Interested in Freelance Copywriting? Follow the Money

You’ve heard all the promises of working at home in your pajamas, taking long vacations on your private beach, and relaxing each afternoon with money pouring into your bank account from your lucrative copywriting gigs.

Well, it won’t happen if you don’t follow the money.

The biggest key to success as a freelance copywriter is, was, and will always be to follow the money. Who is actively spending (and making) money on marketing today? A few years ago, for example, the “health and wellness” market was all the rage. That’s started to die down with the current recession. There’s still money to be had there, but copywriters in that market are a dime a dozen anymore, and only the big players with solid reputations are getting the high-paying jobs.

Everyone else? They get the scraps - the small projects that barely pay a minimum wage and offer no prospect of advancement.

So where’s the money today?

As far as I can tell, it’s online. Businesses are spending more money for their online marketing today than ever before. They want to update their web pages, optimize their sites for the search engines, create videos, write and syndicate content, and create information products they can sell to help with their bottom line.

I’m talking about B2B businesses and B2C businesses, not the small-time entrepreneur. Of course, the best way for you to make a lot of money as a writer is to pick your own niche market online, create your own information products, and market them yourlelf. Most of you won’t have the time or resources to pull that off effectively though.

My recommendation? Start learning how to write for the web - web pages, case studies, landing pages, and search engine optimization. Then, create your own special report that you can use for lead generation, and go market thyself to real businesses.

Best of luck to you.