In today’s episode, I share 5 reasons every writer should be freelancing.

Being a freelance writer is not only a great way to make money but also to make connections, learn, grow as a writer and much more!

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I hope this was helpful, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Do you agree? Do you disagree with the fierce heat of a thousand suns?

Let me know in the comments below.

Plus, if you have a question you want answered on a future Write Bites episode, ask in the comments or shoot me an email, and I’ll add it to the schedule.

When should you write for pay?

When should you for exposure?

When should you write for yourself?

In today’s interview, Ella Dawson walks us through her notable career journey as a writer and explains her approach to writing for pay, exposure, and audience building. She also gives a fantastic breakdown on why you should look to “own your writing” whenever possible. If you are pursuing writing as a long-term career, you don’t want to miss this.

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I hope this was helpful, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Do you agree? Do you disagree with the fierce heat of a thousand suns?

Let me know in the comments below.

Plus, if you have a question you want answered on a future Write Bites episode, ask in the comments or shoot me an email, and I’ll add it to the schedule.

What would you do if someone challenged you to earn $5000 in under 48 hours?

Here’s the story of how I did just that, receiving $5000 in my bank account in 47 hours and 38 minutes.

If you’re a freelance copywriter struggling to land new gigs and sign new clients, you need to watch this video.

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I hope this was helpful, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Do you agree? Do you disagree with the fierce heat of a thousand suns?

Let me know in the comments below.

Plus, if you have a question you want answered on a future Write Bites episode, ask in the comments or shoot me an email, and I’ll add it to the schedule.

Most copywriters I speak to want to make more money, and what they usually mean by that is higher rates.

In today’s episode, I show you 3 reasons why you’re not able to charge the rates you want, how to diagnose which reason you’re dealing with, AND how to solve that problem so you can raise your rates and make the money you want to make as a copywriter.

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I hope this was helpful, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Do you agree? Do you disagree with the fierce heat of a thousand suns?

Let me know in the comments below.

Plus, if you have a question you want answered on a future Write Bites episode, ask in the comments or shoot me an email, and I’ll add it to the schedule.

If you’ve been following me for over a year, you know that in February of 2020, I purchased a recipe blog as an experiment to see if I could buy a site and grow it over time.

[Missed that? Catch up here.] 

Over the last quarter, I’ve been starting to put some work into this blog, and the results are starting to come in. In fact, this last quarter is the first quarter where I have a year-over-year comparisons, and site revenue is up about 45% compared to last year.

In today’s episode, I’m going to be covering the three things I’ve done to increase that revenue, as well as two additional strategies I’ll be implementing this quarter to prepare for this niche’s “busy season” from Thanksgiving through Christmas.

This episode of Write Bites is sponsored by Copy.AI, a toolkit that helps writers, marketers, and freelancers harness the power of GPT-3 to quickly create first draft copy for their businesses and clients. Click here to try Copy.AI free for 30 days.

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If you’ve been following me for over a year, you know that in February of 2020, I purchased a recipe blog as an experiment to see if I could buy a site and grow it over time.

Now, over the last year, I have not had nearly as much time to put into it as I was hoping for.

That said, over the last quarter in particular, I’ve been starting to put some work in and seeing some results. And in fact, this last quarter is the first quarter where I have a year over year comparisons and the site is up about 45% in revenue from this year versus last year. Which is pretty exciting.

It’s a lot more growth frankly, than I was hoping to achieve.

So in today’s episode, I’m going to be covering the three things that I’ve been doing to increase that revenue, and also two things that I haven’t yet gotten to, but I plan to do, and I think we’ll have a pretty big impact heading into the fall and winter season.

So if you have any interest in growing and monetizing websites of your own (primarily using writing) and want to learn what I’ve been doing on my own sites, stick around.

Today’s episode is sponsored by CopyAI: a toolkit that helps writers, marketers, and freelancers skip writers block completely and quickly create first draft copy for themselves and their clients.

Head on over to https://www.copy.ai/jacob and sign up to get 30 days completely free.

So, getting into the three strategies that I’ve been using over the last quarter to increase revenue by about 45% year over year…

Strategy #1: Scoring Quick Wins By Revamping Solid (But Unoptimized) Content

Starting with number one, I have been going through and revamping content that was ranking on the second page for high volume keywords.

So here’s what this means. Using an SEO tool (in my case, https://ahrefs.com/), I’ve been looking at all the content on the site. When I bought it, I think there were around 300 recipes  including some other content as well.

So I’ve been looking through all the content on Ahrefs and identifying pages that are ranking for high traffic keywords, but are showing up on the second page or even the low front page.

So for example, let’s say I’m looking at Ahrefs and I see that one of my recipe posts is ranking on the second pa...

In today’s episode, we’re going to run through five essential resources every freelance writer should be using (and especially newcomers to the industry).

This episode of Write Bites is sponsored by Copy.AI, a toolkit that helps writers, marketers, and freelancers harness the power of GPT-3 to quickly create first draft copy for their businesses and clients. Click here to try Copy.AI free for 30 days.

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In today’s episode, I’m going to be covering five essential resources that I think every freelance writer on the planet should be using…

And if you’re just getting started, these are five resources that you really should be looking to learn and use right off the bat.

Resource #1: Google Docs

If you’re not using Google Docs, start using it right now. Google Docs is the perfect writing tool for freelance writers.

First and foremost, it autosaves your work. This means you’re never in a position of losing stuff that you’ve already written.

If you’ve been writing for any length of time, you’ve felt the frustration of losing your work due to a computer crash, a malfunction of the app or tool you’re using – something of that kind. It’s the worst.

There’s no reason to ever have to experience that. And by using Google Docs, you’re going to skip that experience completely.

It’s going to autosave your work when you’re online, and it will even save your work in some capacity when you’re offline (provided you don’t close out of the app).

it’s a very simple, lightweight tool that allows you to just write. And as a freelancer, it has several advantages.

It’s very easy to share. It makes it very easy to collaborate with clients (the commenting, review and editing features are all very well done). It’s not complicated to learn, and it’s also not complicated to integrate into your processes.

Compared to tools like Microsoft Word, the formatting on Google Docs plays well with other apps.

If you’ve ever had to use a Word document in any application beyond Word itself, then you know how frustrating the built-in formatting can be. Luckily, Google Docs is the exact opposite.

It carries only the most basic formatting stuff that plays really nicely with WordPress and almost any app you’re going to use. It’s just a great overall word processor.

I’ve been using Google Docs for pretty much the entirety of my career. It’s how I send work to clients. It’s how I do work for my own businesses. And I would highly recommend it.

Resource #2: CopyAI

The second resource I would recommend to all freelance writers is actually the sponsor of this video: CopyAI.

CopyAI is a collection of tools that allow you to very easily and very quickly tap into GPT-3 artificial intelligence.

Now, if you aren’t familiar with GPT-3, it’s currently the most advanced writing AI in the world. It’s also the first AI to ever create language and content that is indistinguishable from human content for most readers.

Another two reasons I recommend CopyAI to pretty much any writer at any level of their career:

For writers on the earlier side of their career, CopyAI really allows you to generate ideas that typically would come with experience.

What I mean here is that, for me (as someone who’s been in the space for 10 years and written for hundreds of businesses), when I’m looking to create copy for a client, there’s a lot of sources that I can pull from in my mind.

Experiences,

In this episode, solopreneur Adrienne Barnes and I discuss how to find happiness as a freelancer, solopreneur, or remote worker and how the path to happiness looks a bit different for each of us.

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Learn More From Adrienne Barnes

If you’d like to learn more from Adrienne, click here to check out her website and here to follow her on Twitter.

Share Your Thoughts

I hope this was helpful, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic in the comments below.

Plus, if you have a question you want answered on a future Write Bites episode, ask in the comments, and I’ll add it to the schedule.

While copywriting isn’t exactly a mainstream skill set just yet, it’s not a secret either.

Most business owners have a general understanding of what it is.

That said, over the decade I’ve been a copywriter, I’ve noticed there are some lingering misconceptions about copywriting that remain prevalent among business owners, marketers, and even copywriters themselves.

In today’s episode, we’re going to dig into the three most common misconceptions that people have about copywriting.

This episode of Write Bites is sponsored by Copy.AI, a toolkit that helps writers, marketers, and freelancers harness the power of GPT-3 to quickly create first draft copy for their businesses and clients. Click here to try Copy.AI free for 30 days.

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While copywriting may not be mainstream enough for the average person on the street to know what it is, it’s not exactly a hidden skillset either.

If you talk to most business owners or marketers today, they’re going to understand what copywriting is (as a general rule).

That said, over the decade I’ve been in this business, I’ve noticed that there are some lingering misconceptions about copywriting that remain prevalent among business owners, marketers, and even copywriters themselves.

And so in today’s episode, we’re going to dig into the three most common misconceptions that people have about copywriting.

Today’s episode is sponsored by CopyAI, a toolkit that helps writers, marketers, and freelancers skip writer’s block completely and quickly create first draft copy for themselves and their clients.

If you head on over to https://www.copy.ai/jacob, you can get a 30-day free trial and try it out for yourself.

So let’s dive straight into the three most common misconceptions people have about copywriting.

Misconception #1: Copywriting Is What Sells Things

Misconception number one is the idea that copywriting is what sells things.

In reality, copywriting does not sell things. Product-market fit is what sells things.

And this makes sense when you think about it.

Think back to the last thing you purchased online. Why did you buy it?

The answer to that is that you wanted it.

You saw something that you wanted or needed.

It matched a desire that you had, it provided a benefit you wanted, it helped you solve a problem you had been looking to solve…

Whatever the reason, it matched something that you wanted and you made the purchase.

Now the marketing helped put it in front of you.

The messaging and the copywriting helped you understand that this was what you were looking for.

Maybe the messaging even pushed you that last step from “Hey, I’d really like this” to “I’m buying this now”.

But at the end of the day, the reason you purchased that thing was because it matched something you already wanted.

And this is what’s known as product-market fit.

It means that there is a group of customers out in the market who want and are ready to pay for the thing that is being offered, whether that’s a product or a service.

The misconception here is that with good enough copywriting, you can sell things to people that they don’t want.

And this simply isn’t true.

If you could legitimately sell things to people that they had no interest in, no desire for, you would never need to work for a business.

All the companies in the world would be owned by the best copywriters.

Freelance writing is incredibly accessible.

Every single week, I get testimonials and reports from writers who are hitting significant milestones in their journeys, enjoying successful careers, and building profitable businesses.

That said, not everyone is succeeding in this space. Part of the accessibility means there are a lot of people who give freelance writing a try… and fail.

Over the years, I’ve observed that five things in particular seem to derail freelance writers more than almost anything else.

In today’s episode of Write Bites, I’ll take you through these five common pitfalls and show you exactly how to avoid them on your journey.

This episode of Write Bites is sponsored by Copy.AI, a toolkit that helps writers, marketers, and freelancers harness the power of GPT-3 to quickly create first draft copy for their businesses and clients. Click here to try Copy.AI free for 30 days.

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What are the things that are most likely to prevent you from succeeding as a freelance writer?

In today’s episode, I’m going to break down the five things that I most commonly see derail freelance writers…

And we’re going to be explaining how to prevent those things from derailing you on your journey.

Today’s episode is sponsored by CopyAI, a toolkit that helps writers and marketers and freelancers skip writer’s block and quickly create first draft copy for themselves and their clients.

If you’d like to get a free 30 day trial head on over to copy.ai/jacob.

Freelance writing is incredibly accessible.

Every single week, I get testimonials and reports from other freelance writers that are hitting significant milestones in their journeys, enjoying successful careers, and building profitable businesses.

That said, not everyone is succeeding in this space.

Freelance writing is accessible. And that means that a lot of people come into this space and try their hand at freelance writing ultimately won’t end up succeeding.

Over the years, I’ve observed that five things in particular seem to derail freelance writers more than almost anything else.

#1: Negative Beliefs

The first one is to be honest, a little bit surprising.

So many freelance writers come into this field with the assumption that they can’t do something.

Sometimes it’s as broad as “I can’t succeed as a freelance writer” (which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy), but more frequently, it’s specific things.

For instance, when they look at people who they consider successful and they see things that those writers are doing, they think “Oh, I couldn’t do that”.

Maybe it’s that they noticed that a writer has a byline on Forbes or that so-and-so is working with a Fortune 500 client. Whatever the reason, they feel like they can’t compare.

The ironic thing about this is that there’s really no pre-qualifications for doing almost anything in the online space.

If you want to do something, achieve something, accomplish something in the writing space…

The biggest differentiator between people who have done it and people who haven’t is whether they’ve tried it.

When you see someone who has a byline on a big publication, 9 times out of 10, it’s just because they happen to send a good pitch at the right time.

If you were to send a good pitch at the right time right now with your current skillset, you could get that same byline.

Now, that said, maybe you give it a try. Maybe you send the pitch and it turns out you just don’t a...

You’re pitching, you’re pitching, you’re pitching some more…

But you’re not getting any clients.

And you’re starting to feel the pressure.

You’re wondering: what else can I do to land the next (or maybe even first) client as quickly as possible?

If you’ve had trouble getting people to respond to your pitches, you’ll love today’s episode of Write Bites.

I’m going to give you three super practical pitching strategies that (assuming you’re willing to put in the work) will help you accelerate your results.

This episode of Write Bites is sponsored by Copy.AI – a toolkit that helps writers, marketers, and freelancers harness the power of GPT-3 to quickly create first draft copy for their businesses and clients. Click here to try Copy.AI free for 30 days.

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What do you do when no one’s responding to your pitches?

This is a super frustrating situation to be in.

And while I would encourage you to keep pitching and assure you that with enough pitches you will ultimately land clients…

At the same time, I want to give you three additional strategies that you can begin implementing right now to increase the speed and increase the chances you have of landing that first client (or even landing that next, really good client) as quickly as possible.

We’re going to be covering three strategies in today’s episode. So let’s dive in.

This episode of Write Bites is sponsored by CopyAI, a toolkit that helps writers, marketers, and freelancers skip writer’s block completely and harness the power of GPT-3 to quickly create first draft copy for themselves and their clients.

Head on over to https://www.copy.ai/jacob and sign up to get a full 30-day free trial.

You’re pitching, you’re pitching, you’re pitching some more.

You’re not getting any clients and you’re sort of on the clock.

You’re wondering: what else can I do to move this process forward and land that next client as quickly as possible?

I’m about to give you three super practical, super effective strategies that are going to take a little more work than the typical pitching style that I teach. But if you put the work in and use these strategies, you are going to get results very, very quick.

So let’s start with number one, and that is…

#1: Create a Content Asset To Include In Your Pitches

So, what is a content asset?

A content asset is a piece of writing within a niche that you’re targeting. It’s focused on a topic that’s going to matter to a particular niche or industry, and it’s highlighting your writing ability.

So, for example, if you’re a travel writer, you could put together a big guide focusing on travel destinations in a post COVID world or travel destinations as the world is starting to open up, or even something connected to what industries or what business models in the travel space you think are going to really explode as people start to travel, as things open up, something like that.

Basically just tapping into a trending topic. Ideally we’re looking for some data that might be interesting to business owners, to marketers, to the types of people are going to hire writers.

So, for example here, you could look at Google Trends.

You could hop into Google Trends and just type in some different destinations and see what’s been getting the most search traffic over the last six months and use that to sort of inform this “Hey, here’s where everyone’s going to start tra...