Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
Is it still possible to make money as a freelance writer in 2025?
In short, yes.
AI writing tools are getting better, but these freelance writers prove that you can still earn a six figure salary 2025:
Even if you’re just getting started, this step by step guide will help you start making money as a freelance writer in 2025.
1. Select Your Niche
Some freelance writing niches pay significantly more than others, so picking a high paying niche can dramatically increase your earning potential.
Two factors to consider as you’re selecting your freelance writing niche are:
- The service
- The client
Some of the most popular freelance writing platform/opportunities include:
- Social media: Social media ghostwriting for LinkedIn and X is an in-demand service. This is a great service if you enjoy short form content and are a great storyteller.
- Content marketing: Companies hire freelance writers to create blog posts to rank for specific keywords. If you want to be a content marketer, learn the basics of SEO, as most companies hiring content marketers care more about ranking for keywords than the content itself.
- Newsletter writer: Newsletter writing is a great niche if you enjoy research. Pick a subject you’re passionate about as you’ll need to stay on top of the latest news and trends.You can either ghostwrite a newsletter for an individual, or you can write for a newsletter company (like Morning Brew). Here’s an example of a personal newsletter:
- Email copywriting: There are many types of email copywriting, from regular company updates to in-depth nurture sequences. Sales emails for products or courses tend to be the most profitable as it’s worth it for a company to pay an extra few thousand dollars for an email copywriter who can increase conversions by even a small percentage.
- Video scriptwriting: YouTube is maturing as a legitimate marketing channel, and plenty of companies are hiring scriptwriters. Additionally, many YouTubers have turned their channels into legitimate businesses and are hiring scriptwriters to expedite the production process. Video scriptwriting is clearly an up-and-coming niche as one creator recently earned $70,000 launching a YouTube scriptwriting course.
The next step to selecting your niche is choosing your dream client – both the industry and business.
Pinpointing your dream client is important because your income as a freelance writer is not correlated with effort.
Your earning potential is correlated with the value you deliver to clients.
Keep in mind that:
Value ≠ Work Quality
Value = Dollars Earned
This concept is important to remember because the amount of money you generate for a client often varies on factors outside of your control, like:
- The profitability of their product
- Their audience size
- Their marketing funnel’s optimization
For example, a great email copywriter can charge $10,000 for a sales letter that generates $100,000 in profit for the business – even if they only spent three hours writing it.
However, a brand new dropshipping business that sells a $5 product probably won’t pay more than $100 for the same amount of work. This is because a new company has a small audience, and the price is so low that it likely generates little profit.
As you’re considering your dream client, ask:
How much money will my results make for this person/business?
Here are some basic guidelines for identifying a mature client across a few different services:
- Social media: Entrepreneurs who have exited their business or are making eight figures per year.
- Blogging/content marketing: Businesses with a strong brand (at least 100k in monthly traffic.) that rely heavily on SEO for customer acquisition.
- Newsletter: Newsletters that already have large sponsors (you can subscribe and see how big the companies sponsoring them are), paid newsletters that have a large subscriber base, and newsletters in highly lucrative industries (think banking, etc.).
- Email writing: Course creators with a substantial, engaged following (several thousand people) and a high value course ($1,000 plus) or B2B companies that need nurture sequences for high value products are all excellent prospects.
- Video scriptwriting: You can target a major YouTuber or a large brand like HubSpot that’s beginning to create videos for specific keywords.
Finally, the industry should be a topic you’re genuinely passionate about, as your passion will impact both your work quality and overall happiness as a freelance writer.
For example, you can charge a lot to write a newsletter about mergers and acquisitions, but if you have no interest in the subject, you probably won’t do as good of a job as someone who lives and breathes mergers and acquisitions.
Additionally, you’ll burn out if you don’t enjoy the subject you’re writing about, which will ultimately cause you to fail.
So choosing a subject you love writing about really does impact how much money you’ll ultimately earn.
2. Create a List of Your Dream Clients
New freelance writers often make the mistake of targeting smaller clients when they first start because they fear their dream client won’t want someone inexperienced.
However, your dream clients don’t really care about your experience – they want to hire a person who consistently delivers great work.
In the next step, you’ll prove that you’re that A-tier freelancer by creating an amazing free sample for that client.
If you create a stellar sample piece, most dream clients won’t even ask about your experience.
On the other hand, marketing budget is more precious for a smaller client, so they may ask more about your experience.
The other factor that will impact your close rate (the percentage of clients that hire you) is whether or not the client is actively hiring for that service.
If the company already has a team in place, they might not be interested in hiring another person, regardless of your quality of work. That box is already “checked” on their to-do list.
This is why you’ll need to reach out to multiple companies. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t receive a reply on your first few tries.
That said, if the company is actively hiring a full-time employee for the service you offer, that’s a clear sign they need your service.
To find companies hiring a full-time employee for your services, you can look at a job board like LinkedIn, Wellfound, or even Indeed.
Companies hiring in-house talent for that position have already set aside a budget for the service you offer, and many of them are happy to consider freelancers rather than hiring in-house.
You can also post on job boards like Upwork, but those tend to be much more competitive and it can be difficult to stand out.
You can still reach out to companies that aren’t actively hiring for the role, as they may need that service and just haven’t gotten around to posting a job description.
If you can access a tool like Crunchbase, look for companies that recently hired a new marketing leader (e.g., CMO, VP of Marketing, Marketing Director, etc.) or received more funding. New marketing leaders need to grow and will probably hire for new roles. Similarly, companies that recently received funding will likely deploy that capital into hiring new talent.
3. Create Free Sample Pieces
“Build a writing portfolio.”
This is advice most people tell you.
Instead, create free sample pieces for your dream clients.
If your dream clients don’t hire you, you can use these sample pieces to build a writing portfolio.
So let’s say you decided to offer content marketing services.
You identified that your dream client is Influencity, an influencer marketing tool.
Therefore, write a blog post on the topic of influencer marketing.
This practice will make you a better writer, and it’s a compelling pitch.
4. Pitch Your Dream Client
These are the two most important principles when pitching clients:
- Find the right person to contact.
- Keep it short.
First, the right person to contact is the person who has the authority to hire for that role.
I use LinkedIn. The free version allows you to search by “marketing” under the “People” tab:
The best person to contact is usually the highest ranked marketing executive if it’s a marketing team of five or fewer people.
If it’s a larger company with a marketing team of five or ten people, there’s a good chance those executives receive too many pitches for yours to cut through the noise.
In that case, pitch the content or social media marketing manager (depending on the service you’re pitching).
Once you find the right person, send them a connection request. If you see that they’re active on LinkedIn, comment on some of their content.
Next, find their email address.
You can use a tool like Hunter.io or Verifalia to do this.
Try a few different combinations like:
- (first)@domain.com
- (first).(last)@domain.com
- (firstinitial).(last)@domain.com
- (last)@domain.com
One of those will probably work.
Next, write your email. Keep it to just two lines.
Here’s the template
Hi (name),
(one line saying why they’re your dream client)
I’d love to write (service) for (brand). I already wrote one for you (see attached).
Tim
Remember to attach your sample!
Here’s an example of how you could adjust this template for a real pitch:
Hi Alex,
It was love at first bite when I tried the peanut butter chocolate flavor 🙂
I’d love to write emails for SkinnyDipped. I already wrote one for you (see attached).
Tim
Don’t be discouraged if they don’t respond to your first email. Follow up with them at least twice.
It might take a few tries, but you’ll eventually land your first client and build your portfolio in the process.
5. Build Your Personal Brand
Cold outreach is ideal to get your first few clients and get started.
But it’s a lot of work.
Landing a client is usually about timing. If the client is about to hire for that position, they’ll probably hire you. If not, they’ll probably pass.
What if you could get on your dream client’s radar before they’re ready to hire? Then, they reach out to you when they are ready to hire.
How do you get on their radar before they’re ready to hire?
Build a personal brand.
If clients see you posting helpful content (or at least logical content that shows you know what you’re doing) on LinkedIn and X, you’ll probably be the first person who comes to mind when they are looking to hire.
We have a separate resource on building a personal brand, but here are content ideas to help you start posting on LinkedIn and X:
- Templates you use for your writing
- Case studies (as you start writing more)
- Mistakes and failures to avoid (ideally from your own experience)
- Tips for a subtopic of your services (e.g., writing subject lines if you offer email copywriting)
The most effective method to grow your following is offering data that answers a burning industry question or a free tool.
Here’s an example of a free tool:
Here’s an example of data that answers a burning industry question:
Free tools and relevant data are often the most effective methods to quickly build an audience, but they are more involved to create. So don’t procrastinate getting started if you don’t have a free tool or original data at the beginning.
Start publishing content a few days per week.
Additionally, engage with your dream clients’ content. Leave insightful comments and share their posts.
This is not only excellent for building genuine connections, but it also helps you stay up to date with industry trends. You’ll also learn about their pain points, what’s working in the industry, and improve your own skills.
A pro tip is to select just five of your dream clients who are active on LinkedIn (posting at least 3x per week) and then put them in a Google Sheet.
Then, for the next week, revisit that Google Sheet each week, click into their profile, and meaningfully engage with each new post they publish.
These people want LinkedIn engagement, so engaging with their content is the best way to add value.
6. Raise Your Prices
As you build your personal brand, you’ll eventually have more clients than you can take on.
Eventually you’ll have two options to continue growing: Either build a team and turn it into a marketing agency or raise your prices.
If you want to hire other writers and build a marketing agency, you can do that, but keep in mind that running a marketing agency requires very different skills than freelance writing.
For many freelance writers, increasing prices is a better method to generate more income.
If you’re not sure how to increase your prices, send this email to your least favorite client:
Hi (name),
It’s been a pleasure working with you and I’m really excited about (last campaign that went well).
I’m currently at capacity and must increase my prices to continue giving each client the time they deserve.
Beginning (date), my prices will be $X,000 per month. If that works for you, I look forward to continuing our partnership.
Thanks,
Name
As soon as you hit capacity, raise your prices.
Even if the client cancels, you’ll still have other clients, and you can use that time to reinvest in your personal brand to attract more high quality clients who can pay even more.
Get More Help Building Your Freelance Writing Career
The step by step process outlined above will help you kickstart your freelance writing career, but getting started can be lonely.
You probably won’t land the very first potential client you pitch, but you will build a steady client base if you’re persistent and consistently deliver quality work.
To make the journey easier, we created Copyblogger Academy. It’s a course and community that gives freelancers and side hustlers all of the marketing materials they need. There are nine courses on topics ranging from personal branding and copywriting to SEO and email marketing.
You can also ask the community for feedback on your work and even ask questions to seven figure entrepreneurs, Charles Miller and Tim Stoddart.
Check out Copyblogger Academy today to see if it’s a good fit for you.
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
