We’re going to be talking about all of the different types of freelance writing you can get started with. There’s SEO writing, technical writing, content writing, and copywriting.

You might have heard people say that freelance writing is one of the best ways to start building a business online. Personally, I truly believe it is the best business for beginners to get started with. But with all these different types of freelance writings, how do you know which one is best for you. Well, we’re going to go over all of those different types of writing.

I’m gonna try and make it as succinct as possible you think, we can keep this under 10 minutes reading.

Why Freelance Writing?

First off, why freelance writing? Well because it’s a skill that most of us already have. There’s a huge demand for it and there’s not some secret formula for how to find work. It’s actually pretty simple if you’ve got persistence and you can be consistent then you can be a successful freelance writer online. So that’s why I think freelance writing it’s the best bridge business. That thing is gonna get you from where you’re at now in your life. Maybe you’re super stoked at this point where you’re making some money.

You’ve got some confidence you’ve got some skills and then you figure out what the next thing is going to be down the road. It’s bridging the gap from point A to point B that eventually is gonna get you to point C.

SEO Writing

So, the first type of freelance writing is SEO writing. This is like bottom-of-the-barrel, the lowest level, easiest to find work but also the lowest paying work. So, for those of you who don’t know, SEO stands for search engine optimization. There is a basic SEO strategy where you write a bunch of articles and you post them in various places online and each of these articles is relatively low level and they have links back to the website that you’re trying to rank. Five to seven years ago SEO articles were all over the place and you could basically hire someone to write you 500 words articles with 500 links that get posted to random places online and then link back to you and help your rankings.

Well, it’s not quite that simple now but there is still a market out there for these types of articles. The great thing about it is you don’t have to be that good of a writer. They’re generally only 300 to 500 words long and they’re about random topics that you’re probably going to get hired for in batches so you might be hired to write 50 posts all about valet podiums or cat furniture or different things.

When I first started online those were the things that I was writing about valet podiums and cat furniture, that’s why I thought of them so you might be thinking like I don’t know about cat furniture. Well, the good news is you can spend about 20 or 30-minutes researching, really learn everything you need to know, and then just kind of writing the same thing 50 different times in 50 different ways.

It’s tedious and boring and you’re probably gonna make between $15 to $20 per post if you’re lucky. If you’re a fast writer like I could bang these things out in 15 to 20 minutes. So, I was making 45 to 60 bucks an hour when I was doing it but I’m also a pretty fast writer. But the great thing about this is it’s a perfect fit for someone who’s just getting started online and they just need to build a little bit of confidence. Maybe someone for whom English is not the first language, so you can start getting some of these articles to get your feet wet with the freelance writing thing.

This isn’t something I expect you to do forever. Generally speaking, when people start a freelance writing journey, they spend between like 1-3 months just they can go through the full spectrum of writing work, finding work, setting up a website, doing the work getting paid, rinse and repeat.

So, in a nutshell, that’s SEO writing low-level 300-to-500-word posts that you get paid five to twenty dollars for. It’s great for beginners great for people who aren’t native English speakers and great for people who’re just trying to build a little bit of confidence but not great as a long-term business these days.

Content Writing

The second type is general content writing. For most of you who don’t want to be freelance writers. This is gonna be your bread and butter because. This is this kind of encompasses probably 80% of the freelance writing world. Okay, so what is general content writing and talk about a vague term it’s basically any content that you see on a blog or business website, there are millions of businesses and websites that eagerly need writers for their projects. We live in an era where people are pumping out so much content.

there is a huge demand for writers, they can keep up with that. What’s great about it is you can also niche down. So, there are all sorts of different sub-niches within general content.

I would generally recommend trying to find a niche that is something that you’re an expert at, that you can make your things. So, you can become known as oh he’s the person that writes about cats, about finance, about interior decoration and so on.

Figure out what your thing is because it’s gonna make it a lot easier to pitch clients. But you don’t need to be too harsh in probing your niche at the beginning. For this type of writing, you’ve to make sure you’ve got a website that talks about all your freelance services. Let’s people know what your personality is all about so they can get a sense of the type of writer you are.

Second, it’s all about cold email I make a giant list of hundreds of potential clients, websites, blogs, agencies anyone that might want my services as a writer, and then I just spend an hour every day send in personal emails takes a long time. It’s not fun it’s not cozy, but it works and if you can be persistent and consistent with your effort, then you have what it takes to be a freelance writer.

Content writing is a big range so imagine like $25 a post upwards of like $2,500 a post. So, if you’re doing a b2b post that’s three thousand words for a financial company, they might pay you twenty-five hundred bucks for that but if you’re writing a blog post for a specific category like a ketogenic diet blog that has dozens of writers, then you might get 100 bucks 150 bucks.

So, it very much depends on your skill level and who you’re writing for. For beginners who are looking to build confidence, SEO writing is the start, and then for most people, you’re gonna move into general content writing where you’re gonna try and find your niche you’re gonna be persistent with your outreach and trying to find clients and that’s how you’re gonna get your freelance business up and running.

Technical Writing

Alright! The third type of writing is one we’re not going to talk a whole lot about, but it’s called technical writing. It is basically every time you read an instruction booklet or a book of operating procedures or things like that, is technical writing. A technical writer who wrote such kinds of writings. If you’ve got some sort of technical skill whether it’s in the automotive industry or you’re an engineer or if you’re a medical professional.

You’ve got some technical knowledge that will probably translate well into technical writing within your industry. But it can be a little bit harder to find those jobs so usually people start out with some of the general stuff. They find their niche and then they realize oh I can take this niche that might be more technical and then get into some of the technical writing which pays a little bit more than just kind of your general content writing.

Copywriting

Okay, finally the last type of content writing is copywriting. Copywriting is like the cream of freelance writing. Why because copywriting is what makes the money. It is specifically any form of writing that is trying to be persuasive with your words.

If you are reading a sales page if you’re reading an advertisement if you’re reading a Facebook ad if you’re reading a google ad if you’re reading an email from a blogger who’s trying to sell you on a product. All of those are forms of copywriting.

If there’s one skill you should learn and the most beneficial skill to have in business. It’s being a good copywriter. So, if you’re good on the marketing side, but not necessarily, you can get freelance copywriting work.

There is literally no ceiling on how much you can make. The good copywriters can make 50 bucks an hour to start, but then if you’re good at it and you can convert it into sales, you might get paid 10 grand for one email or more. I mean it’s insane how much a good copywriter can make.

So, to give you an example I’ve done a little bit of copywriting in the golf industry I’ve done some writing for a couple of the

If you want to become a freelance writer, copywriting sounds wow! The best way to go. So, you don’t just like jump into that because you got to learn how to become a copywriter. It’s a sort of thing that you have to learn by doing it, you have to get hands-on with it, you have to start understanding some of the psychology of persuasion that’s a nod to the book influenced by Robert B. Cialdini, which tagline is, ‘The Psychology of Persuasion’

I highly recommend you read that if you want to become a copywriter. It’s not necessarily a copywriting book, but when people ask me what’s the best book on copywriting, this is the book I tell them because it helps with the whole psychological process and the sales process and things like that.

I would also check out the Garry Halpert letters which are some of the best sales pages ever and the more you read these the more you get a sense of the content in them, the better you’re gonna be able to translate that into your own writing.

If you’ve decided to be a professional copywriter, I recommend is to make sure your website is on lock. Use that as your training ground, your testing ground, your proving ground. Start with your about page, pretend like you’re trying to sell someone who has no idea who you are on the idea of how awesome you are and how good of a writer you are, and why they want to be your friends. So, use that as your test page and then do it for every other element of your site, whether you’ve got a services page where you’re offering services, whether you’ve got a blog really. Get in-depth and use that site to test things out and improve your skills.

Cheers!

Also check: How to Become a Freelance Writer – A Beginners Guide