Has anyone made any money from copywriting and content providing

[gingerspice22]

Wasn't sure where to post this so posting here for traffic.

I have written for a couple of content mills/content providing companies in the past. Articles here and there for blogs and websites on a variety of topics. I never made loads from it, never more than a couple of hundred a month and mostly not even that. But it was a nice supplementary income alongside my day job and I enjoyed it.

I'm wondering if anyone has actually made good money from this and if so, where? You can search 'content providing jobs' on Google and loads come up but it's hard to separate the genuine ones from the spammy ones.

I'm hoping to get back into this again and don't know where to start, the two companies I worked for before have both shut down. Any advice would be hugely appreciated and even if you don't want to share who you work for, advice on potential earnings and practicalities would be great.

Content production is a highly valuable role. Contact companies directly or look for specific jobs being advertised. Freelancing should be charged at an hourly rate rather than per job.

I have used copywriters as part of my previous jobs. a good copywriter is actually quite hard to get hold of and generally has lots of work on - i guess once they have gained a reputation. Do you have any relevant qualifications - eg english degree? I used writers that the company i worked for either had direct contracts with, or ones via marketing/advertising agencies. do you have expertise in a particular subject area, eg food, IT, clothing......could help if you know some of the buzz words/market etc.

Yes, I freelance part time. Try joining the Freelance Lifestylers group on Facebook, people are often looking for help with content writing on there.

If you have evidence of writing technical content for SEO purposes or authoring on specialist subjects, you can make money.

if you understand content strategy and can advise on topics, placement, production of assets such as video and imagery, then you can make money.

if you are just writing words to spec for content farms who send you a topic and you churn out something, you’ll make words per minute rates and you won’t make big money.

I do it from time to time when my freelance tutoring is quiet. I earn $15 per piece, and if I am focusing I can do them in about 45 mins to an hour. Its not mega bucks but I keep it as a safety net/top up that I can just pick up when I need to.

Yes I’ve made lots of money from it but the market is competitive and it’s one of those things that anyone thinks they can do!

I use freelancer websites to get a lot of my work

Yes i write copy but specifically around strategy, sustainability or business processes. I charge £500 to £1000 per day.

''@Onceuponawhileago · Today 11:27
Yes i write copy but specifically around strategy, sustainability or business processes. I charge £500 to £1000 per day.''

Would love to do that!

I work as a senior marketing manager for an organisation and write a lot of content for websites, social media, promotional material in-house but would love to be freelance instead.

Good to hear some people manage to make a living from it.

@gingerspice22 , I do it if asked. I'm a freelancer in a related field. Not made good money from it as it was a sideline.
Look up copywriter or content writer jobs.
You'll need a portfolio.

I've an English degree, how do I get into this? Do I just do a course on copywriting with publishing training company?

I run a small communications business and a lot of what we do is content and copywriting. However, It took me YEARS to get to the point where we're making the bulk of our income from this vs PR (which is my background).

On the plus side, I work for financial and professional services firms and some technology companies so the money is good but there's a huge expectation in terms of ability to understand the content, offer advice, adapt tone of voice etc etc. I work with some freelancers and I'd say as a rule, all of them have also taken years to build up a strong client base and still are always on the look out for new work to find opportunities. One is about to take on a short term gig working in house for a few days a week to build up a buffer. I also fire a lot of freelancers who I try to take on. this is usually because of one or more of the following:

• not meeting deadlines
• Unprofessional engagement with my clients
• Not meeting the brief ito word count, content, tone etc

So my advice would be when you do find clients, to keep them, you have to have the above 3 things absolutely 100% nailed down.

Agree with Bling. Might be worth reading up on marketing principles too. So you understand the concepts of 'brand', target audience, USP etc etc. It will make you appear more experienced/professional to the people buying your skills.

@shrunkenhead , that would probably not be a good use of your time and money, but I am saying that off the top of my head.

@YoureTheTop why do you say that? I thought it might be a fun sideline as it's something I'm interested in and clearly it pays well eventually. Sounds like it pays behest than proof- reading.

I have an English degree but no specialist subject. I'm a decent enough writer and good at putting words together but I've no marketing qualifications or area of expertise. It's something I'd like to work on in the future, I have young dc and working from home with hours to suit my schedule would be amazing.

I copywrite as part of my wider freelance business. Most of it tends to be in my own specialist subject areas, and the work tends to come from repeat clients, recommendations from existing clients or referrals from work associates so I imagine it might be quite difficult for people just starting out. I've been doing it for 20+ years now on a freelance basis, having built on experience from salaried employment to get my freelance business going. I can't make a living from copywriting exclusively but it works well as part of my wider offer. I charge £400+ per day but tend to quote for the job rather than the actual time it takes. (This rate has to cover business costs such as IT, insurance, accountant etc as well as my own time.)

I'm not sure than an English degree is the essential requirement. (My degree and post-graduate qualifications are in other areas but gave me the skills I need for this.)

The important things IMO are to be able to understand the subject being written about, to understand what the client wants to achieve with the copy (and often you have to work through a process with the client to identify that), to have good writing and proofing skills, and to be able to write clearly and effectively for the intended audience(s).

I've looked at freelancer sites before as a source of work but the money on offer was nothing like what I am already charging. (Maybe I was looking in the wrong places though!)

Because it sounds like you'd be paying for a piece of paper that probably wouldn't get you any work.
You used to get ads for proof-reading courses that were meant to bring you a decent income, but I don't think they actually did.
Theirs knot much caul for proof reeding these daze cos of spell chequers.

I used to be a freelance copywriter, specialising in company reports, investment and b2b. When the internet was quite new and everything was migrating online, clients suddenly decided on the DIY approach rather than paying me £500 per day. Plus it coincided with DC demanding more of me, and it was too difficult to travel for business at short notice, so I did a PGCE. I didn't enjoy the classroom experience, and went back to company secretary work for our small family firm.

This is a good thread with great advice.
From my experience you have to be able to quickly grasp the key parts of the story, in my area that could be around business growth, challenges, sustainability etc. Then you need to get a good feel for the structure of what you write and who its for, finally the tone and feel are super important for the client. Next year Im going to work nearly exclusively on Sustainability as every big business I work with struggles with it.

ginger - i wouldnt be too optomistic about it fitting in with your schedule. Copywriting is generally one tiny element of a much larger campaign build and therefore you will be working under strict deadlines or you wont get the job.

To be honest I think I've been quite naive about the whole thing. The work I've done before was very generic and not very taxing. I guess the best way to describe it would be writing filler fluff for not very good websites!

The stuff that posters here have described seems a lot more complex. I wouldn't know where to start. I've got a decent writing style but not a great deal to write about.

An average day for me is about ten hours. Turning 300 pages into 10...tough but well paid. I can only work in projects tho, cant do it daily.

I do. I built a portfolio and have a good suite of clients.

If you're going to do any courses, look into SEO.

Oh, and it's flexible, to an extent, but lots of deadlines and managing client relationships on top of the actual writing. I love it, though.

Ginger - but you would be given a brief by the person contracting you to do the work (some of these will be better than others). so you wouldnt be expected to know everything. But a good copywriter would be able to pick this up and run with it quickly and understanding of the area would help with this.

what is your current day job? can you volunteer for copywriting/document production etc so you can start getting some experience?