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How To Become A Freelance Genealogy Researcher

So many people have a strong desire to connect with their past. Knowing your family history can be interesting, liberating and it can be a wonderful gift to pass onto future generations. This makes being a freelance genealogy researcher a rewarding and interesting career choice.

Steps To Become a Freelance Genealogy Researcher

Step #1 Education. You’ll first need to have a solid understanding about what a freelance genealogy researcher does, what tools and resources they use to get the job done and it helps to have connections in the industry although you can most definitely build those as your business grows. One way to gain all this experience and knowledge is to conduct your own genealogy research. Create your own family tree.

Step #2 Set up your home office. And create a system for record keeping. One of the most important skills and tools you’ll have as a freelance genealogy researcher is the information you’re able to uncover. However if that information isn’t stored in a useful and easy to access manner, you’ll have a difficult time putting together all of the puzzle pieces.

In addition to a computer with internet access you’ll also need reliable transportation because you may be driving to research facilities to dig into archives. That being said, a lot of the preliminary research you will do for your genealogy clients will be online or via the telephone.

Step #3 Decide what services you’re going to offer. Are you strictly a researcher or do you provide some sort of end result, for example a glossy, framed family tree for your clients to hang on their wall. What will you charge? How will you collect payment? What terms, policies and procedures will you put into place. This is the business planning phase. Register your business, obtain a merchant or bank account so you can collect payment and register a domain name so you can create your business website.

Step #4 Build your business website. Before you start putting up pages and get too ahead of yourself, do some research about websites. What pages/information does your website need? What pages/information do you want it to have? Draft a structure of your website by hand, good old pencil and paper will do. Create a flowchart of the pages and information you need and how it all fits together. Then you can either create the website yourself or hire someone to do it for you.

Step #5 Market your services. You’ll likely find that once you get your first couple of customers, word of mouth will be your most effective marketing strategy and you can promote that by offering referral incentives. However, getting those first couple of customers will be your first goal. Article marketing, publishing content about genealogy and advertising are all great ways to spread the word about your freelance genealogy research services.

Becoming a freelance genealogy researcher can be a fun, interesting and rewarding process. Where else do you get to dig into history, uncover family stories, and help people become connected to their ancestors? It’s a great way to make a living.

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