Why freelance writing works.

It is not breaking news to tell you that the gig economy is growing every year and that companies big and small are using freelancers to fill in gaps when needed.

This growth is happening for many reasons, but first among them is the hard truth that having employees is expensive, challenging, and in some cases, unnecessary.

Unnecessary? That sounds harsh even as I read what I have just written.

But, yes, unnecessary. This is the reason that freelancing works — for businesses and for the freelancer, especially at an executive skill level.

Hiring an employee means that you, as a business owner, must find talent and create a culture that keeps them, you have to pay your worker the agreed-upon consistent wage, you have to handle taxes and benefits for the employee.

The process takes a great deal of time and energy — and can eat into precious resources of both.

In the case of freelancing, a business owner gets to hire the best talent they can afford at a price that the freelancer offers (or you negotiate). The engagement is project-based and when the work is over, you and the freelancer choose if there is a next opportunity to work together.

The fact is that great talent is hard to find, hard to hire, and even harder to keep for many small to mid-sized businesses.

Freelancing works at the executive level because companies can take advantage of the talents of highly skilled freelancers — while the freelancer is able to diversify their work, giving them the agility to choose projects, hours worked and clients accepted.

Copy and content writing are areas where freelancers and businesses partner to great success.

“To be the most effective, a content strategy has to be consistent. And to build brand authority, it has to be expert, and authoritative.”

So why does freelancing work for writing?

Though certainly not the only skill that is easily freelanced, writing is one that many people can do — but few do well. Especially at the executive level needed for brand development and SEO.

Most small to mid-sized businesses have a great need for professionally written content, but not the budget for a full-time writer on staff.

That is where freelancing comes into play.

A highly-skilled freelancer can offer a business:

Well written, engaging content. When you hire a professional writer, especially at the executive skill level, you can be assured that the work that is created is high quality, original, and crafted to engage your reader.

Authoritative articles that build brand reputation. A great article or blog requires research and offers education or information to your reader. It isn’t designed to only “sell” to your customer, it offers them an experience that keeps them on your website and builds customer loyalty. This, in turn, increases your website search rankings.

Technical skills that add SEO integration into copy. Executive-level copywriting requires more than just a way with words. It requires technical skills to integrate tools that improve the SEO of your website. Structured schema, headings, keywords are all parts of a technically integrated blog/article that must be included to make the work more effective in search rankings.

A freelancer who writes for business benefits too

As a freelancer, a highly-skilled writer can earn a solid income (even 6-figures) by crafting interesting and professional work for clients.

Freelance writers have a skill that is in demand as the economy moves more and more into the digital space.

Writers can specialize in emails, blogs, video scripts, books…or they might niche in a particular industry such as financial services or technology.

For a freelance writer, the world is open and the sky is the limit on how much you can earn, at least at the executive level.

The bottom line

Engaging a highly skilled freelancer (or freelance company) makes sense for businesses that do not have the budget to hire a full-time writer.

A freelancer can save a business the time and money that it takes to hire employees and keep them.

A more efficient way to create a content strategy that is aimed at searchability, brand development, and lead generation is to contract with executive-level freelancers on a per-project basis.

This also works best for the freelance writer. You can name a price for the project and have the flexibility to select not only the work you want to write but also the hours you wish to work.

As a freelance writer, you have freedom.

In the end, content creation is an ideal situation for a freelance-business relationship. Both parties win.

What more could you ask?