You have a knack for writing. Your friends and family all agree on this point. Sadly, few people recognise your genius when it comes to copywriting. You may have picked up a knack for writing from an early age, or perhaps you simply enjoy playing with words. Either way, you should explore the world of freelance copywriting as a career option. You may find that this is a perfect balance between creative and analytical thinking, both of which you can bring to the table when it comes to crafting compelling copy.
Create a Website
To begin your freelance copywriting career, you must first establish yourself as an expert in your field. One option is to create a website. The digital nomad community may refer to websites like wordpress.com or squarespace.com as ‘blogging platforms’. These are perfect for establishing yourself as an expert in your field, and they provide the ability to easily promote your freelance copywriting career. Your website may contain a blog, case studies, or even just a straightforward directory of your freelance copywriting work.
Get A Blogging Platform
Once you have established yourself as an expert in your field, you can move onto the next step of your freelance copywriting career – establishing a blog. A blog is a type of website that often contains a collection of short articles, or ‘blog posts’ as we will refer to them. When establishing a blog, it’s important to choose a platform that suits your needs. There are two main types of blog platforms: static or dynamic. Static blogs are simply blogs that are built using a template, and they typically don’t require any maintenance beyond basic HTML formatting.
The advantage to establishing a static blog is that all of your content is safely stored online, and it’s fully optimised for search engines. As a result, your content will be discoverable by potential clients, all of which can be located online.
Choose 3 Keywords To Target
When establishing your blog, you will need to consider using three keywords or phrases to draw the attention of potential readers. When a potential reader lands on your blog, they should be able to easily discover the content they’re looking for. In the case of a product blog, these keywords will likely be product-related keywords (i.e. ‘umbrella,’ ‘raincoat,’ ‘coaster,’ etc.).
In the case of a service blog, these keywords will be used to attract potential customers (i.e. ‘blogging,’ ‘web design,’ ‘marketing,’ etc.). When choosing three keywords, try not to choose the same three words – this will make your blog appear less authentic. In the case of the three product-related keywords mentioned above, a consumer may initially assume that your blog is about their product, when in fact it could be about nearly any product.
Decide Whether To Use Product Or Service Keywords
Depending on your blog’s niche, you may want to consider using either product or service keywords for the three keywords you select. If you’re unsure of what type of keywords to choose, ask yourself, ‘Will my target audience be searching for products or services so that they can find what they’re looking for?’
If your target audience is primarily looking for products, you may want to choose product-related keywords, as these will naturally bring results for your blog. For example, a consumer who is looking for a new washing machine may enter the keyword ‘washer’ into the search bar of a search engine, and the results they get back will tell them where to find this product. When choosing this type of keyword, remember that too many products could potentially lead to your blog being ignored by potential customers, as there will be countless other blogs online that deal with products and services relevant to what they’re looking for.
On the other hand, if your target audience is primarily finding services, you may want to choose service-related keywords. For example, if you are a solo entrepreneur who is marketing your business, you may enter the keyword ‘business’ into the search bar of a search engine, and the results they get back will relate to business-related blogs and forums.
Create Content To Attract Potential Clients
Now that you have selected the keywords you will use to attract prospective customers to your blog, it’s time to begin creating content to attract potential customers. It is important to keep things relatively simple and clean when creating content for your blog. This is important for achieving organic growth of your blog, as overly complicated content usually earns backlinks and gains popularity quickly, but it often also makes the content difficult to understand for the average reader.
Produce Short Blogs (500 Words Or Fewer)
To begin with, try producing short blog posts, preferably under 500 words. Remember, less is more when it comes to content – short and simple is usually the best strategy. Although there is no rule of thumb when it comes to the length of a blog post, shorter is usually better, as long as the content is interesting and valuable to readers. If you can fit all the important information into a short blog post, it will likely be easier for your target audience to understand and retain what you’re trying to say. If you want to make your blog stand out from the crowd, choose topics that are either very specific or very general in nature.
Curate An Editorial Calendar
After you have established your blog with a few short blog posts, it’s time to start thinking about an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar is simply an outline of your publishing schedule. Regularly publishing content is important for keeping the interest of your target audience, but publishing too frequently can make the content difficult to catch once you’ve already begun to publish.
You may want to consider publishing at least twice a month, with some weeks containing four or five posts. As your blog grows in popularity, you may want to consider increasing the number of posts you have from twice a month to once or twice a week. Establishing a weekly publication schedule can also be a good way to keep things fresh and interesting for your readers – and fresh content is always good, right?
Build A Community
Along with establishing your blog, you can also join online communities that exist for freelancers. These communities can be a great way to connect with other freelancers, as well as potential customers, and they often provide helpful information and inspiration for those looking to establish themselves as independent contractors. Joining forums and groups like these can help you build your network, as well as allow you to gain valuable knowledge about freelancing and independent contracting.
Get A Professional Looking Web Presence
To further establish yourself as an expert in your field, you can take advantage of your blog by creating a more professional-looking web presence. For a truly luxurious look, you may want to consider purchasing a premium domain name and securing a website hosting account. This will give your site a polished and professional look that will undoubtedly attract customers.
If you have a larger budget, you may want to consider investing in the design and template of your site. Designing a site from the ground up can be a lot of work, and sometimes it’s worth paying for professional help.
Once you have a beautifully designed website, it’s time to populate it with useful content. Adding a blog to your website is a fantastic way to do this, as it allows you to regularly publish content that is also cross-posted to social media sites like Google+, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Promote Your Blogger Career
If you followed the steps above, you should now have a beautiful blog that is populated with valuable content. Now it’s time to promote your blog so that it can start earning you some serious cash. The best way to do this is to promote your blog on social media sites like Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as through online forums, directories, and blogs that are linked to online retailers.
The above steps should get you well on your way to establishing yourself as a freelance copywriter, provided you continue to learn and grow as a professional. Blogging offers a fantastic opportunity to get noticed online and gain some serious credibility, and with a bit of luck and hard work, you may even make enough money to quit your day job.