Become A Professional Writer: Start A Web Content Writing Business

According to LinkedIn, freelance content creator jobs were one of the top five jobs in 2021. Making money as a freelance writer or web content writer is one of the hottest side gigs today.

Content writing is a job you can do from anywhere in the world and many freelance writers and digital nomads work successfully from distant locations often enjoying a better lifestyle than in the countries they were born in.

If you’re a quick learner and a great reader, you can learn everything you need to know about freelance writing and web content writing in the comfort of your home.

If you’re planning to get started with it now, your best bet is to ease into it. If you jump in before you know what you are doing, you may find it hard to get online writing jobs and end up giving up too soon.

There are a number of things you need to know how to do before you start your own web content writing business.

How much can you earn as a freelance writer?

Can writers make a lot of money? The answer to that question depends on your writing skills, as well as your business skills.

According to this article on the Jasper AI writer blog, freelance writers charge anything from $50 to $1500 per long-form article.

Freelance writers charge anything from $50 to $1500 per long-form article.

While a majority of web content writers charge less than $600 per article, a small percentage charge more than $1000 per article.

Charging per word is also common with freelance content writers charging anything from $0.01/word to $2/word.

What sort of experience do you need as a web content writer?

You don’t really need previous career-related experience when you’re trying to make money as a freelance writer, because you can learn the ropes as you go.

That said, you can’t break into professional writing without learning the skills you need to be successful as a freelancer and still expect to make a good income  - or any income at all.

It’s always a good idea to learn web content writing from an expert who teaches freelance writing, so you can avoid the mistakes that new web content writers tend to make when they first start out.

Here are some freelance writing courses to help you learn how to start a freelance writing business:

• Write Your Way to Your First $1k™ – Learn the exact blueprint for setting up your freelance writing business and the exact tools and strategies you need to attract clients, land clients, and retain clients.
• Freelance Blogging in a Weekend – Learn how to start blogging for money in this step-by-step guide to blog writing for businesses for those who want to become freelance bloggers and write blogs for clients.
• Roadmap To Your First Writing Client – In this free webinar, John Morrow covers the skills clients expect you to have, where to get your first glance, how to build your credibility – all kinds of good stuff.
• The Highly Paid Freelance Writer – Join freelance writing expert, John Morrow, in this free webinar and learn the new way to make six figures as a freelance writer, working from home whenever it suits your schedule.

The hardest part about becoming a content writer is getting your first paying client. This is where it can help to join a writer’s community where up-and-coming writers get the training and support they need to kick start their writing career.

“Careers, like rockets, don’t always take off on schedule. The key is to keep working the engines.” ~ Gary Sinise

What skills do web content writers need to succeed?

The world of content writing changes as fast as new technologies and writing mediums emerge. While some online writing tools have made it easier for writers to get work done, others could even make us redundant.

But if you learn the skill of writing for the web, know how to keep up with new technology, and work with it to create better content, you will always have a career as a web content writer.

Here are some more skills you will need to succeed as a web content writer in the coming years:

#1. Learn how to use AI content writing tools

In 2014, robot-written content made its debut and in 2021, the world of web content writing was changed by the growth in artificial intelligence and the use of AI content writing tools.

AI-generated content is the future of writing and writing with AI has become much easier and more intuitive with access to the best AI content generator tools for writing AI content.

But even though AI writer tools can write content, it is not yet as good as the content written by a human. So, you may get clients who will give you AI-generated content and ask you to edit it and improve the quality of the writing so it is more useful to their readers.

As a web content business owner, these AI copywriting tools can help you scale your content marketing, write articles fast, repurpose existing content, and generate new content without having to hire junior writers.

They can also help you write creatively and clearly in multiple languages, so you can break through the language barrier and provide content in different languages, no matter your native tongue.

In this free Jasper SEO Course, you’ll learn exactly how to create content at scale that’s optimized to grow your organic traffic and get your business and content ranked on Google,.

Surfer SEO’s AI-backed, user-friendly content creation platform is another AI content tool you must learn to use for writing AI SEO-optimized copy.

This Free Surfer SEO Writing Masterclass has over 19 lessons covering a range of SEO-related topics such as search intent, NLP (natural language processing), keyword research and evaluation, competitor analysis, and many more.

As a professional writer, it helps to know how to use these AI writing assistants to become a better and faster writer so you can scale your web content writing business.

The key to writing with AI is to be very strategic about the content writing prompts that you feed into the AI writing software program to ensure that the AI gives you the most useful text for your purposes.

In this course on Writing Blog Posts Using Artificial Intelligence, you’ll learn how to ethically use AI writing tools to speed up your blog writing process while ensuring you’re still writing the high-quality meaningful text for your audience.

#2. Learn how to write SEO-friendly articles

It’s simply no longer enough to have written compelling copy on your website. If your content is not expertly optimized, your site will never be found by search engines or by consumers.

One of the most valuable skills for web content writers is to start writing with SEO in mind and know how to write SEO-friendly articles that will rank on the first page of Google.

As a web content writer, you may be wondering how to learn SEO writing for beginners and break into the lucrative world of SEO content writing services.

It’s essential to learn the art of SEO content writing (also known as SEO writing, SEO copywriting, SEO article writing, and SEO blog writing) if you want to be able to offer SEO copywriting services.

This SEO copywriting course will teach you SEO basics for content writing and how to master SEO copywriting so that you can start driving high-quality traffic to your site and maximizing your conversions.

But what is SEO content writing and why is it important? What does SEO content writing mean? And what are the benefits of using SEO-based content writing techniques?

What is SEO content writing?

SEO content writing is the process of writing web content that is optimized for search engine visibility to improve your website’s visibility and traffic.

SEO writing takes into account both the search engine algorithms and the needs of potential customers who are looking for information about a particular topic.

This means including keywords and phrases throughout the article in a way that makes sense to the reader, while also making sure that the content is high quality and provides value to the audience.

It also means making sure your text is well-written and easy to read so that people will want to stay on your page and not click away to find something else.

SEO content is important because, when done correctly, SEO content writing can improve the ranking of a website in the search engine results pages (SERPs), which can result in more website traffic, leads, and sales.

What is an SEO content writer?

An SEO content writer is a professional writer who specializes in creating web content that is both search engine friendly and engaging to users.

SEO content writers use a variety of techniques to make sure their content ranks high by optimizing titles and headings with keywords that people are likely to type into a search engine when looking for information on a particular topic.

A good SEO content writing company stays up-to-date with the latest SEO trends and uses this knowledge to write better titles, headlines, and body copy that will help a website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

An SEO content writing agency also strives to write engaging, informative copy and ensures that all of their writing is compelling and engaging for site visitors. In this Blog Post Writing course, you’ll learn how to write and publish captivating blog posts for your target audience

SEO writing companies also use other techniques to improve their content’s visibility in search results, such as formatting text so it’s easy to read and skim. They may also embed videos, infographics, and other types of content that can improve a website’s ranking in the search results.

How to do SEO content writing?

How do you write SEO-friendly articles that will help you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs)? The best way to write SEO-friendly content will vary depending on your specific niche and audience.

However, there are some tips for writing SEO-friendly content including using keyword-rich titles and headlines, incorporating relevant keywords throughout your article, and making sure that your content is well-researched, useful, and informative.

• Learn how to use SEO content writing tools

It’s essential for an SEO writer to learn how to use SEO content writing tools to write high-quality SEO-friendly articles and SEO-optimized content that ranks on Google.

You must also learn how to use editing tools for writers to check writing online and help improve your grammar and readability.

• Learn how to use AI SEO tools

Web content writers are also expected to learn how to use AI content writing tools to write educational, original, keyword-rich, plagiarism-free blog articles.

For example, you can generate an AI-written article outline with unique paragraphs with Surfer’s Free AI Article Outline Generator, one of the many free resources available to writers to save time, optimize their workflow, and improve their content.

You can also use Surfer’s Grow Flow free SEO automation tool to send you fresh article ideas weekly to improve your topical authority, with personalized recommendations, bite-sized tasks, and weekly data-driven SEO insights designed to maximize your SEO efforts.

• Choose the right keywords

In order to offer SEO blog writing services to clients, you must learn how to choose keywords that will help you get a good amount of traffic, without being too competitive.

Use keyword research tools to understand which terms your audience is searching for and make sure to include them in your content.

If you choose highly competitive keywords, your content may never rank well enough. So you need to learn how to find long-tail keywords that have a good number of searches but are not too competitive to rank.

Don’t forget to also add synonyms and related keywords in your article, but refrain from over-optimizing your articles or keyword stuffing.

In this SEO copywriting course, you’ll learn all about defining your target audience, researching and identifying keywords, utilizing those keywords in your copy, developing a content strategy, and implementing your strategy to optimize your site.

• Learn about keyword prominence

It’s important to place your keywords where they’ll be detected and recognized as keywords by search engine spiders so that your article starts ranking for the right terms.

Keyword prominence  –  or the art of placing your keywords in the most important parts of your article  –  is an important SEO writing skill for web content writers who want to learn how to rank their articles on Google.

Google’s Digital Marketing Training Course recommends a maximum 2% keyword density, a minimum word count of 300 words, and also states that:

Your keywords should be used only once in the following places on each page within your website: page title, subheading, first paragraph, and body conclusion.

However, content that is written for SEO can also include primary and secondary keywords in the following sections of your article:

• Add your primary keyword in the Meta description.
• Add secondary keywords and synonyms in the article body.
• Use the primary keyword or phrase in the URL.
• Add secondary keywords in the Image name and Alt text.
• Add secondary keywords in the Pinterest pin image title, Alt text, and Pin description.

How to learn SEO-friendly content writing

You can learn how to write SEO content and even get SEO certification free to display on your LinkedIn profile and attract clients. Here are some SEO writing courses to help you learn the basics of SEO content writing:

• SEO Copywriting: Optimize Your Website Copy

Learn how to optimize your website copy by mastering expert SEO copywriting skills. In this SEO copywriting course, you’ll learn all about defining your target audience, researching and identifying keywords, utilizing those keywords in your copy, developing a content strategy, and implementing your strategy to optimize your site.

• Become a Blogger: From Strategy to Writing

This Blogging Content Writing course is jam-packed with writing, strategy, and optimization courses to take you from wanna-be blogger to viral blogging expert. Develop a strategy, create compelling content that draws your ideal audience in and optimize your copy to appear on the first page of the search results.

• Blog Post Writing: Create Engaging Blogs

Writing a good blog post takes skill. In this Blog Post Writing course, you’ll learn how to write, optimize, proofread, edit and publish captivating blog posts for your target audience, create a content calendar, and track your analytics to know how well your posts are doing.

• Free Surfer SEO Writing Masterclass

Learn how to write AI SEO optimized copy and get an in-depth look at Surfer’s all-in-one, AI-backed, and user-friendly content creation platform.

This SEO Writing Masterclass provides you with over 19 lessons covering a range of SEO-related topics such as search intent, NLP (natural language processing), keyword research and evaluation, competitor analysis, and many more.

• Free Course: Write Content With Jasper That Ranks

In this free Jasper SEO Course, you’ll learn exactly how to create optimized AI-generated articles and content at scale, that’s optimized to grow your organic traffic and get your business and content ranked on Google.

By the end of this free AI content creation course with SEO Expert, Danny Veiga, who specializes in creating content at scale with Jasper, you’ll have a content machine that brings in organic traffic every month.

• Writing Blog Posts Using Artificial Intelligence

In this course on Writing Blog Posts Using Artificial Intelligence, you’ll learn how to be very strategic about the content writing prompts that you feed into the AI writing software program to ensure that the AI gives you the most useful text for your purposes.

• Jon Morrow’s Freelance Writer Certification Program

This freelance writer certification course will provide you with a ton of flexibility and options in your career and your life. You can continue building up clients in your free time, and eventually, transition to become a full-time freelance content writer or even start your own content marketing agency.

• Create Content for Blog Traffic Masterclass

The Creating Content for Blog Traffic Masterclass walks you through the type of blog you can have and the type of content you should create. You’ll learn how to source a blog topic, compare blog topics and optimize the blog topic for keywords and traffic.

This Masterclass includes a writing process for creating content that’s optimized for your audience and for blog traffic. You’ll also learn the key fundamentals to understanding your audience, how different types of blogs create content, how to change your content to fit your audience, and more.

• SEO Blueprint for Bloggers

If your client has hired you not only to write SEO content, but also to boost traffic to their blog and bring in thousands of consistent, reliable, and profitable visitors the SEO Blueprint for Bloggers course is the ultimate blueprint to help you do that.

You’ll learn exactly how to do an SEO content audit of your client’s content and website and figure out exactly how to take their results from good to great, You’ll learn how to create the best content that ranks, and converts into more money.

SEO article writing best practices

You can improve your client’s website visibility by publishing high-quality content that is both informative and engaging for users. Follow these best practices for SEO content writing to delight your clients and keep them coming back to you.

• Make sure your content is well-written and error-free. Nothing turns off clients and readers more than poor grammar and typos.
• Use catchy keyword-rich titles and descriptions. Create attention-grabbing headlines and titles that will make people want to click through to read your content.
• Compose your content well using clear and concise sentences, as well as proper formatting. It can make a big difference in how easy it is for people to read and digest your information.
• Use different variations of your keyword phrase, as well as synonyms, to ensure that your content ranks in search engine results for a large number of relevant queries.
• Use a paraphrasing website online for rewriting articles and paraphrasing online without plagiarism.
• Make sure your content is easy to read and digest. Structure your content in an easy-to-read format with clear headlines and subheadings, and learn the craft of writing for the web.
• Use images, infographics, and videos to break up your text and add visual interest. Breaking up your text with images and videos can make it more scannable and user-friendly.

#3. How to increase your SEO copywriting income

If you only want to offer SEO content writing services and keep writing articles for money, then you only need to follow the tips above.

But if you want to increase your SEO content writing agency’s revenue, you must go the extra mile to help your clients achieve measurable results in terms of traffic and conversions.

This means including the SEO task list below in your deliverables to help your clients increase their rankings and traffic:

• Ensure your client’s website is properly indexed and all the pages and posts are linked using a sitemap so that search engines can easily spider their site.
• Ensure your client’s website loads fast and has high Core Web Vitals scores for improved user experience (you can hire a freelance programmer to do this).
• Do a content audit for SEO to find content gaps and opportunities for ranking your client’s website.
• Create an SEO content strategy for your client’s business, and revise it as required to help them achieve their business goals and objectives.
• Use SEO content planning tools to keep track of your workflow and blog publishing schedule.
• Learn how to use the best AI copywriting tools for writing AI content so you can scale your web content writing business.
• Use AI SEO automation tools for SEO content generation and to help you automate your SEO content workflow and processes.
• Refresh outdated content regularly to ensure that your client’s blog content remains fresh, relevant, and engaging for their audience.
• Start a link-building campaign to build backlinks to your client’s blogs so they can rank higher. Links are one of the most important ranking factors in Google’s algorithm.
• Help your clients build a mailing list and capture and nurture leads and subscribers.
• Promote your client’s blog content through social media, email marketing, and other channels.

If you can offer to do both on-page SEO content writing, as well as off-page SEO tasks and blog promotion services, it will significantly boost the revenue and profits of your SEO copywriting company.

And you can always hire SEO freelancers for the tasks you can’t do yourself or don’t want to do yourself.

#4. Learn how to work with clients

Don’t waste time crafting and sending shoddy emails that receive no response. Whether you’ve tried cold emailing before or you’re just getting started, this Cold Email Marketing course will teach you foolproof email tactics to get a meeting with anyone, so you can get consistent clients.

If the idea of pitching clients for your SEO copywriting agency sends you running in the other direction, this step-by-step training guide for Pitching Clients will help you learn how to market yourself well, identify prospects and land your first client.

As a freelance web content writer, you’re exchanging time for money, so you need to figure out how long it takes you to write or rewrite an article and send them a content writing proposal that covers the content writing scope.

How promptly you respond to your client’s demands is indicative of how well you work with your clients. Make sure you get a clear SEO content brief that outlines what the freelance writing job entails before you agree to take it on or leave open the possibility that your price may change should extra work be involved.

If you’re a writer who works on multiple projects at any given time, you need to pin down a deadline from your clients and ask for a specific timeline for when the job should be completed, even if one is not stated.

You can streamline your web content business with the Fiverr Workspace tool, a freelancing logistics tool designed to help freelancers, solopreneurs, and entrepreneurs with time tracking, invoicing, payments, proposals, contracts, tasks management, and income and expense tracking.

If you want to list your writing services on Fiverr, this Free Online Freelancing Essentials course will help you create your Fiverr content writing gigs, grow your career as an online freelancer, and offer outstanding experiences for every client you work with.

How to work with nightmare clients

Short answer: You don’t!

All freelance writers have had clients that have more than likely been refused service from other freelancers, either because they pay too little for the quality of work they expect or are never satisfied.

Don’t take it personally. Even the best writers get clients that are never satisfied.

These clients refused to be pleased with any work they are presented with. They have an ideal writer in mind, but sadly that writer does not exist.

It could be that you’ve provided numerous rewrites and the client remains dissatisfied. At that point, you may need to stand up to the client and ask for payment or to be released from the obligation.

On freelancing platforms like Fiverr, you can specify how many rewrites you will provide. Even then, you may get clients who give you a poor rating.

However, Fiverr clients also get rated by the content writer on Fiverr they have worked with, so you can always avoid working with clients that have a poor rating.

As far as possible, try to end the relationship with your client gracefully, even if it means incurring a loss. And watch out for the red flags, so you can avoid nightmare clients in the future.

Ask happy clients for referrals

When you do hear from satisfied customers, don’t hesitate to ask for a brief recommendation on LinkedIn or a testimonial via email that you can use for the benefit of other customers looking to hire a content writing company.

Did you know that it costs 5 times as much to find new clients as compared to keeping existing clients?

The Keep Your Clients course will help you learn best practices for client communications, client retention strategies, and how to make the most of every client relationship.

So stretch your wings and keep learning new skills as a web content writer. You can specialize in website content writing for SEO, but need to be adaptable enough to expand into new content writing formats, such as SEO video content.

The more you learn about web content and copywriting, the more marketable your skills will be.

#5. Build your professional writer platform

As a professional writer, you also need to learn how to market your freelance writing business and position yourself as the best content writing service for your niche so you can get more freelance writing gigs and increase your freelancing earnings.

As the top freelance websites are saturated with freelance writers, you need to have your own writer website and blog to show clients that you’re serious about building a content writing business.

Starting a blog, where you can showcase your professional website content writing portfolio, your SEO content writing packages, and build your writer platform, is one of the best ways to stand out from other writers and attract new clients who appreciate your SEO blog writing skills.

In addition to finding clients online, you can also use these local networking tips to start building your professional business network locally and find new clients in your own neighborhood.

As you build more traffic to your writer’s website and blog, you may even be able to earn money blogging with advertising and affiliate marketing or by selling your own courses and books.

So get started on building your writer’s website and improving your writer’s branding so you can grow and build a successful SEO content writing agency.