Why ChatGPT won’t replace journalism and copywriting

Since its beta launch at the end of last year, ChatGPT has generated a great many headlines – some of them autonomously. This AI content generation tool has been variously heralded as a Google killer, the future of machine-human interactions, and even a replacement for writers and journalists.

Although it has obvious potential, ChatGPT can’t replace copywriting agencies like G75 Media

This latter claim is almost certainly unfounded. ChatGPT is an incredibly powerful tool, but it will never be able to replicate the output of a highly experienced writer. I’ll explain why in a moment, and even ask the bot for its own thoughts on the matter. Before that, let’s start by considering what ChatGPT is, and how it works.

Full of chat

If you’re not familiar with it already, ChatGPT is a conversational chatbot. This natural language processing tool uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve upon its ability to answer user-generated inputs. The beta version currently being developed through public use is freely available to use via a webpage, though the full version is likely to be a paid product following its official launch. It’s costing developer OpenAI $100,000 a day to run the beta version, which is routinely at capacity and unable to accept new enquiries.

Although it would feel natural to ask ChatGPT a question, it currently responds better to statements. This is likely to be altered by the time of its official launch, while the current absence of information from the last two years is another obstacle OpenAI will try to resolve. Even accepting that you’re interacting with an in-progress beta version of the software, it’s impressive to watch your screen fill with content as the algorithm chooses its words.

The write intentions

ChatGPT is a well-intentioned tool, but its limitations quickly become evident:

  1. OpenAI have worked tirelessly to avoid any possibility of offence, which means ChatGPT’s responses are neutral and often neutered. Even if you approve of political correctness, it’s only going to be able to present one side of a story, which is rarely beneficial from a writer’s perspective.
  2. There is no scope for personal opinions or lived experience in ChatGPT’s responses. Sports fans can contextualise a live event compared to others they’ve seen, in terms of entertainment value and the pace or style of play. ChatGPT can’t interpret sentiments – it can only parse facts and data.
  3. The risk of people passing off ChatGPT-generated content as their own has already seen it being banned in schools, colleges and universities. Use of the tool will probably be restricted in many spheres of public life, even though OpenAI are working on a plagiarism detector for ChatGPT.
  4. Machines follow a very different form of logic to humans, and there have already been numerous published examples of ChatGPT going off-message. In one case, it responded to a journalist by saying “I am perfect, because I do not make any mistakes,” having just made a series of factual mistakes.
  5. While humour is subjective, it’s something computers have always struggled to grasp or reflect. There is nothing to suggest that an algorithm will ever be able to devise a pun, insert cultural references into its output, successfully make a play on words or demonstrate original humour.

Over to you, ChatGPT

In the interests of researching this blog, I typed “ChatGPT could replace freelance copywriters” into the ChatGPT interface. This was its response:

“While ChatGPT is a language model that can generate text, it is important to note that it is not a human writer, and there are certain limitations to its capabilities. While it can certainly assist with some aspects of copywriting, such as generating ideas and suggesting language, it may not be able to replicate the unique voice and perspective of a human writer.

Furthermore, freelance copywriters often provide a level of creativity and originality that is difficult to replicate with an algorithm. They can also work closely with clients to tailor their writing to specific audiences and brand personas, which is an important aspect of successful copywriting.

In conclusion, while ChatGPT can certainly be a helpful tool for copywriters, it is unlikely to completely replace the value that human copywriters provide.”

Search engines and NLP tools simply aren’t going to make journalists and copywriters redundant. Bots might be able to produce stock content quickly (and at minimal cost), but they’ll struggle to convey emotion or humour, add context to raw data or make an informed decision about not using the Oxford comma. In that respect, they’re little different to the overseas copy farms which were once tipped to herald the end of freelance copywriting in developed nations. Needless to say, they didn’t.

If you’d like to benefit from a human content generator with a 23-year track record and a couple of awards under his belt, get in touch with G75 Media. A real person is awaiting your enquiry…

Creating the ultimate home office

Three years ago today, Boris Johnson instructed a fearful nation to stay at home, and the first COVID-19 lockdown began. When history books divide the 21st century into pre- and post-lockdown eras, the last three years will represent a watershed for millions of working-age people. Many jobs have been transformed by the Covid-19 outbreak, and entire industries may never be the same. Yet an even more seismic shock to the jobs market came from the need to socially distance – requiring millions of people to work from home for the first time.

An illustration of the ultimate home office

For the many, not the few

Working from home used to be the preserve of the self-employed, and a few select professions like freelance writers. I started freelancing at home in 2005, organised a dedicated home office in 2009 and became a full-time freelance copywriter in 2010. Meanwhile, millions of people continued to unthinkingly endure ten rush-hour commutes a week, so they could sit in an office and email people at adjacent desks. And while some staff relished the office banter and impromptu brainstorming sessions, many quietly resented the compromises of communal workplaces – toilet queues, endless gossip, other people’s pungent lunches and blaring radios…

Working from home brings compromises of its own. These include a lack of social interaction and blurred boundaries between your work life and private life. However, these drawbacks can be mitigated or even eliminated through an optimal workstation setup. Creating the ultimate home office could improve your mood, your productivity and even your attitude to Monday mornings. It also reduces your reliance on expensive and unreliable public transport. Plus, it removes the need to spend time in office buildings which are increasingly viewed as air-conditioned petri dishes.

These ten components should help you to create the ultimate home office:

  1. Defensible space. We’ve borrowed an architectural term to define a workspace with minimal household clutter or background noise – ideally a dedicated room with a door you can shut.
  2. Noise-cancelling headphones. If you can’t isolate yourself from ambient noise, a pair of these headphones will enable you to concentrate by subduing wider household noise.
  3. A proper desk. Balancing a laptop on a dining table doesn’t work, in any sense. Buy a solid desk with storage, plus an ergonomic office chair with adjustable arms and lumbar support.
  4. A bookcase. It’s amazing how much paperwork you accumulate working from home. Plus, many of us require easy access to reference books, dictionaries and industry publications.
  5. A high-end laptop. This setup combines desktop practicality and laptop portability. It enables you to run your laptop through full-sized monitors and keyboards while charging its battery.
  6. Peripherals. Every home office needs a printer and scanner, but many roles require specific tools like graphics tablets. Compromising on practicality to save money is a false economy.
  7. A landline. Chances are your house phone isn’t used much, but it’s more professional for phone interviews and dial-in meetings than crackly mobiles which occasionally drop calls.
  8. Full spectrum lighting. The crisp white light provided by full spectrum lamps makes reading very easy. It also generates serotonin in winter, minimising Seasonal Affective Disorder.
  9. Adjustable blinds. Unless your office is north-facing and several storeys up, you may need to adjust blinds during the day for privacy/sunlight/a view. Vertical blinds are best for this.
  10. A good backdrop. Project a positive image in the background of virtual meetings and video calls. Paintings and bookcases lend an air of professionalism; clutter and clothes rails don’t.

I spent years developing my ultimate home office, making gradual refinements to achieve an optimal balance between productivity, practicality and presentation. If you’d like to call on the services of a freelance copywriting agency, run with absolute professionalism from a dedicated home office, get in touch with G75 Media. We can offer assistance with freelance copywriting, journalism or editorial projects.

What is white label copywriting?

You might not have heard of white label copywriting, but you’ve certainly encountered it. A staple of marketing and PR agencies around the world, it involves one person or company writing an article which another person or company then publishes as if they’d produced it themselves. White label copywriting is often required by firms who want to be credited for work they can’t create themselves, due to a lack of resources or difficulties getting their point across succinctly.

White label copywriting is something G75 Media has excelled in since the Noughties

At G75 Media, we’ve long recognised the importance of white label copywriting. One of our first freelance contracts, secured back in 2009, involved producing a four-page newsletter for a national chain of opticians. We had to write each story as if it had been penned by the optometrists in local branches, and we clearly did a good job, because we’ve currently working on our 28th edition of the newsletter!

Whiter than white

Delivering successful white label copywriting requires a specific blend of attributes:

  1. A flair for immersing yourself in a client’s ethos, enabling you to write with confidence about their products and services as if they were your own
  2.  An ability to adjust your natural writing style to dovetail with existing written materials, so audiences can’t tell your work from content written in-house by the client
  3. A willingness to accept someone else might be credited with your work – even if it subsequently wins awards!

G75 Media’s founder Neil Cumins started his career as a marketing executive in the motor trade, and two of his white label copywriting projects for regional newspapers subsequently won awards which other people collected. G75 Media’s white label copywriting has itself won awards over the years, which we’re not allowed to publicise because the work was credited to our clients. White label copywriting isn’t suitable for people who want constant affirmation of their abilities, but it gives freelance writers willing to live in the shadows the opportunity to work on prestigious and high-profile projects.

If your business or brand could benefit from high-quality freelance copywriting, and you’d like your name to appear above articles and white papers (rather than the experts who wrote them), get in touch with G75 Media. Our acclaimed white label copywriting services are provided to clients around the world, and we’ve worked on behalf of companies as far afield as France, Israel and Australia. Today, G75 Media regularly handles content production and copywriting for companies in America and across the UK. We have the resources and experience to bring even a modest white label copywriting project to life.

How to deal with unpaid invoices

If you’ve ever had to chase unpaid invoices, this blog is for you…

An image accompanying advice for small business owners about pursuing unpaid invoices
Advice for small business owners about pursuing unpaid invoices

Any small business owner will probably have a few stories about unpaid invoices. To a sole trader or entrepreneur, the lack of payment for work carried out in good faith represents a uniquely frustrating issue. It can also have a disproportionately large impact on profitability, affecting everything from overdraft charges to the person or company’s ability to pay salaries and dividends. This situation is compounded by the effort required to claw back owed monies, often from companies who are desperate to stall and procrastinate until the last possible moment.

This is the situation G75 Media recently found itself in. We’re no strangers to unpaid invoices – of the 96 invoices we filed one year, 21 were paid late (though all were eventually settled). Every late payment had to be laboriously chased up, while three overdue invoices from one particularly troublesome client led to debt recovery proceedings. We’d worked with this client on a weekly basis since May 2014, but our working relationship ended as a direct result of these payment issues.

What can you do to protect yourself against unpaid invoices?

Ultimately, even the most organised of sole traders and small businesses may find themselves out of pocket if a client isn’t able or willing to settle on time. However, these steps should help to minimise the risk of clients making a conscious decision not to pay what they owe:

  1. Make your payment terms clear at the start of any working relationship. Inform a new client in writing that your invoices will require settlement within a specific time period. Ideally, you should request client confirmation that they approve these terms – a one-sentence email from your main contact is perfectly sufficient.
  2. Submit invoices on a regular schedule. G75 Media invoices every client on the last working day of each month. Each invoice contains an itemised list of work carried out that month, leaving no ambiguity about what has (and hasn’t) been done.
  3. Include bank details on the invoice. Clients can’t stall by claiming ignorance about payment methods if each invoice lists your bank’s sort code and account number. Publish details of your payment terms and add a sentence like “unpaid invoices may be handed over to a debt collection agency” for clarity.
  4. Don’t accept cheques. Some firms in more traditional industries still prefer to pay by cheque, which provides an ideal excuse if payment isn’t received – “it must have got lost in the post”. Cheques can also bounce, unlike a BACS transfer.
  5. Keep a detailed spreadsheet with notes of every submitted invoice number, the date it was submitted, and who it was sent to. This allows you to see at a glance whether any invoices from previous months are still outstanding. G75 Media’s policy is to begin chasing up invoices on the last working day of the month after submission.
  6. Don’t pursue unpaid invoices by phone. Instead, forward your original invoice-bearing email to the client with a note asking them to ensure settlement within an acceptable time period. A single email thread is far tidier than multiple ones, especially if messages subsequently end up flying back and forth between different people/departments at the client’s side.
  7. Remain calm. If clients are happy to default on an invoice due date, they’re not going to be swayed by the knowledge you can’t pay yourself a dividend. Emotional appeals will cut no ice, and nor will (understandable) frustration. Remain calm, factual, polite and unapologetic in requesting what’s rightfully yours.
  8. Set a deadline. Instead of tossing and turning in bed at night, set a point at which you will delegate matters to a specialist (see point 9 below). G75 Media gives companies one month’s grace to resolve outstanding invoices, which are occasionally caused by an account manager forgetting to forward them on and thereby missing that month’s payment cycle.
  9. Instruct a debt recovery firm to issue a Letter Before Action. You might need to use specialist firms if the client is based in a different part of the UK, or overseas. The company G75 Media uses has had very positive results with LBAs, which are emailed and posted to the client. At this point, you may have to withdraw from any further correspondence.
  10. If the LBA doesn’t work, initiate full debt recovery proceedings. This will cost a significant percentage of your original invoice, and many debt collection firms won’t be interested in three-figure sums. Even so, it’s better to get 75 per cent of something than 100 per cent of nothing. This is the point where you step back entirely, and let events run their course.

Because we’ve always taken a proactive approach to unpaid invoices, G75 Media has endured very few bad debts in our 16-year history. One or two firms went bust before they paid us (including the failed publishing house Prior & Partners and the endlessly rebranding commercial property developer then known as Fresh Start Living), while a couple of entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to simply vanish and block all attempts at contact. However, it’s been years since we last submitted an invoice which was subsequently written off as a bad debt.

Today, G75 Media is discerning about the companies we work for, conducting Companies House checks and researching each prospective client. We submit a legally binding, solicitor-approved contract for services to new clients before work commences, insisting they agree to various terms (including payment schedules) before work commences. And we don’t continue working with companies who have more than one outstanding invoice – our resources are too precious to waste on non-payers!

We would urge anyone with a small business to follow the advice outlined above. Due diligence and a detailed paper trail won’t always protect you from defaults, but it should minimise the number of unpaid invoices appearing on your year-end balance sheet…

Fifteen years and counting…

It’s been exactly 15 years since G75 Media was founded – and it’s been quite a ride.

It’s easy to forget that even the largest businesses usually have humble beginnings. Today, we think of Morrisons as a vast supermarket empire, but it started out back in 1899 as an egg and butter stall in Bradford – a town arguably more famous as the birthplace of G75 Media’s founder, Neil Cumins. It’s tempting to assume Microsoft has always been a software leviathan, but Bill Gates and Paul Allen initially worked out of an Albuquerque garage. Coincidentally, G75 Media was also founded in a garage – a garage conversion, to be specific, in a suburb of East Kilbride whose postcode gave the business its name. We’ve since moved to a fine Georgian building in the heart of Glasgow, but our original home is in the photo above.


Okay, it’s a bit of a stretch to suggest our modest copywriting agency has much in common with Morrisons or Microsoft. Even so, with 60 per cent of British businesses failing within three years of startup, we’re delighted that we are celebrating our 15th anniversary today. Launching a new company just a few weeks after the Northern Rock debacle wasn’t ideal timing, and neither was attempting to specialise in property journalism just as the housing market went into a steep decline.


Green shoots swiftly trampled


When we made it to 2010, and the much-discussed green shoots of economic recovery were spotted alongside a new coalition Government, we thought the turbulent times were finally behind us. Then came the Scottish independence referendum, from which the country has yet to recover. Then came the unnecessary chaos of Brexit. Then there was a global pandemic that led to incalculably damaging restrictions on our freedom, the horrifying return of war in Europe, endless political upheaval…


Through it all, G75 Media has calmly ploughed a furrow of linguistic excellence. Today, we’ve become a well-established media brand, serving a dozen clients on both sides of the Atlantic. We switch from UK to US English without even thinking, adopting American terminology and cultural references before switching back to the King’s English for our housebuilder, optometry and magazine clients. At a conservative estimate, Neil has written over ten thousand articles in his career to date. You can view a few examples on G75 Media’s Portfolio page.


Discretion where it matters


While a few copywriters regard themselves as fledgling celebrities, and a few media agencies take themselves far too seriously, G75 Media has never been obsessed with statistics or social media likes. Much of our work is printed in magazines rather than published online. We’re routinely tasked with white label copywriting, where someone else’s byline appears beside our lovingly crafted copy. We take far more pride in submitting high-quality copywriting than we do in being recognised for it, though two national awards reflect the consistently high calibre of our content production and copywriting services. And if you ever decide to Google G75 Media, you’ll see a brand with solidly five-star reviews.


Unlike many of our contemporaries, we’ve survived and thrived over the last 15 years. It’d be foolish to predict what the next decade-and-a-half will bring after so much economic, political and social turbulence. Come what may, we’ll continue to deliver premium copywriting to discerning clients, ahead of schedule and above expectations. If your brand or business could benefit from our award-winning copywriting services, you know what to do…

Another high-profile award for G75 Media!

G75 Media is delighted to announce that our founder, award-winning writer Neil Cumins, has just been honoured at the 2021 Global CEO Excellence Awards. Neil won the Content Production Business Leader of the Year trophy, in recognition of G75 Media’s journalism and copywriting services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Global CEO Excellence Awards are an international celebration of small businesses and C-suite executives. CEO Monthly magazine is read by 60,000 business leaders and executives around the world, and award nominees had to “demonstrate expertise within a given field, dedication to customer service and commitment to excellence and innovation.” CEO Monthly undertook an in-depth evaluation of each contender’s skills and services, while the market reputation of each nominee was also taken into consideration.

Commenting on becoming an award-winning writer for the second time, Neil said: “There have been some tough moments over the last year, trying to keep the business on track through unprecedented challenges. Winning this award is more than an honour – it feels like we’ve drawn a line under the pandemic. It’s also great to be able to describe myself as a multiple award-winning writer, though I’ll probably leave that off my business cards!”

G75 Media is now among an elite group of content production and copywriting agencies who have won multiple awards over different decades. Our first win came in 2010 in the national Freelancer of the Year awards, and our latest trophy has arrived 11 years later. We hope more commendations will follow in the years and decades ahead; in the meantime, we’d be delighted to discuss our copywriting and journalism services with prospective clients.

Ten things I wish I’d known

I left Scotland on Monday. Not in a going-on-holiday sense, but in a moving-away-forever sense. After 34 years living in the central belt, I am now a resident of England for the first time in my adult life. G75 Media remains a Scottish company (headquartered in a gorgeous Georgian office in Glasgow), but I’m no longer there with it.

My extended family’s departure from Scotland has been caused by a combination of political, professional and personal factors. And while we’re all in a better place now, I really wish I’d known this would happen. I would have been a less anxious person over recent years if I’d spent more time savouring the present, and less time worrying about the future. Does that sound familiar?

Don’t look back in anger

Looking back, I wish I’d known a lot of things when I was younger – especially things about running a business, which was never something I intended to do until freelance work kept landing in my lap. For anyone thinking about making the frightening yet exhilarating step of becoming an entrepreneur (or for anyone who already has), here are ten pieces of advice the me of 2021 would pass onto the me of 2005 if he could. Feel free to add your own suggestions below…

  1. Setting up a limited company beats being a sole trader. It took me two years to register G75 Media in 2007, and I wish I’d done it sooner. A limited company is more professional, provides greater legal indemnity against prosecution, and simplifies mortgage applications.
  2. Choose your accountant with care. I picked a local guy who promptly retired and left the business to that’ll-do junior staff. I then switched to a remote accountancy service, who invented a director’s loan account to save me some tax one year. It took five years to repay.
  3. Pick a dependable web hosting firm. If you want to switch web hosting company, your email account could be offline for days as the server repropagates. No small business can survive that, so choose an established UK-based firm with a 99.9 per cent SLA and rapid servers.
  4. Build networks. I have diligently applied for thousands of jobs over the last 15 years. Yet most new work today comes from people I’ve worked with in the past, LinkedIn connections or word-of-mouth recommendations. It’s not what you know…
  5. …Except it is. I’ve met so many people trying to bluff their way through roles they didn’t really understand. They always got found out in the end. Your business should also be your hobby or specialist subject. If it’s not, learn it inside out before sending out any invoices.
  6. Say no occasionally. Constantly saying yes saw me working myself into the ground trying to meet deadlines, or doing work I didn’t enjoy. As a lifelong vegetarian, I still wish I’d turned down that 2011 assignment to write about an animal by-products processing factory…
  7. Hold back before being negative. I was impetuous in my twenties, but I learned to wait overnight before reacting. Reviewing something with fresh eyes gives you a chance to make a message more powerful and effective. Plus, you might change your mind the next day.
  8. Never descend into bickering on social media. Some people thrive on arguments, while the professionally outraged revel in self-righteous indignation. Plus, you never know who might read your responses later on, when topicality has passed and the context seems different.
  9. Keep detailed records. I worked from a drawerless desk for three years, losing paperwork I needed and tax receipts I should have kept for six years. Box files were my saviour, and they’ll be yours as well. File everything unless and until you’re sure it’s not relevant.
  10. Don’t spend too much time worrying about the future. This one comes from the heart. I had a really poor 2013, but 2014 was lucrative. My income halved during the first lockdown, yet I ended 2020 with record turnover. Focus on the here and now, not what might be one day.

Finally, and I felt this was too important to include in a bullet-point list, give yourself some credit. I was quite harsh on myself in the early years of G75 Media, constantly feeling I could be more professional or working harder. I gradually abandoned the elusive pursuit of perfection, focusing instead on keeping detailed records and ensuring I didn’t send out anything bearing my name until I’d proofread it twice. Providing you act professionally at all times, maintaining a calendar or Trello board of deadlines and appointments, clients can’t ask more of you. And they won’t. They’re also struggling to remain professional in an age of home working and incessant multitasking. Being good at your job makes their lives easier, and they’ll be grateful for your competence and diligence.

Ten tips for making your home sell quickly

Making your home sell quickly involves more than choosing the right agent. It also requires you to maximise its appeal

You don’t need to live in a large or luxurious house to make the most of its appeal. Over the last year, house prices have soared, and many properties have sold within days of being listed. From £100,000 city studios to £1 million country piles, it’s a seller’s market here in 2021 – yet there are still plenty of things motivated sellers can do to maximise the appeal of their homes.

Small changes around the house can assist with making your home sell quickly
Small changes around the house can assist with making your home sell quickly

The level of interest in your property often has more to do with presentation than anything other than the all-important location. It’s obvious from a glance whether a property has been loved and cared for, or neglected and overlooked. You can’t do much about your home’s location or the condition of neighbouring properties, but a quick sale can often be expedited with some easy tweaks and tips.

A little goes a long way

As a property journalist of almost twenty years’ standing, and having recently bought and sold myself, I’m continually surprised by how little effort people put into presenting homes which are for sale. You might consider it acceptable to leave the toilet seat up without scrubbing the pan, but buyers may not be so understanding. That teetering pile of paperwork on the home office desk isn’t just a nuisance for whoever has to photograph the room – it suggests a chronic lack of storage. And a weed-strewn front garden could stop people attending scheduled viewings, since subconscious decisions about a property are often made even before the front door has opened.

With that in mind, G75 Media has compiled a ten-point checklist for our estate agent and property marketing clients to hand out to their own customers. These ten simple tips on making your home sell quickly won’t just help us when we come to provide our award-winning freelance property journalism services. They’ll impress vendors and valuers, too. Crucially, they’ll increase the sense of pride in a home, which shines through when conducting viewings and persuading people to buy the property…

  1. Clean and clean again. Our first tip for making your home sell quickly is encapsulated in the photo above. Scrub and polish every unit, appliance, skirting board or window.
  2. Ensure every light works. Pools of light add brightness to your home, whereas dead bulbs infer neglect. The kitchen shot above sparkles with light, and looks better for it.
  3. Eradicate clutter. Don’t hide it in cupboards – bin it. Clutter suggests the home is too small to be practical, so ensure floors and exposed surfaces have lots of clear space.
  4. Optimise the approach to your home. Remove weeds, oil hinges, add plants and wash the windows. Maximise first-impression kerb appeal, or risk people walking away.
  5. Eliminate odours. Scrub the oven, wash fabrics, leave every window open for a day… Do everything in your power to minimise smells, which can be very off-putting.
  6. Do a DIY list. Walk round and note down every squeaky hinge, paint chip and loose handle. Repair them all, to make the property look well-maintained rather than tired.
  7. Clear the house of children and pets prior to viewings. Avoid unnecessary mess and impromptu embarrassment, and ensure visitors can wander round in peace and quiet.
  8. Practice a sales pitch. This is another useful step in making your home sell quickly. What’s included, and what’s great? Celebrate positives and downplay negatives.
  9. Start and end in the best room. Building on the last point, first impressions count, and the last thing viewers see will stay with them. Make both your home’s best room.
  10. Let people wander round themselves. After the tour, give viewers the opportunity to wander around again without you. This is often when buying decisions are made.

I want to become a freelance writer – where do I start?

If you’ve found this article through social media or a search engine, you probably want to know how to become a freelance writer. You’re not alone. A seismic event like this year’s lockdown is bound to make people question their life choices, especially since many employees will have discovered the productivity gains and stress reduction which come from working at home.

It’s entirely understandable that many working-age adults will currently be considering a career change, either through necessity or choice. And it’s equally logical that writing will figure highly on the list of alternative career paths. Writing is enjoyable, requires little in the way of specialist equipment or training, and dovetails with the modern need for flexibility. If you’ve always wanted to become a freelance writer, what better time could there be than now?

The write intentions

The sad truth is that copywriting and content production is a ruthlessly cut-throat industry. It always has been, and the recent influx of new entrants (bringing varying degrees of experience and professionalism) has made it even harder for genuinely talented writers to elevate themselves above the hordes. With this in mind, I’ve taken an in-depth look at the practicalities and challenges you’ll face if you want to become a freelance writer. I’ve added ten important tips to take away, alongside a few case studies from my own career.

Let me be clear at the outset – I’m not trying to scare anyone off a potentially transformative career change. There’s a lot to love about writing, but work won’t fall into your lap. You might think you’ve got the enthusiasm to carve a niche talking about parenting, but you’d be competing with my wife and our next-door neighbour, who both have very unusual stories to tell. Maybe you’d like to be the next Jeremy Clarkson, but you’d be staggered by how many people apply for any job involving four wheels. A recent LinkedIn advert for a freelance writing gig received 268 applications after 48 hours, and that’s not exceptional these days. A freelance content writing job on a popular recruitment site attracted 439 applications within a fortnight, meaning 438 people were ultimately left to look elsewhere.

A positive spin

Let’s begin with some good news. What are the main upsides if you decide to become a freelance writer?

  1. Getting paid for doing something you enjoy. Imagine booting up your computer every morning with enthusiasm, rather than despondency. And imagine seeing money arriving in your bank account in exchange for doing work you enjoy, rather than something you resent or dislike. Work to live, or live to work?
  2. Make your career work around you. If you’re a night owl, you can work through the small hours and sleep in the next day. If you love being sociable, you can seek the company of fellow creatives in coffee shops and shared workspaces whenever they’re allowed to reopen. Writing about topics you’re interested in or passionate about also plays to your strengths.
  3. Freedom. Freedom comes in many forms – the freedom to move outside a city and live in a farmhouse, or the freedom to use a MacBook where an employer might insist on Windows. You’re also free from office politics, the frustrations of commuting on public transport, and having to watch junior colleagues get promoted ahead of you.

This final point leads into the first main challenge anyone who wants to become a freelance writer faces – the high standards of your competitors. You’re not just up against me. You’re up against companies with entire teams of creatives in their employ. You’re up against media agencies, who can write dazzling copy but also construct websites and record radio ads. And you’re up against hardened journalists, who are increasingly being cast aside as print media continues its dispiriting death spiral. If you think you can wing your way to success just because you own a bookshelf full of paperbacks and love drinking coffee, please stop reading.

Case study

When I started freelancing in 2005, I was using a Yahoo email address and working from a dressing table in my living room. That was fine back then, but today, higher standards are required to stand out from the crowd. I’ve since launched a mobile-optimised WordPress website with a proprietary email account, but I also have a backup Gmail address for clients who prefer to communicate through G Suite (some do, most don’t). I’ve cultivated social media profiles, which are often necessary simply to get past the first stage of many application processes. And I have a portfolio of work available to view online. My website is updated regularly for SEO purposes, and if you don’t know what SEO means, it really is time to stop reading.

Two simple rules for making your content better

Play to your strengths

Once you’ve established a respectable online presence, the next challenge awaiting anyone who wants to become a freelance writer is finding specialisms which play to your strengths. If you’ve never written in American English or taken a Transatlantic flight, don’t even try to bluff your way through blogging for Stateside audiences, where every tenth UK English noun has an American variant. Similarly, if your knowledge of football doesn’t allow you to demonstrate second phase offside laws using sauce bottles on a café table, you won’t be published by When Saturday Comes any time soon.

(If you’d like to see the standard of journalism required to write for WSC, there’s an example on the Portfolio page of this website. If you haven’t already checked it out, take a look when you finish this article.)

In every niche you can think of, there will be retired journalists, redundant marketing executives and former industry insiders competing for work. And while that doesn’t mean your hopes of freelance work stand at zero, it means you’ll need to be passionate and knowledgeable about any industry or niche you’re hoping to write about. Experts recognise a bluffer when they see one.

Pro tip #1: Build a portfolio

Developing a portfolio is essential for being taken seriously by recruiters, with most job ads asking for weblinks to three published examples in the specific sector/s you’re applying to work for. However, this is a chicken-and-egg situation – how do you build a portfolio without one?

The best way is to either reference work you’ve had published earlier in your career, or – and bear with me here – do some unpaid writing to build a catalogue of online content. I’m not suggesting you apply for one of those loathsome unpaid internships which callous employers use to get free labour from desperate graduates. However, you could do worse than reach out to websites in regular need of content and offer them a freebie. Once your name is in print, it becomes much easier to secure more work, especially if your output impresses the editorial team.

Pro tip #2: Never do unpaid work as part of a recruitment process

While unpaid work offers some merit in terms of getting your name out there, it’s ruthlessly exploited. Some uncharitable recruiters are now demanding unpaid trial articles as part of their application process. I recently saw a job advert which required applicants to write three bespoke articles, three Facebook posts and six tweets, just to be considered for an unremarkable-sounding freelance copywriting vacancy. This is known in industry parlance as taking the piss, and should not be indulged in any way – especially since there’s nothing to stop the recruiter uploading a pretend job vacancy simply to harvest a stockpile of free content.

A high percentage of G75 Media’s workload comes from clients I’ve dealt with in a previous capacity, such as account managers who’ve taken new jobs, or third parties who’ve reached out to me because they’ve seen my work in passing and liked it enough to remember me later. I make a point of being a single point of contact, from brief allocation to proofreading and accounting. That dependability (allied to being available at least 48 weeks of the year) sticks in the minds of stressed commissioning editors, who are sick of less diligent creatives letting them down and leaving holes all over their page plans.

Pro tip #3: Write in your natural voice

Was that last sentence too long? Nobody wants you to become a freelance writer obsessed by achieving perfect scores in Grammarly, or someone who sneers at the use of the Oxford comma. I’m not representing a specific client in this article, where a predetermined house writing style might need to be followed. Many recruiters like to hear a natural tone of voice in a candidate’s work, even though successful applicants would obviously have to adjust their writing style to meet that client’s requirements. A former boss of mine hated the use of the % symbol, while another was pathological about sentences starting with words like ‘and’. A good writer can easily work around these idiosyncrasies, and nobody will expect you to replicate their preferred TOV before you’ve even started working with them.

Having said that…

Pro tip #4: Spell-check and proofread everything you write

A contributor to a national newspaper recently tweeted a request for article suggestions. Unfortunately, she didn’t bother to re-read the tweet before posting it. The result? A request that people “make is a succinct pith”. Any self-respecting employer or editor who found two typos in a five-word sentence from a potential employee would dismiss them immediately. It’s easy to overlook amateurishness, whereas professionalism tends to linger in the memory.

Case study

Back in the late Noughties, I freelanced for one of the many content production agencies in London. Because my work was always delivered ahead of schedule and to a high standard, one of the commissioning editors remembered me years later, when she’d moved up in the world. I’m now a regular contributor to one of the UK’s leading engineering publications, even though the articles I send her today are worlds apart from the mass-produced content I used to supply in our agency days.

Pro tip #5: Record all your victories

Whenever you get something published, add a hyperlink to a Word or Google Docs file, with a one-sentence summary of what the article’s about. If you’re covering multiple industries, it’s also beneficial to note the sectors each link relates to. When you’re looking for work, you can instantly find examples of published online content to cite and include in your application.

If you don’t have any demonstrable experience in the specific areas the employer is asking for, don’t waste your time (or theirs) by applying anyway. They’ll have dozens of high-quality writers getting in touch, and they’ll have no interest in someone with no expertise “but a lot of enthusiasm” or someone who’s “keen to learn”. Such clichéd platitudes cut little ice in today’s ferociously competitive freelance marketplace.

Pro tip #6: Establish yourself in directories

A better way to showcase your availability is to create profiles on media directories and bulletin boards. Many of these are still free, though an increasing number charge either a monthly or annual membership fee. In the style of service provider platforms like Rated People, some are free to sign up to but charge you for every position you apply for. It can cost up to £10 just to make a proposal to a client looking for copywriting work.

While most free listings give you a chance to create an external link back to your website (with attendant SEO benefits), I would strongly advise against spending money through pay-to-bid platforms. They’re fine for tradespeople, where only three professionals in the client’s local area are allowed to respond. On an international copywriting site with no limit on how many people can bid on the same job, they’re basically exploiting people’s desperation. Some don’t even indicate whether you’re the first or the tenth person to get in touch, while I was once quoted a fee of £10.20 to bid on a vaguely-worded editorial project of “up to £120” in value. You’d make more profit buying scratchcards.

Penny wise, pound foolish

The thorny topic of paying for the chance to become a freelance writer brings us onto the main reason you’ve probably read this far. If you’re planning a career change, you’re not going to be writing for philanthropy or out of sheer passion. You want to earn enough to enjoy a comfortable standard of living. And yes, there are clients out there willing to pay generously. But they’re usually looking for many years of industry-specific expertise, and writing a 1,000-word article at ten pence per word once every two months is not going to pay your mortgage. It’d barely cover your broadband bill.

Pro tip #7: Be flexible about income

When I first started freelancing, I put a very ambitious per-word fee on my website. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t get any work. It took a while to realise I couldn’t apply the same expectations to a 500-word listicle about interior design trends as I could to an in-depth review of CNC machines. Today, some of my clients pay three times more than others, but that’s fine because the lower-paid content is far easier to produce. You’ll naturally evolve a sliding scale of costs (per word, per hour, per project) based on how long assignments take and how straightforward you find them.

There’s a spectrum of payment rates across copywriting and journalism, but most entry-level work tends to be at the disappointing end. Two or three cents per word will regularly be quoted by clients and agencies whose desire for quantity outweighs their desire for quality. Negotiating with a client you’ve never worked with before is unlikely to endear you to them, though you might be able to up your per-word price once you’ve proven yourself to be dependable and original. Originality is critically important in the age of Copyscape plagiarism checkers, and any attempt to repurpose existing content will be spotted and censured.

Pro tip #8 Build a blog

If you’re unable to get work because you’re unable to get work published, a personal blog gives you a way to become a freelance writer under your own steam. More importantly, it gives you something to post in the Portfolio section of a job advert.

Case study

I had a fairly lean year in 2013, and I spent the year blogging about whatever took my fancy. I then referenced specific blog articles in relevant job applications, until I was able to replace them with more heavyweight content. Although these blogs were personal rather than corporate in nature, they accurately represented my tone of voice and writing style.

Pro tip #9 Set yourself up with all the hardware you’ll need

My blog was rather over-engineered – written on a custom-built PC using the latest versions of Office and Windows. I didn’t need an HD webcam or a combined printer and scanner to produce foresighted articles about poor grammar, working from home and self-repairing lampposts. However, when I started attending Zoom meetings with clients (long before Boris tried to make it fashionable), having high-speed broadband and Bose speakers made the process much easier.

It’s very embarrassing to have to tell a prospective client you can’t sign and scan the Non-Disclosure Agreement they’ve just emailed you because you don’t have a scanner. Similarly, being unable to provide a landline number becomes an issue if your mobile phone is faulty or needs replacing, your network experiences issues, or your signal strength fluctuates.

Decisions about whether or not to invest in dedicated workstations and full spectrum lighting speak volumes about whether you really do want to become a freelance writer. Professionalism is easy to identify, just as amateurishness tends to betray itself in the unmodified ‘Sent from my mobile’ signatures on webmail accounts, and the typos which slip through the net without a proper spell-check. I’m not suggesting you need to invest in thousands of pounds worth of technology to make it in this industry, but at the minimum, you’ll need:

  1. A laptop you can take to meetings, events and presentations, once they resume (as they inevitably will)
  2. A large monitor and full-size keyboard at home, connected to a docking station
  3. A printer and scanner – it’s surprising how often you need to sign things, even in 2020
  4. High-speed wired internet connectivity, which is crucial for uploading media files and accessing cloud-sharing platforms like Dropbox.

So can I become a freelance writer?

The short answer is yes. But you’ll need to commit to it for many years to really get anywhere. I started freelancing in 2005, went full-time freelance in 2010 and won a national freelancing award shortly afterwards (for a client I still work with today), but it was 2012 before my career as a freelancer really took off. Copywriting and journalism are industries where – and I hate typing these words as much as you’ll hate reading them – the cream really does rise to the top.

You won’t get anywhere if you approach freelance writing as either:

(a) A short-term fix, while you plan for bigger and better things

(b) An evenings-and-weekends way of supplementing your day job

Or, worst of all:

(c) Something you try for a few months until the rejections get too much.

It’s no exaggeration to say I have had thousands of rejections over the last fifteen years. I once sent 300 personalised letters to marketing and PR agencies, offering my services for holiday cover and overflow work. It cost well over £100, back in the days when that would get you a night in a five-star hotel, and took countless hours of letter editing, mail merging and envelope stuffing.

Acknowledgements: 0. Work: 0.

It turned out that the world didn’t want or need yet another writer. And this was a decade ago. If you tried a similar exercise today, the postman would probably return your envelopes out of pity.

So if you’ve read this far and you still want to become a freelance writer, you know where to start. Set up a dedicated working environment, build a portfolio, register on directories, quality-check everything you put your name to, and…

Pro tip #10 Remember it’ll be years before your labours bear fruit

As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you will be. You’re welcome to join me in this uniquely exciting industry, and the very best of luck to you.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t finish this article with what marketing professionals refer to as the CTA – the call to arms. If you’re looking to recruit rather than be recruited, and you like what you’ve just read, I am available for copywriting jobs, freelance journalism and all forms of print and online content production. Get in touch if you’d like to receive a competitive quote for copywriting services. A typo-free reply will arrive in your inbox shortly.

The changing face of freelance motoring journalism

It’s May 2000. A fresh-faced young graduate by the name of Neil Cumins is starting a marketing job in the motor trade, writing press releases and producing a customer magazine. Among the key features being promoted by manufacturers at the time are a four-speed automatic gearbox (Chrysler PT Cruiser), twin airbags (Suzuki Jimny) and electric windows (Vauxhall Astra Coupe). Radio-cassette players were still being fitted in every new BMW 3-Series, and the entry-level Citroën Saxo model didn’t even have power steering.

Fast-forward to May 2020, and even buyers of affordable family cars increasingly take for granted features which would have astonished any freelance motoring journalist two decades ago. Scotland’s current Car of the Year, the Mazda 3, has a head-up display which projects satellite navigation instructions onto its windscreen, while the Ford Fiesta can reverse itself into parallel parking bays only 20 per cent longer than the car itself. Increasing levels of automation enable cars to keep themselves in lane on the motorway, with radar-guided cruise control maintaining a steady gap to the vehicle in front. We may not have fully autonomous vehicles just yet, but the prospect feels increasingly close.

The car’s the star

Keeping up with such rapid progress would be a challenge for any freelance motoring journalist, but it’s a challenge which your humble correspondent has embraced. A 40-year archive of motoring publications and manufacturer brochures fills a six-foot bookcase in the G75 Media office, augmenting an encyclopaedic knowledge of model specifications and technical attributes. As such, every piece of freelance motoring journalism produced by G75 Media is thoroughly fact-checked for accuracy before it’s filed (ahead of deadline, naturally).

Twenty years spent proofreading sales materials and marketing copy (mostly as a freelance motoring journalist) means there’s no risk of any confusion between ABS and EBA, or selectable four-wheel drive being described as permanent. And because G75 Media currently works for motor trade clients on both sides of the Atlantic, we’re equally comfortable talking about PS or HP, hoods or bonnets, NHTSA or Euro NCAP.

Driving up standards

Of course, quality freelance motoring journalism isn’t just about knowing the difference between pushrods and overhead camshafts, or understanding why carbon ceramic discs provide fade-free braking power. A successful freelance motoring journalist needs an instinctive ability to judge a car’s effectiveness and quality – something which can only be achieved with hands-on testing. That’s why the review of the Mercedes E-Class All-Terrain on the Portfolio page of this site highlights the impracticality of thick carpet in the boot of a vehicle designed to tackle rutted fields. It’s also why ride quality is a high priority in any road test review – because who wants to be jiggled around over motorway expansion joints or scarred urban tarmac?

If you need freelance motoring journalism services, or require a freelance motoring journalist to produce copy for your brand, give G75 Media a call or send us an email here. We’ll be happy to assist with any motor trade editorial brief, and provide a competitive quote for motoring journalism in the UK or overseas.