Whether you are looking for a fun career path to take, or are trying to change careers, freelance copywriting is a great career to choose. Copywriting jobs are very dynamic, offering you some perks that traditional office jobs do not offer.
Copywriting is the art of writing with a set objective: to make people sign up for a newsletter or make a sale. All businesses need copywriters. Therefore, whether they sell products or services, venturing into copywriting will offer you huge growth prospects.You can take different career paths in your copywriting job, but freelance copywriting is one of the best.
Why is freelance copywriting a good path to take in your copywriting business?
In the recent past, I have heard a lot of arguments on which is better between employment and business. While supporters of both sides of the divide have varied points on why they think the way they do, and we can’t all be business people or freelance copywriters, I will tell you a few things about being employed.
As you already know, you do not fully control your career and financial growth when you pursue employment. Also, you do not have the freedom to pick who you want to work with. As a copywriter, you can decide to apply for a corporate job, where you work by writing copies for a single company or an agency, or you can be a freelance copywriter.
Working for a company as a copywriter is beneficial at the beginning of your career, where you want to gain more experience. Still, freelance copywriting will earn you more benefits in the long term.
Pros of freelance copywriting jobs.
Freedom.
The basic of them all would be freedom. After the break of Covod-19, companies are shifting to the work-from-home arrangement. However, some companies still hold on to the traditional work-from-the-office arrangement
If you have a job requiring you to work from the office, you waste a lot of time and resources commuting. On the other hand, freelance copywriting jobs are fully remote. You might never meet your clients in person.
Whether you want to write from a safari jeep in Africa or a beach in Thailand, that is totally up to you, and no one will question where you wrote the copies from as long as you deliver quality copies.
Freelance copywriting jobs give you control of your career path. In traditional jobs, how much you go up the career ladder sometimes depends on how much your boss likes you or whether they are fair in their performance evaluation. Unfortunately, your efforts may never be rewarded if you work for a business with no proper work culture and well-defined promotion guidelines.
For freelance copywriting jobs, how high you go up your career depends on you. How much you write, how much you invest in learning, and how much you look for freelance copywriting clients will determine how much you earn.
Copywriting is forever.
With the development of technology, many occupations have been rendered obsolete. Well, copywriting is not one of those occupations, and no, if you think copywriting is a new career, well, it’s not.
Copywriting was there when all we had was print media, it evolved with digital media, and it’s still here today. See those advertisements you see in the newspaper or magazine? A copywriter wrote those. Even those commercials that you see on TV or when you watch videos on youtube that is the work of a copywriter. Therefore, freelance copywriting is the way to go if you want to build a career that will grow and last a long time.
Freedom to choose who to work with or who to work for.
Let’s be honest; almost all of us have worked for a company we didn’t like or align values with. We all have worked in a team with a mean colleague or boss and had to take up a lot of nonsense in the process.
Freelance copywriting helps you avoid this pitfall. It’s true sometimes people can be difficult, which is informed by things like their background, temperaments, etc. you will probably find some of your freelance copywriting clients annoying. However, with your freelance copywriting business, you can decide whether you want to continue working for that client or not. In most cases, you will be working on your own, so you won’t have annoying co-workers to deal with.
Freelance copywriting will save you a lot of time and resources that you would otherwise have used on commuting to a traditional job. With a freelance copywriting job, you can jump out of bed, run to your desk, and start working.
Cons of freelance copywriting jobs.
It is lonely.
While working from home is by far the most fulfilling thing I have ever had to do, it can be lonely sometimes, especially if you are single and living alone. Sometimes you can sit in the house the whole week and the next thing you know, it’s another start of the week.
While you can resolve this by making intentional efforts to meet up with friends and family, it will feel different at first, especially if you are used to going to the office and working with colleagues.
The income is uncertain; the workflow is unsteady.
This will happen especially at the beginning of your freelance copywriting career. Unlike being employed in a traditional job where your salary at the end of the month is guaranteed whether the company finds new clients or not, freelance copywriting is not guaranteed a monthly retainer.
Whether you earn pay at the end of the month and how much you earn is dependent on whether you find clients and how much you write. While this may look like a con, I would say that this is a major motivation after more than six years of freelance work. Knowing that your efforts will earn you more money keeps you on the move.
Freelance copywriting requires discipline.
If there is something that will teach you self-discipline the hard way, it is freelance working. You work on your terms and in your own time. This is a pro and a con, in that you will have to learn how to manage your time and work without a boss constantly on your case, and a con if you do not pick up self-discipline quick enough because, in return, you will pay for that by losing clients or earning less than you can survive on.
Skills you need to be successful in freelance copywriting.
Like any other long-term career, freelance copywriting is not an easy way to make money, but it is a sure way to build a long-lasting career path. Don’t get me wrong; you do not have to be perfect or to have had a successful writing career before you take up freelance copywriting. However, you will need a few essential skills or values to succeed as a freelance copywriter.
Researching skills.
As a copywriter, you do not have to know everything about the business you are writing for but know how to get the information. Research ranges from asking your client all the relevant questions that will contribute to your copywriting to burying yourself in every available journal, book, and article on the topic you want to write about.
As we already mentioned, copywriting is persuasive writing, and one of the best ways to write a copy that persuades readers to take action is by identifying the problem the target audience may be facing.
Research helps you as a copywriter to identify your readers’ problems and craft a copy that shows how the business is solving the problem for the copy to be effective.
At the beginning of your copywriting career, you probably will take up jobs from different fields before you identify which niche you love to write for and finally settle on writing within that specific niche.
So, in the beginning, you may have to write medical copies, and you probably studied business or write copies about gardening, though you don’t know much about gardening. How you will successfully write these copies on subjects you are not very conversant with is by researching.
Writing.
Freelance copywriting is mostly about writing copies. So, you must be ready to write if you want to pursue this career path. Don’t get me wrong, you do not have to be a perfect writer, but you must be ready to write and learn. As most of us have, you will probably suck at the beginning, but with time, you will hone the skill.
What I like to tell people about writing is that the more you do it, the better you become at it, and the faster you can do it. When I started freelance writing, I could barely write a five hundred-word article daily. I used to struggle with arranging my thoughts and ideas; I sucked at typing. Six years later, I can write a four thousand-word article in about four hours. This is still probably slow compared to other people but compared to where I have come from, this is a legit great improvement.
So, do not sit and wait for your writing to improve; start writing, practice daily, and read as much as you can. I promise it will get better before you know it. As a freelance copywriter, I read a lot of persuasive writing material and try to write not just anything else but copies.
Editing and proofreading.
In freelance copywriting, this doesn’t matter how long you have been writing; proofreading and editing your work is necessary. I use Grammarly to check my work for spelling mistakes, then read through it. Grammarly is really helpful and gives many suggestions on how to reconstruct sentences to make them more meaningful.
However, I prefer rereading my work even after passing it through Grammarly because this helps me catch some contextual errors that an editing software is likely to miss.
It doesn’t matter how good of a copy you write; if it is filled with grammatical and spelling errors, you will most likely not succeed in the freelance copywriting world. At whichever point in your freelance copywriting, ensure your work is as error-free as possible.
Marketing.
Well, yes, I said marketing. In freelance copywriting, you are the person to source the projects; remember, you are the boss. Copywriting for a company or a marketing agency is easier because you will always have a steady flow of projects, and you do not have to look for them yourself.
You are a good copywriter, but can you sell that skill to someone who needs it? Marketing is more of putting your product and services out there and convincing the client that you can help them achieve their goals by writing the best copies. A certain level of PR will be needed, and how you approach a client will vary from case to case but always be prepared with a few samples or an online portfolio to back up your pitching.
Now that we have looked at the basic skills required to succeed in your freelance copywriting career let me take you through six places you can get your freelance copywriting gig.
Start your own blog.
I am a huge fan of blogging. My blogging journey dates back to 2017 when I was in my second year at university. I started a free site, and one thing led to another, and that is how I own and run this site today.
I love blogging because it is unlimited in terms of the things you can pursue. As you will learn as a freelance copywriter, there are different branches of copywriting. Email copywriting, website copywriting, SEO copywriting, Ad copywriting, and social media copywriting, just to mention a few.
As a blog owner, you will be doing a lot of website copywriting for your blog, email copywriting for your email list contact, and social media copywriting to promote your blog on different social media platforms. Though a blog may take you longer to earn a full-time income than getting a copywriting client, in the end, it will be worth it.
Upwork.
Upwork is an American freelancing platform that connects businesses to talented individuals. Upwork is a good place to start your freelance copywriting career. All you need to do is sign up and get your profile approved. Optimize your profile for freelance copywriting. List your achievement as a copywriter, and also, you can put in a few samples on your profile as testimonials.
Some clients on Upwork might require you to write a sample copy before they can give you the project. Some samples are paid, and others are unpaid. Different people respond to unpaid samples differently, but I would advise you to be willing to do a free sample at the start of your freelance copywriting career.
While some people focus on the “lost money,” a beginner copywriter focuses on the gained knowledge. Free samples are especially helpful if the target client offers helpful feedback, which will help you improve your copywriting skills.
Fiverr.
Like Upwork, Fiverr is a freelancing platform allowing businesses to contract freelancers on over five hundred job categories. It is free to sign up on Fiverr. As a freelancer, you set the terms and the payment of the project, and the copywriting client decides whether they want to reach out and work with you. An example of a copywriting listing on Fiverr would be that I will write a 500 words email copy for $10.
Getting the first project, as with every other platform, is the only uphill climb on Fiverr; from there, good reviews and expertise will help you get more and more clients.
Flexjob .
Flexjob is a work-from-home jobs board that offers jobs in various categories, including copywriting. Flexjob is a paid-for service. Though signing up is free, you cannot see the company’s name unless you have their premium account.
Flexjob also posts many jobs from the USA, so if you come from a different part of the world, you might still get something, but you will have a limited pool of jobs compared to the USA-based workers
I know some people don’t necessarily like LinkedIn, but the truth is, you can still get legit, well-paying freelance copywriting jobs on LinkedIn. Make sure your profile is optimized for freelance copywriting, follow copywriters, businesses and agencies that offer copywriting jobs, and who knows who might land on your profile.
Also, do not shy away from reaching out to businesses that advertise freelance copywriting jobs, and let them know that you are interested in the job posting.
Network with other businesses.
Every time you get a freelance copywriting gig that is your chance to show off and earn yourself some future business. You cannot afford to blow up.
Like in any other business, freelance copywriting is favored by referrals and networking. Reach out to businesses in your area on your social media and tell them that you do Copy write for businesses.
If they do not have any projects, ask them to mention you if something comes up or if other businesses or partners need a copywriter. When you get a freelance copywriting job, give it your best so that your client can refer you to other people or even ask them to write a testimonial that you can use to pitch to other clients.
Also, you can network by attending copywriting workshops and events. Attending the paid ones, especially, may be a good place to start. Most free ones do not really have clients seeking to hire; they are most likely filled with other freelance copywriters looking for copywriting projects.
Summary.
Copywriting is not an easy way to make money, but it is a sure way to monetize your persuasive writing. Whether you feel afraid or confident, do not wait until you are perfect. Sign up on the different job boards, optimize your social media for copywriting, and get started.
Leave a comment below if you have any questions or a different site or place you would like to share with us where to get freelance copywriting jobs.
All the best in your freelance copywriting venture!