How to become a writer? The complete guide in 2024

62% of companies present on the web delegate their content creation strategy. All these companies are potential clients for web editors. ✍️

Becoming a copywriter is a real opportunity whether you want to find a job, start your own business or create a business. The problem is that writing is a real web profession . If you want to make a living out of it, you’ll have to train and learn how to write for the web.

To help you, we’re going to present you with our complete guide on how to become a web editor from scratch. In this article, you’ll see what a copywriter is, how much they can earn, and how to do the job. 💰

What is a web editor?

A web editor is simply someone who writes texts. But there are actually several specificities to this job that Internet users do not know. We will present you in detail what this job consists of. ⤵️

Definition

The term web editor is quite recent and is due to the emergence of new jobs on the Internet. Its role is simple, to provide textual content adapted to the web. The rules of writing will be different from those seen in the written press. 🗞️

In addition, the web editor can also be called an SEO web editor. This means that the writer writes content that is optimized for search engines. Indeed, the web editor must master several techniques in order to make his texts understandable both by humans and by robots(including those of search engines like Google).

In short, web editor is a job that links writing and technique. Therefore, someone who writes a simple text on Word for example cannot claim to be a web editor.

Web editors usually write for blogs, e-businesses, news sites and others. But they can also be asked to write ebooks, product sheets, flyers, etc. ✏️

Regarding their status, most of them areself-employed. Other writers will be employed, mainly by SEO agencies or bylarge websites that have a team of writers.

A typical day

Contrary to what you might think, a writer does not spend all of his or her time writing. So we’re going to show you what a day in the life of a web editor looks like. Of course, every writer has a different way of working. Therefore, we’re going to show you the typical day of a freelance writer with several years of experience so that you can get an idea. 🤔

Let’s assume that the writer has an article to write for the day. To begin, he will learn about the subject and conduct a “ literature search “. In other words, the writer will look for sources to document his article.

Once he is well informed, he will start writing. Typically, writers begin by writing an outline and then continue with the paragraphs. Depending on the number of words a client wants, the writing can take several hours. ⌚

Once the text has been fully written, it must be semantically optimized. Thanks to tools like YourTextGuru or SurferSEO the writer will add words from the lexical field of a keyword. This technique allows the article to be more understandable by search engines.

Finally, you will need to proofread the text and correct any spelling mistakes. For this, you can use software like Antidote for example. And in some cases, you will also need to add illustrative images and videos.

Who should become an editor?

There are no real prerequisites to be able to train as a web editor. As long as you can write without spelling mistakes and know the basic grammar rules, all you need is training to learn how to write for the web. 🤓

The job has several advantages and disadvantages. It’s up to you to see if it’s right for you depending on your situation or your desires. To help you plan your career, we will present the pros and cons of this profession.

The main advantage is the variety that the job brings. Indeed, you will have to write about subjects that you do not necessarily know and you will discover many things. Note that you can have editorial requests in any topic.

After a few years of web writing, you’ll have a lot more general knowledge. This is due to the fact that you are always learning and writing about various subjects(health, personal finances, gardening, spirituality, etc.).

In addition, this is a job that you can do 100% from home. Whether you are employed or self-employed, all you need is a computer to write and send texts. Therefore, you can work from home, from a coworking space and even from another country! 🏖️

The downside is that the job can be a bit repetitive.

How much does a web editor earn?

As you can imagine, a writer’s salary will differ depending on his or her status. Among the writers, two situations can be distinguished. Writers are either self-employed or employees of a company. Among these two situations, we can see some income differences.

Let’s talk about the freelance status, which most of the writers like. In this case, a writer will write texts for several clients. These customers can be individuals or professionals such as e-commerce, news sites or others.

The freelance web writer is free to set his rates. Generally, he will charge by the word. A French writer is paid between 3 and 10 cents per word. So depending on the number of clients and the number of texts you write per month, you can earn more or less income. 📊

According to the HelloWork website, a French freelance web writer earns on average between 1800 and 2500€ gross per month. From this figure, the amount of social security contributions and the tools necessary for the drafting must be removed.

Salaried web editors work for companies present on the Internet or on large blogs such as Lesnumeriques or Doctissimo, for example.

Also according to HelloWork, a a salaried web editor would earn between 1400 and 2000€ net per month. The salary will differ according to seniority, but also the type of content written. In fact, writers writing on more complex topics like health or finance can claim a more substantial salary. 💸

If you want more details, don’t hesitate to discover our article on statistics of web writing .

Each status has its advantages and disadvantages. As an employee, you will benefit from job security and potentiallyother benefits such as luncheon vouchers, vacation vouchers and others. However, you won’t be able to choose your own hours and you won’t necessarily have access to telecommuting.

On the other hand, you won’t have job security as a freelancer, but you can expect to earn more by working less. You can also choose your hours as well as where you work. 💻

How to become a web editor – 4 steps

To become a web writer, you’ll need to go through several steps tolearn the craft, practice it and start selling. In this guide, we will assume that you want to become a freelance web writer. Simply because it is the most advantageous status and the one that is most sought after by people wanting to work in this profession.

Before you start, you should know that we are going to give you several tips to get the basics of the job. But if you really want to become a web writer, we’ll introduce you to some online courses that will help you learn about writing.

Step 1: Learn to write

As mentioned above, the prerequisite for being a writer is to master spelling and grammar. However, it is not necessary to have a bachelor’s degree in literature. As long as you can write a few hundred words without making mistakes, you can get started. 💪

Tolearn how to write for the web, there are many tutorials on YouTube or Google. Knowing that most of the web writing requests are for blog posts, we advise you to train yourself on this at the beginning. To do this, you can simply search for articles or videos on “how to write a blog post“.

There are also some free courses that will show you the basics of web writing. However, to be honest, if you really want to become a skilled writer, you will have to acquire paid training. We have already presented you in another article the 4 best courses on web writing. 👀

With this type of training, you will learn how to write an article from scratch. You’ll learn how to research the material, write an outline, and write to make the content enjoyable to read. A premium course will also teach yousemantic optimization (essential for many clients).

Step 2: Get trained in SEO

If you want to get into the web writing business, you should know that most clients will ask you to optimize articles for SEO. The latter, also called SEO in English, is a method of optimization for search engines.

Therefore, if you don’t master SEO, you will miss out on many orders. That’s why, in addition to learning how to write, you should definitely learn more about SEO. This way, you’ll be able to respond to the full range of client requests. 👍

Again, you can learn SEO for free. We have presented a list of free SEO training on our blog. There are also many blog posts and YouTube videos that will help you learn about SEO.

If you choose to take a web copywriting course, it is essential that it teaches SEO. We invite you to choose a course that teaches you semantic optimization, keyword research, search engine optimization and more.

Step 3: Practice

Once you have the basics, it’s best to practice writing for several reasons. Firstly, it will naturally improve your skills and you will be able to provide better quality texts to your clients. 🤝🏼

Second, it will allow you to create a portfolio. In fact, many clients will ask you for examples of articles you have already written before working with you. By writing articles to practice, you’ll have plenty of content to present to your prospects.

To do this, we advise you to create a blog and write articles regularly. You can also offer towrite free texts for blogs. But in our opinion, this is not necessarily a good idea. You will certainly train, but in the end the published content will no longer belong to you.

What we recommend is that you create your own website. On the latter, you will be able to write many articles on all subjects. This way, you will have articles to present to your prospects on the one hand. And on the other hand, these articles will be published under your name and can bring you traffic via search engines. 📈

Don’t worry, you can create a website for free. With the WordPress CMS for example, you will be able to design a professional and design website without the need to code. If you want to create your own website, we invite you to download our free ebook where you will find many tips.

In summary, it’s important to practice writing when you’re just starting out as a writer. However, you don’t have to write a hundred articles before you start looking for clients. With a dozen articles on a variety of topics, you already have a better portfolio than many writers. So we invite you to quickly seek your first clients once you’ve written a few articles! 🔎

Step 4: Finding Clients

This is the most important part of a freelance writer’s life. And yes, no matter how well you write, if you don’t have a client, you won’t be able to make a living from writing. So we’re going to show you some techniques for finding clients and keeping them for the long haul. 📈

To begin with, you need to know that in writing, there are two main ways to find clients. Either by going through networking platforms or directly with companies.

There are many platforms of “ freelancing “where you can offer your web writing services. This is for example the case of Fiverr or 5euros.com in France. Clients will go to these platforms to search for professionals.

For example, if you go to the most popular freelancing platform in France “5euros.com“, you can see many writers offering their services:

Then, the process is simple. Clients contact the writer directly on the platform. They can order texts, add conditions and more. It is also the platform that takes care of the payment. Then the writer delivers the texts, directly via 5euros.com. 🤝

Clearly, the entire process takes place on the freelancing platform. This is much simpler, but also has its drawbacks. First, the platform will take a commission on each of your sales. Secondly, you will be surrounded by many other writers and this leads to more competition and therefore, to a decrease in your rates.

The big advantage is that it will be much easier to find clients on freelancing platforms. You just have to create your profile and dozens of potential customers will see it every day. If you have a good profile and positive reviews, you will have no trouble finding clients. 🤩

Note that you can also offer your services directly on web writing platforms which offer to buy articles already written or to be done. This allows you to avoid platforms that are too generalist for example.

The other way to find clients is to godirect. In other words, you’ll simply be canvassing companies or responding to requests for proposals from people who are looking for a freelance writer. Clients are mainly blogs, SEO and digital marketing agencies, etc.

Here, you will be in direct relation with the customer and there will be no intermediary. Therefore, no one will get a commission on your sales. The big plus of going direct is the possibility ofhaving long-term assignments.

On freelancing platforms, you’re going to get short or very short assignments. Whereas by going directlyto clients, you can more easily have regular assignments over several months. ⌛

Now you know more about the job of a web editor. If you’re interested in writing and SEO, we invite you to read our article on the best training courses for web writers. In this article you will find our comparison of the 4 online courses that offer the best education.

If you’re interested in the world of SEO, we also invite you to download our free ebook “Affiliate Marketing & SEO“. You will find many tips on SEO, but also on writing. This way, you can practice writing your first texts! 🖋️