Dan i Phuket berättar!

With working for multinational companies for most of my adult life and never been happy with their day to day business sense I found myself yearning for more from my career. Progressing from unappreciated employment to sales jobs and to servicing work in hospitals I needed more from life. Those larger companies never seem to look after the employees who do the most work. No matter how dedicated and hardworking you are they always try and squeeze every last iota from you with no reward.

Realising my life needed a change and even today I still keep in touch with my ex colleagues who still do the same routine day in day out which I never want to go back to, I started looking at freelance writing.

As I moved abroad from my home in England to Thailand, I have had far more weird and wonderful experiences than I would have back home. I began bidding for work on the many agencies online and having completed every article, blog, report on time, every time I have applied myself to every variety of work thrown at me. Writing topics completely unknown to me, such as online casino games or Icelandic airports I have expanded my knowledge of the world even more.

Being chosen to write for a website or to help promote one is so thrilling and having tight deadlines makes for quick or sometimes hectic workloads. Whatever a new day brings I learn something new and feel more alive. I think of it as a educational hobby rather than a job now.

Being away from my home country I see situations in a different light and rarely find myself without something interesting to write about. Working from home too has its benefits, meaning I can spend more time with my beautiful girlfriend (who also writes) and my two naughty puppies. Once my work is done I head off to the beach and know I have completed my daily task to its fullest.

Writing content for websites or webpages needs a knack, a voice, something to engage the reader. Making money from putting pen to paper, or fingers to the keyboard is hard work but enjoyable.

One of the most memorable contracts I have had was writing for an online advertising company. Having been given a brief needing a pushy sales extracts for an American audience was great fun. “You’re stupid for not buying from us” was the main influence. I wrote articles about how to promote and market a website while giving fresh ideas to the reader to help thrust their business into being a successful one.

Too many website owners underestimate the power of the internet. As a hobby I sell items on eBay and with Christmas Day 2008 being my most successful. At a time when most retailers were closed and being deep into a global recession it was a surprise to say the least.

My philosophy behind outsourced or freelance writing is to find something that intrigues you or a passion and go for it. There’s so much fulfillment from seeing your own work posted on a website for the whole world to read.