Tag Archives: freelance journalism

How to make freelance applications stand out   

Freelancers and creatives work in a constant state of volatility. You’re only ever one phone call or email away from gaining a new project – or losing an established client. I lost five clients last year to a combination of Google algorithm changes, cancelled projects and financial hardship. As a result, I found myself submitting more freelance applications than I had done in previous years.

For anyone used to working in the public sector, or a steady salaried role, the cut-throat freelance industry can be truly shocking. Almost every copywriting, editing, proofreading or communications role advertised on LinkedIn will have over 100 applications within days – sometimes hours – of going live. Employers no longer have the resources to reply to the hordes of people applying for every role they advertise. When I undertook recruitment for G75 Media, I received hundreds of freelance applications every time, yet most of them were purely speculative. Many candidates exhibited poor knowledge of the English language, lacked relevant experience or simply hadn’t read the job description.

With this in mind, and to help people who are still at a formative stage of their freelancing career, I’ve compiled five recommendations on how to make freelance applications stand out.

Tip #1: Research and incorporate keywords into your freelance applications.

Swamped by a tidal wave of (often unrealistic) enquiries, employers and recruitment agencies are increasingly resorting to algorithms to weed out opportunists. Applicant Tracking Systems scan covering letters and CVs for keywords and phrases, sifting out weaker applicants; in the public sector, sifting is often a key stage of the recruitment process. You need to tailor a covering letter to each vacancy, studying the job description and crafting a response which touches on as many themes as possible. Without this crucial step, your application may never be seen by a human.

Tip #2: Give your CV some love.

Back in the 1990s, my CV contained Clipart. Hey, it was a different time. Today, my CV has been endlessly fettled and revised, focusing on soft skills and achievements rather than dates and qualifications. Your CV may also benefit from revision if any of the following apply: it’s over two pages long, it contains your school qualifications, there are unexplained gaps in your employment history, it lists references (these are usually requested later in the recruitment process), or it starts with a word-salad introduction full of meaningless buzzwords. Or it features Clipart.

Tip #3: Ensure your social media accounts aren’t contradictory.

If you’re looking to diversify into non-executive roles, does your LinkedIn profile still suggest you’re a photographer first and foremost? If you claim to be empathic and considerate, have you recently gone on social media rants about Audi drivers, politicians, Just Stop Oil or other enemies of the state? If you puff yourself up as a talented editor with a forensic eye for detail, did you drunkenly update your status in a message containing typos, and inappropriate use of the Oxford comma? Employers and agencies won’t be shy about studying your socials, especially if you link to them in freelance applications. Look through each registered account and ask yourself what a stranger might deduce from these snapshots. If the conclusions aren’t flattering, start deleting.

Tip #4: Don’t be overly ambitious.

Employers usually have a certain calibre or type of candidate in mind, and it’s rare that someone changes their mind. Few job offers start with the phrase “you weren’t what we were initially looking for, but…”If you’re starting out as a freelancer, you’re incredibly unlikely to get a commission from a Royal Academy or a national newspaper until you have a portfolio of quality work. Bogging down the recruitment process with speculative freelance applications wastes your time and theirs. Some recruiters have long memories, so you might be damaging your career prospects further down the line.

Tip #5: Explain why this job appeals to you.

People want to earn money – that goes without saying. What does need to be said – and emphasised throughout freelance applications – is why each role caught your eye. Expressing passion and enthusiasm for a vacancy could elevate you above more highly qualified applicants with a less committed attitude. Perhaps you’ve volunteered in this industry, or the job contains elements you feel strongly about. Nobody will know if you don’t explain these points, but don’t get immersed in granular detail; one sentence per point should be enough to convey your commitment.

Taste the difference

If you’re an employer reading this and wondering why it’s so difficult to find high calibre writers and editors whenever you publish freelance applications, get in touch with G75 Media to discover the difference a quality copywriting agency and content production can make to your own organisation.

Ten things any freelancer’s home office needs   

Every self-employed person goes on a journey, and one of the less heralded aspects of the freelancing journey involves the organic development of a more professional workspace. I started out with an antiquated old PC balanced on a glass display unit in my living room, with no storage or space for paperwork. It’s a far cry from today’s dedicated home office, where a six-foot oak desk packed with drawers and cupboards supports a high-end laptop and twin 27-inch monitors through a docking station.

I’ll come back to some of these efficiency-bolstering elements in a moment. First, let’s consider some of the benefits afforded by an appropriate and well-configured working environment:

  • – It’s ergonomic. Freelancing from a laptop at a dining table or on the sofa can induce numerous physical ailments, from RSI and tendonitis through to tech neck and eyestrain-related headaches.
  • – It’s professional. When a client calls, you need pads and pens, Dictaphones and documents to hand. Running around the house trying to find a Biro is tiring, unprofessional and unduly stressful.
  • – It’s distinct. The boundaries between work and home life are blurry for most freelancers. They’ll disappear entirely if you work where you eat or socialise – making it harder to switch off at night.
  • – It’s private. A dedicated workspace avoids unrelated clutter building up. It means children coming home from school don’t suddenly appear in video calls. It ensures you can work in relative peace.

Gone are the days when you could eke out a skinny latte in the local coffee emporium for an entire day while exploiting their free WiFi. Also gone are the days when employers or clients accepted people answering Zoom calls in onesies, with piles of laundry in the background or accompanied by unscheduled interruptions from other household members. In today’s ruthlessly competitive freelancing market, battered by generative AI and budgetary constraints, only the most professional freelancers will flourish. Doing so requires a dedicated place to work (even if that’s just a corner of a room) with the following ten essential attributes:

  1. Full spectrum lighting. These lamps cast a clear white light that’s easy to read by, great for designing in and capable of minimising the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder in the GMT seasons.
  2. An ergonomic chair. It may involve trial and error to find a chair deep enough to support your thighs and bolstered enough to offer lumbar support, but it’s a vital investment to avoid back or neck pain.
  3. A storage-equipped desk. Don’t try and work from a breakfast bar – you need drawers/cupboards/shelves for documents, brochures and post. Solid wooden furniture will last forever.
  4. Sound-cancelling microphone-equipped headphones. This ensures you can work in peace when the house is noisy, be clearly heard on video calls and listen to webinars without anyone eavesdropping.
  5. A docking station and laptop. Laptops are ideal for taking to meetings, pitches and presentations. Plugged into a docking station with hardwired peripherals, they’re also as practical as a desktop PC.
  6. An attractive backdrop. Blurring your background inevitably distracts with flickering, suggesting you’re hiding something. A nice picture is fine, as is a garden view; avoid clutter, clothes or mirrors.
  7. Full fibre broadband. Most UK households now have access to full fibre. ADSL lines of 10Mbps aren’t enough in today’s OneDrive and Zoom age – they’ll slow you up and result in stuttering streams.
  8. Privacy. It’s lovely freelancing from home with pets mooching around, but not during interviews or meetings. A door you can close (or a screen you can put up) is vital for appearing professional.
  9. Proximity to a window. A glance at trees or sunshine can provide inspiration, while daylight boosts our mood and simplifies reading. Position workstations beside or below windows wherever possible.
  10. Space to pace. A surprising addition, perhaps, but many people find it easier to talk on the phone or think while moving. A hallway will suffice, providing there’s nothing to bump into while you muse.

A professional approach

Having been founded back in the mid-Noughties, G75 Media is a paragon of professionalism, elevating freelancing to a fine art from a dedicated home office which ensures we’re able to deliver optimal work to every client. Get in touch to see how we can collaborate with working partnerships, marketing copy and content production for businesses in any industry.

How to become a freelance copywriter

“You’re a writer? How did you get into that?”

If I had a penny for every time I’ve been asked a variation of that question, I’d probably have enough money to buy a nice bar of Swiss chocolate. It’s usually the first response to telling a new acquaintance that I’m a freelance copywriter, while the second response is often along the lines of “I’ve always wanted to do that” or “how do I become a freelance copywriter myself?”

To anyone unfamiliar with this industry, freelance copywriting can seem impossibly glamorous. And in some respects it is, but it’s still a job. It requires dedication, organisation and creativity at all times. The pay is often modest, time off is either unpaid or made up in the evenings, and you have to deal with clients who can occasionally be unreasonable and/or rude. Crucially, this is a hugely over-subscribed industry, where companies can be highly selective about who they commission.

Sounds great! So how do I become a freelance copywriter?

First of all, if you’re reading this as a student or in the early years of your career, there’s one key thing to remember:

There are no shortcuts.

With so much competition from established writers, it’s going to take a long time to build your own identity and become a freelance copywriter of repute. You’ll probably have to work for free, and you’ll certainly have to work on projects that don’t interest you. There may be clients you don’t get on with, deadlines that require burning the midnight oil, and articles which are never published.  The latter scenario is especially frustrating, because you can’t promote them if they’re not published. Most freelance copywriting job vacancies request several hyperlinks to published online features with direct relevance to the industry or company in question.

This is why it’s far harder to become a freelance copywriter than it is to remain one once you’re established and known within the industry. I have a Word document containing links to a hundred of my best articles, arranged by category with one-line summaries and URLs. If I spot a tempting freelance writing opportunity, I can call upon a stockpile of relevant articles demonstrating my expertise in that specific area. A new or aspirational writer won’t have such a portfolio to draw on, but you can start by linking to your own blogs, or offering to write guest posts for clients in industries you’re passionate about. Every time an article is published, make a note of its URL for future job applications, or save a screenshot onto your PC to compile a portfolio like this one.

You’ll also need other resources to become a freelance copywriter, including a comfortable workspace. We’ve previously discussed how to create the ultimate home office, even with a small budget and limited space. You’ll need a laptop which can be used at home, at the local café and at client meetings. You’ll have to create some administrative templates, including a professional-looking invoice and a spreadsheet to track income and expenditure. Some writers remain sole traders rather than going down the limited company route, since the latter brings additional layers of bureaucracy and responsibility. However, clients tend to prefer dealing with a registered company than with a private individual touting for work with a generic Gmail address.

Windows onto the world

Above all, you’ll need a website. This is your digital shop window, where you explain what you can offer and highlight key achievements. Its contents will evolve over time, as you work for more clients and build up greater expertise. Freelance copywriters usually develop one or two niches – the G75 Media website outlines how we’re property writers and motoring journalists first and foremost. Nobody will be impressed if you claim you can write about anything, because topics like SaaS or property law demand expertise and an intuitive knowledge of the subject.

Your website will often be the first impression made on a prospective client, so update it with your best work and list the attributes which make you stand out from all the other writers. It’ll take time to become a freelance copywriter, but you’ll succeed if you persevere.

The benefits of working from home

At the time of writing, the UK is experiencing the unwelcome advance of the Coronavirus, or COVID-19. Sporting events are being suspended, festivals are being cancelled, and commuters are nervously applying hand sanitiser while sweating underneath stifling face masks. We’re being encouraged to avoid large public gatherings and refrain from unnecessary travel, while consumers panic-buy toilet roll and shysters try to sell us 49p bottles of antibacterial gel on eBay for £25.

At this stage, it’s impossible to know how far COVID-19 will spread, or how serious its repercussions will be. However, the latest Government advice is to work from home if possible. And that has raised a wider debate about why millions of people struggle through chaotic rush-hours to reach an inconvenient place for an arbitrary time, to sit at a desk and email people sitting six feet away. Accountancy firm KPMG is running a trial where many of its staff work from home on Fridays, to see whether productivity is affected. In fact, there’s a good chance productivity will increase, since people will be committed to making the trial a success. Plus, they’ll feel more energetic and less fatigued without an early-morning commute…

No place like home

It’s a shame that it’s taken the Coronavirus outbreak to make employers question the necessity of making staff sit in an office all day. The benefits of home working certainly aren’t lost on me. Exactly ten years ago, I quit the safety of a full-time job as a property journalist to become a full-time freelance writer, running my fledgling copywriting agency from a spare bedroom in East Kilbride. That didn’t just mean surrendering a guaranteed salary, a pension scheme and a chance to chat about last night’s episode of Homeland while the kettle boiled. It also meant giving up an expensive and frustratingly slow commute into a draughty and noisy office in an industrial estate, and then repeating the process in reverse when I was tired and it was getting dark. And although the ability to dramatically reduce my exposure to airborne pathogens wasn’t a key factor behind establishing G75 Media, avoiding other people’s germs is one of many advantages to working from home.

Of course, some professions lend themselves to home working better than others, and not everyone has the flexibility a freelance writer enjoys. Doctors can’t squirrel themselves away in their spare rooms, though they could potentially make greater use of video calls. Taxi drivers still have to collect passengers, albeit with their windows open and a box of tissues handy. And nobody expects police officers or firefighters to log on remotely. Yet millions of people could base themselves at home for at least part of the working week, from call centre staff to architects. And if they did, they might discover the following benefits:

  1. More time. How many hours would you save by not having to endure ten rush-hour journeys every week? You could spend some of this extra time doing additional work, some of it taking proper breaks from your desk, and the rest enjoying quality time with family and friends.
  2. Less distractions. Office camaraderie can be enjoyable, but small talk and blaring radios become a distraction if you’ve got a deadline to meet. Large offices can be antithetical to productivity, with constant interruptions and background noise. Being based at home may provide greater freedom to concentrate – helping you to be more productive and efficient.
  3. Greater flexibility. The concept of working from 9am to 5pm with a one-hour lunch break seems archaic in today’s 24-7 global culture, yet this 19th century hangover persists through sheer inertia. Many people work better at other times of day, don’t want a full hour for lunch, or would benefit from more flexible working hours due to family commitments.
  4. Better breaks. Isn’t it annoying when you have to wait ten minutes to use the solitary microwave because someone’s cooking a baked potato? At home, you can eat and drink whatever you want, whenever you want. No more stolen milk, no more fixed break times, and no more offending everyone around you as you unwrap an egg mayo baguette.

Same. But different.

Many people are surprised to discover how much of their working week relies on technology, rather than proximity. We’ve all emailed colleagues sitting within a few metres of us, driven to meetings which would have been equally productive as a Skype call, and printed off emails to hand out when simply forwarding the email would have saved paper and ink. Collaborative workplace tools like Slack and Trello make project management easier than the traditional whiteboard-and-weekly-meeting approach, and email remains the finest method of data distribution ever invented.

As a freelance writer, I am typing this blog on a laptop at home, which I could relocate anywhere with a decent WiFi connection. According to Google Analytics, you are probably reading it on a portable device – another laptop, a tablet or a smartphone. And while any of us could potentially contract an airborne virus like COVID-19, my ability to avoid public transport while picking and choosing when I leave the house should reduce my risk of (a) being infected and (b) unwittingly infecting other people.

If you’re an employer reading this, it’s worth considering the extent to which you could permit staff to work from home. If you’re an employee, consider what (if any) parts of your job may be achievable while being based at home, and suggest it to your line manager. And if you want to enjoy the benefits of high-quality content production by an award-winning freelance writer, from blogs and listicles through to opinion pieces like this one, drop me an email or give me a call. You don’t need to arrange a face-to-face meeting to benefit from G75 Media’s copywriting and content production services.

A decade of copywriting excellence

The start of a new decade provides an ideal opportunity for reflection and analysis on the decade just passed. And while 2019 proved to be a turbulent year politically and a disruptive one technologically, it was also an eventful one for writers and journalists. Our industry has changed so much since January 2010 that it’s worth taking a moment to consider how the art of copywriting and journalism has changed since we last welcomed in a new decade…

The changing face of copywriting and journalism
Copywriting and journalism changed almost as much as technology in the 2010s

Putting the word out

Ten years ago, the internet was absent from millions of UK homes, and many people still relied on dial-up connectivity. Websites had already evolved away from early experiments with Comic Sans fonts and animated GIFs, but there was little video content, and photography platforms remained niche. Instead, the written word was king – particularly given the growing importance of search engine optimisation, or SEO.

By the middle of the last decade, websites were experimenting with the potential offered by home broadband connectivity. Parallax scrolling, single-page websites and auto-playing video content became briefly fashionable on many corporate websites. However, 4G’s arrival in 2013 triggered meteoric growth in mobile internet services, which literally and metaphorically rendered flashy (or Flash-y) sites unsuitable for a smartphone. As a result, we came full circle, relying on professionally-written copywriting and journalism to underpin any successful website.

Make it a large one

More recently, Google and Bing have emphasised the importance of long-form content. The days when a 500-word blog provided optimal SEO benefits have passed. And while we’re not going to extend this article to be 5,000-8,000 words long (which search engines increasingly regard as demonstrating authoritative content), long-form copywriting and journalism makes up a growing percentage of G75 Media’s monthly workload.

The last decade also saw the inexorable rise of the blog. Although Blogger debuted in 1999 and WordPress launched in 2003, blogging only really took off towards the end of the Noughties. By 2010, there was huge demand for freelance bloggers, and G75 Media began offering blogging as a service. At the time, IT and technology clients were identifying blog archives as a way of boosting keyword recognition among search engines, and two of G75 Media’s biggest clients still depend on us for weekly blog content.

Another trend which dominated the 2010s was the welcome increase in flexible working. Brands like WeWork have revolutionised the concept of office space, and millions of Britons now work from home either part-time or full-time. Copywriting and journalism are ideal sectors for both freelancing and working from home, since employers can call on specialist writers as and when their services are needed. Many of G75 Media’s clients will contact us once a year or even less frequently, knowing we can quickly and effectively deliver copywriting and journalism to meet any brief.

Goodbye and good riddance

Other trends rose and fell with equal rapidity, such as overseas copywriting firms. Agencies popped up around the world, offering cheap online copywriting for corporate clients. Almost as a rule, these firms delivered fairly dreadful content. Their writers generally spoke English as a second language, their proofreading and editing skills were negligible, and the balance of keywords and long tails (key elements of SEO) was usually wrong. When Google and Bing began downgrading websites with lazily-written content supplied by overseas copy farms, the writing was on the wall – but not on the websites. The phenomenon quickly died out as companies realised it simply isn’t worth paying for cheap copywriting and journalism.

More recently, we have also seen the welcome decline of academic writing websites. These enabled lazy students to outsource dissertation and essay writing to ‘qualified professionals’. Like all respectable content production agencies, G75 Media flatly refused to get involved in this distasteful practice, despite being approached on a number of occasions with unsolicited requests for assistance. Our copywriting services have always been ethical and honest, and they always will be.

Taking care of business

Despite these unwholesome sub-sectors of copywriting and journalism, the internet’s meteoric growth came at a great time for a business which was founded in 2007 as a dedicated copywriting agency. In February 2010, G75 Media’s founder Neil Cumins made the decision to quit his part-time day job as a property journalist and become a full-time business owner, freelance copywriter – and property journalist! Having retained his former estate-agency employer as a client, the process of building a successful copywriting agency could begin.

Today, G75 Media regularly works with clients on three continents, from America to Australia. We employ freelance writers whose areas of expertise dovetail with our client base. We deliver everything from listicles and social media content through to white papers and how-to guides for clients as diverse as manufacturers, optometrists and tourism firms. And as we enter our third decade as a limited company, G75 Media is proud to be a copywriting agency with few peers.

But why stop there? A new decade brings new opportunities, while our greater resources and superior expertise should ensure we’re able to continue growing and expanding throughout the 2020s. We don’t know what the last decade will be referred to as – possibly the Tens or the Teens – but it’s been the making of G75 Media. Here’s to another decade of award-winning copywriting and journalism.

G75 Media and GDPR – keeping your data safe

Later this month, the EU will roll out its General Data Protection Regulation. After four years of development, GDPR will effectively replace the UK’s 1988 Data Protection Act. As such, it will place additional regulatory burdens on companies retaining any client information on file. This can range from the names and email addresses of corporate contacts to bank account details and social media posts.

At G75 Media, we take these responsibilities very seriously. We are preparing for GDPR’s introduction on Monday the 25th, and these are some of the steps we’re introducing to protect and preserve the confidentiality of client data:

• From today, every email we send will contain an invitation to unsubscribe from future correspondence. If you reply with the word ‘unsubscribe’ in the subject line, we will immediately delete any contact information we hold relating to you.

• If six months has elapsed since we last worked with you, we will archive any sent or received electronic documentation. Data will be saved on a password-protected USB key with AES 256-bit encryption, which is stored offline in a safe.

• Current documentation and related client data (including email addresses) is stored on a password-protected drive of a desktop computer equipped with sophisticated antivirus software. We do not share client data with anyone, in any circumstances.

• Any historic databases or spreadsheets of contact information we previously held have all been deleted. This ensures any information provided to us by former clients has been securely destroyed.

• If you contact us via telephone, email, post, text message or social media, we will only communicate with you regarding work-related briefs or assignments. We will never send you marketing emails, event invitations or other unsolicited sales missives.

• We’re working towards a paperless office, and we never print out emailed documentation. Any paperwork we do receive is securely stored in a locked building until it’s no longer needed, at which point it’s destroyed in a cross-cut shredder.

We recognise there is a great deal of confusion about GDPR and its effect on small businesses around the UK. As technology bloggers, we have already been commissioned to produce a number of features on GDPR and its impact, so it’s a subject we’re familiar with. However, if you have any concerns about how we use or store client data, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Finally, if you’ve found this page while searching for information on GDPR, G75 Media has produced a number of practical guides on behalf of clients on both sides of the Atlantic. If you’d like content creating for your own company, we’ll be happy to provide you with a quote – in strict confidence, and with full adherence to GDPR regulations! You can get in touch with us here.