A Freelance Life Means Money AND Free Time

Julie’s freelance copywriting career let her write from the beach – in Mexico!

Last week, you got an overview of what you could expect working on an in-house copy team at some of the country’s top direct-marketing publishers.

But if the 9 to 6 life doesn’t call out to you, don’t worry! Working as a freelancer can be just as lucrative. And it’s flexible, to boot!

I remember emailing with a copywriter friend of mine at the beginning of December, and she told me, “I’m a nut for Christmas. So every year, I close up shop between December 12 and January 3 just to decorate, shop, bake, and enjoy time with my family.” That’s the kind of awesome flexibility you can create for yourself as a freelancer.

Let’s take a closer look at how freelancing works, what it requires, and how you can thrive on this path.

How it works: As a freelancer, you have multiple jobs. Your number one job is to write killer copy that keeps your clients coming back time and again. Your other jobs are networking, self-promotion, branding, continuing education, invoicing, and hustling. As a freelancer, you’ll generally work from home or any other location of your choosing that has a strong Wi-Fi connection and is private enough for you to take phone calls.

You’ll generally book out your schedule one to three months in advance, unless you begin working with clients who put you on retainer (paying you a consistent amount every month or quarter in exchange for agreed-upon work). You will also likely sign a new contract for every client you work with. Payment terms, rates, and deadlines can vary greatly, and you might need to negotiate with clients to nail down a deal that works for everyone.

What a typical day might look like: You wake up whenever you want. You set your own schedule based on what works for you and your lifestyle. If you’re a night owl, you can write until 3:00 a.m. If you like to hit the gym for two hours in the middle of the day, no problem.

A “typical day” for a freelancer is a day you have designed. After speaking with many freelancers, here are the most common things they make time for on a consistent basis:

• Reading (fiction and copywriting texts)
• Researching projects they are working on
• Scheduling project milestones to keep themselves from procrastinating until right before a deadline
• Checking in with industry connections to keep their network strong, and
• Placing and responding to ads online to keep their pipeline of leads full.

The amount of flexibility you can expect: A lot. Now let’s look at examples of what isn’t flexible about freelancing.

1. Deadlines. If you think these are flexible, your reputation will precede you, and work will dry up quickly.
2. Client phone calls. You will schedule some of these in advance, but it’s important to make yourself available during normal business hours to answer client phone calls. You might be living a flexible writer’s life, but your client is likely in an office from 9 to 5 and wants you to be reachable then, as well.
3. Marketing yourself. If you get complacent about where your next gig comes from (which is easy to do when you’re in the middle of a longer-term project), you’ll wake up one day and find you have no income coming in and no one ready to hand you a contract to start work. So, set aside time at least every week to have conversations with publishers, marketers, business owners, and any other potential clients on your list.

Which industries/niches this is most common in: Almost all industries in some way or another work with freelancers. Most smaller publishers, without the resources to support a full-time in-house team, follow a freelance (or retainer) model. A new generation of entrepreneurs, who believe in a 100 percent remote workforce, have founded many up-and-coming information marketing companies, so there are opportunities there, as well.

What you can expect to get paid: This will vary wildly based on your experience, your negotiation skills, the level of client you pursue, and your industry. You can quote per hour or per project. You can negotiate royalties or accept a flat fee. There are products and guides available from AWAI that can walk you through how best to establish your fees as a freelancer, and I suggest studying those if you need help in this area.

Where you can look to find this type of work: Check Directresponsejobs.com and flexjobs.com. There are also copywriting job boards on Facebook. Upwork is a possibility, but the pay tends to be much lower than a well-trained copywriter should be earning. And, of course, at almost every copywriting conference you attend you’ll meet marketers who need freelance writers.

How you can best prepare yourself: The best things you can do to set yourself up for freelance success are:

1. Create a daily routine for yourself that includes writing, reading, marketing your services, and studying.
2. Organize your workspace in a way that allows you to function optimally and write without distraction.
3. Identify the things that distract you in your home environment and devise a plan to turn them off or make them unavailable while you are working.

So, if freelancing sounds like it hits your personal sweet spot, stay tuned for next week. I’ll introduce you to a little-known way some of the best up-and-coming freelance copywriters are getting steady work and exceeding the six-figure mark.