Research and Creativity

I have been a freelance researcher for four and a half years now and it is something that I thoroughly enjoy. Currently I am working on two projects and working on a bid for a third. 

Freelance Research

It is worth getting some training as a researcher if you want to earn a decent rate. It is possible to earn £500 or $1,000 a day at freelance research. More usually the rate is between £250-300 or $5-600. Most projects will work out somewhere between five and ten research days - including report writing. However, the research days could be spread over a couple of months or more so you need several projects or another source of income to keep yourself going.

The Cyclical and Creative Nature of Research

Research may seem like a straightforward process when it is written up, but in truth it is anything but. Interpretation and creativity play a large part in trying to understand what people are communicating to you when they answer your questions. This means that there is a lot of weaving and relating things back to the beginning when you write a research report.

Research is a good way of improving your people skills. Focus group methods in particular will mean that you have to learn to get on with sometimes large groups of people if you want to get anything useful from this method. Research should be ethical and nowadays it is becoming common practice to give research respondents something for taking part in the research - which should hopefully be an enjoyable process for all concerned. What do you think about research?