- By Yuwanda Black
- Published 10/14/2011
- Article Writing
SEO content writing is a niche in freelance writing where you can get very busy, very quickly. When I first started in 2007, I got so busy that within a couple of months, I had to outsource jobs to other freelancers because I couldn’t keep up. Why SEO Content Writing Jobs Come Fast and Furiously In a phrase . . . content marketing. Webmasters and bloggers need content to stay competitive on the web. More importantly, they need informative, well-written search engine optimized (SEO) content to stay visible in search engine results. You see, search engines like Google are hungry little piranha. They gobble up content voraciously; hence, the more a website/blog owner puts out, the better they tend to rank (if the content is good, relevant and well-written). So, this is why many businesses have started to invest in content marketing. Doing business on the web is all about informing a prospect, building trust with them via this content – before trying to pitch products/services to them. And, SEO content can do this beautifully. So, that’s the skinny on why SEO writing is such a burgeoning niche in freelance writing. Now, to some advice on pricing these jobs in bulk. I remember one new SEO writer contacted me who landed her first gig, which writing ten SEO blog posts for a large web developer who specialized in building real estate sites. She had a problem pricing the job and I offered her some advice.
When she turned in her p
roject, the client was so impressed by the quality of her work that his firm contracted with her to provide 50-100, 250-300 word posts, per month. While she was thrilled, she had no idea what to charge for an SEO content writing job of this scale. So, following is some advice I gave her. 3 Things to Keep in Mind When Pricing Bulk SEO Article Writing Jobs i) Know Your Bottom Line: Many new freelance writers make the mistake of going too low. Establish a rate that you won’t go below so you’ll never be in danger of working for less than you deserve. ii) Know What the Job Entails: If it’s content you can knock really well and can knock out pretty quickly, then you may charge one rate. But, if it’s not a niche you’re readily familiar with, then realize that it can take you two or three times as long to craft an article/blog post. And, if you have to do that for 10, 20 or 30 articles, it can get very time consuming very quickly. iii) Be Willing to Walk Away: Many freelancers – in fact, small business owners in general – operate from a position of fear when it comes to determining what to charge. They are so afraid of losing a potential client that they don’t think of what they gain by being willing to walk away.
When you get in the habit of operating from a position of fear, you do all sorts of things that are not good for you. So, don’t even start doing this in SEO content writing business. You may even find that you’re able to stand up for yourself in other areas of your life as well. Now, who woulda thunk that learning how to price a simple freelance writing job could be so powerful?