What Is Freelance Copywriting?
If you’ve ever wondered what is freelance copywriting, it’s potentially because it’s something you have an interest in exploring, or on the other hand, you might need to hire someone.
I’m a 12-year full-time freelance copywriter, but more than that, I consider myself a complete content marketer.
There’s a pretty important distinction between copywriting and content writing, although I do both and know the terms are used interchangeably. I’ll talk a little about both in this guide to what is freelance copywriting.
What Is a Freelancer?
Before answering “What is freelance copywriting,” it’s helpful to break it down and explore what freelancing is.
When you’re a freelancer, you’re self-employed.
You can work on different projects for multiple clients simultaneously, and you don’t have any specific commitment to any of them beyond the agreed-upon parameters of the project.
As a freelancer, you can work hourly, by the project, by the word, or get paid in any way that works for you and your client.
The gig economy is expanding rapidly, with nearly 60 million professionals in America involved in freelancing in 2020. That’s about a third of the U.S. workforce.
According to the IRS, when you work as a freelancer, you are a self-employed individual, and you can do this as a side hustle while you continue a full-time job, or you can do it part- or full-time.
While the bulk of your business as a freelancer will likely be built on one-off projects and short-term work, you might also find yourself working with the same client over the long term.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Being a Freelancer?
As someone with a lot of experience in this area, I can personally speak to both the pros and cons of being a freelancer.
The pros of being a freelance copywriter or content writer include:
- Flexibility: This is my favorite part of being a freelancer. I started to build my business 12 years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter. It was a relatively new concept then, but I knew that I wanted to be home with her yet have an income at the same time. There are periods when I’m interested in taking on more work and then times when I want to work less, and it’s entirely up to me.
- Choice of clients: You can choose the people you want to work with and the projects you’re interested in. You can pick clients you feel are easy to get along with or fulfill other criteria, and if you don’t like working with someone or a project isn’t a good fit for you, you can walk away.
- Earnings: When freelancing, you set your rates, and your earning potential is based on how much you’re willing to work. It’s an empowering experience to know that you can scale your income up pretty quickly.
- More opportunities: As a freelancer, you aren’t limited to working with clients or businesses only in your geographic area. When you’re a freelancer, primarily if you use a platform like Upwork, you can connect with clients from around the country and the world. It expands the options and opportunities available to you.
Of course, it’s not always perfect. The downsides of working as a freelancer writer include:
- Lack of job security: There will be times when you might want to cut your workload down, but there will also be lean times when you don’t have many if any, clients. You have to build up a nest egg or savings to deal with these down times, but this is true of any small business owner.
- Loneliness: I’m an introvert and enjoy working alone, but even for me, it can sometimes become isolating to work as a freelance copywriter and content writer.
- Administrative duties: You have to manage many administrative responsibilities that come with running a business, including dealing with your taxes, which can get complicated when you’re a freelancer.
- No benefits: You don’t have employer-funded benefits when freelancing, so you must manage things like insurance and your retirement accounts independently.
So, What Is Freelance Copywriting?
Back to our original question—what is freelance copywriting?
When you’re a copywriter, the goal is creating written content to market a product or service to your target audience.
You want to persuade readers with copywriting. You might be trying to convince them to make a purchase, or they could be earlier in the funnel, so you might be trying to get them to subscribe to an email list, for example.
Copywriting is a critical component of advertising and marketing, and it’s not the same as content writing.
You can do both, or you can do one, depending on your interests and skill set.
Some of the things a good copywriter needs to have include:
- The ability to study and understand a specific audience so they can motivate their behavior.
- Strong writing abilities to create clear, concise, and engaging copy.
- You need to have a sense of empathy since so much of copywriting is about connecting with your audience and building a relationship with words.
- You should be able to use persuasion and storytelling in your writing.
- Many copywriters must analyze data and conduct research to ensure their copy is accurate and informed.
- Someone who’s a great copywriter can adapt the tone and voice of their content quickly and accordingly.
The Different Types of Copywriting
Copywriting isn’t a new profession—in fact, it’s one of the oldest.
What is new, relatively speaking, is copywriting for online audiences.
Some of the main types of copywriting include:
- Marketing: These are pieces of content geared exclusively towards sales. They can include online display ads, direct mail, and more. The goal is the promotion of a business and the generation of leads.
- Social media: The goal of copywriting for social media is to connect with the audiences on a particular platform specifically.
- Brand: This content is meant to communicate the values and vision of a brand and can include things like taglines.
- Direct response: With direct response copywriting, you want your audience to take a certain action by using things like special offers.
- Technical: When doing technical copywriting, you’re walking your audience through the steps of doing something considered technical. For example, you might be showing them how to use a particular product, hoping to get them to make a purchase.
- Public relations: PR copywriting focuses on content like press releases to share details and information about new developments or news in general.
- Email: We’re inundated with emails in our inboxes, so email copywriting is tricky because you have to stand out and break through the noise. An email copywriter will work on great subject lines, informative body content, and crafting defined calls-to-action.
- SEO: While typically SEO falls into the category of content writing, there is also copywriting that uses SEO best practices. For example, you might be asked to write title tags for online content.
How Much Do Freelance Copywriters Make?
In terms of earnings, there’s a big gap.
The median annual wage for writers, which includes copywriters, was $69,510 in 2021. The lowest 10% of writers earned under $38,500. The highest 10% earned more than $133,580.
If you’re a very skilled and experienced copywriter, you can earn upwards of $150,000 a year.
Copywriting vs. Content Writing
One of the biggest areas of confusion for clients and even writers is between copywriting and content writing.
As we’ve discussed, copywriting is meant to be short, punchy, and persuasive. It might be a way to create an emotional connection, and the goal is to get the audience to act by speaking directly to them.
You might see the work of a copywriter on not only emails and digital ads but also places like billboards.
A content writer creates content that’s meant to inform an audience, and it’s usually long-form.
When you’re working with or as a content writer, the focus is to educate the audience so that a longer-term sense of trust is being built and a relationship is developing. Content writers go into topics on a deep level to solve problems for their audience or help them compare their options as they make a decision.
This article is content writing because I explain what freelance copywriters do.
The most frequent format for content writing is the blog. Blogs usually run from 500 words to upwards of 2,500 words or more.
If you’re a content writer, you want to build credibility and trust; if you’re a copywriter, you want your audience to act.
Content writers, along with blog posts, might also write articles, white papers, and eBooks. A growing content-writing category is scripts, which are used to create video content on platforms like YouTube.
A robust marketing strategy will include both content and copywriting.
What Is Freelance Copywriting—Final Thoughts
To sum up, what is freelance copywriting?
When you work as a freelance copywriter, you partner with clients on projects. You are self-employed, and you get paid by the project, by the word, or by the hour. Copywriters have to be persuasive and sales-oriented, while content writers do in-depth research to educate their audience.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are some questions you might have about freelance copywriting.
What do freelance copywriters do?
Freelance copywriters are self-employed. They find clients who need sales-oriented content or can push someone to take a particular action.
How much do freelance copywriters make?
How much you can earn doing freelance copywriting can depend on your skills and experience, the clients you work with, and whether you do it full-time. Skilled, full-time copywriters can make upwards of $150,000 a year.
What skills do you need to be a freelance copywriter?
To be a freelance copywriter, you need to understand psychology and how people think. You also need to be able to write with a concise, to-the-point style and be persuasive when writing.
As a freelancer, you need to be self-motivated and able to manage your time independently in a remote work environment.
If you’re interested in hiring a freelance copywriter, I encourage you to learn more about my work by browsing my site and Upwork profile or sending over questions you may have via my contact page.