How to Become a Freelance Copywriter

If you are like many people in the work force today, you dream of being your own boss, making your own hours and bringing in a profitable income to boot. According to Statista, there were 59 million people doing freelance work in 2020. Those numbers have sharply increased over the last six years and they are expected to continue to rise.

You have started to consider copywriting (putting down words in order to market a product or company) as a possible freelance opportunity for you. You have always been pretty good at writing and you enjoy doing it. But how do you go from thinking about writing to become a legit freelance copywriter?

Keep reading to find out the first steps to launching your freelance copywriting career.

There are many different types of copywriting and finding the area you want to focus on will both help to make you successful.

Types of copy writing can include creative, social media, technical or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) just to name a few. Immerse yourself in reading all kinds of posts and see what seems like a natural fit for you.

What do you want to write about? Although your niche does not necessarily have to be something that you enjoy doing personally, it is a good place to start. There is no shortage to the number of niches to choose from.

Digital marketing, finance, travel, parenting, alternative health and real estate are just the tip of the iceberg. As your career grows, your niche may end up finding you but for now, pick one or two areas of interest and start writing.

As with any career, you need to have experience to get the job. But the age old question remains. How do you get experience when nobody will hire you without experience? You need to build a portfolio.

One way to gain experience is to start your own blog and post it to your website. Another way is to do guest blog posts for other websites. Some sites will pay their guest bloggers. Even if you do not get paid, this is a great way to add work to your portfolio.

The truth about any kind of freelancing is that you have to hustle for jobs, especially in the very beginning. Eventually you will have clients reaching out to you but you will always need to network to keep the work coming in.

Look to people you already know. You may be surprised at how many people in your contacts use freelance writers. Also look at sites like Flexjobs to apply for job posts.

You will find plenty of blogs that promise to guide you to a fast, three figure income by freelance copywriting. The honest truth is that getting to that point will be anything but fast.

Expect a daily grind filled with hustling for clients. Prepare for many rejections along with some acceptances as you start. This is all OK. You are not going to become a freelance copywriter over night. Freelance writing is a lot of work but the personal and financial rewards will be great when you start selling your own words.