Excellence in freelance copywriting

Writing all of the copy for your web site yourself can be tiring and time consuming, especially if you are not a professional freelance copywriter. It can also be daunting when you type freelance copywriter into your browser's search engine and are presented with 44,800 possibilities.  The problem is that it is difficult to determine what sort of service lies behind those possibilities. Although the Internet has its share of excellent writers it also a lot of hacks, plagiarists and tardy writers listed who have paid big bucks to be listed in that search engine too.

Here are a few things that you should look for when looking for a freelance copywriter:

A freelance copywriter who knows what Search Engine Optimization is.
A freelance copywriter that charges an affordable hourly or fee for their services. If the fee is lower than $25 an hour it is practically understood that your project will be late simply because that is already less than one quarter of writer's union fees. It also means that the writer will also have to be working on multiple projects in order to finance your project.

Writing all of the copy for your web site yourself can be tiring and time consuming, especially if you are not a professional freelance copywriter. It can also be daunting when you type freelance copywriter into your browser's search engine and are presented with 44,800 possibilities.  The problem is that it is difficult to determine what sort of service lies behind those possibilities. Although the Internet has its share of excellent writers it also a lot of hacks, plagiarists and tardy writers listed who have paid big bucks to be listed in that search engine too.

Here are a few things that you should look for when looking for a freelance copywriter:

A freelance copywriter who knows what Search Engine Optimization is.
A freelance copywriter that charges an affordable hourly or fee for their services. If the fee is lower than $25 an hour it is practically understood that your project will be late simply because that is already less than one quarter of writer's union fees. It also means that the writer will also have to be working on multiple projects in order to finance your project.

A freelance copywriter who can establish a firm date for when you will receive the deliverables.

Another thing to keep in mind is that a freelance copywriting service is highly linked or highly rated in the search engine is not necessarily your best choice. Remember that search engine listings and indexing can be paid for.

You may not also not necessarily find the freelance copywriter of your dreams on the Internet. There are plenty of copywriters listed in the phone book and also within creative agencies that are capable of doing the job for you.

Probably the two main sites where freelancers conglomerate on the Internet are guru.com and elance.com. Both of these sites use the auction format. You post your project and name a budget and the writers that belong to these organizations bid on them. These are both reputable places to find writers willing to do your copywriting but keep in mind that both sites charge monthly enrollment fees as well as listing and transaction fees in order for you to do business.

When looking at writer's profiles on either elance or guru, it is a good idea to take a good look at any samples that they might have posted. You can also tell a lot about a writer by the way their profile is written. If the description of their own services is riddled with grammar and spelling mistakes you can pretty much assume that the copywriting that they produce for you will also be plagued with similar problems.

As these are online market places, they have their share of nuts and wackos. It is well known that really good freelance writers can be a bit eccentric as many of them on the Internet work at home and don't see a soul all day. Don't expect a freelance copywriter to deal with you like one of your corporate chums would. Many of them are freelance because they can't stand the corporate world and its jargon and protocol in the first place.

It is also important not to judge a writer too much on any negative feedback that may have been left for them for other clients. Both guru.com and elance.com slant their feedback systems so that a client can leave feedback even if there has been no contract has been signed or a single word has been written. Even an excellent writer's rating can be adversely affected by feedback left by a client that has not assigned or paid a cent to the writer!

Another thing to consider is the number of clients that the freelance writer has had as opposed to the actual feedback. For instance if you notice that a writer has completed 90 successful transactions but only ten people have left both positive or negative feedback, then you can pretty much assume that they are good freelancers. This is because on both guru and elance less than 10% of individuals actually leave feedback for a writer.

Another indication that you are looking at the profile of an excellent copywriter is a high number of repeat customers. Both elance and guru allow you to see who has assigned articles to a copywriter and how many times. If the writer has lots of repeat business then that is more of an indication that they offer reliable and accurate copywriting services than a five star feed back rating.

Both elance.com and guru.com also tell you how much money the writer has made that year from selling their services. Chances are that the higher the figure is, the better the writer is.

Another way to find a freelance copywriting service on the web is to type the words "copywriting portfolio" into your search engine. This will lead you to thousands of sites displaying portfolios that feature different types of copywriting. However keep in mind that some of these sites will be off shoots of creative agencies or advertising agencies who will probably want to charge you an arm and a leg for a brochure and some of them may belong to writers who have launched their business on the web. They might betrying to offer customers an option that is a little more expensive than what is offered on  elance or guru but not as expensive commissioning the work from an agency.

As is true with all business-to-business enterprises on the web, the type of writer you should avoid is the one that cannot maintain a web site. If the writer's site has broken links, bad grammar or other problems you might encounter that old adage "You get what you pay for!" if they offer to do your copywriting for next to free!

Comments

[Ares Vista]

Writing effective content can be tricky, and hiring someone to do it if you don't know how is the only way to go. If you try to write it yourself, without knowing what you are doing, you WILL regret it.

[Rob Palmer]

Clients often don't realize how many benefits there are attached to using a freelancer. Greater flexibility, the chance to pick exactly the right person for each job, and the professionalism that most freelancers bring to the job. All well worth the modest fees that most copywriters charge.

[Tim Bete]

You should always "expect a freelance copywriter to deal with you like one of your corporate chums would." Copywriters are professional business people and treat their clients with respect. If your copywriter doesn't do this, find one who does.

[Ramesh]

It's easy to think of search engine optimization and copywriting as two different things. The truth is though, good SEO needs good copywriting and good copywriting means good SEO the two skills are very much intertwined.

thanks

[Ben Locker]

Good post. I'd also add that it's a good idea to ask other businesses who they use, and once you've built up a relationship with a good freelance writer or copywriting agency to work at the relationship. It pays dividends in the long term.

[Ben Locker]

Don't forget the copywriter who knows that regularly-updated content is vital for SEO.

[George Martin]

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[Website advertising]

I have used the ones that you fill in the blanks and out spits a sales page. It's actually a help because it gives me a basic layout to start with. the software i used was improving

[Alistair]

Pity that we haven't automated copywriting yet. I just asked AI bot Alice the question: do you write copy for the internet?

The answer came back:

ALICE: I write robot categroies in AIML.

So that's a no, then.

Oh well, at least I still have a job.

[Matt Pattinson (copywriter)]

Interesting post and I agree that we copywriters can be a little eccentric at times – probably a lack of sun and socialisation.

From a consumer perspective: if you stumble across a copywriting website full of errors then give it a wide birth.

For the freelance copywriter his/her website should be a bastion of perfect verbiage that represents what they do and how they do it.

Cheers

Matt Pattinson: copywriter at creativepen.co.uk

[David Raybould]

This is an interesting post, but I'm curious about why you think a copywriter needs to know about SEO?

Some of the best and most successful copywriters in the world probably know nothing at all about SEO.

Why does it matter?

[Peter Wise (freelance copywriter)]

Well, as a freelance copywriter myself, I'm not sure about some of this post (not least the repetition of several paragraphs). But you must know something about SEO if nothing else. There've been no new entries for over three years, yet you're still featuring in the search engine results and attracting comments for ancient posts.

[Tony]

here is a great tool that freelancers can use to get ideas for headlines for blog posts and articles:

www.headcopy.com

[Radek]

Hi, great info u wrote :) I agree with u in every point :) The information is very useful :) Maybe u want to visit my site :) http://CopyMan.pl Greetings :)

[HuangEdison]

A typical look at does reflects your wealth, status and ability..

[HuangEdison]

A typical look at does reflects your wealth, status and ability..

[SGS Design]

I just want to state again: writers must be comfortable with SEO. Most clients are SEOs.

Another great post!

[Web Copywriter]

Nice content. I found this blog by searching for copywriting blogs. I'm shocked to see it's still up and hasn't been posted in since 2006.

Are you looking to sell this blog?

Mike Antoni

[Peter]

Speaking as a fellow freelance copywriter, I'm impressed that a post you wrote nearly four years ago (and a three post only blog at that) is still attracting comments.

[jordan 7]

The first section of the book basically includes all you need to know about the parts of speech with many specific ideas about how to get those concepts across to students.
good posts well,and now change some ideas each other,link my name firstly.

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I can accept failure, but I can't accept give up.

[Michele Andrew]

Thanks for the great post -loved it!

[Matt]

I just wrote about this myself. There are a few certain ways to determine how serious your copywriter is about producing work which will benefit your business. If they asked about your audience, what (specifically) you want the copy / project to achieve, what your unique selling position is et etc then you are on the right track. Also, an experienced copywriter should be able to help you - as the client - answer these questions. Great post.

[John Jenson]

Really great article and something that really helped me thanks you!

[MicroSourcing]

It's true that an online writer should know SEO and should align his or her work to it.