Most of what I've done has been for clients that want to document how to accomplish something specific with a company's library or API. Usually this ends up being 1200-1500 words including detailed instructions and code samples.
A few weren't product specific, but instead about how to accomplish a specific task with React or Angular. Companies pay for articles like these because they hope to attract customers by providing useful information to developers. I think that's a fair trade, as long as the article is actually good and teaches something new to the people who read it. Personally, if I've read a good article or blog post I don't mind if the company mentions their own products at the end. It's not like they're forcing me to but anything. :)
I've done one whitepaper as well, though I'm not sure that qualifies as 'technical writing'. More like writing a high level topic that is about a technical subject, but aimed at managers and executives who are thinking of adopting that product or technology.
That’s interesting. I had always thought of TW as manuals and documentation. It never occurred to me that it could be “marketing”. At my job we’ve payed people to write articles for Trade journals That relate to our products. But I never thought of it as TW. Now that you mention it, it think it obviously does.
How do you find these gigs? What’s the going rate for 1200 words?
Most of what I've done has been for clients that want to document how to accomplish something specific with a company's library or API. Usually this ends up being 1200-1500 words including detailed instructions and code samples.
A few weren't product specific, but instead about how to accomplish a specific task with React or Angular. Companies pay for articles like these because they hope to attract customers by providing useful information to developers. I think that's a fair trade, as long as the article is actually good and teaches something new to the people who read it. Personally, if I've read a good article or blog post I don't mind if the company mentions their own products at the end. It's not like they're forcing me to but anything. :)
I've done one whitepaper as well, though I'm not sure that qualifies as 'technical writing'. More like writing a high level topic that is about a technical subject, but aimed at managers and executives who are thinking of adopting that product or technology.