If you are someone with an English degree, you may have come across numerous people telling you that your degree will only lead to teaching professions or a career that you may or may not be able to make after the competitive exams. Many people do not know the worth of an English language/literature degree, and remain misguided because of such myths.

Here's a good news for you!

You can start earning and making space for yourself in the market, soon after you start your professional degree in any English major!

How to Start Earning from the First Semester as an English Student?

If you wish to start earning as an English student, follow these steps. 

1. Pick a niche (Either Proof Reading/ Editing or Writing)

2. Learn the basics and technicalities

3. Practice your skills

4. Choose a platform or organization to work with

5. Maintain a social media presence

6. Grow in Your Profession!

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Let's discuss each step in detail

1. Pick a Niche

If you are an English major, you have two options which you can choose separately as well as at the same time. These are,

a. Proof Reading/ Editing

Proof reading involves the reading of a text, and correcting its spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors. While editing means going over a written text, suggesting improvements, and refining the text.

b. Writing

Writing involves blog writing, article writing, web content development, copy writing etc. In such jobs you will be creating content for websites, blogs, social media and advertisement purposes. Your content will help your organization to reach out to clients and increase their visibility in the market.

Are you interested in giving the CSS exam? Do read 'Why Students Fail at CSS?'.

Important Skills for Copywriting/ Proofreading/ Editing

In order to do these jobs effectively you will need the following,

1. Excellent command on English Language

2. Creativity and innovation (Ability to produce new and unique ideas for your content)

3. Command on the rules for grammar and punctuation

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

5. Basic understanding of how websites and social media work

2. How to Learn the Essential Skills for Writing, Proof Reading, and Editing?

There are two routes for you to learn everything you need,

a. Taking Courses and Certifications

The first thing that comes to mind would be to look for a course that can teach multiple of these skills in one go. This is a good option, but you may end up spending a lot of time doing such courses. Moreover, in some of them you will also have to spend money learning things which you can easily do so otherwise.

However, in order to build clint trust, you should consider taking a few courses that lead to a certification. We would recommend that you take a certification in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Certifications provided by google can be beneficial in this regard. You can also get different paid/ unpaid courses through Coursera, Punjab E Rozgar, DigiSkills, NAVTTC, etc.

b. Make Use of YouTube

If you are proficient at English language, and have a sound understanding of its rules, you can take a smart approach to learning. You should go to YouTube and watch videos from trusted creators. This is a more focused and faster approach which can help you star earning more quickly, and also gives you the option to constantly improve your skills as per the latest trends.

If you are looking for some trustable YouTube creators in this regard you must check out copy blogger and Neil Patel on YouTube.

3. Practice Your Skills

As you learn these skills, you should also join different platforms where you can show case your potential. For this you may use the following strategies,

1. Write blogs on free blogging websites

2. Send your articles to newspapers, magazines, and online publishing platforms

3. Voluntarily do some of the work for an organization or creator for free and develop your samples. This will also expose you to potential employers.

4. Chose a Platform and Start Earning with Your Writing and Grammatical Skills

Once you have done the essential practice and learnt the major skills, you should start looking for a platform to work. When it comes to work, there are two major distinctions. You can work on free lance websites as well as local companies around you.

If you wish to work as an online freelancer, you can develop a profile at platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer. You must understand that most of these platforms have a large number of content writers, copywriters, and proofreaders. All of them have really good profiles and a great clientele as well. So, it can be challenging for you to step into this line and build a big clientele as a newcomer because of the saturation of similar professionals.

The other option for you is to reach out content creators, companies and organization around you. Let them know what you can do for them. In this way you can work part time with them, or do online part time work as they outsource their tasks to you.

Remember, its very important that you keep samples of the work you do, to show potential clients. You can maintain PDFs or have links to social media pages or websites for who you have worked.

5. Maintain a Social Media Presence

Once you start working, you must focus on advertising your skills and services through effective social media campaigning on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You can post about client reviews, advertise your services, create content that reflects your skills etc. This will make you visible to a great number of clients, and maintain the credibility of your skills!

6. Keep Growing!

Once you start getting more clients, you can decide if you wish to establish a career in this field. If you do, you can start making a team of individuals to whom you can outsource your work. This way you can continuously increase your clients, and generate greater revenues and profits. By the time you graduate, you will be in a position to start your own business in this field. Moreover, you will be amongst the top candidates for high paying jobs in media and marketing industry as well!

What are you waiting for!

Start capitalizing on your grip at English language today, and kickstart a successful career for yourself!

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Best of Luck for Your Future!

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