As a content writer or freelance journalist, a little learning can go a very long way. In the course of your career, you may become quite expert in a particular topic(s), perhaps because of a job you once had, or because you once had to do a lot of research or interviews in that area, or just through first-hand experience.

To get more bang for your freelancing buck, you want to spin that knowledge and experience out into as many commissions as possible, so helping you save time and maximise your income. Here are a few examples of how you might do this, illustrated by reference to two very different topics: crowdfunding a novel and stress.

Write a Case Study

Tell a story from my own or a contact’s experience, e.g., “How I’m Crowdfunding My Novel” or “How I Went from Burnout and 18-hour Days to a Decent Work-Life Balance.”

Top Tips 

Offer some practical pointers on a topic. Think “Top Tips for Crowdfunding a Novel” or “Managing Stress: Dos and Don’ts.”

Jump on a Topical Hook 

If your topic is in the headlines, now’s the time for a spot of newsjacking. For example, this article detailing research that suggests Omega-3s may have little effect on mental health could be the pretext for you to pitch a piece on “Five Ways to Eat to Beat Stress” or “The Science Behind Stress.”

Go Seasonal 

How about a “Christmas Seasonal Survival Guide” or “Top Tips for Dealing with Exam Stress.” Or with our other topic, for late autumn, how about a trends piece: “Five Publishing Trends to Look Out for – and What They Mean for Authors.” One of the trends is, of course, crowdfunding.

Be Contrary 

Everyone says stress is bad for you, don’t they? Well, how about a piece like this one, looking at “When Stress is Good for You?” Or how about “Five New Approaches That are Killing the Traditional Publishing Model” (one of which, guess what, is crowdfunding).

Go Large 

Sometimes you can drop everything you know in a big piece – maybe turn it into an ebook or a really in-depth feature. Maybe “The Ultimate Guide to Crowdfunding Your Book” or “101 Stress Management Tips.”

Focus on a Very Specific Audience

For managers, “How to Spot the Telltale Signs of Burnout in Your Staff.” For the education sector, “Ten Stress Management Strategies for Teachers.” For parents, “Five Ways to Help Your Children Handle Stress.” And so on.

Add Some Humour 

Mix it up to comic effect with some anti-advice. “Ten Ways NOT to Crowdfund Your Novel” might be fun. A while back, humourists took books like The Little Book of Calm and wrote parodies such as The Little Book of Stress.

Go Macro

Take a step back and look at your topic from the widest possible perspective. Think “How Much Does Stress Cost the USA Every Year?” or “Is Your Organization Under Stress?” Also, “What’s Behind the Rise of Alternative Funding Models?”

Think Alternative 

How about “Ten Natural Remedies for Stress” or “Five Complementary Therapies That Make You Feel Less Frazzled,” or, combined with a case study, “How Yoga and Shiatsu Saved Me from Burnout?”

Write a Quiz

Obvious ideas here might be: “How stressed are you?” or “How Stressed is Your Team?” or “How Resilient Are You?” The quiz doesn’t have to be complex – it could just be scored according to how people answered, e.g., mostly As, mostly Bs, etc. Or you could do a multi-choice general knowledge quiz: “How Much Do You Know About Stress?” With our other topic, how about “Have You Got What It Takes to Crowdfund a Book?”

Bust Some Myths

Offer a piece where you take a series of commonly held beliefs about your topic, at least some of which you reveal to be false. Listicles like ‘10 Things You Never Knew About Stress/Crowdfunding’ take a similar approach.

BIO – Dan Brotzel (@brotzel_fiction) is author of a collection of short stories, Hotel du Jack, and co-author of a new comic novel, Kitten on a Fatberg (Unbound). To order Kitten on a Fatberg for a ten percent discount, quote KITTEN10