AI Freelance Writing: 10 Opportunities for Writers in 2025
AI doesn’t mean the end of freelance writing opportunities. Over the last year, the entire freelance writing landscape has changed because of one thing, and you know what it is: AI. But that does not mean there aren’t tons of opportunities out there to build a successful, long-term, sustainable freelance writing business.
Good time to build a freelance writing business
In fact, it’s actually a very good time to build a freelance writing business because so many people are realizing that AI isn’t going to solve all of your problems. So today, I’m going to share with you 10 different types of freelance writing businesses that you can get started with today. We’re going to start with some obvious ones that we’re going to work our way up to some of the ones that you might not have thought about, some of the more unique ones, some of the newer opportunities that you have this year.
Kickstart your freelance writing journey
So if you’ve been looking to get into freelance writing, you need a little bit of a Kickstart, you want some ideas, keep watching. Today’s article is for you. Number one, and this is going to be the — this one is only kinda dead — most common type of freelance writing you will find, and that is a Content generalist.
Content generalist explained
You’re the person that can get hired by an agency, a blog, or a business, and you can write an article around whatever they want you to do. I’m sure by now someone has told you that you have to Niche down. Well, guess what? You don’t have to Niche down. You can start as a generalist, dabble in some different ideas, figure out what resonates with you, see where there’s a market, and then you can Niche down over time as you figure out what industry, what Niche, what type of writing aligns with you and your personal goals.
Challenges of being a generalist
The caveat to this is it is getting more difficult to be a generalist because that is one of the easiest types of content for AI to recreate. However, that shouldn’t dissuade you. You should still try. You should still start building your business, but you should also consider some of the other types of freelance writing that we’re going to talk about today because of that fact.
Niche expert as a freelance writer
Number two is a direct response to what we just said, and that is a niche expert, a subject — The riches are in the niches — matter expert. That is where you get really good at one topic, and you become the go-to person in your industry for that type of writing.
Personal example of niche expertise
So for me personally, I’m deeply ingrained in the golf community. I’m one of the few people out there that travels extensively for golf. I know a lot about golf architecture and the golf industry, and I also know direct response marketing, so that makes me really valuable to a lot of different golf companies whether they need a marketer or a deep knowledge of golf or they just need someone that can write about different golf resorts, different golf architecture trends, different golf tech products.
Choosing between generalist, AI, and niche expert
I can do all of those things. So when they’re looking at a generalist versus an AI versus me that has hands-on experience with all of those things, who are they going to pick? Well, it’s a pretty obvious choice. However, establishing that expertise and figuring out where there’s a market can take time, and it can be difficult.
Starting broad and narrowing down
So maybe you already are an expert and you already know what that industry is; if so, great, lean into it. But if you’re not super clear on what that is for you, then don’t be afraid to start broad and then narrow it down over time.
Lucrative B2B writing opportunities
The third type of freelance writing you could pursue is one of the most lucrative out there, and that is B2B writing. That’s where instead of B2C writing or business-to-consumer where you’re writing for people like you and me, you are creating business-related content for other businesses.
Industries that pay well for B2B
You see this a lot in bigger corporate industries, so like finance, education, health. There’s all sorts of opportunities to write business content for other businesses, and because these are usually very large and very well-funded organizations, that means they also pay really well.
Examples of high-paying freelance finance writing
For instance, I’ve seen freelance finance writers that have made upwards of a dollar a word for relatively simple articles. And if you can find a couple clients like that, well, it doesn’t take long to have a full-time business.
Copywriting as a desired but challenging path
All right, fourth one, this is where everybody wants to go but most people should not get started, and that is copywriting. Copywriting is the art of being persuasive with your words.
The importance of confidence in copywriting
If you can learn the art of copywriting where you can convince someone to take an action with your words and be persuasive like that, you will never hurt for money ever again. But with copywriting, it’s kind of tough to fake it till you make it.
Building experience in copywriting
You have to have full confidence in your ability to sell, to get people to take that action, and until you practice it and until you get some small wins, you’re going to have a really difficult time to get other people to hire you to do that.
Working up to a copywriting career
So unless you have a really strong persuasive writing background, unless you have a really strong sales background, this is usually something you’re going to work up to and not necessarily a place you’re going to start. But once you get there, that’s where the opportunity to have a big six-figure sustainable freelance writing career is really going to thrive.
Technical writing often overlooked
Number five is the type of freelance writing that’s often overlooked, and that is technical writing. If you’re really good at details, following instructions, then maybe you can write instructions.
Writing instruction manuals as technical writing
Every single product out there that has an instruction manual needs someone to write that instruction manual, and that’s one of the jobs that a technical writer can do.
Niche technical expertise demand
Or if you have a very specific, very niche technical expertise, then there are all kinds of companies in that industry that are probably going to want to hire you because finding that person can be really difficult.
Challenges and rewards of technical writing
So while technical writing is definitely not for everyone, it’s not always the most fun; it can be a little bit tedious and can be really challenging and thought-provoking. You can get paid really well because it is all those things.
New and different freelance writing opportunities
All right, now is when we start getting into some of the ones that you might not have thought of that might be a little bit different but where there are a ton of opportunities right now.
Content repurposing explained
Number six is content repurposing. There is more content on the internet than ever before and more of a demand for content on the internet than ever before.
Creating more content from less input
So what smart brands and smart businesses are trying to do is they’re trying to create as much content from as little input as possible.
Examples of content repurposing tasks
So if someone can say, go record a YouTube article, and then they can hire someone to transcribe that, turn it into a blog post, turn it into social media posts, turn it into tweets or ex’s tweets—I don’t even know what they’re called anymore—edit those things down into Instagram reels, turn it into emails.
Skills needed for content repurposing
If you’re really good at taking one piece of content and disseminating that into a variety of different channels, there is a huge opportunity.
article editing advantage in content repurposing
This is one of those things that can go beyond writing if you happen to have some article editing skills—that can really come in handy here. But even if you take a YouTube article, transcribe it, and turn that into an email, turn it into blog posts, and turn it into social media snippets and clips and quotes, that is something so many people are looking for right now, and I think that represents one of the biggest opportunities in freelance writing today.
Prompt writing as a new opportunity
Number seven is brand new; it’s only been in the last couple years that this is a thing, but it’s going to become far more popular in the years to come, and that is prompt writing.
Reality of AI content creation
AI is the talk of everything. Everybody thought freelance writing was going to die because AI was going to take it over, but I’ve got good news for you: what’s ended up happening is that all these companies decided to fire their freelancers and fire their writers and say, cool, we’re going to let AI take everything over, they’re going to create all of our content, until they realize their content sucked and nobody wanted to read their content, and it wasn’t doing it because there wasn’t very much thought behind it; it was all artificially generated.
Misconceptions about AI content output
What so many people thought would happen is you would just enter in a couple sentence prompt and all of a sudden you would have a beautiful finished piece of content. Well, that’s not really how AI works.
Importance of good prompts for AI
In order to get the best output, you have to have the best inputs, and that comes down to writing prompts.
Length and detail of effective prompts
Oftentimes, you can have a prompt that’s 400, 500, 600 words long in order to get the result that you’re looking for.
Demand for expert prompt writers
And so if you’re an expert at using AI tools and writing prompts that get good results, then there’s going to be all sorts of people that will be looking to hire you because everybody wants to use AI, they want more content, they want to save time, they want all the benefits of the promises that AI has made, but most people aren’t willing to spend the time and money to get those results.
Future value of prompt writing skills
And so that’s where if you can invest in yourself and you can learn those skills and you can become an expert prompt writer, there’ll be all sorts of brands and companies and publishers that would like to hire you to help run their content division.
Brands’ focus on results, not methods
Most of these brands don’t care how you get there as long as you do.
Need for experts in AI content creation
So all these brands that want to get into AI, they need someone smart who really knows what they’re doing in order to get the results necessary.
Prompt writing as a long-term skill
So if you’re willing to invest that time and energy, that is a skill that is going to pay off for a long time to come.
Transcription remains a viable option
All right, number eight is something that’s maybe a little bit of a dying breed because of the app for mentioned AI, but there is still a big opportunity there, and that is transcriptions.
Medical transcription opportunities
So especially the medical field, medical transcription, transcriptionist is still a very real thing.
Types of transcription work available
There are freelance opportunities for you to transcribe article content, audio content, a lot of handwritten content that needs to be digitized.
Tools and demand for transcription work
So while yes, there are a lot of tools out there to help make this easier and faster, there are plenty of organizations that have so much of this work they need someone to manage that process, and especially if you can learn how to use some of the latest digital tools out there to help you speed up that process and make it more accurate, there is still a freelance market for transcription work.
Proofreading and editing opportunities
Number nine, proofreading and editing.
Grammarly’s limitations
Yes, Grammarly is out there, and yes, it’s mostly pretty good, but it’s not that good.
Personal experience with editing needs
I use Grammarly all the time and it is helpful, but believe me, with every email and every blog post I put out, I get someone that emails me with a mistake or an edit or something that needs to happen.
Demand for detail-oriented proofreaders and editors
So there’s still a big opportunity for proofreading and editing jobs if you are a detail-oriented person.
Growing need due to self-publishing
This is especially true considering self-publishing is more popular than ever, so there’s a lot of people that need a proofreader or an editor to read their books, to read their white papers, to read their sales pages.
Value of human editing over tools
There’s an unlimited amount of content that can benefit from a second set of eyes, and while tools like Grammarly are pretty good, they still aren’t quite as good as having a detail-oriented person do it by hand.
Opportunity for detail lovers in editing
So if that’s you and you really like to get into the details and the nitty-gritty of content, there’s an opportunity to freelance.
Email outreach as a freelance writing type
Finally, the last type of freelance writing that I would consider is email outreach.
The art of email outreach
There is an art to email outreach.
Value of cold emails that get results
People that can send a cold email that actually gets opened and gets a positive response, that is one of the most valuable skills you can learn.
Course offering for pitching skills
In fact, we have an entire course called How to Pitch in Location Rebel Academy that you get access to when you join that has templates, it teaches you everything you need to know about how to pitch.
Copywriting subset of email outreach
This is one of the most valuable skills I have ever learned.
You know, I would say copywriting is the most valuable skill; well, this is a subset of copywriting that has very specific tactics and strategies and methodologies.
Benefits of mastering email outreach
But if you can learn how to do it, all of a sudden a whole new world is going to open up to you, and the thing is most people don’t know how to do that.
Variety of uses for cold emailing
So there’s lots of companies that do cold emailing for a variety of things, maybe it’s people doing SEO and need backlinks, or they want to get guest posts, or they’re trying to get PR opportunities, whatever it is.
Big opportunity in email outreach
If you can be the person that a company can hire and say, hey, I’m going to go write all these cold emails for you, I’m going to get you a bunch of leads, a bunch of clients, make you a bunch of money, whatever it is, there is a big opportunity there.
Email outreach as an overlooked industry
So specializing in email outreach is still a huge industry that’s often overlooked by freelancers.
Various writing types within email outreach
There’s all sorts of different types of writing that are going to fall into some of these categories, you know, learning how to write a proper sales page, learning how to write an about page, learning how to write an email sequence, learning how to write a good newsletter that’s engaging and gets people to sign up, learning how to write a squeeze page to get people to opt in.
Copywriting forms within freelance writing
Those are all kind of forms of copywriting, but you can specialize in any one of those and create a sustainable freelance business.
Goal of the article to open eyes to opportunities
So my goal of this article is just to open up your eyes to the freelance writing world that exists right now.
Addressing fears about AI and opportunity
So many people have been like, oh my God, AI is taking over everything, the world’s coming to an end, there’s no opportunity.
There is still opportunity with new rules
There is so much opportunity right now; you just have to understand the new rules to the game.
Persistence and creativity needed
You have to be persistent, you have to have a thick skin, and you have to be willing to be a little bit creative and figure out what sets you apart, and you can do that within any of these types of freelance jobs that I just talked about.
Closing and introduction
So I hope you found this valuable.
My name is C.O. I’m the founder of this thing here at Location Rebel where we teach you how to make money on the internet with your words.
If you got some value out of this, make sure to go check out our free six-day course.
I’m going to walk you through everything you need to know to build a sustainable freelance writing business.
I’ve been doing this for over 15 years, and there’s a reason that I’m still here 15 years later, and I look—look at these gray hairs, look how old I am—I’ve been doing this for a long time, but there’s a reason that I’m still here doing it, because everything that I teach works, and everything we do in Location Rebel Academy is to help you build that business as quickly as possible.
I hope you got some value out of this article.
If you’re trying to figure out what to watch next, I would recommend going and taking a look at this right here.
