SEO Copywriting Success Story: From $10/Article to $50+/Article — How One SEO Copywriter Changed His Life & Got on the Road to Success
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In yesterday’s post on InkwellEditorial.com, we discussed recessionary marketing strategies for freelance writers. One SEO copywriter wrote in to tell me how the strategies outlined in this post were exactly the ones he has used to grow his freelance writing business. Here’s his story:
Hi Yuwanda,
I bought your ebook, “How to Make $250+/Day Writing Simple, 500-Word Articles” just over a year ago in August last year. I was impressed by the idea of writing for SEO companies and decided to try it. I had almost immediate success and have since built on that despite the recession (emphasis added).
Your advice about offering bulk services is really what prompted me to write to you. I already do this, though it happened naturally and not as a deliberate goal on my part.
I currently write exclusively for four SEO companies - I’m their main or only writer - and two of the companies have standing orders for articles and blog posts on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. It forms about one third of my overall income at present. If all else failed any month (and that seems unlikely the way things are going), I could get by on that alone, which is a great kind of insurance to have.
The latest company I found work with asked me to write for them as they had heard from a colleague that I provided a good service. Word of mouth recommendation is great! A day later they sent me details of an email account, telling me to set it up and use it as they wanted me to appear part of their business if I had to deal directly with clients.
When I asked them if this meant they wanted to retain my services on a permanent basis, they seemed surprised I had asked, assuring me they did and told me that contract papers would be on their way to me as soon as possible, and also, when I had time we should discuss payment scales for the various kinds of writing they would be offering me. I set the rates with confidence and they agreed without a murmur.
I’m not trying to brag here. Far from it. I’m just demonstrating that your ebook worked for me better than anything else has ever done in the online world, and I’ve tried a lot of things over the years! (emphasis added) Writing was and still is my main skill. I hated writing my soul away for $10 - or less - an article. Now I charge $35 to $50 for an article of 400 to 500 words (and moving up), and the people I work with never even blink an eyelid at that.
I guess what I’m really trying to say is “Thanks!”
I moved to southwest Spain from Scotland with my family two and a half years ago in search of a better life. It’s been a hard struggle at times. We almost gave up and considered moving back to the UK a few times when things got really tight, but buying your ebook was the turning point. It didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen surprisingly fast, and it’s still happening too. I can’t remember what I paid you for the ebook, but it certainly was worth every penny - several times over. Thanks again.
Kind regards,
JC, Spain
As this SEO copywriter’s story illustrates, SEO writing is a career that’s relatively easy to start (if you understand some basics) and can really take off fairly quickly. I remembered this writer, so went back through my files and dug out an email he sent me just a few weeks after he started. He wrote:
Hi Yuwanda,
I felt I had to get back to you to tell you about my progress so far.
I bought your ebook last week and read it thoroughly. It inspired me, so I decided to follow your plan and see what would happen. I’ve been writing articles for years and I have always felt that I am worth a lot more than I have been getting. I don’t mean to brag, but I can write pretty good, and $5 an article - if you can get that much these days - is simply an insult!
Anyway…
I spent a bit of time concentrating on getting all the parts of your strategy right. I already had a website for my writing, so I decided to spruce it up a bit and make it more focussed [sic] on SEO article writing.
I chose some articles I’d already written and re-wrote them in a more SEO-friendly manner and put them on the website as samples. I spent some time getting the details on companies [like you detail in your ebook] and made up a spreadsheet. Everything was ready this morning (I had other work to do in between too), so I started sending out my query letter.
After about 20 minutes, I had a Skype call from one of the companies asking for articles. It seems he was sitting at his desk wondering who could do a batch of articles for him that a client needed. His usual contact was already overworked and he wasn’t sure how to find another one (he told me this later). When my email arrived, it was exactly what he needed. He made contact, we discussed it and that was that!
The bit that amazed me was when he asked for my rates. I told him I was charging $25 an article (yes, I copied your strategy exactly
and he didn’t even balk one little bit. [emphasis added] His actual words were, “Yep, that sounds spot on.” I knew at that moment I could probably have asked for $35 or even $45 an article and have gotten it too!
Anyway, I now have 32 articles to do at $22 each as they are 350-word articles and I was quoting for 500-word articles. I didn’t drop the price much as there is some more research than usual involved, but nothing too hard. The price was in British pounds as the SEO company is in London . It came to 384 GB pounds, so he rounded it up to 400 GB pounds - somewhere around $735 - which I thought was a nice gesture. I should be able to complete them in a few days (I could get used to this!)
I had been worrying that my being in Spain might prove to be a problem, for while I clearly state that my first language is English, the only thing that clients seem to see is the word, “Spain” and they assume that I am Spanish! Luckily, this didn’t prove to be a problem.
This [marketing method outlined in your ebook] works! I fully expect to get a lot of other work too, and I’ll certainly keep trying. Thanks again for opening my eyes to what is possible in freelancing. Your ebook is worth a lot more than what you sell it for - believe me! In fact, don’t sell any more - I don’t want the competitionKind regards,
JC, Spain
Sincerely,
Yuwanda Black, Publisher/SEO Instructor
http://InkwellEditorial.com
http://SEOWritingJobs.com
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Copyright © 2009: Yuwanda Black for SEO Writing Jobs. This content may not be reproduced or redistributed without the express, written consent of the author.
