The Scripted Podcast - COVID-19 & Freelance Writing
The Scripted Podcast is a show created for content marketers and content writers featuring real Scripted writers. We'll talk about best practices in content and SEO, our favorite marketing tools, how to find and hire writers, and all the fun and misadventure that comes with being a professional freelance writer.
In this episode we sit down Nikki M., a Scripted writer in Italy, where the Coronavirus pandemic has hit particularly hard. We talk about what it has been like there for Nikki and her family during this unprecedented time and what this new world is like for a full-time freelance writer.
Episode Transcript
Part 1
Gregory:
So I'm here with Nikki Martinez and today we're going to be talking more about the present time and what everybody is currently going through, and I'm talking about Coronavirus.
Nikki is a writer on the Scripted platform, but she's also based in Italy. She's going to tell you a little bit more about her story and how she got there and what everything is like over there. But this episode is going to be about how to navigate these times as a freelance writer and working and creating content for businesses, so without further ado, Nikki introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about you and where you're at and then we'll get into this.
Nikki:
High Gregory. I'm really happy to be here with you today. I've been writing for Scripted since I think 2015, 2016, a long time ago. Yeah, I'm from the Philippines originally, but I've been freelancing with Scripted since I moved back to Europe from the Philippines and I've been freelancing over a decade. But as you know, the situation now has been drastically changed to where so many people are now working from home, so I'm super happy to talk about my experience on Scripted.
Gregory:
Yeah, I love it. OK, so I guess what we’ll do is talk a little bit about what it's like living in Italy specifically right now and then we will slowly move into what other people are doing and how this is affecting your daily life as a freelance writer. So what's it like living in Italy right now?
Nikki:
OK, so right now we've been locked down for a really long time. I think that we started our quarantine in early mid February and now we're going into the third month quarantine.
In Italy right now, we're not allowed to leave our house unless we're going to shop for food.
It's been really strict. The measures have been from what I've seen much stricter than in other European countries, but there is a big sense of community where I live and people are really trying to help each other to obey the rules. I don't think there's anyone that's trying to not do what the government is telling us for the safety of the community. As you know, we're very family oriented in Italy, so you see a lot of grandparents out and families and there's a big sense of community here.
It's been tough because I have two kids and school has been out since February, so we have a different schedule now. We have mornings, when they get their homework done and then they have digital school in the morning and my son who is 10 years old does some classes online. He meets with his class everyday at 9:30 to 11:00 and they do school online and my younger one doesn't have that yet. So we have activities with her that we're doing. So my husband and I are both freelancers. But the difference is working from home when you have kids now and how that is working and we're almost three months into it. So so yeah, one day at a time. I only go out to go shopping for food. Thankfully we still have full grocery stores. It's just that the lines are really long so you have to wait awhile. But another great thing is that fresh food is around.
Gregory:
Is that because they put a limit on how many people can walk around in the store?
Nikki:
Exactly, you cannot buy not buy, like for example, less than 10 items to go to the store. You should bulk buy, but then you have to wait until someone comes out before you go in. You have to wear a mask and gloves in shops everywhere, so you could only go out if you have that protection on and then you can only go shopping with one person per family. So either myself or my husband can go, kids aren't allowed outside at all at this point and if you walk a dog you can go out to walk your dog. In the beginning they were allowing us to walk before 8:00 AM and right now I think we're basically just staying home until it subsides. We don't know when. And we're lucky to have a big terrace and we do have a lot of nature, but that's the situation right now. We've been home basically for a long time. I've lost. I've lost count. Yeah, going on the third month already, so that's a little bit more on the daily side.
Gregory:
What about guidance from your government? What are they saying about how long this might last? Or other guidelines? Are they getting stricter with these types of things or are they starting to loosen up in different areas? Where does that look like right now?
Nikki:
Well it keeps getting extended. When we first were on Quarantine it was like now we're going to be in quarantine for two weeks and then after the two weeks another extension and now it looks like it's going to be passed Easter. Honestly, we're prepared to sit this out as long as it takes because I don't see it being over really anytime soon. I feel and I think it might be that we gradually get back to normal life with stipulations in place. I don't think it's going to go back to normal yeah anytime soon so, so we'll see. They did give us for now up to past Easter holiday. I don't know how long it's going to be and to be honest you know they say we might end it in a couple of weeks.
Gregory:
I would love for you to dive a little bit into the freelance writing aspect of things. Talk a little bit about how you got onto the Scripted platform to start with this. And then I would love for you to get into how your work life has changed.
Nikki:
I'd love to tell you how I got on the platform because I moved to Europe over a decade ago and in the Philippines and in Asia I had a big network of media contacts for my work. I was doing a travel TV show and I was also editor of a magazine there and all of a sudden I moved to Europe and I knew no one and I had to start from scratch, which is really tough, especially when you are a young couple. We were just married, just had kids and we didn't speak the language. I didn't speak the local language so it was tough. In the beginning I had a lot of catching up to do, just adjusting to normal life. When I decided I wanted to be a freelancer, I decided to go straight to the top and not like I had been freelancing for a little while. But when I decided this is what I want to do and go into content marketing, I decided to Google who was dominating content marketing at the time. This was 2015 so I came across an article by John Rampton and it was called six companies that are dominating content marketing in 2015 and he lists six companies. Of course Scripted with one of those and I applied to all six. I got rejected by three and then I got accepted by the other three. So Scripted was one of them, and that was, yeah, that's been quite a few years now.
So I instead of going like climbing up the ladder of the freelance, I thought, OK, I'm going to hit whoever is right now on the top of content marketing. And then see how I can work with them. I was also prepared to be rejected. So I learned early on to accept rejection, but it's part of life right? As a freelancer you are going to be rejected a lot and the way Scripted works is that you pitch your articles to the clients, and I learned by working with clients that you would also be rejected as much as you got accepted if not more, a lot more. So that was very helpful in the beginning to learn how to do that. I didn't really expect a lot because when I joined, Scripted had industry bedded writers, so that's a lot and all over the world and I don't know how it is now. It's been awhile but they made us go through three, I think three levels of testing to join as a writer but it was, it was a lot of fun because I got to write about a lot of things that are different from the day to day but also using the experience I had with nonprofits with travel, volunteering and then learning a lot about technical and Tech and IT subjects to write for the clients on Scripted that wanted those type of articles. I love it. I love it.
Gregory:
Yeah, we've had a ton of writers and definitely things have changed to a certain degree when it comes to actually getting onto the platform, applying and becoming a writer. But I'm glad to hear that you've learned so much from that experience and that you're loving the platform. OK, So what is your day to day when it comes to working on the Scripted platform and just freelancing in general?
Nikki:
OK, so day to day we follow a sort of a loose schedule I would say, especially after the quarantine. But we do have certain routines. For example, I get up early and as a writer, I love the early morning hours to write, just like free writing. Some writers call it morning pages, you know. You just write from your heart and what thoughts are coming in or I draw because I love to do art on waking up. It helps to get those creative juices flowing. My whole family works out at home now that we're in Quarantine. We all work out together and then I tackle the toughest writing jobs right away up after the coffee and after the working out because that's when my mind is most alert, during the morning hours.
The kids are doing their homework school and then my husband and I are doing our office work. So then we have a couple hours writing in the morning and then I do a lot of marketing for my writing services. I also do voice overs as my other freelance work so I do a lot of narration and other types of work which I do during the middle part of the day when everyone's having Siesta. The neighbors are quieter and I can do my recording and the kids get one hour of digital time a day, so this is also a nice quiet time to work and then we have lunch together and then I take a nap, like I'm really religious about my naps. Also because I experienced it when you try to write, write, write, you hit this like midday slump and then you can either sit there and keep trying to write and then fall asleep. Or, you can recharge with a 10 minute cat-nap and then wake up and then write much better for half an hour or 40 minutes then you would if you just try to push through it.
So I do have a nap. The kids respect that and my husband and I get up and get back to work with the writing or whatever else it is that I need to be doing for the day. Maybe it's researching, a lot of times we might get an article to write and it takes a lot of research on detail or understanding who your reader is and who your client is. So I do spend a lot of time, especially if it's a ghost writing project, which Scripted has a lot of, then we might need to learn how to write this type of article. Yeah, and then by the time it is around four 5:00 PM, the writing mode sort of goes a little bit more relaxed and we get more into family time mode. And as you know, in Italy at 6:00 o'clock everyone is out on their terraces, singing or making music and it has become part of our routine at 6:00 o'clock we hear the music on the terrace. We might open the windows and go out on the terrace and enjoy it and everyone sort of greet their neighbors and waves to each other and says hey hang in there. A little bit of encouragement. And then yeah, and then it's time to prepare dinner and then evenings are really for the family.
So since we're just at home now, I really try to set aside the evening time for for the kids I do love cooking so I make a dinner and then we eat together and we might watch the news together or stay updated and then have maybe a movie, maybe some games, and then if I still have energy after dinner and the kids are down and sleeping then I might do some writing that's more relaxed. Sometimes you'll get an article to write and you can still write it, even though it's the end of the day. But I don't try to do so much intense writing at that time, and that's basically it. I think that many freelancers will find that even if they're working from home, there is not enough time in the day to do all that you want to do. You're going to be thinking of all these projects you want to finally work on now that you're in quarantine and you'll be doing them. And then you'll be like wow, what was I doing before this? How did I find the time for everything, right.
Gregory:
So I love that walkthrough. A lot of people think that when you work as a freelancer, you have this ability to work remotely. There's probably not a whole lot changing because of everything that's going on. I wanted to know what your life was like before this happened. Are there any other stressors that have been added because of everything into your work life? How great is it to like, be working remotely already before this? How much acclimation did you have to have?
Nikki:
Right, so I did a lot of different types of work, but always in the media before coming to Europe and one big part of my job was a travel writer, so I was traveling a lot and my schedules were different. When I changed a couple years ago and I was doing editing for a magazine, that was when I would come into the office and sit down for a long time at my desk. I did this for a couple of years and then realized that this is not maybe what I want to continue doing. The challenge at home is now to switch modes right away. Going from being a parent to, then having a meeting or a video conference or thinking in work mode, I think that when I switch to becoming a freelancer, a big part of that was in the mindset and I always tell people that want to get into freelancing, you have to switch your mindset from thinking I'm going to do this as a hobby, whether it's writing or something creative and think of it as this is my career. This is what I do to earn a living and then make sure people around you know it too.
So in the beginning, it's like when you're with a partner, especially. You want their support. You need their support, but they're not going to give you their support unless they know this is really what you're going to go for 100%. So I'm an artist and I've tried so many different things you know to learn something and and so and so my challenge is sticking at something until I'm getting better at it, and then continuing on to progress and not stopping when I get rejected or my pitches are rejected and just keep at it for a long time. One thing that I forgot to mention in my routine as I do, I do get out of bed, workout, dress up, fix myself, and put on the kind of clothes I might go to the office in. I put makeup on because it helps me to get into the mode of “this is work time”. And of course nowadays you never know when you're going to be on a video call with someone the way our digital lives are now by thinking of it. I don't just write in my pajamas all day long, but I get up and I sit at my desk and I go to work and this is my workspace helps a lot.
Gregory:
Yeah, I love that. The fact that you brought this whole idea of making sure that you can switch between modes and actually go through those same like, “trigger” moments where you know it's not easy in the beginning.
Nikki:
It’s going to be hard because you're going to want to wake up and then just chill at home or do something. And then you're going to go like how am I going to pay the bills now, right? So if you think of it as like either, I do this now and get serious about it. Yes it's more like setting boundaries for yourself.
Gregory:
It's crucial, especially because there's so many people going to these platforms now, maybe they lost their job or they don't have the job, at least while we are in quarantine they're looking for another stream of income. They go to these platforms because they know they can write. A lot of people are doing that. We're seeing an increase in demand for applications, things like that, and this is great for them, but I am curious, like from your perspective, do you see this increase of on platform competition? Having more writers come in pitch on different projects? I'm against you. Things like that. I'm curious what your thoughts are on that.
Nikki:
Yes, there will be a lot more writers going to these platforms, but at the end of the day, your work speaks for itself. So there is a lot of competition, but I'm not concerned. I am the only person who can write the way I do for the clients that I am working with. And it's always been like this, but even more so now. Work is more about the relationships that you're building. So no matter what crisis happens or no matter how many writers are trying for the same kind of work, if you've been building relationships with your clients, with your people in your company, they're going to remember you. They're going to keep working with you if you keep producing what they expect you to be producing and keep doing the work that you've been doing.
The other thing that I wanted to touch on is that I see a lot of people now with time on their hands on social media, and this is great, and we're all connected now that we have, we can be connected digitally and this is a wonderful thing. But post only what you would be OK with a potential client or a company you want to be hired by seeing your feed. In other words, I see a lot of people going like Nikki., how do I get on to writing platforms? Can you send me some links? Can you? Can you tell me where to go? and I really want to help them and I send them links all the time then I might see the same person on their feed writing “I'm so bored. What do I do now? What movie do I watch now?” So if this is a client coming to your feed and seeing your Facebook, which they will. They do. Clients look for your social feeds. They find you on LinkedIn on Facebook and they see how you've been living your life that will reflect on the work that you're producing.
So this is another thing you can do if you have time on your hands and you're scrolling through social media. Scroll through job sites, scroll through places where they're looking for writers. Look for people that need you and what you are doing and you will find those jobs. They are out there.
Gregory:
I think that's a great tip. Make sure people are presenting themselves how they want to. In a world where especially right now where the only way to gather information is from that digital profile, their digital footprint, and when you're trying to work with people digitally, you have to make sure that that's on par with what you want to be seen as. I would love for you to talk a little bit about how the type of content that your writing is adapting to the current situation. Do you see a high influx of COVID-19 projects being written by you or being requested by your clients? Things like that? Curious how that's shaping right now.
Nikki:
Yes, definitely there are a lot of clients looking for these themes, but it's not just about how COVID-19 is affecting the health or the government, people are asking for other things too. Like how to deal with relationships when you're stuck with your partner for awhile or home schooling or parenting or like you said freelancing. Now in this digital time. So there are a lot of openings and I'm seeing a lot of magazines look for this type of content as well. One other point that you asked me before about freelancing. I wanted to touch on is that the future is very bright for freelancers. If we can learn how to be flexible, adapt and learn new technology, because a mistake that I made when I first started out in freelancing is I didn't want to be, say, distracted by technology or I told myself I didn't know how to operate a certain app or to use it like I even went so far as to not buy a smartphone because I didn't want to be distracted, whatever. But then at the end of the day, I was struggling to have income because I wasn't willing to sort of make that leap into learning something new.
With scripted I saw that clients wanted us to write about technology. I had to accept that the world was becoming more digital, and if I wanted to get on board with the freelancing world, then I had to learn a lot more and upgrade my skills. You might say so yes, with the situation that's happening right now, clients are looking for things that are relevant to us in the world right now, and these are now global issues like the whole quarantine issue, parenting, what to do in your free time with your kids. From the company side, how to organize teams? I'm seeing that a lot, how CEOs and companies can communicate better. On the other hand, these are all things that would have been relevant also in the beginning before and now after the Quarantine. We're all in the same boat, right? We're all on digital platforms now because it's the only way that we can stay connected with each other in the time of lock down or in Quarantine. So yes, there is a lot of that coming out.
I would say to creatives at this time to stick on the niche that you think that you can really write about and get better at that. Write about what you really know, there are a lot of articles coming out about COVID-19. People claiming to know this or that, or these facts, and the truth is, nobody really knows about the virus just yet. I would be a little bit wary about writers who tried to write factual articles about the virus itself until we know more and maybe a few more months down the line when we've had more experience. I myself am not taking those kinds of articles yet just because it's a new thing. If you take the COVID-19 articles, if you want to write about them, do it from a perspective of what you actually really know, what's really happening, like don't try to make up stuff or or tell people this is how it is, and this is how it should be unless you know that for certain.
The other thing is that with the whole issue of freelancing, there will be a lot more work. If you are OK with learning in the beginning and going slow, like take your time, I know that a lot of people now are home. They want to be creative. They want to produce and get their work out there. Like take your time, apply to the platforms but don't get discouraged if it takes some time because you need time to figure out what you're going to do right now and It's OK to feel unstable and confused and have your crying moments and feeling lost. It's all normal and I went through all of that just in these last couple of weeks. And then you're going to make it one day at a time, one pitch at a time, one word at a time or one article at a time, but if you don't feel so productive right now, if you feel like you're a mess if you feel like you don't know what you're going to get your income from, this is completely normal, so as creatives, as freelancers, we need to focus on maybe just pausing.
You know doing what we love, being with the people that we love, who we can be right with right now. Reading books that we love and then sort of recharging for that next creative pivot and that next leap into the journey because we don't know how long this is going to be. So yeah, one day at a time it's OK to be sad and anxious right now. It's OK to cry. It's OK to be like, Oh my God, what am I going to do? and I did all of that like just literally weeks ago. I really lost it because now it's such an unstable time, but what do we do? We have to wake up and we have to be there for our families and for each other. And I’m going to shut up now.
Gregory:
I love it and I don't want you to shut up. I want to ask you one more question and then we can kind of start wrapping this up. You spoke a ton about how freelance writers can really take charge of this opportunity and really walk them through what you went through on the other side of things. Do you have any advice for the people that are actually ordering content right now? How they should be handling the writer community and working with writers? Is there anything that should be changing on their side of things to make creating content in that process better?
Nikki:
That's a super good question. So from the client sort of point of view, I think that communication is really key. So if you want to work with a freelancer, try to be as direct as you can be if you can. If you can have a chat with them. If you can bring them up and make a phone call if you can get their point of view and see how you can, how they can bring your vision to life by making it a personal connection.
So in the old days you might have written an email or sent out a brief or your vision, but now everyone has a little bit more time. Get on the phone, talk to them, see what they think about how they can make your idea come to life in the best way possible. Yeah, and just stay connected. My best clients are the ones that I've been able to just have a chat with and just really see where they're coming from and what their problem is and how I can help fill the need or be the solution to their problem, right? But you don't know what someone's problem is until you ask them until you know what they really need from you. And the same goes for freelancers as well. It's easy to just, you know, turn out work or get things done by the deadline, and it takes time to build relationships. But that's where your income is at the end of the day. Your better income is going to be from the relationships that you build, because your clients will come back to you.
What's that quote? Your best clients are the ones you already have, right? So rather than looking for new clients, see who you've already been working with. Maybe you're on a platform and you had fun writing about a certain topic. Or from the clients perspective, maybe you worked with a freelancer in the past and you haven't thought about that freelancer for awhile and now you need help. Go back to them, see where they are, check up on them, see if they need work, or if they're not busy or they're looking for something to do. But again, it's about going back to building that connection that you might have had before. The thing I learned working as a freelancer is and I touched on this briefly, learning to fail is super important. For example, if it takes you like 20 pitches or 20 auditions because I do voice overs a lot. If it takes you 20 pitches to get one client, then don't get discouraged after every rejection. So make a goal today to get rejected 20 times. So if you know that's your goal, you're not going to be disappointed and you're not going to get discouraged because no, I knew I was going to have to do this 20 times until I get the job and it sounds really tough because it is.
That's just hard work, it's just life. But if you make failure not just a part of the deal, but an actual goal, like I will get rejected 10 times, and then I might get a Yes. You know, for all those ten no’s, I might get a yes, then it's more like you expect it. And then when you book your gig, you're going to be so happy. But you're also going to know I knew it would take time. I knew it would take work.
Gregory:
Right now I would love for you to share your projects. What you do as a freelancer outside of just freelance writing on Scripted. I would love for you to take this time to share a little bit more about what you do and where people can find you if they want to dive into some of that.
Nikki:
Oh yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity. So I do narration. I do voice overs, but it's not so much voice acting. My focus is more on documentary narration, corporate narration, voice overs for clients who have a product that they would like to, maybe they want to have a digital product or a service, but they need someone to help them. One writes the script to record it, put it together in a video, edit the audio so I do the whole thing for them as a product. A lot of people right now might be taking their businesses and still continuing to work from home right? And they might be in the restaurant industry or servicing people from home, but they need help to get the word out there. That's where I come in.
I help you to write your story and then maybe you have delivery service and would like people to know that they might be in Quarantine, but they can call your number and deliver this to them or you'll still have this service going or you have a digital platform or any website. So yeah, I do narrations. Another big thing I'm doing is I work with a lot of apps who need the English voice overs and I tell a lot of stories for a living, so I'm a storyteller, right? I write stories. And a lot of things I'm doing right now are sleep stories and meditation guides and things that are going to be used for apps that can calm people or distress and help people to relax. And that's one thing that has also really I've seen a lot in the voiceover space recently ever since, ever since everything happened this year, people are looking for just breathing space where they can go to feel calm under all the pressure and anxiety. So a lot of clients are asking me now to help them to write scripts that are going to be a way for people to define a bit more peace and quiet and calm. And then it gave me an idea to start something that I have always loved. Which is poetry because when I want to do something calming, I read poems or listen to poems or I used to go to a lot of open mic nights and I really, really miss that and I miss hearing my friends on the mic and listening to the poets. And ever since I came to this part of Italy, which is called the Gulf of the poets. By the way, it's where a lot of famous writers such as Hemingway, came for inspiration and I always thought, how cool would it be to hear Italian poetry? Listen to it here, the translation in English and then have artists have a platform where they could actually write or read the poetry that they've written themselves while in quarantine. So people are sending me poems that they've recorded from their homes and poems that they've written themselves, and then I get help with the translation. And then I record them in English as well. So I started a podcast called “The Pause” and it's on Anchor podcasts and it's super short, it's just 5 to 7 minutes of lyrical calm. You hear the poetry in its original language and then the English translation. And that's just a little project that I was doing to sort of keep the creative juices flowing because it can get really, you know, we're just home. We don't do anything else. We have to have something that keeps us connected with our creative source, which is inside us, right? But it's hard. It's hard sometimes to go back to the source of your energy in your creation.
So can I give you the link to my production company? If anybody needs help with their audio editing? I have a whole home studio setup. You can go to empress-media.com.
Gregory:
Thank you so much Nikki. I'm is there anything else that you would like to speak out about? If not, it was a great conversation. I've really enjoyed our time.
Nikki:
Thank you so much for the opportunity. I don't have much advice for people during this time of quarantine, except that you need to really give yourself permission to just unplug right now before you before you pivot. Like before you get into your great freelance writing career or whatever creative projects you have going. It's OK to just stop for a little while and just disconnect and reconnect. You know, because you're not. You're not going to feel so good in these next couple of weeks. You might find that you need to work on your relationships or your children need your time or you'd like to put some effort into cooking or baking or something else you know. Don't be too hard on yourself right now. Give yourself a couple of weeks and then when you get back up and you decide what it is you want to do. If you want to get on Scripted, if you are already there and you're seeing a lot of opportunities for that, then go for it.
Yeah, just keep going one day at a time.
Part 2
Gregory:
All right, hey listeners, this is going to be bringing us to the second part of this episode, in which we're going to be joined by our Writer Community Manager here at Scripted, John Parr. Now he's going to be shining lights on what we have been doing at Scripted in response to Coronavirus, how it's affected our day-to-day workflows and what our advice is to writers and businesses using the platform right now. In this time of everybody being impacted in quarantine, things like that. So John, introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more about what you do and we'll see where this goes.
John:
Sure, yeah, so I am the Writer Community Manager here at Scripted, March actually marked my fifth year with Scripted, which is crazy to think about. And yeah, my day today consists of essentially, as the title suggests, I manage pretty much all aspects of the writer community. I manage bringing on new writers onto the platform, and then also just providing new services to help out our writer community moving forward.
Gregory:
And to coincide with all the conversations I had with Nikki in the first part of this episode, have you seen a shift since the Coronavirus has come into play? I'm sure everybody is affected by this, but how is it affecting your day today as the writer Community Manager at Scripted?
John:
Sure, yeah. I mean tremendous changes almost instantly, so you have to imagine for a lot of freelance writers, this is kind of a work from home job, so the transition is fairly easy, but some of them, it isn't their primary form of income. Millions of people are losing their jobs and so one of the biggest things we've seen is more applications. I think everyone is looking for some form of supplemental income to kind of get past this time with millions and millions, millions of people stuck inside their homes. It's a mix between additional income streams and needing something to do with their time. The uncertainty here has driven people to try a lot of things, to sort of move their career forward, and I'm seeing a lot of that. We're also seeing a lot more writers, who are, you know, trying to seriously get as many jobs as possible because, you know, as the freelance writing world changes, they may lose clients during this time. So everyone is affected, but we're seeing a lot more people trying out to become freelance writers as a result of Coronavirus.
Gregory:
Has that increased your workload significantly?
John:
Tremendously. Again, yeah, I mean, I'd say, on a daily basis, we're getting upwards of a couple 100 writer registrations a good amount of those eventually become applications, so processing those and then kind of onboarding these new writers, kind of getting them on the platform, teaching them the ropes. All of that has sort of doubled and tripled, so yeah, it's made quite an impact I’d say.
Gregory:
So when it comes to writers coming onto the platform. I know in the past, Scripted had a 19 dollar fee or something like that for people to actually apply to the platform. Is that still in motion or have you ever moved that or done anything else to make it easier for people that are trying to look for other streams of income since the coronavirus took effect?
John:
Yeah, so we have done that. That is the one thing that you know myself and Scripted staff kind of wanted to do immediately, was to waive that application fee when we wanted to sort of open the doors. You know, a lot of companies are sort of in this position of trying to figure out how to desperately make money at this time, but we are aware that we're in a position to provide opportunities and we kind of went immediately to do that. So right now is probably the best time to apply for Scripted as a result of having that fee waived, but also that we're willing to give more opportunities than before as a result of this. So, if any of the listeners out there who are considering it, now is the time to apply.
Gregory:
So apart from the advice of apply now because the fee is waived at this time, a lot of writers are going to these types of platforms, maybe never having been online before writing. They're just great. They're great writers, but never took it seriously because they never needed to, but now they're looking towards that stream of income. Any advice to people that are new to writing on a platform such as Scripted?
John:
Sure, yeah, we're seeing a ton of that. Another one we're actually seeing as well is people coming from a print background. I guess you know, in this time some of those are folding or maybe aren't able to decide whether or not it's even worth kind of investing in that, and so they're ending up here.
But, people who are trying now to become a freelance writer and or haven't used a platform like Scripted. My advice is that there is a lot of great material out there. We have a ton of documentation on our site going back years and years about, you know the best way to fine tune your skills as a freelance writer. There's a lot of great tools out there, but the primary thing that I would do is kind of approach this with the one thing that I recommend to a lot of our writers, which is to start to read. Start to look at what is good content that's out there. How would you match that? What voice uniquely can you provide to the Internet? Because I think that we all know in this day and age that sort of cheap content that's out there. We’re basically drowning in it, and this is sort of your opportunity now to provide a unique voice and provide a unique voice at probably one of the most unique times in history.
Gregory:
Yeah, I think that's solid. Speaking of that, let's say a writer gets accepted, starts trying to make money on the platform. What is the type of orders from the business side of things? What does that look like? Has that been affected in regards to the type of content that they're looking for right now? I know a lot of people are writing COVID-19 style material, but what does that really look like? What can they expect?
John:
So I would say that that's one thing that's happening right now for Scripted in particular. You're going to see a wide range of content available so you know, for example, if you don't consider yourself much of a blog writer for Scripted, which is pretty much the only platform of this type that I can speak for. I would say that you know, I was explaining today to a new writer, for example, that we have a very wide range of content types available. So if you don't fancy yourself a blog writer, you know we have product descriptions, we have a vast vast array of different types of content that's available. So if you're a copywriter who is currently out of work, now is a great time to come on Scripted. A good deal of what we do isn't just blogs.
Gregory:
To take it a step further. I'm glad you brought this up. Maybe it's a blog. Maybe it's a product description and I'm curious how this might change things, but what is an effective strategy for actually getting those jobs. Because I know with Scripted specifically, you do have to pitch to get accepted and actually start writing that type of content.
John:
When you get onto the Scripted platform and you go to look under available work, you're going to find you know. Again. As I mentioned before, sort of this wide variety of possible jobs you can choose those that are interesting to you, and one of the other things that we provide that I think is also extremely useful in this current climate that we're living in, is that you have the ability to pick your own price as well. Obviously, within reason. But I think that that doesn't mean that you necessarily have to devalue yourself as a writer. But for those strategies as to how to get these jobs, I will say that we've got enough work on the platform that you don't need to feel concerned that it's sort of this insane, cutthroat competition, but I do again feel that what you need to do is provide that unique voice. And how are you going to show a case that and say an elevator pitch to these clients? I think that the best strategy that I've seen is to very carefully read the content brief that they've provided. And after considering that and maybe doing some cursory research, again, figuring out that unique viewpoint, being concise is a skill of probably some of the best writers I've seen, and so sort of sharpening that blade and getting better at that is probably one of the best approach is to create sort of a concise proposal that showcases a bit of your unique voice, but also demonstrating some flexibility.
Gregory:
That’s really well put. I'm curious what you would have to say. I know you're the Writer Community Manager. But you brought up this whole idea of reading the briefs and taking briefs from businesses. Is there any strategy from the flip side of that for businesses to work with Scripted writers? What should they be doing right now when it maybe comes to like best practices for just filling out the brief? Or if there is something more specific right now when it comes to Coronavirus or anything related to that?
John:
Yeah, so when it comes to a content brief, I would say for customers, you know I’m the Writer Community Manager now, but years ago I was working more with customers and one of the things that I would always say to them, one of the key things I'll say to include in any content brief is to not just outline what you want, but also what you don't because more often than not, what you don't want is more informative to the writer. Writers are very frequently dealing with clients on our platform, but also off platform and their other freelance activities who have sort of scope creep with basically everything that they create. And it becomes very difficult to narrow down. What would make good content here? But by removing those things that you don't want, you significantly narrow that hallway for the writer to come down. In terms of how that applies in this Coronavirus world, I think the thing that's so important right now is that you know, where are we right now? Where are you right now Gregory? Where am I? Where at our house. Everyone is at home with ample time to read. Right now is the time to create content. Now is the time to sort of. Find your audience. So now is, as I said, the best possible time that you could use to create content and sort of the same advice that I was saying for writers about finding that unique voice kind of goes to the customers. The good news is our writers are professionals who can help you find that unique voice. And I think that you know, for any of us who have an inbox right now, all you have to do is open that up to see that you have pretty much the same message regarding Coronavirus from virtually every company that you've ever given your email address too, and so it's not too hard to find out what not to do.
Gregory:
I love that I love that advice. Alright perfect, so we've hit on writers, we’ve hit on the business side of things. I'm just curious, is there any parting advice that you would give to our listeners?
John:
Yeah, I would say you know, sort of a parting shot here. I'd like to reiterate again, if you have anyone who has been directly affected by this or indirectly affected by this and is looking to supplement their income stream. Now is a great time to come on the Scripted platform. You can always message me directly at john@scripted.com and you're more than welcome to reach out and see what kind of opportunities we have and whether or not you're a good fit. We’re looking for writers pretty much from anywhere who can write about anything. And you know, Once upon a time I was a freelancer myself. I would have loved to have the platform like this. If you have some writing chops and even if it was a decade ago, now is a great time to be on the platform. And as I mentioned before, for businesses, now is the time to find your voice, uhm, you know, we're all kind of drowning in that same sort of monotonous sound. And that same uncertainty in the world around us, and I think a voice of reason and a voice that is refreshing could really go far in this current environment.
Gregory:
Thanks so much John.
All right now to recap this episode:
If you've been directly affected by COVID-19, you know, looking for another stream of income? Feel free to check us out at Scripted.com and apply to be a writer today. We've waived the $19.00 fee. I would love to see your application roll through and while there definitely is more on platform competition right now, there's always going to be someone who's looking for your style of writing in your area of expertise. Our advice is to figure out how many pitches it takes to get a yes and make it a goal to complete that many pitches a day. The key is to get into a healthy routine, be consistent, and keep writing.
And on the business side of things, if you're not sure if you should be investing in content at this time, I'm here to say that you absolutely should. There's never been a better time to invest in content from highly skilled writers. While everyone is stuck at home and looking for answers, for assurance and what your business is doing to make their lives easier.
Hire Nikki to write for your next content project today and start your 30 Day Free Trial now!
Published by Kevin O'Connor on Thursday, April 23, 2020 in Industries, Content Marketing, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Podcasts, Writing.
