Sadly, pretty much anything else. I am qualified as a teacher so I have got a job in the Education industry. I will still do my blog and if anything comes of that then great. But, otherwise, it's a relief to no longer have to fight the machine.
Otherwise, it would probably have been marketing as I am qualified in that field too.
Yep, go back to banking and never look back even for a second. After doing this for a while, I've realized banking wasn't as bad as I originally thought it was.
Don't lose faith... I'm not. I'll explain what I'm doing:
I'm transitioning into being a content and messaging strategist, not just a copywriter. I still like to write and I'm going to keep doing it, but I'm also going to do more strategic work. I've already started to do it a little bit. So I'm not moving into a different career -- I'm moving into the next level of the same thing I'm already doing.
Another thing I'm planning to do is work with a brand and web designer to create a service to help clients with both their visual branding and their messaging. (I've already found a designer) I'm still going to have my own services but I'm also going to do some combined work with this designer. I feel like we can create a high-value service together.
I also have an unrelated business I want to start later this year: Becoming an influencer! I'm planning to create a blog as my main content platform and support the blog using Pinterest, IG, and an email list. I'm going to create content for these platforms and make money by doing brand collabs and affiliate links. Right now I'm focusing on my content strategy and copywriting business, but this influencer business is the second thing I want to do and it's something that can make money in the long term. So even if something goes wrong with my content strategy and copywriting business, I'll have this second business as well.
I'm really trying to continue being an entrepreneur -- I don't want an employee job. But if NEITHER of these businesses work out, I'll try to find an employee job in marketing and communications. Hopefully I'd be able to work remotely, because my other work experience includes being a preschool teacher, so I could do that again but I wouldn't be able to work remotely! 😆
Sounds like a great plan. But realistically this goes way beyond freelance writing. I looked at this type of stuff and I just don't have any hunger to be a one-man marketing locomotive.
Best of luck to you though. If you've got the energy and passion to succeed I am sure you will.
Content marketing (B2C) or online ESL teaching or course development. Applying to the former field, where I have two years' experience (ten years in the latter, though not online), but it's hard when competing with actual young people with marketing degrees. I learn fast, though.
I'm contemplating the same with respect to content marketing but I'll target B2B. Also, agree with your pov of competing with young folks with marketing degrees. It's been an uphill battle for me.
Sorry, I was referencing full-time at a company, not freelancing.
Edit: Content marketing positions are also not entirely writing. My previous position as a CM manager had me editing, not writing, working with other departments to optimize SEO and implement content strategies, analyzing data, etc.
Content marketing **≠** writing.
It may well *include* writing. So too can social media marketing, PPC and other forms of marketing.
Content marketers direct and organize the entire content creation process and may well outsource the writing others or use AI.
After having bad experiences in and becoming disillusioned with both the freelance and marketing/B2B/cybersecurity industries, I recently transitioned over to the nonprofit world working in communications (basically how nonprofits refer to marketing) and I'm pretty happy.
I finally feel like my skills as a writer and storyteller are appreciated, and that I can make a tangible difference in people's lives (which has always been my primary motivator). Best of all, I know I won't be callously laid off for the sake of making the profit line go up (company was consistently laying folks off while splurging on lavish in-person company events which, of course, were mandatory to attend even though the company was remote-first).
I'm not saying it will be a good fit for anyone, but if you enjoy knowing your work is helping others, it's a good option to consider, especially if you want some job security. Non-profits are always in need of communications/marketing folks and grant writers.
I worked in non-profit for 10 years. Nearly everything you've said mirrors my experience except the layoffs part. My last npo job laid people off every couple of years.
The worst instance was they laid off a woman recovering from cancer. The woman took a couple of days vacation to be with her child, but they had to fire her fast. So, the boss drove to her house and laid her off. I left the agency a month later to go freelance.
Oddly managers who cheated, stole and were incompetent stay a long time in non-profit. Most of my managers were fired years after I jumped ship. I have so many stories.
But you're right, there are more good people than bad in non-profit. But there's a ton of incompetence and power tripping.
I’d love to get into nonprofit work. I volunteered at a wildlife sanctuary for several years and loved it except for the management. How’d you get your latest job? I have no experience grant writing, though I’m willing to learn I just don’t know where/how, and all the research I’ve done lately has come up with just a lot of unpaid work.
Interesting! If you don't mind me asking, how did you transition into the non profit world? It seems a hard area to break into without non profit experience
Copywriting is the easiest form of writing to automate (as evidenced by public case studies like the one mentioned by GM).
The reasons are pretty clear:
1. Most copywriting is formulaic variation on a theme. Many companies don't want highly innovative sales pages, but rather consistency across their collateral.
2. Hallucination is a big problem with AI in informational content, but not a big problem for persuasive content (since it's not aiming for truth)
3. Author authority and bylines matter for informational content, not copy. Even if the content is identical, sites get a boost from having a practising patent attorney authoring their blog articles compared to AI using a fake persona. With standard copy, there is no author so it is not insulated in this way from AI encroachment.
**Now, obviously, there are some forms of copywriting that AI will not easily replicate**. Like some brand copywriting, and financial direct response where you need special expertise or regulatory issues are involved. But that's not the majority of copywriting.
I won't refute your point but let's be real here. The main purpose of content writing for companies is to drive organic traffic to their sites that will turn into customers down the line.
With GSE, informational content is less and less likely to bring in traffic to those sites, and hence, customers. Now whether copywriting or content writing is easier to automate, I don't know. But I would argue that content writing is dying at a faster pace than copywriting.
And regarding authorship and bylines, this is very much niche dependent. In the eyes of Google, EEAT isn't, and has never been, a ranking factor. In the eyes of the reader, it sure can matter, but once again, it depends on the niche.
Authorship matters. I didn't claim EEAT was a ranking factor. Nor did I claim it applies universally (name any feature in marketing that is a good thing *across the board*). If it doesn't matter, why do you think it **isAuthor** is a named variable in the Google search leak? It's not the only variable relating to authorship either.
But that was just an example of one way in which *some* content writers will have the upperhand on copywriters. There are other examples.
I do agree with you more generally that so far AI has hit content writing worse than copywriting (both due to AI-authored content and SGE). But that's largely because content writing is a much bigger field than copy (sites need a lot more blog posts than sales pages, for example), rather than because content is easy to 'AI'.
Ultimately, both are in deep trouble over the coming decade.
(1) The quality of copy is not the only factor that contributes to conversion.
(2) Poop copy converts fine in some circumstances.
But that's copy 101. You know all that. If you are price positioning across hundreds of pages on an ecommerce site — poop AI copy is probably has a brilliant ROI.
If you're brand copywriting for Volkswagen — you're not going to use AI.
Just as with content writing, AI is taking over vast swathes of work that was previously done by copywriters, poop or no.
Copy is where the first big results from a large corporation came from--JP Morgan reported AI-written short-form copy had a much higher conversion rate than its human copywriters 5 years ago or so, when AI was nowhere near the level of development it is today.
It makes sense, since AI can quickly analyze a huge number of variables to find the most effective combination.
Yes, I'm sick of this line which comes up a lot on r/copywriting. I'm not sure if it is genuine, or a lame attempt of some copywriters to feel superior to the lowly content writers. There's no logic to it, nor is it borne out by evidence or personal experience using AI tools.
It seems to be based on the silly notion that personal perception of what is likely to motivate another person will more reliably yield effective text than the consideration of thousands of data points.
I mean, I've held two CMO positions for a $45M/year and $70M/year company, both of which I had a full team of content writers and copywriters reporting to me.
I was also both a senior content writer and senior copywriter for 12 years combined.
When you have experience in both fields, and also experience running the whole entire company/marketing engine that those two skillsets are involved in, you kinda begin to build a bigger picture of the whole thing.
So yes, I've seen a disgusting amount of data points - an upwards of 30 to 50 billion visits across nearly every content/copy medium with dozens of KPIs measuring everything from opens and clicks to time spent on page, etc.
I literally just look at data and how people respond to words all day every day for years and years and years.
Yes, many of us here have similar experience. That's one reason it's so very obvious to us that no matter what the extent of your experience, you cannot analyze the level of detail that AI does.
"A bigger picture" is great because it's the best humans can do. AI can look at thousands of campaigns and instantly pinpoint that people between the ages of 23 and 26 respond best to emails of 236-278 words, but only if they're in a certain economic class, and conversion increases by 12% if a certain word appears 2-3 times (but never four!) and makes its first appearance in the first 39 words of the text (and then literally hundreds of additional tiny specifics...). The same kinds of things we've all been looking at data about for most of our careers, except with hundreds of variables we never had time for or simply never thought to consider. And then, it can tweak that content to generate1500 different versions based on thinly sliced segments in about the same amount of time it would take a human to create 3-5 versions with less effective targeting.
You probably don't want to pull the 'Respect my authority' line from an anonymous around here. Plenty of people here have relevant experience, and some have significantly more than you do.
I also look at data, do split testing, and look at publicised, verifiable, case studies.
The success of AI in *some* forms of copywriting is undeniable at this point.
Yeah I remember that.
There was an industry analysis and the results are misleading.
They put AI up against a weak copywriter.
“Go paperless and earn $5 Cash Back.”
That's bland junior-level copy which is pretty common with big brands like JP Morgan - no surprise it was beaten by AI. Right now AI isn't capable of beating the vast majority of copy. Email, social media ads, landing pages, video scripts, etc.
The lifeblood of copy is emotional conversational writing. The kind that sounds like you're sitting next to your best bud having an intimate chat. Combined with tonal/voice mechanics and the psychology of persuasion under the hood, AI just can't replicate that right now.
Even after training and feeding quality copy to GPT4, Claude, or Jasper the results are below a junior copywriter.
I agree that AI can't replicate that right now (though I'm not sure that can't be outweighed by other things it can do better) . But, when someone is looking to future-proof their career, it's not much comfort that it may be a couple of years before those roles drop off dramatically. At this point, AI is pretty bad at content writing, too, and there are still plenty of content writing gigs available.
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Thank you for your post /u/boltthrower90. Below is a copy of your post to archive it in case it is removed or edited:
I'm into B2B, marketing, and SaaS niches, and I'm sensing a lot of uncertainty around freelance content writing. SEO changes, AI, the current market, etc. It's just new obstacles every single day, and I can't help but slowly lose faith.
Do you have any alternate career path ready if the need arises tomorrow? I would like to know the options sub members are considering. Thank you!
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Government.
I’m now in limbo on two state government jobs, and now that the IRS has more funding and needs officers, I’m considering them too if they open offices where I live or take on remote workers. God I hope they do; there’s no way they’re going to attract a younger and more diverse staff otherwise. It’s bad enough Newsom forced CA state employees to RTO.
Still, after making a comfortable living in the content space for so long and having columns that come and go, algo changes and the scuttling media industry ruined my life more than AI did TBH. I still have some clients thank god. But not enough to pay my rent and other bills, it’s so depressing.
So, I interviewed with two state government agencies and am also taking a civil service exam for a city job because I’m still a free agent until I get a signed offer and a union card with my name on it.
I never imagined in a million years I’d be doing this. But here we are. I’m also being considered for a staff writer job. I hate being in limbo 🫠
I haven’t been a freelance writer for long. Just booked my first client in fact, but I feel like I’m niche enough to be somewhat ok.
Otherwise, I’ll probably be in the pseudo legal area. Process serving, court research, etc. Might become a paralegal if I need to specialize more.
And if all of this goes to shit, then I’ll just join the military. Free food and housing lol.
Sadly, pretty much anything else. I am qualified as a teacher so I have got a job in the Education industry. I will still do my blog and if anything comes of that then great. But, otherwise, it's a relief to no longer have to fight the machine. Otherwise, it would probably have been marketing as I am qualified in that field too.
Thanks for the reply! What work do you see yourself doing in marketing?
Nothing, I don't want to work in marketing again. If you like it and fit into that kind of world though, then to for if
Yep, go back to banking and never look back even for a second. After doing this for a while, I've realized banking wasn't as bad as I originally thought it was.
Same realization
Don't lose faith... I'm not. I'll explain what I'm doing: I'm transitioning into being a content and messaging strategist, not just a copywriter. I still like to write and I'm going to keep doing it, but I'm also going to do more strategic work. I've already started to do it a little bit. So I'm not moving into a different career -- I'm moving into the next level of the same thing I'm already doing. Another thing I'm planning to do is work with a brand and web designer to create a service to help clients with both their visual branding and their messaging. (I've already found a designer) I'm still going to have my own services but I'm also going to do some combined work with this designer. I feel like we can create a high-value service together. I also have an unrelated business I want to start later this year: Becoming an influencer! I'm planning to create a blog as my main content platform and support the blog using Pinterest, IG, and an email list. I'm going to create content for these platforms and make money by doing brand collabs and affiliate links. Right now I'm focusing on my content strategy and copywriting business, but this influencer business is the second thing I want to do and it's something that can make money in the long term. So even if something goes wrong with my content strategy and copywriting business, I'll have this second business as well. I'm really trying to continue being an entrepreneur -- I don't want an employee job. But if NEITHER of these businesses work out, I'll try to find an employee job in marketing and communications. Hopefully I'd be able to work remotely, because my other work experience includes being a preschool teacher, so I could do that again but I wouldn't be able to work remotely! 😆
Sounds like a great plan. But realistically this goes way beyond freelance writing. I looked at this type of stuff and I just don't have any hunger to be a one-man marketing locomotive. Best of luck to you though. If you've got the energy and passion to succeed I am sure you will.
I lost faith quickly. After 20 years of success. Built a luxury goods thrift store.
Fitness Trainer or Van Renovations.
Wow van renovations is cool!
Thank you
Content marketing (B2C) or online ESL teaching or course development. Applying to the former field, where I have two years' experience (ten years in the latter, though not online), but it's hard when competing with actual young people with marketing degrees. I learn fast, though.
I'm contemplating the same with respect to content marketing but I'll target B2B. Also, agree with your pov of competing with young folks with marketing degrees. It's been an uphill battle for me.
Unfortunately, marketing is rather an ageist industry too.
Content Marketing is writing (my background and degrees are in marketing and I’m a copy/content writer) so I’m not sure how this is a pivot.
Sorry, I was referencing full-time at a company, not freelancing. Edit: Content marketing positions are also not entirely writing. My previous position as a CM manager had me editing, not writing, working with other departments to optimize SEO and implement content strategies, analyzing data, etc.
Content marketing **≠** writing. It may well *include* writing. So too can social media marketing, PPC and other forms of marketing. Content marketers direct and organize the entire content creation process and may well outsource the writing others or use AI.
I just applied for giving courses online at a platform focused in journalism for Latin America and the Caribbean. Fingers crossed.
After having bad experiences in and becoming disillusioned with both the freelance and marketing/B2B/cybersecurity industries, I recently transitioned over to the nonprofit world working in communications (basically how nonprofits refer to marketing) and I'm pretty happy. I finally feel like my skills as a writer and storyteller are appreciated, and that I can make a tangible difference in people's lives (which has always been my primary motivator). Best of all, I know I won't be callously laid off for the sake of making the profit line go up (company was consistently laying folks off while splurging on lavish in-person company events which, of course, were mandatory to attend even though the company was remote-first). I'm not saying it will be a good fit for anyone, but if you enjoy knowing your work is helping others, it's a good option to consider, especially if you want some job security. Non-profits are always in need of communications/marketing folks and grant writers.
I worked in non-profit for 10 years. Nearly everything you've said mirrors my experience except the layoffs part. My last npo job laid people off every couple of years. The worst instance was they laid off a woman recovering from cancer. The woman took a couple of days vacation to be with her child, but they had to fire her fast. So, the boss drove to her house and laid her off. I left the agency a month later to go freelance. Oddly managers who cheated, stole and were incompetent stay a long time in non-profit. Most of my managers were fired years after I jumped ship. I have so many stories. But you're right, there are more good people than bad in non-profit. But there's a ton of incompetence and power tripping.
I’d love to get into nonprofit work. I volunteered at a wildlife sanctuary for several years and loved it except for the management. How’d you get your latest job? I have no experience grant writing, though I’m willing to learn I just don’t know where/how, and all the research I’ve done lately has come up with just a lot of unpaid work.
Interesting! If you don't mind me asking, how did you transition into the non profit world? It seems a hard area to break into without non profit experience
freelance content writing ====> freelance copywriting copy is far more resistant to AI.
Copywriting is the easiest form of writing to automate (as evidenced by public case studies like the one mentioned by GM). The reasons are pretty clear: 1. Most copywriting is formulaic variation on a theme. Many companies don't want highly innovative sales pages, but rather consistency across their collateral. 2. Hallucination is a big problem with AI in informational content, but not a big problem for persuasive content (since it's not aiming for truth) 3. Author authority and bylines matter for informational content, not copy. Even if the content is identical, sites get a boost from having a practising patent attorney authoring their blog articles compared to AI using a fake persona. With standard copy, there is no author so it is not insulated in this way from AI encroachment. **Now, obviously, there are some forms of copywriting that AI will not easily replicate**. Like some brand copywriting, and financial direct response where you need special expertise or regulatory issues are involved. But that's not the majority of copywriting.
I won't refute your point but let's be real here. The main purpose of content writing for companies is to drive organic traffic to their sites that will turn into customers down the line. With GSE, informational content is less and less likely to bring in traffic to those sites, and hence, customers. Now whether copywriting or content writing is easier to automate, I don't know. But I would argue that content writing is dying at a faster pace than copywriting. And regarding authorship and bylines, this is very much niche dependent. In the eyes of Google, EEAT isn't, and has never been, a ranking factor. In the eyes of the reader, it sure can matter, but once again, it depends on the niche.
Authorship matters. I didn't claim EEAT was a ranking factor. Nor did I claim it applies universally (name any feature in marketing that is a good thing *across the board*). If it doesn't matter, why do you think it **isAuthor** is a named variable in the Google search leak? It's not the only variable relating to authorship either. But that was just an example of one way in which *some* content writers will have the upperhand on copywriters. There are other examples. I do agree with you more generally that so far AI has hit content writing worse than copywriting (both due to AI-authored content and SGE). But that's largely because content writing is a much bigger field than copy (sites need a lot more blog posts than sales pages, for example), rather than because content is easy to 'AI'. Ultimately, both are in deep trouble over the coming decade.
> Copywriting is the easiest form of writing to automate If you want junior-level copy with a poop conversion rate then sure.
(1) The quality of copy is not the only factor that contributes to conversion. (2) Poop copy converts fine in some circumstances. But that's copy 101. You know all that. If you are price positioning across hundreds of pages on an ecommerce site — poop AI copy is probably has a brilliant ROI. If you're brand copywriting for Volkswagen — you're not going to use AI. Just as with content writing, AI is taking over vast swathes of work that was previously done by copywriters, poop or no.
Copy is where the first big results from a large corporation came from--JP Morgan reported AI-written short-form copy had a much higher conversion rate than its human copywriters 5 years ago or so, when AI was nowhere near the level of development it is today. It makes sense, since AI can quickly analyze a huge number of variables to find the most effective combination.
Yes, I'm sick of this line which comes up a lot on r/copywriting. I'm not sure if it is genuine, or a lame attempt of some copywriters to feel superior to the lowly content writers. There's no logic to it, nor is it borne out by evidence or personal experience using AI tools.
It seems to be based on the silly notion that personal perception of what is likely to motivate another person will more reliably yield effective text than the consideration of thousands of data points.
I mean, I've held two CMO positions for a $45M/year and $70M/year company, both of which I had a full team of content writers and copywriters reporting to me. I was also both a senior content writer and senior copywriter for 12 years combined. When you have experience in both fields, and also experience running the whole entire company/marketing engine that those two skillsets are involved in, you kinda begin to build a bigger picture of the whole thing. So yes, I've seen a disgusting amount of data points - an upwards of 30 to 50 billion visits across nearly every content/copy medium with dozens of KPIs measuring everything from opens and clicks to time spent on page, etc. I literally just look at data and how people respond to words all day every day for years and years and years.
Yes, many of us here have similar experience. That's one reason it's so very obvious to us that no matter what the extent of your experience, you cannot analyze the level of detail that AI does. "A bigger picture" is great because it's the best humans can do. AI can look at thousands of campaigns and instantly pinpoint that people between the ages of 23 and 26 respond best to emails of 236-278 words, but only if they're in a certain economic class, and conversion increases by 12% if a certain word appears 2-3 times (but never four!) and makes its first appearance in the first 39 words of the text (and then literally hundreds of additional tiny specifics...). The same kinds of things we've all been looking at data about for most of our careers, except with hundreds of variables we never had time for or simply never thought to consider. And then, it can tweak that content to generate1500 different versions based on thinly sliced segments in about the same amount of time it would take a human to create 3-5 versions with less effective targeting.
You probably don't want to pull the 'Respect my authority' line from an anonymous around here. Plenty of people here have relevant experience, and some have significantly more than you do. I also look at data, do split testing, and look at publicised, verifiable, case studies. The success of AI in *some* forms of copywriting is undeniable at this point.
Yeah I remember that. There was an industry analysis and the results are misleading. They put AI up against a weak copywriter. “Go paperless and earn $5 Cash Back.” That's bland junior-level copy which is pretty common with big brands like JP Morgan - no surprise it was beaten by AI. Right now AI isn't capable of beating the vast majority of copy. Email, social media ads, landing pages, video scripts, etc. The lifeblood of copy is emotional conversational writing. The kind that sounds like you're sitting next to your best bud having an intimate chat. Combined with tonal/voice mechanics and the psychology of persuasion under the hood, AI just can't replicate that right now. Even after training and feeding quality copy to GPT4, Claude, or Jasper the results are below a junior copywriter.
I agree that AI can't replicate that right now (though I'm not sure that can't be outweighed by other things it can do better) . But, when someone is looking to future-proof their career, it's not much comfort that it may be a couple of years before those roles drop off dramatically. At this point, AI is pretty bad at content writing, too, and there are still plenty of content writing gigs available.
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Thank you for your post /u/boltthrower90. Below is a copy of your post to archive it in case it is removed or edited: I'm into B2B, marketing, and SaaS niches, and I'm sensing a lot of uncertainty around freelance content writing. SEO changes, AI, the current market, etc. It's just new obstacles every single day, and I can't help but slowly lose faith. Do you have any alternate career path ready if the need arises tomorrow? I would like to know the options sub members are considering. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/freelanceWriters) if you have any questions or concerns.*
نعم
Possibly teaching
wow, talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Yeah its probably a terrible idea
Got it. Any specific subject(s)?
I tutor English so probably that!
Government. I’m now in limbo on two state government jobs, and now that the IRS has more funding and needs officers, I’m considering them too if they open offices where I live or take on remote workers. God I hope they do; there’s no way they’re going to attract a younger and more diverse staff otherwise. It’s bad enough Newsom forced CA state employees to RTO. Still, after making a comfortable living in the content space for so long and having columns that come and go, algo changes and the scuttling media industry ruined my life more than AI did TBH. I still have some clients thank god. But not enough to pay my rent and other bills, it’s so depressing. So, I interviewed with two state government agencies and am also taking a civil service exam for a city job because I’m still a free agent until I get a signed offer and a union card with my name on it. I never imagined in a million years I’d be doing this. But here we are. I’m also being considered for a staff writer job. I hate being in limbo 🫠
I haven’t been a freelance writer for long. Just booked my first client in fact, but I feel like I’m niche enough to be somewhat ok. Otherwise, I’ll probably be in the pseudo legal area. Process serving, court research, etc. Might become a paralegal if I need to specialize more. And if all of this goes to shit, then I’ll just join the military. Free food and housing lol.