Web writing is one of the many professions created thanks to the emergence of the Internet. Thousands of web editors are now making a living from their writing, whether as employees or freelancers.
Today, there is a very high demand for web writing. Many blogs and news sites are looking for writers who can provide quality content on a regular basis. 🖋️
But how does that translate into numbers?
We’ll show you a bunch of statistics about web writing in France. You’ll see in brief who the copywriters are, how much they earn, what kind of clients need copywriting, etc.
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Contents
Who is behind the job of web editor?
Before we show you different statistics about web writing, let’s see who the writers are. As you have seen, most writers will work as freelancers or as employees of a company. Unfortunately, it is difficult to know exactly how many writers are freelancers and how many are employees.
What is known, however, is that it is more common to work as a freelance web writer. 🎯
Let’s look at a survey of 530 web writers(elnacain.com):
- 60% of web editors are women
- 55% of web writers make writing their main source of income
- 45% of web copywriters have between 2 and 5 years of experience
- 60% of writers write 10 hours a week
- 30% of writers write between 10 and 30 hours per week
- 10% of writers write more than 30 hours a week
Directly, we see that many editors are not full time. Indeed, web writing is also a very good way to generate additional income on the Internet. Many copywriters offer copywriting services in parallel to a salaried activity for example. 👨💻
By the way, discover our complete guide if you want to become a web editor .
Themes where there is the most demand
A web writer can write about any topic. But as you can imagine, there are some topics that are much more in demand than others by copywriter clients.
Here are the themes with the most demand in web writing:
- Digital marketing(email marketing, SEO/SEA, content marketing, social media, etc.) 💻
- E-commerce 📦
- Health 💊
- Lifestyle / Fashion 👠
- CBD / electronic cigarette 🌿
- Home / Garden 🏡
- Personal Finance 💸
- Personal development 🏋️♀️
- Psychic 🔮
These niches are in high demand and therefore, if you start out as a web writer, you will inevitably have to deal with them one day. But be aware that you can also see other topics, such as pets, insurance, sports, etc.
What type of content?
A web editor will write on any topic, but will also write via different formats. Indeed, a professional writer to write articles, an ebook, product sheets and more. Let’s look at the main contents required from web editors(2023). ✍️
The most popular types of content are:
- Blog posts
- Emails
- Posts for social networks
- Ebooks
- Whitepaper
- Paper books
Blog posts account for 77% of the orders processed by web writers according to the elnacain survey. A rather realistic share, because we know that the majority of the contents written by the editors are used to feed blogs, e-commerce or news sites. 🗞️
How do freelance web writers find clients?
As we told you before, the majority of web editors are self-employed. Therefore, they need to find assignments and therefore clients in order to make a living. Like all freelancers, finding and keeping clients is an integral part of being a copywriter.
Again, not everyone has the same method for finding new assignments. By surveying freelance web writers, we can learn more about how they attract clients. 🙌
Here are the 5 methods freelance writers use to find clients:
- 29.2% find customers through word of mouth
- 24% find customers through their professional website
- 20.8% find clients through freelancing platforms(Malt, Fiverr, etc.) or web writing platforms ( Scribeur , Wriiters etc.)
- 17. 7% find clients through LinkedIn
- 8. 3% find customers through email marketing
As in all other industries, word of mouth is very effective in finding clients. If you have clients and you do a good job, they are bound to recommend you to their network. This way, you can find new customers without having to advertise or canvass. 🗣️
Another statistic that will be interesting is the number of clients that web writers have. Depending on the assignment, you need to have more or less regular clients in order to make a living from web writing. Some will have few assignments, but many clients. On the other hand, reactors may have few clients, but have intense writing needs.
- 8.3% of writers work with a single client
- 13% of writers work with 2 clients
- 47% of writers work with 3 clients
- 10% of writers work with 4 clients
- 21% of writers work with 5 clients
The norm is to have several clients. For the majority of web editors, having several clients brings more security, but also diversity in the missions.
Who are the customers?
The clients of web editors all have one thing in common, the need to feed a website or other communication channel with content. However, not all clients have the same profile. Here are the main clients of an average web writer:
- Corporate Communication Department
- Digital communication agency
- Web writing platform
- Media and news site
- Bloggers
- Site editors
How much does a web editor earn?
Again, there are two main statuses for editors. That of employee and self-employed. So we’re going to show you different statistics for freelance writers and employed writers.
Freelance Web Writers
Each freelancer has his own rates, so it is difficult to define the average price of a text. The other problem is that many writers do not work full time. For example, some writers work part-time to generate additional income on the side. 👩💻
According to the HelloWork website, a freelance web writer earns between 1800 and 2500€ gross per month. From this figure, the amount of social contributions and income tax must be deducted.
According to a study conducted by the Journal du Net, the income of a freelance web writer is between 2167€ and 3750€ gross per month. According to Glassdoor, the average annual compensation is €30,659 gross.
More interestingly, the Page Group site shows average pay based on writer experience. 🎂
- Between 0 and 2 years experience: 25 to 30 K€ gross per year
- Between 2 and 5 years experience: 28 to 35 K€ gross per year
- Between 5 and 15 years of experience: 34 to 42 € gross per year
As you can see, it is quite difficult toestimate how much you can earn as a freelance web writer. The revenue generated by a freelance writer can vary, depending on his experience and skills. As a freelancer, the more you work, the more money you will make. If you have a lot of assignments, you can expect to be one of the highest earning writers, even with little experience.
Salaried web editors
As an employee, a web editor will naturally earn less than a freelancer, but will benefit from other advantages (paid vacations, meal tickets, health insurance, etc.).
The average salary is between 1400 and 2000€ net per month. According to the job search site Indeed, the average salary offered for a web editor job is 1626€ net per month. This amount increases to 1783€ net per month for a position in the Île-de-France region. 📈
Depending on seniority, the salary can rise to 3000€ net per month for some editors. In addition to experience, the complexity of the texts to be written can increase the compensation. For example, a writer specializing in health or finance can expect to earn a higher salary.
Now you know a lot more about the job of a web editor. If you plan to make a living from web writing, we have presented on our blog a comparison of the best training courses to become a web editor . By choosing one of these courses, you will be able to write texts from A to Z, but also to find clients and keep them. 🤝🏽
If you don’t want to invest, but still want to learn about web writing, we invite you to download our free ebook“Affiliate & SEO“. In this ebook, we will introduce you to web writing andSEO. Some readers are already offering their writing services thanks to the tips learned inside.
If you’re interested in web writing, you know what you have to do!
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