What You Should Know About Working as a Freelance Copywriter

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If you are in search of an easy side hustle and have some writing skills or even passion for writing, consider working as a copywriter.

This is quite a simple way of making money that almost anybody can manage, and that is highly flexible to fit your lifestyle.

What Do Copywriters Do?

In general, copywriting refers to producing pieces of writing for different businesses or advertising purpose. Therefore, copywriters do not usually write fiction or journalism, but rather homepage content, advertisement content, sales scripts, and other pieces of writing to help things get sold. Sometimes, the term ‘copywriter’ includes also an author who produces blog content. The articles here are often journalistic in style but still used for marketing and sales.

In simple words, your job is to find a client and provide him with a piece of writing that meets his goals. You will have to meet deadlines, and most likely will be paid per word. In most cases, you will work as a ‘ghostwriter,’ as copywriters are rarely credited anywhere.

As to the payment, this can range anywhere from $1 to $100 per 100 words. The cost will depend on the type of work and some other features.

Benefits of Working as a Freelance Author

First, it requires little effort to find work when you are the beginner copywriter. For example, I have only posted three ads during my entire career and have received enough offers to sustain myself financially for the past five years. I began my freelance work when I was still in college, and found out it was a perfect option for me as a student. Now, I use this job as an excellent side hustle.

By the way, my wife is a stay-at-home mom, who also works as an online copywriter when she has time.

If you enjoy writing and get motivated by producing any written samples, this kind of work might fit you, as well. What I love about this job is being given a specific task and a time frame to complete it in, then being left to my own space and devices. There is quite a little communication with the client, thanks to which I have more time to get the actual assignment done.

One more great thing about working as a freelance writer is that usually you get paid each time you deliver a batch of work. In most cases, you get some money almost daily, which provides excellent options for budgeting.

Negatives of Working as a Freelance Writer

The first drawback is that the pay is sometimes too low when you are a beginner. As writing is the work that literally anyone can do, you are always competing with people from all around the world. A significant amount of these authors are able to charge much lower rates because of lower costs of living, this way driving down the amount other authors can charge. However, if you have got an impressive portfolio, you may be able to find a client that will offer you a bigger reward for more challenging assignments.

Otherwise, all you can do is competing with the lower-paid authors by learning to provide big volumes of writing quickly. It might be tiring for some, but works great for the others.

Also, if you hate working to deadlines, then being a freelance writer will not be the best option for you. Producing high volumes of content on stupid subjects, often with silly instructions, can be quite challenging for some.

What Skills are Required?

First, you must have good writing skills. You do not need to be a talented author, but it is necessary to have an ability to express your thoughts in a clear and concise manner.

It is also very helpful to learn a bit about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In simple words, it means optimizing websites to be visible on search engines like Google. To produce good SEO articles, one should know how to use keywords and other basic instruments.

To create a more appealing proposition, you can offer including images with your writing. You can provide pictures that are made by yourself or the ones bought at stock photography websites.

One more option is to learn web design or SEO, and then sell those skills as a package. For instance, you can create a website and suggest adding the content. Or you can provide SEO services and include SEO articles.

How to Find Work

There are a few places where a freelance writer can find jobs:

• Freelancing websites. These are sites where freelancers list their skills and clients list jobs. On such websites, you can easily find one-off offers and short-term contracts.
• Webmaster forums. Here, webmasters lead discussions about SEO, web design, internet marketing, etc. Additionally, it is a place where they often place job listings, and professionals advertise their services.
• Writing agencies. These companies have many authors on their books and mobilize them to come up with the writing pieces as they come in. With such an agency, you can even get a full-time job.