Freelance Copywriter
The world of freelancing can be a scary place to find yourself. It’s easy for doubts to creep in giving you that dreaded imposter syndrome no matter how well versed you are in your career. Without colleagues to bounce ideas off, give an opinion on your nightmare project or champion your latest success it’s difficult to be focused and motivated especially when the business you’re writing for requires a strong call to action to be featured and needs guidance with their brand tone of voice.
I was fairly new to the world of freelancing and gigging on People Per Hour when I saw a project that caught my eye, “2 website content pages 400 words each”, I sent my proposal and heard back within minutes, I’d won the gig and after a quick chat with the poster, I set to work and had completed the first within around an hour and a half.
Oh, Sh*t! The little voice of doubt in my head compelled me to check in, so I sent the first article to be assessed before carrying on to the second. Explaining that as it was the first time we’d worked together I wanted to check they were happy before I carried on. They were and boosted by the feedback (top tip, shush your inner worrier and ask for feedback!) I smashed out the second article and have never looked back.
The poster of that project was Nina of SEO Lady. The top ranking, female freelance SEO in the UK. It wasn’t long before she contacted me again and asked if I would be prepared to work for her again with a 72 hour deadline, of course, it was an easy decision, she’s a dream to work with and the work she does is so varied and diverse.
After that project, Nina asked if I fancied having a zoom and wine date. We’d only spoken over email at that point but we got on well so I accepted, thinking we were just going to chat about life in general. How wrong I was. You see, Nina always has a plan (and a list for every plan!) and noticing a distinct lack of website/portfolio and sparse Google my business page she was soon kicking my butt and guiding me to promote myself and the importance of SEO.
I couldn’t believe this random lady was sitting at the other end of the country, drinking wine with me and helping me grow my business, for no other reason than she wanted to help and fledgeling freelancer.
SEO Copywriting Lessons
I’ve been in marketing for years, both corporate and for small businesses and for all I understood about branding the importance of staying on brand, targeting the right potential customers and keywords/ hashtags, I didn’t actually know how to make the most of these with regard to search engines ranks. Nina has taught me how, when and why to use keywords and when, where and how not to.
We now get together over Zoom once a month on a Friday evening, with wine obviously, and go through the various projects we’ve each got on before we choose one project to advance my SEO skills.
For anyone who’s thinking of training in SEO, you can’t get better than Nina. There’s no silly industry jargon, she explains everything in the plainest, no-nonsense terms and has the patience to make sure you understand before moving on to the next step. She has a knack for knowing just when to take your training to the next level so there’s no wasted time but nor is there a feeling of being rushed which would just lead to frustration and inevitably disappointed clients. Nina wants you to get it right, first-time, every time and makes sure you’re ready to do that before progressing to the next level. She has high standards and that inadvertently rubs off on you. If you love straight talking, you’ll adore Nina.
Freelance SEO Copywriter
Don't just take my word for it, see what Nina has to say.
“During lockdown of 2020 my business portfolio doubled in 6 months. I had been in talks with Weston-super-Mare college to hire an apprentice, but COVID put the ice on that idea.
I was struggling hard, it’s crazy to turn away paying clients when you know you can help and they are waving money at you. For 12 months I worked 7 days a week, it was lockdown anyway, so who cares?
During this super heavy workload period, I realised a lot of my time was taken up by copywriting and it occured to me – clients send me their copy for niche blogs that I can’t write for, to tweak and fluff into Google SEO content is easy for me but I needed to focus on a lot of technical SEO tasks.
I’d taken on a client with multiple websites, my first job was migrating a domain with SEO in mind. It turned out to be a rocky journey as the client was swamped with work himself and often I was waiting 24 hours for email responses.”
“Another multiple-site client contacted me with a time sensitive new website launch and needed copy about landscape gardening. I logged onto People Per Hour and began my search.
I met Suzie – That Copy Girl – on the freelancing website where I’ve been winning contracts since 2008. To date I’ve earned more than 390 reviews – all 5 star – and it’s a gateway for clients to trial my services and vice versa.
Suzie delivered my 500 words about landscape gardening and when I read her writing flow, I saw myself.
So, this is like love at first sight. Honestly, hear me out. In my career I’ve invoiced thousands of clients, and delivered thousands of hours’ worth of SEO Training via Zoom and Skype.
I could tell within 4 seconds that the copy supplied would only need a few tweaks, so I offered to exchange services for free copywriting for SEO lessons.
Suzie is a freelance SEO copywriter, UK based in Lincolnshire. Following several wine dates over Zoom, we evolved our relationship naturally from client – subcontractor to client – partnership. We have collaborated over the years and have effectively created a dynamic relationship based on honest feedback, knowledge sharing and humour.
This is why I’m proud to announce my partner in crime who I strongly recommend for ongoing SEO campaigns in the UK.”
