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How to Do Copywriting as a Side Hustle

With the pandemic dominating the news, more and more people are looking for ways to supplement their income. One of the most viable options is to start a copywriting side hustle. Why? Well, it takes little to no experience and you can start making money pretty quickly. But what is copywriting and how do I get started? Let’s dive in.

What Is Copywriting?

Copywriting is the art of producing written content for various media. This could include advertising, email marketing, blog posts, social media posts, and more. You’ll often find copywriters working within marketing departments, digital marketing agencies, and advertising agencies. However, anyone can become a copywriter with little to no experience.

Simply put, copywriting is the language of performance. It’s a combination of marketing, journalism, and advertising. Essentially, you’re spinning content to attract audiences for commercial purposes.

Why Should You Consider a Career in Copywriting?

There are a number of lucrative benefits to pursuing a career in copywriting.

  • You’ll be able to work remotely
  • You won’t have to deal with overly demanding customers
  • You’re in high demand due to the current pandemic
  • The world needs all the help it can get, now more than ever

All of this may seem like a great opportunity to make money, but how exactly do I get started as a copywriter?

How Do I Get Started As A Copywriter?

To start a copywriting career, you’ll need to possess a thorough knowledge of English as well as a couple of other languages. Also, having academic credentials will definitely help you prove your worth in this industry. With that being said, here are the steps to take to start a successful copywriting career.

Step 1: Find Your Niche

It’s always a good idea to find your niche and stick with it. Identify a specific group of people within your target audience and create content that speaks to them. It’s essential to understand what your customer wants before you start pitching your services to them. In order to do this, it’s advisable to study product reviews, compare competitors’ pricing, and keep up with industry trends. Knowing where your target audience is will help you craft the right message to appeal to them.

Step 2: Research The Best Methods For Prospecting

Once you’ve established your niche and begun accumulating a small audience, it’s time to find a way to attract new customers. One of the best methods for doing this is through search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO is the process of increasing a website’s relevance in the search results for particular keywords.

When a user searches for “[insert product] reviews,” your website will appear at the top of the results. Depending on the platform, the user might also be able to reach out to you via a “ [contact us button] ” or a “ [Get in Touch] ” link.

The best part of SEO is that you don’t necessarily need to “pitch” the service. Simply “optimize” your content and the search engine will do the rest.

Step 3: Research Keywords And Phrases

In addition to SEO, you’ll want to accumulate as much content as possible using keyword and phrasal research. There are a number of tools that can help with this such as Google Keyword Planner, Wordtracker, and Keyword Hound. Each of these tools is free and will give you an idea of the most popular keywords and phrases related to your niche.

“[insert product] reviews”

“[insert product] questions”

“[insert product] scam”

“[insert product] advantages”

Once you’ve identified these keywords and phrases, it’s time to use them in your content. The keywords and phrases you select should appear in a natural way within your content while also being relevant to your target audience.

For example, if you are writing about weight loss and you choose the keyword “ [weight loss] ”, your content will contain “ [weight loss] ” within it. However, if you are writing about fashion and you choose “ [fashion] ” as your keyword, the articles might contain “ [style] ” or “ [fashion trends] ” as well.

Step 4: Create Content

With a good understanding of SEO and keyword research in place, it’s time to create content. This content will serve several purposes. Primarily, you’ll use it to attract visitors to your site. But you’ll also want to use content to position yourself as an expert in your industry. Once you have a small audience, creating content is a great way to establish your credibility. It also allows you to build a reputation that can land you additional, paid clients.

The basic structure of a good article contains the following.

  • An introduction
  • A conclusion
  • Main points

As you can see, a good article contains three main parts: an “introduction,” a “conclusion,” and “main points.” The introduction should be short and to the point. It should include just enough information to get the reader interested in the topic.

Some examples of good introductions are as follows:

  • “[Introduction]: To help you learn more about [insert product], we have compiled a list of top [insert product] tips.”
  • “[Introduction]: The best [insert product] will always be the one that [sells itself].”

In the conclusion, you’ll want to briefly summarize what you’ve written. In addition, you’ll want to identify some keywords and phrases that you’ve used in the content and how they performed.

For instance, if you are writing an SEO article for organic food, you might want to include the following in your conclusion: “ [this article] was published on [insert date], and it reached the #1 spot on [google search engine] for ‘[food review] ’.”

The main points should be a concise summary of the whole article. This is where you’ll list the most important points you made in your article. If you want to write an “SEO article” for example, your main points might be:

  • “[Main point]: [SEO basics]: In order to achieve the #1 spot on [Google], you need to understand [SEO basics].”
  • “[Main point]: [On-site optimization]: The key to optimizing your [SEO] is [on-site optimization].”
  • “[Main point]: [Off-site optimization]: Off-site optimization will help your website achieve the #1 spot on [Google].”

As you can see, the “[SEO basics]” and “[on-site optimization]” are two main points that you can use to directly address the reader, while “[off-site optimization]” is a general point that can be applied to any article.

Where Do I Publish My Content?

Once you’ve accumulated a decent amount of content, it’s time to decide where you’ll publish this content. Deciding where to publish your content is critical and can totally change the way you do business. You’ll either want to hit the “ [home page] ” or “ [landing page] ” of your site and promote articles, or you can choose to host the content on a separate page.