which makes it more difficult to land jobs. Endless Freelance Income helps you avoid this with its tailored approach to freelance writer training. 

Setting Your Rates

The information provided on ways to charge and set rates is beneficial. The Endless Freelance Income course offers links to sites that help provide guides on competitive freelance writer rates, career websites, and setting your rates.

An interactive rate chart allows you to input all necessary data before establishing your rates. The resource provides information on all the different elements involved. Solid gold.

The resource for setting rates is excellent. Freelance writer training often overlooks rate setting, which is one of the hardest things to do (and you either way under or overprice yourself). 

Portfolio & Resume Development 

The section on how to develop a freelance portfolio is useful. It provides clients needing proof/evidence with examples of your work. The program gives examples of various types of evidence for a variety of different niches. 

Creating portfolio clips to include with proposals is encouraged. Honestly, it doesn’t take long to do and shows the potential client that you CAN do this, in the voice and tone they need and want.

Your resume can be a valuable source for potential clients. Emphasis is on creating a resume that complements freelancing. The program provides an example of a resume to reflect relevant experience. The approach is positive and encourages using personal experiences that focus on skills and not job positions. Fluff is not beneficial on a freelance resume.

Combine money with meaning.

Courtney Danyel, Endless Freelance Income course creator freelance writer training

Courtney Danyel, Academia To Affluence's Founder

Setting Up Shop And Getting Your First Clients

Lastly, Endless Freelance Income deals with setting up shop and getting your first clients. There is valuable information contained in these sections. Courtney emphasizes that professionalism in Education and Business is different from the expectations in freelancing. 

Adaptability is probably the number one trait you need to cultivate during your freelance writer training. 

Suggestions Include:

  • Clean up your online digital footprint
  • Get a professional photograph
  • Establish your business presence
  • Choose a domain name
  • Set up your website 
  • How to use Wordpress

A Word On WordPress

Building a website, if you’ve never done it, can be an overwhelming experience. It's almost stopped me from moving forward. 

If you're overwhelmed by the idea of building a website, you'll be happy to know there are a lot of free to low-cost portfolio websites and low-cost website-builders. Here’s a list of (mostly) free portfolio websites that will meet your needs with little tech effort on your part. Or, for a more customizable experience, choose a SquareSpace portfolio writer template. You do not need to build a website from scratch! 

Just bookmark this page for later when it’s time to build your website. You're welcome

(CTRL+D to save this page)

Cons of This Course

Nothing is perfect. As I moved through this freelance writer training with Endless Freelance Income, here are the drawbacks I experienced. 

  • Translating the actual tasks into specific skills was a bit confusing. The use of the template I created (grab a copy at the end of this article) simplified the process.

  • The chapter that focused on turning tasks into skills contained a lot of valuable information but required thorough reading. 
  • The section on how to research your niche presented a lot of information. It was encouraging to see all the possible opportunities, but challenging to examine niches not listed on the original chart page. A simple spreadsheet would solve this problem as you work through the course.
  • A brief warning about completing homework provides clues to look for when choosing work assignments. The realization that you have completed someone's work is frustrating. A more in-depth discussion of the difference between ghostwriting and completing others' work would be beneficial and clarify the problem.
  • This course is not about website-building, but you need a site to house your portfolio and information about yourself. But as I’ve noted a couple of times now, this issue is a non-issue - you can get a portfolio-website at little to no cost. It’s ready to go and does the job. This article has a list of top portfolio websites (and most are free).

Do I Recommend This Freelance Writer Training?

As I continue to work through the exercises and implement the strategies in real-time, I’m impressed with Academia To Affluence’s Endless Freelance Income course and look forward to continuing to use the skills I’ve developed as a result. 

The program’s cons are minor and mostly require you to slow down a bit and think it through. That’s higher education!

The Pros Far Outweigh The Cons:

  • helps identification of skills and professional strengths
  • activities build self-awareness and confidence
  • detailed guidance on finding a potential niche
  • helps you develop a good-looking and useful website/portfolio
  • shares best practices for creating a freelance resume
  • provides valuable tools for setting your rates and not under or over-charging
  • details how to get your freelance writing career set up
  • how to get your first clients
freelance writer training pinterest (1)

A Realistic, Real-Time Freelance Writer Training Course

Courtney’s, Academia to Affluence’s founder, personal experiences provide a realistic picture of freelancing. The initial exercises were confidence-building, and the discovery of so many potential jobs inspiring and actionable. 

The deep dive analysis into my skills and history led to a realization of many strengths that I would never have considered - or applied toward a freelancing writing career. The course guides you through it in a positive manner that encourages success.  I would recommend it for individuals seeking challenges beyond academia as it offers a lively, informed way to approach freelancing. 

Your Skills Are Valuable

Head over to Academia To Affluence and learn how you can translate your academic skills into a profitable freelancing writing career through Endless Freelance Income freelance writer training for academic high achievers. 

Academia to Affluence Endless Freelance Income Course freelance writer training
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