SEO Content Writing: Can You Still Earn Good Money as a Freelancer Doing This in 2014?

Feb. 3, 2014 - PRLog -- I've been asked some version of this question practically every year since I opened the doors of my SEO writing company in 2008. My answer is always the same – yes, yes, yes! In fact, the need for qualified search engine optimization (SEO) writers has never been greater. Why?

Well, consider this … according to the B2C Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America (http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/b2cresearch2013cmi-121113201300-phpapp02.pdf) survey by the Content Marketing Institute:

55% of B2C marketers say they will increase their content marketing spend over the next 12 months;

67% of large companies (those with 1,000 or more employees) outsource content creation and 50% of small and medium-sized companies do;

51% of companies had a hard time producing enough content;

49% found it tough to produce engaging content; and

42% found it challenging to produce a variety of content.

What this shows is that not only are businesses spending money on content marketing, they're facing challenges that you as a freelance SEO writer can help them with.

How to Get SEO Writing Jobs

Knowing which challenges businesses face is half the solution to the problem. It's all laid out for you; all you have to do is address these challenges.

For example, let's take the 51 percent of businesses that had  hard time producing enough content. What are some of the top reasons you think they have this problem?

Lack of time is one of the most often cited problems. Not having a dedicated staff member to handle content marketing might be another. Not having the time to find out what their customers want to know about could be another reason. Not having time to learn what content marketing is all about and how to do it right is another possibility.

Right there, you have four legitimate "pain points" you can help them with.

One of My Favorite Ways to Get Online Writing Jobs

So write up a short ebooklet – 3 to 5 pages should be enough – and address each pain point. Make it available as a free, downloadable document on your SEO writing website, AND actively send it out to potential prospects.

Make the title enticing; eg, something like "How to Find Enough Time to Produce All the Content You'll Ever Need for Your Blog, Website, Newsletter, Etc." Of course, one of the options you'd offer is to outsource the content to a freelance writer. Put your contact info in there (obviously).

Now, if the prospect chooses outsourcing as an option – and many will if they have the budget – how good of a chance do you think you have of being considered?

Exactly!

Conclusion

Because of the popularity of content marketing, the need for professionally trained SEO writers (http://www.seowritingjobs.com/seo-copywriting-training/) who stay abreast of the rules of (Google's) constantly algorithm has never been greater.

Getting the work is not rocket science, but you do have to put in the marketing work. Do this by addressing pain points; ie, what problems are potential clients having? Offer solutions to those – and provide quality writing at reasonable rates. This will earn you a fantastic living writing as an online (SEO) writer.
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About the Author: Yuwanda Black (http://plus.google.com/112339798837672719495?rel=author) heads New Media Words, an SEO writing company. She's also the publisher of a niche blog on this type of technical writing – SeoWritingJobs.com. She says, "With proper SEO copywriter training (http://www.seowritingjobs.com/learn-seo-in-negril-jamaica/), you can start a successful, home-based career as an online writer." Ms. Black has also authored over 50 ebooks, four of which cover writing SEO content. They can be found on major outlets like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, in addition to her own website(s).