The best leap you can make for your freelance writing career is working your way into better-paying opportunities. Have you heard of whitepaper writing? It’s a less-explored field of writing that will treat you to the heftiest paychecks.

What Is a Whitepaper?
A whitepaper is a powerful tool for brands that positions them as a thought leader and authority on a subject. It presents impressive research findings about products and services. Its sole purpose is to generate more leads by providing information that will solve consumer problems.

As a freelance writer, your job is to research this relevant information, showcase it in words and images, and assemble it into a comprehensive document.

How To Get White Paper Writing Experience
The only whitepaper writing experience you need is good writing and research chops. First things first! Read whitepapers, and familiarize yourself with their structure. Since many companies post their whitepapers online, you can find great samples.

Now, it’s time to start writing!
Once you master the structure, practice your writing skills on a hypothetical B2B company. It will give you a sample to show off when applying for these writing gigs. As B2B companies have more complicated offerings, they need more appeal than B2C (Business to Consumer) brands.

Finding Whitepaper Writing Jobs
Writing whitepapers pays anywhere from $1,500 to $10,000 for a 14-page document.

Since some companies don’t know much about whitepapers, and the benefits they bring, start by pitching your current clients. Show them the samples you’ve created. It’s easy to convince them once they have a look at what you’ve written.

The pitching never stops! Continue cold pitching to all sorts of businesses and you’re bound to hear back. Explain to them what a whitepaper is, and why it’s better than a general blog article or brochure. Hopefully, this will entice a couple of questions from them.

The best niches to pitch include CRM (customer relationship management), content management, healthcare, cloud computing, banking, and finance. There are also lots of whitepaper writing jobs advertised daily on LinkedIn. Tailoring your job search functions, and turning on your notifications, will treat you to a fresh set of jobs every morning.

The ultimate trick is to charge one for less. Going cheaper on your first job means getting another sample, a client review, and the opportunity to land more jobs.

Mistakes To Avoid
While gaining your whitepaper writing experience, you’ll make mistakes. Here are some that you should try to avoid:

Not vetting the clients
You’ll most probably get stars in your eyes when you see a $10,000 whitepaper writing project. Don’t get swayed, and forget to look at the company history, employee reviews, and their ability to make payments. The company’s reputation makes or breaks the deal. The last thing you want to do is put time and effort into a project you’ll not get paid for.

Indirect client contact
While you may report the project progress to the head of marketing, ensure you have the company owner’s direct contact. It’s essential to have a communication channel with the managing director if anything goes awry with the project.

Skipping the research
You’ll have a better backup for ideas when you have something to compare them to. Look through interviews, findings, news articles, and any other information you can count on. Don’t let your client provide all the information. Do the legwork.

The Takeaway
As a freelance writer, you can make money in many ways. Whitepaper writing is a lucrative source of income. Go in with a winning attitude, be willing to reach out and research, and you’ll land your first client in no time!

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Skylar Margaret is a freelance writer from Houston. Her articles have appeared in, among other publications, the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, the BBC, Rest of World, Vulture, and the Paris Review.