Ever wonder if the latest cryptocurrency news has anything to do with freelance writing?
Well, there’s a handful of niche magazines and millions of webpages dedicated to covering cryptocurrency news, bitcoin trading, and digital currencies.
If you’re already writing about the intersection of finance and technology, you’re probably at least familiar with cryptocurrency.
But if you need proof cryptocurrency is a real thing, here’s just one example. There’s a $325 million luxury resort under development in Dubai, and investors are funding the project in bitcoin.
If you’re looking for a niche, there’s a growing demand for cryptocurrency news you can write about.
But it’s also a new way to get paid. In a recent survey of 1,100 freelancers, 29 percent said they prefer to be paid in cryptocurrency.
Want to learn how to tap into this niche and get paid in digital currency? Here’s what you need to know.
Bitcoin basics for freelance writers
Cryptocurrencies are a type of digital currency whose value is derived from their usefulness. Remember the law of supply and demand from economics class?
Some cryptocurrencies have no purpose at all, which makes them extremely risky. Others, like Bitcoin, have a proven usefulness and a track record of increasing value.
A crash-course in blockchain technology
Stay with me, OK. The underlying technology for cryptocurrencies is called blockchain. Here’s a simple explanation of how it works:
- Each cryptocurrency is created in a block, and organized in a chain based on a specific set of rules
- It all happens in the digital universe using complex software coupled with super-strong cryptographic security measures.
- And there’s more than one blockchain and cryptocurrency. There are more than 800 digital coins including Bitcoin, Steem, Ripple, Ethereum, Stellar, and many more.
This concludes today’s lecture. Clear as mud? This primer and this diagram should give you a basic understanding of how cryptocurrency technology works as a payment system.
Note: If you want to write about cyrptocurrency news, or accept digital currency payments from clients, do your homework.
The cryptocurrency opportunity for freelance writers
If you established yourself as a web copywriter in 1995, there were fewer than 30,000 websites. If you started back then, achieving expert status as a highly-sought-after copywriter would have been easier.
Why? By 2005, when there were over 64 million websites and far more freelance writers hustling for clients. Getting an early start would have benefited you in at least three ways:
- You’d have been seen as a pioneer in website content writing
- As one of the first to establish yourself as a professional online content writer, you’d have been able to charge top dollar for your services
- You would have had such insight into writing online content that you could see easily where the Internet was headed and quickly adapt to position yourself as a specialist in the most lucrative online niches
Today’s blockchain and cryptocurrency industries are like the Internet of 1995, which is to say nascent and rife with opportunity.
Of course, with massive opportunity comes massive risk. So I’ll warn you that you should do your due diligence and study the market and the latest cryptocurrency news before jumping in. Still, I’m confident that the current market is a huge opportunity for freelance writers.
Get paid in cryptocurrency for freelance work
Want to get paid in cryptocurrency for freelance work? Chances are pretty good, your client will explain this up front. And there’s one big reason you should consider it: faster payments for international clients.
If you’re a freelancer in the U.S., and have a client outside the country, the current cross-border payments system doesn’t always work in your favor. Banks can take days to verify payment.
The cryptocurrency advantage: You can bill a freelance writing client in a foreign country and receive your payment within minutes with no intermediary. This is very valuable if you do a lot of business in foreign countries.
If you want to accept cryptocurrency as payment, there’s a few terms you’ll need to know:
- Crypto wallet. To accept cryptocurrency as payment, you must have a crypto wallet. Think of it like a physical wallet designed for holding digital currencies like Bitcoin. And there’s more than one kind of crypto wallet depending on how you plan to use the funds from freelance work. If you’re just starting out, set up your crypto wallet with Coinbase.
- Content vesting. This involves accepting a native cryptocurrency for a project either as payment for services or as a reward for participation. For example, Steemit pays curation rewards for blog posts, comments, and upvotes. I’ve been active on the site since March 2018 and have earned hundreds of dollars in curation rewards. I’ve also accepted payment in STEEM for writing about cryptocurrency news, and then republished those articles at Trybe and Medium for additional rewards.
Find writing jobs in cryptocurrency
Ready to jump into writing about cryptocurrency? You might be surprised to know that it touches nearly every freelance writing niche and industry, including:
- Travel and entertainment
- Supply chain systems
- Financial services
- Law
- Healthcare, and more.
If you want to find freelance clients in your niche to write about cryptocurrency, use these resources to identify potential clients, marketing directors and decision makers, and info to vet your prospects:
- Crunchbase. This database of business info shows you fundraising activities, CB Rank, size of company, and other useful information of high tech companies. Coinbase, for example, recently raised $300 million in a Series E late stage funding round. Bitmain, the world’s largest cryptocurrency mining company, has over 100 employees and has raised a total of $764.7 million in three funding rounds.
- CoinMarketCap, which lists cryptocurrencies ranked by market capitalization. You can easily view historical data on each currency with charts, links to websites, the source code on Github, and other technical documentation. CoinMarketCap also has a section set aside for cryptocurrency exchanges.
- ETHLance. The cryptocurrency Ethereum blockchain has a marketplace for freelance projects. You’ll need the MetaMask browser extension as your wallet to use it.
Is cryptocurrency a lucrative niche for freelance writers?
It is if you want to write for Fortune 500 companies about rapidly developing digital currencies.
For example, all the major global consulting companies-IBM, Accenture, Deloitte, Cisco, McKinsey, PwC, etc.-are spending billions of dollars on blockchain development. And the top companies in virtually every industry are testing distributed ledger and blockchain technology for all kinds of practical use cases.
There is no guarantee this testing will catapult the technology into the mainstream, but the current opportunity for freelance writers to cash in on this niche is significant.
Define your niche to reap rewards
In an emerging market or industry with billions in revenue potential, the cryptocurrency culture is also rife with scams. Some crypto exchanges have been hacked resulting in losses of millions of dollars in digital money.
But based on cryptocurrency news and trends, it appears this fin-tech niche will likely stabilize. And that means more great opportunities for freelance writers.
This is an industry still seeking its way, but now is a great time to dig in and establish yourself as the writer for cryptocurrency publications and copywriting clients.
Want to write about or get paid in cryptocurrency? Let’s discuss on Facebook or LinkedIn.
Allen Taylor is a former newspaper editor turned content strategist. He specializes in writing about FinTech and next-generation technology.
