From the book – How to Start a Home-Based Writing Business by Lucy V. Parker, these are sixty key assignments for home-based writers:
- Advertising copy
- Anniversary materials for corporations, organizations, institutions, municipalities
- Annual reports
- Articles for employee magazines
- Articles for single-sponsor magazines
- Articles for trade journals and small magazines
- Brochures
- Calendars
- Capability brochures
- Catalogues and product sheets
- CD-ROM/ Interactive media writing
- City and newcomer guides
- Collateral materials
- Conference and trade show materials
- Consultation
- Contributing editor assignments
- Critical reviewing
- Direct-mail packages
- Directories
- Editing
- Employee benefit materials
- Environmental materials
- Family histories and genealogies
- Flyers
- Fund-raising materials
- Ghost writing and collaboration
- Greeting card writing
- Indexing
- Industry-specific writing
- Instructional materials
- Investor-relations materials.
- Letter writing
- Manuals
- Menu writing
- New product regulatory writing
- Newsletters
- Newspaper feature writing, reporting and stringing
- Packaging design and copy
- Policies and procedures writing
- Political campaign writing
- Press releases and press kits
- Proofreading
- Proposals
- Public relations services and materials
- Radio and TV ads and promotions
- Researching
- Restaurant reviewing and writing
- Resume writing
- Retail and mall promotions
- Sales presentations
- Scripts and storyboards
- Speeches
- Sports materials and services
- Teaching writing
- Technical writing
- Telemarketing scripts
- Transcripts and other forms of word processing
- Translations
- Travel writing
- Website content providing
Go through the list and pick out which you like to do, could do more of, or could learn to do. It’s a great list. Find a copy of the book for more information about any of the assignments above.
You can also look up information about being a virtual assistant. I know some writers/ web designers/ virtual assistants – people who are leaving their options open and learning a lot of new skills. The key is to find your niche, the area(s) where you can flourish and grow and really love what you’re doing.