Whether you’re a part of the “greatest generation,” a charter member of the baby boomers or just “retired but not tired,” you might be interested in looking into one freelance job opportunity for seniors: writing web content. There are websites run by busy entrepreneurs (and a few striving entrepreneurs), who have great ideas, plans, and marketing strategies, but cannot sit still long enough to write well. They hire people to do their writing.
A Quick Experiment
The aforementioned people write filler and blog material for those sites to lure visitors, customers, or donors. To illustrate how challenging it is to get someone to visit a commercial website, for example, try this experiment: In the Google search box on your browser, enter the search term “elderly services.” In less than a second, Google’s search engine will return a whopping 163 million hits!
So what are the chances of one particular website making it to the top of Google’s hit parade? Only Google’s web crawler gurus know for sure, and the search results can depend on many factors in their arcane algorithms. But one thing is certain: websites with the most up-to-date and quality content are targeted and listed on page 1, heading the top 20 or so of 163 million.
Websites are nothing more than quickly accessible magazines with news, advertising and a means for instant gratification for potential customers. It is the competition that heads the list of reasons the site creator has to constantly strive to keep the content fresh. Otherwise, on the next web crawler pass, the site could end up in the bottom-feeder category.
Countless Opportunities
Here’s where you, the seasoned senior, come in. You have many years of experience and professional knowledge packed between your ears, and none of it — repeat none of it — is useless or obsolete. The old proverb, “The more things change, the more they remain the same” is as true with web content as it has always been with any publishing enterprise. It’s all a matter of context. You provide the matter and mold it into a new context.
There are literally thousands of customers on the Web looking for good writing that gets to the point quickly and makes everything old new again. They can’t afford Pulitzer Prize quality writing, so you don’t have to be a great writer. If you can write an interesting e-mail that elicits understanding, empathy and a positive response, you’re good enough to write web content in the 500-words-or-less blog category. With practice, you’ll go from good enough to really, really good.
The wry observation that “sometimes fun flies when you’re doing time,” might apply to your current static situation. Get out of that rut and start writing. There’s a market out there for what you have to say, and you don’t have to hire a research assistant to back you up. Google can do that for you and help you wrap your ideas around the inexhaustible information resources of the Internet.
If you’re a U.S. resident and you are looking for a fast start as well as an immediate, guaranteed income stream, contact us. We have over 500 customers waiting in the wings, and, like the old Uncle Sam poster, they want you now!