The World's Tallest Writing Coach

One of the most exciting things about being a freelance editor and writer these days is watching businesses evolve beyond the relentless pursuit of SEO terms and page clicks.

Whereas plenty of places are still bound and determined to uncork the bottle that contain’s Google’s secret potion for search-result placement, others are realizing that the content on their websites is the #1 most important thing to visitors and potential customers, and are responding accordingly, providing them with real, original, worthwhile content that is written for an intelligent audience.

This is great news to freelance editors and writers, because many companies want outside assistance with either the writing or proofing of this content – which in many cases comes in the form of case studies and whitepapers.

For the uninformed – case studies are a bit like a clinical essay, where a company showcases its relationship with a client: the client’s needs, the process to meet them, and the end result.

Whitepapers are more of a form of general knowledge, where companies will take a problem or an an area of knowledge and break it down, most of the time without a single mention of its own relevance in said area.

In the past three months, I’ve been hired on to edit one whitepaper, then write another one – which was a great experience getting to be the guy who actually decides what it’s themes will be.

I’m also in the middle of my fourth case study gig in the past three months, this one for Sweden’s Oxford Leadership. I’d love to put up some case studies of my own, but as my fellow freelancers know, when you’re your own boss, that personal development downtime doesn’t come often!