trieditonline

“Copywriting is not writing for the sake of writing. It is writing to sell.”

– Joseph Sugarman

I’m an ecologist, so my “busy season” is spring through end of summer… and after that, I have a longgg winter of twiddling my thumbs and doing crossword puzzles. After a few years of this, I got to thinking – “there has to be something I can do in all this downtime to bring in some extra money.” I started researching ways to make extra money online, since I was stuck in my office at a computer anyway (this was in 2022) and one that caught my attention was copywriting and proofreading. I’ve always been that weird person who loves to correct spelling and punctuation, so it seemed like a great idea – get paid to tell people they were wrong (because who doesn’t love that?).

How to start a copywriting business

I actually started off on Upwork, which is a free website where you can get hired as a freelancer for a variety of jobs: graphic design, editing, ghostwriting, etc. (there are many other sites like these, this was just the one I used).

Basically, people post jobs and you can filter through and apply for them. You can also set up a public profile and be recruited for jobs if someone is interested in your skills and abilities.

I quickly learned that it was going to take some real legwork just to get to the point where I could start making money.

While you don’t *need* a portfolio, it definitely helps – and I didn’t really have any past work I could put in one that seemed to fit, as anything I had was just job-related (so stuff about weeds, basically). I scraped together what I could and built a quick, pretty lame portfolio. Then I started to apply for jobs.

I soon realized a few things:

Cons of copywriting

• Everyone wants grade A work at grade C prices
• You’re constantly on a timeline or deadline
• You have very little creative freedom
• You may have to provide multiple edits and not get paid for them all
• The host platform generally will keep a percentage of your earnings (usually around 10% or so)
• You’re often limited as to how many jobs you can apply to for free, and after that you may have to pay to apply

So really, unless you’re getting a lot of high-paying jobs on there that you’re able to dedicate a lot of time to, you could be losing more money than you’re making.

Online vs in-person copywriting jobs: How to find jobs as a copywriter

Instead of stay on Upwork, I decided to promote locally. I handed out business cards to local businesses (yes, I had business cards made…I really hadn’t thought this one through) and promoted on Facebook through local group pages.

I got one small job writing a grant application for a local non-profit, and then they wanted me to write another. After doing some more research on what I should be charging, and letting them know my increased price, they politely turned me down.

How much does a copywriter charge or make?

It’s hard knowing what to charge for these kinds of services, because as it turns out, it’s all over the place.

While I can appreciate the value of hard work, consistency, and effort – I was beginning to think that copywriting was not the most practical way for me to bring in some extra money in a timely manner.

Copywriting – Blog editing

Then, I got a Facebook message from a local mom who had a pretty successful blog about RV camping. She was looking for someone to help her update old posts, write new ones, and just do some basic cleaning up on it. I had zero experience with blogging, but it sounded interesting and I was eager to learn. Plus, I enjoyed camping already, so it seemed like a good fit.

I worked for her for a few months. She would send me a list of posts to work on every week, and at the end of the week I’d send her an invoice. Honestly that was a pretty good gig, but what I didn’t expect was that it would open a new door for me.

After a few months working for her, I decided to hand in my resignation and start my own blog.

And that will be the next post… so if you’re looking to learn more about the intricacies of the blogging world, be sure to subscribe because I should have that posted in the next few days… and I have a lot to share on it!

Sarah