Content writing is a creative field which requires a grasp our English language
Content writing is a creative field which requires a grasp our English language

The real, hard facts about having a content writing job that no one tells you 

All forms of content marketing from content writing to copywriting focus more on science and hard facts with creativity coming in a distant second

Content Marketing is a wide domain and content writing is a small part of it. There is another form of text-based content creation that doesn’t really fall under content writing, and that’s copywriting. And that’s truly where the big bucks are made. Content writing usually relates to writing blog posts, SEO articles, white papers and other forms of content where direct relation to monetary returns is usually not measurable. And hence it has to pay less than writing proper copy. 

As more and more people realise the benefit of having a strong blog, they’ll be ready to invest more in it. The same goes for their landing pages and social media. Honestly, for a single content writer working for corporates or startups, earning lakhs a month is highly improbable without a small team of writers, unless they work with foreign clientele. The good news is that as these Indian companies are growing, it is possible that they will spend more on their marketing, making it a viable career.

Starting point: It was in April 2008 that Talwar took to content writing

Today, the advantages are many — from working out of home to having flexible hours to not having to answer to a boss — but the money is something that is probably going to increase over the next decade or so. If you work for direct clients who pay relatively well but your role is somewhat unspecialised, then the organised sector pay may be like this: The lower limit is usually Rs 100 per page and the upper limit is usually Rs 1000 per page and the average pay is usually Rs 250-500 per page.

Select companies in India may pay more than Rs 2 per word for their content unless it is something that is very specialised and time-consuming. And usually, writing a 500-word page does take on an average about 45-75 minutes once you take into account overheads, revisions, etc. The overheads of even having a work-from-home agency without an office can often lead you to run into a loss for months or years before you turn a meaningful profit. Yes, when you do scale up operations, you’ll probably have a 20%+ net profit on revenue, but that’s something that might take time — could be a month or over a year. Nobody can say for sure. 

Talwar after giving his AIEEE entrance aspired to make some extra pocket money on the side before college begins and that's how he got into content writing. He used to work for Freelancer.com




And freelance writers don’t have to deal with any of that. So it is all about risk and reward. On the plus side, for a top of the line writer who exclusively works with high-end clients, Rs 2-5 per word isn’t that rare. And that’s like earning Rs 500-5000 per hour working from home. Such writers can make upwards of a lakh a month. And sometimes they do this with just a single client. 

Content writing is like a dream profession without huge money. In the coming decade, I do expect this to improve as Indian businesses become more relevant in the global economy. Content writing as a business can be profitable and is definitely scalable should you play your cards right. You can earn much more this way. And becoming a millionaire is indeed possible.

(Aakshey Talwar is the founder Weaving Thoughts which transformed into GaiaQ.com in August 2016. As of January 2018, in less than 18 months they’ve worked with clients including but not limited to NearBuy, Policy Bazaar, MobiKwik, Portea, Hindustan Times, Economic Times, Career Launcher, Toppr, R Systems, VC Circle, UpGrad, Vedantu, DineOut and many many more)

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