There are many future writers who dream of a successful career as a freelance writer but don’t realize the dedication and dedication it takes to make it work. This article examines the 7 daily habits involved in running a freelance or advertising copy business and addresses some of the pitfalls involved.
1) Formulate Marketing Strategies
You should consider your marketing strategy as part of your overall business plan and it should be an effective document. The strategy should be evaluated daily and adjusted if necessary. Has your cold call strategy worked, or have you gained more customers through word of mouth and online advertising?
2) Thematic research
As we all know, many customers tend not to provide enough information, so additional research is required. If a particular topic is beyond your core competency to some extent, you will need to do at least additional daily research to expand your knowledge base.
3) Submit proposal
A well-developed proposal plays an important role in the client’s decision to accept your job. Therefore, you should ensure that you have as much additional and relevant information as possible.
4) Project planning and tracking for copywriting
Whether you’re working on a small or large project, scheduling and tracking are important tasks that need to be done every day. There is a lot of cheap and free (open source) software that can help you with this. If you really want to get this right, you’ll need to use your tracking and scheduling tools several times a day.
5) Quotation:
Not all freelance copywriting jobs are created equal and you may need to meet the needs of many different clients. Sure, there are many standard rates, but usually each new writing job has some unique features. Try to strike a good balance by not quoting too much or too little. The greatest skill required is mastering some methods of estimating time accurately.
6) Visit customers
The freelance writing activities are not all done on an anonymous basis and it will be necessary to visit clients. Or, using modern communication technology, always video conferencing or Skype, still using the same type of interface.
7) Accounting and office management.
It is critical to set up a very strict system from the outset for all management and accounting functions. Don’t make it too difficult to issue invoices, process payments, record fees, and manage taxes and bank accounts. It does take a lot of time, but spend it instead of ignoring it.
Now that you have some understanding of a typical day as a freelance writer, it’s clear that if you stick to the routine and plan accordingly, your writing endeavors will rarely go wrong.
Comparing Freelance SEO Consultants and Agencies
What is the difference between a freelance SEO consultant and an agency?
The main difference is clear: freelancers work as independent consultants. They are mostly self-employed and their client base is mostly localized, although free SEO can theoretically work with clients anywhere.
SEO agencies offer similar consulting services, but they have a large team. The size of an SEO organization ranges from a few people to hundreds of people. SEO agencies usually provide other online marketing services, such as web design, pay-per-click or display advertising, and SEO.
price
Like other service-based industries, free SEO is generally cheaper than SEO agencies. Agencies have higher management costs, such as offices and sales teams, finance departments and account managers. Most freelancers work independently of the home office, which significantly reduces their management costs.
Most free search engine optimization agencies price their work hourly or daily rate.
method
The actual SEO process followed by agencies and freelance consultants is usually very similar. There is a fairly complete best practice process for optimizing a website, usually as follows:
keyword research
Technology optimization
Site Optimization
Collect references
Report
The terminology and details of each part of the process will vary from agency to agency and consultant, but most will generally follow this formula. Some freelancers may focus on specific parts of the SEO process, such as link building, but most are all-rounders who can complete all parts of the entire process.
Perhaps the biggest difference from agencies is the level of participation in account management, which is useful for large-scale events from major brands.
quality
The quality of the SEO work of agencies and freelancers is very different, so a real comparison cannot be made. As a company considering working with consultants or consultancies, you are responsible for seeking the trustworthiness and credibility of the people you hire And performance guarantees do your search engine optimization.
Find references from other clients about their experience with the agency or freelancer, and see their client results in Google search results.
Agencies often promote themselves with a multidisciplinary team of subject matter experts (such as link builders and copywriters). This is of course an advantage, but just like freelancers can deliver better quality of service and results by having more personal experience in your project.
Experience
Having a team can give agents an advantage in this regard, but usually freelancers are former agent employees who have been in the SEO business for a longer period of time and are at the top of the game. When working with agencies, be sure to look for assurance about the experience of the team members working on your project. In some cases, sloppy SEO work done by qualified consultants can hurt your website’s search results rather than help.
Department expert
Managing SEO activities faces different challenges in different industries, and usually the experience of experts in a particular department can be a big advantage. Some freelance SEO consultants will focus on sectors such as tourism, retail or finance, or specific geographic areas such as local businesses in London. Most SEO agencies don’t focus on one area because they quickly run out of potential clients (because agencies should only work with one site in a particular niche to avoid conflicts between clients). This means they may be more generalists, but they tend to learn from other activities in the same market segment.
Technology
Some of the larger SEO agencies have developed custom tools to manage their client activities and generate reports. Technology is of course an important part of SEO, but in most cases anyone (for a fee) can use the best SEO tools. Most agency tools are designed to create reports and simplify part of their SEO process. They can certainly help, but keep in mind that there are no secret tools or techniques that can provide you with higher search rankings – only reliable SEO work can do this, and there is always humanity involved.
There is certainly no ready-made answer to the question of whether a freelancer or agency is more suitable for your SEO project. When seeking advice, I recommend talking to both, comparing the pros and cons of each and ultimately making a choice based on the quality of their proposed solutions and the completeness of personal references.
