Imagine this: juggling the demands of college assignments while dreaming of starting your own business as a freelance copywriter. It’s not easy, I know. I’ve been there, and I understand the overwhelming feeling of not knowing where to start. But fear not! I’m here to share some valuable insights and tips on how you can kick-start your journey as a freelance copywriter, even when it seems impossible.
How to Become a Freelance Copywriter: Where Do You start?
First things first, let’s talk about skills and knowledge. You absolutely do not need to go to a 4-year university to become a freelance copywriter. You do, however, need to make the most of every moment. Going to a technical college for marketing and spending my time studying was sufficient for me. Trust me, every bit of learning counts, and it’ll lay the foundation for your future success.
All that being said, let’s dive in and I’ll show you exactly how I started a freelance copywriter business.
Establishing Copywriting Services
Once you feel comfortable enough in your ability to write (and trust me, it can take a while), then you’ll be able to create your website. Don’t worry about everything being perfect at this stage, you just need to take the first steps. I won’t be going into the nitty gritty of website building here, but we’ll go further into specific pages in just a moment.
Now that you’ve got a website, brand name, and personal style, it’s time to determine your price point. What specific services you offer is completely up to you, and you’ll need to take your time deciding how much to charge for them.
How to Market Your Copywriting Services
As a marketing student, this whole process is right up my alley. So you have a website, and you have established your blog and price point. Now, you just need traffic. I recommend starting with SEO blog writing, since that’s right in our niche. Here, we’ll show you our step-by-step process for blog writing.
SEO Blog Writing
A lot of this may seem overwhelming to you at first, and that’s okay. I’ll break down exactly how I started my blog. Your blog should already be established at this point, so let’s jump right into the first post.
The first step to building your post is establishing an idea. What do you want the blog post to be about? It’s important to keep in mind that you want to stick to your brand. At Lorem Finch, we only post about copywriting or digital marketing.
Keywords
Once you have your idea, you need to find keywords. This is the part that I always dreaded a little. It’s a bit of work, sure, but it could also get pricey. Super comprehensive sites like SEMrush will cost you an arm and a leg, and free tools like Google Ads don’t always provide as much data. It’s up to you which programs your company will use, but don’t be afraid to play around and discover which works best for you.
Each site works a little differently, but there are two main keyword stats you should look for: volume and keyword difficulty. The volume is the amount of monthly searches that keyword is getting, and keyword difficulty is a number that gives you an estimate of how difficult it will be to rank for that keyword in Google. Now, keep in mind that what you’re looking for in a keyword will differ each time. As a broad, general rule, you want to look for keywords that have a high volume and low KD, or keyword difficulty.
Start Writing
Now that you have your topic and keywords, we can finally start writing! Well, almost. You’ll want to fill out some sort of outline or content brief first. This will help you outline your post. Try to remember that keywords work best if they’re in both your headlines and sprinkled throughout the body text. This doesn’t mean overstuffing! Try to use them in ways that are natural. If you’re up for a challenge, try to figure out what our keywords were for this post!
Finally, at the end of all of this, you’ll have yourself a finished blog post! Or, at least a rough draft. At this point, I recommend getting your blog post reviewed by one or two people you trust. A second pair of eyes can help point out any spelling errors or consistency mistakes. Then, I like to use SEO analysis software like Yoast SEO to help finalize my post. Then, it’s time to hit publish. Congrats! You’ve just finished the first big milestone on your way to becoming a freelance copywriter!
Free Tools to Aid Your Journey
I’ve mentioned some free tools to help with writing in a previous post, but we haven’t dipped into tips for setting up your freelance copywriting services. Some of these are copywriting-exclusive, and some are helpful for starting a business in general. All of these free tools are ones that I personally have experience with, so rest assured that these are at the top of my list.
Trello
We’ve praised Trello in the past for being our go-to content scheduling program. What’s not to love? It’s free and simple to use. While there are limitations with the free version, there should be enough there to help you plan out your posts.
Calend.ly
If you’re a freelance copywriter, you know the importance of good communication between you and your clients. Calend.ly is a scheduling program that will allow you to set up calls with your clients. Plus, it keeps everything tidy so you don’t have to worry about managing all that info.
Google Ads
While you do have to pay to run ads on any platform, Google Ads has a few free tricks up its sleeve. Namely the keyword research capabilities. While the data doesn’t get as spot-on as other programs, it’s overall a pretty nifty tool to get you started.
Let’s get you writing!
You’ve established a brand, set up a website and blog, put up some posts, and even picked up a few tricks on the way. That’s a lot of work, and if you’ve done even one of those things to help further your business idea, that’s something to be celebrated!
Still looking to hire a professional? Get in touch!